by Michelle Gines

If you want to build a large online readership and effectively promote your book through social media, there are three very important things to remember, no matter which social networks you’re using.
 
1. It’s all about connectionDon’t be one of those annoying social media spammers, constantly boasting or asking followers to “buy, buy, buy” (or both).  Instead, provide value, either through writing and sharing useful information, or by being simply entertaining (which could mean funny, biting, sympathetic, etc.) Once you’ve made a real connection, your followers will be more receptive to buying your book. Soft sell!
 
2. Be a shinier, more compact youHere’s the thing: you can’t communicate all of your beauty, depth, and complexity via social media. We can’t even express those things in their entirety in the real world. So embrace the idea that social media is a way to communicate only a few of the most important facets of your personality, aesthetics, and beliefs. Social media is a chance to supercharge that version of yourself. Not exactly a persona, but a heightened expression of a more focused you. Think about the 3 or 4 things you most want to convey; now go!
 
3. Authenticity is keyThis one might seem to be in contradiction with #2, but it’s just to say that you should never do anything online that makes you feel drained, embarrassed, or fake. You’ll feel even worse afterwards and your audience will see through it. Your followers have good B.S.-detectors; they know when you’re putting something on, and they also know when you’re being your best social media self (that’s why they followed you, after all).
 
When you’re presenting a focused version of yourself, one which also fits comfortably within your sense of authentic self, making connections on social media is easy. The more connections you make, the larger your online community will grow, leading to increased book sales, reading opportunities, and more.
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by Micah Channing

Dialogue tags are not the place to get creative if you want to draw your reader in. Leave that to the dialogue itself.

​’ve never met a writer, whether working on an epic fantasy novel or a true-life account of a harrowing experience, who hasn’t wanted her reader to get completely lost in the words on the page. While there are many things that separate fact from fiction, there’s one thing that all writers ignore at their peril: a good, hard, honest self-edit.

Let’s talk dialogue. Fiction writers learn quickly that there’s nothing as terrible as stiff, unrealistic dialogue to pull a reader out of the story. And while non-fiction writers can’t falsify direct quotes, there’s plenty they can do to ensure the flow is natural. The first place to start is by cutting out as many dialogue tags as you can.

You want the reader to read right over those tags as if they’re not there. Dialogue tags exist for only one purpose: to identify for the reader who is speaking in your manuscript. That’s it. You want the focus on the dialogue itself. You don’t want readers to get distracted by the tag.

This is one of the most common mistakes new writers make. They think words like asked or said are boring or repetitive, so they try to use more interesting alternatives.

Trust me: dialogue tags are not the place to get fancy. Dialogue tags should melt into the background. Said and asked are all you need. Resist the urge to use queried instead of asked, or exclaimed instead of said. All those flourishes will do is tell readers you’re a newbie.
If you’re writing creative non-fiction, you get to have some fun and create dialogue in your story. It doesn’t have to be verbatim, as long as it’s true to your telling of the story.

There’s also the tendency to use the dreaded –ly adverb in your dialogue tag.

Consider this: Dialogue tags are not the place to convey emotion – the dialogue itself should do that. If you think you need an adverb to convey emotion, your scene needs to be written so the character’s dialogue and actions more clearly express that emotion. It’s the difference between showing and telling.
Here’s an example we use when explaining the problem with adverbs in dialogue.

“I’ve had enough,” Simon said angrily.

This simply tells us that Simon is angry. But that emotion isn’t demonstrated through his actions or the dialogue itself.

Remember what we said earlier about dialogue tags: Readers read right over them. Their only purpose is to tell the reader who is speaking.

So if you want the reader to feel Simon’s anger, you have to show them through the dialogue itself. Here’s how you might do it:

“You disgust me. This conversation is over,” Simon said.
Here, Simon’s words are angry, so you don’t need to rely on the adverb angrily to convey that. The dialogue is stronger and the emotion is clear.

You could also include some brief actions or descriptions to eliminate the adverb and convey the character’s emotion.

For example:

Simon shoved back his chair and slammed his fist on the table. “I’ve had enough,” he said, clenching his jaw. “This discussion is over.”

The actions and description here help show how Simon feels, so we can easily eliminate the word angrily from that dialogue tag.
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Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, you are telling a story. Dialogue is one of the most powerful elements in storytelling.