Earlier this week, I explained to a new client the two main publishing paths: independent publishing and traditional publishing. About half of Conquer Books clients pursue trad publishing and half choose to self-publish.

This is different than when I first started coaching in 2020. At that time, about 70% of my clients planned to work with a publishing company.

After coaching over 800 writers and editing over 5 million words, I’ve learned what makes for a page-turning book.

I’m Rebecca Zornow, and I’d love to be your book coach.

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The Pros & Cons of Indie Publishing

While I see both publishing paths as highly viable, there’s a reason we’re seeing an increase in writers choosing to self-publish.

• •You don’t have to wait to be discovered.

• •You have complete control over your deadlines, process, and finished product.

• •You select your own book prices and retailers.

• •More and more readers are selecting books by independent authors because of the highly original writing and favorite subgenres and tropes.

There are some downsides as well.

• •You work alone, building your own team along the way.

• •You make a financial investment upfront.

• •There’s a huge learning curve.

• •There’s no one to stop you from making a mistake.

The publishing decision comes down to what an author wants to spend their time on, their skills, and where they can tolerate risk.

For instance, someone who thinks big like a CEO, wants to kickoff their publishing journey on a set timeline, and has experience managing contractors is a great candidate for self-publishing.

If this is you, or a version of it, one of your first steps is to decide upon a budget and timeline.

As an independent author, you can publish as quick as you can draft, edit, produce, and market a quality book. I suggest working on a timeline that allows you to work on two books in a year.

Indie Author Publishing Calendar

Month 1:

• •Build story foundation and outline

• •Build project budget

Month 2-4:

• •Draft the book

• •Book contractors

Month 5:

• •Self-edit

Month 6:

• •Send your book to the developmental editor

• •Start a new book, building the story foundation and outline

Month 7:

• •Self-edit

Month 8:

• •Send your book to the line editor

• •Draft the new book

Month 9:

• •Self-edit

• •Draft the new book

Month 10+:

• •Send the book to the copy editor

• •Format the book

• •Work with the cover designer

• •Draft the new book

Month 11+:

• •Implement the marketing plan

• •Prepare to publish

• •Self-edit the new book

  ---

  One of the number one issues I see in aspiring authors is lack of action. I hope this calendar template helps you visualize how to move projects forward.

• Learn to balance your timetable and you will thrive as an indie author.

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By now, finishing this book feels viable. You’re almost at the point where you might let a friend look at it, or at least you don’t break into hives when you imagine doing so.

If your manuscript was a cake, you would just be piping a last layer of buttercream before placing the top sponge layer. It is cake shaped—but not ready for eating. Before we decorate, we need to finish up our developmental edits.

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Earlier this month, I shared 2 developmental editing exercises to hone the structure of your project as well as discussed how to work with an independent editor.

At our mid-month check-in, we’re going to do something radical.

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Want to get more writing done?

Here’s the big secret of career authors: start hiring contractors.

Most authors will have to hire help at some point and that’s a good thing. Business coach Rachel Rodgers of We Should All Be Millionaires points out that hiring support is one of the best ways new entrepreneurs can free up their time to think like a CEO.

Influenced by her book, I first hired a cleaning company in 2021. It was a game changer for me and my family. In 2022, I hired my first assistant. Since then, I’ve worked with a wide variety of contractors to support Conquer Books and my author business.

Most recently, I hired a contractor for 8 hours/month this spring to spiff up my processes around onboarding and offboarding new book coaching clients, and another contractor to redo the Conquer Books logo.

As an author, I regularly hire editors, book designers, graphic designers, and admin assistance. I’m going to share the best practices for hiring contractors that I’ve learned over the last 5 years.

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Hire Away

Do some journaling about the kind of support you think will help you most right now. It might be a logo designer but, honestly, it might be hiring your nephew to clean your car because you’re going to 3 book fairs this month and the state of your car is stressing you out.

I like these journaling prompts:

• Write out your ideal day.

• Track where your time goes for 2 days.

• If you’re starting a new project, build a list of the skills required. Now, what new skills are you willing to learn and what do you want to outsource either to save time or because you don’t enjoy those tasks?

If you’re looking for something standard and specific, say a developmental edit you might ask for suggestions from fellow writers.

If you’re looking for something general or on an ongoing basis like an assistant, you’ll still want to ask around for recommendations, but it’s much easier to start something on a trial basis. For instance, book a marketing assistant for 5 hours one month to test the waters.

