Life of A Writer

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1. Fiction Writing Tips: Get to Know Your Characters With a Character Outline
2. Fiction Writing Tips: Writing a Novel Outline
3. Fiction Writing Tips: Writing the First Draft
4. Fiction Writing Tips: Editing the First Draft
5. Chasing the Right Publishers or Agents
6. Five Things to Do While Waiting on Responses From Research Contacts
7. Increase Your Chances of Landing a Review for Your Fiction Novel
8. Three Ways to Promote Your Fiction Novel Before Publication

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Congratulations on landing a publisher! Your next step -- whether you chose traditional publishing or print on demand -- will be promoting your fiction novel. Yes, traditional publishers do more in terms of promotion for their authors than print on demand publishers, but the author should do his or her part as well. In fact, all publishers appreciate it more when the author steps up to help, and one great benefit for the author could be bigger royalty checks.

When should you start to promote your fiction novel? Before your fiction novel hits the bookstores is best. Some promotion will take place after your novel hits the market, but today were going to explore three ways you can promote your fiction novel while it’s still in the publishing stages.

Write and distribute press releases. Create a persuasive press release announcing the release of your book. Then distribute the press releases to local newspapers and other media contacts.

Create a media kit. You’ll want to create two media kits: one to send through postal mail and another for your website. Your media kit should consist of a cover letter, a booklist (if you’ve had other books published), press clippings (can be included later if you haven’t gained any yet), your press release, your bio, a color and black and white photo of yourself (headshot), a fact sheet that includes information about your book (release date, ISBN, publisher, etc.), sample questions and answers (in case they want to schedule an interview), a sample chapter or excerpt from your book, a flyer, brochure and your business card. Those are just the essential materials your media kit should include; feel free to add any additional materials.

Plan a virtual book tour. Virtual book tours are becoming popular among many authors, and the majority of them have reported success in sales. While you should wait until your fiction novel is released before beginning your virtual book tour, there’s nothing stopping you from planning in advance. For more information on planning a virtual book tour, read Cheryl Kaye Tardif’s Authors Tour the World With Virtual Book Tours. Cheryl organized her own virtual book tour and then wrote this wonderful article to teach other authors how they can do the same.

And there you have it, Three Ways to Promote Your Fiction Novel Before Publication. This is also the final post in my Fiction Writing Tips series. If you missed any of the topics covered in this series, visit the Fiction Writing Tips Series Table of Contents for a complete list with links.

I’ll announce the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest, which was tied into this series, here, tonight at 11:00 p.m. (CST). I’ll also contact the winner via e-mail so we can get started with the mentoring session.

With that in mind, if you haven’t entered the contest yet, there’s a few more hours left. One way to receive an entry is to comment on this post. Not sure what to say? Why not share your own advice on promoting a fiction novel before publication. Would you like a second entry after leaving your comment? Then subscribe to Life of a Writer for free e-mail updates.

Thank you for sticking with me throughout this long series, and may the Lord bless you with many book sales! Don’t forget to join me here again at 11:00 p.m. (CST) to discover who the lucky winner of the Mentoring Session Contest will be.

Photo credit: Nathan Dainty

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Welcome to part seven of my Fiction Writing Tips series, which I should have posted last Thursday, but due to a family emergency, I’m posting it a little later. Since this post is meant to focus on how to get your book reviewed, I won’t discuss the family emergency. My next post, however, will talk about the camping trip I took with hubby and the kids over the holiday weekend, and in that post, you’ll find out more about the family emergency that delayed this post. But for now let’s focus on getting your book reviewed.

In part six of my Fiction Writing Tips series, I listed five things you could do while waiting on responses from research contacts and compile a list of book reviewers for your fiction novel was among that list. “Why would I gather book reviews before my book is published?” you ask. Because you can use book reviews on the back cover as well as in promotional materials you’ll send to the media announcing the upcoming release of your novel.

While book reviewers are easy to find, it doesn’t mean you’ll get the reviewer to give you a review. With that said, let’s explore a few of the things you can do to increase your chances of landing a review for your fiction novel. Not only will the following techniques increase your chances of landing a review, but they’ll also save you time and money.

Determine the genre of your fiction novel: Only contact book reviewers who will review your genre. For example, if you’ve written a fantasy novel, a book reviewer who only reviews Christian fiction and romance will not be interested in reading your fantasy novel.

