We can’t say it enough, a good cover design is essential to any publishing endeavor. Smashing Magazine has a collection of excellent book covers that are worth checking out as you try to develop an understanding of what makes good cover design work.

Your favorite author starts a blog. Yay! You’re going to bookmark her page, come back, and read what she writes. You’ll become a bigger fan! For a week, maybe two, there are constant updates. Then, off the face of the earth she falls. Boo! Hiss. Another one bites the dust. The lesson: don’t waste momentum [...]

A quote to get you motivated to write on a Monday: Art, when it is honest, questioning, and captivating, has a unique and ineffable quality that leads us toward God. ~ Brett McCracken

There are plenty of resources out there for helping you mind your Ps and Qs as a writer. One of my favorites is Grammar Girl’s podcast. (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/). A daily podcast that’s generally under 5 minutes, Grammar Girl will give you a grammar reminder (or maybe a new lesson!) every day. You can listen to it [...]

There are so many things to consider when you’re working towards a cover design for your book. Color choice, design elements, fonts (not papyrus again!), and now, how does it look at a half inch wide? What about an inch and a half wide? Does it still communicate effectively? Watch the progression in these covers [...]

Those four words are the key to being an effective champion for your book. If it’s not about you, it’s about helping your readers. If it’s not about you, you’re not in the way. If it’s not about you, your message will stand strong. So many Christian authors feel the tension between promotion and narcissism. [...]

It’s important to know what you don’t know. When it comes to writing, we all have our blind spots. I’m prone to sentences that are too long and to homonym confusion. You may be aware of your blind spots. You might be oblivious. Either way, they are a reminder that we need those tortured souls [...]

This shouldn’t be hard. It won’t take much time. Today, search yahoo groups or google groups for a characteristic that defines your target audience. Writing about the challenges of being a single mom? Find a yahoo group for that. Subscribe. Then, when you have something valuable to add, interact. Along the way, you’ll get to [...]

ECPA recently announced the 2010 book cover award winners. Over and over again, the issue of target market comes up. It’s a challenge for self-publishing authors to ensure their cover communicates well to their target market. But, it is essential. If your cover communicates something that your content doesn’t deliver, you’re in trouble. The wrong [...]

It’s that time of year. A week after Christmas, a new year comes, heavy with expectations. Start a diet. Stay up until midnight. Set writing goals. If you’re a writer, you’ll come across that a lot. Before you go setting your word count goal for next year, take a moment to reflect. Setting goals without [...]