The Importance of Reading with Purpose

When I used to interview guest authors on DIY MFA Radio, I used to end each episode with the same question: “What’s your #1 tip for writers?” Hands down, the most common answer to that question was: “Read, read, read,” and it’s no wonder why. Reading is one of the most crucial parts of a literary life. If writers want to improve their craft, they need to read.

A writer who doesn’t read is like a chef who doesn’t eat. They have no idea if what they’re creating is any good because they can’t put their work into context. Reading with purpose allows us to see how our books fit in the greater literary landscape and understand how to make our writing better. It also allows us to see how other writers solve certain problems and we can borrow those solutions and apply them to our own work.

Note that this doesn’t mean we are copying someone else’s writing, not by a long shot. Instead, think of it as like being a mechanic, looking under the hood of a car to see how it works. When we read with purpose, we analyze another writer’s work to see how they do things, then we apply the concepts to our own writing to make it better. We’re not copying the author’s actual words or ideas, but we’re looking at the way they do things and then borrowing some of those strategies.

What Reading with Purpose Entails

Reading with purpose means reading with an eye toward your writing. It means having a core set of books on hand—what I call “the essentials”—so you have ready resources when you need them. It means being strategic when you select books, so your reading will help you with your current work-in-progress. Most importantly, it means reading with an analytical perspective, so you can understand more fully how a piece of literature works, and apply some of those concepts to your own writing. There are three important components of reading with purpose:

1. Having a select group of essential books on hand
2. Compiling a reading list that servers our goals
3. Reading with a writer’s eye

Essential Books to Have on Hand

There are three books that I recommend every writer have in their library. I know what you’re thinking—only three? Yes, you only need three, and these three will be different for each writer. If you’re like most writers, you probably have more than one book in each of these categories, but at the minimum I recommend having one of each. To remember the three books, just think of your ABCs.

• A = Anthology of Short Form Work
• B = Book of Prompts
• C = Craft Reference

Anthology of Short Form Work: It’s useful to have an anthology of short stories, preferably in your chosen genre. If you write memoir, then look for an anthology of essays, and if you write poetry, get your hands on an anthology of poems. Make sure that what you choose is a true anthology with stories by a variety of authors and not a collection by a single author. This is because you want a book that represents the broadest possible range of voices. My go-to short story anthology is The Art of the Short Story, edited by Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. It’s not super-new but it has the classics.

Book of Prompts: A book of prompts is always good to have on hand. I’m especially a fan of prompt books that are organized according to topic (dialogue prompts in one chapter, description prompts in another, etc.). The two prompt books I recommend are: The 3 A.M. Epiphany (and its sequel, The Four A.M. Breakthrough) by Brian Kiteley and the Now Write! series edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson. Both series group the prompts by category, only in the Kiteley books, the prompts are by only one author, while in the Now Write! series, the prompts are from various different authors.

Craft Reference: It’s helpful to have a craft reference handy in case you run into questions you don’t know how to answer. Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is, of course, the classic for matters regarding style and grammar. For broader craft topics, I love books by Donald Maass, Lisa Cron, and Steven James. For “small craft” (i.e., sentence-level stuff) check out Barbara Baig’s Spellbinding Sentences. And, of course, the DIY MFA book also gives an overview of general craft topics.

Building a Reading List

One of the most important parts of reading with purpose is compiling a reading list that truly serves your writing. I remember in the MFA program, reading some books that were completely irrelevant to what I was writing. I kept wondering “what’s the point?” It felt a bit like an exercise in futility. That’s why, when I started DIY MFA, one of the first things I did was develop a rubric so that writers could come up with their own reading list, their own syllabus. This rubric consists of four types of books:

1. Comps: Comparable books (i.e., comps) are similar to your book and would sit on the bookstore shelf next to yours. If a librarian were to recommend a book similar to yours, they would choose one of these comps.
2. Contextual: These are books you read for research. They may not be similar to your book in all respects, but they may have certain aspects in common, like the same setting, or a similar use of point of view. These books lend context to yours.
3. Contemporary: You need to keep your finger on the pulse of your genre or category. This is why it’s important to read a few contemporary books, so you can be aware of trends and know what’s new in your niche.
4. Classics: Everyone should read a classic at least once in a while. Keep in mind, classics don’t necessarily need to be hundreds (or thousands) of years old. Depending on your genre or category, books considered classics might actually be fairly recent.

