A long time ago, two enthusiastic yet green writers met on an online critiquing site called The Critique Circle. They wrote stories riddled with hollow characters and cliched plots, but that didn’t stop them from becoming fast friends. Through practice, critiquing literally thousands of submissions, and spending untold hours reading and responding to forum conversations on writing, these two eventually learned a thing or three about the craft. Eventually, they even penned a few books with the word “thesaurus” in the title. Who knows, maybe you’ve seen one hanging out on a writer’s desk somewhere.
Here’s one of the BIG lessons these two scruff-and-tumble writers learned: having a critique partner can really shorten your learning curve. The eyes, knowledge and experience of another writerly human being can give the insight and distance an author lacks. Of course, it’s all about finding the right critique partners who are a perfect fit, and understanding how to best work together. Becca and I still are going strong well over 10 years after we first met, and there’s no one I’d rather hand my work over to than her. So please help me welcome author Dee Romito who has a few “rules” to make sure our critique partner relationships stay healthy and function as they should.
Six Rules that Keep Critique Partnerships Golden
Good critique partners (affectionately known as CPs) are invaluable on your publishing journey. They will be your go-to sources for questions, support along the way, and much-needed feedback.
I checked in with a few of my most trusted writing friends to get their thoughts on what makes a great critique partner. Here are six things you can do to be a helpful critiquer and what you might be looking for in a critique partner.
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Offer suggestions. Blunt comments are not the same thing as constructive feedback.
There’s a line between being honest and being helpful. Try to explain why you think a change should be made or make a suggestion as to how to improve it.
“Something I make sure I don’t do (or at least try not to) is to simply say I don’t like something. That is never helpful information. If there is something that I think is off, I try to explain why I think that. For example, ‘This sentence felt repetitive because you gave the same information above.’” – Janet Sumner Johnson, author of THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY
“I once had a reader who crossed out whole pages of my manuscript and rewrote sections and, knowing how that made me feel, I will never change anything in anyone else’s document. I won’t even add a comma or correct spelling in the ms itself- I drop a note in the ‘insert comments’ instead.” – Jen Malone, author of MG and YA novels, including THE SLEEPOVER and YOU’RE INVITED
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Ask questions
If there’s something you don’t understand or you feel like something’s missing or unclear, ask about it. Writers are sometimes too close to their own work to see it.
“I really love receiving critiques where the CP has asked questions instead of making comments (example: ‘Do you think she’d be feeling this right here?’ instead of ‘I don’t like the way she’s feeling sad here- she should be mad!’)” – Jen Malone
“I like critique partners who ask a lot of questions. This always helps me think about different paths I can take a manuscript.” – Jen Maschari, author of THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF CHARLIE PRICE
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Point out what works, as well as what doesn’t work
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you need to make a conscious effort to point out both the weaknesses and the strengths of a piece.
“My go-to critique partners aren’t afraid to tell me what I need to fix . . . even when they know I won’t be happy to hear it, but at the same time, they are nice. They point out the things they liked, too, and somehow this makes the hard stuff much, much, much easier to swallow.” – Janet
“I always try to point out things I love or that made me laugh, in addition to the things I didn’t connect with quite as much- I have one CP who highlights lines or sections she loves in green highlighter. For me, it definitely keeps my spirits up amid digesting all the things I need to address in revisions.” – Jen Malone
“Many times, writing can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill, so those hearts or ‘I love this’ comments or even a smiley face can go a long way to cheering me on as I tackle the bigger stuff.” – Jen Maschari
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Know what the author is looking for. Overall, line edits, voice, consistency, something specific.
At various points in the process, writers need different kinds of critiques. Know what the goal is.
“I make sure I know what the person is looking for. Did they want a big picture critique? Did they want me to fix grammar mistakes? That can make a big difference in how I read.” – Janet
“I always make sure I get a sense of what my critique partner wants first. What big questions do they have? Do they want me to look at the larger picture or do they want a sentence level look?” – Jen Maschari
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Offer to clarify, answer more questions, talk it through, brainstorm.
