This is the best way to test if you should be a creative, any kind of creative, at least for a career. Say, “I’m going to take a year off from creating things.” If you can last a year, go find something else to do with your life. Seriously. Creating things is a long, lonely,
It’s really hard for somebody to get excited about your project if they’ve never seen it before you launch. In fact, the more often somebody sees a project the more attached to it they become, and the more they will want to give you their money. This is one of the biggest secrets to selling
It is never somebody’s fault they didn’t buy from you. This is one of the hardest pills to swallow in this game, because we always want to blame somebody else for our misfortune, but the truth is that if somebody doesn’t buy, it is entirely our fault. Maybe we didn’t explain it right, or maybe
I have been able to gather a rather large group of creators who want to work with me, talk about my projects, and generally have positive things to say about me. People ask me how I have been able to build a large network in a relatively short time, so now I will tell you
There are many pieces that go into a successful book launch strategy, and frankly, every successful author has a strategy that is unique to them. I’m not in the business of talking about unique one-off ways to find success, though. I’m all about finding the common threads between hundreds of authors and putting them together
2018 was a banner year in productivity and growth for me. I finished 15 books, my most ever by a long shot. On top of that, I also completed and launched three courses, which meant I completed 18 total projects in the year. I have never pushed myself harder than I did in 2018, and I was
Every “guru” talks about how having an audience is the key to success. I don’t need to convince you of that fact. However, if you are like me, you look at every tone-deaf article about audience building and think “you can go screw yourself”. Why? Because the crux of every article is that you need
One of the biggest mistakes young writers make is getting into a terrible contract they can never leave. I’ve dealt with this several times with books I want to publish. The creator sends me their original contract and THEY DON’T EVEN OWN THE RIGHTS. That’s right. More than one person has sent me a contract
Is social media dead? Not by a long shot. In fact, social media is a key component in keeping my business profitable. Creators have been singing the death knell of social media for years, but I still make as much or more money from Facebook alone than I do from my newsletter, and this is
A couple of months ago, I wrote an in-depth article about how to land a book publishing deal, and I got a flood of questions from people asking about how to achieve success as a self-published author. I think you should read that article and this one together, and much of the social media building
If you want to get somebody interested in buying your product, whether it’s a book, a print, or even your services, you need to start with a dynamite pitch. In my experience, you don’t have much time to catch somebody’s interest. Luckily, I’ve perfected the steps to a good pitch so you can gain somebody’s
I know it seems like I don’t talk about comics anymore, so this one is for the comics people. Why have I been so out of the loop with comics the past couple of months? Because I’ve been trying to master book marketing, and it’s really hard. It’s the hardest thing, aside from learning to
