Grace Wynter

About Grace Wynter

Grace Wynter is a freelance editor and writer and a huge fan of shenanigans. Her blogs (and a few of her shenanigans) have been featured on CNN.com and the Huffington Post. She has taught workshops for the Atlanta Writers Club and Wake Up & Write. Grace has an MBA in marketing from Georgia State University and an editing certificate from the University of Chicago. Her debut novel, Free Falling, was a Georgia Romance Writers’ Maggie Award finalist. When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, Grace resides in Atlanta, Georgia. You can connect with her on her blog, The Writer’s Station, and on her author website, ggwynter.com.

Author Up Close: Linda Seed’s Self-Publishing Success

March 17, 2019 By Grace Wynter 24 Comments

Welcome to the second installment of Author Up Close, the series that explores several authors’ paths to publishing. If you missed the first in the series, a Q&A with author Fiona Zedde, you can read it here.

There are probably as many articles about the perils of self-publishing as there are about the “fall” of traditional publishing. Most of these articles lack nuance and are more concerned with promoting a perceived “right” way to publish while disparaging the “wrong” way. In reality, choosing a publishing path is a very personal decision, and what’s right for one might not be right for others.

Today’s featured author, Linda Seed, obviously made the right choice for herself and her career when she decided to self-publish. Linda is a contemporary romance writer, a Writer Unboxed Conference alum, and a friend. We’re in a few online communities together, and over the years I’ve watched her career grow from an author who, in her words, “made enough to buy a coffee” to one who now makes a living from her books.

In a sea of self-published authors, Linda stands out because of her excellent writing, commitment to quality, and strong work ethic. And as you’ll see from our Q&A, those things probably had a hand in getting Barnes & Noble’s attention at just the right time in her career.

GW: What do you write and how many books have you published?

LS: I write small-town contemporary romance, with all of my books set on California’s Central Coast. I’ve published nine books so far.

GW: You’re doing what a lot of other authors wish they could be doing right now: making a full-time income from your writing. When you started writing, had this been your goal? If not, when and what changed that?

LS: Honestly, when I started, I didn’t expect to make any money at all. It was more of a bucket list thing—I wanted to have a published book out there. For me, the day I uploaded my first book onto Amazon, my goal was met. Anything else was just a bonus.

Things changed eleven months later, in September 2016. I had two more books out by then, and I had just made my first book free. I went onto Facebook one morning to find a bunch of notifications from friends congratulating me. I learned that Barnes & Noble had featured my first book as their Free Fridays pick. My book was all over their social media, on their website—it was crazy. That drove the sales of my other books, and overnight I was making ten times more money than I had been. That was when I thought, okay, I might be able to make this into a viable business. I still have no idea why they chose my book, but that was really a turning point for me. [Read more…]

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Author Up Close Series: Learning From Successful Authors

January 22, 2019 By Grace Wynter 23 Comments

Photo by Marcos Luiz Photograph on Unsplash

Though you may not know it by the prevalence of clickbait headlines sounding the death knell about author careers, successful authors are out there. Lots of them. And I’m not just talking about the ones who top the bestseller lists week after week. I’m talking about the authors whose names you may have never heard, who are quietly writing and earning income from their books.

And while there is no formula for becoming a successful author, or even a consensus about what defines “success,” there is much that can be learned from studying authors who are already where we hope to be one day. I’m fortunate to know several of these authors. I’ve had the benefit of their wisdom and expertise for years and wanted to share some of that wisdom with you. So this year, in my posts for Writer Unboxed, I’ll be sharing Q&A’s from authors I think we can all learn from.

My series, Author Up Close, will include Q&A’s with two of Writer Unboxed’s own: Anne O’ Brien Carelli, whose middle-grade novel was published by Little Bee in 2018; and Linda Seed, a contemporary romance author who had so much success self-publishing, she was able to leave her 9-5 to write full time. The series will also include interviews with Roger Johns, a traditionally published author who found himself in the enviable position of having to find an agent after being offered a publishing deal, and Vanessa Riley, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering who writes multi-cultural Regency and historical romances in an industry that (falsely) believed there wouldn’t be a large enough audience for her work.