A CP is meant to be a sounding board and someone who can help you work through the sticking points.
“Now that I’ve worked on some co-writing projects and realized how much more quickly a plot/outline comes together with joint brainstorming sessions, I’ve recently begun asking my CPs if they would be up for helping at the earliest stages of something new.” – Jen Malone
“Sometimes I’ll send a few scenes out to get a first reaction or a sense of what’s working and what’s not early on.” – Jen Maschari
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CPs will go to you for your strengths. Know what they are.
Okay, so you might not know them yet. But you will. Do you notice every punctuation mistake? Do you find inconsistencies in manuscripts? Are you a plotting wizard?
“I definitely choose my beta readers based on what type of critique I’m looking for. For example, when I send a second draft out (I never send a 1st draft, just fyi), I look for someone who is good at plotting and seeing holes and how to improve that. When I’m further in the process and need someone who is good at making smooth prose or catching detail errors, I choose someone who is good at that. I have found that they each have their strengths. And it always makes sense to play to someone’s strengths.” – Janet
“I have a CP whose strengths are my weaknesses- I tend to focus on dialogue and plot more than the interior character arc and she’s always making notes that say “But what is she feeeeeeeling here?”– I really need that push!” – Jen Malone
Final Thoughts
These ladies have definitely helped me along the way and were essential in fine-tuning my middle grade debut, THE BFF BUCKET LIST. I trust their feedback and value their opinions. Without a doubt, having critique partners has been one of the most important pieces in my path to becoming a published author.
Whether you’re just starting out and are in the midst of searching for critique partners or you’re a seasoned veteran, these simple reminders help make critique partner relationships ones that will last through many manuscripts, all the ups and downs, and hopefully, lots of publishing deals.
Dee has a new book out, a terrific middle grade called the BFF Bucket List, and a killer blurb:
Two best friends. Twelve challenges.
Can the BFF Bucket List save their friendship or will that get crossed off too?
(Love it? I do!)
If you like, follow this link for a closer look, or add it to your Goodreads list!
And do hook up with Dee online–visit her blog or website, hang out on Facebook or throw tweets her way on Twitter. She’s super friendly, is always around chatting it up, and would love to hear from you.
Do you have a great critique partner? What rules would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments!
The post Six Rules that Keep Critique Partnerships Golden appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS™.
I’ll admit my mind is blown knowing there are over 10, 000 Emotion Thesaurus books out there in the world. Becca and I are thrilled, and so appreciative to all the writers and teachers who took a chance on it. As aspiring novelists, we know just how hard it is to write and the perseverance it takes to create a book. Providing a tool to help other writers with emotion is nothing short of an honor (sappy, I know, but true. Writers rule and we love you guys!)
In that same spirit of wanting to contribute, we thought it might be beneficial to share our focus as we sent The Emotion Thesaurus into the world. We realize this is a non-fiction book, not fiction. Novels are a harder sell--instead of dealing primarily with what a audience NEEDS like NF, it is more about what they WANT, and personal reading tastes are unpredictable. However, much of the strategy we used with the ET can be adapted for fiction, so hopefully novelists will find value here regardless.
A Bit of History...
As many of you know, The Emotion Thesaurus started on the blog as a 'set' of lists focusing on how to show a character’s feelings. Becca and I struggled with emotion, and when we could not find a good resource to help us, we created one. As it grew in popularity, readers asked us to turn it into an enhanced book version.
We chose self publishing for a few reasons, the most important being TIME. It can take years for a book to find a publisher and then be available to purchase, and writers and teachers needed it NOW. We also discovered someone pirating our content for profit, so waiting any longer to create the book would be foolhardy. We launched The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression on May 14th, 2012.
What We Had Going For Us
PLATFORM. Becca and I have worked since 2008 to build a place within the Writing Community, providing resources through this blog and forging genuine relationships with our audience. Our attitude has always been to contribute and do what we can to add value. It was our hope that our readers would be willing to help raise awareness for The Emotion Thesaurus book.
