artist entrepreneur / Author Career
by Beth Barany · Published June 22, 2012 · Last modified October 26, 2017
Let me say I am the type of writer who uses the “creative” method for writing a book. What this translates into is an endless stack of projects I’ve started, but never finished. The main point of this article isn’t so much that I finished a book in a week — it’s that I finished a book at all!
“Book fairs and festivals offer authors an excellent place to interact with fellow authors and publishers, network with book industry leaders, locate the help you need, such as a publicist or book editor, and learn what’s new in the marketplace. Here is a list of 20 book fairs and events that are worthy of your attendance.”
Author Career / book marketing / Book Promotion / Book Reviews / book sales
by Ezra Barany · Published June 20, 2012
The nightmare among authors is to get a bad review. One star reviews can be horrible. Especially the seemingly well-written and intelligent bad reviews – “seemingly” because the information is false or misleading – that kill sales. But if you just follow these seven steps, you can overcome some bad reviews.
One of the more frequent questions I am asked is whether an author can use a person’s name, life story, or attributes in his or her novel. It’s a thorny issue, which is not surprising when a person’s reputation, privacy, and/or identity is involved. To make matters worse, there are few, if any, federal laws on this subject, so what claims an angry plaintiff can pursue, and the nature of those claims, will vary from state to state.
artist entrepreneur / Author Career / Author Interviews
by Beth Barany · Published June 11, 2012 · Last modified June 8, 2012
What does it take to be a successful author? It may not be what you think. Here’s the story from guest columnist, Karen Lenfestey, author of A Sister’s Promise.
One of my clients recently asked me to help her design a series of classes about a watercolor technique she has developed for beginners. My work with her inspired this post. I highly recommend starting with a mind map to help you select what you want to convey in your course. Here’s an example the ‘big picture’ visual draft I created that you can use to write your own class designs and get the word out to potential students.
Author Career / book marketing / Book Promotion / book sales
by Ezra Barany · Published May 30, 2012 · Last modified May 29, 2012
Say you have a jar full of rocks, pebbles, and sand. Each rock, pebble, and grain of sand represents a step you can take to being a bestselling author, a full jar. Some steps take more time than others, some cost more money to do, but time and money are not a reflection of the size of the stones. Instead, the size refers to how effective each step is in reaching your goal. If you only have the time and money to put in 7 things, doesn’t it make sense that you should focus on the ones that are large rocks instead of the tiny pebbles?
artist entrepreneur / Author Career / Creativity Tools and Tips
by Beth Barany · Published May 28, 2012
People used to be tied to things like families, communities, rituals, worship, curiosity, and beauty. Now we are tied to schedules, watches, datebooks, computers, and keeping up with the latest gadgets that start with i. It seems like time is going by faster than ever these days, and we’re all exhaustively trying to find, chase, save, and manage time.
Author Career / book marketing / Book Promotion / book sales
by Ezra Barany · Published May 16, 2012
Many authors think getting their work published in an anthology is great for visibility. They’re right. But not for the reason they think. If you self-publish, you then tell all your friends and family about the book. But with an anthology, you now have all the contributing authors tell all their friends and all their families about the book. The amount of people who hear about the anthology and see your published name can be ten times as many!
artist entrepreneur / Author Career
by Beth Barany · Published April 20, 2012 · Last modified May 3, 2012
Those who have the most powerful visions for their work, passion, persistence, determination, resilience and focus are the ones who bring it about. Decide who you want to become. Here are three ways to focus your time and energy so that you are not sitting around waiting for the book sales to come in.
artist entrepreneur / Author Career
by Ezra Barany · Published April 11, 2012 · Last modified April 12, 2012
Many entrepreneurs think any testimonial a client writes is a good testimonial. The truth is that many testimonials sound so much like fluff, prospective clients will ignore them. And if you just give guidelines to your clients or sample testimonials to choose from, your testimonials will be priceless!
I’ve been asked several times to help someone register his or her copyright. At the risk of inciting the wrath of my fellow copyright attorneys, I’ll put in print what I’ve told these people: while I’m happy to do so, you don’t need an attorney to file a copyright.
When you step into your vision and begin running forward into your new self, life and your ego will create reasons to stop. Some of those things might be out of our hands and some are created by us, whether consciously or subconsciously. The resilient and purpose-driven author will continue forward despite setbacks to create the success they desire.
artist entrepreneur / Author Career
by Beth Barany · Published March 10, 2012 · Last modified March 9, 2012
I read a recent blog post about collectors who asked an artist to cut down a painting they bought from him because it was too big to fit over the couch. The artist’s snarky reply was to cut the legs off the couch. I expected a backlash, but to my surprise, the collectors followed the advice and liked the end result. (guest columnist, Aletta de Wal)
Subscribe here to get notified each time we publish a post.
Welcome to the Writer’s Fun Zone, a blog for creative writers by Beth Barany, fiction writing teacher and novelist.
Articles by creative writers like you.
Check out the How To Write The Future podcast.
Subscribe to Writer's Fun Zone blog for resources, inspiration, and free resources:
Get these goodies:BONUS
As a bonus, you will also be subscribed to the CreativitySparks (tm) newsletter, full of tips and tools for novelists building a successful career. (Sent 1-2 times per week) By Beth Barany, Editor and Publisher of the Writer's Fun Zone, and a Creativity Coaching for Writers, and a novelist herself.
Beth Barany helps authors get their books completed and out into the world, into the hands of their readers.
Creativity Coach for Writers, NLP Master Practitioner, and Master Teacher, Beth Barany has been there and knows how hard it can be to take your idea and turn it into a real book, that people will actually be interested, and even yearning, to read.
She walks the talk, as her clients like to say. She is the author of the 2012 award-winning young adult fantasy novel Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, as well as the author of the bestselling nonfiction books for authors and aspiring authors.
Ready to finish your book but not sure how?
Hire Beth to help you or take a class at Barany School of Fiction. Or join her Group Coaching Program.
Still have questions? Email Beth.
Recent Comments