I heard some excellent advice from Michael Capobianco of the SFWA contracts committee: If you’re uncomfortable working with someone on day one, it’s not going to get better.

The Tips

I’m not a lawyer, accountant, or other administrative genius, but I’ve gleaned some top tips for hiring, firing, and managing contractors:

• Ask them to fill out a W-9 Form. You need this from any freelancer you will pay $600 or more in a year.

• At tax time, fill out a 1099 From for each contractor. I use Track1099.com which recently became Avalara.com.

• Be clear about expectations. Objective lists, signed agreements, monthly task lists, reporting—whatever you put in place, make sure it helps you feel confident and keeps them doing the work you need. That’s one of the reasons I make my coaching proposals so detailed, to give the writer the confidence we are going to get things done.

• Fire early. If they’re consistently late or letting you down, don’t wait see if they magically get better. You can tell who is making an effort and who is going to waste your time and money.

• You’ve hired them for a reason, to get results. So be honest with your feedback and aim to be generative, but also recognize that they’re bringing perspective you don’t have. They’re experts in what they do. Let them cook.

• Challenge yourself to let go of tasks and control, especially if you’ve hired a Virtual Assistant or other ongoing support. This was something I struggled with early on. Then it clicked, Oh, I can write and coach more if I stop formatting my blog posts??

• If the idea of hiring is too scary to face, ask a friend or family member for help. Get used to giving directions and test run being a boss.

I don’t think I would have seen the growth I have in either my coaching or author business if I didn’t bring in outside support.

In fact, I think writers should ask for help consistently throughout their life. Novel writing is a largely solitary endeavor. Use the opportunities you do have to build community.

Bonus Ideas

Here’s a few ways I’ve personally asked for help, both hired and not:

• I just hired Shawn Williams Creative to make a new imprint logo for my books.

• My assistant updates my CRM to keep track of client information and timelines.

• My nine-year-old assisted me at a local book fair. Did I want him charging credit cards? No. But could I go to the Port-a-Potty without worrying about my booth? Yes!

• A friend drove me to appear on a TV show. She held my bag, took video for social media, and helped soothe my nerves.

  

• I was doing a ton of gardening, but couldn’t keep up with some time-sensitive project. So, my family hired 4 neighborhood teens to help with yard projects this summer.

• A woman-owned cleaning company comes to my home where I work 2x/month. I feel great supporting a local business over a national chain.

• When my computer went kaput, my brother helped me research new options.

And the biggest takeaway…we’re all in this together. Hire and ask for help. Say yes to those who want to hire you or ask for help.

If you’re working your way through A Book In A Year, you are currently making developmental edits on your project. You’ve already achieved two things:

• Worked through a list of targeted structural edits

• Did one edit pass through the manuscript to smooth it out

This month, you’re going to continue on the developmental editing track with two new exercises.

But first!

I’d like to announce our winner of last month’s Nebula swag giveaway!

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As a book coach, I see 4 big reasons to attend writing conferences:

1. Connect with other authors

2. Hone your craft through panels and workshops

3. Meet industry professionals

4. Learn about current publishing trends

This year, Conquer Books sponsored the book swag bag, so I’d like to do a giveaway open to all Conquer Books Substack subscribers. You can win a Nebula tote bag, SFWA cookbook, orange Nebula notebook, and a copy of Fran Wilde’s speculative poetry collection Clock Star Rose Spine.

To enter:

1. Subscribe to the Conquer Books Substack at any level

   Subscribe now

2. Enter the form below.

   Enter to Win

Yes, as Alley Hart guessed, I am talking again about author business plans.

I’ve shared in the past why business plans are important for writers and what you might put in yours.

In this post, we’re moving onto Round 2: Author Business Strategy. I believe in making business decisions based on data and with intention. I’m going to share major takeaways to help you better visualize a successful business plan and to move forward with action.

How Many Books Should You Sell?

For novice authors, the answer to this question is loose. It’s typically, “A lot.” Or, “However many I need to become successful.”

Experienced authors are more specific in their answer:

• “I want to double the number I sold last year.”

• “I plan on selling 2,000 books.”

• “I’d like to sell at least 50 books per live event.”

They have a better understanding of what has worked, and what new tactics they’re trying this year. If you’re new to thinking about your author business this way, it’s helpful to first get a sense of what your short-term and long-term goals are.

