There is a demand for publishing short stories, but the money is in ebooks. Specifically, Amazon’s “short reads” section, which is broken down by reading time for books less than 100 pages. This week I got to peak at a report from k-lytics.com, who analysed more than 14,000 books to assess the commercial attractiveness of
This is a free mini-series I put out at the beginning of 2017. Now that my YouTube Channel has almost 500,000 3 million views, I’m going to start organizing it and producing better quality videos. If you want more, you should follow me there (I have more recent videos on book marketing of course, but
I’ve dealt with the frustrations of indie authors for the last decade. I’m not generally supportive in the emotional sense. I know publishing and making a living with your writing isn’t easy, so I try to teach them how to do it right and make it easier. But the overwhelm is so great that many
It’s already 2017. I didn’t do a “yearly wrapup” for 2016 like I do sometimes. The last month of 2016 flew by and I still feel overwhelmed with projects. I felt like 2016 was a lot of waiting and working, without seeing major results. My income went way down, as I spent most of the year
I just learned something new from Ryan Deiss and I’m putting it here in case I forget it. It’s a simple rule to online business that rings true for me. “You don’t have a traffic problem.” What you really have is a problem with motivation and conversion. If you knew that you’d get $10 per visitor
This is a follow up post to an article I just wrote about hiring a VA or getting and author assistant. Getting a job as a virtual assistant seems like an easy, low level thing: you can do basic internet stuff, you can write well, some people are making money but are too busy, why
I see a lot of inexperienced authors saying things like, “If that crappy book can sell a million copies, mine will do way better.” This post will break down all the errors in that statement. First, it’s good to know your competition. But you also need to respect it. Authors who make statements like that often haven’t...
UPDATE: I made a video talking about this stuff but it’s down at the bottom of this post. Scroll down to see it. I’ve been self-publishing for about a decade, and have sold about 50,000 books. I haven’t made a living (yet), and like most self-publishing gurus and experts, I make my living in services
One of the things authors always ask is “How can I find more time for my writing?” But what they mean is, “How can I just write all the time, write what I want, and not do any marketing?” The question usually comes up from either a long-term inability to finish their book; insecurity about
Since finishing my PhD in literature, my wife and I are truly location independent and write full-time. One of the biggest productivity hacks I’ve found is to put myself in beautiful and inspiring environments (that are mostly distraction free). While some argue they can “write from anywhere” – I’m a firm...
This week a bunch of projects came together quickly, including this one, which I started last November. I had the story, courtesy of Suzanne Gochenouer and the art is by Donovan Scherer It took a few hours to format, then design the book covers, and then upload to Amazon. 24 hours later it’s published. I really think this
For awhile I’ve been feeling really bad about procrastinating and wasting time. It makes me feel guilty. And you have no idea – I’ll watch TV and movies for 16 straight hours to procrastinate from doing any work. I feel almost OCD about it. The reluctance I have towards something I know I have to
