I wrote recently about how and why book cover designs should be clichés, most of the time, because you always want to fit into a genre and appeal to the style conventions that are being used: you want people to recognize what your book is about. No, they won’t say, “Gee that looks interesting, but
I attended several writer’s conferences this summer, and was surprised by my findings. I’d been picturing writers as teenage girls writing Twilight fan fiction; turns out they are (mostly) 40 to 80 and usually tech-averse. I’d thought self-publishing had become the obvious choice for a plethora of reasons, but here were these...
Below are some of the books I read in 2014 and found useful. [ReviewAZON name=”1″ id=”6″ display=”multiinlineasins” asins=”B004XR57PE,B00IS884QS,0984655123,B007SYTLVA,B007IJLGUY,0615796796,B00PXHHPWQ,0981875637,159963421X,0615909205″ trackingid=”creativindie-20″ country=””...
This is a guest post by Jeff McKinney; I was curious about the Write it Forward event and Jeff agreed to do a write-up I could share. On July 25-26, authors, speakers and creatives gathered in Atlanta for Write it Forward featuring bestselling author and writing teacher Jeff Goins. The event was well organized, intimate
Everybody will tell you that starting an email list as soon as possible is the #1 way to grow your platform and sell more of anything. But how does it really work? I’m not an expert on blogging or email marketing, but this week I’m sitting in my sister’s apartment in Vancouver BC and finally
I’m a couple days late posting this – just a reminder, it’s not a contest with prizes, but an event where participation helps improve your skills and may also boost your traffic and platform by giving you some visibility. And if I get enough quality short stories I’ll publish as a little anthology. Romance is
I’m at a writing conference, and during just about every session, authors keep asking the same questions. And they aren’t looking for answers. They are looking for permission not to give a damn about their readers. They ask stuff like “I know I’m supposed to use Facebook/Twitter… but do I have to?” They say...
This weekend I’m attending the Willamette Writer’s conference in Portland, Oregon. There are a whole bunch of great writers who are beginning to think about publishing, and they are asking a lot of questions. I know a lot about publishing but I don’t often address the more common or basic stuff (how to set up
A minute ago I was searching for images for a book cover. That led to a cat gif, which led to a Buzzfeed article called “16 things only spontaneous people can relate to as told by cats.” I spent a few minutes watching short cat gifs. What’s not to like? They appeal to everybody (even
I’m speaking at a book marketing event in Cleveland on Sept. 8th, along with Johnny B. Truant (of “Write, Publish, Repeat.”) Jim Kukral, the organizer and founder of Author Marketing Club, is letting me offer friends a discount code for $49 off the conference – plus lifetime membership to Author Marketing Club (a $295...
I got an email today from a wife helping her husband publish and worried about the book’s potential success. Putting your book out there is scary. Spending a lot of money and not earning it back is a very valid fear. There are ways around it, but it’s mostly a gamble. You can mitigate the
A million dollars is not a lot of money. It sounds big, but it can be broken down. Viewing it in smaller numbers makes it easier to wrap your head around how you can generate that amount. For example, a million dollars is only 1000 people giving you $1000 dollars. 1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000
