Tari Akpodiete made this awesome chart of cover design resources. Click the image to view the PDF in Dropbox, then zoom in to see all the links and content. Follow Tari on Twitter Need help launching a #1 bestseller? Grab my FREE book marketing guide and email series, so you can save time and money while avoiding critical …
Read More »Derek Murphy
How to write a blurb, back cover copy or sales description for your book that converts
I’m working through the material for my next course, Guerrilla Publishing, but this part is too important not to share for everyone. I keep saying, if you’re not selling books, it’s almost always because of your cover, blurbs or # of reviews. I’ve made tons of videos (and a free course) on cover design, and I recently posted a video on …
Read More »How I got kicked out of Kindle Unlimited and (almost) lost $50,000 overnight
Want to make a living with your writing? Download my FREE book launch checklist and discover the step-by-step publishing roadmap I use to launch bestsellers. Update – I’m back in! I raised enough of a fuss that they changed their ruling – read to the bottom to find out what happened. For the last year, I’ve been telling everyone …
Read More »Zero to $10K a month in passive income in less than 12 months
Note: I’m not at $10K a month in passive income yet, but I think I will be by the end of this year… this post is about my plans to improve my sales funnels. I don’t like talking about how much my business earns, because it doesn’t give the full picture. With all the services and tools I pay for, …
Read More »Writing under the influence: productivity and motivation tips to help authors write faster
Years ago I started working on a book called “The Creative Brain on Drugs.” It’s a book not just about the various mind-stimulating or sensation-altering substances that the majority of writers and artists have depended on for creative insight, but also their political views on the inherent right to self-modify, without government oversight. But after years of trying to write …
Read More »Book giveaway software, for authors by authors!
For the past year I’ve been using giveaways to build my platform – resulting in my shares, more engagement, more traffic, a huge email list and more book sales. It works great. Here’s the problem: Most authors don’t know how to use book giveaways well. Most software is expensive. I now use KingSumo, which is best for viral sharing and …
Read More »The really weird tricks I use to write and publish bestselling books
Recently I realized my whole process for publishing bestselling books is completely backwards. At a party in Medellin recently, a guy said “wow, you’ve hacked publishing!” I don’t like being called a hack because there’s an assumption that it means I’m putting out poor quality books to trick or fool readers. (Steven Pressfield calls anyone who writes for an audience the …
Read More »How to revive a book when sales slow down
I’m doing a lot of things right with my book marketing, but it’s hard to do everything perfectly. Plus, I know that sales are limited by demand – so the fact that one of my books sells 10x better than another one hasn’t bothered me too much. I figured mermaids (Shearwater) just weren’t as popular as dark fantasy (Scarlet Thread …
Read More »3 book marketing interviews that will help you sell more books
I’ve been invited to speak on some podcasts and channels recently – I usually say yes because I love talking about publishing and book marketing. I’m not ashamed to say I get really excited and geek out about these things. So here are three recent interviews I think worth listening to. The first is with Tom Corson Knowles. I met …
Read More »10 Ways to Stay Focused While Drafting a Manuscript
I just spoke to Kevin T Johns about writing fiction that sells and asked him for some tips on actually finishing a book – plenty of authors never finish and need more help – he delivered with this epic post! Writing a novel, especially a first novel, is a massive and complex project. The sheer amount of work involved can …
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