Author Archives: Joel D Canfield
6 Quick Marketing Tips for Authors
Start your marketing program the minute you decide to write a book. It can take a year or two to build a platform, your tribe of fans. Start now.
5 Business Lessons Nobody Taught Me (But I Sure Wish They Had)
New post at my personal site. It’s not writing or publishing specific, but you might still be interested in some counter-intuitive lessons I wish I hadn’t learned the hard way. 5 Business Lessons Nobody Taught Me (But I Sure Wish … Continue reading
Preparing Your Book for Kindle and Print
Some authors need to get through the whole publishing process on their own. A major challenge is getting your book ready for Kindle and for print. Usually, though, that challenge is ignorance and fear: not knowing what to do.
Standards: Straight Jacket or Guide Posts?
I just read a blog post by an author claiming that Joseph Campbell’s monomyth is overused, and explained how their novel avoided it so as not to sound formulaic. Except the only difference was, their “hero” wasn’t traditionally heroic. Otherwise, … Continue reading
When should I start my author website? What should I put on it?
(Another question frequently asked) You should start marketing your book the day you’re sure you’re going to write it. Your website is a major part of your marketing. Consider how movies are marketed. A year in advance, sometimes more, teasers … Continue reading
Use a Self-Publishing Company or DIY?
Publishing is in a state of flux. Every variation of publishing is possible today, from throwing it over the transom to an agent who handles it all, to doing every single step yourself. In between are various levels of self-publishing, … Continue reading
I know nothing about creating an ebook. Where do I start?
This is still a common question. Any time we’re embracing something completely new to us, the steepness of the learning curve is overwhelming. Sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask. Sometimes taking a stab at an answer helps … Continue reading
Who Can We Change?
Seth posted a great list of questions every entrepreneur should ask themselves before they launch something. We’ve already launched years ago, but I went through the exercise of answering them anyway. He warns against the danger of tweaking the answers … Continue reading
Learning in Public: Taking Out the Trash?
One (possibly valid) complaint made by proponents of traditional publishing about the glut of independently published books is that it appears some folks are using independent publishing for on the job training. I know my first mystery wasn’t the quality … Continue reading
Why You Should Use Professional Web Hosting for Your Author Website
I’ve written a post about why I believe authors and artists shouldn’t skimp on professional services related to their website. Hop over to my web company’s blog if you’d like the details. (It’s more web related than writing related.)
