Literary Lark

On this episode, Daniel breaks down his recent Bookbub promotion and the results two months later. He also digs into the benefits of traditional publishing and whether or not self publishing can be detrimental to an author's momentum.

It's been two years since the last show aired. In this episode, I explain the reasons for the long hiatus and my vision for the show in the future. One of the coolest finds I've come across in my journey back to podcasting has been Anchor--a convenient app that takes away all of the legwork of creating and maintaining a podcast. Take a listen and join me on this new era of the show!

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE! Writing a book is tough, especially if you're not a writing full-time like me. In this episode, I share my game plan for knocking out my next fantasy novel in 100 days--from original outline to published book on Amazon. Why 100 days? Well, I recently received a copy of John Lee Dumas' The Freedom Journal. It helps you accomplish a big goal in 100 days by keeping you accountable each day through the completion of mini goals that lead up to your big goals. I plan to start this on March 1st, so if you're looking to write a book or accomplish something big then please join me! Some resources I mention on the podcast: Scapple - A program for Mac and Windows that essentially lets you take notes and drag

It's the end of 2015 and this podcast episode is reflecting on what happened over the course of the year. Most of this episode looks at highs and lows throughout the year. Starting at the beginning of the year with my free ebook strategy and then finishing off the year with my first big giveaway on the website. Overall I'd say the year has been good but it's definitely getting harder to remain optimistic about writing and self-publishing. You can probably already tell that this isn't my usual advice-heavy episode. I do get into a rant at points but I feel it's necessary to get some things off my chest about strategies in self-publishing that are floating around the Internet causing frustration and confusion for new writers. It's not all doom and gloom though. I do have some lofty goals for 2016. One of which is a new Patreon campaign that I'm hoping will give me support for the

In this episode, I dive into three writing tools that will help you achieve success for NaNoWriMo. We’re just over a week out from the end of the writing month, so I’m a little late to the party. But if writing productivity is your aim these tools will always come in handy! Here are the tools and relevant links: Scrivener – the Swiss army knife of word processor programs. This is seriously essential to all writers. Ditch Word and start using Scrivener to write, organize, and compile your books. It’s a quarter of the price of Microsoft Word and better in every regard. There is a downside: it has a steep learning curve. You’ll be able to get writing without a hitch, but navigating all of the program’s features will cause a bit of confusion and frustration. For that reason I **highly recommend** that you invest in

——— In this episode, I discuss three aspects of publishing books that indie authors must consider. First, writing book blurbs is a huge pain so I lay down some simple tips to optimize your book descriptions online for better sales. Additionally, I highly recommend authors check out Bryan Cohen’s book description service. He’s also got a giveaway going on right now with $1,000+ in copywriting services, so check that out! Second, I go into detail about templates for formatting both your ebooks and print books. There’s a huge difference between the two, not to mention the steep learning curve for print. Ebooks aren’t too hard to format in a program like Scrivener and

In this episode, I cover everything I did to make sure my recent book launch on Amazon was a success. Hitting the top of the charts in two categories in less than a week was a surprise, but any author can have similar results by following the tips I share in the podcast. Here is some of the relevant info with links I cover in the show: * Emory Skwara’s newest release, Of Song and Singularity, is available now! * Headtalker is an excellent social media crowdsourcing site that can make your launch go viral. * Most of the credit for hitting the Top 100 charts goes to

On this episode of Literary Lark, we have two big developments for the podcast. We’ve got video and our first guest on the show! Emory Skwara joins me to discuss the benefits of Wattpad for indie authors as well as how to get your book featured on the site for maximum exposure. Among the things Emory and I discuss are Wattpad’s newest features, the future of the platform with advertising, and competitors like Amazon’s WriteOn Kindle site. Emory is a fellow fantasy and sci-fi author who has written a popular urban fantasy novel called Numinous. You can connect with Emory at all the links below. Emory Skwara Website: emoryskwara.com Email: emoryxskwara@gmail.com Wattpad: Emory on Wattpad Twitter: @EmoryS

This week on Literary Lark, I discuss two separate avenues that allow authors to increase their exposure and grow their platform. If you spend any time on popular bloggers’ sites, you may already be familiar with the strategy of guest blogging (which I also touched on in this post). The value of being a guest on someone else’s blog is two-fold: traffic and exposure. By posting valuable content on a blog or news site that has a much larger audience, you expand the reach of your message, your writing, and your platform. This brings more traffic to your website and–if done correctly–more exposure to your books. Danny Iny has some wonderful insight on this form of marketing, which is basically an audienc

Marketing is tough work and perhaps one of the big reasons many indie authors never really take off in sales or in growing their audience. On this week’s episode, I discuss how this aspect of building a sustainable author platform is one of the hardest things to do (I’m still grappling with this one!). Nevertheless, all authors should dispel the image of the starving writer who refuses to become a marketer lest she sell herself to “the man.” There is a balance between the artist/writer and the businessman that can be reached–in other words, creating artistic content with value for readers and turning a profit in the process. In the podcast, I mention an excellent discussion on The Creative Penn Podcast between Joanna Penn and Jim Kukral on this very subject. Seriously, go listen to it and learn the differen

On this week’s episode of Literary Lark, I bring up the subject of editing and how important it is for your book to be polished and professional. There are numerous editing options available for independent authors including traditional editors or proofreaders who charge per word. This can get expensive if you have a long manuscript or a small budget starting out. My editor, Holly Bohl, charges a flat fee based on word count and she might be a better option for new authors. Another option for editing I mention in the podcast is editing software like ProWritingAid, Grammarly, and AutoCrit (I mistakenly called this one “Auto Edi

On this week’s episode, we continue to the next step after finishing your manuscript, which is choosing a publishing path. I outline three paths that are open to you once your book is ready to be set loose in the world: the traditional publishing, independent publishing, and do-nothing paths. Many authors will gravitate to one or more of these options, but in my case it was all three! My experience with publishing placed me on each of the paths at different times in my writing career and I’ll go through the ups and downs of publishing a book. Ultimately, it all comes down to what we want to do with our writing and what path suits us best.So take a listen and please leave comments on where you are at in your publishing journey. Are you on one of the paths I’ve identified? If so, which one and how’s it working out for you so far? As always, the show is available on

On this episode of Literary Lark, we discuss the first things aspiring authors need to do on their journey to publishing a book. The first part is obvious: writing a book! I’ll share some tips I’ve learned on my path to completing a manuscript including: setting a schedule for writing, becoming disciplined, and dealing with discouragement or disillusionment as you take on such a monumental task as writing a book. Below are some of the links I shared on the podcast for some resources that will aid you: Scrivener – the premier tool for writers to organize manuscripts. There’s a trial period you can enjoy to decide whether you like the program or not (Hint: you will!). Ommwriter – a great app for cutting out distractions while writing and

Welcome to the first episode of my new podcast, Literary Lark! I created this podcast as a means to discuss trends in indie publishing, speculative fiction, processes for writing, and basically anything related to writing. In this first episode I introduce the scope of the podcast and cover that topic of book cover art creation for independent authors. In the future, I’m aiming to have some indie authors on the podcast to discuss relevant topics on writing and publishing. Here is the show outline: I. Intro a. Short bio b. Podcast description II. Episode topic – Book covers a. Covers as art * Defining the artistry involved * Significance of typography * Minimalism and its helpfulness to indie authors b. Power of message * Cover art must highlight the drama in the story * Books a