Speed Writing: E-Publishing Demands Prolific Writers

As some of you may have heard by now, Carlos Fuentes (pictured above), Latin American literary giant, passed away yesterday of an apparent heart attack.  If there is one legacy that Fuentes leaves behind is his prolific writing career.  The man was a machine.  He would finish a novel and then start on another writing

Samantha Shannon: The Next J.K. Rowling?

I read an article today about Samantha Shannon who will release a novel entitled The Bone Season this year.  She is a literature student at Oxford University and many people say she could be the next billion dollar author, as her book will be one of seven books in a series. She has everything going for

Serializing Your e-Novel: Pros and Cons

I read an article today which about authors Sean Platt and David W. Wright whose self-published post-apocalyptic serial, Yesterday’s Gone: Season One has just surpassed the 100 customer reviews mark this week. Until reading this article, I only thought about writing a novel in the more traditional way: uploading it to CreateSpace and then sending

Google Zeitgeist: How a Writer Uses Trends

As a fiction writer, it is important to know your audience.  If you have never done any research to discover what demographic your proposed novel might reach (or not reach) then you may be wasting valuable time writing a novel that no one will read. Google Zeitgeist is a fantastic engine created to show researchers

How to Network Your Writing Platform

If you are a writer and you have chosen not to network because you don’t have time and you are sitting in your writing cave, churning out tomes of material that few people see, then come out into the sunlight of social media and blogging and grab a shovel.  There is work to be done.

Using Twitter Mentions to Increase Blog Traffic

I was averaging 45-50 hits a day until the last two days.  I decided to try a little experiment after hitting upon this sort of by accident. It seems to work pretty well.  If you don’t believe me, then look at these blog stats: What I did was simple.  I started looking around my desktop

Just Because You’re Published Don’t Mean You Write Good

There seems to be a war of words in this currently hyped self-publishing boom between the self-published and the traditionally published.  The self-published go on and on about the success of some lucky few and the traditionally published are always noting that the reason people are published is due to the writer’s talent and that

The Hype Cycle: How Self-Publishers Will Survive

I’ve been reading a mass of articles lately about the “hype of self-publishing” and how the industry is currently in a peak of hype about the idea that anyone with an idea who can string sentences together can publish and be as big of a success as Amanda Hawking or John Locke. There is a

The Importance of Kindle Direct Publishing

I have three books on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Here are the advantages: 1. Wider Audience – Kindle Direct Publishing can place your book on thousands of lists and search engines around the globe. They can format your book for Kindle, but I recommend uploading to Nook and Smashwords as well. Kindle is by far

Self-Publishing: Some Advice About Marketing from Scott Steinberg

There is a great article on porfolio.com about Scott Steinberg whose recent book “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games” is generating buzz in the self-publishing world because it is so varied in price.  There is a printed copy from Lulu.com for $17.99, the iBooks, Kindle and Nook versions are $3.99 and he is also