Category: Printable

Free printable cards for writers: the perfect gift for writers!

by Maria

These free printable cards for writers are perfect for your literary loved ones–check out all the printable cards for writers below!

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel down and even your favorite things–the things that always work–don’t stir even a single spark of joy?

I had a very bad, grumpy day yesterday where nothing seemed to go right.

The only shining spot in the day was a few kind, thoughtful words I heard that helped align me back to my softer, less harsh side.

I bet you know someone who could use some re-centering words, too. Maybe someone in the throes of rejection? Someone in the trenches of self-doubt? Someone too paralyzed by fear to take the first step?

I never seem to know just what to say when I want to cheer someone up, which is why I often rely on our old stand-by of paper and ink–the two best materials on the planet–to say it a little less confusingly.

printable cards for writers

That’s why I created these pep talk cards. These free printable cards for writers make the perfect gift for the writer in your life who’s down in the dumps and could use a scrap of kindness.

And of course, they’d make the perfect sweet little gift for your Valentine, your Galentine, or your Pupentine. (See what I did there? Dad jokes are no match for dog mom jokes.)

 printable cards for writers

These greeting cards are perfect for any writer, blogger, or creative in your life who’s feeling down-and-out about their work. You can print them out on nicely textured paper (this Classic White Laid Card Stock #100 is my favorite, but any paper you have lying around will work well, too), cut them out, and fold them into little greeting cards.

You can use them two ways:

To use these printable cards for writers for yourself:

When you’re feeling inspired, motivated, high on life, just all around on top-of-the-world, write yourself a note about how it feels and why it’s worth it. Scribble down why you have so much to be proud of and how very good those triumphs feel.

Then tuck it away until that rainy day when rejection comes calling. (But tuck it away someplace you’ll remember, because I know I would lose it in a flat second.) When you have that day where you feel defeated, depressed, and very, very done with it all, pull out your card and sit with it awhile. Remind yourself that this feeling will pass, and you don’t have to be so hard on yourself until it does.

You can print 10 pep talk cards and sprinkle them around your house, or do just one at a time when the mood strikes you. As long as your little card makes you feel a bit less alone and sad, it’s doing its job in the world.

printable cards for writers

To give these printable cards for writers to a friend:

Know a friend going through a rough patch or creative drought? Sending her a cheer-up card will probably mean more to her than you can imagine.

Just last week I was curled up on the couch after work, moaning to Jarrett about how overwhelmed I am (the oldest and most boring story ever told). Then he handed me a package that had just come in the mail. It was a gift! For me! From an author! (My actual reaction had many, many more exclamation points than this.)

But that small little gift and the thoughtfulness that went into it cheered me right up. You have the power to do that for someone else, too.

So go right ahead, print these bad boys out, and go cheer up someone who’s having a rough day. They’ll love ya for it.

Click here to access The Library and download these free printable cards!

 

 

5 quick reads for the week:

  1. This exercise is an important way to focus on what makes you happy in your daily life, plus it makes a great writing prompt.
  2. My fellow blogger and friend Kristen Kieffer is creating her first book on writing, and I love her model of letting readers sponsor her work! Now we all get to feel like mini Medicis.
  3. If you haven’t seen this yet…get ready for the ultimate cheer-up.
  4. The phrase “warmest and bubbliest baked pasta dishes” will always get a click from me. No matter how over pasta I might be.
  5. Yikes.

What we’re eating this week

Remember last week when I quit cooking forever and forever aka the whole week?

I’ve been in a drought of inspiration, which I’ll admit, was caused by eating pasta eleven nights in a row due to an ill-conceived Pasta Diet. Noodles and I need some time apart.

Thank God that my authors are much more talented and level-headed than I am, and that I can bum off of their fabulous dinner ideas. So this week I’m letting my friend and client Chungah Rhee tell me what to cook through her new book, Damn Delicious Meal Prep: 115 Easy Recipes for Low-Calorie, High-Energy Living.

It is SO GOOD. It is giving me life again. I want to cook every last recipe, as you can see:

 

Sunday: I got to eat waffles for dinner, and it was the most fun I’ve had all year! That may be a slight exaggeration, but the Protein Power Waffles brought me back to my happiest Eggo childhood moments. I added chocolate chips to mine, because I have unilaterally decided that chocolate is a protein.

Monday: The Ham, Egg, and Cheese Quesadillas from the breakfast chapter, which are so wildly easy yet delicious that I might need to make them every night for the rest of my life. Quesadilla Diet, here I come.

Tuesday: Chef’s night off, so we’ll eat…??????

Wednesday: Asian Garlic-Chicken Lettuce Wraps, which are so good and just the right amount of healthy and contain zero noodles. Check, check, check.

printable cards for writers

Thursday: It’s Valentine’s Day! Prix fixe menus are the scourge of the earth, so we’re staying home and Jarrett is cooking me something fancy.

