Beta Readers: It’s The Lukewarm Ones That Count

I love my mother. She’s one of my biggest cheerleaders (and marketers! ) and a very good proofreader. She loves just about everything I write, which makes storytelling fun because I know someone will enjoy it. She’s also pretty good at giving me honest feed back, but let’s face it… she’s my mother. Of course [...]

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Marketing Monday: Self-Promotion HSP-style

“People forget what you say, but they remember how you made them feel”–Warren Beatty Caring for others, wanting to help our fellow humans, comes rather naturally for highly sensitive people, so why shouldn’t promoting ourselves and our products be just as natural? Most likely because we’re thinking of “selling” rather than “marketing.” Sell: to persuade or induce (someone) to buy something: The salesman sold me on a more expensive model [...]

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Marketing Monday: Platform Building The Tortoise Way

If you’re a highly sensitive person like me, then you’ll understand how stressful marketing yourself, your product or your business can be. If you aren’t an HSP, then today’s marketing landscape with its hurry, scurry push in social media probably doesn’t bother you. You may, in fact, thrive on the pressure, the excitement. The downside to that is that mistakes [...]

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Reader Profiles: Ya Gotta Start Somewhere

One thing I never really considered until recently was who I expected to read what I’ve written.  It didn’t cross my mind even when I was doing the Problogger Challenge last year.  I always wrote stories and articles I thought I would like to read.  That’s not a horrible way to write, but it makes [...]

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Rediscovering the Joy of Being an Independent Author

My Father has often said that, when you start having nightmares about your job, it’s time to move on. I can’t say I’m having nightmares, exactly, but I’ve certainly begun dreading doing anything remotely connected with being an Independent Author. However, I don’t think it’s time for me to “move on.” It’s time for me [...]

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Marketing Monday: A Creative Alternative to Business Cards

Business cards. Some say you should have them. Others say don’t bother. There are some Independent Authors that suggest using your book as your business card. Personally, I think that would be a great idea if you had a) the money to give your book away and b) a shrink ray. I have neither, which [...]

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Marketing Monday: A New Vision

If you’re a highly sensitive person like me, then you’ll understand how stressful marketing yourself, your product or your business can be. If you aren’t an HSP, then today’s marketing landscape with its hurry, scurry push in social media probably doesn’t bother you. You may, in fact, thrive on the pressure, the excitement. If that’s [...]

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BookBuzzr Review

As those of you who have been following along will know, I’ve been working with the BookBuzzr people to test out whether their service was a better choice for me as an Independent Author versus Scribd. After looking over their services and comparing stats from both, I’ve come to one conclusion… neither one is perfect [...]

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Choices, Decisions, and… Cover-ups?

Marketing is an essential element to book sales, but to market a book before it’s finished one must have some kind of cover art to show the masses. Crazy as it seems, I decided to “put the cart before the horse,” so to speak, and design a cover for my newest book before I’ve completed [...]

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Believing In The Dream

It’s probably every writer’s dream, secretly or otherwise, to make a living as a freelancer. Unfortunately, the reality seldom meets the dream and most of us either suffer until we die or, more likely, until we get a “real job.” Enter the idea of self-publishing. Many Independent Authors plunge into self-publishing as a way to [...]

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