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 impact in my exterior and …

This is an advanced excerpt from Anna David’s new release “Make Your Mess Your Memoir.” If you’re ready to take your own experience and make it into a memoir that can help other people… There are just a few things for you to figure out first.   #1 Determine Your Message Determining your message is, as far as I’m concerned, the …

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 developmental editor. I’m putting all that …

A few years ago I made this epic list of 300+ fonts to use for every genre. But the truth is, I rarely use those anymore, and some are even cringeworthy. So recently I spent a lot of time going through my collection and choosing NEW fantasy fonts I love. Keep in mind: most of these have decorative swirls or …

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  Best novel writing apps How …

Love Scrivener but hate plotting your book? I’ve turned my advanced 24-chapter novel writing cheatsheet into a free, downloadable Scrivener template you can use for your own writing projects. This video will walk you through it. Get the Scrivener novel outlining template (download and unzip the .zip folder – then open the Scivener file and save it as a template. …

Need a free plotting template to help outline your novel? Want to write your book using Google docs? I’ve just created a detailed document you can copy to your own account and use to map out your book – click the link above to download now. Get the google docs novel writing template: CLICK HERE TO ACCESS Watch the video …

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you may know I’m unfortunately cavalier and careless in any regards – I like to think of myself as a pirate or a rebel, and that sometimes gets me in trouble. This year I’ve been working with a new team of writers to put out more content around my fiction brand, Urban Epics. …

A lot of authors – almost all I talked to – are very cautious about the money. Several writers have told me they don’t want to make money with their writing, even after publishing several novels. They don’t want to make a living with their writing, because then it would be a job; if they were getting paid to do it, they …

When I decided I wanted to be a writer, I got my hands on everything I could about plotting, prose, story and character development and the art of creative writing. Here’s what I learned: the majority of books from famous writers are self-reflecting memoirs with a handful of good life lessons. Inspirational, but not useful. Although – I will add – …

I just sent out an email with a broken link; click here or on the images below to watch the first video to my book writing video and the first week’s lesson of my writing summer camp. Thanks! Derek

I planned to spend my summer indoors quietly catching up on my backlist of YA fantasy and scifi novels and maybe doing a bit of book editing. But I’ve also been wishing I had a way to help out more and share my expertise. I practically grew up at summer camps, spending 3 months a year for almost a decade …

Recently I got featured on a couple lists of “best self-publishing sites (The Write Life & Feedspot). I thought I’d pay it forward by making my own list of self-publishing companies. When most authors start thinking of self-publishing their book (usually after years of failed querying, or with dollar signs in their eyes from reading about millionaire authors like Hugh …

Hey this is Derek – one of the clients I work with has been having a great release – #1 in 7 categories, dozens of books sold a day, and over 12 physical book signings in Barnes & Noble. Generally, I dissuaded authors from focusing on Brick&Mortar sales because it can be a lot of work and you’ll see bigger …

People often ask me if it’s worth crowdfunding your book to get the resources you need to publish. I generally say “no” – because Kickstarter won’t give you an audience, nor help you figure out how to package and position your book to appeal to them. Plus, first time authors drastically over-estimate how much it costs to publish, and I …