Writer Unboxed

Auction #1: Your Take 8 Interview on Writer Unboxed

January 30, 2013 By Writer Unboxed

Profile your book–or even your business or blog–with a Take 8 Q&A.

Writer Unboxed’s Take 5’s are our popular Q&As that get at the heart of an author’s writing process, inspirations, and storytelling. We want to offer the same opportunity to the winning bidder. To make the opportunity even more enticing, we’ll offer our first-ever Take 8 interview. EIGHT incisive questions designed to let readers know everything they need to know about your book–and/OR your blog or business.

[pullquote]We’d even be open to a little spin here: you and friend bid on this together, and interview one another here at WU.[/pullquote]

Winning bidder’s interview will go live within the calendar year, on a mutually agreeable date.

Why do we think you can gain attention on our site?

Our Traffic. And our audience.

Writer Unboxed currently receives between 3k-4k hits daily, and has over 6,500 subscribers on Feedburner. This means thousands of potential eyes on your interview—the eyes of serious writers who are also avid readers, many of whom have their own websites and blogs, and who have developed a hearty presence on Facebook and Twitter. Our readers will help to spread the word when they happen upon good info; they do it for us every day. And they’ll do it for you too.

Have we mentioned lately that we love the WU community? We do, we really do.

If you’ve donated to us in the past, please know that we are more grateful than words can express. Your support enables us to continue and expand projects in ways you know about–and ways we are in the process of developing. Thank you!

BID FOR A TAKE 8 Q&A WITH WRITER UNBOXED BELOW IN COMMENTS. AUCTION CLOSES AT 8 P.M. EST, JANUARY 30TH. HIGH BID WINS. SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY PLEASE. Good luck!

Photo courtesy Flickr’s WarmSleepy

Auction #2: Banner Ad in WU’s newsletter

January 30, 2013 By Writer Unboxed

Bid to win the first ever customized banner ad in Writer Unboxed’s popular bi-monthly newsletter, Writer Inboxed, and reach 2,000 engaged readers.

This auction is for a horizontal banner ad, similarly proportioned as the one shown below, that will appear in the WU newsletter, Writer Inboxed. You choose which issue you wish your ad to appear.

Writer Inboxed has tremendous community support, and continues to grow in audience by the month. Edited by the inimitable Jan O’Hara, it’s stuffed with exclusive content–interviews, Q&As, tips, articles, even book reviews–and boasts a circulation of over 2,000 highly engaged readers. (Sign up HERE if you’ve been missing out.)

As mentioned, this will be the first ad ever created for the newsletter–aside from the ad-for-ads you see below! It will run without competition from other ads. [pullquote]This will be the first ad ever created for the newsletter.[/pullquote]

If you win this, our design expert will work with you to create something truly unique. All you’d need to do is provide us with the art (a high-quality jpg of your book cover or the logo for your business), some pertinent copy (like a selling quote for your book or a client’s recommendation) and a hyperlink to the web portal of your choice. You will also be given the final jpg to use for future marketing purposes if you so desire.

BID FOR A SKYSCRAPER AD TO APPEAR IN ONE ISSUE OF WRITER INBOXED BELOW IN COMMENTS. AUCTION CLOSES AT 8 P.M. EST ON JANUARY 30TH. HIGH BID WINS. SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY PLEASE. Good luck!

Photo courtesy Flickr’s qthomasbower

Auction #3: Double-High Skyscraper Ad on Writer Unboxed

January 30, 2013 By Writer Unboxed

Bid to win Writer Unboxed’s skyscraper ad space. Your ad will run at the top of our sidebar for two weeks, anytime within the next year. You tell us when.

Last year’s popular skyscraper ad auction item is back with a twist. This year’s auctioned ad will be twice the height of any ad run on WU to date. (Note the ad we’re currently running on the left sidebar, and double its vertical range; that’s what we’re offering.) What does that mean?

More room for graphics. More room for copy. A bigger bang for your buck. [pullquote]This year’s auctioned ad will be twice the height of any ad run on WU to date.[/pullquote]

And this ad is the cheese. It will stand alone, without any competing ads.

If you win this, our ad guru will work with you to create something truly unique. All you’d need to do is provide us with the art (a high-quality jpg of your book cover or the logo for your business), some pertinent copy (like a selling quote for your book or a client’s recommendation) and a hyperlink to the web portal of your choice. OR you can provide us with an already created web ad sized to our specs, if you prefer.

Why do we think you can gain attention on our site?

Our Traffic. And our audience.

Writer Unboxed currently receives between 3k-4k hits daily. This means thousands of potential eyes on your ad—the eyes of serious writers who are also avid readers.

BID ON WRITER UNBOXED’S SKYSCRAPER AD BELOW IN COMMENTS. AUCTION CLOSES AT 8 P.M. EST ON JANUARY 30TH. HIGH BID WINS. SERIOUS BIDDERS ONLY PLEASE. Good luck!

Photo courtesy Flickr’s hokkey

On Writing Without Expectation

January 29, 2013 By Allison Winn Scotch

I have finally started a new book.

Phew.

It took me over two years to get up the gumption to do so. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been sitting around staring off into space for the past two years, but I haven’t had the stomach (or heart) to start a new novel. I’ve used this space (and my own blog) to discuss why in the past, so I won’t linger on that for too long. But after my last book came out, I felt…well, it’s complicated. I felt enormously proud of what I thought was my best book, my best writing, but I also felt incredibly demoralized about the state of the publishing industry and what is now asked of authors and what authors then have to ask of readers. (It goes something like this: “Please, please, pleeeeeeease, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease buy my book.”)

So. I took a break. I wrote screenplays and moved my family across the country and took on celeb interviews, and I vowed (to myself) that I wasn’t going to write another novel because it took too much out of me. Certainly, some of this pressure was pressure that I placed on myself. I wasn’t sure that I could write a better book than the one I just had, and to me (because maybe I’m a little crazy), I didn’t know what the point was of writing if I couldn’t write well. But it was also more than that too – that if the process was so tangled and confusing and a little bit depressing when I wrote such a well-reviewed book, what else was there for me to do?? Write a terrible book? Would I feel less let down and see better sales in that case? [Read more…]

How to Support an Author’s New Book: 11 Ideas For You

January 28, 2013 By Chuck Sambuchino

GIVEAWAY: I am very excited to again give away a copy of my newest book, CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM. It’s a book all about how to build your visibility, brand, network and discoverability so you can better market yourself and your books. I’m giving away 1 copy to a random commenter based in the U.S. or Canada; comment within one week to win. Good luck! (Update: Dori Weinstein won.)

My screenwriting partner and WD coworker, Brian A. Klems, is gearing up for the April release of his first book — a humorous guide for fathers called OH BOY, YOU’RE HAVING A GIRL: A DAD’S SURVIVAL GUIDE TO RAISING DAUGHTERS (Adams Media). On top of that, my coworker Robert Brewer (editor of Writer’s Market) recently got a publishing deal for a book of his poetry. (This is big because getting a book of poems traditionally published is next to impossible.) So I find myself as a cheerleader for my writing buddies — trying to do what I can to help as their 2013 release dates approach. I help in two ways: 1) I use my own experience of writing & publishing books to share advice on what they can expect and plan for; and 2) I simply do whatever little things I can that help in any way.

This last part brings up an important point: Anyone can support an author’s book release by doing different things to help the book sell and get noticed. So, in no particular order, here are 11 things — some big, some small — that you can do to support a writer friend when their book comes out: [Read more…]