One Author to Another

A romance author friend of mine received a friend request on Facebook last night from someone she’d never interacted with, but she accepted the request anyway. A short time later, she received a PM basically saying the new friend had just finished the rough draft of her first adult short story and could the author…

In several author groups, I often see posts from new authors with only one or two books out, asking if they should do promotions for free books.  When I first started in the indie book community, I found several blogs, articles, posts, etc, that said it is very uncommon for indie authors to develop a…

After struggling to think of how the parent of one of my charcters died, that wasn’t from cancer, a heart attack, or an automobile accident, I went into my two favorite author groups on Facebook (Alessandra Torre Inkers and Indie Author Support) and got some input from the members. Here are a list of ways…

Author  DD Lorenzo and I were just talking about the book covers, titles, and blurbs of her books. A third author had suggested she try something new and recover them (and also update the titles and blurbs) because the books aren’t getting the recognition and following they deserve. I totally agreed with her. I’ve read…

Often, I come across questions about copyrighted material, trademarks, and whether or not certain things can be used in fiction. Here’s a common list of items I see authors asking about. Towns/City Names: You can use the names of real towns and cities without any problems. I tend to use real large cities and make…

Some of the most frequent questions I see in author groups have to do with creating, cultivating, and maintaining an author’s FB reader group for fans of their books. When should I start one? How do I get people to join? How do I get them to engage on posts? Etc., etc., etc.  Let’s see…

In one of the author groups I’m in, another author pointed out that your wall or page is not the place to be whining about lack of sales, exposure, lack of reviews, or anything else. I totally agreed with her and decided to further explain the reasons why.  Whining is not going to endear you to…

Every author has dreaded writing a book blurb at one time or another. Some conquer their fear and get better at writing them over time, while others will go to their graves despising those two-to-four paragraph summaries of their books. I’ll admit I’m weird—I love writing blurbs and have gotten pretty good at them. I’ve…

Sometimes when I need to give a character a job and suddenly my mind goes blank—I mean, completely blank. It shouldn’t be that hard, right? Well, sometimes it is, especially when it’s a side character whose job doesn’t really alter the plot, but you can’t just have him/her twiddling their fingers all day. Not every one…

Over the past three years I’ve learned a few tricks that I thought I’d pass along. These are some tips to make life a little easier on authors. (And some are just for fun!) As always, these are just suggestions that worked for me. Others may have different experiences with one or more sites.  1)…