CreateSpace VS Ingram Spark Print Book Distribution I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between CreateSpace (CS) and Ingram (either Lightning Source or Spark). In almost every instance I walk away thinking that it wasn’t a fair comparison. And almost every discussion I’ve seen tends to be the same. The one common ground is that many […]
Building From Scratch to Develop Characters I was talking to an author last week about the writing process and she told me about a great character she had developed. I asked what role the character played in her book. She said, “I’m not using him in this book. I’m saving him for the next one. […]
What Do You Know About Your Characters Character development is the most important aspect of a novel. You might get a few arguments about this statement, but surely almost everyone will place the importance of characters at the first or second position. We’re not going to discuss how you develop your characters, but rather what […]
Email Is Still the Best Marketing Tool This post is for anyone who needs to build an email marketing/subscriber list. I’m an author, so it is written from that point of view. I think that most authors are finally seeing the light and are starting to wonder, “how do I build an email list?” And […]
Talking Dogs and Good Storytelling What Makes Good Storytelling No matter the media, good storytelling requires good material. It doesn’t matter if it’s a book, a movie, or a joke—the material has to be good. But even good material isn’t enough. Any comedian can tell you horror tales of jokes that fell flat or audiences […]
Why Indie Authors Fail I’m not saying indie authors aren’t making it; in fact, some of them are doing amazingly well. Every day it seems as if another success story is in the news, not to mention that indie authors have staked permanent spots on the bestseller lists. It has taken a few years, but […]
Smashwords Levels The Playing Field With Pre-orders Smashwords continues to offer authors more tools to help them compete with the big publishers. Pre-orders have long been inaccessible to indies. We’ve been forced to sit on the sidelines and watch with envy while traditional publishers touted their up-and-coming releases. If you’ve ever wondered how to sell […]
Status Update on Mystery Books I had promised to have the sequel to A Bullet For Carlos out by now, and I don’t. Sometimes writing doesn’t go as planned. I had one book last year that really messed up my timing, and it delayed everything. I am pleased to say that I finished A Bullet […]
How To Cook A Character Characters form the basis for all good writing. It doesn’t matter how good your storytelling is, or how intricate and complex the plot, if you don’t have great characters your novel won’t shine. I have come to realize that character development is very similar to cooking, especially cooking red sauce. […]
eBook Distribution—Which One to Use? Last year I wrote a post comparing the pros and cons of using Smashwords or Bookbaby for ebook distribution. At the time they were the primary contenders for independent authors who wanted to get their books distributed to multiple platforms. A lot has changed in the industry since then. We […]
