First ever livestream

You're not going to believe this. Another seven days have disappeared and I'm here – me, Iain Broome – sending you another edition of the Draft Mode newsletter.

First, a huge thank you and polite cuddles to the 50 or so of you who have signed up since last week. Most of you came from Jane Friedman's own excellent newsletter (thanks Jane!) and I'm very happy to have you here.

What are you working on? What sort of would be useful for me to share with you?

Feel free to reply or email hello@iainbroome.com because I am happy to help if I can. Same goes if you've been subscribed for more than a few days, of course. I still love you too.

Anyway, this week I recorded my first ever livestream. Imagine that!

It was just a test to see if the equipment worked (it did) and I'd set it all up correctly (I hadn't – two mics switched on for the screencast bit). But I thought I would share it with you in this rough form to give you an idea of the kind of thing I have planned.

The video is unlisted on YouTube, as it's really meant just for you at the moment. It starts with some technical faffing and waffling. And then I go on to give you a very loose overview of how I'm using Notion to organise my novel-in-progress.

All feedback welcome! Enjoy the lovely links below.

Iain

PS If you livestream in the woods and don't tell anyone you're there, is it really a livestream at all? 🌳

PPS I'll tidy up when I do this properly. 😬

Links of the week

Every issue I collect and share the best advice, apps and other shenanigans that I find on my internet travels. Find something useful? Subscribe for free.

Dorik - Build Beautiful Websites Without Code

Need to put together a quick website for your new novel? Got an exciting project you need a home for? You could try Dorik as a simpler alternative to something like Squarespace. There is also the brilliant Carrd, which I have used for years.

26 Tips on How to Manage Content as a One-Person Marketing Team

This piece by Jason Bradwell has nothing specifically to do with the literary world, but it's a tip-top rundown of what it takes to run a regular newsletter and podcast. Which is what you might end up doing if you want to create your own – whisper it – author platform.

A thread of funding opportunities for writers

Fantastic collection of resources, information and opportunities if you are an author on the lookout for funding to support your writing. You might also be interested in the free 'funding for writers' webinar from The Literacy Consultancy.

Wonder Tools: useful sites and apps for writing

This is a new newsletter to me and naturally, I decided to share the edition full of writing apps. I was especially interested in gSweets, a Chrome extension that makes your Google Docs work a bit like Notion. Lots of other good stuff in here for you to try too.

See also: 3 Writing Apps I use Every Day

Everything You Need to Know About Book Advances

Some good-to-know stuff in this from The Authors Guild. It's been a long time since I went through this process, so I was interested to read about advances that come in up to six parts. For what it's worth, my very small indeed (😭) advance came in one go.

Tweets of the week

Tweets are but mothballs in a cupboard of bad fashion choices. But some of them are quite good. You can follow @iainbroome and @unslush on Twitter.

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Draft Mode is a weekly newsletter by Iain Broome, author of the novel, A is for Angelica. Join 1100+ subscribers and start receiving the tools and tips that help you improve, publish and promote your writing. Subscribe for free.