Article 7:   On Revision by Gaelen Foley

Last month, Gaelen Foley, best-selling romance author, shared her secrets for getting that first draft of your novel down on paper without driving yourself around the bend. This month, she tackles the other component of her writing technique, revising that first draft. It is during this phase that she describes how you can add layers of richness to your story that would not have been possible the first time through. And for those who are planning to write another novel after this WIP, she shares the secret of why the ending of this book is so important to that next book.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum offers another article which reviews one of the better firewall/anti-virus software applications for computers running the Windows® operating systems, including XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. And, even better, all this protection is available for free. Any computer connected to the Internet without both firewall and anti-virus software is a gift to those who would subjugate your machine to their own purposes. Learn how to protect your computer so that you retain control and keep the bad guys out.

Due to circumstances beyond human control, the article on options for authors setting up their own web sites has had to be postponed yet again. Let us hope the third time will be the charm on this one.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Article 6:   Writing the First Draft, Or "The Ugly Duckling" By Gaelen Foley

Do you struggle with the first draft of your manuscript, your writing schedule and unending revisions, to the point that it makes you physically ill? That did happen to Gaelen Foley, best-selling romance author, once upon a time, until she found a better way. In this month’s article on writing, she shares her early pain and the secret to how she overcame those obstacles so that writing is once again a joy and she can meet her deadlines without endangering her health. Read on to learn how you can write an ugly duckling, then turn it into a swan, without turning yourself inside out.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

Due to a serious hack endured by one of our members earlier this month, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum has devoted its attention to the topic of Safe Surfing in March. The articles cover information on how to protect computers while they are online, and how to get free software for both firewalls and anti-virus protection.

Next month, the Working on the Web section of the forum will feature the article for those who are interested in setting up their own web site which had been intended for this month.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

I Love Readerware!

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Readerware has nothing to do with the Regency, but it has a great deal to do with books. So, if you have a lot of books, especially if you sometimes buy second or even third copies of books you already have, you might find you will love Readerware, too.

I have more than a thousand historical romance novels in my library, and more than twice as many research books. Not to mention my large collection of needlework books. So many that I simply cannot keep track of them in my head. And then, last spring I found Readerware. I have never been more pleased with a software purchase.

Web Site Do’s and Don’ts   By Cheryl Bolen

When Jane Austen wrote her novels, she used a quill pen and a bottle of ink to make a fair copy of her manuscript on hand-made paper. She sent it off to her publisher, who had it type-set by hand, printed and distributed to book-sellers and circulating libraries. Her publisher might have taken out an ad in some of the more widely circulated newspapers. That was the extent of book promotion during the Regency. But for those who write Regency novels today, technology has made it possible to promote those books in a number of different ways. In today’s article, Cheryl Bolen shares some tips from a web mistress who has designed web sites for a number of prominent authors. Whether you have had a web site for years or have just published your first novel and are ready to set up your web site, you will find sage advice from a professional in Cheryl’s article.

Article 5:   Prep That Book!   By Gaelen Foley

Best-selling author, Gaelen Foley, explains how she prepares to begin writing a novel in her fifth article on the business of writing. Her novel preparation method enables her to have all of the pertinent historical facts at her fingertips, as well as in-depth biographical studies of her principal characters. With this information at hand, her writing can proceed without significant interruptions to gather more information. Will her preparation methods help you with your next novel?

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

In February, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum features an article specifically for our members who are published authors. This article outlines an opportunity for these Beau Monde authors to promote their work on one of the largest and most highly trafficked web sites on the Internet. With the added bonus that they will also provide a service to their readers.

Next month, the Working on the Web section of the forum will feature an article for those who are interested in setting up their own web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Article 4:   Designing Your Novel’s Premise   By Gaelen Foley

In article four on the business of writing, Gaelen Foley, best-selling romance author, shares how she builds the foundational premise for each of her novels. They do not spring magically from the ether, she has an organized and reliable system by which she develops the premise of her next novel while she is busy writing her current book. By integrating these activities, not only is no time is lost on the writing of the current manuscript, but she has enough lead time to allow her new premise to fully mature. Perhaps you will find some useful tips here which will help you to refine your own premise-building efforts.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

The series of articles on Search Engine Optimization for authors comes to a close this month in the Working on the Web section of the forum. The final article provides details on how to keep web spiders from crawling those sections of your site you do not wish to have indexed. The article also explains why you might want to keep web spiders out, of certain sections of your web site, or of just specific pages. Another article explains how to protect your manuscript files to ensure you do not inadvertently make them the property of your employer or anyone else.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will include an article on an often overlooked opportunity for self-promotion for published Regency authors.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Article 3:   Advice For Aspiring Writers

In her third article on the business of writing, best-selling author, Gaelen Foley, offers advice for those who are working on their first novel, or even their fifty-first novel, on ways they can hone their skills as an author. In addition, she provides a list of books which she has found informative as a writer herself. Whether you are toiling with your very first manuscript, or you have already published dozens of successful romance novels, you are certain to find at least one or two new concepts here to help you advance your writing career.

Blame it on Writer’s Block   By Cheryl Bolen

Or not.

