I tell stories, it's kind of my thing.

I was supposed to release a book last month. In February, and somehow it's March, and I have to feel bad about it even though I don't want to. I am often guilty of sitting down to accomplish three pages of to do lists only to stare at Twitter with wide eyes and wait for it to do a trick. 

I know this about myself. I've spent a lifetime working my way around it to great success. Coping mechanisms? I've got 'em. 

So imagine my surprise, when I got thrown off when I started accomplishing too much. It's like saying you're going to read one more chapter before bed and then not stopping until you read the whole series. It's one more brick, one more book, one more  scheme I'll talk myself out of in the morning. It was whole weeks like that, until I was both desperately behind schedule and also hell-must-have-just-frozen-over because I was so ahead of schedule. 

Yes, it is possible to be both those things. I swear, I don't work at being contrary. (At least not since 2005) so here's the deal. I know you're all waiting and waiting for the next book in the Hollows Series and it's going to be out soon. In fact, I am working on getting the preorder up today. It's really coming out, really soon. But so are some other books. 

At one very scary point last month I was wrapping up five different books, at the same time. I didn't go to bed before three in the morning for six weeks, and when I broke that streak it was when I decided to go to bed early-as in one thirty. Life didn't let me sleep in, life didn't let me let up. 

So the good news is, I'm not dead. The bad news is, I need just a little longer to sort through the business. Trust me when I say this is actually really, really, awesome. 

Do You Like Book Playlists? (Take the poll for your chance to win!)

If you have followed me for any amount of time, you probably already know this but.... I don't do well in silence. Music for me is mandatory while writing. The sound of nothing, is the worst sound there is. The sound of nothing makes every little tick and every little breath grow to the size of the moon, and my head is a terrible place to be in the space of it.

Needless to say, I spend a fair amount of time stringing songs together in the name of my books. The question is, do you want to see  my book playlists? Is that something you care about it, or glance at before navigating away?

Sure it wouldn't take long for me to throw up a list, but it does take a fair amount of time for me to find all of them on youtube and group them in such a way here, as to be enjoyable.

Take my super quick poll, and tell me what you're into. BONUS, you could win a $25 iTunes gift card!

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Angela Answers August 2014: Writing, Books, and Other Terrible Things

Last month I celebrated my five year Twitter anniversary. Seriously. Five years ago I had all the time in the world to respond to every DM, email, Facebook message, and Goodreads comment. Of course, back then no one cared. These days I tremble at the thought of my Twitter inbox, I haven't checked my Facebook messages on my author page in months, and I had, as of this morning, 13,958 unread emails.

Many of my direct messages are requests to like various Facebook pages and buy books--I delete those. I do not auto DM and I do not like receiving them--the exception is a nice thank you--no strings attached. I still don't do it, but I won't publicly shame you for it either. The non offending messages tend to come in the form of questions. Lots and lots of questions. I'd love to be able to answer ever single one of them, but I'd probably have to give up writing, and like...showering. Smelly authors are not happy people, so here today I wrote a blog of Answers to some of the most asked, and most random questions. I made the questions jumbo sized, so non-writers can easily find the questions that pertain to them and can skip the rest.

Share with your friends. Click here to ask your own question. Put Angela Answers in the subject. Otherwise it will go in the toxic waste pile with the other things I'm avoiding.

Facebook Q: Will you finish writing my book for me? I've tried, but I just can't get the ending.

Answer: While I feel humbled you would trust your book baby to me, alas, I have time for zero extra projects. Sadly, in addition to serious scheduling conflicts I can't read any non-published manuscripts from people who are not with my publisher Green Envy Press. Not because I am a snob, but because we live in a crazy world and I don't want to have to defend myself or an author who publishes with me, from someone claiming we stole book ideas from them.

There are very few exceptions to this rule, and those are only made for people I have worked with in the past. Please don't ask for an exception, those people already know who they are...I think.

Twitter Q: How do I publish a novel?

Answer: I love Twitter, and I have worked really hard at making myself approachable there. I want to have relationships on social media, and I don't just use it as an info dump. But because of that, I tend to have many people new to the business ask me very basic, see nonspecific, questions as they don't know where else to turn. I always feel really bad when I don't have time to help these people. I'll be honest, it used to annoy me. I used to huff and think, you can use Twitter why can't you use Google? But now I understand there is simply too much information to get a handle without some guidance from someone you trust. Since you are trusting me I tend to get a very warm feeling in my insides.

Deciding what publishing path is right for you is a big step. For some people the path seems to choose you. For other people the decision is not so easy. Since the person didn't specify, I don't know if they were asking for traditional or indie (self publishing). So I am going to give a very basic, quick-step guide to both.

