You know you want to write a book. I can help.
[image: was this place new when you started your novel?” width=”222″ height=”111″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2263]What if I could lead you by the hand and promise that in 2014 you’d finally finish that novel?
What’s more, what if I gave you greatly increased chances that it would be good?
Is that worth paying for?
Details to come.
Writing to make a profit in 2013 requires either wild blind luck or choosing to write over-the-line sexual encounters. For this brief moment in history, books are a commodity: far more supply than demand.
Stick with it for 5 years, and the opportunists will have faded away or been pruned by market response.
For now, write because you have something to say. Word toward making a profit 5 years from now.
If you understand that self-publishing is a business which is connected to but not the same as the art of writing, you’re light-years ahead of many other authors.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/873643 by K Rayker http://www.sxc.hu/profile/krayker” width=”440″ height=”204″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-2146]
… more … “Self-Publishing Jump Start and Long Game”
I asked the talented Dave Bricker for recommendations on book design, especially interior layout. He recommended Richard Hendel’s On Book Design.
And for the first time in a very long time, I’m completely sucked into a new discipline.
It’s a hygiene sort of art; when you’re done, it should be invisible. Most readers know nothing about book design. Most people I’ve talked to, voracious readers, never thought about what goes into the layout of the interior of a book until I mentioned it.
The exploration has just begun. I’ll be taking it slow, not wanting to derail the rewrite of anodyne. Besides, these books are semi-rare and not cheap.
I’ll keep you posted.
Dan Pink shared 4 lessons from Manage Your Day-to-Day in his newsletter. Number 1 has been on my radar since a recent chat with Mark McGuinness (who wrote one section of the book.)
“The single most important change you can make in your working habits is to switch to creative work first, reactive work second. This means blocking off a large chunk of time every day for creative work on your own priorities, with the phone and e-mail off.”
I posted the graphic a couple days ago. Here’s the detail:
… more … “Planning My Days Around Willpower”
A longer diatribe about marketing your self-published book. This is a year-long class, which I’d be glad to give if y’all are interested.
Publishing is in the greatest upheaval since Gutenberg. Supporters of traditional publishing will tell you it’s the only choice, or you’re not a real author.
I’ll take the opposing view: the only rational choice, from both the artistic and commercial perspectives, is to pick yourself, own the process, and reap the rewards. Here’s why:
… more … “Marketing Your Books in the New Age of Publishing”
This is still a common question. Any time we’re embracing something completely new to us, the steepness of the learning curve is overwhelming. Sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask. Sometimes taking a stab at an answer helps draw out more refined questions.
If you’re totally completely helplessly lost about this “ebook” thing, I’ll try to answer the question “Where do I start?” as long as we agree that it’s akin to asking “I’d like to learn to play music; where do I start?” Far too vague to have a real answer, but enough to start hacking through the underbrush to some better questions.
Not necessarily in any kind of order:
… more … “I know nothing about creating an ebook. Where do I start?”
While there are a few folks tied to traditional publishing who are willing to have a conversation, more and more, I see forum conversations turn into debates laced with ad hominem attacks and vague platitudes.
It’s good to be passionate about what you believe. If something is right, it’s right, even if only under these specific circumstances.
I’ve often said that my favorite response to my writing or speaking is disagreement. When someone thinks I’m wrong and says so, respectfully and clearly, one of two things will happen:
… more … “Traditional Publishing as Religion”