How to Approach a Goal

Writers don’t often believe me when I tell them everyone’s goals are different. They think every writer’s ultimate goal is to write full time. Or hit the NYT Bestseller List. Or give a commencement speech. Or become an independently wealthy recluse living in Scotland.

As a book coach who has seen the insides of hundreds of author careers, let me tell you, you all really do have different ideas of what success looks like.

Your first step is to get specific about your short- and long-term goals.

For example:

• Short-term goal: Hit the top 50 on an Amazon sub-genre list

• Long-term goal: Hit the USA Today Bestseller List

Or:

• Short-term goal: Make $2,000/year from your writing

• Long-term goal: Make $100k/ year from your writing

Why have a short-term goal? Why not just shoot for the stars? Well, as I tell my son, you can’t travel the world before you can pick up your socks.

Plus, when you understand what you’re targeting, then you can look at what kind of work it takes to get there.

Short Term Example #1

If we wanted to dive into the short-term goal in the first example, we could use Kindlepreneur’s Kindle Best Seller Calculator to see how many books you need to sell to reach your goal. For example, I used it (pictured below) to see how many books a writer has to sell to hit the Top 100 in the Kindle store.

The answer is 1,000 books.

But that wasn’t our question. The identified short-term goal was: “Hit the top 50 on an Amazon sub-genre list.”

So, an author might say, “Wow, K.F. Breene’s Magical Midlife Madness is ranking #41 in humorous fantasy. I’d love for my funny fantasy book to do the same. How many books do I have to sell to get that kind of result?”

If you use the overall store ranking for that book with the calculator, you’ll see that this title is selling about 4 copies every day. While that doesn’t get the title into the Kindle Top 100, it gets it into the top 50 of a great sub-genre list.

After you do your research, your next step is to strategize how to sell 1,500 copies/year.

Short Term Example #2

In our other example, the author’s goal is to make $2,000 off their writing in a year.

They could do the math (if I sold X e-books and make Y off each one…) but I find that saying the number of books they want to sell doesn’t make it happen.

Instead, let’s look at the habits of authors making $2,000+ via the Written Word Media Indie Author Survey 2025.

To hit that goal of $2K/year, you need to be in the top 50% of indie authors. We might ask ourselves then, what are those authors doing that you’re not?

The Written Word survey shows that authors working at that level probably spend $150/month on marketing, have an e-mail list of 1,000 subscribers, and have published 10 books. So, now you know your next step is to test paid marketing, start a newsletter, and write your next book.

Those are broad markers for the kind of work a writer is putting in to get a certain result, though of course everyone’s exact path looks different. I highly recommend looking through the survey, even if you are or plan to go trad.

Buckets & Funnels

To hit those long-term success goals, it’s likely you’re going to develop multiple funnels for new readers to find you and multiple buckets for them to pay into.

Those funnels might look like:

• Social media

• 99 cent e-book sales

• BookBub or other promos

• Facebook ads

• Live events

• Podcast tours

• Newsletter reader magnets

Then, there might be a variety of buckets readers and supporters can use to pay you:

• Various formats of the book

• Patreon/Kickstarter/Substack subscriptions

• Speaker fees

• Merch like stickers, mugs, or sweatshirts

• Freelance writing or editing

To determine your funnels and buckets, you’ve got to experiment. To keep yourself from spreading too thin, I suggest following these guidelines:

1. Set budgets for specific projects. If you want to try paid ads, set aside a specific amount each month that you can experiment with. If you feel author fairs might be your thing but haven’t done one yet, invest in tablecloths and book holders before you upgrade to pop up signs and high entrance fees.

2. Record number of followers. Track your follower numbers or other metrics for social media and other marketing efforts. That way you can tell if your time and/or dollars is a good investment.

3. Find where the money is coming from. Make sure your accounting is accurate and done on a weekly basis if possible. Periodically compile the data and look at trends. Are you selling more print books than e-books? Might be time to try a special edition. Did that Kickstarter cost you money because of unexpected hiccups? Get solid on your numbers so you learn from the experience.

Along the way, think expansively about where income can come from. Here’s a few surprising examples from my own indie author experience:

• Auctioned character naming rights - $500

• My Life’s Work, a set of each of my books - $100 every sale

• Milage deductions - $1,200 annually

• Organized a local author fair in my town when there was none - $600 annually

• Curated a list of Indigenous books - $120

Two Mindsets

Recently, my city announced a grant to help resettle out-of-state artists in our corner of Wisconsin. The funds came from a state pot that was typically used for ads but a group of area non-profits wrote a grant to instead use the money as relocation support.