Steps to Traditional Publishing:
Write a fantastic book>>>put it down/or have other people read it>>edit, edit, edit>>>put it down/have other people read it>>edit, edit, edit>>>research appropriate agents/ publishers>>>read their rules and requirements>>write a fantastic query letter and send with any other requirements >>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>> WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>>WAIT>>> Repeat OR GET LUCKY

Now, I could help you with your query letter, telling you which agents I think are awesome (hint they are ALL on Twitter) but let's be honest:

Steps to Indie or Self Publish:
So yeah, once upon a time I was really good at query letters and stuff like that. I once wrote a synopsis that a popular agent said was the best one they had ever read--seriously--a synopsis! I am almost embarrassed at the stuff I spent time getting good at five years ago.

I want to preface this by telling you, I do not hate and wish ill legacy publishers and the people who publish with them. I think traditional publishers and indies are perfect for each other, and I think people are starting to figure that out too. At least judging by the indie authors that are being snatched up recently.

That being said, I feel more qualified to give advice on indie publishing, because I run a publishing co-op; and that is where my success comes from. SO here you go!

Write a fantastic book>>>put it down/or have other people read it>>edit, edit, edit>>>put it down/have other people read it>>edit, edit, edit>>>acquire cover, editing, formatting, and for the LOVE OF GOD don't do this all yourself unless you know someone who is going to be really honest with you.>>Arrange marketing>>>HIT THE PUBLISH BUTTON>>market>>>WRITE ANOTHER BOOK.

Social media should probably go in there somewhere, and marketing? There is more to that than would fit in this blog post or ten others. I am actually going to publish a book marketing series for authors, the first of which, Twitter for Authors and Other Introverts, comes out later this year.

Twitter Q: When does your next book come out?

Answer: Funny question. I have had a lot of issues publishing books this year, moving cross country and mad phobias have kept me from moving forward on the next book I had planned to release. OCD has made it so I have had a hard time just skipping to the next book after that. (They are all written.) HOWEVER, I decided to move forward with the release of 23 1/2 Hours to Live, my first released NA Romance--and it is coming out later this month. More on that soon!

Goodreads Q: How many books have you sold?

Answer: What's weird is, I don't even know. I didn't start keeping good track until this year. It's in the thousands.

Twitter Q: How can I get as many Twitter followers as you?

Answer: Create good content, engage, and come up with creative ways to find new people you can relate too.

Facebook Q: How do I write books?

Answer: If you ask the roughly 5% of people who leave me absolutely scathing reviews, they would tell you I have no freaking idea and you shouldn't ask me. ;) My official answer is, one word at a time. I have been told many of my books read like poetry. For me, every syllable has a feeling attached to it, like music. Every word should be important even if it's just to cut, or burn, or strike. Every word should be the right word to make people feel, to spark something in a person one way or another way.

But if you are wanting to walk me through how to plot or come up with characters, you may as well ask me how do I bleed. I just do. Stories come to my mind completed, as they are, flaws and all.

OK I have 2 prizes I HAVE GOT to mail out this weekend, (I'm sorry) so I am going to have an awesome and short giveaway. For what? Well it's kind of a surprise! I am going to take a Flat Rate Box and shove it full of everything I need to survive the weekend. Minus food...maybe. I am willing to send it to anywhere in the US and it's territories, bases, etc.



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Why I ♥ Grammarly & You Should Too

Dudes. I use Grammarly's Plagiarism Checker, because copying is for bad pop music.


And the rest of it? Man, I am in love.

So. The secret is out. I hate editing...Wait. You mean that wasn't a secret? You mean I complain about it on Twitter like every week? Er... day? HOUR?!

Ok, so quite often I can be found complaining about how much I hate editing to around nineteen thousand of my best friends. Often whining about how it totally ruins my day, week, existence. So it might come as a complete shock to you, that I don't hate editing so very much anymore. Well anyway, it's a shock to me.

A couple of weeks ago I sat down and tried Grammarly for the first time. To say I was a skeptic was putting it mildly. All I could think of was that stupid Allstate commercial, it must be true if it's on the internet! Grammarly claims they:

• Instantly find and correct over 250 types of grammatical mistakes

• Improve word choice with context-optimized vocabulary suggestions

• Help avoid plagiarism by checking your texts against over 8 billion web pages   

I admit I scoffed! We all know how good a job Microsoft Weird does checking our grammar. Even Scrivener has failed me recently. (Shorn is so a word Scrive-NERD) So despite the fact that the whole internet is talking about them, I did not have high hopes. Still, the timing was good. I was in edits up to my armpits, so I tossed in the next chapter of my manuscript in.

