I asked illustrator Jessica Warrick to help me out testing print quality between Lightning Source and Createspace for her new book, 50 Happy Things. Previously, I’ve always heard that LS has slightly better print quality, but I haven’t recommended it because it’s a pain to work with and the assumed benefits aren’t really...
I’ve been doing more research for one of my books that isn’t selling well. I used K-lytics to get the data for the teen and young adult category. http://k-lytics.com/teen-young-adult/ They list all the bestsellers of the genre, keywords, categories, etc – you could do the research yourself but I like the easy format they...
I talk a lot about writing books that sell, but I don’t always take my own advice. Out of the 5 novels I’ve published, most do pretty well with no promotion – but I’ve been having trouble keeping the rank up on one. There are reasons – mostly it’s a less popular mix of genres, The 3 secrets to book...
Exclusive Bonus: 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. 2017 The Creative Writers’ Workshop Memoir Workshop Who is it for? The workshop is for those who wish to tap into their life experiences and memories...
Last year I shared a castle with some writer friends for Nanowrimo and got featured in CNN. We’ve decided we like living in castles and want to do more of it. Specifically, I love how effective I can be with someone when I’m actually in the same room, and can really dig deep and focus The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a...
A few years ago I started collecting quotes and book marketing tips from publishing experts – I put them up online and divided them into topics for easy navigating, but forget to tell anyone about it. Someday I’ll organize the content into a book or course, but for now it’s all free. If any The 3 secrets to book...
It’s really hard to describe how to make a great author website, so I made a video critiquing 15 real-life examples. These aren’t *perfect* author websites, but they are representative of the type of websites most authors have. If you watch the whole video, you’ll learn a lot about setting up a website for authors. The 3...
Last year I rented a chateau in France for Nanowrimo. We got some great press coverage and had an amazing time. All in all, I think we did pretty well. I love the idea of running writing retreats in castles, so I’m doing it again this year. Last year I built a big sales page The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted castle tour...
Over the past seven years, I’ve built a few platforms that get a decent amount of traffic. For the past three years, I’ve been trying to convert some of that traffic into revenue through digital products and courses, so I can focus more time on my writing. Although I have had some success, I’m also The 3 secrets to book...
We’ve spent several months in the USA this year, and I’m already itching to get back to Europe. The slow pace, the clean air, the historic buildings… I just always feel more creatively inspired if my surroundings are uplifting. Our current plan is Portugal in September, Prague or Frankfurt in October, a castle in Austria...
A few years ago I wrote a post about how authors can use press releases to actually sell books. But the main takeaway was that authors shouldn’t try and do a press release because most of the time, they haven’t actually done anything newsworthy. I’ve somewhat modified my position, because: doing a press release might The 3...
I was pretty sure I sucked at Amazon ads. Which is mostly fine: I’m still making money and I figured I couldn’t *really* spend big on Amazon ads until I had a bunch of finished series out. Tonight I took a look at the ads I’m still running. My average cost per click is about $0.30; The 3 secrets to book...
