Podcasts about fussy librarian

How is AI transforming accessibility for indie authors — and why should you care even if you consider yourself able-bodied? What happens when the tools designed to help people with disabilities end up making everyone's creative business better? Jeff Adams, accessibility expert and romance author, explores how AI is opening doors that were previously closed. In the intro, Spotify Audiobook Innovations; The Economics of Convention Life [The Indy Author]; Friction in your Author Business [Self-Publishing with ALLi]. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How ending a long-running podcast made space for more writing — and how to know when it's time to let go of a good thing What accessibility really means for indie authors and why your digital content might be excluding part of your audience How AI agents like Claude Cowork are removing physical and cognitive barriers for authors with disabilities, chronic pain, or limited energy The culture of shame around AI use in the writing community and why blanket anti-AI statements can be ableist Practical tools including NotebookLM, ElevenReader, and ChatGPT for marketing copy, metadata management, and multimodal research Exciting futures in personalised reading, real-time translation, and AI browser agents that could change how everyone interacts online You can find Jeff at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jeff also now has a SubStack at contentforeveryone.substack.com Transcript of the interview with Jeff Adams Jo: Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. Welcome back to the show, Jeff. Jeff: Thanks so much, Jo. It's good to be back. Jo: It is. You were last on the show in March 2023, so over three years ago now. Give us a bit of an update on your writing and publishing business and what it looks like at the moment. Jeff: Sure. I think the biggest thing that happened is that my husband Will, who is also a writer, we ended the Big Gay Fiction Podcast at the end of 2024, after 470-something episodes. It was basically time to do that. So we both focused on writing from that point. In 2025 we had some of our biggest successes in getting writing out into the world. I refound my groove—my difficulty in writing went away finally. We talked a little bit about that back in 2023 too. Will started a new pen name and started producing again, and it was really good to be able to move in that direction. Jo: Was this the hockey romance that really hit at the right time? Jeff: You know, I wish I could have capitalised more on Heated Rivalry when it came out, but I did get hockey books out, and I think I did get to ride that wave a little bit there too. Jo: Yes, and if people don't know about that, that was a super popular streaming series. Was that based on a book? Jeff: It was, yes. Rachel Reid was the author of that book and that series that then Jacob Tierney optioned and made into what fairly turned into a global phenomenon at the end of 2025. Jo: Yes, absolutely. Although I particularly liked Red, White and Royal Blue. That was the one I liked. Not so much into hockey. But anyway, I just wanted to ask you about the Big Gay Fiction Podcast. As you say, you did hundreds of episodes over many years. You and I met over podcasting. You've had lots of connections with people. You ended it, and I know you struggled with ending it, but it sounds like it went really well for you. So maybe you could talk a bit about— How do you know when it's time to end something—a good thing rather than something bad? Does that make more space for writing, essentially? Jeff: It absolutely did make more space for writing for both of us, in particular for me because I have a day job. I balance everything on the creative side with the day job. Will and I had been talking about it for over a year. It just was like, it's really time. After nine years, getting to that 470 mark, we thought about trying to get to 10 years and we thought about, if not 10, then getting to 500 and ending on a milestone. As we looked at everything in our creative business, it was like, this is fun, we enjoy it, but we're not getting as much out of it as we might be if we were actually also writing books, which we also really want to do. It became a time thing and what was the best use of the time. We absolutely miss it occasionally. The whole Heated Rivalry thing, I would've loved to have had episodes to talk about that on, but in the long run, it was worth it. Jo: I mean, one of the things with a podcast, particularly around fiction, was that it was a marketing angle for your fiction. This show is a marketing angle mainly for my nonfiction. So what did you replace the podcast with, in terms of book marketing? Jeff: It was really stepped-up email marketing. I'd always had a list. Will started a list, of course, as he started his new pen name. So it was really turning on that, focusing on that, getting some email marketing with a Bargain Booksy and a Fussy Librarian and a BookBub occasionally to do that work. To be honest, even though we covered things in our genre that if you like what we're talking about, you should like our books, there was never as much of a connection there as you'd want there to be. Even from that book marketing angle, these other things that we can do, it's also a better spend of the money to get those types of promos than it was to continue running the show. Jo: Yes, that is interesting. I mean, obviously I think about podcasting a lot since I have this one, and I put Books and Travel on a hiatus and that was meant to help my fiction and definitely didn't help my fiction sales. But I want to bring it back again because I love doing it. Do you have this hankering sometimes? Do you think you'd ever do the podcast again? Because you are also quite into all the technical stuff