Author Up Close begins with a Q&A with Fiona Zedde. Fiona is the author of several novellas and novels including the Lambda Literary Award finalist Bliss. Her novel, Dangerous Pleasures, won the About.com Readers’ Choice Award for Best Lesbian Novel or Memoir of 2012. Fiona lives a location-independent lifestyle, traveling and sometimes living abroad for months at a time. As you’ll discover from our Q&A, her ability to adapt to changes in the industry has been key to her success as an author.

GW: You’re what the publishing industry considers a “hybrid author.” Was this an intentional strategy you adopted when you first launched your professional writing career or is this something that evolved? [Read more…]

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Hope, Reality, and the Balancing Act

November 9, 2018 By Grace Wynter 21 Comments

I’ve been thinking about hope a lot lately. As it pertains to the world in general and writers in particular. Even the most cynical among us hold out hope for something. Hope is what gets us up in the morning. It compels us to keep working on our manuscripts for years. It whispers to us to reactivate that OKCupid dating profile. For the tenth time. Because maybe this time will be different. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.)

But sometimes hope can feel like a “kick me” sign you’ve pinned to your own back. A few years trying (and often failing) to crack this industry is all it takes for many of us to begin losing hope that our work will ever succeed. So what’s a writer to do? How do we hold the hope of getting an agent, or publishing a bestselling novel, or making a living as a writer, up to the harsh reality that over 96% of manuscripts are rejected, and most self-published books never sell over 150 copies?

The answer is, it’s a balancing act.

Without hope, we would stop submitting to agents, we’d never self-publish, and we wouldn’t retreat into our writer spaces and create the words, day in and day out. But we’ve also come to understand that perseverance, discipline, and hard work are all part of the reality of what we do. So while hope might be the thing that first inspires us to get behind our keyboards, understanding the reality of this business is what keeps us there.

Hope gives us enough fortitude to submit to a new round of agents or contests.

Reality reminds us to spend a little more time honing our craft before we submit.

Hope makes us look on in awe at authors like Angie Thomas and Andy Weir, and cross our fingers and toes that maybe our novels will be received as well and as widely as theirs were.

Reality teaches us [Read more…]

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Taking Care of Business: The Writer’s Edition

September 14, 2018 By Grace Wynter 6 Comments

Authorpreneur is a term often used to identify authors who embrace the business side of writing. And though the term doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, it does capture the essence of what writers who hope to make a living from their writing have to be—author entrepreneurs. Even authors with traditional contracts will tell you there’s much more to a successful writing career than daily word counts.

From designing graphics for use on social media, to preparing for a rainy day, the savvy authorpreneur should have a virtual toolbox on hand to help them with the business side of a writing career. Fortunately, there are dozens of affordable apps and online tools available to help. Here are five I’ve researched and either currently use or plan on using in the near future.

Design
Consistent design across your author platform helps establish your brand. Yes, you have a brand. At its simplest, your author brand is how you present yourself to your audience. It includes things like your book covers, website, blog posts, and messaging. The good news is that when it comes to social media and web content imaging, you don’t need a design degree or Photoshop to bring cohesiveness to your messaging. Enter Canva. Canva allows even the most design-challenged writer to create visually appealing social media graphics and presentations, including Twitter and Facebook headers and posts, image quotes, and business cards. Canva has both free and paid options. [Read more…]

Your Novel’s Soundtrack

May 11, 2018 By Grace Wynter 19 Comments

vinyl-coffee-cup-headphones — Designed by Freepik

I know my lease is up and the bailiff’s at the door
And still I’m hanging on to the life we had before

“Chainsmoking”—Jacob Banks

I listen to white noise or instrumental music when I write because I usually find silence and music lyrics distracting. But there are times when a song’s lyrics allow me to discover things about my story I’d previously been unable to see.

At a recent writing retreat, I vowed to shake things up and break through the writer’s block I’d been experiencing with my WIP. Part of that shakeup involved excessive snacking. Surprisingly (or not), competitive snacking didn’t trigger the breakthrough. Listening to music—specifically, Jacob Banks’s “Chainsmoking” on repeat—did.

Banks’s gritty, guttural sound and spot-on lyrics so clearly captured the dynamic of my protagonist’s volatile relationship with her ex, their story began unfolding before my ears. A few hours later, I had written over 6,000 words. Many of those words are backstory that will never make it to the page, but that backstory will be the thread that runs through my characters’ emotional arcs.

That breakthrough led me to create multiple soundtracks for my WIP. I’ve created writing soundtracks before, but they’d been general “writing motivation” playlists, or I’d created them after my story was complete. This time I used the soundtracks as tools to break my writer’s block. In the process, I discovered new layers to my story. Even if you’re a diehard “silence writer” creating soundtracks might help if you’re experiencing writer’s block.

Soundtrack Your Scenes and Chapters
Characters aren’t the only things that should convey emotions; scenes and chapters should, too. When selecting a song(s) for your chapter soundtrack, think about the many words we use to describe music; soaring, thumping, uplifting, exhilarating, soulful, mournful, and sensual, to name a few. Emotionally, where does your scene start, and where does it end? Is there a song or lyric that perfectly describes your chapter’s mood? When you find that song, submerge yourself in the atmosphere it creates and allow the emotions to flow through to your writing. [Read more…]

Five Marketing Tools for Authors Who Hate Marketing

February 9, 2018 By Grace Wynter

Disclaimer: Hating marketing is not required to use these tools. In fact, if you enjoy marketing, you’ll have a blast using them.

I’m active in several online writing communities, and one of the most frequent things I read about is how much authors hate marketing. It’s usually accompanied by talk about art and creativity, and once in a while someone tosses this suggestion across the virtual meeting room: all you have to do is write a great story and they will come.

Except, thousands of writers have written thousands of great stories and no one, except their parents and their Uncle Bobby in Poughkeepsie, ever came. The hard truth is—whether your path to publishing is via the traditional, indie, or hybrid route—if you want a sustainable writing career that involves receiving income and reaching as much of your target audience as possible, you’ll need to do some marketing. If your target audience is Uncle Bobby in Poughkeepsie, you’re probably that one writer who won’t need to market.

Mention marketing to many authors and the conversation comes to a screeching halt. Marketing can seem like a complex equation that includes long and short-term strategies, talk of ROI, and aliens. Okay, maybe not aliens, but for some, marketing can feel otherworldly. But in its simplest form, marketing is just this: it’s the stories we tell about our stories. How, when, and how often we tell these stories become our marketing plan, whether we ever intentionally create a plan at all. If you’re a writer and you’re on social media, have a website, blog, or even just talk about your work with friends, you’re already marketing. So here are five inexpensive and relatively easy-to-use tools to help optimize the marketing you’re already doing.

Facebook Shop Template
Most of us know we can create an author page on Facebook, and while recent changes to the platform’s algorithms make Facebook pages feel even more inaccessible, it still makes sense for authors to have one. For starters, it can be an effective way to communicate with fans, especially if you use it to create a private Facebook group. But one underutilized benefit of the author Facebook page is the ability to sell books from the platform. You’ll need to start by making sure you set your page up as a shopping template. Written Word Media has a great post that walks you step-by-step through optimizing your Facebook page as a sales funnel. You can find that tutorial here. [Read more…]

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Five Ways Television Can Help Us Become Better Storytellers

November 28, 2017 By Grace Wynter

Television gets a bad rap. Some of it is deserved—I’m looking at you Sharknado—but some of it comes by way of the rarified air some writers breathe. You know the air; it smells a little like antique books and pretension. It’s the air that convinces some of us that if the masses consume it, it can’t be any good.

