Kim Catanzarite is the author of The Jovian Duology, a self-published two-book series that’s a love story in a sci-fi thriller narrative. Book 1, They Will Be Coming for Us, marked her first dalliance into self-publishing. She’s also an editor for publishers and independent authors, an instructor for Writer’s Digest University, and a blogger who shares all she knows about self-publishing and writing craft (visit her blog). Kim has taken writing seriously since she enrolled in her first college writing workshop. After she completed a novel-length manuscript at the age of twenty-eight, she a ..read more

Use this self-publishing guide to kick start your indie author career In today’s publishing landscape, there’s a variety of ways to become a published author and more writers are turning to self-publishing as a viable business option. In this self-publishing guide, we’re going to share with you the benefits and risks of self-publishing, what to consider when deciding if it’s right for you, and the basic process to follow. I’m Rebecca and I’ll be your self-publishing guide. I am a founding book coach at Conquer Books who has worked with authors across the traditional and self-publishing sp ..read more

Are you worried you may be using elements in your novel that other people will see as all-too-common, or worse, cliché? Knowing how original your ideas are is important because a book full of overused or formulaic plot lines can kill off your readership. Yet, sometimes it’s hard to know if your gems are actually rocks. Moreover, what if your elements aren’t necessarily cliché, but are familiar tropes? Is that just as bad? What’s the difference anyway? We’ll start there because it’s good to know what each term means as one is more perilous than the other. What is a cliché? A cliché is a ..read more

You’re worldbuilding for your science fiction novel. It’s not fantasy, so you don’t build a magic system. You don’t create a new breed of dragons. There’s no medieval traditions to research. What do you do? Worldbuilding tips for our sci-fi friends Before you create floorplans of science labs and lists of all the strange plants growing on the far side of the moon, we want you to consider three major things that will set the tone for all your worldbuilding. Follow these guidelines and everything else will fall into place. 1. Nail Your Subgenre Imagine first that you release a book. You’re ..read more

What Are Antagonists When people think of an antagonist, they often think of them as the Bad Guy. While not inaccurate, that’s a great oversimplification. The antagonist is the antithesis to the protagonist, and that doesn’t always equate to an evildoer. They are there to antagonize our hero. Their goals and intentions should directly mirror those of our main character. Why? Because that sets up a perfect push-pull challenge that will force our main character to think hard about why they want what they want, and how wrong things would go if they didn’t get it. The antagonist exists to deepen ..read more

You’re probably here because you love great characters in great books. You know character development is important because you’ve spent decades as a reader rooting for, worshiping, and shipping your favorite characters. But now, you’re creating your own character and the stakes feel impossibly high. It’s not easy to create dynamic, meaningful characters, but we’re here to help you get unstuck and come out the other side with a great protagonist. We’ve got four fixes for you, from basic to intensive. Find where you need to put the work in, do the fix, and get back to writing. Fix #1: What Do ..read more

In previous blog posts, we’ve addressed the questions of why you should hire a book coach, what you can expect from a coach, and the daunting “How much does a book coach cost?” But as Rebecca and I work to communicate what exactly we do, it’s important that we clarify the long-term value we offer writers. Listing our writing coach services tells you in a concise way, what you’re paying for. But what we seek to build with our clients goes beyond any one list we could contrive. We aim to create long-term relationships and personalize each curriculum to fit what you need now, at this point in ..read more

How Much Does a Book Coach Cost? “How much does a book coach cost?” is a good question. Here’s another one: “Will an investment with a book coach make a big enough impact on my writing career to be worth it?” There, now that’s the real question. You could pay $5 to your dog in a cardigan, but it’s not going to have an impact on your writing career. Lower is not always better. You also could pay $10,000 to a creative writing professional to then go on to only sell 10 copies of your book. Neither of these situations are wins. It’s not so much “How much does a book coach cost?” as it is “Is thi ..read more

Let’s increase your odds of winning that short story competition or getting your essay published in that magazine. Here’s a list of our best tips to get you ready to submit a short story. Get ready to submit a short story I’m a book coach, but I’m also a writer who submits essays, articles, and short stories widely. It increases my reach and builds my readership, forces me to practice different writing styles and meet word counts, and financially benefits my writing career. There are many reasons to submit a short story and today we’re going to increase your odds of winning competitions or ..read more

Writer’s block is the ambiguous scourge of wordsmiths. You don’t know why it’s happening to you, or how long it will last, but you know you hate it. The blank page is haunting you and the words you did manage to put down feel like thorns in your brain. Conquer Books is here to provide you with the most helpful tips for writer’s block. The info below will help you meet your problem head-on and push past it with creative writing methods designed to reset your resistance.  The first step in conquering this wicked foe, is defining it. What is writer's block? Writer’s block is only descr ..read more