Beginner's Guide to Writing Christmas Romance

I know some of you will be horrified that I’m talking about the ‘C’ word in September. Honestly, I feel ya. I get irrationally annoyed at boxes of Christmas chocolates and Advent calendars in the supermarkets in September.

But the book world is different. If you’re self-publishing, you need to be getting out that tinsel and putting a bit of Wham! on your playlist, because Christmas romance fever starts now. 

Sales data shows us that Christmas romance sales start to soar in September, reach a peak in December then drop off sharply after the holiday period. So, if you’re planning a holiday book, make sure you’ve got it underway well in advance—don’t wait until late December to publish. It seems that once Christmas is over, so is the demand for Christmas romances (until the next year, of course!).

How can I make my book stand out? 

Alongside high demand, there’s also high supply at this time of year. Some authors think that the way to stand out is to break the mold. And here’s where I hold up my bold CAUTION sign. In general, people absolutely want to get what they expect in a holiday romance. They want the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas—even if your main character hates them. 

Christmas itself (or whichever festival you’re celebrating) needs to be a plot point and whatever conflict you create needs to be resolved by (or on) the big day. It often helps if your character has strong feelings towards Christmas—love or hate—and those feelings come into conflict with what happens in the story.

Setting is ultra-important, but you don’t have to write a Hallmark-style small town. Cities can make wonderful settings as long as you add in enough Christmassy stuff—parties, lights, decorations in shop windows, etc. 

Give your characters both an internal Christmas-related conflict to resolve and an external one. Resolving the internal conflict is what allows them to open themselves to love. The external conflict is more of a plot-driver; Miscommunications and misunderstandings are popular—they keep your MCs apart until they’re resolved.

So, the best way to stand out is to give your readers exactly want they want—love in a time of tinsel, mulled wine and snow.

How COVID-19 forced me to pick up my freelancing game

As a freelancer, I felt lucky that I didn’t have to deal with the hassle of setting up a home office in March like so many others did. The biggest disruption for me was suddenly having the whole family at home for weeks on end. The first week or so was frantic. I was trying to work, trying to help my kids with school, fighting my husband for bandwidth – but the business side was manageable.  

Then, my work suddenly dropped off. Businesses and publishers delayed jobs, many of which were eventually cancelled or have only just popped up again. Safe to say, my bottom line for the first half of the year didn’t meet expectations.

On the bright side, this situation has forced me to focus on professionalising my working environment and future-proofing my business.

On the home front

The first step was to create space in the house for a proper office just for me. Previously, my husband and I shared a home office. It worked well because I could use it during the day and he could use it in the evenings and weekends. During the shutdown it became very clear that I needed a space of my own. 

So, with a bit of rearranging in the house, and an eventual trip to Ikea, I now have my own space in a corner of the guest room. Crucially, I have a door! 

Which leads me to managing my work while the children are around. 

I am basically the default parent. Whenever something is wrong, something is missing, someone is hungry, the first call is to ‘Muuuum!’ To combat this during work hours, I drew up a traffic light system and stuck it on the door. 

  Red = Do not disturb

  Orange =  You can knock but I might not answer

  Green = Come in, but only if your question is not answered below:

‘I’m hungry.’

You can have: a piece of fruit, a piece of cheese, some crackers, some nuts or a muesli bar.

‘I’m bored.’

You can: fold washing, empty the dishwasher, tidy your bedroom, read a book, practice your times tables, play outside, draw, or write a letter to your grandparents.

‘He/she is annoying me!’

Oh dear, you poor thing. If you can hand-on-your-heart say you didn’t do anything to deserve it, then come on in.

Amazingly, this actually worked about eighty per cent of the time.

I’ve also invested in a WIFI repeater, which extends the reach of the signal. This means both my husband and I can have a full-strength signal without having to wander about the house. 

On the business front

One thing I realised, was that I’d been keeping too many eggs in a very small number of baskets, in terms of channels for finding work, which meant that when they stopped flowing, I was at a loss for where to look. 

With that in mind, I’ve been drafting a more comprehensive marketing plan and have used some of that unexpected spare time to upskill. 

Lastly, I’ve tweaked my terms and conditions to include a cancellation fee. Honestly, I should have done this ages ago, but I never had cause to. 

