What’s the right way to get your work published? “From this day forward, all authors are indie authors.” Mark Coker, president of Smashwords, made that statement at the San Francisco Author’s Conference. It clearly resonated with writers in the room. Authors today have many options; our paths are no longer dictated entirely by a small number of […]
publishing
Does Loss Aversion Prevent You From Writing?
“I want to write a book, but I’m worried about how long it will take to recoup the investment of time and money. And what if I never do?” “I started on a book, but another interesting project popped up, so I’ve stuck it in a drawer for the future.” Do either of these statements sound […]
Writing in the 21st Century
This is a challenging time to be a writer. To paraphrase A Tale of Two Cities, it is the best of times, and the worst of times. (Why refer to Charles Dickens? He was successful in his own lifetime, and his works have stood the test of time. As a bonus, he published his first works as serial […]
The True Costs of Self-Publishing
Quick quiz: What does it cost to self-publish a book? a) $1000 b) $10,000 c) $100,000 d) None of the above People will claim each of these numbers. (I’ve seen a proposal for north of $100,000.) The answer is D, because the other responses are in the wrong currency. At the very least, they are incomplete. […]
Do Not Save Your Best Writing for Later
Share the Marshmallows In the 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel and his students conducted studies on self-discipline in preschoolers. In what has now become known as The Marshmallow Test, toddlers were given the choice of eating one marshmallow immediately, or waiting a few minutes and getting two marshmallows. Those who were able to successfully delay the gratification of […]
Find Your Writing North Star(s)
When I set out to write my first book book, I started researching everything from writing to publishing to marketing books. The effort nearly derailed me altogether. There are more writing and book marketing podcasts than you have time to listen to. You cannot read every book, nor follow every blog and watch every video. If you try […]