Mortal Tether Wins AWARD!!!

The winners of this year’s Reader Ready Awards have been announced, and I’m so pleased to share that MORTAL TETHER has been awarded TOP PICK for 2024!! Thank you so much to the judges and to everyone who reached out to me today to offer their words of encouragement [...]

I got 3000 Amazon Readers in 5 Days. This is What Happened…

(Article written December 4, 2023) It’s an unfortunate statistic that most self-published authors sell less than 250 books in their lifetime – no matter how many novels they write. Despite knowing the odds, I chose to walk this path anyway. I still hope to become a *full time* author [...]

A.I. vs Human Author

I recently did an experiment where I went head-to-head with ChatGPT, writing a science fiction novel to compare and contrast an A.I.’s approach to fiction as opposed to a human author. (My sci-fi book is here.)  The Prompt: Write a science fiction novel opening from a first-person point of [...]

Making the Best Sellers List on Amazon!!!

My novel MORTAL TETHER has officially made #1 on Amazon's best sellers lists in 3 categories! [...]

Negalley Tips and Tricks for Authors

I’ve been using NetGalley as an Author for three weeks. In this post, I will share not only my experience and stats but also break down some tips and tricks that I use to help you optimize your time on the platform. My book, “Mortal Tether,” has eight days [...]

Children’s Book Guidelines

If you are an author or illustrator considering creating your first children’s book, here are some tips and guidelines to help you get the process started. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE When we talk about how to make children’s books, the first thing we should cover is that there are many [...]

How Authors Can Gift Their Own eBooks on Amazon

Authors may need to give away free eBooks as prizes for giveaways, review copies for bloggers/influencers, or as part of a book awards contest submission.  There are two ways to do this. If you are sending the eBook directly to your reader’s email address, use method 1. If you [...]

How to Get Your Book in Libraries

As someone who is self-publishing my debut novel MORTAL TETHER, I had to do a lot of the research and footwork a publisher would normally do. In order to make it easier for my fellow authors, I’m sharing important info I learn throughout this process.  I’ve always wondered how [...]

The Art of Making a Book Trailer: Start with the Script

I’ve been making book trailers professionally since 2018, but I’ve been editing video since 2006. To me, making a book trailer isn’t just a piece of marketing material (though, of course it’s that too). In my mind, it’s an art. A book trailer is a form of artistic expression [...]

Mastering Amazon: Make Your Book Shine

We all want to make our books shine on Amazon, but it’s all too easy to get lost in the mountain of stuff there. There’s a secret professional publishers use that – if you publish through KDP – you’ll also have access too (for free!) It’s called Amazon A+ [...]

Getting My Book on Goodreads

Today, I got accepted into the Goodreads author program. It was super easy… once I jumped some really serious hurdles 😉 Goodreads won’t classify you as an author until your book is available for pre-sale or live to purchase. After Amazon approved my listing today (Oh yes, did I [...]

Debut Novel Announced

Five years. That’s how long it’s taken this book to come to fruition. It’s gone through so much to get here… but all the years of hard work and multitude of sleepless nights have finally paid off. Mortal Tether is the first novel that I will publish. It’s ready.  [...]

When Will My Book Be Published?

Before I wrote my first book, I had no idea how the publishing process worked. You type “the end” on your manuscript and publication is just around the corner… right? Wrong. “The end” of the first draft is the beginning of the truly hard work. Editing. My first draft [...]

10 Questions to Ask Your Beta Readers

Beta readers are people who read your book and give you feedback prior to publication. In my case, they are a mix of people I know, complete strangers, and a professional beta reading company.  I’m writing this blog to share a behind-the-scenes look at the process and to offer [...]

Struggling With Your Query Letter? Here’s Help.

If you are pursuing traditional publishing, odds are you already know what a query letter is. Your novel has tens or even hundreds of thousands of words, but yet when you sit down to write your query, you come up blank. What gives? Before you get frustrated and curl [...]

ISBNs Made Easy

If you are getting ready to self-publish your novel, you might be wondering if you need an ISBN and how many to purchase. Here’s an easy, no-frills breakdown of what you need to know. What is an ISBN? An ISBN is a unique number used to identify a book [...]

What to Ask a Literary Agent Who Wants to Represent You

Questions to ask a literary agent who offers representation. These questions will help determine if the agent is a good fit for an author. [...]

How Adverbs are Ruining Your Writing

Sometimes adverbs are awesome, necessary, and important. But other adverbs are thorny weeds choking the beautiful sentences of your manuscript. And those need to be yanked out. Step #1: Identify redundant adverbs The easiest way to spot toxic adverbs is to look at your adverb’s relationship to your verb. [...]

Top 5 Biggest Self-Publishing Mistakes in 2021

If you are writing and publishing a book in 2021, you'll want to avoid these mistakes. [...]

Can You Use KDP and IngramSpark at the Same Time?

With all the options available for self-publishing these days, and how easy it is to do, you might be wondering if you can manage some of your distributors yourself to cut out the middle man and earn more money. After researching royalty rates through IngramSpark, Amazon KDP, and Barnes [...]

Why You Shouldn’t Start a Story with Your Character Waking Up

Why is it a rule that you should not start your story with a character waking up? Is it possible to start a book with a character waking up? I'll help you answer those questions. [...]

How to Claim a Google Knowledge Panel

What is a Knowledge Panel? Knowledge panels appear during Google searches on both desktop and mobile. They are information boxes that appear when you search for people, places, organizations, or things. Knowledge Panels provide a general overview of information about whatever keywords triggered the result. On mobile, they are [...]

Authors: Why You Can (and Should!) Google Yourself

I came across a great question Stephan J. Hahn asked on Twitter that really got me thinking about how Authors approach marketing in 2019. (Shoutout to Stephan! Here’s a link to his Twitter.) He asked, Alright #Writing Community. How often do you #Google yourself?     There was a [...]

The Tool That Transformed My Writing

Synopsis (TLDR): Scrivener helped me transform my disorganized YA Fantasy WIP from a pile of leaves into a castle. This powerful software enabled me to quickly leap over a huge hurdle: how to tackle an ever-growing behemoth document with a zillion moving pieces. In short, if you are an [...]