“You have the minimum amount of my attention.” How does that phrase make you feel? This is a quote from the movie The Social Network, where the character of Mark Zuckerberg explains why he is not focused on the legal proceedings of those who are suing him: When I work with writers, I am focused [...]

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The highway to publication overflows with cars: luxury behemoths; sensible hybrids; nondescript, windowless vans with strange dents that protrude from the inside. Each bears the logo of the mechanic who brought it to life. You’ve built a car, too, with good mileage and a cherry spoiler. [Author’s note: The cars are a metaphor for your [...]

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Back in December we received a note from author Kim Boykin, whose debut novel The Wisdom of Hair was set to release in March. We book WU guest slots far in advance, and had to let her know that we would’t be able to offer anything in March, however something Kim said to us sparked [...]

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Whether on a book cover, a website design, an ad, or even a whole marketing barrage, graphic design can either materially increase your book’s chances of getting attention or can leave it unrecognized in the mountain of competitors. This goes for the self-published as well as for the commercially published. While it is certainly possible [...]

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how we judge and filter and decide who what where is good online. Seth Godin recently talked about how what you share online becomes your own personal “backlist” as a person. And that, as the years go by, your backlist should help support you, instead of being something that [...]

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GIVEAWAY: I am very excited to again give away a copy of my newest book, CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM. It’s a book all about how to build your visibility, brand, network and discoverability so you can better market yourself and your books. I’m giving away 1 copy to a random commenter based in the U.S. [...]

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“A writer should do what they do best and only this: write.” I heard this statement again at the Digital Book World conference in New York City last week, and I began really considering if I agreed with it. We are at a funny time in the world of creative expression, one where the artist, [...]

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More and more authors want to publish ebooks and need covers, but many don’t feel they can afford the services of a designer. To be frank, I see author-created covers that do not serve the author well. But I also see well-done covers, so I thought I’d offer some resources for creating professional book covers [...]

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Too many book launches are panic attacks, similar to a trip to the dentist. With 1.5 million books published last year, writers nowadays know that publicity for their books around book launch can be challenging. The days where you can silently write your book, and then scream about it on launch day are producing lesser [...]

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Kath here. Please welcome Julie Hedlund to Writer Unboxed today. Julie submitted one of the winning pitches via the Writer Unboxed Facebook page, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Julie’s first book, A TROOP IS A GROUP OF MONKEYS, will be released as an interactive storybook app for the iPad in January 2013 by Little Bahalia Publishing. [...]

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One of the things I fear most with all the publishing and promotional advice zipping around the cybersphere is that some people—quiet people who have something really important or compelling to say—will look at all that is ‘required’ of them to get published or to promote their books and they will become so discouraged they [...]

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Do you sometimes get turned off by writers who try to market their books online or at conferences? For instance: An author who shares engaging updates on social media, but where 1 in 10 of those Tweets or status updates includes a reference to a book that they have for sale. A blog post (such [...]

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