It turns out that Cheryl Bolen is the founder of Society for the Prevention of the Writer’s Block Myth. Today, this best-selling romance author explodes that myth and shares a number of tips on how to entice your muse to perch on your shoulder and help you to write that next chapter of your WIP. She also reveals the secret known to all successfully published authors on how to finish that next book

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, the Working on the Web articles include the complete guidelines for those Beau Monde authors who wish to submit a Featured Author posting to the Beau Monde blog. Whether you have just published your first Regency, or if you are a well-known, best-selling author with a couple of dozen novels to your credit, submitting a brief biography and your various web site and social media links is a service to those who enjoy your work. A Featured Author post will tell them something about you, and the links you provide will enable them to locate you on the web. As you will have learned from our ongoing series on SEO, each link to your web site or blog from another, relevant site will also help increase the search engine rankings of your site or blog. By submitting a Featured Author article for posting here, you do both your readers and yourself a service. The guidelines in the Working on the Web forum will provide all the information you need to submit a Featured Author article which can be posted without additional questions. In addition, you will learn a few tips on how a professional author should name files they are submitting for any kind of promotion opportunity. As a Beau Monde member, do be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to promote your books and inform your readers.

The article in the ongoing SEO series addresses some of the advanced navigation options which can help improve search engine ranking for your web site. However, these are advanced options which should only be implemented by an experienced web master or web site developer. But several links have been provided to SEO sites which provide the advanced information which your web master can use to further increase the search engine rankings of your web site.

In the Working on the Web forum next month, the SEO series will come to a close, ironically, with the information you will need to tell the web spiders to ignore certain sections of your web site which you would prefer not to have indexed or searched. In addition, another self-promotion opportunity for Regency authors will be discussed.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Article 2:   Creating An Environment Conducive To Writing

In this month’s article from best-selling author, Gaelen Foley, you will learn from a successful author how you can create a place for yourself that will not only enable you to write with less stress, but to truly enjoy the writing process itself. If you are now or want to write professionally, it means you are going to be doing a lot of writing. Gaelen offers you a number of techniques that she has employed to enhance her own writing environment which may help you to improve your own writing workplace.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

The Working on the Web articles this month include instructions on how RWA members can set up their myRWA Forum Biography and signature line. The SEO article this month explains the basics on how a web site’s navigation links can be used to further optimize a web site to help improve its search engine rankings.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will take a look an obvious opportunity for self-promotion which many authors overlook. Our series on SEO will explain some of the advanced navigation options which can be employed to improve the SEO for that same web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Essential and Nonessential Reference Books for Authors   By Cheryl Bolen

Many authors have turned to the Internet as their reference source of choice. But there are a number of sources still in that more traditional format, the printed book, which can also be of great value to authors, providing more convenient and sometimes even faster access to needed information.

Today, Cheryl Bolen shares her list of reference books which can be a valuable source of information to authors as they write. However, she does divide her list into two parts, the first part containing the writer’s reference books which she considers essential, the second part listing those reference books which may not be essential, but they can certainly provide authors with just that necessary bit of information as they wrestle with their current WIP.

Article 1:   So You Want To Write A Novel by Gaelen Foley

Bestselling Historical Romance Author, Gaelen Foley, has generously given the Beau Monde permission to post her series of articles on the profession of writing, in particular, that of writing romance novels. We will be posting one article of her series every month for your edification and enlightenment over the next few months. This month, she will share her views on the many things a new author should take into consideration if they are planning to become a romance novelist.

If you are considering a career as a romance novelist, or have even started writing your first book, you may find Gaelen’s advice especially valuable in actually achieving your goals and being able to enjoy your success once you have done so.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month’s Working on the Web articles cover a diverse range of topics. For authors in search of just the right name for the characters in their work in progress, a review of a pair of perhaps the most comprehensive name databases to be found online, which not only offer a vast list of names, but also their meanings and their etymology. Another article posted this month was an alert regarding the most vicious types of malware to be seen on the web in some time. Known as "ransomware," this nasty new malware literally holds the data on your hard drive for ransom. This article provides details on how to protect your computer and offers some options on what to do if your hard drive is locked up with a demand that you pay the villains. Heading tags are the subject of this month’s SEO article. Though many people ignore them, this article details how they can become a powerful option for increasing a web site’s search engine rankings.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will take a look an obvious opportunity for self-promotion which many authors overlook. Our series on SEO will explain how the navigation on your own web pages can be used to improve the SEO for that same web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

In the Working on the Web section of the myRWA forums this month can be found an article on the blog feature which makes it easy for a blogger to capture statistics on the number of readers of each of their blog posts. That same feature also enables bloggers to present a tighter and more appealing home page to their visitors. This month’s SEO series article covers the value of both incoming and outgoing links from other sites, how to get them, and how to know which links are a danger that can actually damage the search rankings of your web site or blog.

Be sure to check in on the Working on the Web forum next month. The SEO series will continue with an explanation about how those handy heading tags can be used to enhance the search engine rankings of your web pages. Those same heading tags, when used correctly, can make your web pages much easier to navigate for folks with visual impairments. And for authors seeking just the right name for one of the characters in their current WIP, a review of a pair of web sites which offer a plethora of both first and last names which can be searched and sorted by a wide range of criteria.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.