Member Blog

“Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the above quote, it’s the last line to a film I remember enjoying very much, The Devil’s Advocate. Al Pacino plays John Milton, a physical manifestation of Satan, and the line refers specifically to vanity’s inherent potential for exploitation. Unfortunately, this applies not just to lawyers (as was the case in the film), but to writers alike, or more to the point, vanity authors. Er, wait, I meant enterprise authors. OK, which one is it?

Vanity Author

Let’s face it, the term vanity, or the “V” word, […]

In March 2009, I began writing an article for LLBR about how to market your book on Amazon. The result of that article turned into a longer project that I decided to publish as a book. Taking advantage of Lulu’s free ISBN at the time, I released it as a 93 page guide that included my POD Diary which I wrote throughout the first year of marketing my book, Stealing Wishes.

It took several months for the book to become available on Amazon. Six months in fact. Having emailed Lulu support several times during that wait period and after […]

There is nothing in a caterpillar that lets you know it will someday become a butterfly…

When you think about plot, story, many things may come to mind: compelling characters, twists, unique situations and emotional ties to the reader…. at least in good plots, right? But the question most writers want the answer to is “how?” How did Tsugumi Ohba create such a compelling story, how did C.S. Lewis write multiple stories that were fresh and unique?

These are the C’s in Success… in school “C” meant average, when you have the following C’s you are an average writer, so […]

You may wonder why I chose to become an independent publisher, especially if you know how much I resisted the idea of self-publishing for years. My first children’s book The Haunted Igloo, was published in 1991 by a traditional publisher, Houghton Mifflin. But authors know that getting the second or third book published doesn’t always happen. Even if you have a toe in the door, that door is often slammed on it. Hard. The sequel to that book (Spirit Lights) was rejected, as was another one. But the fact is, after my husband became ill and went […]

Hello! I am new to this blog. My name is Stevie, and I am an illustrator/author/veteran self-publisher. I published my first book, Lizzie Fox-Top, in November 2009. From the back cover:
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“Lizzie with your hair so red, what’s that fox doing on your head?”

So demand the townsfolk of Lizzie’s world the morning after an abandoned baby fox wanders in through her moonlit window. When the fox finds comfort on top of the little girl’s red head, the pair become fast friends, despite the townspeople’s protest. After a few mishaps including one angry grocer, several stolen eggs, and a […]

Despite the fact that the UPS tracking showed my iPad in Guangzhou, China on April 2, the enchanting device showed up magically at my doorstep in the morning of Saturday, April 3. Amazing!

Growing up I used to love reading a good book while listening to music. Now I can have a vast number of books with virtually unlimited music selection (thanks to Rhapsody) and can take them anywhere! Would this not have been possible on my laptop and other tablets? Laptops don’t have the form factor to make it convenient. Having to fold open and close a laptop in […]