Contact the reviewer before sending a copy of your book: Don’t waste your money by sending a copy of your fiction novel to every reviewer on your list. Instead, contact the reviewer first. When contacting the reviewer, let him or her know what your novel is about, and then ask him or her if they’d be interested in reading your fiction novel and giving you a review.

Follow the book reviewer’s submission guidelines: Before contacting the book reviewers on your list, read their guidelines and follow them. Some reviewers only review certain formats, genres and etc. By reading their guidelines, you’ll know if you have what they want, and they’ll appreciate the fact that you took the time to read and follow their guidelines.

Let the reviewer know what formats you have available: When contacting a book reviewer with a description of your book, mention what formats you have available. If your novel is only available in PDF format, then they need to know this, because some reviewers only review hard copies. Again, check their guidelines to see if they’ll accept your novel in whatever format(s) you have available. If they don’t accept the formats you have to offer, then it would be a waste of your time to contact that reviewer.

Send a follow-up e-mail: If you sent your fiction novel to reviewers and haven’t heard back from them within one month, send a quick follow-up e-mail to those reviewers.

Join me Thursday for the final part in my Fiction Writing Tips series. On Thursday, you’ll discover a few ways to promote your fiction novel before it hits the bookstores. Then, on Friday, July 18, I’ll post the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest. If you’d like to enter the Mentoring Session Contest, comment on this post. To receive a second entry, subscribe to receive free e-mail updates from Life of a Writer.

Photo credit: Mia3mom

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Last week I told you how to research publishers and agents, and today I'm going to list five things you can do while waiting on responses from your research contacts. With that said, let's explore what you could be doing while you're waiting to find out if the publisher or agent your researching appears to be replicable.

1. Write the query letter for your fiction novel.
2. Prepare your chapter-by-chapter outline.
3. Write the synopsis/proposal for your fiction novel.
4. Catch up on work you've put on the back burner.
5. Compile a list of possible book reviewers for your fiction novel.

All of the five things mentioned above will be needed once the responses start to come in and you begin contacting the publishers or agents that you believe checked out to be replicable. However, don't just submit what you think they'll want, check their guidelines first to find out what they want you to submit. Some may want a query letter first, and others may want a query letter as well as the synopsis/proposal. If you send them what you think they want without following the advice and instructions in their guidelines, you'll increase your chances of having your submission land in the publisher or agent's "slush" pile, and I'm sure you don't want that to happen.

Join me again next Thursday to learn how to increase your chances of being reviewed, where to find book reviewers and more in part seven of my Fiction Writing Tips series.

What do you do while waiting on responses from your research contacts? Share it with us in the comments area. By sharing what you do in the comments area below, you'll earn yourself an entry in my Mentoring Session Contest.

Additional reading:

Make the Perfect Pitch: The Novel Query, by Kelly James-Enger.

Mastering the Dreaded Synopsis - Condensing Your Novel, by Lee Masterson.

Writing a Synopsis From the Ground Up, by Dee-Ann Latona LeBlanc.

Helpful books:

A Writer's Guide to Fiction, by Elizabeth Lyon.

The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals, by Moira Anderson Allen.

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Today was supposed to be the day when the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest was announced, but since I still have three more posts to go in the Fiction Writing Tips series, the winner of the Mentoring Session Contest will be extended to July 18, 2008. So the good news is if you haven't received an entry yet, you can still do so. All the ways to enter can be found here. Remember, one of the ways to receive an entry is to comment on any of the posts in my Fiction Writing Tips series, and the next post for that series is scheduled for Thursday, July 3, 2008.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments area and I'll answer them there.

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So far in this Fiction Writing Tips series you've learned how to create a character outline, how to write a novel outline, how to write a first draft and how to edit your first draft. With all that out of the way, you should now be ready for the publishing process -- but don't rush into it just yet. By rushing to land a publisher or agent for your book, you'll risk becoming the victim of a publishing scam. And after all that hard work you've put into writing your fiction novel, I'm sure you don't want to take that risk, right? Of course you don't, so in part five of this series -- Chasing the Right Publishers or Agents --I want to share some tips to assist you in your search for a publisher or agent -- tips that I pray will save you from being the next victim of a publishing scam.

Control your excitement

You deserve to be excited about the novel you've just finished, but don't get so excited that you fail to take the extra time to research the publishers or agents that will get your attention with their promises.

Take advantage of improved technology

Head to Google and enter the name of the publishing company or agent you plan to query. When entering the company or agent's name, place quotation marks around their name (this searches the exact phrase). Next, take the time to browse through the results to see if anyone has anything good or bad to say about the publisher or agent you're researching.

