The Masquerade Crew

Buffer A S A VORACIOUS reader, an editor, and a book reviewer, something that often jumps out to me is bad dialogue—even some very well-written books and stories contain it. Though a few snippets of badly written dialogue won’t break an otherwise good piece of writing, it will certainly stick out like a sore thumb. And, if your book is riddled with bad dialogue, it will make it very hard to get through.

T HANKS TO THE Masquerade Crew for inviting me to share some thoughts on indie marketing. This is a great time to be a writer, especially an indie writer. Self-publishing gives us the chance to live the writer’s dream but if you don’t know how to market your books the dream may turn into a nightmare.

Buffer King Biscuit By Michael Loyd Gray Follow @moonpie125 Michael will be awarding a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Let me offer a writing tip before talking about publishing: write your story or novel the way you feel it. I wish I could claim that’s totally original on my part, but it’s actually the advice Robert Duvall’s character in “Tender Mercies” gives to a struggling country band. “Play it the way you feel it,” he told them, and that applies to writing, too—write it the way you feel it. Write it your way. Writing isn’t a team sport. There’s no huddle and no quarterback telling you where to line up and where to go after that. You sit down to write and you’re alone. The story comes from you—so tell it the way you see it. Trust your conception of the story, of the characters, and see it through. Trust your instincts to write it. Tell it the way you see it.