Writing Habits with AI

My Financial Life in Books

Oh, what have I done to deserve this wretched financial life statement?  This five-digit retirement fund? Did I not start and run a freelance business, had this book, How to Start and Run a Freelance Business, that served clients well with persuasive copy? ‘Planning is the secret to success’, you say?  Well, that is my middle name. So faithfully I planned, set goals, budgeted, paid myself first, sought education and read up on Money. Just in case it found me one day. Alas, you have to go seek it. So how does one Create a New Life of Abundance?  In 2008, I thought by sacking your financial planner. But later, I realised that that’s now How to Control Your Financial Destiny. No, I didn’t spend 28 years at the university of life, typing, editing and finessing thousands of words… snipping…
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Writing Goals

Your Writing Goals and the Need for Promoting

If the goal of your writing is to develop skill, express creativity, and just be published, then you will not need a marketing plan. But if your goal is to write to disseminate ideas to as many as possible, and make it pay, then you need all the best book promotion ideas. Your writing goals actually dictate whether or not you will make money from this career. At Sandcliffe Writer’s Festival, three writers talked about their journey and message to other writers. For talented novelist Susan Johnson, having had a roaring writing career in the 80s and travelling the world for 12 years, on returning to Australia she had quite a shock. No longer did traditional publishers give big advances. Neither could she return to teach creative writing at University due to ‘qualifications’. That was until she did an adjunct…
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15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers book review
Book reviews

The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers – Book Review

Jonathan has created an ideal ebook for those who want to formalise their blogging and build authority long term. It’s called The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers, yet it could apply to any blogger or author who is building an audience. Many of us start haphazardly, finding we enjoy writing topics, but then how do we get started with ‘branding’, getting on podcasts, adding value to readers lives, and getting over our fears and doubts? Jonathan tells us honestly what we are up for as a blogger, so that we can stop looking for the silver bullet. This long term thinking approach is what makes an authority blogger. The Mindset of Pro Bloggers I enjoyed the initial 27 reasons to Blog (motivation), especially as many of these enhance any book publishing activities. I particularly liked the talk on how to…
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Types of Interactive eBooks
Self-Publishing

Two Types of Interactive eBooks that you can Make

You might already know there are two kinds of eBooks: Fixed Format and Reflowable. Fixed format suits grand layouts with images, whereas reflowable ebooks suits 90% of text-based books.  There are also two types of interactive ebooks:  ePub and PDF. Today I set about making an Interactive ePub from a plain fixed format, directly in InDesign. While there are many more elements to discover, I think I’ve got the hang of animations and buttons. There is a handy Adobe InDesign tutorial to learn how to add animations, slide shows, and buttons to an ePub. I noticed that their “workspace” is designated as ePub, whereas my CC 2017 version says “Interactive”. This workspace helps to bring up the right menus on the side. I find it fun to put some animated graphics on pages that were blank, or where I wanted to illustrate the words.…
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Five Ways to Make Better Book Profits

Here we are all for better book profits for non-fiction authors, with fewer costs; that’s what it’s all about, really.  So first we’ll knock off some easy wins and then move onto advanced methods. 1. Keep your Book Production Costs Low My first tip for better book profits is keeping production costs low in the first place. This may mean using a Book Design template and learning styles in Adobe InDesign*, or simply keeping production costs to a minimum by getting three editing quotes from editors with testimonials. The other way to save costs is to use Print on Demand, ordering a small number of personal author copies, like ten, rather than ordering in bulk from a printer (conceivably less per copy, but with a much higher risk). Making better royalties also depends on the LENGTH of your book and black-and-white versus full…
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ebook pricing

How to Price an eBook on-Site – Pricing Tests

When we think of an eBook these days, we might have two poor conceptions: one, a dime-a-dozen guide which is offered as a carrot to get opt ins, or two, a poorly-edited ebook cheaply made and thrown onto Amazon in the hopes of sales. So how do you create an eBook of worth and stand out when 1,500-odd ebooks are loaded on Amazon every DAY? And the pundits at Mill City Press are saying: “ebooks shorter than 50,000 words are generally expected to be priced under $2.99″(!) How do you get back your time and money, when the average self-published ebook is priced around $3, shared 70:30 with Amazon?  Many are wondering the same. The answer lies in finding the sweet spot in pricing, with a sales page or video page full of benefits and NO OTHER COMPETITION. Why Run Price…
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