These changes have been nothing but positive. I love having my own work space and I actually feel more focused and organised than I did before because everything is always set up how I like it. I’m also starting to see the fruits of my marketing labours with some new clients popping up. Now, we just have to hope that the coming winter won’t bring another lockdown with it.

Stay healthy!

Getting found on Amazon: a rough guide for beginners

So, you’ve written your book (yay!), had it professionally edited, bought a fabulous cover and now you’re ready to upload it to Amazon. You open up Amazon, look up Romance and . . . wait – there are how many romance books?

Romance is one of the biggest, and biggest earning, categories on Amazon. Each day, hundreds of new titles go up. So, how on earth does a new author get noticed? By getting clever about using categories and keywords. 

One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced authors make is listing their book under ‘Fiction – Romance.’ Unless you’ve got a huge following and can guarantee selling five hundred books a day, choosing this will send your book into virtual oblivion. Your book won’t be seen by anyone who is not specifically looking for it.

Luckily, there are plenty of sub-categories to choose from. It’s worth spending some time sifting through all the possible sub-categories for your novel, because defining your book lessens the competition. You might rank #50781 in Romance, but if you’re in Romance – Paranormal – Angels, you might find yourself at number #198, meaning your chances of being found are much, much better. And, your book will show up in all those three headings, again improving your chances.

Some authors who write to market have cottoned on the few sub-categories that are not so heavily populated. They include this subject in their novels with the sole intention of becoming best sellers in that category. This can absolutely work, but the problem with this method is that sometimes the category is under-represented because no-one’s interested in it. There’s not much value being number 1 in IT Call Centre Office Romances if nobody ever clicks on it.

Tip: keep an eye on categories, as occasionally a new one gets added, and getting in early is obviously an advantage. 

Keywords are another essential tool for rocking those rankings. Amazon recognizes that many of our romance readers are fiercely attached to certain tropes, most of which are easily searchable. You can specify everything from Alpha Male and Arranged Marriage to Secret Baby and Spies. 

The key to keywords is keyword strings. (Sorry if I just blew your mind with that sentence).

Think about how you search for something on search engine. Most of us don’t simply type one or two words. We tend to put them in a string, like this: ‘beach holiday romance’ or ‘Christmas romance small town’.  So again, a little forethought and a little investigation will help. 

Lastly, don’t forget to choose your heat level. A word of warning—be very careful about getting this right. Some readers get very upset by unexpected physical intimacy and will one-star your book without a qualm. If you’re unsure where your book fits, take a look at my post on the subject.

If this all sounds a bit intimidating, try not to worry. With a bit of forethought and savvy, you’ll get your sales happening.

Heat levels in romantic fiction: a rough guide

When you’re writing a romance novel, at some point you have to decide how you’re going to deal with the physical side of the love story. Is your couple going to have sex? If so, are you going to write a sex scene or is the action going to take place off the page? 

My advice is to write what you’re comfortable reading. If you like detailed love scenes and have been dying to write about a ‘throbbing member’, then go ahead. If the thought of that makes you blush, then keep the action focused on the emotional side. 

Whatever you decide to do, don’t worry, there’s an audience for it. The genre ranges from books with longing gazes and a chaste kiss at the end, to books where the main characters are between the sheets by chapter two. But not everyone wants to read the full range. So, when it comes to marketing your book, you need to know where it fits in the scheme of things.

Clean romances are what you can consider PG romances. Perhaps a little hands-free kissing, but no other physical intimacy on or off the page. This is a sex-free zone. It even has a category of its own on Amazon. This is the one level that you have to be careful about using, because reader reviews can be vicious if there’s any unexpected physical intimacy in this category.

Sweet romances go a little further. Kisses are often described from an emotional viewpoint, so your main characters can be dizzy with emotion, but not dizzy with lust. There can be sex, but it’s usually off the page, and mostly described euphemistically. In the US, ‘sweet’ is often part of the title 

Sensual romances step up the heat level a little further. You’ll find longer, more descriptive sex scenes, but they are there to further the love story. The emphasis is very much on describing the emotional side of sex. 

Sexy romances are still all about the romance but have a lot of sex in them, and sex may be plot device—think friends-with-benefits set ups. The sex is sizzling, but the romantic side of the story is well developed and has a satisfying ending. Excuse the pun.

Erotic romances use sex as a central plot device—but as part of the characters’ journey towards love and their happily ever after. The sex scenes are long and detailed and focus on physical pleasure.  