A lot of creators in my area were upset. They felt they weren’t being supported enough and these funds were going to the wrong people. There was a lot of negative press and the grant writers had to host a Q&A.

Arts funding in Wisconsin is very low. Last in the country, in fact.

I understand the frustration of these artists and creators. Our systems should be more robust.

But complaining to people who did the work to start a new program? No ma’am.

The nonprofits involved also hosted a local author fair, run an annual visual arts fair, started a new artist-in-residence program, and offer free business consulting. Asking them for more instead of contributing to community efforts felt tasteless to me.

It’s ultimately up to you to make things work.

Writers can fall into this trap of entitlement from time to time. Sometimes we’re just tired. I wish a bookstore would reach out to me instead of having to send all these e-mails. It’s okay to be tired.

But then you’ve got to set that aside and keep your eyes on the goal.

The best results I see come from writers who are dedicated, willing to experiment, and pivot when needed. They don’t wait for someone to invite them to a book fair, when they can apply to one or start their own. They don’t put off running an ad for two years. They do it now so they have results to build upon.

Elevate your results by treating your business plan as a live document.

If you want help honing your business plan, book me for a 1-hour consult. I’ll review your plans and brainstorm strategies, then we can discuss what actions you can take to turn 2026 into your most successful year yet.

Book a Consult with Rebecca

Now that you’re moving into a new phase of your manuscript, developmental editing, let’s look at the big picture.

By this point, you’ve already lived half a year or more in this world. You’ve built a firm foundation, drafted the book, and reached The End for the first time.

Now it’s time to make sense of the story with developmental editing.

Developmental Edit Notes

To show you the type of structural edits I look for as a book coach, I’m going to walk you through some high level notes on a speculative fiction manuscript I edited.

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N. K. Jemisin is a fantasy author and 2020 MacArthur Fellow whose fiction has been recognized with multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Most of her works have been optioned for television or film, and collectively her novels, including the Broken Earth trilogy, have sold over two million copies.

Her speculative works range widely in theme, though with repeated motifs: resistance and oppression, loneliness and belonging, and Wouldn’t It Be Cool If This One Ridiculous Thing Happened.

Here’s what she said on developing characters at the Nebula Conference.

Nebula Awards

I spent four days at the Nebula Conference, an annual writing conference and awards ceremony hosted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.

N.K. Jemisin was this year’s Grand Master and gave a talk on developing character as well as a fantastic, powerful speech at the awards ceremony.

Any writer can register for the Nebulas, but I highly recommend also joining SFWA because of the opportunity to learn from other writers and build community. Check out their requirements page so you know when it’s time to join.

As for the next Nebula Conference, meet you in Seattle in June 2027.

Character Development from N.K. Jemisin

At her craft talk, Jemisin said that, for her, character development and the intersection with plot follow a clear process:

1. A character comes to her. For The Fifth Season, it was a dream of a middle-aged woman so mad, she was going to throw a mountain.

2. Her worldbuilding supports the development of that initial character impression. She drives worldbuilding by asking what cultural and environmental factors would shape that kind of person.

3. Then she develops the character in full. She strives for complex characters with clear purpose in the story.

4. Finally, she builds the plot.

Jemisin’s philosophy is that the character must fit the world they exist in. That they are the way they are because of their specific environment.

She also said that if characters are getting along too well with the rest of the cast, they’re not deep enough. Conflict will come when characters are complex enough.

A client asked me about the above, whether successful character building will always result in negative conflict and strife between characters. That was a great question, something that’s come to mind often while I edit.

I thought of Ryland Grace and Rocky from Project Hail Mary. It’s not that the complexity of each led only to strife but that their particularities of culture, language, motive, and personality meant conflict would arise naturally. The problem of how they would communicate. How they would support each other while prioritizing their own people.

I was curious how other editors and authors approached this idea, and found an article by Mary Robinette Kowal who also presented a craft talk at the Nebulas. Writing Stable but Dynamic Characters reinforces the idea that even characters that like each other will come into conflict on specific issues.

All of this character complexity applies to villains too. Jemisin said writers should show enough depth in a villain to make them partly empathetic. She gave the example of Aislyn in The City We Became who represents Staten Island. Aislyn is sheltered and racist and while Jemisin did not seek to make her likable, she did want to show how Aislyn became that way.

