Author Tips

IAT: Top 10 Free Indie Resources - Being an Indie Author can be an expensive process, especially starting out. When I started publishing books almost five years ago (where did that time go?) I started with literally no capital. I wrote a book and then I tried to learn what I could from the internet and podcasts. That’s one of the reasons

IAT: How to Self Edit Your Book - How to self edit a book - 10 Tips for when you're really strapped for cash

IAT: Why Professional Editing is Crucial - If you want to be profitable as an author write long term one of the most important things you can do is get your writing edited properly. Find out why.

IAT: Pre-Orders - Are pre-orders worth it? Should you be offering pre-orders on ebook platforms such as Kindle, Kobo, and Smashwords?

IAT: 6 Side Hustles To Supplement Your Income As An Author - 6 ways authors can supplement their income and monetise their content

11 Tips For Indie Authors - I’ve been wanting to share another tips list with you for a while so here are 11 things that have helped me on my journey as an Indie Author. 1 – Create An Engaging Newsletter – This will take time but is worth it. You want people to get excited when they hear your name,

Indie Author Tip – Newsletters - Said to be the foundation of any marketing plan a newsletter is something all authors should have. While frequency of release is up to you (conventional wisdom is weekly but lately I’ve been struggling to even get one out monthly due to big life stuff) it is nevertheless important to have a regular release of

Indie Author Tip – Facebook Ads - Advertising is a necessary evil for an Indie Author. You don’t want to do it. If you studied literature or writing you did it to improve your craft. It’s not likely you studied marketing which means it can really feel like you’re flailing around in the dark feeling for a light switch. I don’t like

Indie Author Tips: Facebook Creator Studio - There’s a number of ways you can use Facebook to enhance your marketing efforts, if you determine that Facebook is an avenue you want to invest time and money into. Now that Facebook and Instagram are part of the same company you can use one easy suite of software to control your content on both

Indie Author Tip: Social Media - Social media can be our greatest asset for marketing and also a time-wasting vortex. I know I’ve justified hours of being unproductive because I was “networking” and “engaging” on social media. Like the work-life balance I was talking about a couple weeks ago, we need to balance our essential engagements on social media, personal investment

Indie Author Tip: Working for Exposure - When someone comes to you with an opportunity it’s exciting. You’re probably going to feel flattered that someone wants to work with you, and you’re probably feeling validated as a writer. In our post-COVID world things are changing rapidly when it comes to how – and where – we work, and how we interact with

Indie Author Tip: Why You Need to Run the Numbers - Running the numbers on your business is tedious and boring but it can make a huge difference to the business of writing. Maggie Steifvater recently wrote some fantastic tweets about how number crunching determines what she writes, because at the end of the day what we create as artists and writer’s also needs to be

Indie Author Tips: What is Success - Last week I touched on avoiding burnout and how the key to avoiding burnout is the work-life balance. I also touched on the pressure modern society puts on people to “succeed” regardless of their career or vocation. But what exactly is “success”? How do we quantify it? We certainly don’t hesitate to say when other

Indie Author Tips: Avoiding Burnout - Avoiding burnout. It’s something we all have to do, no matter what industry. There is such an overwhelming pressure to perform these days that you need to be constantly hustling and producing to be “successful”. Of course, this says a hell of a lot about our concepts of what “success” is, but that’s a topic

Indie Author Tips: Pantsing Vs Plotting - Want to find out if you're a pantser or a plotter? Want to know WHAT a pantser or a plotter is? Read on to find out.

IAT: Indie Authoring is Hard - Indie Authoring is incredibly rewarding. It’s also incredibly hard. I’ve written about twenty of these articles now, hoping to help other authors realise their dreams (and avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made), but the one cold, hard, truth I can give you is: quality Indie Books are hard to produce. A lot people (especially

Indie Publishing: BookFunnel – Part Two - So back in May (where has this year flown?) I wrote about BookFunnel and how I was using it to distribute ARC and free copies of my books. I also wrote about how I discovered (belatedly) that BookFunnel also allows you to participate in group promotions. You can read that article here. This time I want

Indie Publishing: Top 10 Indie Publishing Books - If you choose to Independently/Self Publish there are a lot of things you need to consider. I’ve said this before but when you publish your own work you are responsible for everything that a publishing house has its own department for. When you set out to publish your work it can be quite intimidating but there are

Indie Publishing: NaNoWriMo - Every year in November thousands (millions maybe?) of authors, fledgling and established, take part in the phenomenon that is NaNoWriMo, or, National Novel Writing Month. Although this is an American based program, it has become a global phenomenon. Through the power of the internet anyone can partake in the basics of NaNoWriMo: writing 50,000 words

Indie Publishing: Write A Great Novel from The Complete Creative - One of the best tips I can give to an aspiring author is never stop trying to learn. I don’t care whether you’ve never picked up a pen before or if you’ve written thirty best sellers. There is always something you can learn, or something you will feel a need to improve. I recently took the Write a Great