Reading Like a Writer

I often call reading like a writer “reading like a revolutionary.” This is because when we read with a writer’s eye, we aren’t just passively taking in the story. Instead, we are actively analysing it, not just to understand, but to apply the concepts to our own writing. The key to reading like a writer is examining how the author does what they do on the page, and then considering which of those techniques you can borrow.

How to Read with Purpose

Reading with purpose is like swimming in the ocean: the swimmer is the reader and the ocean is the story. Like the ocean, the story has different layers of depth and reader-swimmers can explore some or all of those layers, depending on their inclination.

Ocean Surface: The WHAT

Most readers/swimmers skim across the surface, because that’s where the air is. At this surface level, they focus on the WHAT of the story (i.e., the logistics). At this level, the reader is con What’s happening? Who are the characters? What is the setting?

These basic, logistical considerations are what we focus on, particularly when we’re first developing as readers. These are the types of questions my kids would have to answer for homework in elementary school. They don’t require deep analysis, just a basic understanding of the facts.

There is nothing wrong with hanging out at the surface. That’s how most people read much of the time. This is the layer where you simply get carried away by a good story, and that’s a perfectly respectable way to read. But, if you want to read like a writer, you have to go deeper.

Coral Reef: The WHY

The second layer of reading is that in-between space between the ocean surface and the ocean floor. Imagine this layer as being like a coral reef with hundreds of colorful fish, lush corals, and brightly patterned shells. This reef represents the WHY of the story (i.e., the interpretation).

This is the layer where we consider deeper, more analytical questions. What does this story mean? Why did the author write this story? How does this story fit into the greater literary context? This is how we were taught to read in high school or college literature classes. We learned to go deeper than pure logistics, but still not quite all the way to the ocean floor.

Keep in mind, reading at this layer can be hard to sustain and you can’t do it indefinitely, just as a swimmer can’t stay underwater for hours on end. Instead, when we analyze literature in this way, we usually do so for contained, specific passages, rather than for the entirety of a book-length work.

Ocean Floor: The HOW

Finally, we get to the third layer. For this one, imagine you’re bobbing along on the surface of the ocean and then you spot a sparkling gem on the ocean floor. Then, you take a deep, gulping breath and you dive all the way to the bottom to retrieve it.

This is what we do when we read for the HOW. We look deep at another author’s work and we spot the gems, and we analyze what that author is doing to understand how exactly they managed to pull it off. Then, we take that gem and we see how we might apply it to our own work.

As with the coral reef layer, this deep dive is difficult to sustain for long passages. We can analyze a writer’s work at this profound level only for short passages. If we try to read an entire book at the ocean floor level, it will be very challenging. This is why reading like a writer is a delicate, aquatic dance, where we continuously shift up and down, from the surface to the ocean floor.

Personalized Anthology Project

One activity I often recommend to writers is to compile a personalized anthology. Whenever you read something and you come across a passage that captures your attention, make a photocopy and put it in a binder. Annotate each excerpt using the WHAT/WHY/HOW framework and once you have ten or more of them in the binder, sort them according to topic (character development, story structure, world-building, description, dialogue, etc.)

The idea here is that over time, you will amass a collection of excerpts specifically from books that are relevant to your writing—because they’re books you selected, not someone else like a professor. The fact that the passages are sorted by topic will make it easier for you to find what you need. Stumped by setting? Look at some of the world-building excerpts in your binder. Not only will they help you figure out craft-related techniques, but they will be directly relevant to what you’re writing.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: What It Means to Read with Purpose appeared first on DIY MFA.

Tea with my grandmother wasn’t fancy. A practical woman, shaped by the Depression, she wrapped Christmas packages in colored tissue paper, then carefully ironed and stored each piece for the next year.

