Straight off, let me be clear: writer’s funk is not writer’s block. The latter, “writer’s block” is the “condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with your writing.” Writer’s funk, on the other hand is the situation where you have churned out your target number of words, had no trouble at all– well, hardly any trouble — getting them down on paper and then you read them, and re-read them — and then you want to vomit, and throw it all in the trash. Continue reading “Writer’s Funk: What It Is — And Why It’s Good”
Month: August 2017
Island Of Adventure: A Day Trip For Location Research
Taking a day off for location research is one of the fun parts of writing a novel especially when you have to go out on the water on the most gorgeous day of the summer, and you can bring along your spouse to enjoy the day. It hopefully makes up, a little, for all the other days when he has to do stuff on his own, or keep quiet because you’re writing. Continue reading “Island Of Adventure: A Day Trip For Location Research”
Before You Hit The “Publish” Button: An Indie Author’s Checklist
Most indie authors grapple with the all-consuming issue of how to stand out from the crowd by creating memorable content and sufficient “buzz” for their self-published novels. Of one million books published a year, some 700,000 are self-published. Very few indie authors reach sales in the thousands, and fewer still break even after costs for giveaways and promotions and advertising are taken into account. A recent article by author Nicole Dieker (on the website of publishing industry expert, Jane Friedman) attested to just how disheartening statistics for self-published authors can be. Continue reading “Before You Hit The “Publish” Button: An Indie Author’s Checklist”
How To Stand Out From The Crowd: An Indie Author’s Success Story
I just spent an hour on the phone with the man who, a couple of weeks ago, kept me up all night — turning the pages of his latest thriller. His name is J.D. Barker, and he’s an author who self-published his first novel, Forsaken, in 2014. Since then Forsaken, a supernatural thriller, has sold approximately 250,000 copies. As an audio book, Forsaken made $30,000 for J.D. in the first month of its release. After the book sold 13,000 copies in one week of 2015, it was scheduled for the New York Times bestseller lists — until the NYT discovered the novel was self-published. So far, Forsaken has earned between $250-300,000. Continue reading “How To Stand Out From The Crowd: An Indie Author’s Success Story”