Chris Colfer on Seth Meyers

[silverstarry]

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While starring on Glee, Chris Colfer became a children's author. His first series, The Land of Stories, consists of six books plus four prequels. He just published his twentieth book, which is the first in a new series. He has also narrated all of the audio versions of his books. He said it takes him about one day to narrate 100 pages, but due to a

Comments

[tigermilk]

Wow I love that for him. I think more people are writing these days as a side gig. I started publishing erotica this year and it’s really fun to be like sitting down at a cafe and think to myself, “I bought this bagel breakfast sandwich with smut.”

[varioussaints]

Are you self publishing on Amazon? I constantly toy with the idea of finally writing a romance novel and just throwing it out there to learn more about self publishing, but then I keep getting busy. 😅

[tigermilk]

Yeah! There are a lot of resources out there, if you’re really interested. There’s so much more than just the writing, it’s the covers, marketing, etc. But definitely doable.

[varioussaints]

👀 Are there resources you'd recommend I start with? I have poked around on my own but some resources seem less trustworthy than others, especially when I look around on Reddit.

[tigermilk]

How to Write Short Romance Kindle Books: A Complete Guide to Kindle Publishing
Writing Short Romance for Pleasure and Profit: How I Became a Six Figure Author Writing Short Romance
Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books)
How to Write Erotica

https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/
https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/

These are a few that I used. I don't publish romance but I'd like to, and understanding romance beats and expectations is really important. The general consensus is that "we'll help you publish your novel for $$$" is a scam, they don't really do anything you can't figure out on your own, and then you're on the hook for doing your own marketing anyway.

[varioussaints]

Oh my goodness bb thank you so much! This is so kind of you. I will be sure to dig into all of these this weekend. The beats part is what's really killing me, I think, but hopefully with enough practice I'll be able to shed my "literary writing" habits and get into a good groove for genre writing instead. Amazing tips, thank you so so so much!

[tigermilk]

I highly recommend learning the beats and then spending a good chunk of time reading romance, so you can see them in action. Now that I know the structure for romance, I canNOT unsee the 75% conflict.

But I love romance, the best part is that the happily ever after is built into the genre so no matter what happens in that 75% conflict, it'll be okay and they'll figure it out. Bless. If only life were that reliable.

[gratuity]

Romancing the Beat is good (and a quick read), especially used alongside more traditional plotting/outlining resources like Save The Cat.

my only critique of r/selfpublish is sometimes commenters there are weirdly anti-editor. I understand that everyone has different goals with self publishing and investing in editing up front can be steep but I can’t get behind that sentiment as someone who reads a lot of indie. It’s very obvious to me when someone has had editing passes vs when someone has not. The Kindle Unlimited model doesn’t exactly incentivize a well paced book, I guess, which is how these 600 page contemporary(!) romance novels are blowing up on booktok lmao