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Self-Publishing Answers Podcast: Episode 11 – Interview with Roz Morris

Another Friday means another podcast… and this one’s AWESOME as well.

Seriously, if you’ve never heard of Roz Morris, go check out her stuff right now. She’s a fantastic writer, editor, and professional ghostwriter (no, that doesn’t mean she writes stories about ghosts).

In this interview we chat about ghostwriting as a business model, publishing, and some of the finer points of writing craft. Take a listen!

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The post Self-Publishing Answers Podcast: Episode 11 – In...

Write Better Characters: 5 Classic Archetypes

Want to write better characters?

Note from Nick: This is a guest post from Jessica Mills. If you want to write better characters in your fiction, read on!

Classic character archetypes are found in both the oldest stories known to man and modern fiction today, in cultures throughout the world, and are the key to character-building. They are not restricted purely to written fictional prose, either: they can be found in plays, television, film and even non-fiction.If you want to write better chara...

5 Classic Character Archetypes in Epic Storytelling

Note from Nick: This is a guest post from Jessica Mills.

Classic character archetypes are found in both the oldest stories known to man and modern fiction today, in cultures throughout the world. They are not restricted purely to written fictional prose, either: they can be found in plays, television, film and even non-fiction.

Some people confuse archetypes with stock characters, but they are quite different. A stock character is defined by his or her personality, behaviour and even appearance...

Writer’s Block? Here’s What to Do

Writer’s Block Got You Stalled?

Note from Nick: this is a guest post by Cindy Bates.

Ever had “writer’s block?”All writers experience times when they cannot think of something to write, but it often passes within a few seconds. With writer’s block the feeling is a little more intense and it becomes harder and harder to think of anything to write at all. Here are some tips to help you overcome writer’s block.

1. Get some sleep

You have writer’s block because you are tired. You have it because you...

Having A Writer’s Crisis? Here’s What to Do

Note from Nick: this is a guest post by Cindy Bates.

Ever had “writer’s block?”All writers experience times when they cannot think of something to write, but it often passes within a few seconds. With writer’s block the feeling is a little more intense and it becomes harder and harder to think of anything to write at all. Here are some tips to help you overcome writer’s block.

1. Get some sleep

You have writer’s block because you are tired. You have it because you are tired. If you are reading t...

A Twitter Marketing Strategy for Authors and Writers

What is Your Twitter Marketing Strategy?

Note from Nick: this is a guest post from Matthew Yeoman. If you don’t have a twittermarketing strategy, or you don’t think your twittermarketing strategy is going to pay off, read this post!

Many businesses and brands can obviously benefit from a Twitter marketing strategy. You, however, are a writer, an artist! You’re certainly not a brand. You certainly don’t need a Twitter marketing strategy for your book or author platform.Right?

Well, if you’d rathe...

Twitter Marketing Strategies for Authors and Writers

Note from Nick: this is a guest post from Matthew Yeoman.

Many businesses and brands can benefit from marketing on Twitter. You, however, are a writer, an artist! You’re certainly not a brand. Right?

Well, if you’d rather not think of your Twitter efforts as “brand building,” you can think of it as audience building, readership building, relationship building, or whichever other synonym for “getting more people listening to me” that you prefer.

This post is going lay out the what, when, how, and...

The Best Way to Plan Blog Posts

If you’re like me, you see the value in scheduling things on a calendar. If you’rereally like me, you are a little lazy, and will easily let something go undone because youdidn’t schedule it ahead of time.

I’ve used every combination of planners, editorial calendars, scheduling assistants, and more, and while many are useful, none areexactly what I need.

Every writer is different, and everyone has different preferences for their planning setup. What I’ve found to be helpful, then, are “setups”...

Goodreads Giveaways: How to Win Readers and Promote Your Book

If you’ve been on the writer/reader social network recently purchased by Amazon, you’ll probably have seen the “Giveaways” section.

Goodreads Giveaways are a great way for authors to connect directly to readers, generate interest in their books, and get users of the site to add their book to virtual “to-read” shelves.

To makes things even better, it’s completely, 100% free. Listing a giveaway isn’t going to generate a million 5-star reviews and launch your career into stardom, but it’s a simple...

SPA 10: Interview with Joanna Penn

Well, it’s a great day in the life of a podcaster when you get to interview Joanna Penn of TheCreativePenn.com.

So today’s a great day.

Yep, we’ve got Joanna Penn, full-time indie author and self-publishing expert. I don’t use that term lightly, either. Joanna knows her stuff. Enjoy this one, and keep it handy — you’ll want to take notes on what she has to say!

Show notes:

I ask about Joanna’s history — how did she get to where she was? Who was she before she was a super-duper famous author? How...