In the UK, these levels are fairly interchangeable, but if you’re writing for the US market, it’s good to have an idea of where the boundaries lie.

Just one final tip: the best way to learn about what works is to analyze books you like to read. Pay attention to the sex scenes and decide what it is you like most about them. Notice the details; the point of view, how long it is, how explicit the language is. 

Happy writing!

Using Dashes in Fiction Writing: Three quick tips

To Dash, or not to dash, that is the question.

For most people, a ‘dash’ means an em dash—one of these. In the UK a spaced en dash does the same thing – like this, which ends up being the same length as an em dash.

In fiction, dashes can replace commas, parentheses, semicolons and other punctuation marks. Pretty versatile, right? 

Still, they come with a warning: use sparingly. Don’t over-dash! If your style is conversational—you know, fun, light—it can help you convey that tone to the reader. Do it in every sentence, though, and it gets—just like this—pretty old, pretty fast.

 So, when should you use the power of the dash?

1.     You can use dashes when you want to emphasise something. 

    It couldn’t be true—it just couldn’t—and she didn’t want to even contemplate it. 

You could put that into parentheses, or parenthetical commas, but it wouldn’t have the same effect. 

    It couldn’t be true (it just couldn’t) and she didn’t want to even contemplate it.

    It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t, and she didn’t want to even contemplate it.

See? The dashes make it stick out—they add emphasis. 

2.     When you want to convey a certain tone

Dashes tend to be used in writing with a casual tone. They help convey flippancy, wryness, humour and sarcasm. 

    Cats are great—if you like hair all over your favourite arm chair.

The dash helps give the sentence a wry tone. 

Here’s a little example of how punctuation can make a difference to the tone.

    Cats are important to elderly people who live alone—they provide much-needed companionship and affection.

Or,

    Cats are important to elderly people who live alone; they provide much-needed companionship and affection.

In the example with the semicolon, both parts of the statement have equal weight. In the example with the dash, the second bit reads more like an afterthought. Both ways are correct—you can choose what’s right for your writing style. 

But remember: even if you are aiming for a chatty style, don’t replace all your semicolons with dashes. Semicolons are elegant and can help the text flow nicely. 

3.     When you’re writing dialogue, you might need to use a dash as an interruptor. In this case, the dash needs to stay within the speech marks.

    “What do you—” she stopped herself, suddenly embarrassed.

    “I just—oh, I don’t know,” she cried.

Dashes in dialogue are also useful for showing how people actually speak. 

   “I like going out. Just usual stuff, I guess—movies, concerts, whatever.”

So, there you have it. I hope I’ve helped you feel a little more confident about using dashes in your work. If you still feel unsure, don’t worry too much—that’s why writers have editors!

Four Grammar 'Rules' You Can Break

Most of the time, it pays to stick to the rules when you’re writing. You want your reader to get caught up in your story, not get distracted by odd usage or non-standard punctuation. Still, there are some ‘rules’ that can be broken, even should be broken, without annoying your readers.

1.     Never end a sentence with a preposition. This so-called rule caused me a lot of pain at university. Whenever I ran my essays through Word’s spelling and grammar check I’d get all these wriggly lines at the end of sentences. There are more reasons to end a sentence with a preposition than to not. First of all, loads of questions naturally end with prepositions.

“Who are you going with?”

“Where did you get that from?”

Now, I suppose I could write:

“With whom are you going?”

“From where did you get that?”

But unless my character is a very posh 85-year-old, I’ll probably stick with the first version.

Also, English is full of phrasal verbs (combination of a verb and another word) that end with prepositions. A few examples are, sit down, stand up, come in, fill out. There are hundreds! It’s perfectly natural to end some sentences with them.

2.     Don’t use semicolons in fiction. This one’s more of a punctuation thing, but it’s my list so I’m going to let it in. (Oooh, see how I ended my sentence with a preposition??). Anyway, there’s a persistent rumour that readers of popular fiction don’t ‘like’ semicolons. I’m baffled by this, as I don’t think most people have given even a passing thought to the use of semicolons in popular fiction. As long as they’re used sparingly and appropriately, I don’t know why you wouldn’t use them. 