and all that. Jeff: It's possible. I've toyed with the idea of doing a short accessibility podcast geared towards creatives, tilting to the same audience that Content for Everyone does. Then I come back and look at the time—is my time better served writing new fiction or perhaps starting a Substack, which I also toy with the idea of, for accessibility stuff? So it bounces around in my head to do another show, but I haven't really decided to jump on that yet. Jo: Yes, and I think that waiting is really good. As you say, you quit a big thing and you don't have to rush to fill it again. I love that you guys are writing more books. So I wanted us to talk about that up front because I know people who listen to this show—I encourage people to start podcasts if you want to, but equally it can take a lot of time. So that's fantastic. Now, you mentioned accessibility, and I feel like the word can be quite difficult for people. So let's just start with a definition. What is accessibility? Why do you care and why should we care? Jeff: So accessibility is really about making sure that whatever the thing is, whether it's something out in the physical world or in the online world, that everybody has access to it. Access to the information, access to getting into a building or being able to cross the street appropriately, whatever that is—that the accessibility of the thing is high. So that regardless of who is approaching it, they can interact with whatever the thing is. If we put that into the digital world, it's about making sure that text on a screen can be perceived by anybody, whether they're trying to read it visually or if they're trying to read it through a screen reader or through a braille monitor. Whatever that is, they need to be able to interact with it, get the information they need, do all the functions of whatever it is on the screen. Check out on Amazon, check out at their favourite e-commerce place, be able to get the products in their cart, check out, et cetera. For creatives, it's about the things that we do: the websites that we build for ourselves, the e-commerce platforms that we use, our email marketing, our social media posts. Making all of that as accessible as we can so that we're not perhaps missing a part of our audience or our prospective audience from being able to engage with our work and in turn, hopefully, buy our books and enjoy our books and become a fan. This became important to me because of my day job. I hadn't really considered this—like, I think most people don't—until I started working at UsableNet. It's going to be 15 years I've been at that company come this autumn, and I really started to see the impacts because UsableNet is all about accessibility on the digital front. I really started to learn, being a project manager for them, what all of that meant and how it impacted people who couldn't buy something online, couldn't book a hotel room, couldn't book an airline ticket. It just really became something I got passionate about. I ended up writing the book because I realised that nobody talks to creatives about this. Nobody tells the independent author what they should do to help make their digital stuff accessible so that they don't miss people. I never expected my day job to interact with my creative side so much, but this certainly has over the last few years. Jo: I mean, has it got better? Like we said, you were on here three years ago. We did talk about some of the things around EPUB formats and taking off DRM and what we need to do on our websites—labelling images, for example, and that kind of thing. Do you think accessibility has gotten better? Jeff: I think the awareness of it has improved, both within the creative community and in the broader web ecosphere, that the awareness is better. There's so much knowledge that needs to go into creating something that is accessible. Sometimes there's so much that you have to think about with colours and alt tags on images and all the little bits and pieces, if it doesn't really come to muscle memory, it's easy for it to fall off. There's a survey that's done by WebAIM every year about the top one million homepages out in the universe, and they surveyed those for just the things that an automated scan can detect, which is a small portion of overall accessibility, and the number of errors across that top million actually ticked up this year. Even though there's all these laws around the world—people get sued all the time in the US—the number of errors ticked up for the first time in a few years. So I think the awareness is up, but I think being able to take action on it and make the time to take action on it isn't where it needs to be. Jo: So last time you gave us all those tips. I'll refer people back to that and also to your book Content for Everyone, which has got loads of great stuff in. I wanted to talk to you for this show because I was sitting watching Claude Cowork—now I use Claude Code a lot more—but updating 140 titles on IngramSpark, where me clicking things and there's like 15 clicks per record on IngramSpark updates for pricing, is an absolute nightmare. I was watching the AI do the work and I realised this isn't just saving me time, it's actually saving my wrist and my arm from repetitive strain injury. That's when I thought about this accessibility thing. As you mentioned, for example being physically accessible into a building, say someone's in a wheelchair, they can't necessarily get into a building if there's no ramp. I was thinking that for many years, being an indie author, being a writer online, there's also been these physical barriers because there's a lot of plumbing and clicking for us. So I wondered, starting with an attitude around a shift in who this is opening up to— How is AI starting to help people with these accessibility issues? Jeff: Yes, there's so much opportunity around this. We should note, just to timestamp this, that we're talking on 14th April 2026, because who knows what will change, even in an hour from now. I think Cowork was one of the first things that we saw, and that's only been out since the very top of this year. Being able to do actual agentic tasks. Other things have sort of gotten there, but Cowork really opened it up. You mentioned the repetitive stress that you would've had clicking all of those forms on IngramSpark across 140 books. But there's that type of stress, chronic pain, cognitive drain for somebody who may have some cognitive disability and trying to work through that form. The cognitive energy just might drain out and maybe knock them out for several days after trying to get through that, or the tasks take them multiple days to do. Someone who has lower vision, someone who's trying to work through that form with a screen reader—all of that draws energy, draws focus. Now we've got something where, with plain language, we could say something like: here's all my pricing information, I've logged into IngramSpark, go update these books. Obviously the prompt's going to be a little more than that, but in broad terms, that's what we're going to tell it. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: And being able to have it go through and do the thing. If it gets stuck, have it come back and say, “Hey, I've got trouble with this. Please help me.” That can just free up so much of the drains that people can have—the things that can take them out of doing the part of the work that they need to do for an author business. They can go write the book through whatever process you're going to use to do that, rather than getting caught up in something like having to update all those books on IngramSpark. Jo: You mentioned writing the book there. I have this real sense of being an able-bodied indie author in terms of my computer use and my ability to write a whole book, a 70,000-word thriller that I write regularly. We're all special in some way, but I do have a reasonably normal brain where I can do this work without too much strain. It's hard work, but I can do it. I meet people who are now using AI to help them write, to help them organise their work—maybe someone has dyslexia or ADHD or cognitive issues or pain—there's just so many things that I take for granted that don't affect me. I hear from people who, at this point in time in the community, are almost shamed for using AI to write. So I wanted to bring this up to discuss it under the terms of accessibility. Do you have any thoughts on that? Jeff: I have real difficulty with people who will say anything in the broad range of, “I don't need to use this thing, and therefore you should not either.” Which is adjacent to indie anti-AI speak that there is out there. Certainly we're living right now at probably the highest point that it's ever been, where more and more there's a sentiment towards not using AI for whatever the reason is. I totally respect that people can have concerns about the environment and about energy use and water use, et cetera. Not to mention all the other things that are on the more difficult side of AI. To shame someone who may not be able to put their story out there without the use of that AI, whichever one they're using, or to shame them because they're using AI to run part of their business—updating IngramSpark, doing other things like that—I think it can come down to there being some ableism there. Ther is some privilege behind that too, where they're just like, “I don't need this, and you shouldn't have it either.” I want to give people just a sliver of an idea of what this can mean for someone who is disabled and what AI can unlock for them. There is a person on LinkedIn that I follow whose name is Hannah Desmond. She's an ADHD coach and a former software developer, and very recently she posted this on LinkedIn. This is a paraphrase of what she said, but: having something that can meet you where you are and help you bridge that gap is what I think I have found so helpful about using AI. Here's what I keep coming back to. Without that support, I wasn't more motivated or more capable. I was just stuck. That's the bit that gets lost. We've been taught that struggling is how you know you're doing it properly. So when something reduces the struggle, it can feel wrong—even when it's the thing that actually makes the work possible. Because there's a difference between avoiding thinking and being able to think at all. I think that rounds it up. She's talking about her time as a software developer, but you can apply that to any realm of AI when we're thinking about trying to shame someone for why they may be using it. We may not know that they have a disability because we don't always share that part of ourselves. So I really feel strongly about that and how we are in this culture of shame. Jo: Yes. It drives me up the wall, actually. But I will also say: you don't have to have a disability or accessibility issues in order to use AI in whatever way you personally decide is okay—talking to the listeners now. I think Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors says it well, which is you should have your own AI policy. So you personally decide where your lines are, how it helps you, what you want to keep for you, and what you want help with. I was also thinking in terms of accessibility around money. Again, for many of us, professional cover design, professional editing, professional human-level translation, these are things that are pretty pricey for many people. So again, this makes it more accessible. One of the reasons we got into the indie way and being indie authors was to try and remove the barriers to entry to people who have been excluded from the environment of