Yet, the tea and packages never seemed simple. My grandmother’s curiosity and sense of wonder made even the smallest things magical. A bowl of applesauce with a few candy sprinkles became an explosion of color, if you waited just a moment, and then stirred. 

I thought about tea with my grandmother, when I pitched “Tea with Scones.” I read essays, I write essays, and I still struggle with images from my past.

So what is essay?

Essay is the uninspired piece we were subjected to in school, or (if we are honest) the magazines we consumed, sitting on the toilet, at a sister-in-law’s. 

Essay is the long The Atlantic or The New Yorker article we pretend to have read (“yes, her point was eloquent, but I do think she rambled on”), but never get around to. 

In the spirit of my grandmother, here’s a reframe: essay is a small meal to recharge readers’s souls, and a confined—but not confining—space for writers.

Call it a literary nonfiction essay. Slice it into the personal essay, the science essay, the persuasive essay, the natural essay. Dice it into blogs or flashes. Essay is candy to fill an idle moment, indulge, refocus, instruct—sometimes all simultaneously.

It’s poetry’s bigger cousin, the blastocyst before the book proposal, masterful craftsmanship or utter drivel.

Where can you find it?

You can find essays about almost anything, and fit them into small pockets during your day. In graduate school, they were my salvation. I’d leave the anatomy lab, with all its enthralling descriptions (“the orbicularis oculi originates from the nasal portion of the frontal bone…”), sip a cup of tea, and indulge in an essay. Later, with a job and a house and a family, reading essays allowed me to think, just a little, about bodies in Lake Powell, Boca Raton, or crows in Karachi. 

As a writer, I’ve discovered another reason to read essays: the best essayists are master writers. Their writing feels intimate. The scintillating conversations leave me breathless, wondering at their ability to weave together such a rich tapestry with mere words. To mix metaphors, they are master carvers who, while I read, shape a block of wood into lifelike sculpture. I want to write like that, and to write like that, I study their craft.

But how, as writers, do we do that? I suggest four steps:

1. Read through once, with tea and scones. If you have access to cream scones, warm from the oven, golden and crunchy on the outside, slice one open. Slather a bit of butter and some fresh raspberry jam, then bite down. Feel the delicate crunch of the golden crust, taste the tartness of raspberry, feel the cream and butter. Savor how it mixes in your mouth, the exquisite balance of salt and fat, sugar and tart. 

2. Sit for a moment and note the array of feelings. Did the golden crust resonate more, or was it the fresh raspberries, or perhaps the point-counter point of the two tastes in your mouth? And yes, you will feel awkward and others in the café will stare, but allow yourself several minutes to catalog all of the sensations. 

3. Look back at the essay. Highlight images, sentences, or even an entire paragraph that elicited those feelings. Was it the description of hot tea in a purple ceramic mug, or the bright smell of the raspberries that brought such rapture? Did the description of butter running down the author’s beard add or detract?

4. What can you reverse engineer into your own writing? The scones and the raspberries and the tea belong to this author, but now that you see how she put them together, are there experiments you’d like to try in your own writing?

It’s easy to walk away from the table at this point, but take a moment to bus your dishes. Then write down what you’ve learned. I’ve found it helpful to note in my writing specific sentences or images I want to reflect on. I look back at these from time to time. Sometimes, I turn these notes into a template of instructions and questions for my next writing piece.

I’ll close with one caution: there is danger, even in a cup of tea. A splash, a spill, and you wear the stuff the rest of the afternoon. Like any good writer, you wonder where the tea came from, follow the casual encounter out the door and around the bend. And then, just like Bilbo Baggins, “You step onto the road and, if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you’ll be swept off to.”

I’d love to hear from you about a favorite essay, tricks you use to read and learn from essays, and how you approach writing essays. Email me at kammprongay@gmail.com. Forthcoming columns will explore essay, essay collections, and writing tips for essays. Until then, happy reading.

Kamm Prongay is a writer and veterinarian whose essays intertwine science, nature, people, and place. A child of the South, raised in the Pacific Northwest, Kamm spent time at sea as a Naval Surface Warfare Officer before coming ashore to pursue veterinary school, clinical practice, teaching and research. Kamm lives with her wife, Liz, and two curious cats in Portland, Oregon.

