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Written Well

Launching a Book with Kickstarter

Is Kickstarter right for you and your book? For many independent authors, the answer is a resounding yes. Before we start talking about how to run your Kickstarter campaign, let’s figure out if it’s the right platform for you.  Kickstarter is most useful if you already have some social media reach or an email list. It doesn’t have to be huge, but having a little head start can make a big difference. You can run a successful Kickstarter without a big audience, but it’s a ton of work and for probably  a small reward. You don’t need a huge following...

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Writing Descriptions That Sell

A cover might bring the reader in, but it’s the description that seals the deal. So, how do you write a description that turns browsers to buyers? Discoverability vs. Conversion A good description both makes your book easier to find through good use of keywords and search terms as well as “conversion” — getting someone to buy the book. When writing descriptions, I lean far more toward conversion over discoverability, because if you get eyes on the your book that don’t buy, you’ve wasted ad money and are telling the algorithm that your book doesn’t sell. Booksellers give higher priority...

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What Does ‘Write To Market’ Mean?

You will often hear the phrase “write to market” from independent authors. But what does it really mean? Everyone has different ideas about how exactly to do it, but one thing is clear: writing to market is absolutely essential if you are going to have success publishing your own work.  The Two Pieces Of Writing To Market In order to make money as an independent author, you must sell a significant quantity of books. That means you need two things. A big enough market, meaning enough people who want to read that type of book, and market penetration, meaning that...

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Historical Fiction Guide

Historical fiction is all about the setting. You can do anything you want within it — mystery, thriller, drama, romance, and more — but in the best historical novels, the setting takes center stage, or rather becomes the theater itself. And the walls of that theater must become more real to the reader than than the walls of their own home. A master of this genre transports the reader to the story’s place and time entire, setting them down in the middle of not just a tale, but an entire world that hasn’t been seen in many years. The amount...

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History Study Materials

Back to history Online Resources The American Historical Association — A good place to start for an overview of the resources available to those who want to study history of any kind. Erik Larson’s blog — He doesn’t seem to be updating it any longer, but it has a ton of posts about his process when writing history books. Two PDFs on writing history, one from Duke and another from Southwestern University. Good stuff on primary and secondary sources and how to interpret them. Books to Read Instructional A Short Guide to Writing About History — Richard Marius Like it...

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History Guide

Back to nonfiction With the entire history of humankind to draw from, history is obviously a gigantic genre. And it’s not just the different time periods. Histories can be military, political, biographical. They can be focused on a single subject, sometimes even a single object. Or they can tell the story of an entire people from their appearance in the annals to modern day. There is no end to subjects you can tell the history. However, the best (and best-selling) histories tend to have some things in common that you should consider before diving into this rich genre. 1. Something...

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Paths to Success

Before you begin your trek toward self-publishing success, it’s good to know the path you want to take. Even better if you know the path you’re best suited to. Because despite what a lot of people will tell you, there’s more than one way to make it as an indie. The Fast Lane Series and Speed Level of Difficulty:HIGH Chance of Success:HIGH Combines With:EVERYTHING Putting out a lot of books quickly is the simplest and most likely path to success. But it’s certainly not the easiest. The fast lane is for those who want the highest chance of success as...

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Should I Write Nonfiction?

Back to Nonfiction Deciding whether you’re right for nonfiction is fairly easy. Do you have expertise in a subject that you wish to disseminate to the masses? Then nonfiction is for you. Whether you can do it profitably is another question altogether. Before you decide to dive into nonfiction, you should definitely do some research. First of all, is anyone interested in the subject you’re planning to write on? Check Google and Amazon searches to see if there’s interest in the subject. Is it overserved? i.e. Are there already a ton of books out there on your chosen subject? If...

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Nonfiction Study Materials

Back to Nonfiction Online Resources Learn nonfiction writing from Malcolm Gladwell — from Masterclass.com Books to Read We’ll start with some general books for writing nonfiction, then list some of the best for some notable subgenres. The subgenres are too numerous and divergent to cover them all here, but we also list them within their subgenre, either in the Subgenre section of the main guide, or the study materials section of their own guide for the bigger subgenres like history or memoir. Instructional: How to Write a Factual Book — Lauren Bingham I enjoyed this book’s conversational tone far more...

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Nonfiction Blueprint

Back to Nonfiction These are broken down into the main categories of informational and instructional, plus a few more of the subcategories that differ in some particular. Instructional Blueprint Typical instructional books: self-help, crafts, cookbooks, how-to Intro Introduce yourself with an eye toward establishing your expertise in the subject. Be authoritative but brief; people came to learn how to do a thing, not how you got to be an expert. For instance, do you skip the three pages of blog before the recipe you looked up online? You’re not alone. Don’t bother writing all that if people are only coming...

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