My Guerrilla Publishing course has lots of information and can seem overwhelming, so I just wrote a summary of all the important bits. This includes some of my launch strategies and a basic glossary of useful publishing terms. If it’s useful, please share!   The most important step to publishing successfully is:   1. Write a good book in …

I’m watching a new show called “Kevin Probably Saves the World” – and normally, even though I write fiction about fallen angels, I wouldn’t be that interested in the “plucky but failed protagonist gets help from angels to do small acts of kindness” trope. But it’s actually really good and I’m enjoying it. It makes me nostalgic for when I …

There are generally two places when writers quit. The first is after their first, second or third book. They expected everything to be easy and found out that publishing is hard. They assumed their book would be successful on its own merits, despite having an unprofessional cover, blurb and website. They thought it would connect with readers even though they …

Years ago I made a cover for a book called “Not For Hire.” The aim of the book was an announcement to the world that I could not be bought. It depended on making so much money with my own passion projects that I never needed to take on work I hated. Some people call this level of success “F*ck …

If you’re thinking about becoming a writer, you might be asking yourself whether you’re “Good Enough” to go professional. The short answer is YES, because quality doesn’t matter. Let me explain: Readers read for content, not quality.  Yes, it needs to be clean and edited enough not to be distracting. I shoot for less than 1 typo in 10,000 words …

We spent the last two weeks in Castle Rappottenstein, Austria. It’s hard for either words or pictures to do the experience justice, so in the post I’ll also share some of the less obvious benefits of hosting writing retreats in castles. But first, here’s a video tour with some last minute Nanowrimo tips.   I don’t always do Nanowrimo, and …

We’ve been in Burg Rappottenstein for a few days and we love it. It’s an enormous 12th century fortress; it’s comfortable and we’re all getting a lot of writing done. We’ll make a video soon and will share it with the #nanowrimo community, but for now here are some pictures and an introduction to my guests.     Guestlist Jay …

  What’s Pronoun and what does it matter? Today was supposed to be the day I share testimonials from students and start wrapping up my course launch – but instead it’s important to comment on what’s going on with Pronoun. If you haven’t heard of Pronoun yet, it’s an ebook distribution platform like Smashwords and Draft2Digital. It’s not perfect, but …

This week I’m launching my new program, Guerrilla Publishing – which I’ve built over the last year while travelling full-time. I made a free “Bookselling Bootcamp” challenge while staying at the 5 star Regent Hotel Montenegro (I wanted to be comfortable going into Nanowrimo, and I also did a 2-week sugar fast). But I realized I hadn’t published anything on my …

  Porto and Harry Potter This month we’ve been travelling through Portugal, seeking out JK Rowling’s favorite writing spots for inspiration. Rowling started planning Harry Potter in Porto, and it’s easy to see the connection. The university students wear black capes, and Porto is home to the “most beautiful bookstore in the world” – Livraria Lello. You may not know this, …