Wednesday links: Books readers can’t put down and literary executors

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few. Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

The #1 Tip for How to Write Books Readers Can’t Put Down, from Helping Writers Become Authors: Writing a book someone can’t put down is what every author dreams of, right? Well, it doesn’t happen by accident. Excerpt: “The idea that what’s gonna happen next? is the most important question in fiction is tossed around quite a bit. You don’t need me to tell you that your readers want at least an element of the unexpected in your book’s ending.”
Please Please Please, from Janet Reid: Thinking about death isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. And there may be some literary steps related to your death that you’ve never thought of. Excerpt: “Every phone conversation started that way. And they all ended with “and what do I do now?” Because there had been no planning for “what happens next” I was unable to help them very much.”