Recently I asked you guys if you had any publishing questions on this post: “Ask me anything about publishing – please!” I answered a lot of questions on that post, but I also decided to put them altogether into an ebook. And it’s free! I’ve sent it to my list already, but if you aren’t
Tonight I read with interest two posts about Author Ethics. This one by Jane Steen on selfpublishingadvice.org argues that while indie authors often lament (and admit to be challenged by) quality issues, the equally important issue of Author Ethics is ignored. The concept of “Author Ethics” refers mainly to bullshit book reviews; a...
Can someone explain Booktrope to me? I don’t get it. It looks like people can volunteer to be part of a creative time to produce the book, then earn a percentage of the sales revenue (and, apparently they only publish quality books that the community has supported, which means a better chance of revenue.) If
I’m listening to a School of Greatness Podcast with Tucker Max about book marketing. Tucker is one of only 3 authors ever to have three non-fiction books on the NYT bestseller list at the same time. When he started writing, he was rejected by every single agent and publisher in town. So he started blogging,
I was excited that Kindle finally set up a pre-order option on KDP, which means self-publishing authors can finally compete with mainstream books by selling pre-orders. Pre-orders are great because you can build buzz and start talking about/selling your book before it’s really all polished up and ready to go. In addition (I believe) all...
I wrote recently about how and why book cover designs should be clichés, most of the time, because you always want to fit into a genre and appeal to the style conventions that are being used: you want people to recognize what your book is about. No, they won’t say, “Gee that looks interesting, but
I attended several writer’s conferences this summer, and was surprised by my findings. I’d been picturing writers as teenage girls writing Twilight fan fiction; turns out they are (mostly) 40 to 80 and usually tech-averse. I’d thought self-publishing had become the obvious choice for a plethora of reasons, but here were these...
Below are some of the books I read in 2014 and found useful. [ReviewAZON name=”1″ id=”6″ display=”multiinlineasins” asins=”B004XR57PE,B00IS884QS,0984655123,B007SYTLVA,B007IJLGUY,0615796796,B00PXHHPWQ,0981875637,159963421X,0615909205″ trackingid=”creativindie-20″ country=””...
This is a guest post by Jeff McKinney; I was curious about the Write it Forward event and Jeff agreed to do a write-up I could share. On July 25-26, authors, speakers and creatives gathered in Atlanta for Write it Forward featuring bestselling author and writing teacher Jeff Goins. The event was well organized, intimate
Everybody will tell you that starting an email list as soon as possible is the #1 way to grow your platform and sell more of anything. But how does it really work? I’m not an expert on blogging or email marketing, but this week I’m sitting in my sister’s apartment in Vancouver BC and finally
I’m a couple days late posting this – just a reminder, it’s not a contest with prizes, but an event where participation helps improve your skills and may also boost your traffic and platform by giving you some visibility. And if I get enough quality short stories I’ll publish as a little anthology. Romance is
I’m at a writing conference, and during just about every session, authors keep asking the same questions. And they aren’t looking for answers. They are looking for permission not to give a damn about their readers. They ask stuff like “I know I’m supposed to use Facebook/Twitter… but do I have to?” They say...
