Creativindie Experiments in self-publishing, productivity and building a creative empire

Recently I’ve been going through an identity crisis. I know what I want to do, and what I’m good at, and what I enjoy. But increasingly I’m becoming less relevant to my audience (“Great Derek, you want to write books and travel full-time. But how can you help ME?”) On the one hand, I’m finally able to focus on my …

I’ve been thinking about story this year. Partly, because I’ve been struggling with selling digital products in a way that’s authentic to my brand. But also, because – as a fiction writer – I SHOULD be good at this stuff. According to Story Telling Made Easy, “every time someone pays you, they’re making an emotional decision.” I always resisted telling …

I heard someone say recently, “there are too many marketers and not enough artists.” As someone deep inside the publishing industry, however, I find the opposite to be true. Recently I went to a writing conference – there were over 500 writers. All of them wanted to be artists: they made the work and now were trying to sell it. …

I started this blog in 2011 and did nothing for a year except read all the books on creativity. It was research for a manifesto, but the more I read, the more fascinated I became with the subject. After another 5 years of freelancing, building digital products and working as a creative professional (my income comes from things I make …

This morning I did an interview on writing fiction and we discussed, among other things, whether writing faster books leads to inferior quality and whether writing to market creates inferior art. These are real conversations, and though I would answer “no” to both, I’m often challenged by thousands of passionate creators who very firmly believe “YES.” The conversation prompted me …

This is a guest post by author Miantae Metcalf McConnell – I was so impressed she got her book featured in Oprah magazine, and I asked her to share what that process looked like.   Every month O, The Oprah Magazine publishes a list of books that they recommend to their readers, a “Top Ten List” situated in the magazine’s Reading …

Recently I’ve been learning about story. Specifically, using story architecture like a Trojan Horse: getting people to pay attention and disarm resistance, so that you can give them enough information to start liking (sympathy) and trusting (credibility) you. Because if they don’t like and trust you, they won’t keep reading – but unless you start with story, they won’t pay attention enough …

Note from Derek: I usually tell authors not to bother with in-person stuff like book signings because it’s too much work, and to focus on online stuff instead… but book signings can be FUN – and doing a signing in Barnes & Noble (or any “real” bookstore) feels more significant, like a milestone or bucket list item. So when I saw …

I screwed up. Months ago I agreed to be part of a multi-author box set. I usually say no to these, but I have  personal relationship with Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich (I even featured it in my PhD Thesis) so I submitted my chapter. The authors all offered a free course or bonus to incentivize preorder purchases, and these …

I haven’t published a *new* book for over a year. Possibly, Amazon took the wind out of my sails when I overextended myself and failed to meet preorder deadlines (thus losing my preorder privileges for 12 months). I have gone back and fixed up or completed some other titles – so I’ve probably written and published about 100,000 words in …