FREE Writing Survival Guide

I'm proud to have my work appear in a FREE Writing Survival Guide created to help inspire writers for NaNoWriMo 2019.

Writing about 2,000 words a day isn't hard.

Doing it sustainably is the hard part.

That's why a group of amazing authors got together, under the guidance of Laura Crenshaw, to create 50 pages of useful, inspirational content to help other writers as they dive into 30 days of National Novel Writing Month.

You can check it out and download it here.

The Write Stuff Bundle

I am honoured and thrilled to be part of a new The Write Stuff Spring 2019 Bundle from StoryBundle.

Curated by the awesome Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the bundle contains three themes:

• Finding Time to Write (no matter what your life's circumstances are)
• Growing As An Artist
• Practical Business Advice

The Write Stuff 2019 Bundle

I come in on the "practical business advice" side of things with my book Killing It On Kobo: Leverage Insights to Optimize Publishing and Marketing Strategies, Grow Global Sales and Increase Revenue on Kobo.

But there are so many fantastic books available for a great value. (I've already read a handful of them and will be buying this myself so I can read the rest).

Here's how this StoryBundle works.

You decide what price you want to pay. 

For $5 (or more, if you're feeling generous), you'll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• Business For Breakfast - Vol. 10: Growing As a Professional Artist by Leah Cutter
• How to Write Non-Fiction by Joanna Penn
• Practical Meerkat's 52 Bits of Useful Info for Young (and Old) Writers by Laura Anne Gilman
• The Rational Writer: A to Z by Mindy Klasky

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus SIX more things, including a $50 video lecture!

• Business For Breakfast - Vol. 11: Beginning Marketing for the Professional Publisher by Blaze Ward
• WMG Publishing Presents: Carving Out Time for Your Writing by Dean Wesley Smith
• Writing With Chronic Illness by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Killing it on Kobo by Mark Leslie Lefebvre
• Money-Making Business Models for Writers by Tonya D. Price, MBA
• The Million Dollar Writing Series Boxed Set by Kevin J. Anderson

So that's 10 books plus a $50 online video lecture for only $15?

$15 for all of that? YUP! (Yes, I know, I'm borrowing and re-editing a line from Monty Python's LIFE OF BRIAN out of context) So, if you think we are a little out of our heads making such a generous offer, go ahead and take advantage of our temporary absence of mind.

Even if you only consume half of the content, or perhaps even a quarter of it, you're still getting a huge value.

You can thank us for it later.

You can read MORE about the bundle here.


It's super convenient to get these ebooks onto your reader of choice—just download and sync. Or, if you have a Kindle or Kindle-enabled tablet or smartphone, StoryBundle can send the books directly to your device. No computer required. 

Rut-Busting for Writers with Nancy Christie

In the latest episode of my writing and publishing podcast, I interview Nancy Christie about her book Rut-Busting Book for Writers.

You can listen to the episode in the window below or click here to read the full show notes and listen to it from that site (or download the episode to listen)

The timing on this was perfect, because I recently applied a few of the strategies she shared with me (which I talk about in the pre-interview personal update as well as in the post-interview reflections that I share).

Specifically, I talk about getting started back into the "Canadian Werewolf" universe by writing a short story about my nain character, Michael Andrews. I also talk a bit about the revision to the existing cover (to give it a slightly more "urban fantasy" feel than it had before - as well as the forthcoming audiobook of the short story "This Time Around" which was recently completed and should be showing up soon on audio retail and library platforms.

2018 Book Related Sales And Stuff

In the past two episodes of my podcast (Episode 55 and Episode 56), I spent some time looking at where I had earned writing specific income. What formats, what sources.

For example, in looking at just writing income, I broke it down into Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing, Mixed (a combination where it was difficult to determine or split the source), and business writing. IE, writing I got paid for but didn't get a byline.

I also broke down the format into Print, eBooks, Audio, Mixed (again, where it was difficult to split off the actual source in any meaningful way) and speaking (this would be talking as a writer of fiction or non-fiction paranormal, and not my speaking about the book and publishing industry)

I found it interesting that, within my eBook sales, two collaborative publishing platforms represented my #3 and #4 spots. (With Kindle and Kobo holding the #1 and #2 spots).

I have long suggested that the future of publishing is going to involve more collaboration than ever before. This appears to be happening more in my own writing world.

I find this exercise useful for figuring out my plans and strategy adjustments for the next year.



If you are curious to read more details, you can read/listen to them on the aforementioned episodes:

Episode 55 - Forward Momentum While Looking Back
This is a solo episode where I review my sales - or at least start to. Because I continue some of it into Episode 56.



