Indie and best-selling author Susan Kaye Quinn, writer of more than 50 books, presented a workshop on self-publishing at Barnes and Noble in Schaumburg. She offered some great advice on structure and writing serials using the power of three:  Act I-Thesis, Act II- Anti-thesis and Act III the fusion of the two.

One of the many things I learned from Sue’s talk, was to make sure to have your pivot point/ stumble/ change/ mirror-moment right smack in the middle of your book. If you don’t, you risk knocking your whole manuscript off balance and upsetting your readers-which we absolutely don’t want to do!

 

Other things to keep in mind when writing your masterpiece: check out what’s selling on Amazon to see what people are reading and to see where on the spectrum your work-in-progress falls. Self-published and traditionally-published books are grouped together.

 

But if you are self-published you don’t have to pay an agent or a publisher any royalties. I like that idea.

 

And I like the freedom you have over your writing when you self-publish. You don’t have to worry about finding the right agent or publisher. You can just think about your readers.

 

Here’s some more food for thought- did you know that those books on the front shelves at Barnes and Noble are paid placement? Just because the book is right up front doesn’t mean it’s any good. It just means someone paid to have it put there. Say what? Hey, I didn’t know that!

Check out Sue’s information below and learn more about the self-publishing revolution.

 

To learn more about the indie publishing world, you can visit Sue’s video on facing you fears in indie publishing (video) at:  http://authors.susankayequinn.com/p/videos.html.

To read about other helpful stuff for authors visit http://smarturl.it/ForWritersBlog