One of my favorite productivity tools in my freelance writing and blogging work is a timer. I use something called the Pomodoro Technique which breaks down my work into small, manageable periods of time. It’s a great way to stay focused and push yourself to see how much you can do in a short stretch. And it turns out, it works well for writing books
If you’re an author, you’ve probably heard plenty about the importance of social media marketing. But when it comes to using social networks as marketing and PR tools, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Let’s look at Twitter as an example. Here are some Twitter tips that will help you build better relationships with existing fans (which ultimately leads to more
We’ve been talking a lot this past week about Karen Wiesner’s latest writer’s reference book, Writing the Fiction Series. Today I’d like to share some information about another book you should keep an eye out for. The rights to her book, From First Draft to Finished Novel, have reverted to her, and Karen is set to release a new version of the book through another publisher. The new release
In a recent post I talked about why indie authors should never pay for book reviews. In the comments, the topic of book review websites came up — more specifically the fact that there are other ways for these sites to make money without directly charging the authors whose books they review. (And if you’re looking for reasons why you shouldn’t charge for book reviews,
My nonfiction book, The Query-Free Freelancer, has been moving along in an extraordinarily slow fashion. That’s due to a variety of things (from several months of illness where I focused my limited work time on clients to simply shelving the project for a while for a fresher perspective). Now that I’m moving forward with that first draft again (my own edits to the manuscript before sending it
I was recently interviewed by Dava Stewart of SmilingTreeWriting.com about independent writing and publishing. I’d like to share a portion of that with you below. If you’d like to read more, please check out the full interview. Dava Stewart: Recently, I heard a well known writer talking about the often repeated phrase “there are no gatekeepers anymore.” He suggested that every reviewer on Goodreads or Amazon
I ought to be declared the queen of the tech gremlins given how much time they like to spend around me. If you didn’t catch my Twitter rants, I recently had my server hacked (this site was fine). As soon as that was settled, my laptop hard drive died. The data was not recoverable. Of course, things weren’t backed up as recently as they should
Are you interested in publishing a nonfiction book? Do you already have a blog in that niche? If you answered “yes” to both of those questions, you might be a prime candidate for turning your blog into a book. This is largely what I’m doing with my own nonfiction book, The Query-Free Freelancer. I used my freelance writing blog to help me organize the book
This post was intended to be a comment on Joanna Penn’s recent article explaining why she chose the 99-cent price point for her novel. My thoughts are directed at a comment she posted rather than the article itself. But my thoughts on the issue were extensive enough that I decided they deserved their own post. I think I should say up front that I have
Last week I shared my planned editing process for my books with you, and we talked about the ups and downs of self-editing. Let’s now look beyond self-edits and talk about other ways indie authors can maintain high editorial standards — one of the biggest concerns people raise when criticizing self-published books as a whole. The editorial options you choose will vary based on your
Previously I shared the editing process I came up with for my own indie published books. That process includes extensive self-editing, a professional editor, and objective beta readers. Let’s continue to look at the self-editing side of editing your books. I consider self-editing a necessity. But it’s not the be all and end all. It’s just one part of the process. There are ups and downs.
