Character Backstory We all have a story. The unique events that each of us experience build us and make us who we are. And the characters in your stories should be no different.  Backstory is crucial for helping your character feel relatable to the reader. But what memories should you include in your books? And…

Hooking the Reader with Your First Chapter If you’re walking through the grocery store and an employee offers you a free sample of a new brand of cheese. You’re likely to taste it. If you like the cheese, you might buy some. But if it tastes terrible, you won’t buy the product. Reading behaviors aren’t…

Writing Short Fiction In the indie community it’s often said that the best way to make money is to write novels, specifically in series of three or more books. But what about writing short fiction? From short stories to novellas, there are several different types of short fiction. Each offers not only a different reader…

Sharpening the Saw: Doing the Things We Hate Doing As career authors or even part-time writers, we all have to do things we hate. In a perfect world, authors could sit in a cabin in the woods, happily slapping the typewriter without a care or concern. But that’s not reality, and with the exception of…

Launching an Amazon Bestselling Fiction Book in 2020 Indie authors often talk about the “gold rush” era of self-publishing when a smaller pool of authors and Amazon’s looser algorithms made it easier to sell books on their platform. But with increased competition and the push toward a play-to-play marketplace, is 2020 too late to have…

Talking with Tara from Kobo There’s value in “going wide” and one of the most trusted and thriving marketplaces is Kobo Writing Life. J. and Zach invite Tara Cremin on the show to discuss everything Kobo has to offer the independent author. We all know what Amazon can offer but exclusivity isn’t the only choice.…

Why You Need a Passion Project No matter how much you love being a career author, you will definitely need a break from the work at one time or another. It’s easy to cram writing and marketing into the few available hours you might have and it’s hard to walk away when you’re the only…

Nailing Your Amazon Book Page Being a Career Author in 2020 requires more than simply writing words and finishing books. You’re running a business. And there’s perhaps no place that demonstrates that more than your book’s Amazon page. This is where readers will likely come to buy your book, and if you want to convert…

Authors Services as a Revenue Stream Selling only fiction is tough. In fact, only a small percentage of authors (both traditional and indie) make a full-time living solely from fiction. Therefore, you need to think more like a business person if you want to be happily self-employed. In response to a listener question, J. and…

Sticking with a Series Until the End You’ve probably heard it all the time. If you want to make money selling books, you need to write a series. But planning a series isn’t the same as a standalone novel. And how do you prevent yourself from burning out halfway through a series? More than that,…