The 13 Best First Sentences in Fiction

If you are interested in promoting your book and growing your community on a stable author platform you might also enjoy this LinkedIn article, where I have outline the foundation for your book selling platform. Stephen King's phenomenal writing career continues to show no signs of slowing down, with the prolific author selling over 350 million copies of his many books thus far. He thinks that the first sentence of a book is so important, that he spends weeks, months, even years on it! "The best first line I ever [...]

Self-Publishing Success Stories: The Anatomy of a Kindle Bestseller

There’s nothing wrong with ambition, especially when others have walked the path before us. Today, #1 Amazon UK bestselling author Mark Edwards examines some of the characteristics of what goes into a Kindle bestseller. As self-published authors we are all inspired by the sight of other indie writers tearing up the bestseller lists, rolling in royalty checks, getting big bucks movie and book deals, and achieving all the things we fantasise about in those misty moments when we raise our heads from our keyboards and allow ourselves to dream. Personal [...]

How One Author Earns $450,000 a Year Self-Publishing on Amazon

Self-publishing success stories are all around us… but it’s not often we get a glimpse into how, exactly, these authors manage to sell so many books on Amazon. That’s why we love this piece from Forbes on how one author earns $450,000 a year self-publishing on Amazon. The UK-based author, Mark Dawson, writes thrillers and crime novels, and has sold 300,000 copies of his thriller series about a British assassin named John Milton. The Forbes piece says Dawson earned six figures last year, but never quite explains the [...]

9 Authors Who Regretted The Success of Their Work

1. LEWIS CARROLL In 1891, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass author Lewis Carroll—who was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—wrote a letter to his friend Anne Symonds about the pitfalls of fame. "All of that sort of publicity leads to strangers hearing of my real name in connection with the books, and to my being pointed out to and stared at by strangers and being treated as a ‘lion,’” he wrote. “And I hate all of that so intensely that sometimes I almost wish I had never written any books at all.”   [...]

Bestseller Success Stories that Started Out as Self-Published Books

You write, you re-write, you edit, you tweak and when it's perfect, you submit. And then you get rejected. Many times, maybe by a person who didn't even read it. Rejection is painful because it instantly devalues your creation. Someone says this isn't worth publishing. Rejectees, take heart. Many now-famous writers have been rejected before they made it big. Stephen King wrote his first novel, "Carrie," and it was rejected 30 times. Rejections were so devastating that he threw the manuscript in the trash. "Chicken Soup for the [...]

Amazon Pays $450,000 A Year To This Self-Published Writer

The London Book Fair lands on an unusually sunny three days in the capital. The scorching rays – rarely seen at all, let alone in April in the UK – seem at odds with a closed-off indoor book fair. But that hasn’t stopped scores of page-turner enthusiasts scouring the giant exhibition centre’s main floor, looking for publishers to schmooze, books to buy and advice to receive. It’s the advice from authors who’ve ‘made it’ that seems to resonate most with attendees. Seminars and workshops are scattered in between [...]

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