Wow.

That was all I said, and seriously this writer is never at a loss for words. Never.

I went through an entire chapter in just minutes. It takes all the guesswork out of the edit process for me. Often I think something might be not right, but I can't put my finger on it. Grammarly can. It is hard to self-edit. Grammarly kept me from having to re-read the same scene until the words spun off page and I'd start wondering if I wrote the whole damn thing in some obscure dead language.

The very next thing I did was email my editor asking him to go over my edited text--and see if it really is as great as I thought it was. I had to wait until the next day for my answer. Apparently editors need sleep. Whereas I previously thought they were too evil for it.

The answer was amazing. "While it didn't catch everything," he starts.... it was about ninety percent cooler than what I normally turn into him. And I mean, he couldn't say it's perfect right? Editors got to eat too.

For kicks, I am going to throw in this blog post pre-edit to see what Grammarly finds.

So as you can see, I'm an awful writer.

No, that's not right. As you can see, Grammarly gives you a "score" out of 100. As you correct things your score goes up. I don't know about you, but my adult self still likes to get A's. No one wants to write a D- of a book or even a blog post. Grammarly makes it all so easy, I forget that I am editing and not just playing some crazy word game all the Grammar Nazis think is cool.

On Grammarly.com they have an awesome list of TOP TEN REASONS YOU SHOULD USE GRAMMARLY. I'm partial, so I think mine's better.

#10 Sometimes it pays to be the smartest one in the room. Let's be honest, in writing everyone is trying to out do everyone else. To be the best you have to be the best at something. Why wouldn't you jump on the chance to make you and your book more professional with something that doesn't require your firstborn child.

#9 Everyone is a critic. As a writer, you spend a fair amount of time trying to make other people happy. If you claim you don't you're a terrible liar. There is always someone. You might be writing your books for you, but then there is always the agents/editors/publishers/readers/and other critics of the world. Don't give them something easy to complain about.

#8 Self-editing is hard. Being burned at the stake for being a bad self-editor is worse.

#7 Grammarly has 20k Twitter followers (a little more than me!) but editing is not cool--therefore Grammarly must work fabulously! Because no one wants to hang out with editing at a party.

#6 All the cool kids are doing it. While I am big into being original, there is something called a grading curve. You might be shocked to realize this applies to writing and real life. If everyone else raises their standards, you have to raise yours or you won't be able to compete.

#5 Real Editing comes in tiers, like substantial, basic, and copy-editing. Grammarly plans also come in tiers, but theirs are all for a very small fraction of how much you'd pay for a first edit.

#4 Use it and abuse it for one low price! So you get your manuscript back from the editor, and it has red lines all over it! What do you do? You fix it of course. Only sometimes the fixes aren't as cut and dried as we like and most editors don't include a second (or third, or tenth) look in their price. Grammarly does.

#3 It's not cool to wait in line. Say you want someone (anyone!) to look at your book. Did you know that most awesome editors have serious wait lists? In addition to the time you'll spend on that, it also takes weeks for them to get back to you when they do start your book. Do I think you can go editor-free when you use Grammarly? I can't, but I can skip to the copy editing part which saves time and money. Comma people probably could though.


#2 Real editors need sleep (those bastards). Feel free to use Grammarly at three in the morning. I do.

#1 Angela Kulig recommends it! Hey, that's me~!



The Fine Print: Grammarly sponsored this post... but they didn't actually plan on me talking about them. They said I could write about whatever I wanted. I decided to write about Grammarly because I am seriously into writing innovation, and I want my friends to be into it to. I love Grammarly, but that wasn't a requirement.

Angela Kulig: Having Survived Monday, Learns to Hate the Rest of the Week Properly {Editing is like MONDAYS}

There is something about editing, that gets under my thin skin and makes me think about all the things I have done wrong. Not necessarily in this manuscript, but perhaps the one before, and the one before that, and the next one I have yet to write yet.

Editing is like Mondays. Come Sunday night, you are convinced you know how bad something is going to be--but then you get a flat tire, and spill your iced half caff grande mocha carmel something all down your only clean shirt.

Not that it's ever happened to me.

This is purely metaphorical people.

I'm lying of course.

Wednesday is my deadline for this manuscript. So to celebrate, Thursday I am going to start a little game. It will be fun, you will want to tell all your friends.

For now, be thinking of these lyrics by Panic! At the Disco: "There is simply nothing worse than knowing how it ends."