3.     Never split an infinitive. Sometimes you just need to blatantly split an infinitive (did you see what I did there? No? Well, by putting ‘blatantly’ in between ‘to’ and the verb ‘split’, I split the infinitive). It’s not something you should do often, as it tends to lead to the over-use of adverbs, but it can be effective when done well. “To boldly go…” sounds so much better than “To go boldly…” ever would.

4.     Never start a sentence a sentence with a conjunction. But, I want to! Again, this one falls into the ‘use sparingly’ camp. Readers will find it annoying if you do it in every paragraph, so save it for when it will have the most impact. It can be particularly effective in dialogue. Just think, often when you’re presenting an argument you say something, stop, then start again with something like ‘And, by the way,’.

And that, my friends, is the end of my list. It’s time for me to turn my computer off. I’m going to quietly pour a glass of wine and sneak out into my garden. I hope you’ll enjoy breaking the rules; I know I do!

Punctuating Dialogue for Beginners

Punctuating dialogue is one of the more confusing parts of writing your first novel. It’s not something most of us learn at school, and it’s not something we pay a lot of attention to when we’re immersed in a good book.  But don’t worry, follow these tips and you’ll soon nail it.

1.     Learn the difference between dialogue tags and action beats

A dialogue tag is ‘she said’, or ‘he asked’. It’s something you can only do with your voice – so not smiling, grinning, frowning etc. 

Sometimes a dialogue tag is in the middle of a sentence, not at the end. Don’t let this confuse you—the period is still at the end of the complete sentence.

    “I have no idea,” she said, “why you don’t just take the money and run.”

Or, sometimes the tag might be at the beginning of the sentence.

    She heaved herself off the sofa and asked, “Why don’t you just take the money and run?”

Remember – the dialogue tag is part of the same sentence as the dialogue, meaning there can be only one period. 

An action beat is usually separated from the dialogue by a period and is always, well, an action. He barged through the door. He sat down on the step. He rocked the baby. See? 

    “Let’s sit in the garden and have a drink.” He opened the fridge and pulled out two cokes.

Having said that, (yep, always a catch), sometimes action beats can disguise themselves by hiding in the middle of a piece of dialogue. The action beat interrupts the sentence.

    “I think”—she turned to face him—“we could just forget all about it.” 

2.     Start a new line for each speaker but not for each piece of dialogue from the same character.

    “Oh, I don’t know about that.” Celia waved off the compliment and carried the tray back inside. A minute later she was back, propping the door open with her hip as she manouvred the drinks trolley through it. “If you thought that was good, just wait till you’ve tried one of my margaritas.”

We know it’s Celia still talking so we don’t need a new line. Sure, there’s a bit action happening in the middle, but she’s continuing her earlier train of thought. 

    “That’s a nice photo.” Julie gestured to the family portrait on the dresser. She looked around the room, taking in the expensive upholstery and glossy wood. James put his hand on her shoulder. “I like the piano.”

In this is example it looks like it’s probably James speaking, but you can’t be totally sure. It’s distracting for the reader and could pull them out of your scene as they spend a moment working it out. By putting it in a new line you make it clear that it’s him talking and you avoid the need to add a dialogue tag. Have a look below.

    “That’s a nice photo.” Julia gestured to the family portrait on the dresser. She looked around the room, taking in the expensive upholstery and glossy wood. 

    James put his hand on her shoulder. “I like the piano.”

It reads more fluidly and there’s no doubt about who’s talking. 

3.     If two characters are alone and having a conversation, don’t feel like you have to give every line a tag or beat. This helps with the flow of the dialogue and – bonus! – you don’t have to punctuate as much.

Julia perched on the end of the bed, careful not to muss the beautifully arranged coverlet. James settled into the armchair and kicked off his shoes.

Julia asked, “What shall we do first?”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think we should go down to the bar and have a cocktail.”

“Your wish is my command.” James launched himself out of the chair and attempted a courtly bow.

It reads much more naturally than ending each line with a ‘she said’, or ‘he asked’. Don’t keep it up for too long, though – you don’t want the reader to get lost and have to start counting back. I think six lines is about the maximum. That’s just a gut feeling; not written in stone.

The main thing to remember is that dialogue tags are spoken (said, asked, yelled, whispered etc.) and action beats are physical (grimaced, laughed, smirked, sniffed etc.). 

Happy writing!

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Proofreader

Monday, 07:45

“Bye, kiddos! Have a good day at school!” 

