Posted by Lucy SilagDecember 15th, 2015
Was there ever a more generic piece of advice to writers than “put yourself out there”? I hear this constantly, and yes, I often say it myself. 
It’s worth investigating what it really means to “put yourself out there as a writer.” Which writers are putting themselves out there, what does that look like, and how can other writers follow their example? Continue reading
Posted by Lucy SilagDecember 14th, 2015
Posted by Lucy SilagDecember 7th, 2015
We’ve been making progress on Book Country improvement projects.
As you likely already noticed, the discussion boards now include member avatars alongside posts. (Click through the image to the discussion board to see how it looks on the site.)
Posted by Lucy SilagNovember 3rd, 2015
Last week’s “Building a Writing Community Online + Off” panel event at BookCourt was a remarkable chance to hear six brand reps (Pinterest, Kickstarter, Tumblr, the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, BookCourt, and, of course, Book Country) chat about how each of their organization or platform can be an extremely useful tool for building up a writer’s network. Julia Fierro of SSWW and Maris Kreizman of Kickstarter were also able to speak to their own experience building a writing community as traditionally published authors (respectively of CUTTING TEETH, a Landmark Women’s Fiction Title on Book Country and SLAUGHTERHOUSE 90210, which we featured on the blog last week). As one panel-goer said on Twitter after the event, all these perspectives made for “Delicious brain food!”
From left: Lucy Silag, Danielle Rayman, Julia Fierro, Maris Kreizman, Rachel Fershleiser, and Andrew Unger. Image courtesy of Rich Kelly via Twitter. Learn more about Rich by clicking through the picture.
We want to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who came out in the pouring rain to join in the conversation! For those of you who couldn’t make it or aren’t local, here are some takeaways from the event: Continue reading
Posted by Lucy SilagOctober 14th, 2015
This week we are hard at work making a few changes to Book Country. The site will remain up and you will have access to your dashboard, profile, the blog, the bookstore, and everything else you use on Book Country.
You can expect changes in the following areas of the site:
If you have questions or run into any confusion, just send us an email at support@BookCountry.com.
We can’t wait to show you how we have used your feedback to improve Book Country. Stay tuned for updates!
Posted by Lucy SilagOctober 6th, 2015
Building a Writing Community Online and Off
October 28, 2015 @ 7pm
BookCourt
163 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY
The most daunting task for aspiring and emerging writers can be building and growing their writing community online and off. Danielle Rayman of Pinterest and Lucy Silag of Book Country will share how social media and online writing communities can be tools for getting your work into the hands of agents, publishers, and readers. Julia Fierro, founder and director of the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop; Maris Kreizman, of Kickstarter and SLAUGHTERHOUSE 90210 (the Tumblr and new book); and Andrew Unger of Bookcourt provide insight into how being a part of a local “writers” scene has real value when it comes to taking your writing to the next level.
This NYC writers event is free and open to the public.
RSVP to the event on Facebook.
Posted by Lucy SilagSeptember 30th, 2015
I couldn’t be more excited to head down to Atlanta this weekend for the Georgia Romance Writers regional conference, Moonlight & Magnolias 2015!
I’ll be the featured industry speaker on Saturday afternoon. Here are the details:
Saturday, October 3
2-3:50pm
Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria
Join us to learn about Book Country, Penguin Random House’s writing and publishing community, and how the site has helped writers to write their best books, connect with audiences, and publish with the support of a community. This session is designed to help Georgia Romance Writers figure out the next step toward reaching their writing and publishing goals. Each participant will leave with a customized, immediate, and actionable plan for their book or work-in-progress based on where they are in the writing process. Continue reading
Posted by Lucy SilagSeptember 23rd, 2015
When I’m telling writers about the Book Country community, I often get asked how writers who’ve already published can get involved on the site. Here are a few ways how published authors can use Book Country:
Writers of all levels of experience use Book Country to workshop their manuscripts. We have 1:1 feedback on Book Country, which means that members have to review another writer’s book before they can post their own. We find that for a member’s first review, they are most likely to review a book with a great professional cover, a sharp synopsis, and, of course, a lower word count. Published authors can upload an excerpt of their forthcoming book as a preview. On Book Country, we have a built in audience of members seeking things to read. Just be sure and let the community know that what you upload is your final draft, and be prepared to get suggestions for revision even if you’re not going to use the feedback right now–it might be useful to you later. Be sure to include when and where folks can buy the book when it’s out! You can see how Penguin Intermix author Alex Rosa did this for her book TRYST before it came out last spring.
Again, using Book Country as a place to showcase an excerpt is a great way to give your book exposure to a built in audience. This is how I found out about Jessica Hawkins’s book COME UNDONE, and now her Cityscape series is one of my all-time favorite romance trilogies. Book Country’s blog and discussion boards can also help published authors brainstorm new ideas for marketing and promotion (check out how GD Deckard is sharing his experience using Google Adwords for his book THE PHOENIX DIARY), and connecting with other writers will help you build a network of contacts. Last week, when Book Country member Janice Peacock’s cozy mystery HIGH STRUNG was rereleased by Booktrope, she was interviewed on member DJ Lutz’s blog. These two met on the site and have been supporting each other ever since. Continue reading
Posted by Nevena GeorgievaJuly 28th, 2015
The purpose of exchanging peer reviews on Book Country is to make each other’s books better together. Eventually, the feedback that you’ve received on and off the site will help improve your work in meaningful ways and get you to the next step in your writing process: a new draft. Today, we’ll walk you through the steps of uploading a new draft of your project on Book Country. (If you’re a first-time user and have never uploaded a book to the site, reference our post on How to Upload Your Book to Book Country instead.)
Start by going to the Read & Review tab in the main navigation and clicking on My Dashboard. Under Books in Peer Review, find and select the project of which you’d like to upload a new draft. Click on the Edit button in order to enter the Online Editor, where you’ll be able to update your text. Continue reading
Posted by Lucy SilagJuly 6th, 2015
You’re probably seeing a lot more activity on your logged-in homepage on Book Country this week. That’s because we’ve just launched several new notifications on Book Country that are designed to help you stay in the loop on all the exciting news happening within the Book Country community.
New notifications in the Book Country News Feed
New notifications in your Book Country Notification Center
Here’s a list of all the notifications you’ll get on Book Country:
If you have questions about notifications on Book Country, send us an email at support@bookcountry.com.