After you're finished at Google, search for, then visit, websites and blogs for writers that list publishing scams. Some include the National Writers Union, Preditors & Editors, Absolute Write's Beware Board, Writer Beware, Writer Beware Blogs and Writers Weekly: Whispers and Warnings.

Don't be shy

Contact the publishers or agents and ask them for references. Some may tell you their privacy policy prevents them from giving out their clients' information, and if that's the case, ask them to have some of their clients contact you instead. If their clients do contact you, make sure the client isn't one of their employees. To verify this, perform a quick search on their name and see what information pops up. If you discover that the publisher or agent did give you the name of an employee, that should be a big warning sign.

Look for other warning signs

Browse the publisher or agent's website for the following:

• Will the publisher require you to buy a certain number of books before they'll enter into a contract with you?
  
• Does the publisher or agent charge extra for editing or reading your novel, or do they offer referrals to third parties who charge for these services?
• Does the agent charge fees other than a percentage of your royalties? If an agent asks for up-front fees such as reading fees or etc., run, it's a sure sign of a publishing scam! A legitimate agent will only ask for a percentage of your book sales, and they should work with you to help you publish and market your book.
• Did the publisher or agent offer publication or representation only after reading a few chapters, synopsis or query letter? A legitimate publisher or agent will ask for the complete manuscript before making a decision to enter into a contract with you.

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Writing the first draft -- for me, anyway -- is the fun part, because I find it to be exciting when I finally take my idea and bring it to life on paper. However, once the first draft is finished, you have to edit it, and editing the first draft is what I dread the most. Even though I despise the editing process it has to be done, and throughout my years of writing, I've discovered a few things that make editing the first draft a little easier and less time consuming. With that said, let's explore some of the ways I edit my first draft, so that maybe when you begin editing your first draft, you will find the process a little less frustrating as well.

Fill in the Blanks

As I mentioned last week, it's best to write the first draft of your fiction novel without stopping, but now that you've finished writing the first draft and moved on to the editing process, it's time to fill in the blanks. In other words, because you wrote the first draft without slowing down or stopping, you might have inserted little notes in parentheses so you could go back later to fill in the details. Those little notes might have said something such as "research the scenery in the town of X for a short description to go here." On the other hand, maybe you were stuck on a section and skipped it so you could return to it later. Why would you skip a section or chapter? So you don't have to stop and think, which could interrupt your flow of words.

Insert the Chapters

If you wrote your first draft without breaking it down in to chapters, now would be the time to re-read what you wrote and decide where to begin and end your chapters. Remember, you want to leave your readers wanting more, so when you end a chapter, try to end it in a spot where you know the reader will want to continue.

Re-read for Consistency

Re-read your fiction novel to make sure your staying consistent with your tense (past or present) and person (she or I). For example, if you're writing in past tense, make sure all your sentences and words are past tense (e.g., take in past tense should be took).

Check for Spelling and Grammar Errors

Perform a spelling and grammar check using Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check feature. Because you can't always depend on Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar checker to catch everything, you should also do a manual check.

After you re-read your fiction novel to do your own check for spelling and grammar mistakes, perform the following tips for another round of editing:

1. Search for commonly misused words such as effect and affect, then and than, bring and take, who and whom, and other misused words. Once you find those words, double check to make sure you're using them correctly.

2. Check to make sure your quotation marks are properly placed. In dialogue, the quotation marks should go after a period, comma or question mark.

Examples:

"I don't believe in angels," George replied.
Ronald asked, "Why not?"

3. Are there any words that you tend to overuse without realizing it? Search for those words and delete or replace them with another word from your thesaurus.

4. Read through the last paragraph in each chapter to make sure that you've ended the chapter with a "hook" that will compel your reader to keep reading instead of earmarking or bookmarking the next chapter.

Additional tip: When performing the editing tips mentioned above, use Microsoft Word's Find and Replace feature. Using the Find and Replace feature in Microsoft Word will make locating and replacing what you're looking for quicker.

Record Yourself Reading Your Fiction Novel Aloud

Grab your recorder, settle in a quiet room and read your novel aloud. Start at the beginning and read all the way to the end. You'd be surprised how many mistakes you'll catch by reading out loud.

After you've recorded yourself, play the recording and listen for mistakes. When you hear a mistake, pause the recorder, correct your mistake, then continue where you left off.

