UPDATE: after several months of work, we just launched a brand new 3D book cover mockup tool, and it’s amazing. Go check it out! I’ve been trying to find a way for authors to make better graphics for a long time – for book covers mostly, but also for book promotion graphics and 3D mockups. I’m still trying to find …

I tend to go overboard with my courses and tutorials, and am trying to simplify.  Today I’m at the San Francisco writer’s conference and I keep finding myself repeating my book launch formula to authors. I told one writer, “Authors don’t like book marketing because they think it means telling strangers about your book.” She said, “But that’s what book …

My friend Ricardo from Reedsy just sent this awesome infographic. It covers the basics of work with a designer, but misses some of the important stuff (what is a cover that sells? What actually goes on the cover?). They address some of that in the actual article on cover design – and the main advice is “hire a professional and let them …

I’ve been meaning to share a book launch checklist for months (years?) but this question popped up in one of my private Facebook groups and I thought I should answer. I am releasing a book soon but still don’t have the comprehensive “what that should entail” list. I’ve been starting to line up advance reviews, paperback copy, so they can …

Today I redid some of my covers. I’ve actually gone through at least 5 covers for Shearwater (my YA mermaid romance novel), and since publishing part one I haven’t been happy with it. Even though most people like it, and it performs OK, I wanted something stronger. But people are asking me why – why switch covers? Isn’t that bad for …

A few years ago I published a book called Write, Format, Publish, Promote. It’s a little outdated, so I just went through and fixed it up a bit – I’m going to make it permafree, to get lots of downloads and widen my funnel (free books are a great way to reach your target audience). When I published that book, I …

This is a very short post – mostly making a note to myself so I can use it later. I’m usually against “book promotion” on Twitter, instead I focus on connecting and providing value, sharing my blog posts but not usually selling my book or doing promotion. BUT Megan Crewe pointed out that “RT&F” (retweet and follow) giveaways work well, …

I’m not a big believer in print marketing materials, nor writing/author conferences (to promote your books) because: It’s a lot of time, money and effort and requires you to manually hand out your materials (and usually to other authors, not readers!) There are much better ways to market books, for much less money. I’ve been to lots of writing conferences …

So my books are doing pretty good; I’ve moved Shearwater to permafree and got over 5,000 downloads this month. But that made me realize I was probably missing a MAJOR opportunity to connect with those readers, so I checked my back copy (the material at the end of my book) and found it seriously wanting. I also realized, most of …

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 …