How Direct Sales and Transmedia Have Helped Pierre Alex Jeanty’s Poetry Soar David Viergutz Thought-provoking poetry can speak to readers around the world. It’s something people have seemingly always innately understood about the art form, and it’s a fact Pierre Alex Jeanty has witnessed firsthand as he’s helped his readers gain inspiration and strength to […]
Ben Hale’s Unconventional Path to Writing Success Eryka Parker Ben Hale never could have imagined that consuming Fantasy tales as an avid young reader would reshape his life. His writing journey sparked from a love of reading, but a well-kept secret that lasted nearly fifteen years has allowed Hale to touch countless lives. Led by […]
From Aspiring to Be a Corporate Lawyer to Making Your Granny Blush Gayle Leeson Before becoming the author of more than fifty books, Celeste Barclay earned degrees in international affairs, secondary social science, and political management. It’s no surprise then that her books are so thoroughly researched and accurate. From particular Scottish clans to the […]
How Dale Mayer Shuts Down Intrusive Thoughts and Releases the Words Jenn Lessmann A hostage situation wouldn’t be out of place in any of Dale Mayer’s Military Romance series. It might not even be completely unexpected in one of her Thriller Suspense series, or in a novel from her Paranormal catalog. So when she talks […]
Jonathan Yañez on Writing into the Dark and Taking the Next Step Jenn Lessmann Jonathan Yañez doesn’t have an outline. Some authors talk about writing by the Headlight Method, plotting only as far down the road as their headlights will shine. For Jonathan, assuming that the lights are on might give him too much credit—by […]
As the Writing Wives, Malorie and Jill Cooper Make Marketing Success Accessible to Indie Authors When asked about the advice they would offer indie authors heading into a new year, Malorie and Jill Cooper start their answers at the same time. “You go first, Mal,” Jill tells her wife with a laugh. “I figure we’re […]
The Many Publishing Lives of Skye MacKinnon Never mind that Skye MacKinnon shares her Scotch heritage, teaching ability, and calm courage in the face of a changing world with J.K. Rowling’s Professor McGonagall. Or that MacKinnon’s cat never appeared during our interview, so spectacle-shaped markings around the cat’s eyes—like those on McGonagall’s feline form—cannot be […]
Sacha Black Builds Her Author Career on Authenticity, Helping Other Writers Who knew growing up in a remote village in the UK would be the spark that started a young woman’s journey to authorship? Such was the case for Sacha Black, podcast host, content and communication strategist for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and […]
How Kevin Tumlinson Paved His Path up the Mountain If you had to write your first book in a large spiral notebook with a taped-together cover to become an author, would you? That’s how Kevin Tumlinson, an accomplished Thriller and Speculative Fiction writer, began his publishing journey in 2008. On an average Tuesday evening, I […]
When the two of us started the Writer MBA, a company built to train authors on the ins and outs of the publishing industry, we knew we wanted to share the news with as many authors as we could. Our launch for the business was big and bold, as we were trying to drum up […]
How Romance Author Jillian Dodd Makes Her Dreams Come True The plot for Jillian Dodd’s first novel came to her in a dream. Well, in three dreams, actually. Over the course of a couple of weeks, the author dreamt of the characters at different periods of their lives. When she woke up, she needed to […]
Theodora Taylor’s Recipe for Writing Marketable Books Without Writing to Market Ingredients Theodora Taylor knows what her readers are hungry for. The Amazon Top 10 bestselling author has a seemingly never-ending backlist of interracial romances, with stories that explore a range of cross-genres and subgenres, from Fantasy to Billionaire Romance. She describes her fiction as […]
In the vast landscape of modern literature, there are authors who possess an uncanny ability to captivate readers with their words, whisking them away to worlds both real and imagined. Among them stands Ben Wolf, the award-winning author of multiple Children’s and Middle Grade books, as well as the Blood Mercenaries Fantasy series and the […]
Award-nominated author, podcaster, and creative entrepreneur Joanna Penn is a force to be reckoned with in the world of writing and publishing. Writing under the name J. F. Penn, she’s a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Thrillers, Dark Fantasy, and Crime. Her popular ARKANE Action-Adventure Thrillers, Brooke & Daniel Psychological Thrillers, […]
Chrishaun Keller-Hanna on World-Building, Monsters, and Merch Jenn Lessmann Chrishaun Keller-Hanna wants you to know you are a success as a writer. “We are artists that use words as our medium,” she says. “We become writers the moment we say we are, and we must be the ones that determine when we have succeeded.” For […]
