Word magic.
A new reader asked for ways to build her self-publishing business quickly. She’s going on maternity leave and wants to develop an alternative to returning to her day job. She said: “I’ve published four books so far. A friend suggested I could focus my writing business and make it viable, but how? Any tips?” The greatest challenge in any business … Read more
Concerned about nonfiction sales? A new author, who’s revising her first book, asked for tips to help her to sell. My suggestion: think about your audience. How will your book improve their lives—or entertain them? We looked at the ASK process. ASK is an acronym for: A: the angle. An opinion, a slant, a point of view. S: the story. … Read more
Recently, a local authors’ group asked me to chat with them about self-publishing. It was a fun evening with a mix of traditionally published folk and self-publishers. After a brief presentation, the authors asked questions—with many questions about marketing, as well as failures, books that just won’t sell. Everyone has duds, but there’s always something you can do. We’ll look … Read more
Years ago, when I started writing fiction, I wanted to make my characters real. But how? I had no idea. Although my novels were published, I had zero knowledge of the craft of fiction. It took a while, but finally, I realized that fictional characters need an inner life. Just as we do, they have joys and miseries, doubts, excitements … Read more
Many authors look at writing fiction as writing novels and short stories. That’s not the only way to profit from your imagination. As you’re aware, the self-publishing industry is vast, and offers many opportunities if you enjoy storytelling. Writing fiction: you have many opportunities other than publishing We’ve looked at various ways of making money from your creativity already, including … Read more