Friday: The Thai Basil Chicken Bowls Chungah demoed on the Today show, which let me tell you, were the perfect amount of heat. (Watch the clip to see what I mean…)

Happy Valentine’s Day, all!

Get one free tip for reading more + living better each week!

Printable Summer Bookmarks

by Maria

Free Printable Summer Bookmarks

The publishing stories worth reading this week:

The Ultimate Guide to Bestseller Lists: Unlocking the Truth Behind the New York Times List & Others (Chad Cannon): There are a lot of posts on the bestseller lists out there, but I think this one really is the ultimate guide. If “become a New York Times bestselling author” is on your bucket list, this is an important read.

Nora Ephron on Women, Politics, and the Myth of Objectivity in Journalism (Brain Pickings): “I’ve never believed in objective journalism … because all writing is about selecting what you want to use. And as soon as you choose what to select, you’re not being objective.”

8 Reasons You’re Exhausted, Overwhelmed, and Unproductive (Michael Hyatt): In case you haven’t read the now-classic New York York Times article “The Busy Trap,” start there. Then come back to Hyatt’s article for some actionable advice.

If You Just Keep Writing, Will You Get Better? (Barbara Baig on JaneFriedman.com): “When most of us think about practice, we’re imagining what Ericsson calls naive practice, the kind of repetitive action we do to learn a skill and then put it on automatic pilot. We learn a lot of things this way—cooking dinner, for instance, or driving a car. The trouble with this kind of practice is that it will never help us improve our skills. For that, we need a different kind of practice, one Ericsson calls deliberate practice.”

Are you a bookmark user?

I’ve found this is a surprisingly divisive question! Jarrett swears by them, and I usually want nothing to do with them.

He’ll use anything: a scrap of notebook paper, the library receipt, a tattered old rag of a real bookmark. One time I caught him holding his spot in a book with an entire piece of mail, still in its envelope. This is by no means normal.

Me? I couldn’t keep track of a bookmark if my library card depended on it. I find it a hassle to place it down somewhere and make sure not to lose it/crumple it/splash a beverage on it. Instead, I get a sick thrill out of challenging myself to remember where I was in the book. I’m a fairly visual person, so I can usually remember whether I was on a verso or recto page and on what approximate paragraph. But no, this process is not time-efficient. And no, it’s by no means normal, either.

But then again, is there a true “normal” to any of our reading habits? We can’t all neatly tuck into bed, read for exactly 60 minutes, mark our spot with our perfect bookmark, and turn over for our perfect 8 hours of sleep.

(Although that 8 hours of sleep sounds pretty great and should really be a non-negotiable, says every scientific study ever!)

So today I designed a little treat for you, for your summer reading pleasure:

Free Printable Summer Bookmarks

If you’ve been using a scrap of paper as a bookmark (ahem, Jarrett…), try swapping it out for these.

If you’re not in the habit of using a bookmark but have always aspired to (ahem, me…), give these a go.

Click here to download the bookmarks.

You can print them on regular paper, but if you have thicker paper, they’ll have much more durability to them.

And I’d love to hear if you guys are naturally bookmark users! Do they drive you nuts or can you not live without them?

The 4 Elements of a Knock-Out Conference Pitch (And Book Deal News for THE HAPPY TRAVELER by Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D.)

by Maria

how to pitch an agent at a writer's conference

But first, the stories worth reading this week:

Killer Takeaways From a Bestselling Book Launch (Chad Cannon on MichaelHyatt.com): This is the must-read article of the week! Chad Cannon gives us a behind-the-curtain look at how Michael Hyatt recently launched his newest bestseller, Living Forward. “Our marketing team built out a launch plan over a year ago and spent countless hours refining and executing it in anticipation of release day. Lots of strategy and hours of rich, dynamic discussion. And I’m proud—and humbled—to say that we dove into release day with more than 18,500 preorders.” That is a very, very nice number.

James Patterson Has a Big Plan for Small Books (Alexandra Alter for The New York Times): I get giddy seeing this sort of publishing innovation happening. James Patterson wants to make books more mainstream so that they’ll appeal to the 27% of Americans who read zero books last year. As he says, “’You can race through these — they’re like reading movies….It gives people some alternative ways to read.’” If you ask me, getting more people to read is always a good thing, no matter what they’re reading.

Hot: A Theory of Propulsion (Seth Godin): “The cliché was that the author used to live for the solitary moments of considered thought and solo writing. ‘Leave me alone and let me write.’ The publisher paid the bills with the backlist, the old books that sold and sold. Today, without propulsion, most people aren’t making the time or the focus to pursue inert wisdom. Without motion, the words get moldy.”

And Some Select Author Press: Congratulations to Francine Jay and Amanda Sullivan on the great feature in Publisher’s Weekly of new House & Home books releasing this spring. And another round of congrats to Francine on her New York Times review and for being selected by Amazon as one of the Big Spring Books of 2016. Francine’s beautiful book launches on April 26th, but you can already preorder your copy today!

The 4 Elements of a Knock-Out Pitch (And Book Deal News for THE HAPPY TRAVELER by Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D.)

