What a marvelous world we live in and what an incredible time to be a writer. There are just so many opportunities and ways we can get our words and our work out into the world these days. So many that it might at times be confusing as to which ones to use and which ones to pass on by. Just the other day, someone posted a great question on Word Journeys: Resources for Writers, one [...]
Read, Review, Pass Along Form Writers know the importance of garnering reviews of their books to draw the kind of attention that will result in more book sales. But how do you do it when a book first comes out, and hardly anyone has bought it to review it? You give a few books away, right? Maybe more than a few, like dozens, but that can be costly especially if you only get one [...]
The section of this blog is called The Learning Curve for the simple reason that I want to share with other writers what I'm learning as I continue my journey to become a successful indie publisher. Today I want to explore what I'm learning about the balancing act of being an indie publisher. First and foremost, I am no longer just a writer or author. As one of my online mentors, Dean Wesley Smith, points out [...]
We've all heard how important it is to have a really great book cover. Despite the old adage, "You can't judge a book by its cover," we know we all do -- right? Right. And you've probably all read how damn hard it is to create really great covers. True? Okay, now here's where the contrarian in me comes out. I say hogwash to that. Here, let me Covers Designed by Ann Swift & W. [...]
One of the things I'm finding as I focus more of my life energy on being a visionary writer that's both interesting and fun is how many different aspects of being a life coach I can apply to my writing aspirations. For example, using Equal Energy Exchanges - a self made distinction I've used with many of my coaching clients in the past. So, what is an Equal Energy Exchange (EEE) and how can [...]
"Write four pages per day to finish four novels per year and get to twenty books in five years. As I said before, indie publishers must write more." Dean Wesley Smith Even though I've been a professional writer for over twenty-five years (professional meaning earning money selling my words), I view myself on a pretty steep learning curve as an indie author especially when it come to my fiction creative writing. So, besides writing a lot, I [...]
I was talking to my friend and writing colleague the other day, Joe d'Agnese, about the future of publishing -- more specifically our futures as indie writers and publishers. Sure, we're fans of Kindle e-publishing. But, during the conversation Joe mentioned he'd not yet tackled the print-on-demand learning curve of CreateSpace. It's understandable. After all, publishing to Kindle is so easy, especially for those of us who use Scrivener software which both Joe and I do. [...]
I picked up a new book, Divergent, today based on the short blurb on the back: One choice decides your friends One choice defines your beliefs One choice determines your loyalties -- forever One choice can transform you I was hooked even before I looked inside to learn that this first novel by Veronica Roth is about a "dystopian Chicago society that is divided into five faction, each one dedicated to the cultivation of a particular [...]
It struck me as one of those 'duh moments.' You know the kind. After you have this kind of an idea, you wonder why you hadn't thought of it before. They're like the commercials that used to be on TV - "Duh, I coulda had a V-8." The idea that landed in my pea-size brain over the weekend was the idea to explore (including through writing about it) the subject of inspiration. What is [...]
You may notice a new addition to the right hand sidebar of this blog It looks like this: And it's the various ways for us to connect: email, the front page of this blog, twitter (Okay, I'm still learning about this one), and my author's page on Facebook. Isn't that ingenious? Well, it wasn't my idea, but I know a good thing when I see it or read it as I did yesterday on Write to [...]
