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Month: October 2021

By Posted on Posted in The Business of Publishing No Comments

The Differences between Marketing and Promotion & Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone (This was first released in the RWA PROspects Newsletter as part of a larger joint article with Nikki Duncan.) It’s never too early to begin marketing yourself and promoting your stories, but knowing how and where to begin can be tough. In this series of articles over the next few months, Misa and I will discuss the differences between marketing and promotion and share tips that we’ve learned along our paths to publication and things we’ve picked up since our first sales. What’s the difference between marketing and promotion? ND: Marketing is when you spread your name far and wide. Promotion is spreading the message of your product, your book, far and wide. MR: Marketing and promotion work hand in hand. I see marketing as keeping me, the auhor, in the minds of readers. This is where branding comes into play and is a valuable tool. You can brand yourself, brand …

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WriterSpark Academy is a place to find everything you need to ignite your WriterSpark. Read on to learn more about the site and what you will learn here. Content is added regularly, so be sure to come back to explore new topics.  Upcoming series include: Outlining  Story Structure Scene Structure Character Development Writing Life Editorial Services and One-on-One Coaching I offer One-on-One Coaching via the WriterSpark Academy online platform. I also offer a variety of editorial services. You can learn more about them Here. The Blog The WriterSpark Blog offers content specifically geared to help aspiring writers, as well as writers at any level, to hone their craft and refine their understanding of story structure, scene structure, character development, the writing life, and more. Writing Prompts Tap into your creativity by tackling the WriterSpark writing prompts. Come back often and Ignite your WriterSpark!

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Welcome to the Writer Spark Writing Academy blog! If you’re here, chances are you have the dream of writing and possibly publishing a novel.  Eighteen years ago, I had that very same dream. I’d just had my youngest child. A good friend, Elena, was also and aspiring writer. She also had a new baby. We began meeting on Monday evenings  at a coffee shop in between our two homes, leaving the babies and other kids at home with the dads. We used a writing prompt book to guide us as we challenged ourselves to practice our craft. We were both teachers, me in English/Language Arts and her in elementary education. We both had a pretty good handle on showing verses telling, but understanding it in theory is a lot different than putting it into practice. For the first five or six meetings, our goal was to hone in on really descriptive writing. Elena often wrote about events or moments from her …

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Welcome to WriterSpark! I’m Melissa Bourbon, founder of WriterSpark and WriterSpark Academy, an online learning platform for writers. I’m a teacher, content creator, and National Bestselling author of more than 25 books.  I created WriterSpark as a way to pay it forward. My first novel was published in 2008. In the years since, I’ve honed my craft, learned about the industry, and figured out how to balance my writing life with the rest of my life. I want to share what I’ve learned with you. Get to Know Me on the ABOUT page.  You can learn about my path to publication, and more. Check out the Blog I’ve had writing craft articles  published in various publications, and have been a speaker at many events. This content, as well as articles on craft, are found on the blog.  Writing Prompts My entire writing career started with writing prompts. A friend and I met once a month at a coffee shop where …

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