Episode 56 - Balance and Counterbalance with Katie Cross
This is an interview episode with Katie Cross - awesome and inspiring all on its own. In the opening personal update section, I share a few more of those 2018 sales details

For Those Who Enjoy Visuals over Audio

In January of this week I started a weekly podcast called Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing. I have released a new episode every Friday every single week since January 5th.

Sometimes the episodes are solo ones with me harping on about something in writing and publishing.

Most times the episodes are interviews with writers, creators, industry folks and other people who inspire me or I want to learn from.

There will likely be 54 episodes by the end of this year. Mostly because I made a math error and accidentally skipped an episode number and so felt obliged to quickly fill in a mini-episode so they all added up. I'll also be posted a special 50th episode post this coming weekend - just because I like that round number.

These two extra episodes in Season One will make it 54 episodes rather than 52.

But there are a lot fewer episodes of the podcast in Video format.

I use ZOOM to record most of the interviews that aren't done in person. And for those, I will ask the person I am interviewing if it's okay to use the video feed for sharing the interview portion on YouTube.

When they are okay with it, and, maybe more critical to the process, when I find/make the time to actually produce a video version, I post the videos to my Stark Reflections Playlist on YouTube.

For the sake of those who enjoy video over audio, here are some of the video interviews from a few different episodes:

Episode 5 - Global Audiobook Opportunities for Authors with Kelly Lytle

Episode 29 - Writing with Authenticy, Humor and Passion with Terry Fallis

Episode 21 - Real Connections in a Digital World with J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon

Episode 15 - The Process of a Writer's Life with Kevin Tumlinson

Episode 35 - Lessons Learned from the Novel Intensive Workshop with Ara Grigorian, Janis Thomas and Julie Strauss

Episode 48 - Publishing Strong with Andrea Pearson

Episode 45 - Co-Authoring with the Writers Behind C.K. Wikes (Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson)

I haven't been all that great at capturing/keeping all of the video feeds to post in this format. But I did manage to get some short clips derived from some other episodes.

Like these excerpts, often from my own little post-interview reflections....

Using Digital Reading Analytics for Strategic Planning...

Understanding the Cost of Self-Publishing an eBook

And, for a funny, here's a blooper from Episode 16 with Natasha Bajema . . .

Oh Yeah, By The Way, I Wrote A Book, or Two

It's so funny.

I spend the majority of my time helping authors with gaining better visibility, maximizing their title and author SEO on various retail websites, enhancing and working on their author brand, and overall, attempting to sell more of their books. I quite love doing that. I find it extremely satisfying.

Then there's me. And my books.

Yes, I work hard at them. Yes, I love writing. Yes, I love publishing.

But I keep forgetting about mentioning or talking about my own books. For example, I published the eBook version of KILLING IT ON KOBO last week. But I was at a writing conference and was busy with engaging in the daily activities and with the writers there; you know, helping them learn more, helping them strategize for selling more. So I neglected to really do much to even mention that the new book on that exact topic was out.

Sigh.

No, I've never liked pushy "salesy" sorts of social media posts. And though I will, from time to time, mention something about one of my books as it relates to something else, I try my best not to be too in peoples' faces with pushing my books.

Sometimes I lean, too far, in the opposite direction.

Because in the past month and a half I have published two books about writing and publishing. And I realize that I haven't even mentioned them here on this blog.

Sigh.

It's funny, my friend, Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn Podcast, sent me an email late last week asking if there was some sort of landing page for my latest book, KILLING IT ON KOBO because she wanted to recommend it. Joanna has done more to sell my book than I have.

I realized, of course, that I hadn't even added a listing of that book to my website. Nor did I add the other book in that same series (Stark Publishing Solutions), THE 7 P's OF PUBLISHING SUCCESS.

Sigh.

I have fixed that. I have those two books and the forthcoming one that's still a work in progress, listed under the bibliography/books section of my website.

Currently, only the eBook versions of these are out, but I plan on having the audiobook versions released by the end of November if all works out well.

Speaking of Joanna's podcast, her latest episode, Episode 400, is a great interview with Kobo's European Manager of Kobo Writing Life, Camille Mofidi. And I'm not just saying that because I originally hired Camille for that role. I'm saying it because she's awesome. And so is Joanna

Seriously, go check out that podcast interview for great free tips about selling more on Kobo. Listen to that. It's free. Then, if you want a "Reader's Digest" version of tips for Kobo (kind of like a significantly shortened version of the book I mention in this post), sign up for my10 day free email course from Reedsy called Kobo Hacks for Optimizing Sales.

Yeah, go do those two things. Don't buy my book about Kobo. Enjoy the free content/advice and tips.

See, there I go again, being an under-pushy salesperson.