NICHE. Our book tackled a topic that writers struggle with, yet few resources were available to help. As writers, we knew exactly what type of tool was needed to help with emotion and body language.
What Stood Against Us
LACK OF CREDIBILITY. Becca and I were not authors (yet), nor accredited editors, and certainly not psychologists or experts on emotion. We had a platform, but no ‘book world’ clout. How could we possibly compete with the biggies in the Writing Resource field, names like Donald Maass, James Scott Bell, James N. Frey, The Plot Whisperer, or the dozens of other incredible, best-selling authors/experts?
SELF PUBLISHING. While the stigma is lessening, we all know bias remains. In some ways, creating a how-to writing resource and then choosing self publishing over traditional acted as a strike against us, meaning we would have to really prove ourselves with readers.
CONFIDENCE. This business is often a murky pool of feeling not worthy, not good enough. Without a book deal in place for our fiction to give us credibility or a degree/subject-specific education to hold up, we felt naked. Putting ourselves out there and donning the hat of authority that comes with writing any sort of how-to guide was terrifying.
The Scale Tipper
PASSION, BELIEF & TEAMWORK. As writers, we knew people needed this book. Heck, we needed it! We decided to create the best brainstorming tool we could and put all our effort into making it discoverable to those who might benefit from it. Working as a team allowed us to play off each others' strengths and aided in decision-making.
READYING FOR LAUNCH
- Set up a business
- Paid for a professional edit
- Hired a cover designer
- Outsourced formatting to a HTML goddess because the book is full of links and redirects
- Test-marketed it with a select group of writers & used feedback to strengthen
MISTAKE: choosing a launch date and under-estimating the time it would take for setting up the business (two authors in different countries is a pain), uploading, formatting challenges, fixing last minute typos (again, our formatter Heather is worth her weight in gold!) This created lots of down-to-the-wire stress. Test marketing the book (while super valuable) also meant enabling changes late in the game.
First Hurdle: Launching A Book Without Feeling Like A Timeshare Salesman
For two writers who hate promoting, this was a massive challenge. Look at me! I have a book! Buy it! <---our personal nightmare. We needed a way to let people know about the ET but not be eye-bulging, book-waving maniacs about it. After many facetimes, we realized that to do this in a way that felt right, we needed to return to our AUTHOR BRAND: writers helping & supporting other writers.
“Random Acts of Kindness for Writers” became our secret plan: instead of making our release date about us, we would do something to celebrate & thank writers. This was risky in the sense that to do it authentically, we had to steer attention AWAY from our book’s release. However, we felt the reward was twofold--traffic to our site, and it allowed us a way to pour our flag-waving passion into celebrating people who really deserve recognition and yet rarely get it. This event aligned perfectly with our pay-it-forward beliefs, driving us to do all we could to make it a success.
For brevity's sake, I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of how we set up the RAOK Blitz (but if enough people wish it, I can expand on this in a future post). Suffice to say it drew thousands of visitors and hundreds of writers participated, becoming a huge ‘feel good’ week for everyone that showcased the generous spirits of our Writing Community. :)
Marketing Boost: Becca and I gave away a free PDF called ‘Emotion Amplifiers’ as our RAOK gift to writers. This PDF booklet is a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus and has a similar layout. Our hope was that if a writer found it helpful, they might check the ET as well. (It’s still in our sidebar if you want a copy and helps with describing conditions like pain, exhaustion, stress, inebriation, etc.)
Second Hurdle: Reviews
A self-published book that is also non-fiction? Rough. Many professional reviewers will not take on SP books, and those that do usually only read fiction. So, instead of seeking out review sites, we put out a call out to Bookshelf Muse readers and asked if any of them were interested in reviewing the book. After all, the ET is BY writers FOR writers. Who better to review it? :)
We could not accommodate all the requests that came in, so we chose some reviewers strategically for their audience reach, and others through a random draw.
