This is usually where I’d post a roundup of the best (FREE to enter) writing contests. But I’ve decided not to, because even though they’re great for traffic, there are several sites that have already put lists like that together – I’ll link to those at the end of this post. So, why write anything
There are some rumblings this week as Kindle announced a new program for authors called Kindle Vella; basically a short, serialized place for content that’s separate from the main Kindle store and runs more like a smartphone app. Several companies have tried to pull this off, (“Radish” is the most successful one) but Amazon...
The literary world has opened its gates to a flood of indie authors, thanks to platforms that allow them to self-publish with ease. While this democratization of publishing is overwhelmingly positive, it also means there’s a deluge of books out there that, perhaps, didn’t go through the rigorous editing process traditional...
There’s a financial war going on. Some peeps on Reddit took smart bets against Wall Street positions, which were severely over leveraged – assuming big companies would fail or shut down during the Pandemic. They realized if they pushed the stock up, the hedge funds would be forced to compete or buy at high prices
I just got an email from someone saying they were too depressed to publish, so I’m sharing my response: “Release it first, promote it later; the market decides whether they like it, and the work is what it is, so don’t let your feelings or doubts stop you from getting it out there.” Edit: Now
For the second year in a row, my humble mess of a blog got listed by the WriteLife as one of the top 100 sites for writers – right next to Jane Friedman and Dave Chesson, so I thought I’d mark the moment with some stories. I *met* Dave years ago when I was in Taiwan, and
How to Make the Dream Come True Every journey begins with a single step. Derek Murphy helped me navigate and overcome the obstacle course between me and my destination of becoming a successful Indie fantasy author. We met online after I’d completed my first medieval fantasy novel. I was lurking around his website, CreativIndie. As
It’s been a few weeks since I launched Book Craft, the writing guide I’ve been working on all year, and reviews are terrible. I don’t really have a great place to discuss this, so I’m starting a blog post here. It’s obviously not great marketing to talk about bad reviews in a defensive preface; or
Today I went down the rabbit hole of professional book coaches: you know, those people who help you write books. I’ve talked about this a little on this blog but it was probably mostly negative and my stance might be shifting a little bit. You see, I don’t really believe in coaches. Coaches help give
This is a guest post on how to use a great cover in marketing materials. Writer friends, you may have noticed how the world of design plays a big role in book launches, from covers to ads. If you’ve ever wondered how a career marketer approaches design, read on to see how I aimed for
For the past few years I’ve been studying the craft of writing better books, and found woefully few useful resources on how to actually plot, write and edit your book to increase engagement. Working with cowriters, clients and writing students, I’ve started collecting new strategies to check and improve your writing without paying a...
Over the past few years, my writing templates and resources have gotten a few million views on YouTube, but I wanted to make higher quality materials that were more accessible. So I took some of my best resources and put them together in a Udemy Course on writing fiction. Write a novel in 3 months