Sharknado notwithstanding, there is good television out there. There are widely-known, critically acclaimed shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, and there are lesser known shows, some long-canceled, like Firefly and A Different World, that changed the way viewers engaged with each other and the world. What these shows have in common is their ability to entertain, and we can learn a lot about writing—and our writing careers—from studying them. In an effort to keep this post from being the length of a novel, I’ve focused on a showrunner, two shows, and commercial breaks to provide examples of how television can inform the way authors write and share stories.

1) Shonda Rhimes and the power of a recognizable brand
If you’ve watched anything on ABC over the past few years, you’re probably familiar with Shonda Rhimes. Her shows, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away with Murder, have been rating powerhouses for ABC, reshaping the network’s evening lineup. But what we can learn from Shonda extends beyond powerful writing. If Shondaland, Rhimes’s production company, is associated with a project, viewers know to expect strong but flawed female leads, a diverse cast, and soap opera-like drama. This is Shonda’s brand on ABC, and she delivers it faithfully to her dedicated fans. Know your audience, create what they enjoy, brand it, and repeat.

2) The West Wing and characters we care about
This Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning TV show is a master class on pacing, dialogue, and creating characters people care about. Here’s a scene that accomplishes all three.
[Read more…]

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Using Ergonomics to Design the Optimal Workstation

July 25, 2017 By Grace Wynter

Optimized workstation — Photo by Andreas Palmer on Unsplash

I had been planning it for months. That Monday morning I was up early, dressed, and ready to make the ten-second commute down the hall to my home office to begin my first full day of self-employment. I was excited, caffeinated, and ready to work my assets off. And for the first few hours, it was glorious.

By the afternoon, though, my back was aching, my neck was stiff, and I had eaten an entire bag of chocolate-covered almonds. Not a promising start to entrepreneurship. Fortunately, I have a sister who is an occupational therapist, and when I mentioned my aches and pains she dropped by my office, assessed my workstation, then gave me some advice. Her first bit of advice was “Stop buying chocolate-covered almonds.” Then she got down to business pointing out several ways I could use ergonomics to optimize my workstation. I took her advice and experienced immediate relief. I’m sharing some of that advice with you today.

Ergonomics is an applied science that deals with improving efficiency and safety through product design and arrangement. Whether your daily word count goal is 50 or 5,000, incorporating ergonomic design into your workstation is a must. Utilizing ergonomics can help reduce injuries caused by repetitive movement and can help alleviate things like eyestrain, back pain, and headaches.

Despite chatter that says otherwise, optimizing your workstation doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, a large component of ergonomic design involves improving how we sit, stand, and move through our workstations.

So how can writers use ergonomic design to help optimize their workstations? [Read more…]

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Look, Up in the Sky! It’s a . . . Writer?

March 28, 2017 By Grace Wynter

Therese busting in on Grace’s post to toss some confetti; this is her first post with us as an official WU contributor!

Grace Wynter is a copyeditor, blogger, writer of romantic women’s fiction, and a huge fan of shenanigans. Her blogs (and a few of her shenanigans) have been featured on CNN.com, the Huffington Post, and More.com. Grace has an MBA from Georgia State University and is currently enrolled in The University of Chicago’s Professional Certification in Editing program. When she’s not writing, she’s helping other writers on her blog, The Writer’s Station.

Her latest project is co-creator of Storyboard, a new podcast that follows two writers as they explore the ways stories shape lives, and tackle long-held beliefs about the intersection of craft and commerce.

WELCOME, GRACE!

As a child, Bruce Wayne witnesses his parents’ murder. Aware of Krypton’s pending destruction, Kal-El’s father places him in a spacecraft that makes a crash landing on planet earth. T’Challa vows to avenge his father’s murder and prove he can lead a nation.

I can already hear you asking what you, as a writer, could possibly have in common with Batman, Superman, and Black Panther. More than you might think. I’ve been a fan of superheroes since I was a kid. The fangirling only intensified as I got older, and I have the Wonder Woman caped socks to prove it. But, it wasn’t until recently, when I was asked to talk to a classroom full of superhero-loving fifth graders about writing, that I made the connection between the personal stories of writers and those of superheroes.

