Creativindie Get paid well for the creative work you love to do.

All rules are meant to be broken, and I won’t swear that I never use these fonts (I even included some in my genre-based lists of fonts you CAN use). But you can only break the rules if you learn them first. If you’re not a designer, steering clear of these overused (and gag-worthy) fonts is the safer bet. I …

People sometimes ask me if I will market their books for them in exchange for a profit share. This seems like a good deal to them; I’ll earn more than I would otherwise once their book takes off, and they don’t need to pay me upfront. Win-win. But the truth is, almost nobody will ever take you up on this …

I talk SO MUCH about book cover design, but I thought it would be easier to just see all the important stuff in one simple book cover design checklist. So before you publish (or if you see someone’s hideous cover and want to gentle encourage them to make a better one) please share and use this graphic. If you don’t …

I’m finally getting ready to start building the 21 Day Author Platform, a step-by-step process of building a profitable author platform in just three weeks. So I put together this roadmap/infographic that outlines the whole process. I might be making a “prepublishing checklist” or something like that too – but a lot of people have been asking me for a …

Recently I wrote about how most authors will never make any money. I was surprised by the comments, which I expected to be more negative. It seemed to comfort people to learn that they weren’t failing at being an author – they were doing as well as 99.9% of other self-publishing authors, because almost everyone fails. But it doesn’t have to be …

Today someone involved with a prestigious writing retreat requested to join my Facebook group, then immediately spammed us with a last chance offer to join an expensive online writing course. Technically, she was offering something that could have appealed to writers, so I felt bad for deleting the post, but on the other hand… you don’t join a Facebook group …

All the designers I know who are decent at book cover design charge over $500 – but the majority of indie authors think paying $200 or so for a cover is “reasonable.” I don’t like setting a price threshold on publishing, or saying that if you publish you HAVE to pay a lot of money to do it professionally. You …

Had this fun idea last week, it’s up on Amazon already. An adult coloring book inspired by the writings of Napoleon Hill. In the 1937 edition of Think and Grow Rich, American new-thought author and impresario Napoleon Hill insisted that fervid expectations are essential to increasing one’s income. But Hill’s plan for financial success wasn’t as simple or easy as …

Today I got to chat with Sasha O’hara, author of the “irreverant” adult coloring books “Calm the F*ck Down” (which is #23 in the entire Amazon store) and sequel “Chill the F*ck Out.” Basically, these are books that take the stress-relieving craze of adult coloring books and make them fun by adding swear words and vulgar phrases. Of course specifically …

I talk a lot about writing to market – AKA writing books for popular genres to maximize profit – but since it seems sketchy and abhorrent to authors who consider themselves “real authors” writing “real books” I thought I’d share my process. It’s true there are a lot of other online marketers writing shitty books to cash in on popular …