I know you are here for some great and truly easy to use tips on how to write book blurbs that sell, but first, an admission... I have a degree in advertising. I worked for multiple newspapers helping small business owners develop ads and advertising campaigns. Then I...
Writing Business
Writer Scams or the Questionable Expert
There are days I am overwhelmed with the number of people who want me to give them money, and I don't mean regular life bills. I mean "experts" who are going to tell me how to sell more books. Who are going to make me a Kindle millionaire or get me 300,000 followers...
Email Newsletters for Authors: Why everyone is telling you you HAVE to have an author newsletter.
Author newsletters... a pain, right? You have to build the list, you have to house the list, you have to design newsletters, come up with content and then send your author newsletter. So much work... and so much techy type crap. Ugh. No, double ugh. But, yes, you...
Digital Self-Publishing Checklist
The first step is having a manuscript that you feel good about – good enough that you would send it off to agents or editors. Self-Publishing Checklist: 1.) Hire an editor. I know you just went through multiple rounds of critiques. Trust me. It isn’t enough. You still...
How to Get Your Book Published
Lately, I've been getting a number of emails from people asking how to get their first book published. Enough that I realized there was still a need for some step-by-step guidelines on how to get your book published. So, you have a book and you want to get it...
Microsoft Word Tip: How to save italics!
A while back I did a post on how to format an ebook with Microsoft Word as your starting place. Since writing that I discovered a great tip that makes the process even easier, how to save italics when you have to strip all formatting from the original file. If you...
How to Host a Blog Event and Why You Should
Tomorrow, December 1, I'm kicking off a blog event at my blog titled 30 Days of Vampires. I've done this event (along with its companion--A Full Moon of Werewolves) a couple of times now and while it is a ton of work, the pay off is pretty big too. Originally, I...
You Can’t Sell a Book by its Cover, or Can You?
A year ago I decided to start self-publishing. It was a slow start, but like many other self-pubbed authors, the holiday season (December 2010 and January 2011) were very kind to me. I was excited. I told my writer friends. Some shared my enthusiasm some didn’t. Many...
Five Online Writing Tools to Make Writing and Revision Easier
1.) If you write historical fiction, or even if you write contemporary, but perhaps have a character find a diary or old note, the Online Etymology Dictionary will soon become one of your most used online writing tools. Etymology is the study of the origin of words...