Link Fiesta

8 Top Marketing Tips from Digital Book World. Is it me or is the concept of "author platform auditing" kind of creepy?

What are successful authors doing? Insane. Successful authors have an average of 13 books and "emerging" authors have 7. I'm not even "emerging" then since I only have four books out. I guess I'm a "pre-emerging" author then. :)

A fantastic second book release strategy from Kboards.

Also from Kboards, what two years of self-publishing gets you.

Link Fiesta

Bree Bridges tweeted her favorite apps and services. I use Instafreebie, Dreamstime, and PicMonkey and they are awesome. I would however add Deposit Photos (they have huge sales sometimes and it's worth keeping an eye out for those) and Scrivener to that list.

What could happen if you worked as hard as you possibly could. I'm thinking a lot about this post as I plan my 2016. I worked pretty hard last year but there were a lot of interruptions (my husband got a new job, we had to remodel and sell our house, we moved across the country, my kids changed schools) and I also had a huge learning curve (writing, editing, formatting, Wattpad, social media, etc...) so I wonder what's going to happen this year.

A handy list of romance tropes.

It's goal-setting time. At this time of year I always look at Scott Adams' post on goals vs. systems. It sounded a bit odd to me at first because I like begin able to cross things off my list. I like goals. However, the self-publishing environment is pretty turbulent so I think systems may work better than goals.

Link Fiesta

Emily Henderson on picking a book cover! How fantastic is this post? My favorite designer talking about how to design a book cover. I love the fact that her book over took almost as many drafts as mine. It makes me feel better about the gazillion cover mock-ups I have in my hard drive.

The Cliffs of Insanity! Awesome KBoards thread on the 30/60/90 days Amazon "cliffs." Really good info. (BTW, here's a behind the scenes look at the making of that scene. I didn't know they actually filmed it on the Cliffs of Dover. Wow.)

Great advice from JA Konrath.

Candy corn Jello shots!

Link Fiesta

The best item to protect you from Sasquatch attacks is a camera. In other news, Reddit Sasquatch thread devolves into beef jerky recipe exchange.

How I made $500,000 self-publishing romance novels. Great Kboards post with lots of crunchy numbers.

Nigella Lawson makes Halloween cupcakes (or faery cakes, as she calls them).

Penny Reid's newsletter advice. Yes, I'm about to release a new newsletter. You should subscribe. You'll get the first Ghost Hunters After Dark story right away and the second one (Scottish Egyptologist, pyramids, mummies!) before the end of the year.

#RWA15 Panel on Planning Your Book Launch

Andrea Dalling live-tweeted Cristing Harber and Deanna Aubrey's "Book Launches: From Zero to Wow" panel. She even tweeted the link to the powerpoint. Andrea, you are fabulosity and I am forever in your debt. I'm keeping a close eye on this one because my book launch is a month away.

Aidee Ladnier storified Andrea's other #RWA15 tweets. Go check them out!

Link Fiesta

Interesting look at how hybrid publishers like Entangled and Booktrope manage their businesses. Liz Pelletier's comments are fascinating:

I’m not afraid to try and create a trend because we can put out books very fast, faster than New York.  I asked Jennifer Armentrout to write a book about aliens and high school and she was skeptical whether anyone would read it.  But we supported Obsidian before it hit the USA Today bestseller list by acquiring similar books to position them to release within a similar time frame and then creating hype around the new genre with marketing and pr.

Fabulous podcast by Kristin Harber who sold her first three books in the delivery room and talks about how she parlayed her political campaign experience to selling books.

A great post on promos that still work (with interesting data about how some of the book newsletters work, did you know that BKnights relies on covers? I didn't.)

Link Fiesta

How stories act as agents of personal transformation. Powerful essay.

The cost of self-publishing a book (with numbers!) Great post. Few writers are willing to share financial information, which makes it difficult to judge one's publishing options. I'm always grateful when someone decides to open up the kimono.

