I’ve had to push my preorder deadline multiple times; usually incurring a blanket account ban for 1 year. The first time or two, if you ask nicely, they might forgive you. But only if you can make a big fuss about it. Update (2026): the second 30-day postponement described below was a temporary pandemic-era policy.
This is the preface to my revised book marketing guide, download the free PDF. Publish a book with recognizable value… When authors ask me about innovative ways to market their books, I usually tell them to focus on the basics: make sure their book is good, and it’s something people want to read. Make sure it’s
This is the preface to my revised book marketing guide, download the free PDF. If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you have or will soon have a book out on the market, and are exploring ways to turn it into a best-selling powerhouse that will slaughter the competition and pay for your retirement. The
Should you advertise your book? Probably not. I’ve never been a big supporter of running ads to my books because: A) It’s easy to spend lots of money without seeing results. B) I didn’t think it would work on stand-alone novels. Most of the people making serious money with ads have a completed series –
Query letters seem like they should be easy, right? After writing a script of several thousand to a hundred thousand words, writing a one-page email should be cake. So why do so many people have problems with it? It’s because they don’t really understand the purpose of a query letter. A query letter is not
Real quick: Medium is a publishing platform where writers can share articles and find readers. Its Partner Program can pay eligible writers for activity on eligible paywalled stories. An account or a high view count does not guarantee income. Use Medium to publish something worth reading, then give interested readers a clear next step toward...
The short version: Grammarly finds more typos and actual mistakes. In a full manuscript, it found 7 while ProWritingAid only caught 1. However, ProWritingAid sometimes catches things that Grammarly misses, and has very useful more advanced features that can help improve your writing by flagging slow passages, complex paragraphs, or repetition...
I didn’t start speaking until I was ready for full sentences. I don’t like making mistakes and hate being laughed at. Like most people, when I got into art or writing, I wanted my work to be “finished” before sharing it. Even though I’ve learned to share work earlier to get feedback before committing to...
Work in progress! Someone asked for a ‘quick and easy guide’ to Facebook advertising for authors, so I wrote this: 1. Use your hook/story for text. Test out 10 different hooks. Test out some with reviews. Make sure you mention the genre clearly, but incite emotion. 2. Don’t use your cover, use a pretty
“I’m going to stop doing shows.” It’s a statement a lot of artists have thought, but more and more people I know are committed to stopping shelling out big money on shows when they aren’t even making table fees back. I used to hear rumblings about it once and a while, but I’ve heard it
This is a story about money, and how to find it. It starts with a story set in my lean years when I just went to press on a new print run for Wannabe Press’s two most popular books. We spent $8,500 to get 3,000 copies total: 2,000 copies of Katrina Hates Dead Shit and 1,000 copies of
Porto and Harry Potter This month we’ve been travelling through Portugal, seeking out JK Rowling’s favorite writing spots for inspiration. Rowling started planning Harry Potter in Porto, and it’s easy to see the connection. The university students wear black capes, and Porto is home to the “most beautiful...
