SUNDAY INSPIRATIONS: Writing is running downhill… Sunday Inspirations. Send us your favorite quote, image, poem, idea … anything that has been helpful or inspirational to your writing process. If we love it, we may use it as is, or take the inspiration and modify it in some way. Give us a link to your website or blog and we’ll be sure to give you credit! Email inspiration@writemarketdesign.com or post your suggestion in the comment section below! Here’s today’s inspiration: “Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they ca ..read more

Ideas for October Book Promotions As you may be well aware, I’ve been working on a novel for a while now. We’re closing in on the finish – I can see that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, in that I’ve hired an editor who has already looked over my manuscript. He’s given me a quote, and I’ve given him a guarantee to have the final version to him by Thanksgiving. That’s progress! #StanTravels In addition, I’ve hired a coach to help me create and conduct a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for said editing (good editing is expensive, but worth every penny!) and printing/distribution ..read more

SUNDAY INSPIRATIONS: As for literary criticism in general … Sunday Inspirations. Send us your favorite quote, image, poem, idea … anything that has been helpful or inspirational to your writing process. If we love it, we may use it as is, or take the inspiration and modify it in some way. Give us a link to your website or blog and we’ll be sure to give you credit! Email inspiration@writemarketdesign.com or post your suggestion in the comment section below! Here’s today’s inspiration: “As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a ..read more

You’ll Sell More Books if You Don’t Sleep on the Plane Zach Hall is just a guy – a guy who one day decided NOT to sleep on the plane and, instead, talk to the person next to him. From that one instance, he made a shift and began talking to people on every flight. Some wanted to engage – others were, well, sleeping. But the thing is, this process of endeavoring to engage changed his mindset, and it led to a book called … drumroll, please … Don’t Sleep on Planes. This is his Twitter picture, so you get the feeling he’s a bit of an extrovert, anyway, right? But there’s still a lesson in his metho ..read more

SUNDAY INSPIRATIONS: The pages are still blank, but… Sunday Inspirations. Send us your favorite quote, image, poem, idea … anything that has been helpful or inspirational to your writing process. If we love it, we may use it as is, or take the inspiration and modify it in some way. Give us a link to your website or blog and we’ll be sure to give you credit! Email inspiration@writemarketdesign.com or post your suggestion in the comment section below! Here’s today’s inspiration: “The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and c ..read more

Looking Backward Won’t Take You Forward Yes – there’s a spelling error. I’m letting perfectionism go and leaving it as it is! I was looking in the mirror this morning, and I found myself wondering how long it was going to take me to get back to how I looked in my last head shot. This should not have been a lightbulb moment, but the awareness that I’m never going to “get back” to where I was a few years ago was rather like an ice-water shower. Over the last 16 months, I’ve been working out pretty diligently – both with my trainer and on my own – and in that time I’ve managed to lose about 30 ..read more

Making Procrastination Work FOR You Be honest: how often do you find yourself with too much to-do list at the end of your day? I think this happens to a lot of us. And, according to Jon Acuff, author of Finish, it’s one of the things that keeps us stuck, prevents us from finishing the important things – large and small – in life. We started, but we didn’t get it done – on time, perfectly, as well as our sister-in-law would do it – so we quit entirely. Throw in the towel. Well, I’ve failed again. Why even keep going? Just in case you’re wondering – this is a bald-faced lie your ego tells you t ..read more

MonDAY INSPIRATIONS: I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book Sunday Inspirations. Send us your favorite quote, image, poem, idea … anything that has been helpful or inspirational to your writing process. If we love it, we may use it as is, or take the inspiration and modify it in some way. Give us a link to your website or blog and we’ll be sure to give you credit! Email inspiration@writemarketdesign.com or post your suggestion in the comment section below! Here’s today’s inspiration: “Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write ..read more

The 5 P’s of Planning a 5K – or Marketing a Book I just completed my first 5K in more than 15 years. Actually, it was my first organized 5K ever, but once upon a time, I used to run 10 to 15 miles a week. Then life happened, and I stopped running. Or exercising. Or walking much past what the day-to-day effort called for. In 2011, I got married – and I gained a lot of weight over the last six years. A couple years ago, my husband and I began talking about working out, getting in shape, doing things differently. And we made some minor changes that didn’t really produce much of a result. Then, l ..read more

Are your branding and marketing message cohesive? A client recently forwarded me information about a relatively new book distribution company he was thinking about checking out. I did a cursory scan of the website and noticed an odd thing right off the bat: its use of this decorative font that, while pretty, is very difficult to read. Coupled with the busy picture backdrop and the text that gets lost in that picture, it makes for a pretty unsuccessful sales page. That seems to be a preferred headline font throughout the site. Red Flag No. 1. With that, I send this response to my client: This ..read more