Other Stuff

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. However: None of it really matters …

  Optin Monster Form [thrive_2step id=’11978′]Thrive Leads Form[/thrive_2step] Sumo Forms SELL MORE BOOKS (without spam). I wrote a free book with all my best book launch and marketing tips - if your book isn't selling and you're not sure why, this will definitely boost your sales. There's even a free video series walking you through the 3 secrets, and a …

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 SELL MORE BOOKS (without spam). I wrote a free book with all my best book launch and marketing tips - if your book isn't selling and …

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 …

This week a few issues have brought up an issue that needs mentioning. I think there’s a reluctance in high-brow literary circles towards money, or marketing, or sales. Many indie authors talk about craft or quality but hate the idea of marketing their books. “Profit” is not the intended result of writing and publishing, for many authors, even traditionally published …

My wife and I have been travelling full time for the last 5 years, and I’ve been living abroad since the early 2000’s.  One of the most important factors in our travel plans is connecting with friends in the digital nomad community; lifestyle satisfaction and productivity improves when I can meetup and talk business with like-minded individuals (people who love …

  This has been an interesting week for me. It’s snowing in Oregon, I’m nostalgic; Obama just gave his final speech. The future is uncertain but we need to decide the world we want to live in and take action to make it a reality. 2016 was a year of big wins and first for me, but a lot of …

  RESULTS: The winner is Lauren Smith, who writes historical romance (and an upcoming dragon shifter). Thanks everyone for entering, I’ll link to your articles and try to drive some traffic. I plan to do more writing contests like this in the future!   For the past 10 years I’ve been helping writers publish and promote their books. While I’m …

There are some benefits to doing preorders on Kindle, but the main drawback is you can’t get reviews posted on a preorder book until after it’s live. Or can you? Actually there’s a way around this: Set up the book on Createspace also. Publish it to Amazon. But then, upload a new interior file and don’t approve it. The print book …

Recently on Facebook some virtual assistants (VAs) and personal assistants (PAs) were asking about how to get more work, or what they could do to grow their business. I’ve also talked a lot about using VAs, and have one right now, though I usually haven’t been good about having a clear strategy of things to do that will actually help …