The title of this post is tongue-in-cheek, but it highlights an important issue. A lot of authors have been burned by predatory publishing companies, marketing firms or services promising the world and delivering little. Usually, authors spend way too much on their first book and see no results, then spend two years figuring out what went wrong, before finally learning …

I’ve talked before about how doing boxsets and anthologies can be great for building your author platform – not only to reach more readers, but also to build long term relationships with other authors in your genre. And I’ve talked a lot about doing book giveaways to encourage shares and promotion; and also about doing newsletter swaps to reach more readers. …

I had good intentions. I meant to boil down my most recent book launch into a simple, one page roadmap. Instead, like usual, I have a sprawling document worth of notes – I’m going to share it here so it can start being useful. Make sure you scroll down to the end and read “my original plan” – that’s what …

I’m a slow writer… I published two books in January but have been mostly brain-dead since. I even pushed back the preorder for my next book… but now it’s got to get done. To encourage myself to write more in March, I’m sponsoring a writing challenge. Two months ago I was on a cruise with some writers and we decided …

I’ve been making a living online for almost a decade, but I still have trouble pricing my services and offers. I usually focus on making everything a good deal. I include lots of bonuses and options to make the value seem incredible. I also tend to price low. This is probably a mistake. I see book coaches or other people offering …

I don’t always share income reports, and I wasn’t really going to talk about how much my books earn until I hit 10K a month in revenue, but I think it’s also important to point out that my methods are working.     5K a month from Kindle books is nothing to sneeze at, and the vast bulk of that …

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 authors feel like throwing in …

I really thought I was going to make it this time. I put my book Guerrilla Publishing up for preorder a few months ago but haven’t had time to work on it. But I pulled things together in the last few days, was *mostly* finished editing it, and tried to upload it with 4 minutes left to go. Unfortunately, it …

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 avoiding client work (just taking …

It’s December, and I’m on a cruise ship cruising the Atlantic (with surprisingly good wifi). We’ve been in Europe three months and are heading back to the Americas. We left from the Canary Islands, the night sea is dark and the steam from the boat is white. There’s a very Titanic feel. I’m hoping to (finally) finish my first full …