Mark Leslie Lefebvre speaks in asides. In telling his story, he meanders about, describing the characters and side quests within the journey. “I’ve got squirrel tendencies left, right, and center,” he explains. However, listening to him wander through stories and back again, one feels as if they have gone on an epic journey through time […]
Tammi Labrecque Shares Lessons on Balance, Impostor Syndrome, and Making Email Marketing Look Easy Even if you’ve never met her before, one conversation with Tammi Labrecque is probably enough for the two of you to become friends. The author and course creator is bright, bubbly, and—even on a Friday afternoon—ready to talk your ear off […]
Children’s Author-Publisher Darcy Pattison Builds Her Brand with the Youngest Readers in Mind Ten years ago, children’s author Darcy Pattison faced a dilemma. After publishing with multiple traditional publishers—Lothrup, Lee & Shepard; Harcourt Inc.; Sylvan Dell Publishers; Philomel; and Stone Arch Books—from 1991 to 2011, she couldn’t find the right home for a nonfiction picture […]
Seven years ago, Mark Dawson told the world in detail how he got his Thriller novels into the hands of hundreds of thousands of readers. His story came in the form of the inaugural Self Publishing Formula online advertising programs, and if you were a member of the Facebook Group or enrolled in one of […]
Beyond The 2023 Author’s Planner, Audrey Hughey Helps Others Plan for the Future When Audrey Hughey heard about a business planner created by female entrepreneur Carrie Green in 2017, she was hooked. The problem: As it was the first year they were being printed, and with the cost of shipping and exchange rates, Audrey wasn’t […]
Just one facet of being a published indie author is universal, and that is technology. You are free to choose the genre, the tropes, and the story arc of every work you produce. You’re able to choose how words appear on the page—whether that means filling notebooks with prose, speaking the story aloud into a […]
Chelle Honiker As a USA Today best-selling author and with over fifty books to her credit, Monica Leonelle has earned her reputation as a productive novelist. She shares the title with one of her two nonfiction series for authors. She writes quickly and publishes often. She’s also one of the most marketing-savvy authors in the […]
Tameri Etherton discovered she was a natural storyteller when she was six. “I have three older siblings and then a stepsister who was four months younger than me, and we’d go camping a lot,” she says. “And I would be the one telling stories around the fire. And I realized I had a gift for […]
The Thriller Writer Says Traditional Publishing Is Broken. He’s Got Plans to Fix It. When someone called Nick Thacker’s novels “airplane books” early on in his career, he took the term and ran with it. The description was meant to be an insult—as in his books were the kind you buy at an airport to […]
Tao Wong Shares His Secrets for Making the Full-Time Gig Work Financially Tao Wong never meant to be a full-time author. Now he helps other authors move closer to realizing the same dream he never thought he’d achieve, all while advocating the necessity of income diversification. His backlist speaks for itself. Tao currently has more […]
One of the many things I admire about the indie author community is how they are of the mindset that there is enough pie for all of us. Because of this, when an indie author has information that can assist another author, they step in and share it. One of those helpful people is Robyn […]
As co-founder of Reedsy, Ricardo Fayet is a familiar and much-respected face in the indie publishing world. The company was formed in 2014 to curate editing and design services. Ricardo explains that its core purpose is the same now as it was then: “to provide a safe place where authors could find some of the […]
Steve Higgs is a man of contradictions—a tough ex-army man who writes about a bad-tempered, crime-solving police dog and a bored housewife-turned-sleuth. He’s also known as the British author who wrote over sixty books in three years. He is funny, a family man, and yet hyper-focused. He puts some of his success down to having […]
Storytelling … but Add a Little Spice This year, Ines Johnson will have written and published over one hundred books. A seasoned author and introvert who loves sticky notes and colorful pens, she’s a treasure trove of experience. She’s also quick to point out that her processes may not work for everyone. “Just because Ines […]
How Elana Johnson—and Liz Isaacson, Jessie Newton, and Donna Jeffries—left traditional publishing to inspire indie success Nicole Schroeder Over the fourteen years she’s spent in the self-publishing industry, Elana Johnson has learned to use her strengths. The USA Today bestselling Romance and Women’s Fiction author and CEO of AEJ Creative Works, Inc., is good at […]
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