Craft Talk Notes

Jemisin mentioned a few other tidbits about her writing process:

• After she writes a draft, she takes a break while beta readers review her manuscript. One example of a break was spending a month playing a highly anticipated video game, which also motivates her to finish drafting.

• When the idea is cold in her head, she goes into developmental edits. Editing is her favorite part.

• She usually cuts the volume of the draft. If she can shorten a sentence, she does so because it increases impact.

• The comments she receives from beta readers are not usually helpful in determining the fix, but in highlighting the problem. If several readers and editors comment on a certain character, she knows that’s a weak character and has to become more complex to work within the story.

• She also makes an energy map of where readers were interested/unengaged so she knows what parts of the manuscript are working and not.

• Jemisin admits she sometimes cackles while killing off characters!

If you’d like to hear more from N.K. Jemisin, you can watch her speech at the Nebula Awards here.

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You just typed The End. You grab a celebratory drink and walk outside to feel the fresh air on your face.

You’ve done it.

You’ve written a book.

The first draft, that is. Now what?

Well, if you’re following Write a Book in a Year, it’s June, month 6, and you’re about to start editing.

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Hello writers! I’m Rebecca Zornow, your science fiction and fantasy book coach. I’ve coached over 800 writers and edited over 5 million words, and I want to share with you what I’ve learned.

Workshop Takeaways

Recently, I led workshops at WisCon and the Wisconsin Writers Association. In both, our discussion revolved around character. Here’s a few of the key takeaways:

1. I cannot overstate how important it is for your main character to want something, and change to get it.

2. The antagonist is not a black-of-heart evil doer. They are there to antagonize our hero, which deeps our understanding of the protagonist.

   

3. When you write about character interiority, include worldview, backstory, emotion, thought, and motivation.

4. When it’s time to edit, test your reader’s connection to the main character’s POV and thought process. We want to know why they operate the way they do, even if the character is still discovering that themselves. Strive for clarity.

New Opening

I have a book coaching slot opening up in July. If you want to turn your manuscript into a page-turning book, send me a message for a free 20-minute chat.

Finally, I’d love to her about your WIP. Tell me all about it in the comments.

Leave a comment

When you’re so close it feels inevitable that you’re going to finish, you start to think about the next phase. And what you’ve got to do after that. And how you’ll get published.

Suddenly the goal you’ve always reached for pales in comparison to the work that’s next.

You’re about to hit a major achievement, but you’re already downplaying it.

Finishing a first draft is a huge achievement for any writer at any point in their career.

Power through but resist the urge to downplay your work.

Here’s your mid-May check-in for the Book in a Year challenge.

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A Parade of Horribles, the 8th book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series, is now out.

The DCC series is being made into a graphic novel, is already on Webtoons, has been optioned for TV, and sold over 6 million copies.

In 2003, author Matt Dinniman published his first book. He guesses it sold 50 copies.

Let’s connect the dots.

The Dinniman Backstory

Like most aspiring authors, Dinniman had a slew of unusual jobs: telephone psychic, private instigator, pizza delivery guy, and Microsoft tech support worker.

The New York Times reports that amid the collection of odd jobs, Dinniman wrote short stories and sent them to magazines. Though he was an avid reader as a child, his upbringing wasn’t literary. His father was in the U.S. Army and Dinniman himself sought a degree in public administration from the University of of Arizona.

Early Books

He eventually gained some traction in his late 20’s with a book he started in high school, The Shivered Sky. Published in 2003 by a small press, the book tells the story of hell winning the ultimate war. He guesses it sold 50 copies.

Looking back, Dinniman acknowledges self-publishing was looked down upon in the early 2000’s and e-books weren’t a popular medium yet—the very ingredients that would lead to his later success.

A few years after his debut, he released a short story collection with another small press. The collection is now out of print.

Then, in 2007, he wrote The Grinding and secured a deal for an e-book. This time, copies sold in the in the hundreds.

When the Silo series was self-published by Hugh Howey in 2013, it gained major traction, making Dinniman realize that self-publishing was changing. During the early boom, writers were proving they could make a living self-publishing.

Dinniman wrote his first LitRPG series and didn’t even try to find a publisher. He independently published it in 2017. The first book made more money on day one than he had in his entire writing career up to that point.

Through those times, Dinniman was still working a day job to support his family, first as a graphic designer for an aviation technology company, then as an artist drawing pictures of cats. He opened a store on Etsy for commissioned drawings and was making six-figures at cat shows sponsored by the Cat Fancies Association.

