Recently someone in one of my Facebook groups wrote how frustrated she was that her books weren’t selling, and she had no idea why. This is almost always because the book isn’t designed to sell to the right audience. What genre is it? Scifi? Fantasy? Contemporary? This has to be immediately clear from the cover and blurb, and you should …
Read More »Derek Murphy
Why you should never hire a publicist for your book (do this instead)
A common question I get in my private facebook group goes like this: “my book is published but I have zero sales and no visibility, and I don’t know anything about book marketing. Should I hire a publicist?” The short answer is NO. A book publicist or book launch specialist will often charge 10K or more, guarantee nothing and focus on …
Read More »The six signs of weak writing (how to tell if your book sucks)
I made this video in the last few days of Thailand, while in the process of reviewing several dozen applications to write with me – to be fair, none of the samples we received “sucked” … some were infuriatingly “good”, but didn’t hold my attention, were too wordy, trying too hard, overwritten and distracting. I boiled it down to six …
Read More »Dear BookBub, I’m breaking up with you
When I first started writing fiction, I needed someone to believe in me. I was ecstatic to get my first BookBub deal – a deal that helped me get 20,000 downloads for book one in my series and earn $8,297 in the same month. I thought I’d made it. Together, we were unbeatable. But now you’re always busy with other …
Read More »7 empowering insights to help you have your best year ever
I started this post in summer 2018 with the line: “I don’t feel ready to write this post, but I’m going to anyway.” But I didn’t publish it. Now at the end of 2018 I’m trying again, to see if I’ve figured this stuff out enough to share it with you. There’s something I want to say, or maybe …
Read More »30 Writing Tips from Charles Dickens That Will Help You Have a Merry Christmas
Last year we visited the Charles Dickens house in London, which is when we found out there was a 2017 movie about the author’s life called The Man Who Invented Christmas. I only watched it recently – it’s available on Amazon Prime – and then I watched it again and took notes. These are tips based on the movie; few of …
Read More »How to be alone, without being lonely (inspirational quotes on solitude and isolation)
For the last few years I’ve been editing a 19th century treatise called “The Genius of Solitude.” I already posted the introduction and some of my favorite quotes HERE, but I took some of the longer quotes and turned them into infographics. I love these, not only for the aesthetic beauty of the writing (I tried to find images to …
Read More »How to hire a ghostwriter for your book & average salary for ghostwriting jobs
We’re having a discussion in one of my Facebook groups, after someone asked how much they should pay to hire a freelance writer to do some ghostwriting for them. I suggested $500 for 50K. That’s not a lot of money, at all. Some people in the group are frustrated by people (like me) devaluing the work it takes to write …
Read More »Nanowrimo Prep: accountability and motivation for authors
For years I’ve been wishing for some kind of automated, daily accountability to keep me inspired and motivated – and I’ve heard a lot of other authors asking for the same thing. The problem is, writing can be a very personal goal, and sometimes it’s hard to self-motivate, especially if nobody else really cares about what you’re trying to do. …
Read More »A 24-chapter plot outline for your novel (FREE fiction writing template!)
A few years ago I made the Plot Dot (now free on Amazon!) – my simple 8 step outline for writing novels, with the major dramatic twists most stories need to hit. I always wanted a more in-depth plotting outline and cheatsheet, but there’s so many conflicting story structures out there… this week however, I managed to put together a …
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