Indie Publishing: BookFunnel - Disclaimer: This post was originally posted in May 2020. Some of the information may be dated. In Indie Author Tips: ARC Groups I discussed how hard it was for me to get people to read my unpublished manuscripts and provide feedback, and how I joined BookFunnel to help get a better response. Today I’m going

Indie Publishing: ARC Groups - One of the things essential to an author are book reviews. Reviews are essential at each step of the journey, from the editorial process all the way through to marketing. Why are they so important? How do they help authors? Read on to find out. You’ve probably heard this a lot from other authors but

Indie Publishing: Monitor Your Titles - This article was originally posted 1st of May, 2020 on my previous website. Some references may be out of date. Today I’m back with more Indie Publishing Tips! Covered in this article is how you can (and why you should) monitor your releases once they’ve hit the world, including social media content such as Instagram

Indie Publishing: Things Change - Disclaimer: This post was originally posted on my previous website on 27th February 2020, some of the information in it may no longer be accurate. I discovered something when I went to publish Samhain Sorcery a couple of months ago: things had changed. When I published The Kingston Chronicles the process was different. I printed the paperback copies through

Indie Publishing: How to Beat the #1 Enemy - Last time I discussed what I believe to be the number one enemy to successful Indie Publishing. I should have also reminded you that in Indie Publishing you are 100% responsible for every aspect of your business and that work that needs to be done. Everything a publishing house has a department for is down

Indie Publishing: #1 Enemy To Successful Indie Publishing - People always ask me how I go about publishing my books, and I feel I’ve covered that topic pretty well already in these articles, but the thing they really want to know is: how do you find the time, how do you really get things done? People say, “I could never write a book”. Those

Indie Publishing: Printing with KDP - Disclaimer: This article was originally published on my other website and I’ve been moving my articles across to here. Some of the information in this article is no longer accurate as KDP have changed some of their policies and practises. This information was accurate at 23rd October 2019. Some Indie Authors don’t want to offer

Indie Publishing: Book Covers - It’s no secret that becoming an Indie Author has been a rather steep learning curve for me. Lately I’ve been focusing on what I can do to improve my business and I kept coming back to one thing.  Book Covers It’s a well-known fact amongst Indie Authors that the saying “Don’t judge a book by

Indie Publishing: Planning is Everything - Sometimes it’s easy to forget we’re only human. My latest reminder comes today when I realised, I forgot to post a blog last week. 0_0.  Thank you for being patient with me. I’ve been so preoccupied with life stuff, and editing Samhain Sorcery, things are getting a little away from me. I’m endeavouring to do better.

Indie Authoring: Newsletters - Before I get stuck into today’s blog topic, I want to let you know I’m running a giveaway for new subscribers to my mailing list. If you join my mailing list during March 2019, you’ll receive the free eBook all subscribers receive, and go into the draw to win an autographed copy of The Kingston Chronicles.

Indie Author Part Six – Marketing - Indie Publishing is a journey. Every day I learn something new, often something I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Exactly a year ago I published a blog post “Indie Publishing: Part Five – The Belly of The Whale” (it’s still live on WordPress and you can read it here, as well as Indie Publishing Parts

Art Practice and Deadlines - Today I want to talk about Art Practice and Deadlines. I really hate the term “Art Practice” but I can’t think of a better term so I’m stuck with it. All artists have some kind of art practice. Whether you are an illustrator who draws daily or a painter who keeps an Art Journal; Art

Indie Publishing: Part Five – The Belly of the Whale - One of the most useful things I learnt at university, in relation to writing, was archetypes. I had a fantastic teacher who was fundamental in my education of archetypal characters and stories. She will never be able to understand how much she effected my own journey and how she influenced my writing. Archetypal characters and

Launching Your Book And What To Do Next - If you’re still here reading my advice, then I’m really grateful that you’ve stuck with me this long. If this is the first time you’ve come to look at my blog, then Hi! Over the last month an a half-ish I’ve been discussing why and how I indie-published The Kingston Chronicles. After I received my

Indie Publishing – Part Three: How I Published – Continued - To follow on from my last post, today I’m going to discuss reviewing your manuscript with Createspace. I made a lot of errors on my first manuscript proof so I feel like I have some wisdom I can share here. Once you’ve submitted your manuscript Createspace reviews your manuscript for compatibility with their software. From

Indie Publishing – Part Two: How I Published - Last time I posted I discussed why I chose Indie Publishing and how I came to that decision. Today I am going to discuss how I self-published. Before I do so I am going to point out that there are many different ways to self-publish, as there are reasons to self-publish, so if you are

Indie Publishing – Part One: Why I chose Indie Publishing - I am going to preface this post with a disclaimer. I do not have official qualifications in publishing. I am simply a writer who chose to self-publish. My education is in writing not publishing and the information given here about self-publishing is what I learnt from my own experience and is in no way comprehensive