You can find her on her website.

The post Tea with Scones: One Writer’s Introduction to Reading and Writing Essay appeared first on DIY MFA.

Speculative, Adjective, spec·​u·​la·​tive,

1. involving, based on, or constituting intellectual speculation, also: theoretical rather than demonstrable,
2. speculative knowledge, marked by questioning curiosity

There is a third definition but, as it refers to financial matters, we can ignore that one. I think the first two are what we are looking for. Speculative fiction has been considered from many viewpoints over the years. Often mocked as frivolous and overlooked as any kind of serious writing, speculative writings often have been considered the ugly, red-haired stepchild in many literary circles. Yet in retrospect, we can see that many changes that have come to pass were predicted in the “wild stories” by certain authors.

Some things we accept as normal and commonplace were once highly speculative.

Between 1863 and 1905, Jules Verne wrote his Voyages Extraordinaires.

These included, among many others; From the Earth to the Moon and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Both novels were considered wildly speculative at the time they were written and yet both are proven as prophetic rather than fancy. 

In 1931, Chester Gould introduced to the world a comic book cop named Dick Tracy. 

Not long after, on January 13, 1946, the two-way wrist radio was introduced, and would become one of the strip’s most immediately recognizable icons, and in 2015, Apple made this a reality.

On September 8th, 1966, NBC released a new TV show called Star Trek. 

I watched all three seasons with religious fervor and although most of the inventions used by the crew of the Enterprise have yet to become reality, there is one device that was used from the first show ever-after that has become a mainstay of life in our world—the communicator. It only took thirty years for Motorola to introduce the StarTac, the world’s first flip phone. A very similar device to the communicators used by the crew of the Enterprise.

In July 1969, I watched as Neil Armstrong set foot upon the moon. 

It may not exactly have been as Mr. Verne envisioned over one hundred years before, but it happened. His Nautilus was not the first submarine by any means, but Verne wrote that electric batteries powered this submarine, something which we are just beginning to master as a form of power for our vehicles. 

There is a myth that he used an unknown power source that seems to imply he foresaw the power of the atom. However, radioactivity was not discovered until thirty years after Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was written. Interestingly, the first nuclear submarine built was named “The Nautilus” in honor of Captain Nemo’s vessel, but it was the speculative movie script writers at Walt Disney who planted the idea of nuclear power being involved, not Jules Verne.

So What is Speculative Fiction?

The term ‘speculative fiction’ is often attributed to Robert Heinlein, though he insisted it was referencing science fiction only and not fantasy, and that the term had been used by others before him. It has come to include much more than just hard science fiction including; fantasy, utopian and dystopian fiction, horror, alternate history and superhero fiction as well as science-fantasy.

There are arguments as to who wrote the first speculative fiction. Some offer H.G. Wells or Jules Verne, others speak of Mary Shelley and her novel Frankenstein. I will offer a different suggestion; Homer, who in The Iliad mentions the god Hephaestus who had helpers he had crafted. Helpers who were made of metal and who had thoughts within their heads. In other words, robots.

How many life-changing innovations only exist as the written word at this time? Many, I am sure. This is why speculative things matter. Someone has to dream about the inventions before they can come into existence. Someone has to think… “Wouldn’t that be handy?” Then speculation can become reality.

Casey Cooper is the son of two teachers, the grandson of a university professor on one side, and a jazz drummer on the other. Somehow, he escaped teaching, but not music. After retiring from his day job, just in time for COVID, he devoted his first year of ‘freedom’ to self-recording a musical concept album. In his second year, he turned to writing.

An avid reader, he averages a book a week. The usual fare is Fantasy or Sci-Fi. Sometimes Action/Adventure. He has been seen reading all kinds of things, from fairytales to super-string theory.

He holds guest citizenship in The Forgotten Realms, Oz, Pellucidar, and on the Discworld. He lives alone with his two trusty cats. Liv, a lavender tortoiseshell, and Riley, an orange tiger. You can follow him on Facebook.