Then, COVID cut off his income stream and Dinniman had to pivot.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Publishing Timeline

Dinniman started writing Dungeon Crawler Carl in December 2019 with no expectations. He posted free chapters on Royal Road and got input via polling readers which he felt increased engagement.

He was setting up for Emerald City Comic Con when the convention was shut down due to COVID. At the same time, shipping from his Etsy store was massively impacted by COVID, so Dinniman realized he had to pivot quickly. What he had to turn to was DCC.

Dinniman started a Patreon with early access to chapters and began writing full time. He published book 1 of the series on October 2, 2020 in e-book and paperback.

Multiple scenes on Royal Road didn’t make the cut to the book because they didn’t move the story forward.

Through word of mouth and his unique involvement with fans, Dinniman had sold several hundred thousand copies on his own when agents came knocking. At that point, he was reluctant to sell his rights and only did so when he negotiated keeping his ebook rights. Print rights were picked up by Penguin Random House in 2024. Dinniman has commented that the series underwent edits but the story stayed the same.

His agent is now Seth Fishman. Dinniman admits having an editorial and marketing team is a bit of a culture shock.

As of December 2024, the first 4 rereleased books sold 55K copies.

By December 2025, the first 7 books sold over 6 million copies.

1. Dungeon Crawler Carl (October 2020)

2. Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (January 2021)

3. The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (March 2021)

4. The Gate of the Feral Gods (June 2021)

5. The Butcher’s Masquerade (February 2022)

6. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (June 2023)

7. This Inevitable Ruin (November 2024)

8. A Parade of Horribles (May 2026)

Sales of audiobook adaptions with narrator Jeff Hayes have surpassed physical and e-book copies. Dinnaman currently has 12K paid members on Patreon in which he continues to poll his readers about story events.

Takeaways for You as an Author

I absolutely flew through this book series. By chapter 3 in book 1, I knew it was something special, and then grew more and more impressed as I read. It’s rare to read a book with such a polished structure and detailed characters, especially an indie book.

It’s clear Dinniman is doing a lot right as a writer, both in his craft, and his business acumen. Here’s a few important takeaways for any writer:

→ Write regularly. Matt Dinniman writes 8 to 12 hours a day. He makes up the story as he goes, but keeps track of details including character inventories and abilities in a massive spreadsheet.

→ Partner with other writers. Dinniman says participating in writing workshops was the best thing he did for his writing craft.

→ Strategize and follow success. He writes everything with audio in mind and has killed off characters he didn’t think would sound good. Now, his audiobooks have sold over 3 million copies on Audible.

Learn more in this interview with Matt Dinniman:

Eminent Americans

Dungeon Crawler Matt

My guest on the show today is Matt Dinniman, author of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which is seven books into a projected 10 volume run…

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a year ago · 6 likes · 6 comments · Daniel Oppenheimer

Note: Some links are affiliate links with Bookshop, which supports Conquer Books and indie bookstores.

It’s May, or Month 5, of working on this book project. This month is a BIG one on your way to a finished, polished draft by the end of the year.

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See the note below for those of you who want to apply your discount to Substack

Hello authors, Rebecca Zornow here, your science fiction and fantasy book coach.

I have been hard at work on updating ConquerBooks.com to reflect the energy I’m bringing to this new phase of Conquer Books. I’ve got a new literary logo, tons of more info on the speaker page, and some lovely quotes from past clients. Writers will also find more transparency on the coaching page, including pricing and what you get when you work with me as a book coach.

I do have a big non-logo, non-website request as I enter this new phase.

Google Conquer Books…click “add a review.”

About half of you out there came to Conquer Books in the first place because you were googling around looking for writing support! It would really help me out if you wrote a sentence or two about the value of this newsletter, something you learned, or how I support the writing community.

Send a screenshot or link of your Google review to info@conquerbooks.com and get a promo code for $25 off in the store or on future coaching services. Note: if you’d like to apply your discount to a one-year subscription on Substack, I’ll make that available when you send in your screenshot.

I’m very excited about this new phase. Let’s conquer those books.

.

For those of you participating in the Book in a Year challenge, this is your mid-month check-in. We’re going to start with examples from our usual six:

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Action is a frequent friend to science fiction and fantasy, but even quieter subgenres like cozy fantasy will have scenes of action from time to time.

A moment of action is relative to the tone rest of the book. It doesn’t have to be a shootout between two alien spaceships. It might be the moment a magical inspector tours a fairy’s spellshop and her new employee is a clumsy ogre who keeps accidently knocking over shelves.