Origin Stories

Dictionary.com defines an origin story as, “a backstory, or established background narrative that informs the identity and motivations of heroes and villains in a comic book or similar fictional work.” Writers hear about origin stories all the time as they relate to the characters we write, but what about our own origin stories? What about the events in our lives that most inform why, how, and what we write? I believe that identifying our own origin stories can help us find our voices as writers, allowing us to give the fictional characters we create, more complex, multidimensional lives. So, what do our origin stories have in common with those of superheroes? And, once we identify them, how can we use our origin stories to our advantage?

Five Things to Understand About Origin Stories

1) We all have them. While our own origin story probably doesn’t involve murder, kryptonite, or African chiefs, it does exist. We’ll usually recognize it by the emotional muscle memory it evokes. An emotional muscle memory isn’t like the muscle memory that gets us out of the office parking lot and into our driveway on autopilot at the end of a long day. No, an emotional muscle memory is one that makes our stomach drop and our scalp tingle. It’s the physical response we experience when recalling our worst heartbreak or the moment our favorite teacher saw promise in our work. It’s the sensitive kid who, afraid of being teased about her accent, dons a “cloak of invisibility” and quietly observes the interactions around her, filling her journals with the worlds she creates. The key is to search beyond the facts of the memory, beyond dates and times, and reach for the emotion it evokes, allowing the memory to transform our writing.

2) They can be painful. A weeping eight-year-old Bruce Wayne cradling his father’s head in his hands. Black Panther doubting his ability to fill his late father’s shoes. At the time, neither understood that the pain, loneliness, and isolation they were feeling would eventually become the source of their strength. The same is true of writers. The events that wake us in the middle of the night gasping for air, may turn out to be the very things that allow us to breathe new life onto the page.

3) We can have more than one. Like superheroes, our origin stories can have versions and adaptations. The inciting incident that ushers our entry into the writing world might be different from the one that leads us to a specific genre. And, the event that takes our writing in a new direction might be something that happened long after the initial inciting incident. Each origin story comes with its own emotion and its own sequence of events that sets us on the path to a new journey.
[Read more…]

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Pressure, Perception, and Probability: The Holy Trinity That Stymies the New Writer

October 5, 2015 By Grace Wynter

Today’s guest is Grace Wynter, a blogger and writer of romance and women’s fiction. Grace spends much of her non-writing time tinkering with WordPress websites and working on completing her professional editing certificate with the University of Chicago. When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, she resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

I probably could have had my first novel done and dusted by now if I hadn’t allowed these three P’s to nag at me for the past few years. If my words can save a few writers a few tears, and years, then my agony wasn’t in vain.

Connect with Grace on her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Pressure, Perception, and Probability: The Holy Trinity That Stymies the New Writer

Hi, my name is Grace, and I write new adult romance.

If you think that sounds like a confession or an introduction at a start of a meeting where anonymity is king, then you already know where I’m headed. In an industry that often snickers at romance, and where new adult that’s not Divergent or The Hunger Games is looked down on with derision, admitting that you write in the genre can sometimes open up the proverbial can of literary whoop-ass.

If you’re a seasoned writer you’ve probably run out of damns to give about what other writers think of you. But if you’re working on your first book and find yourself struggling with the expectations of what kind of writer you’re supposed to be, then join me at this meeting, and let’s commiserate about three of the things that, if we’re not careful, can end our writing careers before they even start.

Pressure

I remember the first time I was inspired to write fiction. I was reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the umpteenth time and thought how wonderful it would be to write a modern version set in the south. Not long into that endeavor I realized that I, my dear writers, am no Jane Austen. [Read more…]

Introducing WU’s Diverse Voices Series: Why Diversity in Publishing Matters

July 19, 2015 By Grace Wynter

photo "Unity in Diversity" by Flickr's fady habib — photo “Unity in Diversity” by Flickr’s fady habib

Therese here to introduce a new series here at WU, and explain its evolution. I recently visited the WU Facebook group and opened the floor to pitches: If you could write a post for WU, what would it be and why? Replies poured in–too many great ideas to use this summer, in fact–and in short order a theme began to emerge. Maybe it was inspired by the recent Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriages, but many of the pitches were tied to DIVERSITY.