The post Why Do Speculative Things Matter? appeared first on DIY MFA.

Comparable titles (also known as comps) can be extremely helpful when writing and pitching your book to a literary agent or editor. 

They are also a huge way to ensure your book is marketed in the right place on Amazon or in the bookstore—and better yet, they’re good practice to learn how to read with a purpose. 

Finding bad comps for your books is worse than no comps. 

To avoid this, I’d like to share five must-knows to picking your comps, as well as a better idea about what makes a comp and how to use it in a pitch.  

Why Comparable Titles Are Important (But Not Mandatory) 

When I worked as an editorial intern at P.S. Literary Agency, finding comps was an important task. Comps could help the agent I reported to decide if a book was worth representing. It could also strengthen a pitch for a client’s new book to an editor.

Comparable titles, or books/stories that have certain similarities to another story, can be extremely useful when convincing an editor or agent that a story is worth investing in. It hints at certain story preferences and tastes, and identifies with what has worked in the market before. 

Plus, it attracts an ideal readership! 

In the first months of my role, finding comps was a challenging task. 

While businesses like Amazon make the research easier (Amazon, in fact, first gained success because of their brilliant move to recommend additional books a customer would like after purchasing a title), there are certain details I needed to keep in mind in order to find a good comp. 

I mentioned above that finding bad comps is worse than no comps. And the agent I worked for told me multiple times that comps weren’t mandatory in a query letter, although when good ones came along, they helped. 

You see, there’s a trick to finding good comps—if you know what good means.

I’d like to clarify this with five must-knows covered in this post.  

Must-Knows When Picking Your Book’s Comparable Titles

There’s a lot of great places to look for comps for your manuscript. 

Libraries are the underdogs of all story archives, and I’m always a huge advocate for local bookstores, especially since booksellers really know their titles, and will have loads of recommendations when you describe what you’re looking for in a book.

Keep in mind, comparable titles aren’t exactly like the book you’re writing (if it was, then why are you writing a book that’s already been done?), but they are similar (and different). 

For instance, you might be looking to make a connection with your story that an agent mentions they like on their #MSWL (manuscript wish list). 

Take for example a story that could be described as smart fiction that involves a startup business in today’s society. A good comp for this might be Doree Shafrir’s Startup: A Novel. 

Or maybe you’re looking for a book that takes a hard look at Islamophobia in American for young adults. Samira Ahmed’s Love, Hate, and Other Filters would be a fantastic fit. 

How about nonfiction? Perhaps you want a comparable title that explores female entrepreneurs and the gender gap in business. I’d highly recommend Sophia Amoruso’s #Girlboss, which I suggested as a comp for Susanne Althoff’s amazing book Launching While Female.  

All of these examples are good picks for the scenarios paired with them, but pulling these titless out at libraries, bookstores, Amazon, or Goodreads might seem overwhelming. At first. 

To ensure you find a good title for your story’s comps, turn to one of the four story providers above, and then use these five must-knows to make sure they’ll work. 

Note: While I linked to Amazon above, because Amazon is easiest for research, I deeply encourage you to consider buying local, if it’s in your means. I don’t always buy local, but if I can I do because bookstores and booksellers are awesome, and seriously worth talking to about stories.

I also thought you might enjoy this resource, which I’m passing along from Oprah’s magazine (I first saw it on Jodi Picoult’s social media), as it can help you locate and support black-owned bookstores: FIND THAT RESOURCE HERE. 

Recently Published

Agents and editors need comps that have been recently published, or published within the last three (maybe five) years. 

Why? 

Because they need to know that your book will sell in today’s market, and if there’s a good comp that has done this, they will probably have more success when using it in their pitch to an editor or publisher. 

However, there is an exception here. If you have two comps and one is older, or a TV show or movie, and the other is more recently published, it will work. 

Just make sure at least one of the comps you pitch has been published in that last one to five year mark. 

Published by the Big Five

This one is important, and what tripped me up most in my earlier months as an editorial intern. 