Action should be brisk.

Short.

Powerful.

Keep the reader’s eye moving.

And then of course, you’ll want to break it up with long sentences for maximum impact, perhaps a sentence revealing the ogre is now hidden in the stock room, and that the ogre did not give full consent to the body bind spell, and steam now billows out of his ears, a recipe for disaster.

Action Through Tension

Action scenes are more than snappy sentences that build emotion. They’re also about perspective. Narrowing or widening the perspective of the reader mimics how our own attention shifts during a moment of panic or trauma.

For instance, imagine you’re calmly standing in your kitchen making PBJs and you hear a great boom from the outside. A family member shrieks. Your entire world narrows to that moment as your brain works in overdrive to assess the threat.

You won’t know what you did with the jam butterknife or notice that you’ve got peanut butter on your hand. You will suddenly be outside, as if by magic, all of your resources going into assessing and resolving.

This kind of time warp happened to me once at a swimming pool when my son went under and didn’t come up. I suddenly found myself wet, fully clothed, lifting his head above water.

I hadn’t wanted to go in the pool earlier that afternoon because I thought I’d be cold, but my mind was so far gone in that moment, I barely felt the water at all. When I got out of the pool, I saw my Birkenstocks on the deck. Confused, I asked my friends how I had time to take my shoes off. They said I didn’t. They fished them out for me. I’d gone in fully clothed, not even stopping to slip my shoes off.

It wasn’t until afterward I’d understood the chain of events. I just acted.

Time and thought moves differently in action scenes. Your character might find time slows down as their brain widens to perceive as much as it can about the threat. Terror might make your character unable to move, frozen with fear as they are. Or, they might have an absurd desire to laugh not that their brain sees how futile it all is.

One of my favorite examples of an action scene in fiction is the Battle of the Green Fork in Game of Thrones. Tyrion, who is not a skilled fighter, is forced into participating in the battle in borrowed armor. The fight starts shaky and goes down hill from there. He’s resolved to keep close to a sellsword for safety but then one enemy after another comes his way. There’s no time to look for his body guard. No time for strategy. He can’t even tell if they’re winning or losing. It’s just the immediacy of the moment that demands his attention.

It’s not until afterward Tyrion understood that his father had put him in the most dangerous part of the battle.

It’s difficult to fit that kind of introspection into the moment of action. It’s too much of an interruption to the necessary speed of pacing. Let the character process when the action has stilled.

In Short

When you write moments of action…

—>write briskly

—>narrow the character’s perspective to the most dire threats

—>and give them a moment of reflection once the action is over.

Welcome to Month 4 of working on this manuscript. Our goal is a finished, polished draft by the end of the year.

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As a book coach, I put in serious editing time. Chapter check-ins. Query reviews. Edit letters. Comp title research. Zoom calls with clients.

Though my brain works hard all day (well, until 4 PM), I do my best to feel like a luxurious queen while I work. That means surrounding myself with beautiful things, my favorite self-care products, and effortless tools to help me conquer my daily to do list.

Here’s a few that might enhance your writing life…

Tools of the Trade

Tul Pens - For everyday journaling and throwing in my bag before dashing to the library.

Wonderlust Malta Ballpoint Pen from Cross - Seen in action below, this is my signing pen for everything from books to checks. I’ve been using this beauty for years and order ink refills twice a year.

Bookstands, bookends, and fitted tablecloths - Which I use regularly for events. I often send these links to writers looking to enhance their set up.

Bibliophile Notecards - The perfect literary notecard to thank coaching clients or workshops for inviting me to speak. This is an affiliate link via Bookshop.

Tripod, Phone Holder, and Lapel Mic - This set helps me record videos for social media and Substack.

Bookmarks - I like to pick out bookmarks or postcards as souvenirs from art museums.

Canva - Me and my assistant are using Canva all day long to make graphics, business cards, and even the Conquer Books workbook.

Office Decor

White Board Calendars - I’ve got three of these erasable calendars hanging in my office so I can plot out manuscript submissions and client calls.

Museum Quality Glass Paperweights - Once upon a time I was a docent at a glass art museum. As was inevitable, I fell in love with glass paperweights. I have a few special ones set aside, but I put the others to work.

Stained Glass Lamps - My office has two and they give the most beautiful glow in the early mornings when I sit to work.

Swazi Candles - I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in eSwatini and burning these gorgeous candles brings me good vibes.

