Author: Marilyn Sanders

Are you thinking about taking your chances at testing your writing skills? Writing isn’t for everyone, but there are a few people that really excel with it. The rest of us have to resort to improving our skillset one day at a time. Fortunately, you’re not alone in your quest to become a better writer.… Continue reading Need Some Help Writing Your Book?

Participating in a creative writing contest is a great way to catch many birds with one stone — especially if you are a new writer, or you have recently started exploring different niches or genres. Taking part in a contest can increase your visibility, boost your confidence, force you to improve your time-management skills, and… Continue reading Finding Creative Writing Contests

Not that long ago, the rest of an aspiring author’s road map was already essentially laid out for them once they made the momentous decision to publish their book. After the book was finished and edited, the long, hard, process of querying literary agents was the inevitable next step. This “gatekeeper” would then work tirelessly… Continue reading Traditional Publishing or Self-Publishing? A Brief Look at the Pros and Cons

Believe it or not, probably the best program out there to format your Kindle book and get it ready to upload to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform is Microsoft Word. If you know how to use Microsoft Word to do formatting then there is no need to pay for a premium formatting application, which can… Continue reading How to Format for Kindle with Microsoft Word

One of the mistakes that self-published authors make over and over again is the failure to start a mailing list with the very first book they publish. Self-publishing is a difficult business, and a mailing list can mean the difference between being successful in the business or not. Still authors do not include them until… Continue reading How important is a Back Matter Mailing List Link for Self-Published Authors?

When it comes to self-publishing, many people wonder if there is any real money in it. Can you make a living self-publishing your books is a common question asked by those new to self-publishing. The truth is, there is actually a great deal of money to be made with self-publishing, and some people have ended… Continue reading How Much Money Can You Make Self-Publishing?

Whether you are publishing traditionally or self-publishing, getting the right book cover designer is important. If you are getting published traditionally, then your publisher will usually take care of the cover design for you. In fact, many authors have no say whatsoever in their cover design if they’re going with the traditional publisher. But if… Continue reading What does it Cost to Hire a Professional Book Cover Designer?

New Questions About Publishing a Book Answered and Why You Must Read Every Word of This Report You want to turn into a published author and you would like to publish your own books. Children’s book authors could possibly be requested to pay for illustrations. Some writers will obtain their very first advance and begin… Continue reading New Questions About Publishing a Book Answered

One of the questions that you have to answer as an author is whether or not you actually need a book proposal. The answer depends upon several factors. You definitely need to take lots of different things into consideration if you are considering writing a book proposal. There are lots of people out there who… Continue reading Do you need to write a book proposal?

Fanfiction has gotten a bad rep when it comes to quality writing. The most famous examples of fanfiction, things like 50 Shades of Grey or My Immortal, would definitely not be considered top quality. In fact, My Immortal is more known for bad quality storytelling. In my experience, however, if you dig hard enough you can find some… Continue reading Good writing CAN be found in fanfiction