The Big Five are considered the largest five publishers in the publishing industry, and the agent I worked most closely with emphasized the importance of pitching comps published by the Big Five when pitching a debut author’s book. 

To check if your comp is from a Big Five publisher—and not a small publisher or indie publisher (or self published)—Jane Friedman created this phenomenal infographic. 

Another good place to cross your t’s is from almossawi.com. It’s amazing. Bookmark this page in your browser. Or print it out and pin it to your wall: Big Five Infographic. 

Performed Well in Sales

A good comp isn’t good unless it’s performed well in sales. Remember, comps are used to prove to an editor or publisher (or agent) that your book has what it takes to attract and please readers. Sales are evidence of this.

Of course, you’re probably not going to find a spreadsheet of a title’s finances online.

But you can discover if a book has done well by turning to best-seller lists, awards, options, and news about the book’s performance. 

Not Ubiquitous 

Another important must-know that you might not think about! 

This is also the number one reason why nobody should use a book like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or any Harry Potters) as a comp. 

Just don’t do it. 

Of course everyone wants to be as successful as J.K. Rowling’s series, but Harry Potter has really become something more than a book. It’s a brand. 

And when books are ubiquitous, they don’t work well to pitch as a comp because there’s really no guarantee that any new title will reach that level of success.

Although we can hope! 

(Some other example not to use, although great masterworks for you to read and analyze: Eat, Pray, Love, Gone Girl, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia—I’m sure there are others, but these for sure, in addition to the fact that they’re not recently published (see must-know number one).)

Clear Aspect on Back Cover That is Similar to Your Story 

Last on the list is the number one detail you should include in your query letter when pitching to an agent. 

What do I mean by a clear aspect on the back cover that is similar to your book? This is the similarity that makes your book the same but different to your comp. 

I mentioned a few of these examples with the books aforementioned: Startup, Love, Hate, and Other FIlters, and #Girlboss. 

Where (and How) to Use Your Comparable Titles

Once you do find a good comparable title for your story, it’s important to understand where and how to use them. 

If your heart is set on the traditional publishing route, the perfect place to pitch one or two of your comps is in the first paragraph of your query letter. 

Here, look for what the literary agent your querying is interested in representing (research their manuscript wish list or interviews), and then identify the aspect (must-know number five) that they mention.  

Not only will your comps work as a fantastic way to personally connect with the agent you hope will represent you and your work, but it shows you understand the market, your story, and how to research. 

All major pluses in future clients! 

If you’re not hoping to traditionally publish, comparable titles are still great ways to find your ideal readers and write your back cover. 

We all have select tastes when it comes to stories, and knowing how to find comps will help you find your groups. 

Why Good Comps Will Help You Read With a Purpose

As a fellow word nerd, you know that DIY MFA is all about reading with a purpose. And for good reason! 

If you can’t read with a purpose, you won’t become a better writer. Writers have to read in order to strengthen their craft, voice, understanding of story structure, and style. 

Writers also need to understand why a story works—or as I like to define this, advances the plot and develops characters with meaning. In addition to providing exceptional, unique settings, prose, and messages.

When you find a comparable title that works for your book, you should read it. Then, using your writing craft knowledge, start to decipher what makes your story the same but different. 

Hopefully you’ll pick up a few tricks to make your writing better along the way—without repeating the exact same ideas of other authors, of course. 

If you want to become a better writer, learn how to read like one. 

Do this by finding comparable titles that work. 

Thank You to DIY MFA, and a Bittersweet Farewell (for Now!)

For the past three and a half years I’ve had the great privilege to write as a columnist for DIY MFA. 

I first met and was inspired by Gabriela Pereira in 2015 at a Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City, connecting after a seminar she gave on characters. 

Enlightened, I started to follow her career, and later came across an opportunity to pitch a column for the reading portion of DIY MFA’s pillars, which became my Let’s Talk Books series.

Because of DIY MFA, I have grown as a writer, reader, educator, and advocator for stories in immeasurable ways. 

I have cherished my time with you fellow word nerds and the DIY MFA team, and am sad to write this farewell post (for now!), but am excited to focus on my burgeoning editing and storytelling career and growing family. 

