Email Lists

There is no other marketing tool as effective as a list of emails people have voluntarily given you. Besides the fact that it is proven out by every metric tested, it just makes sense: people gave you their email, so they are receptive to your pitch. They may even be anticipating it. Email lists have the greatest success rate of any other "advertising" and their cost-per-click? Absolutely free until you have at least 500 subscribers, at which point it is profitable to pay for the mailings you are doing.

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Anthologies: How to Create, Edit, and Publish an Anthology

What is an Anthology? Classically, there are two specific definitions you need to know about short fiction. A Collection is a group of stories, all by the same author. An Anthology, conversely, is a group of stories by a variety of different authors. We’re here to talk about the latter. Generally, an anthology has a central theme, around which all the authors involved have written. It might be sword and sorcery fantasy. Or hard-boiled private detectives. Or military science fiction. (I’ve owned and read all of those at one time or another.) Alternatively, it might be part of a “Year’s...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

The Indie Mindset

Let’s talk mindset. Many of you have come out of the Traditional Publishing (TradPub for short) world, either directly, or having been raised and trained to think that way. You see a specific career arc that you need to follow, in order to achieve success. Does this sound familiar? Start in short fiction, honing your craft at 5000-word stories until you think you have the ability to write a pretty good story for one of the periodicals in your genre. Then you start submitting them and to various open anthology calls until you start to achieve some level of success....

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Should I Write Horror?

Do you love creating a gruesome and diabolical villain? Are you sure there is something twisted, something wrong in our world, just below the surface? Then you should be writing horror. If you read a lot of it, you already know the tropes to use, the cliches to avoid, and the basic structures it follows. If you haven't read much horror, go read a dozen of them. If you are hooked and want to write them, read a few dozen more and then come back.  

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Services

We built Written Well to give self-published authors all the tools they need to make a living writing and publishing their own books. But many authors don’t want to be their own publisher, cover designer, blurb writer, formatter, and marketing expert. It can be a lot. Having so many authors asking us to help them publish their books was one of the reasons we started the site, and because we know many authors don’t want to do everything, we continue to offer those services. There is no guarantee of success with these services, and anyone who offers you a guarantee...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Should I Write Memoir?

Have you led an interesting life? Or better yet, can you write interestingly about your life? Memoir is for those who can turn their personal stories into a tale with meaning, with humor, with characters and themes that people can relate to on a personal level. You must be a good storyteller, and an excellent stylist. It is difficult to find true life that is more dramatic than fiction, so you have to bring that drama with your words.

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Memoir Guide

Memoir gets its own guide simply because of its uniqueness among nonfiction. Most nonfiction can be easily split into instructional or informational. And while it's definitely not instructional, it's not precisely informational because no one is looking for information about you. Unless you're famous. But if you're famous, you don't need our help, someone is already offering you a million dollars and a ghost writer for your memoir. And this is all before creative nonfiction comes along and tells you that memoir doesn't even have to be true. at least not the whole time. So, what even is memoir?

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Should I Write Children’s Books?

The number one reason (and possibly the only reason with the state of the current business model) is that you love them. The pictures, the poetry, the capacity to appeal to both the child and the child inside all of us. If that is your focus, you will do well. Even in traditional publishing, advances are normally very small for picture books. Trad publishers face the same expense issues you do, mostly high printing costs, and paying both an author and an illustrator. So, throw profit considerations out the window (it can happen, but it's tough), and do it for the love of the books and the children who read them.

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here