We don’t talk about these issues as much as we should, do we? But we’re all very different, and those differences go beyond age and race and sexual orientation. We do not all have the same emotional experiences or voices or passions or fears. We are not all looking for the same experiences as writers–or as readers–and that’s ultimately a great thing.

So let’s start talking.

It’s my honor to host this series on Writer Unboxed and to introduce our first guest.

Grace Wynter is a blogger and writer of romance and women’s fiction. She spends much of her non-writing time tinkering with WordPress websites and working on completing her professional editing certificate with the University of Chicago. When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, she resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I wanted to address the issue of diversity on WU because I believe it’s a community created by and consisting of the kinds of storytellers and writers who can lead the charge in bringing the issue of diversity to the larger writing community.” – Grace Wyter

You can learn more about Grace on her website, and by following her on Twitter and Facebook.

Why Diversity in Publishing Matters

Diversity’s a topic that’s being floated around a lot these days. For those on the “outside” of the conversation, all the diversity talk can seem like much ado about nothing. In fact, on a romance writer Facebook page I follow, when an admin recently posted a survey about diversity in romance novels, one of the first commenters responded with, “Oh, come on!” Apparently, she’d had her fill of diversity talk. That this reader would have such a frustrated response to something so important is disheartening, especially when you consider that at its simplest, most organic level, those of us seeking diversity in publishing desire something very basic: to see words, images, and stories that are inclusive in nature, in the very mediums that helped shape our lives.

Toni Morrison Made Me Do it

Toni Morrison said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.”

It was only about three years ago that I realized I wanted to write fiction, but I’ve been reading it for as long as I can remember. Specifically romantic fiction with its star-crossed lovers and impossibly happy endings. As a teenager and later as a new adult, I devoured romance novels. But as much as I enjoyed those stories, something was missing. I read about blondes and brunettes, blue and green-eyed girls who, in the end, always found love, but there were no stories about girls who looked anything like me or my friends. In my school library and at my local book store, there were no stories about nerdy, fat, black, skinny, Latina, Caribbean, or Asian girls getting the guy. There were no stories where girls like me got to be the heroes. Where just for a little while, in the pages of a book, someone’s world revolved around them.

So although Toni Morrison didn’t say those words directly to me, she might as well have. And now, about a half a dozen first drafts later, I’m close to completing one of several novels featuring women who are underrepresented in the genre I love so dearly.

A Unique Perspective

Almost from the day I decided I’d start writing fiction, I began researching the publishing process. From traditional to self-publishing, from writers groups, to conferences, I studied everything I could find about the industry. And the one thing I learned early on is that for someone writing mainstream contemporary romance with a black female protagonist, the road is long and narrow.

The following is some of what I’ve learned over the past few years about diversity in the industry, through my own observations, and conversations with other writers, readers, and agents.

This feels like a good spot to include a disclaimer of sorts. The opinions expressed here are my own. I don’t speak for all black women writers, or women who write black female protagonists. I also don’t speak for all the non-cisgendered persons underrepresented in “mainstream” writing. This is my take on the world from my unique perspective as a reader and writer of color.

On Imprints and Shelf Space

One of the reasons I’m actively pursuing the hybrid route to publishing (a combination of traditional and indy-publishing) is what I perceive as the industry’s tendency to “shelf” writing that features non-white protagonists into narrow categories. Case in point – Harlequin Romance. Harlequin imprints include Blaze, Desire, Heartwarming, Medical Romance, Historical, and at least a dozen more. The imprint titles are all indicative of the type of romance you’ll be reading.

Then there’s the Harlequin Kimani imprint. [Read more…]

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About Grace Wynter

Recent Posts by this author:

Origin Stories

Five Things to Understand About Origin Stories