As an editor and writer myself, I cannot encourage you enough to support the DIY MFA team. They are fun. They are smart. And they are supportive. (Not to mention nerdy!) 

I hope that you have benefited from this final, farewell post—and hopefully all the posts I contributed over the years.

I wish you well, and happy, purposeful reading. 

Abigail K. Perry is a Certified Story Grid Editor with professional teaching, literary agency, and film production experience. In addition to writing masterwork guides that help people learn how to write, read, and edit like a writer, she works as a freelance developmental editor/book coach and diagnostic editor. Abigail also teaches Genre-Focused writing workshops for the genres she specializes in, which include Women’s Fiction, YA Fantasy, Upmarket Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Scripts. Visit Abigail’s website if you’re a writer looking for an editor who will help you grow as storyteller, and who has experience in differentiated instruction, traditional publishing, and film.

The post Must-Knows When Picking Comparable Titles appeared first on DIY MFA.

So, as we celebrate the arrival of 2021 and of Covid vaccines and look forward to the time when we can get back “out there” with our readers, it occurred to me that another thing worth celebrating is the success of Indie writers in our genre. To that end, I’ve compiled a list of winners and runners-up of a number of highly-respected book awards that focus on the Indie publication sphere.  These are by no means all the awards out there, but they are some of the best known. Finalists and honorable mentions are also listed on many of the award websites.

Perhaps you’ll find something for your TBR list. Perhaps you’ll discover indie writers who fuel your own WIP. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to submit your own indie-published book for consideration. In any event, here’s wishing all historical fiction writers a brighter year and lots of success, no matter where you are in your publishing journey.

American Fiction Awards

These awards have categories both for Historical Fiction and for the adjacencies discussed in my August article, “When is it Historical Fiction and when is it something else?”. So I’ve included the 2020 award winners for all the relevant categories.

Historical Fiction: The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain, Sparks Press, August 4, 2020

Adventure-Historical: Northern Blood (Northern Wolf Series, Book 3) by Daniel Greene, Rune Publishing, March 31, 2020

Fantasy-Historical: The Winter Sisters by Tim Westover, QW Publishers, LLC, August 6, 2019

Mystery/Suspense-Historical: A Child Lost: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel  by Michelle Cox, She Writes Press, April 28, 2020

Romance-Historical: Awaken My Heart by Christine Wissner, Christine Wissner, March 10, 2019

Best Indie Book Award

The most recent set of winners posted here is for 2019. I didn’t find any indication of when the 2020 award winners would be posted.

2019 Winner: Sinner’s Cross by Miles Watson, One Nine Books, October 6, 2019

Eric Hoffer Book Award

Winner: I Was Hitler’s Baker by Glenn Peterson, Xlibris US, January 26, 2019

1st Runner-Up: Carrying Independence by Karen A. Chase, 224 Pages, June 11, 2019

Foreword Indies

Gold: The Boys Who Woke up Early by Amy Trueblood, Imbrifex Books, March 3, 2019 (1st edition)

Silver: Mrs. Rossi’s Dream  by Khanh Ha, The Permanent Press, April 5, 2019

Bronze: Beloved Mother by Laura Hunter, Bluewater Publications, April 1, 2019

Independent Author Network

Book of the Year First Place and Historical Fiction First Place:

Before The Brightest Dawn (The Half-Bloods Series Book 3) by Jana Petken, June 14, 2019

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award

Gold Medal: Moccasin Track by Reid Lance Rosenthal, Rockin’ SR Publishing, August 29, 2019

Silver Medal: Breaking Point: A Novel of the Battle of Britain by John Rhodes, Suncoast Publishing, September 24, 2019

Silver Medal: General Meade: A Novel of the Civil War by Robert Kofman, Lion Valley Publishing LLC, March 5, 2019

Independent Publisher Book Awards (the IPPYs)

Gold: Across a Broken Shore by Amy Trueblood, North Star Editions, November 5, 2019