Mae Clair on Corpse Roads. Fascinating stuff. I have to add a corpse road to my paranormal small town. These things are creepy.

One Indie author's debut year income. Great post that compares a year of traditional sales income for a book with a year of indie income. Eye-opening!

Link Fiesta

The psychic power diet - Avocados! Apparently, the road to psychic power is paved with fish tacos and guacamole. Sounds legit.

A candid post on how even brilliant, award-winning, traditionally-pubbed books struggle with discoverability. The author managed to make the book visible the old-fashioned way: blog tours and blogging.

5 self-publishing truths.

A wake-up call to new and aspiring authors. (Spoiler: yes, you still have to go balls-to-the-wall on marketing)

Link Fiesta

Brenna Aubrey on her decision to turn down a trad pub contract and self-publish. (Numbers!)

Why is Pennsylvania so haunted?

Courtney Milan on self-publishing.

I just found out about The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. It's a YouTube series about a plucky girl with paranormal powers. The episodes are all about ghost hunting. It's pretty good! They're coming out with a YA book which also sounds pretty interesting. The cover is certainly very striking.

In the mood for a holiday-themed alien abduction romance? Me too! I'm adding Eve Langlais' Alien Abduction to my TBR list this December.

Link Fiesta

Dear Author dug out some numbers on Kindle Unlimited. The payout is going down (boo hoo!) but the service seems to help new authors with discoverability. The Dear Author tour of the Harlequin offices in Toronto is also really cool.

The truth behind "antique" vampire hunting kits. Fascinating article. Here's the researcher's conclusion:

"So, although I had set out to 'debunk' their very existence, I came to realize that these enigmatic objects transcend questions of authenticity. They are part of the material culture of the gothic; aspects of our shared literary and cinematic passions made physical. Lacking any surviving artifact of vampirism either folkloric or fictional, fans of the gothic had created one to fill the gap. So whilst we at the Armouries still plan to scientifically test our vampire kit, and there is the possibility that it's early rather than late 20th century in date, for me the outcome has almost become moot. Vampire killing kits are genuine artifacts of the Gothic fiction that still provides sustenance to our most beloved monsters." 

How data can help you write a better screenplay. Very cool data crunching analysis.

Great Writing Advice From Twitter

Author Roxanne St. Claire (fabulous writer, I love her books) live-tweeted the "Naked Truth About Self-Publishing" presentation at the Novelists, Inc. convention. Very interesting stuff.

Link Fiesta

Jessi Gage on making the jump from small-press to self-pub. She talks money which makes it a very interesting post. Here's the follow-up.

A day in the life of a Estate Manager. Interesting post and useful for adding realism to a billionaire trope book. I've very intrigued by this job. It reminds me of one of Agatha Christie's coolest characters, Lucy Eyelesbarrow.

Rachel Aaron on her self-pub numbers. Very interesting post.

Writing Advice from Twitter - The #RT14 Edition (continued)

Here are @eridani99's tweets from the Courtney Milan workshop. Pure gold, people. Pure gold.

Writing Advice from Twitter - #RT14 Edition

The Romantic Times Booklovers' Convention took place last week and Twitter was full of updates. This year's RT took place in New Orleans so there were a lot of food and drink tweets. However, there didn't seem to be a lot of craft workshops at this con. RWA seems to be a "work" con, but RT seems to be more of a "fun" con.

But there were still some gems. The fabulous @katiebabs and @eridani99 live-tweeted the Smashwords workshop which had some great data in it. Here are the tweets:

Link Fiesta

Fabulous Beverley Kendall survey on self-publishing. Math! Pie charts! (And here's her blog post on the survey and a follow-up post on the results. Jami Gold has another great post on the survey)

Insanely great Jennifer Crusie post on community and storytelling. I heart this post so much.

Hugh Howey on what Chris Hemsworth's abs can teach you about your writing career. Hmmmm. I think I'm starting to figure out how Howey got into the bestseller lists.

A gorgeous home office designed by Sarah Richardson. I love where she put the printer!