J.J. Hebert's Blog

I have some very exciting news to share: Weepy the Dragon, my first children's book, will be released next month! My debut book, Unconventional , was published back in July 2009 -- and I've been busy running MindStir Media ever since -- so Weepy will be my first release in nearly three years... I didn't plan on having such a large gap between "J. J. Hebert" book releases, but MindStir has kept me busy helping other authors publish their books. And it's a lot of fun, of course! :)

Here's the des...

It can be a real struggle for indie authors to get their books reviewed, but now it's easier than ever. MindStir Media just launched a book review website that lets authors get their books reviewed for free...

If you're an author, simply follow the Submission Guidelines. If your book meets the guidelines, go ahead and submit it for review (we're able to review about 50 - 65% of the books submitted through the free service). There's also a Promoted Book Review option that gives authors a guaran...

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed my post about Kickstarter back in January 2011. Authors have been using sites like Kickstarter for quite a while to fund their self-publishing projects. I've seen plenty of authors raise thousands of dollars through this "crowdfunding" model. Well, Rich Burlew recently raised a million bucks through Kickstarter for his webcomic book. You read that right: One million dollars! Here's the story: http...

In addition to relying on Amazon.com, BN.com and other online retailers, most authors sell printed copies of their book(s) via their own website. This means they're responsible for accepting orders and ultimately shipping copies to the end customer. It's a time consuming process, but the author usually makes more profit per copy this way...

If you're one of those authors, I suggest you invest in some quality mailers. Flimsy mailers look unprofessional and don't really prevent your book(s) from...

Anne McCaffrey, one of science fiction's most popular authors, passed away yesterday from a stroke, her publisher reported today. She was 85. McCaffrey, who often referred to herself as "Annie," was widely known for her Hugo award-winning, bestselling DragonRiders of Pern series. She authored nearly 100 published books since 1967.

Severe health issues surfaced on her blog back in August where Annie's son Todd McCaffrey alerted her readers that she would have to cancel her appearance at Dragon*...

Lately I've seen a sense of self-entitlement among aspiring authors (in online forums, etc.). Some of these would-be writers actually believe that writing a book is enough and readers should automatically flock to the book and consider it a privilege to read the material. This couldn't be further from the truth! I know plenty of you know this already, but it doesn't hurt to reiterate and share: Authors are not owed customers/readers. Even if you've written an amazing book, you can't expect th...

I recently compiled a list of writing resources, including books, videos, and articles. The books, each one available at Amazon.com, provide info on writing from bestselling authors. The articles come from popular writing/publishing blogs, while the free videos--advice from Stephen King, Anne Rice, Nicholas Sparks, Michael Connelly, and John Irving--are all available via YouTube. Now...onto the list...


Books: 
On Writing  by Stephen King Plot & Structure (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting...

If you've written a book, you could pay a professional publicist around $9,000 for a 3-month or 6-month national campaign that might help gain television exposure for your self-published book... or you could spend $4,999 for a national television ad campaign that will reach approximately 500,000 viewers combined on networks such as the Oprah Winfrey Network, A&E, TLC, Fox News Channel, History Channel, Biography Channel, and more (over 30 networks available). I'd choose the latter any day!
As ...

Drinking caffeine seems to go hand in hand with writing, but have you ever stopped to think why? I mean, other than temporarily relieving sleepiness and increasing alertness, do writers actually notice any improvement in writing ability while consuming caffeine? I personally haven't found that caffeine enhances my writing skills in any way. I sometimes write a bit faster if I've consumed large amounts of caffeine, but there's never any noticeable difference in writing quality.

Obviously I'm no...

I've been meaning to blog about J.K. Rowling for a long time now... Well, yesterday I purchased and watched Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (and yes, I had already seen it in the theaters). Definitely the best of all the Potter movies, in my opinion. But I'm not here to blog about the movie itself. No, I'm here to discuss the special features on Blu-ray, specifically "A Conversation with J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe," which revealed the answers to some big questions and also i...