The door slams behind them. I look out at the wild, wet weather and feel grateful that it’s not me who has to don all my wet weather gear to walk the 300m to school.

Instead, I turn from waving at them through the kitchen window to the bench where my cup of English Breakfast tea is waiting for me. And this, people, is the moment of truth for anyone who works from home. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure – do I take the cup and walk straight upstairs to my office? Or do I sit down at the kitchen table and waste half an hour scrolling and clicking my way through Facebook and Instagram?

Let’s pretend that on this day the good angel has won and I eagerly trot off to my office to get started (we must also assume that I’ve showered and dressed – not always to be taken for granted).

08:00 

I sit down at my desk and boot up the computer. Five seconds later it announces that it needs to do an update. I click on the ‘remind me’ option. Repeat this at least five times over the next couple of days before allowing it to actually do the update.

I need to have a quick look at my schedule for the week, make sure I’ve carved out time for some marketing, invoicing and all the other little unpaid jobs a freelancer needs to do. 

Finally, I open the manuscript I’m working. Woo hoo! The final third of my cuppa is abandoned as I focus fully on my work and the editing juices flow. This is great! Until…

08:45

Uh oh. This sentence isn’t right. It’s not terrible, but there’s something just a bit off about it. It interrupts the flow. I read it out loud. Oh, there it is. Now, how can I best finesse it so that it both fits in with the context of the piece and with the author’s voice?

08:50

Still not right (stare out window, tap fingers together).

08:55

Give up, save work, pop down to the cellar to put on a load of washing, refill tea. Contemplate calling plumber about dodgy-sounding washing machine but chicken out because can’t face the telling off I’ll get about not having properly dealt with limescale. 

09:05

Re-read tricky sentence. Well, duh. That was obvious. Move on, it’s flowing again. Stop a couple of times to check reference books (including looking up ‘further’ and ‘farther’ for the millionth time because no matter how well trained you are or how much experience you have, some stuff just refuses to stick).

10:30

Tired eyes need a break. So naturally I open Facebook for a quick scroll. If I’m lucky, my favourite thread of the week, Carnival Time on Louise Harnby’s Training for Editors and Proofreaders, will be up. I love this bit of Monday motivation and good vibes.

10:50

I have just over an hour before the kids come home for lunch. I live in Switzerland and the school hours are nuts. The kids are home from about 12:15 until 13:30. They go back to school three afternoons a week for another hour and a half. Yes, you read that right. Two days a week they’re home the whole afternoon.

At this point I always set an alarm so that I don’t get caught out when the kids come home wanting to be fed. One sweet day they will be able to make lunch by themselves, but today is not that day. 

12:15

“Mum! We got a test back, we have a notice you have to sign, can I have money for the class trip, can I sleep over at Sarah’s house, Peter’s mum lets him have salami sticks for his snack, why can’t I have salami sticks?”

13:30

Shoo the kids out the door, head straight for the kettle. Wonder for the millionth time if dishwashers are actually invisible to children, or if perhaps there’s an evolutionary reason for why they leave their dishes in the sink every. Single. Time.

13:35

Back at the computer, work for about an hour before needing a quick break. Use the time to take out the washing I forgot was in the machine. 

14:45

Post a question about a particular Americanism to a Facebook page – try very hard not to get distracted from task at hand. Highlight section in doubt and carry on for a couple more pages. Check Facebook page again – yes! The answer is there, plus a link to a helpful page. Love, love, love these helpful people.

15:30

Sproglets are home. Claim to be starving, must be fed before homework and activities start. Throw cheese, crackers and fruit onto a couple of plates and enthusiastically introduce them to the dishwasher, that magical receptacle of dirty dishes.

16:30

Bundle one child off to football, the other across the road to play with her friend. Get in a sneaky hour of planning and editing-related reading.

17:45

Yes, I really do want to close down my computer, but thanks for checking. 

Sprint for Success

For most of us, writing a novel is more a marathon than a sprint. The problem is that for many people who want to write, the idea of the marathon is just too intimidating. Writing eighty thousand words is unimaginable. This is why you so often hear, ‘Oh, I’ll write a novel someday, probably when I’m retired and have more time’. For most people, that magical ‘time’ never comes and the novel never gets written.

