The Pros and Cons of Audiobook Publishing

Last summer I took a trip to my brother-in-law’s home in Indiana.  The trip was productive in that I probably enjoyed one of the most restful vacations of my life, but I also spent every evening over the course of a week recording an audiobook for my third novel Come Apart in the incredibly silent recesses

My Article Published in “The Short Story Writer” Magazine

A few months ago I was contacted by managing editor Andy Brinkley who publishes an iTunes magazine entitled “The Short Story Writer”.  He was putting together an issue about the work of Philip K. Dick, and wanted to know if he could publish a blog post I wrote several months ago about what we can

Reader Mail: A Reader With Great Questions

Like many blogs I have a contact page where people can e-mail questions or simply hit me up for editing services.  I love doing editing work because it keeps me sharp, but once in a while someone will send an e-mail that makes me think.   Today’s e-mail comes from Merle Temple, a novelist who

Novel Contests vs Self Publishing

I had big plans this January to enter the Amazon Breakout Novelist Competition with my newest book Come Apart.  Of all of the novels I have written, I feel that this is some of my best work as a writer.  The competition has a grand prize of $50,000 and a publishing contract, but as I have

New Podcast Up: NO BATFLEK!!

In this latest podcast I discuss the success that I had with the 5 day free promotion and with Kindle Direct Publishing.  It appears I may have sold a few books through it…or more than a few. We also rant for a while about the recent choice to stuff Ben Afflek’s marshmallowy head into the

Podcasting: An Untapped Marketing Strategy

To date there are literally millions of podcasts out there each with a different subject to hock at us, most of them informational or for entertainment. Currently Ryan McKinley and I are recording a podcast called Fanboys on Fiction, and we are getting some regular hits on iTunes and on the host site, Podomatic.com.  However, I

New Podcast Up: Where Have All the Good Writers Gone?

Ryan and I had a great time discussing the lackluster summer movie season and why most of the films to hit theaters this summer have been colossal duds.  Could it be that writing has taken a back seat to possible blockbuster “sure things”?  What if the “sure things” don’t fly?  They can’t if they have

I’m Giving Away My Post Apocalyptic Novel – Day 2

Here I am in the middle of day 2 of the 5 day give away of my post apocalyptic novel This Broken Earth.  I went to Kindle Direct just moments ago and found the following information about how many books have been downloaded since the promo began yesterday (click the image below to expand): I have

New Promo Video: This Broken Earth

I put together the following promotional video for my novel This Broken Earth.  I spent a lot of time with public domain footage, iMovie, Garageband and huge headaches trying to get past the current error messages on iBooks Author (which I will be posting about soon).  I spent the whole day trying to get the iBooks

How to Customize iBook Author Templates

I have searched the web far and wide to find awesome pre-made templates for iBook Author, because it seemed to me that I could not modify the pre-made templates at all.  However, I found a quick and easy 7 step process to creating completely custom templates for iBook Author and am offering this tutorial free