If you follow the aforementioned advice in the order I listed, then editing the first draft should be easier for you. "How will it be easier?" you ask. Think about it for a minute. If you fill in the blanks before you do a spelling and grammar check, you won't have to repeat the spelling and grammar check a dozen times. Makes sense, right?

Editing your first draft on your own is a must, but I also recommend investing in an editing service to have a professional editor look over your fiction novel to catch things you might have missed on your own. One final edit by a professional could save you from embarrassment as well as reviewers pointing out the spelling and grammar mistakes you missed by accident.

Join me again next week as I share researching tips to help you discover the right publisher or agent. To keep up with each post in my Fiction Writing Tips series and earn one entry into my Mentoring Session Contest, subscribe free to have updates sent to your e-mail inbox.

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Now that you’ve completed your character and novel outlines let’s move on to the next step in the fiction writing process: writing the first draft. The first draft is not the perfect version. Instead, the first draft is where you let your mind run free. As you’re writing your first draft, here are a few things to consider:

Eliminate Distractions Around You

Before you begin writing your first draft, pick a quiet place -- a place where you won’t be distracted by the things and people around you. Distractions consist of screaming kids, ringing phones and a rambling spouse. If you’re the only one there for your children and they have to be supervised, hire a babysitter for a few hours. Turn off the phone. Gently let your spouse know you’re going to another room to write on your novel and would appreciate no distractions; unless, of course, it’s a dire emergency.

Dialogue Keeps the Reader Entertained

Don’t bore your readers with paragraph after paragraph of description and details. If your novel is filled with details instead of lively conversation (aka, dialogue) between the characters, you’ll risk losing your readers. Include as much dialogue as you possibly can, but don't over do it. Break up your dialogue with some description, action or other details so that your entire novel isn’t just dialogue.

While writing your dialogue, keep your characters realistic. Listen to people around you talk. Everyone has their own way of speaking. For example, teenagers use words like awesome, cool, rock on, whatever and etc., and not everyone speaks perfect grammar. Keep your dialogue real and your characters will come to life on page.

Stay Consistent With Voice, Person and Tense

Decide what voice, person (first, second or third) and tense (past or present) you’ll be writing in and stick to it throughout your entire fiction novel.

Write Without Editing

Write, don’t edit! I’ve found that when I have the auto spell and grammar checker feature turned on in Microsoft Word, I tend to want to edit what it underlines. To keep myself from stopping to make those edits, I turn off the auto spell and grammar checker before I begin writing the first draft of my fiction novel.

Later, once you’ve written your entire fiction novel, you can worry about spelling, grammar, rewording, eliminating and etc. The only thing you really do when you stop to make changes is create distractions, which could lead to writer’s block.

Take Breaks

When the words don’t seem to be flowing anymore and you’re spending too much time thinking instead of writing, save your work and return to it the next day.

Once you’ve written the last word for your fiction novel, your first draft will be completed. After writing the first draft, then you can go back and edit for spelling and grammar. In fact, next week we’ll cover editing your first draft. To ensure that you don’t miss next week’s post, subscribe for free to receive updates via e-mail. When you subscribe for free updates, you’ll earn an entry into the Mentoring Session Contest. Have you already received an entry into the contest another way? No problem, you can still subscribe and earn another entry, which will increase your chances of winning the free mentoring session with me.

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Last week I told you how to get to know your characters with a character outline and gave you a free character outline template to use for creating your characters. This week I’m going to tell you how to write a novel outline. Writing a novel outline will help you build a story from beginning to end. And like the character outline, you can refer to it as you’re writing your fiction novel. Shall we begin?

Working Title

Each novel outline you create should begin with the working title for your fiction novel. You’ll want to choose a title that not only describes the storyline but attracts attention. Here are a few tips for choosing a title for your fiction novel:

• After you’ve come up with a few titles, poll your readers and ask them to vote on the title they like best. You can poll your blog readers and those on your mailing list.

• Ask family and friends what title they like best and what attracted them to that title.

• Keep it short and simple. You don’t want a long title, and you certainly don’t want a complicated or hard-to-pronounce title. In other words, make it easy to understand and remember.
  

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Get to Know Your Characters With a Character Outline is the first part in my Fiction Writing Tips series.

Before you begin writing your fiction novel, you need to get to know your characters on a more personal level, and in order to do that, you need to create a character outline. Then as you’re writing your fiction novel, you can refer back to the character outline if needed.

When I sat down to write my first Christian novel, Help From Above, I just started putting words to paper. However, it wasn’t long until I realized I didn’t know my characters well enough to really make the story come alive on paper. Therefore, I put the writing aside and began creating my first character outline. Later, when I finished the outline, I was able to put life into my story. Besides, it was nice being able to learn more about my characters’ habits, personalities and etc., and things really did come easier when I could refer back to my character outline.

Following is an explanation of the template I created. Use a new template for each main character, but be sure not to create too many characters. Too many characters in a fiction novel may cause your reader to lose interest and lay your book down for good.

What’s your character’s role in your fiction novel?

By role, I mean is this character the antagonist, protagonist, a family member of the antagonist or protagonist, a friend of the antagonist or protagonist, the girlfriend, boyfriend, fiancé or spouse of the antagonist or protagonist.

The antagonist is the person who will create the conflict for the protagonist throughout your fiction novel. The protagonist will be the main character throughout your fiction novel.

What’s your character’s name?

First, decide on a gender for this character, and then give him or her a name. Some resources to help you pick a name for your character are as follows:

Behind the Name
Fantasy Name Generator
Seventh Sanctum

How old is your character?

You may not mention your character's age in your fiction novel, but just in case, it doesn’t hurt to give each of your characters an age.

How does your character make a living?

Give your character an occupation such as a business owner, artist, writer, nurse, doctor or etc.

What are your character’s good and bad habits?

Think of some good and/or bad habits that you could give your character and have him or her portray these habits in your fiction novel. Some examples: bites nails when nervous, plays with her hair when she’s nervous, constantly says like when she’s talking, etc.

What’s your character’s personality like?

Is this character outgoing, shy, friendly, independent, hard working or etc.? You can give him or her more than one trait. For example, maybe your main character is shy and hard working.

Does your character have any secrets?

These secrets could be from your character’s past or present. You could also give him or her more than one secret, and make this secret a part of your fiction novel. Not all your character’s have to have a secret, but it helps if the main character has at least one secret that he or she struggles to keep hidden throughout the story.

That my friends are what all of my character outlines include. If you’d like to use this template to get to know your characters better, feel free to download it. The free Adobe Reader will be needed to download the free character outline. As you can probably already tell, this is a basic character outline. If you need to, feel free to add to it.

Next week I’ll tell you how to create a story outline, and I’ll also give you a free story outline template to work with.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on today’s post. By commenting on this post you’ll receive an entry into my Mentoring Session Contest. The Mentoring Session Contest ties into this series. Spam comments will not receive an entry and will be deleted.

Finally, to ensure that you don’t miss any upcoming posts in my Fiction Writing Tips series, subscribe to my RSS feed via e-mail. If you subscribe via e-mail, you’ll earn another entry into my Mentoring Session Contest.

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I had planned to post the first part of my Fiction Writing Tips series on Sunday, but things didn't go as I had planned them, and here's why: On Friday I woke from bed with a terrible sinus infection. So, on my way to pick up the kids from their dad's house, I bought some over-the-counter sinus tablets that I hoped and prayed would work over the weekend so I could get back to work and bring you part one of the Fiction Writing Tips series. But I suppose the sinus tablets I bought weren't all that great, because by Saturday morning my sinus infection was worse instead of better. In fact, today I'm still not quite up to power, but at least I can hold my head up for a longer period of time now. With that said, I'll post part one of the Fiction Writing Tips series some time tomorrow.

Thank you for waiting patiently and I apologize that things didn't go as planned. I tried to sit down at my computer Sunday night to get the series up as well as get some other writing done, but I just couldn't do it. I don't know why this sinus infection has taken over and is not letting up much, but I hope and pray to God it does soon. The sinus headache has stayed with me since Friday, and the top of my eye lids hurt so bad that it's hard to close them and get sleep. I have no energy and feel tired all the time. On top of all that, I have a runny nose and find myself short of breath often, but the shortness of breath is probably normal since I have asthma. Anyway, since I'm finally able to hold my head up for a longer period of time, I will post part one in the Fiction Writing Tips series tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Again, my apologies for those of you who have been waiting patiently for this series. Just hang in there with me for one more day.

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Remember back in January when I said I had some surprises in store for you this year? Well, the first surprise was the Help From Above Birthday Contest, which didn't attract the attention I had hoped it would since there were no entries. However, I'm hoping this next contest is much more attractive to you, and yes, it's one of the next surprises I mentioned in January.

With that out of the way, the question now is this: Are you ready for one of my biggest contests ever?! Oh yes, this is the one I made a short announcement about a few weeks ago on Twitter, as well as in my latest fan club newsletter and in the May 2008 edition of Coffee Break for Writers. I've been so excited about this that I had to make a brief mention, and I even prepared a few things ahead of time -- months ahead to be exact.

About a month ago one of my readers e-mailed me, and as I do with all the fans and readers who e-mail me or write me through postal mail, I replied to her with advice and encouragement. But before I replied, I visited her blog and discovered that she -- like many of us -- has a God-given talent, which is why I gave her encouragement; I seen her writing talent through her blog. In fact, I enjoyed her blog so much that I subscribed to it, and her next post was what inspired me to write my first blog series entitled Fiction Writing Tips, which I decided to tie into my Mentoring Session Contest.

As I read the post my reader made on her blog, I also realized my contest could be of great help to her if she decides to enter. Why? Because in that post she said she had finally decided to start writing a book, but she admitted that she didn't know where to start. Not knowing where to begin is common among many aspiring writers who finally decide to sit down and write that book, and that's why I decided to write the Fiction Writing Tips series to go along with the free mentoring session with me via e-mail. And the best news is the free mentoring session will last until the winning writer writes the last word in his or her first -- or next -- fiction novel!

The Fiction Writing Tips series will include information for aspiring and veteran fiction writers, and I truly believe the series should be tied to the Mentoring Session Contest since they're related. Following is what will be included in the Fiction Writing Tips series and the Mentoring Session Contest:

Fiction Writing Tips Series:

1. Writing an outline.
2. Getting to know your characters.
3. Writing the first draft.
4. Editing the first draft.
5. Tips on researching publishers and agents.
6. Free templates.
7. Links to additional reading...
8. ... and anything else that strikes my fancy or is suggested by you.

The first post for this series is planned for May 25, 2008.

Mentoring Session Contest -- Winner Will Receive:

1. Encouragement.

2. Honest (but gentle) criticism of your book, query, synopsis, chapter by chapter outline and press release.

3. Free editing.

4. A list of possible publishers to market your book to.

5. List of possible book reviewers.

6. I'll give you a review of your book, which will be published here as well as on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

7. I'll interview you, and if you're planning a virtual book tour for your book, we can include my interview with you here at Life of a Writer.

8. Marketing advice.

9. A special gift valued at $30. This special gift will be announced at a later date, because I need to check to see how I can purchase a gift subscription first.

Again, this mentoring session will not end until you've written the last word in your book. If it continues over three years, though, I might have to announce an expiration date.

The winner of the Mentoring Session Contest will be announced at the end of the Fiction Writing Tips series. The winner will be drawn from a hat and announced here at Life of a Writer.

If you believe you're ready to write your first -- or next -- fiction novel and would love some help throughout the process, there are four ways to enter my Mentoring Session Contest:

1.Post an announcement about the Fiction Writing Tips series along with the Mentoring Session Contest on your blog, and link that post back to this one. Please link the words Fiction Writing Tips and Mentoring Session Contest.

After you've placed the announcement and a link back to this post using the above-mentioned words, return here and leave a comment with the link to your post. Once I confirm that you've followed the directions above, I'll place your name in the hat for the Mentoring Session Contest.

2. Comment on any of the posts in the Fiction Writing Tips series. You won't be able to do this until I publish the first post in the series, which is scheduled for May 25, 2008.

3. Follow me on Twitter. Once you've completed this task, return to this post and leave a comment letting me know what name you go by on Twitter, so I'll know it was you that followed me.

4. Subscribe to Life of a Writer via e-mail. Within 24 hours after you subscribe, I'll send you an e-mail to let you know you've been entered. At this time, I'll ask for your name, because your name is what I'll use when I announce the winner.

If you perform all four tasks, then you'll receive four entries into the Mentoring Session Contest, increasing your chances of winning. Also note in regards to commenting on the Fiction Writing Tips series, if your comment is of a spam nature, then it won't be published, nor will you receive an entry into the Mentoring Session Contest. If you post an actual comment that adds value and is not spam, then you'll be just fine.

And that, my friends, are the complete details. If you have any questions about the series or contest, or if you have any suggestions for the Fiction Writing Tips series, contact me or leave a comment.

If you don't want to miss any of the posts in the Fiction Writing Tips series, subscribe via e-mail or add Life of a Writer to your favorite RSS reader. Remember, if you subscribe to Life of a Writer via e-mail, you'll receive your first entry in the Mentoring Session Contest. Good luck!

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