Silver: Beyond the Ghetto Gates by Michelle Cameron, She Writes Press, April 7, 2020

Bronze: The Pelton Papers by Mari Coates, She Writes Press, April 7, 2020

International Book Awards

Winner: Moccasin Track by Reid Lance Rosenthal, Rockin’ SR Publishing, August 29, 2019

National Indie Excellence Awards

Winner: The Dung Beetles of Liberia by Daniel V. Meier, Jr., BQB Publishing, September 1, 2019

Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Winner: Repentance by Andrew Lam, Tiny Fox Press, LLC, May 1, 2019

Pacific Book Awards

First Place: The Andean Cross by L. A. Clayton, JustFiction Edition, April 9, 2013

Second Place: In the Beginning: The Early Days of Religious Beliefs by Jaime Reyes,  Westwood Books Publishing LLC, (August 13, 2019)

Rubery Book Award

There was one Historical Fiction novel short-listed for this award in 2020.

Song of the Nightingale by Marilyn Pemberton, The Conrad Press, December 14, 2019

An award-winning author of historical fiction and a freelance editor, Pamela Taylor loves helping others polish their stories almost as much as she enjoys writing her own. She’s a member of the DFW Writers Workshop and the Editorial Freelancers Association and is in her fourth year on the judges panel for the Ink & Insights Writing Contest. She shares her home with two Welsh Corgis who frequently remind her that a dog walk is a great way to get inspiration for that next chapter.

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I fell in love for the first time in July – there were fireworks (literal and figurative) and I wanted nothing more in my whole thirteen years of living than to kiss that boy. Growing up in a small Atlantic Canadian province I hold snapshots of summer in my memory – the soundtrack  ‘Patio Lanterns’ by Kim Mitchell. I remember the glee, the novelty of endless summer days with no schedule and plunging into the cold Atlantic Ocean. If summer is remembered in snapshots and slips of songs, winter is bone deep in the spine of my childhood. 

A maritime winter is long and cold and treacherous. You layer up starting in October and you don’t unpeel yourself until around May. Snow is all around but so is salt. Not the small, clean looking table salt, it’s road or rock salt. The big, brown rock salt is laid down on the plowed roads, the shoveled sidewalks, eating away at the undercarriage of your car, stuck to your boots. It makes the snow turn brown and muddy-looking long before the ground has thawed. Winter can sometimes be a drag.

The Magic Of Winter

Of course, winter is also magical – and the world really does look new with a fresh layer of snow. There is something enchanting about crunching through the snow at night, the world muted by layers of insulating snow.

It sparkles in the moonlight; did you know that? You’re exhaling the warm air and it puffs around you like smoke and the whole world is white and still and iridescent. You feel your own smallness, your own fragile body immersed in this frigid air so cold if you ran your lungs would burn with it.

I’m living in Texas now and because of COVID I haven’t been able to travel home this Christmas. The year 2020 has been chock full of fun hasn’t it?

All that to say…I have been feeling nostalgic this holiday season and have combed the internet to find the best ‘snow’ themed poems in the universe, for you. Well, for me too, but now I’m sharing with you!

Getting Cozy

But let’s do this right shall we? Go make a mug of hot chocolate with those small marshmallows that puff up soft and melty, or your favorite peppermint latte and a warm blanket. I’ll wait! I’m breaking off teeth shattering pieces of the gingerbread house we decorated. That’s okay to eat right?

Allright. Ready? Cozy? Okay read away my friends.

The Best ‘Snow-Themed’ Poems In The Universe

Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

The Snow by Emily Dickinson

Snow-Flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Snow Shower by William Cullen Bryant

Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson

Spellbound by Emily Brontë

The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe

Angela Yeh hails from Atlantic Canada but lives and works in Texas – after her liberal arts degree she wandered into Corporate America but managed to escape. She is a staunch advocate for writers and literacy/learning with her online writing community at DIYMFA.com. She also teaches a love of creative gardening to pre-k kids in her physical community. She lives with her husband, two lovely human children, and two cranky fur babies. You can check her out on Insta – @thatpluckygirl or at her website, www.thepluckycanadian.com

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