I stayed up late to watch the Alliance of Independent Authors’s Self-Publishing Advice Event with Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords). His advice for ebook publishing success resonated with me, because so little of it was about marketing your book. Indie authors perversely focus on marketing, social media, and “getting the word...
Caffeine is my drug of choice. While I highly recommend substances like mushrooms, Ayahuasca and marijuana every once in a while, as a radical rediscovery of your life’s purpose, most days all I want is to get more done. I drink a lot of green tea. I’d love to take more Modafinil but it gives
When I was younger I was obsessed with personal enlightenment. I studied philosophy. I wanted to understand Everything. Mostly, being a highly emotional and overly sensitive person, I needed to process my emotional ups and downs, my broken hearts, and my metaphysical experiences (I’ll save those for another post). I studied theology and...
I’ve been reading a lot of books about creativity. All of them deal with the struggle of the creative life: art is WAR. Creativity takes effort. We have to fight through it. REAL art is about emotion, struggle, anxiety. Real art is about passion, True experience. Real art is Creating Something New – it’s a
In the last couple of years, I increased my online businesses to the point where I could make $100,000 a year. A month ago, I launched DIY bookcovers and made $50,000 in 6 weeks. With that success behind me, a very low cost of living and no debt, I now get to focus on something
I’ve been doing freelance work – mostly editing and proofreading – for about 6 years; so I know a little something about starting a freelance business, setting up a website, and working from home. However it’s mostly been a hobby; something I do that helps keep me afloat while I focus on my own personal
Given my decade of living overseas and moving around pretty regularly, I didn’t think relocating to Tainan (Taiwan), a city I’ve already lived in for many years, would eat up too much of my productivity time. It only took a day to find an apartment, another day to pick out and order furniture. What I
Growing up near Portland, Oregon, son of ex-hippies with New Age beliefs, I was raised to believe in following my passion. I read The Alchemist and Jonathan Livingston Seagull and the Celestine Prophecy. Way before The Secret brought positive intention and manifesting desires to everyone, I stewed in the Northwestern liberalism that demanded I...
Your blog thrives on content. If you have an online business of any kind (including promoting your art or writing), you need fresh content so that Google, and potential fans, can find you. But writing it all yourself is tiresome and you have to think of new ideas and catchy headlines, and hiring someone to
Websites for self-publishing authors can be divided into two camps. 1) Those offering authors services They write posts to get you to buy their book formatting, book conversion, book covers, author websites, book marketing, etc. 2) Blogs run by indie authors themselves These are full of tips and tricks and useful content. They teach you
I always tell authors creating a book that they can layout their interior book format in Word, and do a pretty good job, and most people won’t be able to tell the difference. Except, it’s tricky to learn how to do a good job, put everything in the right place. It’s also common and general
I’ll admit I never fully got the hang of bidding for freelance work on Elance, Guru or Freelancer.com. You need to send a proposal, pick a price, describe your qualifications – and compete with dozens of other freelance providers. I got picked a few times, but not consistently. That frustration is probably why I developed
