My last post was grumpy. I don’t like being negative and grumpy… But I often find, when I am, some people understand exactly what I’m going through. And I don’t want to shy away from critical, important issues just because they’re uncomfortable or negative. And I’m a Capricorn (on the cusp with...
Today on Facebook I saw a post about the Awesome Indies website, which just relaunched with a new design. I support indie authors and want them to succeed, and I like the idea of indie authors grouping together and doing cool things. The intention Awesome Indies is noble: lots of people are publishing crappy books.
Over the last couple of years my mission has been to improve the quality standard for self-published book covers, and after helping thousands of indie authors, I know I’m making a dent. But authors still face two huge challenges: author marketing, and having a decent author website. Although I talk a lot about book marketing,
Gearing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month?) Great! It’s a fun and challenging opportunity to be part of a huge community of writers learning how to complete 50,000 words in one month. If you’re stuck, or can’t seem to finish anything, or always put off writing your book, it’s a great experience. However...
I just saw on Facebook that Tom Corson Knowles has put together a package of videos and guides to help you become a bestseller. I got to hang out with Tom last summer in Portland, then again in Vancouver BC, and he’s one of my role-models. That’s because he published over a dozen books in
When I was putting together my ebook “100 Publishing Questions Answered” someone asked me for a list of the best blogs and websites for indie and self-publishing authors. I didn’t have one handy, so I thought I should make my own. However I decided NOT to make a curated list. Which means, instead of trying
I’ve done a handful of author websites but don’t do them often (since I prefer book covers). But your author website is a big piece of your sales funnel, so soon I’m going to be doing a case-study where I makeover 5 author’s WordPress websites – which range from ugly to mediocre – to see
Self-publishing is big business. And most self-published books don’t sell – for a variety of reasons, but mainly because: 1. There isn’t any market for them; they were written without considering the genre readership. 2. They are poorly designed. 3. The authors have no platform (blog, traffic, followers, email list, etc). And...
I made ebooks for a client recently – the ebooks came out at 15mb. I’ve never paid much attention to file size, but she pointed out that, if you are participating in Amazon’s 70% royalty option, they charge a fee per MB every time your book is downloaded – right now in the US it’s
In my books I urge against marketing your books on Twitter, or paying anybody else to do it for you. I’m annoyed by the hundreds of misguided tweets shouting and bouncing all over my Twitter feed like “Sexy, hot, 5star reviewer says ‘Must Read!!’ On sale now #99 #kindlebooks #amreading #bestseller” And recently I...
A couple weeks ago I saw an article about Peter Mendelsund’s new book on book cover design; and I scoffed. Now I just saw another article on Wired, shared by Tim Ferriss. Peter is obviously doing the rounds (and quite well) to promote his new book. Kudos to him. Here’s the big problem: Peter’s had
Outside my apartment there’s a steady drip, drip, drip of water on a metal rooftop – the air is hot and humid. The night is inky black. I’m working hard on client projects (which I’m unforgivably behind on) and a little upset with a freelancer I’ve hired who keeps asking for more money, without having