I love book deal announcement days. There’s no hiding that (in fact, you can see more announcements here). I think it’s just because I’m a hopeless gusher—I love, love, love bragging on the smart people I get to work with. And I love using the word “love” too much. I can’t help it.

So today I’m excited to introduce you to Dr. Jaime Kurtz, who will be writing The Happy Traveler: Travel Better, Smarter, and More Happily, No Matter How Near or Far You Roam for Oxford University Press. Here’s the official deal report from Publisher’s Marketplace:

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What If I’m Too Introverted for Platform Building? (Free Art Print!)

by Maria
book marketing blogging book publishing for introverts
too shy for marketing?

But first, the stories worth reading this week:

The Truth About The New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists (Tim Grahl on The Observer): “If you’re a nonfiction author, and particularly if you write business books, bestseller lists mean more speaking gigs, higher consulting rates, higher visibility, and an enhanced reputation. They also mean more sales.”

How to Format a Book Proposal (Chad R. Allen): “So what’s your concept? Is it unique somehow? Does it meet an actual need people have? What’s your ability to help us move books when it’s published? What’s your promotion plan? Are you a good writer? Do your words grab us? Would a reader rather read your book than go to a movie?”

10 Bookish Feelings We Need English Words For ASAP (Sharanya Sharma for BookRiot): “…that got me thinking of other ‘untranslatable’ feelings and situations, some of which you can find words for in other languages. Words like tsundoku, a Japanese word that roughly means: ‘Leaving a book unread after buying it.’ (I am so very guilty of this. Sigh.)”

How to Find and Work With a Book Publicist—Successfully (Jane Friedman):”…even though you’re hiring a publicist, all authors have to be willing to learn how to market their book. Good marketing and publicity is a team effort, and the author is part of that team.”

Altered Tastes: Can the New Science of Neurogastronomy–and One Very Creative Chef–Convince Us That Healthy Food is Delicious? (Maria Konnikova for The New Republic): “Control flavor and you control what we eat—and perhaps, given time and more research, begin fighting the global nutrition problems that are a direct result of the industrialized production of food.”

What If I’m Too Introverted for Platform Building and Book Marketing?

Last week I had a reader bring up two fantastic questions: How can writers who are shy build a following? And how can fiction writers help people with their work? (Thank you, Carolyn!)

Since these are two big topics, I’m going to tackle the first question today and leave the second one for next week. If you don’t want to miss next week’s post on platform-building for fiction writers, sign up to have posts come to you through the “subscribe” box on your right!

So, let’s talk about how introverted types can tackle platform-building and book marketing. What if the very thought of interacting with strangers (whether online or in real life) makes you queasy? What if it grates on your sense of identity to put yourself out there for anyone to see? What if you were always the kid with your nose in a book during lunchtime, not the one drawing a crowd of admirers with your stories?

Well, here’s a secret. Most bestselling authors are introverted, too. The majority of my authors would describe themselves as private, shy, or introverted. (Even Ree Drummond admits she’s a true homebody and would be happy never leaving her ranch!) In fact, most book people—agents, editors, booksellers—are introverts. That’s why we all came to books in the first place: we were the kids who would rather read a book than make conversation.

So we’ve all had to do battle with our introvert impulses. When I first started in publishing I was terrified—terrified—of presenting a book in front of the acquisitions committee. I loved the book so much, and the thought of laying that love bare in front of a big group of people so they could pick it apart and decide whether it was any good kept me up at night. But I did it, and I kept doing it and doing it, because I had to—it was just part of my job. Eventually, I started to see those meetings as fascinating and as a great opportunity for me to learn the skills I inevitably needed to advocate for the authors I loved.

My first agent lunch as an editor? Same thing: dread, nervousness, fear. My first editor lunch as an agent? Still scared. Even my first post on this blog: complete and utter fear that people would—gasp!—find it and read it. Putting ourselves out there makes us introverts absolutely loony tunes.

But what did I learn from all of this forced-because-it’s-my-job socialization? That those moments of talking to editors, writers, committees, and conference attendees are my most rewarding moments. I dread them going into it, but after I feel a deep, warm glow of happiness and excitement.

Because when it comes down to it, we as humans are hardwired for connection. We may not have the personality types to naturally enjoy speaking to large crowds, but when we focus on talking to one interesting person about one interesting topic, we light up.

Platform-building is about just that: finding our people and talking to them about our shared interests. Yet it’s easy to lose sight of that and let fear take hold.

I’ve had many authors share their struggles and fears about platform-building and marketing with me, and eventually I started to see the same patterns of thought that were holding them back. And I saw these patterns in my own life, too! But after seeing so many introverted writers and bloggers succeed, I realized there are certain ways we can help ourselves rethink what it means to build a platform and market a book. These tips have been helpful to both my authors and myself, and while everyone is different, I hope you find them useful!

5 Ways Introverts Can Rethink Platform Building and Book Marketing

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