I have several indie publishing projects in the works right now. I’m drafting a novel. I’m planning my next e-book for my business audience. And I’m editing the manuscript for my nonfiction book, The Query-Free Freelancer. Today I’d like to talk about that editing work, and more specifically some of the ups and downs of self-editing. My Editing Process I need to make it clear
Writers of all kinds often say that they love writing but hate marketing. But that’s frequently because they confuse marketing and hard selling — “Buy! Buy! Buy!” In reality, the hard sale is only one small part of marketing and whether you realize it or not you probably market your books every single day. When you set up your author website you were marketing. Every
Indie publishing is a viable option for many authors who don’t want to pursue traditional publishers for whatever reason. But that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone (despite some people’s claim that “anyone can do it”) and it certainly doesn’t mean indie publishing or self publishing is for you. Let’s look at qualities and skills of successful indie publishers and what might hold you back. 4
We recently looked at some of the reasons many author websites suck and I shared a few good author website designs with you as inspiration. Today let’s move on to some tools and resources that can help you improve the author website you already have or build a beautiful new site to promote your books. [box type=”info”] Note that the information below is for those
We already looked some of the reasons many author websites suck. And I promised I’d highlight a few decent examples that would inspire you to improve your own Web designs (or at least finally set up a site — I’m amazed by how many indie authors neglect them altogether). This post was supposed to be that list. But let me tell you, it wasn’t easy
Authors are notorious for having poorly-designed websites. That’s not to say all authors have dated, crappy sites littering the Web. But more in this group do than most others I’ve come across. Sometimes author site designs are downright frightening, looking like someone formatted some text in Word and slapped it on the Web in the mid to late-90s, never to update it again. The saddest
Book spines — oh, they’re important alright. I was reminded just how important they are on my weekend book-buying binge at our (sadly) closing Borders. At the end of the day I left with nearly 30 new mysteries. And then I ordered 11 more online to fill in the gaps in the series, and still have another order or two to place in coming weeks
As an e-book publisher should your rankings be based on your low-ball rates or on the merit of your work? Coming from the traditional side of e-book publishing, I’m a fan of the latter. I believe in premium pricing when you put out quality work. And I believe in letting your individual market help determine your rates — not Amazon or the general masses. Nonfiction
Can you handle more than one publishing project at a time, or do you have to be completely focused on one thing? I fall into the former group, actually thriving when other people might feel overwhelmed. And there’s no reason to push yourself to that overwhelmed status in order to handle multiple projects. You just have to know how to set limits and work with
The following is an interview with independent author, Peter Bowerman. Bowerman is the author of The Well-Fed Writer and The Well-Fed Self Publisher (a book I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in pursuing indie publishing). When did you first decide to self publish, and which was your first self-published book? I decided to self-publish my first book, The Well-Fed Writer (2000), after only half-hearted attempts to
When “indie publishing” is discussed here at All Indie Publishing, we’re talking about professional independent publishing. That means there’s an entrepreneurial element as opposed to publishing just to see your name in print. You plan to make a serious go of it. You plan to make money with your books. You work with professionals to put out your best work possible. You won’t see many
There’s a not-so-new copyright infringement threat that seems to be becoming even more prevalent these days — so-called PDF search engines. In the last two weeks alone I received notification that three of these sites were publishing my content without a license or permission. What’s happening? Well, these sites purport to be about helping you find .pdf files. First of all that often means they’re
To continue our interview series on various writing styles freelancers may be interested in pursuing, today I’m talking with Linda Formichelli, co-author of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success and The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock, about writing nonfiction books. Many freelancers already work in nonfiction, and some have even written longer e-books. Moving on to publishing a nonfiction
Today we kick off our new series exploring various types of writing freelancers may have an interest in pursuing. Evan Marshall, creator of the Marshall Plan for Novel Writing and the Marshall Plan Software and author of two mystery novel series and several nonfiction books, is our guest. Marshall’s latest novel is called Evil Justice, a book in The Hidden Manhattan Mysteries series. He not
Today let’s very briefly go over some common components of the author (or book) media kit – in other words, what you should include. While most of these will work for a hard copy media kit / press kit, let’s focus on online author media kits (those in newsroom formats on your website or downloadable .pdf files). Author Media Kit Components – Essential An author
So I’ve passed the 10% mark on my novel first draft. I know the writing is far from my best. And the further I go along, the more comfortable I am with that. For example, right now I have a lot of “he said” / “she said” stuff going on with my quotes. I know the bulk of them will be removed in the editing
I’d like to explore the role of pen names in book marketing a little bit more today. We’ve already talked about whether pen names help or hurt marketing efforts, and I think we established that pseudonyms can in fact be beneficial in some marketing campaigns. Today I want to talk about how to actually choose pen names, keeping marketing considerations in mind. Here are some
I was thinking about authors who write under pen names / pseudonyms when publishing their books, and how that choice might affect your marketing. Are they an added benefit? Do they make marketing more difficult for you? I’d love to have some authors share their thoughts here on why they chose to either write under their own name or a pen name, and looking back
We’ve talked about book marketing here, but e-book marketing has been relatively neglected. So today, in honor of the recent launch of my own new e-book, I’d like to talk about e-book marketing after the launch phase. I’m the first to admit I didn’t put nearly enough effort into pre-launch marketing for my new release – the Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance