Creativindie is slowly coming into its own and providing exactly the kind of help for artists and authors that it’s intended to. It’s so exciting that people are actually visiting my blog and getting in touch with me! I got a letter from Jen today, who’s struggling to find a way to get her foot
I’ve just started watching “Saving Mr. Banks” – the story of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) acquired the book rights of Mary Poppins from the author P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson). At the beginning of the story, P. L. Travers is a control freak, absolutely paranoid that her creation will be modified, changed, ruined. Disney...
On the surface, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a movie with values I can get behind. A boring photo-processor daydreams about epic adventures because he’s too scared and socially awkward to actually do anything. He’s made fun of, ignored and taken for granted. He’s supporting his mom and his dead-beat actress sister; a
This month I was asked to be a guest judge on the Author’s Database 2013 indie book cover design contest. It was an interesting experience, both in seeing the quality of what’s out there, and becoming more familiar with my own guidelines for quality cover design. There was a wide variety, and I was supposed
On my book cover design site, I sometimes offer to do free makeovers for indie authors – on the condition that I get to make what I want, and that they don’t get much say in the creative process. It’s fun for me and often takes less than an hour, and if they like what
Developing my own philosophy of Creativindie and working on a manifesto for this site, I’ve been reading all the books on creativity that I can find. Some offer valuable tips. Others are inspirational but mostly useless in terms of making your own success through creative talents. These books range between academic researchers with real...
I know one of the biggest challenges for writers is A) coming up with creative ideas for their writing and B) going back through their writing to self-edit, rewrite, improve and restructure. These are vastly different skills which need vastly different mind-sets. But there’s a simple and easy trick you can use to switch between
I mainly use stock photography for my book cover designs, but if I can’t find anything, I search long and hard to find an alternative. With book cover art, you need to be careful to get permission so you aren’t breaking copyright. But at the same time, copyright laws are confusing and open to creative
If you’re an artist, author or entrepreneur, you’ve probably heard of Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art and more recently, Do The Work. His books have become manifestos for creatives because they rephrase the artistic life in terms of battle and violence, and help people overcome their fears, doubts and worries. According...
I’ve been noticing a trend for awhile. I’ve commented on it before. At first it was subtle. It began with the explosion of “Lifestyle Businesses” – a few guys quit their jobs and told everybody else, “Hey, you guys should quit your jobs too, it’s awesome!” They set themselves up as...
I’ve been reading a lot of books about creativity. All of them deal with the struggle of the creative life: art is WAR. Creativity takes effort. We have to fight through it. REAL art is about emotion, struggle, anxiety. Real art is about passion, True experience. Real art is Creating Something New – it’s a
Recently a lot of people have been telling me I’m an excellent entrepreneur. It’s not a compliment. They usually say it when they’re disagreeing with my advice. I work with artists and authors, and I tell them what they need to do to be more successful, to sell more books or paintings, to gain more
