It’s hard to double your income if you have a “normal” job. You need to control your own salary first. But luckily, you don’t have to quit your job and move to Thailand to do it. Instead, build a ‘side gig’ business you can run in your time off or on weekends. Keep at it The 3 secrets to book marketing...
A couple years ago I learned how to format my own ebooks; since then I’ve done hundreds. Now I’m fairly decent at taking a Word or InDesign file, converting it to epub and editing it with Sigil, a free editing program. Recently I decided to break apart one of my first non-fiction books, a 150,000 The 3 secrets to book marketing...
I’m finishing up a Udemy course on book cover design and uploading some videos to YouTube. My videos aren’t very professional or well done, and I don’t have a lot of followers, but at least my cover designs don’t suck. This video from AuthorHouse, on the other hand, uses dozens of very ugly, unprofessional book The 3...
Indie authors have gotten much better at understanding the importance of a professionally designed book, and many of them are hiring quality designers to help make their book look just as good as any other in the bookstore. To differentiate their books from the self-published horde, however, traditional publishers have increasingly been using...
I talk a lot about book cover design, but when you start out with that blank canvas and your eager imagination, you’re bound to get lost in the possibilities of what to put on your book cover. So let me simplify things for you, a lot. First you can write down all the stuff you The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted castle tour...
I spent the day at the Budapest Book Fair listening to Jonathan Franzen talk about birds and writing, and making jokes that nobody laughed at because they were waiting for the translation to come through their headphones. I jotted down a few pearls of wisdom that should be useful to writers everywhere. #1. Writing is an The 3 secrets to book...
You may have heard of the idea of giving away free books. Yes, it works wonders if done correctly: you can giveaway a book for a short time and get lots of downloads – it’s a great way to gain new readers. You can offer one book (usually in a series) “permafree” to entice readers The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a...
This isn’t my first book conference, but I’m definitely an outsider here. The London Book Fair is the first book fair I’ve been to that’s firmly for publishing professionals. As a concession to the self-publishing authors who have won themselves a piece of the publishing pie, the London Book Fair has provided a whole...
I was chatting with friends at the London Book Fair when one of them reminded me of a presentation on book cover design; which I felt duty bound to attend. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much, since I consider the cover design strategies I recommend for indie authors to be avant garde and not mainstream. But Damien Horner The 3 secrets to...
Most book marketing tips and strategies are for non-fiction authors. When publishing experts are asked, “well what about fiction writers,” the answer is usually, “um, I don’t have experience with that, but it should work too.” Here’s how to sell books: build a platform and an email list. BUT HOW?! Usually by...
A weekend artist, who secretly supports himself with a real estate job because he can’t make a full-time living with his paintings, meets a divorcee and hobby painter with a unique style. They try selling cheap at weekend markets. They can’t get into the art galleries because they’re only looking for modern, abstract stuff. So...
I spent the last few days driving around France looking at chateaux and castles for sale. I rarely have that much time for reflection and introspection. It may have been due to the dismal weather or the fact that the French landscape is totally dead in March, but I find myself dealing with disappointment and The 3 secrets to book marketing...
