Tag: books

Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing & Marketing and I Didn’t Write It

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

This is the book you were looking for.

Write. Publish. Repeat. is the book I was writing, in fact. Except I didn’t write it. A couple even more experienced and successful guys beat me to the punch.

Barring my note below, this is the book I was writing. Mine was going to be called Commonsense Zero-Cost DIY Marketing for Authors.

Try as I might, I can’t find a reason to invest the time and creative energy into duplicating a book that already exists.

… more … “Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing & Marketing and I Didn’t Write It”

The Real Reason I Do This

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Here are a few things I believe about being an author in 2013:

  • It’s a great time to be an artist
  • It’s a tough time to sell art
  • Reading is a fundamental human activity; even reading for pleasure
  • Yes, we need more books
  • And more authors
  • And more music and art of all kinds
  • Gatekeepers serve no purpose in the world of art
  • Selling art is still a business
  • We have more tools than we can use, for writing, marketing, reading, sharing
  • Literature is not an endangered species
  • Nor are readers
  • Or writers
  • Or print
  • Money comes second, or third; writing comes first
  • Some people don’t believe that, but I don’t think it’s just my opinion, I think it’s a fact
  • Nobody writes without fear
  • Emotional fears do far more damage than good
  • I hold back far more than you think I do
  • Helping authors is more important to me than money
  • I’d still love to have plenty of money and so would you

That’s the short version of the list.

And none of that is why I do what I do.

… more … “The Real Reason I Do This”

Katherine Hepburn: How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston, and Almost Lost My Mind

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Just as musicians don’t always make great actors, as any music video will show you, actors don’t always make great writers. Here’s an exception: The Making of the African Queen.

Katherine Hepburn’s account of the making of The African Queen is priceless, not just because of the story it tells, but because it is memoir done right. It doesn’t attempt to tell her life story as if it were an autobiography. It is simply a memoir of a particular event.

… more … “Katherine Hepburn: How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston, and Almost Lost My Mind”

Isaac Asimov: Foundation

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

I am a fan of the more cerebral, less action-oriented science fiction. If we separate out fantasy as a separate genre, where Tolkien can be Lord High Master, the King of the Mountain in cerebral sci-fi for the half century of my lifetime has been Isaac Asimov.

[image: Foundation” width=”168″ height=”250″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2696]A novelist, even his short stories are brilliant. His humor is generally quite humorous. His mysteries intrigue and confuse. His novels, wherever they fall on the science fiction/fantasy continuum, are fulfilling and fascinating.

And when he wrote his epic Foundation Trilogy, not content with simply creating an epic, he created an entire universe.

… more … “Isaac Asimov: Foundation”

What Does It Cost to Make a Living as a Writer?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

picture http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1220297 by Guillaume Riesen http://www.sxc.hu/profile/thegnome54Some authors hope their first book will make enough money to encourage them in their writing dreams.

Not likely.

More likely, you’ll spend a lot of time, money, effort to get it finished, and see very few sales.

If you’re writing to make money, go ahead and give up now, before you waste all that time, money, effort.

… more … “What Does It Cost to Make a Living as a Writer?”

Kerry Dwyer’s Ramblings in Ireland

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

I had a lovely chat with Kerry Dwyer, author of Ramblings in Ireland. Editing Kerry’s book was rare fun. Getting to know her has been even more fun. Like her book, our chat rambles a bit. We still manage to fit it into 20 minutes.

How about you? Do family and accents and childhood play a role in who and what you are today? Will they make their way into your book, as they have into Kerry’s?

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Once you fall in love with Kerry, or if you’re already in love with Ireland, go pick up a copy of this gentle witty memoir.

Do you have an accent? (Don’t we all?) What’s yours?

Another Little Purple Book: “You Don’t Want a Job” Launches Friday

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

You Don't Want a JobThis Friday, July 27th, I kick off the virtual book tour for my 10th book, You Don’t Want a Job: Why Self-Employment Reduces Your Risks & Increases Your Rewards. It’s the latest Little Purple Book even though it’s orange.

I’ll be posting links to all the tour stops as they go live and I hope you’ll join my hosts and me.
… more … “Another Little Purple Book: “You Don’t Want a Job” Launches Friday”