MISTAKE: We should have arranged for reviews much sooner. Due to not leaving ourselves enough time to get the book ready to go, we were unable to get a decent version out to reviewers until close to launch or after.
LUCK! Many people, after buying and using the ET, were so happy with it they wrote reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
MORE LUCK! These reviews swayed even MORE people to take a chance on the book, and they in turn became avid word-of-mouth spreaders, telling writing friends and critique partners all about The Emotion Thesaurus. This led to better sales, top 20 ranking in several (paid) writing categories for print & kindle, a strong Amazon Best Sellers Rank, and placement on the Top Rated, Best Selling & Most Wished For lists (writing).
Marketing Tactics - Swag
We chose to invest in a postcard-sized bookmark that doubles as a Revision Tool. Many bookmarks lie forgotten in a drawer, or they end up being recycled. We wanted ours to stay right beside the computer during revisions, so we printed a ‘Crutch Word List’ on one side--words we commonly overuse and need to weed out. Our hope was that by making our swag useful, writers would hang onto it!
Spreading the word about a book can be difficult, so we put out a call (again utilizing our blog readers) and asked if people would be willing to take our bookmarks and hand them out to critique groups, or give them out at conferences and workshops. This allowed us to reach out beyond our own circle and hopefully reach new readers.
MISTAKE (?) This was a bit pricey considering the postage involved (some were sent worldwide), and took time to get addresses and mail out. We had no way to track the effectiveness. And while I have heard from people who said they saw them at conferences or were given one by another writer, we are not sure if the ‘mail out’ idea brought a significant return. But, the postcards are super handy to have at events where Becca and I are presenting, and we can pass them out afterward to keep the ET in people’s minds. So overall, this swag was worth it!
Marketing Tactics - Discoverability
The bulk of our marketing energy went into discoverability. Because we have such an amazingly supportive audience at The Bookshelf Muse, we chose a 'grassroots' approach rather than solicit big bloggers/sites for exposure. In our initial blog post asking for assistance from readers, we utilized a sign up form so the people who wanted to help us could, and in a manner that most appealed to them. The results of this was amazing--so many people offered to help get the word out!
One of our biggest needs was bloggers willing to host us for a visit. We were overwhelmed with gratitude to see how many people were willing to do this (have I mentioned how great you all are?) and we actually had to change how our form was worded to include offering book excerpts and reblogging previous TBM posts to accommodate the response. We ended up with over 115 hosts all told.
Attempting so many guest posts caused panic attacks, obsessive chocolate binging, feelings of inadequacy *coughs* was daunting. But Becca organized everything (SHE IS AMAZING!) and put us on an aggressive schedule that would allow us to finish them all within a 4 month window. We created a master list of topics, most centered directly on content that would tie into Emotion & Body Language, so that each post was a planned, quality post. The best thank you to those who offered to help us was to write content that would bring them strong traffic, not just exposure for us.
GUEST POST TIP: We did our best to thank personally every person who hosted and helped. We also shared all links on our social networks to bring new people to their blogs. We truly appreciated their time and energy, and their desire to see us succeed.
MISTAKE #1: biting off more than we could chew. This was an enormous amount of guest posts (with more requests coming in as a result of this visibility) and so it meant we were both unable to write anything but blog content for a good 4 months. We managed to get them done and we have no regrets because of the great exposure, but it also meant other things slipped. There were a few blogging relationships and opportunities we were unable to stay on top of because we were so busy posting elsewhere. We also had a tough time commenting on blogs and getting email written. With such a strict timeline to adhere to, I worried about messing up and forgetting something vital, letting a host down.
MISTAKE #2: not thinking enough about how to keep up with our own blog AND everyone else’s. Luckily as we met new people at different blogs, we found folks who wanted to guest post for us. We were able to give them exposure in return and bring some good content to the blog (LUCK!) So while we made a mistake about over committing, it worked out.
MORE LUCK! These ‘seed’ guest posts led to some writing communities and bigger organizations contacting us. This resulted in book reviews and giveaways that were included in newsletters and offered exposure with bigger audiences. The Discoverability Tour worked!
Marketing Tactics: Giveaways
We utilized giveaways to generate interest in our book and bring attention to some of the blogs we visited. We purposefully did not host book giveaways during the month of May to encourage people to buy, not wait to win. We had a few giveaways in June and then more in July, August and September. Some were bigger exposure opportunities like being featured in a banner at the Writer’s Knowledge Base and as a prize at Ink Pageant (thanks guys--you rock!) We tried to go where our readers would be, and took advantage of opportunities that allowed us to reach beyond the Kidlit & YA writer’s network we know best in order to create inroads with Christian and other Adult genres who might not know us or The Bookshelf Muse.
Marketing Tactics: Distribution Channels
Becca and I talked about going KDP Select but neither of us could see the benefit to doing so right out the gate. In our minds, we wanted to ask a fair price for the books and have it available across as many channels as possible to reach readers where they are, not where we ‘chose’ to be. We distributed widely and included a PDF option for those who did not have ereaders or who felt more comfortable with PDF format. For those who like numbers, here’s the breakdown to 10,000 which we hit in September:
| SW | iTunes | CS-Amazon.com (PRINT) | B&N | Kindle (Amazon.com) | Kindle (Amazon Euro) | Kobo | PDF | Total |
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May | 17 | 10 | 243 | 62 | 412 | 25 |
| 102 | 871 |
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June | 13 | 19 | 503 | 66 | 905 | 50 |
| 89 | 1645 |
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July | 13 | 22 | 887 | 78 | 1334 | 77 |
| 76 | 2487 |
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August | 13 | 33 | 893 | 56 | 1297 | 103 |
| 60 | 2455 |
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September | 10 | 32 | 1036 | 53 | 1282 | 151 | 21* | 47 | 2632 |
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Total: | 66 | 116 | 3562 | 315 | 5230 | 406 | 21 | 374 | 10090 |
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*Prior to September, Kobo sales were bundled with Smashwords. Once Kobo created their own distribution, we uploaded direct. Sony sales are under the Smashwords umbrella.
You will notice that Print is quite strong. We believe this is partly because many writers like 'craft' books in paperback. We also have had feedback that some original digital buyers were so pleased with the ET, they later decided to invest in a print version, too.
Pricing: We chose the 4.99 price point for digital, and 14.99 for print. We have not changed the price nor offered the book for free. In the future we may change our pricing, but for now it works well with Extended Distribution, which we sell enough through to make it important to keep.
MISTAKE: not enabling Extended Distribution right from the start. Originally we didn’t think it would do us much good, until we realized without it, we could not get onto Amazon.ca. Seeing as I live in Canada, it is important that the people I meet at events or at my workshops have a way to get the book. Not doing this before May meant a six week lag of fielding emails from Canadians unable to buy the book.
Marketing Tactics: Paid Advertizing
We opted to not invest in any paid advertising. I think this was the right decision for us, but do see us choosing a few select ads in the future.
Where We Got Extra Lucky
- Winning Top 20 Best Blogs For Writers with Write To Done a few months before The Emotion Thesaurus released. This raised our profile significantly, and at a critical time.
- Once sales started climbing, Amazon would send out mailers to people who purchased writing related books, and sometimes The Emotion Thesaurus was listed as a ‘Those that purchased X might also like’ pick.
- A price war between B & N and Amazon. For the last week of September, the two duked it out, lowering the book’s price daily until the discount put it under 10 bucks. Average sales nearly doubled for print (although sales dipped that week for Kindle).
A Few Extraneous Mistakes
- Not soliciting endorsements. We didn’t do this in advance of publishing the ET because we were worried about being turned down, worried about getting the cold shoulder because we were newcomers and new authors. Now more than ever we are seeing an acceptance of SP, and of Traditional authors making the leap. Endorsements probably would have helped us greatly and so moving forward we’ll be seeking them out.
- Not believing in ourselves enough at the start. I think we wasted a lot of energy on doubt because we hadn’t published before (except in magazines) and we were afraid that while we felt The Emotion Thesaurus added value, others would not. The response to The Emotion Thesaurus has been nothing short of phenomenal and knowing that Illinois State University is using it in their Creative Writing curriculum makes us incredibly proud. A self published book going to University...who would have thought?
Thoughts to Leave You With
Looking back, I believe we did two things right that led to everything else:
First, we created a book that readers are very happy with, and it fulfills a need in a way that they are excited to share it with people they know. (We are so, so, SO grateful to this word-of-mouth. Thank you all for doing this!)
Second, we live our brand: writers who help and support other writers. This is who we are! We love writers and have forged genuine relationships with our readers. When we needed help to spread the word, people responded, and more than that, became our advocates. There are not enough thank yous in the world for me to say what this means to us.
If I can encourage writers planning to publish to do one thing beyond the above, it’s to be authentic in whatever you do. When you build your platform, start in advance and think very hard about what your brand will be. Be yourself, be likable, do what feels right and resonates with who you are. Understand your audience, their likes and dislikes, and search them out. Use keywords to find blogs, forum discussions and hashtags that will help you discover people who might be interested in a book like yours. Interact, be genuine and think about how you can add value, not how you can market to them. Focus on giving, not getting. Trust that the rest will come. :)
Do you have any questions about what we did or why? Becca and I are happy to answer if we are able. And again, the biggest, squishiest, bacon-filled thank you for all your support of us and the ET. Your word-of-mouth has allowed writers and teachers everywhere to discover this book!
Good critique partners (affectionately known as CPs) are invaluable on your publishing journey. They will be your go-to sources for questions, support along the way, and much-needed feedback.
Dee has a new book out, a terrific middle grade called the BFF Bucket List, and a killer blurb:
You are two amazing ladies.
Awesome and congrats on reaching 10K! The next milestone will be 100k within the coming year! I know it! :)
Congrats!! I was part of RAOK and it was just awesome. I loved the attention to detail you gave with your posts. It was fool proof. Made it easier to post. I also loved getting personalized thank yous. You guys rock!
AWESOME!! I'm so happy for you! And what an epic post of sharing-awesome this is. Off to share it... :)
this is amazing! congratulations to both of you, and thanks so much for sharing :D
Aw you guys, thanks!!
Seriously, none of this would have happened without our amazing supporters. Becca and I are so blessed to know so many great folks! We hope that future books in this series become just as helpful to writers as The Emotion Thesaurus!
Angela
Whew. What a wild ride this has been! But so incredibly rewarding. We really were so clueless when we started; that's one of the reasons we wanted to share this post, to get a little more information out there about the process, so maybe it's not so intimidating for someone else.
Thanks, everyone, for your support and encouragement!
10,000 copies! That's absolutely incredible--congratulations! You ladies deserve all the success you've had and more. Best of luck in the coming months!
Congratulations! You both deserve this success, and don't worry, we understand how swamped you've been. *hugs*
I love what you said about being authentic. That's a huge part of my beliefs too. Love you both!
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I love the book. I even recommended it to my local writers group, and I know several of those writers purchased it. And like you said, some of them preferred the print version and didn't have any problems paying an extra $10 for it. Keep up the good work!
Absolutely Awesome!! Loved RAOK and have linked to your website over the last few years on my weekly round up blog for writers here in NZ, highlighting ET and RAOK. I will be sharing this post as well...the journey is a good one to tell because all the way through it your integrity to the project and to each other and the huge impact on writers just shines through! I am proud to own a copy of ET! You deserve every success!
Probably the best post on this moving and difficult target that I have seen. Damn I nearly bought the book- I have never been any good at expressing emotions anyway!
As Arnie said- I'll be back!
You guys amaze me. What a great post! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. :D
Best wishes for your continued success!
Wow. This is extensive. This walk through will definitely help a few people.
(By the way, I was concerned about the profit you two were getting from the books, but after doing the math and calculating the loyalties, you two will probably be set. Yet again, we writers shouldn't be worrying about money too much.)