The idea behind a writing sprint is push away all those time-related obstacles and just write. It doesn’t have to be for long, it doesn’t have to be planned, it doesn’t even have to be any good. Words on the page is the only aim. Once you let go of the idea of having to start at Chapter One, you’ll feel a lot freer.

How to get started

1.     Set a timer. Ten minutes, half an hour, whatever you think you can manage right now. 

2.     Write whatever comes to you. Don’t worry about the structure, don’t worry about where it fits in the overall narrative. Just write.

3.     Don’t edit as you go. Just leave it. 

4.     When the timer goes off, step away from your computer. Perhaps take a quick peek at the word count.

5.     Take a break, then if you have more time, or you’re in the zone, keep going. If not, shut down and walk away.

Think of writing skills like you do your muscles. If you use them, they will develop and your stamina will increase. You might find that after half a dozen of these sprints, you have something resembling a chapter, a character starting to develop, or the outline of a plot.

If you’re looking for inspiration, there are some great websites offering writing prompts for just this sort of exercise. Some even tailor them to the genre you want to write.

For fiction writing, broadly speaking, the two things you want to practise are descriptive and narrative writing, so look for prompts that will help you develop those skills.

Prompts can start a couple of ways. There’s the sentence starter prompt, which can be a great way to warm up your narration skills. They might look something like this:

‘The gates to the mansion loomed in front of her . . .’

‘I opened the door, expecting to see the boxes piled up neatly against the wall. Instead, . . .’

Or, you can look for prompts asking you to describe something, like:

Write about the view from your kitchen window, or the view from your dream kitchen window.

Write about how you felt on your last day of school, or on the first day of a new job.

If you’re looking for daily writing prompts, check out writersdigest.com.

Happy sprinting!

Five Helpful Websites for Would-be Writers

So, you’re thinking about starting out as a freelance writer or an author. Your fingers are poised over the keyboard, you have tons of ideas, but how do you actually get started? Finding some trustworthy, easy to understand resources sounds sensible. But, how do you know what’s good and what’s rubbish? Which of the bounty of resources and ‘sign up now and get a free e-book!’ offers are actually worth your time? Chances are, you’ll spend a lot of time looking only to find a handful worth bookmarking. So, to save you time here’s a list of five reputable websites to help get your freelance writing career underway.

1.     Make a living writing

Make a living writing is one of the web’s most popular websites for freelance writers and bloggers. Carol Tice is a successful writer and blogger who offers practical advice for established and would-be writers and bloggers. Tice is also a ‘den mother’ at the Freelance Writers’ Den, along with fellow writer and blogger Linda Formicelli.

2.     https://www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com/indie-authors.html

Louise Harnby’s website and blog are jam-packed with useful goodies for both writers and editors. Independent authors will find information on everything from how to write dialogue tags to how to get an agent. Louise co-hosts The Editing Podcast, which is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to publish independently.  

3.      Writer’s Digest

A self-described ‘one-stop shop for information, resources and writing community’, this site provides writers of all genres with writing help, exercises and tips for getting published. Part of their stable is the Writer’s Market, a respected online and hardcopy guide to getting published. 

4.     Write to Done

Write to Done is a general writing website, but it has a good freelancing section and offers advice and articles from well-respected writers. Mary Jaksh, Chief Editor, is an experienced writer with both a traditionally published book and an e-book under her belt. She is also a Zen master. Yes, really.

5.     Freelancewriting.com

The scope of this site is enormous. They have articles, contests, forums, tutorials – you name it, it’s there. The advice runs the gamut from writing query letters to getting published to dealing with the business side of freelancing. Do beware of the job listings, though. While they do advertise legitimate jobs, there are tons of dodgy and/or ridiculously low-paid jobs there too.

Want more? Well, off you go then. But while searching, try and keep these tips in mind to make sure you get the cream of the crop.

1.     Good writing websites don’t offer any ‘magic formulas’. 

You know when you see a website that seems too good to be true? “The keys to the magic kingdom can be yours for just $2.99….enter your credit card details here!” While the above websites do sell resources, a lot of the content is free.

2.     The sites’ authors are easily traceable.

Generally, if you can’t easily find who runs the website, or if their credentials are hard to verify, give it a miss. If you’re unsure, try searching the website’s name and adding a keyword such as ‘legitimate’ or ‘scam’.

3.     And finally…

Get writing! Send out that first query letter… and maybe the next success story on one of these websites will be yours.