Self-Care

Supergoop! Superscreen - A sunscreen and moisturizer. Hell yeah.

Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lipstick - I’m not much for makeup. When I do events, I pop on simple mascara and lipstick. 200 Latino is my favorite go to.

Cedar & Amber Roll on Essential Oil - I usually choose essential oils for my scent over a fussy perfume. While I’m partial to lavender, this cedar and amber scent drives me wild. Every time I upcap it, I’m swept away.

Bert’s Bees Lipbalm - I go through this chapstick like crazy at my desk. Any flavor. All day long.

Summersalt Silk Pajamas - The stripy pajamas I’m wearing above have been discontinued, but I’m all about any stylish pajama sets because I often go straight from bed to work.

As an editor, style and form is a constant in all aspects of my life. I hope this brings you some inspiration to live the writing life of your dreams.

Tell me about your favorite writing things!

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I once worked with a brilliant writer who wrote a high concept novel. We did a developmental and line edit together. They were highly coachable. Full of great ideas. They worked hard to strengthen their worldbuilding and close the plot holes in the last quarter of the book. When we were done, I felt proud of how clean their manuscript was.

It was time to query.

Reader, there’s not much else to say except: they did not query their dynamic, well-written project.

They fell prey to one of the big dangers of the writing world.

“Doom! Doom I say!”

You already know there are many pitfalls in the writing world. Writers who aren’t well-read enough to spot cliché tropes in their work. Not setting aside time to write. Fear of rejection.

Most of those pitfalls strike the beginning writer.

But there’s one special danger that haunts motivated writers who have put the effort behind their skill to get decent, even good.

So, what is that devious pitfall?

It’s tinkering.

Tinkering with your manuscript will not fix plot holes or elevate voice. It will not upgrade the salability of your manuscript or hook a reader. It will not teach you to write better.

Tinkering is a form of procrastination that usually comes about because the writer avoiding one of three things:

1. The deep, hard work of real editing

2. The rejection that comes with submission

3. The nerves associated with starting a new project

Tinkering vs. Editing

Tinkering almost exclusively happens while we’re editing. It might pop up in drafting if you continually go back and reedit what you’ve written instead of moving forward in the manuscript. Otherwise, tinkering infects us during developmental or line edits.

The easiest way to tell if you’re tinkering versus making actual gains on editing your project is to look at your timeline. Roughly, it should take a season to draft a book and a year to get to a polished, final project. This could be shorter.

If you’ve been working on a book for 3+ years and, when you look back, realize you haven’t accomplished much, you’re likely tinkering.

If you are working a project and the project does not make significant, dramatic progress at the editorial level, you’re likely tinkering, even if you swear to your cat you’re working hard. That’s because, when you edit a book, you must take drastic measures. Secondary characters get the ax. Chapter openings jump forward. Plot holes disappear due to strategic knitting across the book.

Or, your project might be ready to finish and submit, but instead you move around commas and change character names, then change them back again. That’s tinkering.

If you are editing, you will know you are editing. If you suspect you’re tinkering, you probably are.

Give Your Manuscript New Life

The biggest danger with tinkering is it stunts your growth. Can you imagine if a painter never finished a canvas, but instead continually layered more and more paint, until the whole thing was a mess? Why would you do that as a writer?

Through coaching 800+ writers and I have seen the impact of tinkering time and time again.

• You spend 8 years on the same manuscript

• You never learn the lessons that come with finishing a project

• You don’t get the chance to implement all you’ve learned on a clean slate

• You never conquer your fear of submitting

To get yourself out of this hole, the first thing you have to do is evaluate your work in progress.

If you love the project, but it’s not viable (meaning you’re not going to submit it to a literary agent or hire an editor on the way to self-publishing), you should give it a hug and place it in a drawer.

If the project is viable, well…get on with it! Figure out what’s the next thing that you’ve been putting off. That might be finally doing those deep edits, querying the project, deciding once and for all on a timeline for self-publishing, or even taking a break from the project.

I know there’s a writer, somewhere, thinking: I’m the exception because I’m working on a series and I want to make sure book one is perfect before I write book two, or else I want to start book two so I know what to put in book one.

No. No, you do not get an exception. Get book one finished, then write the next.

To get yourself back on track, you need to summon your spirit of chaotic good. We’re looking for action here, not treading water. Even if it’s clumsy. Even if it’s scary. You’ve got to act.

Make a plan for your project and get moving.