I only have one word for this post: Wow!
I knew about a lot of this, but you two still amaze me with all the work you put into the release of what is positively the best craft book available. :D
Thank you for sharing your experience through the whole process and what worked and what didn't. You two are truly amazing. All those guest posts! Oh my! You must have been living on adrenalin for those 4 months. I just can't fathom doing that. You two must have super powers! My little blog launch yesterday wiped me out. I'm spent, but the support was so uplifting. Thank you for the shout out, Angela.
I love a success story, and yours is a wonderful one. All that hard worked paid off. I love how you thought outside the box and how it worked for you, how word of your awesome book spread and led to another and then another opportunity for you. You covered to much in this post, and I can't respond to it all, except to say thank you for sharing this with us. Cheers to many more sales milestones and other books to come!
Thank you for sharing your journey! It helps to see what it takes to have patience, dedication and hard work and marketing:-). Congratulations!
Thanks so much for this great post. Awesome, awesome information in here. You guys are amazing :) I'm SO happy for you that the Emotion Thesaurus has done so well. Great job :)
Excellent post, Angela! And a huge thanks to you and Becca for being so generous with your time and information to help the rest of us budding indie authors.
All these tips are extremely useful, but the most important factor for your success is that you and Becca worked long and hard to produce a quality product filled with valuable info for fiction writers! And laid out in a very accessible way. It's an excellent resource that I recommend to all my fiction-writer clients! And I use it myself to offer suggestions for when they're stuck for character reactions to circumstances.
Kudos to you both!
Thanks for sharing this. I use my Emotion Thesaurus everyday I write. No lie! It has truly made me a better writer. Just as this blog has. Thanks you two! From the bottom of my heart.
Wow, what a detailed, valuable, thoughtful post. Congrats on reaching 10,000 in sales!
You're both so gracious to share your experiences with us. Congrat's on sales and also
as important is that you both put out a QUALITY product-
I refer to ET frequently (In hindsight I should have bought a print version, bought the K). Thanks.
Ahh, you guys!! This comment stream is stuffed with so many nice words I feel like it is Christmas. Again, you guys are the reason why we keep up this blog and write our books. Thank you for all you do, and for being so generous and fabulous. Each day we see how writers pull together to support and help each other out, and it is great. We are happy to contribute however we can. :)
Happy writing, everyone and have a fantastic weekend. :)
Angela
The RAOK campaign was fantastic! I hope you'll do it again soon. It shows how much the writing community really does give back. You all are the benchmark for writers helping writers. Best of luck to you and may it be another 10k in sales.
Thanks for all the kind words and good vibes :). It's a pleasure walking this road with all of you.
WOW! I got chills. It went to a university? Of course it did!!! And 10k copies already?
Of course!!
You two are the most awesoemest people I've come to get to know and it thrills me to see so much success. Very well deserved.
We appreciate you!
Woohoo on the 10k!!!! :) So awesome. Thrilled to see you ladies do so well - you deserve it! :)
I was awed every time you guys did a post on an emotion, let alone compiling an entire book and launching it. You've contributed so much, been so kind to others, that it doesn't suprise me you've hit 10k already. I expect those numbers to keep right on growing.
Congratulations and thank you.
I do hope you're partying!
Great post, and congrats!
Glad things worked out for you!!
Wow, congrats on such a crazy high number!! And thank you for such an honest (and helpful) post! You two deserve all the blessing that comes your way.
So proud of you guys! I bought a Kindle edition, and then, yes, did invest in a print copy as well - it's a great resource. Love your success story.
Thank you for sharing. Congratulations on your success and for providing the resources you do.
Thanks again so much for all the love and unwavering support--you guys are the best! :)
So exciting! I'm just thrilled for you guys. You've worked incredibly hard. This is such a great overview as well. Thank you for sharing.
this is in fact a nice cavalcade for all .I like this cavalcade absolute much
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LOVE this. It's my ultimate goal. 10K per month online. Great stuff. Thanks.