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Self-Publishing Your Story

Self-publishing insights, tips, and techniques. Sample topics: my Fiction University guest posts about Indie Publishing Paths, cover artist and editor selection advice, formatting issues, creating print versions, etc.

Picking Editors: What Do You Need from Your Editor?

Color variations of a single shade with text: In Search of Our Perfect Editor...

Last week, we talked about the different kinds of editing and editors, and we also talked about how to evaluate editors. Now let’s dig deeper into some of the variations we might encounter when evaluating editors. By understanding these variations, we might better be able to find our perfect match.

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April 21, 2015

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How to Punch Up a Blurb or Query — Guest: Julie Glover

Fist punching into water with text: Punch Up Your Blurb!

No matter how we publish, we have to come up with a great book description. Queries and blurbs have always been my weak point, so I asked my editors at each stage of the editing process for help. Julie Glover’s here today with tips for how to go from good to great.

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March 5, 2015

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The Perils of a “Dead” Genre

Black and white image of dead tree with text: What Should We Do with a Dead Genre?

It’s been almost a week since my release of Unintended Guardian, and I’ve been getting lots of questions about how I made my decisions for what to do with my books. Let’s start at the beginning: How did I decide on my publishing path? For that, we have to go back to when I first started on my writing career path.

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March 3, 2015

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How to Create a DIY Book Trailer — Guest: Angela Quarles

Movie clapboard with text: Be a Director: Create a Book Trailer

We’re all familiar with the concept of movie trailers, but book trailers are becoming more common too. Like a movie trailer, a book trailer is meant to increase interest in a story. Where queries and back-cover blurbs pitch a story in writing, book trailers pitch a story by showing. Literally. Some publishers […]

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September 9, 2014

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How to Make Sure Readers Don’t Close the Book

Woman reading a book with text: Keep the Readers Reading

Many articles and infographics have tried to answer the question of what makes readers stop reading. They usually include a list of offenses like typos, too boring, confusing, etc. And those are all true. But a recent post took a more analytical approach to measuring problem areas. Jefferson Smith started […]

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September 4, 2014

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When Do Writers Need a Business Plan?

Fortune cookie message with text: Do Writers Need a Business Plan?

When we’re first starting out as writers, creating a business plan might be the last thing we want to do. However, a business plan can be anything we want it to be. In truth, there are far more non-business things we could include in a “business” plan than we might assume.

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September 2, 2014

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