This week I’m launching my new program, Guerrilla Publishing – which I’ve built over the last year while travelling full-time. I made a free “Bookselling Bootcamp” challenge while staying at the 5 star Regent Hotel Montenegro (I wanted to be comfortable going into Nanowrimo, and I also did a 2-week sugar fast). But I realized I hadn’t published anything on my …

I’m working through the material for my next course, Guerrilla Publishing, but this part is too important not to share for everyone. I keep saying, if you’re not selling books, it’s almost always because of your cover, blurbs or # of reviews. I’ve made tons of videos (and a free course) on cover design, and I recently posted a video on …

Recently I realized my whole process for publishing bestselling books is completely backwards. At a party in Medellin recently, a guy said “wow, you’ve hacked publishing!”  I don’t like being called a hack because there’s an assumption that it means I’m putting out poor quality books to trick or fool readers.  (Steven Pressfield calls anyone who writes for an audience the …

I’m doing a lot of things right with my book marketing, but it’s hard to do everything perfectly. Plus, I know that sales are limited by demand – so the fact that one of my books sells 10x better than another one hasn’t bothered me too much. I figured mermaids (Shearwater) just weren’t as popular as dark fantasy (Scarlet Thread …

Online Course + Mentorship A small number of spots have just opened up in my 1-year publishing mastermind, Guerrilla Publishing – you’ll get my complete system to publishing bestsellers, personal help and feedback, and a full-year of coaching and support. This is a complete guide to self-publishing, and you’ll get everything you need to launch to #1. $495 Click here to …

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 …