publishing. So, yes, it is really hard to talk about this, and yet that's why I wanted to talk about it, because— There's so many variables for each individual and there's no situation that's the same, really, is there? Jeff: No, not at all. The things that I may need to do my work in the most efficient way possible is different from the way that you're going to work, is different than the way my husband's going to work, is different than every other person and the way that they're going to work. Which is why any kind of blanket statement about “I don't need something and therefore you shouldn't need it either” can just be so problematic, because we have no idea what someone else is going through. Either it's a permanent part of their lives or maybe it's something that is happening temporarily with them where they might need to leverage other tools. Jo: Yes. Talking about that temporary, I think I really got the first sense of this when I had COVID the first time, which was really bad. I remember I was so sick, the only thing I could do was listen to an audiobook. I couldn't think, I couldn't read. It was really probably months of not having my brain back. Then the other thing that's happened as I age, as women age, is menopause kicks in and the brain fog is a real thing. I've heard from other people too who've said having Claude or whoever, an AI tool, to help with the brain fog is so important because otherwise I just wouldn't be able to gather my thoughts. Again, as you said— Even if we don't need these things now, it's quite likely we're going to need them at some point, given ageing, given the potential for injury and disease. I mean, we don't escape this alive, do we? Jeff: Yes, that's a great point because unless we're extremely lucky as individuals, we're all likely to have some sort of a disability in our lives at some point. I know for me, as I age and my eyes get more and more tired after being in front of a screen all day for work, and then whatever creative stuff I do in the afternoon on a book—when it comes near bedtime and I do want to read, I probably want to do that with an audiobook, much more audio, especially for any long reading project. That can also be like, if I have a long document or a long article to read, I am likely to give it to ElevenReader, let it load itself up, and then listen to it, because I take the information in better than trying to follow words across a screen. Jo: Yes. Jonathan, my husband, now also listens to a lot of academic papers on ElevenReader. Most of us will know it as where we publish some audiobooks from ElevenLabs, or you can also publish other things there. So it is super useful to think about what we can do with ElevenReader. Another thing that I found really useful recently is NotebookLM. On NotebookLM, there is a free tier. You can put various things in there and then create a custom audio. So this is something I've been doing as part of research. You can put in, say, 10 YouTube videos or some PDFs or your book or whatever, and then you can create a custom audio. Then I'll go for a walk and I'll listen to the custom audio, and then I'll go back and look at the detail of what it was. It gives me the framework of whatever I'm thinking about on a broader level, and then I can come back to the details. So again, it's this multimodal approach that can help us manage our energy, I guess. Jeff: And it's all about the managing of the energy, I think, too. That is a great way to think about the accessibility of it all. You mentioned a great use there for NotebookLM. That could also be putting your book in there and having it help you build a world bible or something like that. Or building marketing materials off of that. There's a lot of things now that NotebookLM can do in terms of helping you create FAQs maybe for a newsletter or for your website, and building video stuff off of the material that it has. So there's a lot of options there, and ever-growing options that can be useful for someone to manage any number of the things that they may need in their creative business. Jo: Yes. In fact, talking about Claude, there are a lot of Claude plugins now, skills and integrations. Shopify just released a Claude plugin and many of us now have Shopify stores. I have a lot of products with a lot of different variations and the metadata. There's so much metadata. And again, I'm just so pleased now that I can work with Cowork and get it to actually update directly into Shopify. In fact, coming back, you mentioned updating alt tags earlier. That's something again that AI could help you update—the back list of your alt tags on a website. I've now got my Cowork doing EPUBs so I could finally update all my EPUBs with back matter and all of this kind of thing. So I feel like perhaps we could go beyond accessibility to talk about amplification. All the things that we didn't do because it was too tiring and we just couldn't be bothered, or it would just be way too much work, that now it's opened up as a possibility because of these tools. Jeff: Absolutely. I mean, you look at a backlist as large as yours and the things that you're now able to do. I didn't know that Claude had a Shopify plugin. So the abilities that we have now to maybe do things in the business that we hadn't before. One of the things I've been working with Claude on is rewriting my website and creating a more proper website for Will. I'm really making sure that it is not only SEO prepared but also GEO prepared, with all the metadata and all the backend code schema that it needs so that LLMs can find me, can understand what I do, can understand the books, branch out to the other areas that it needs to. Doing that through WordPress would've been so much more difficult, even with Claude, that to be able to rewrite the site in a way that is going to let me manage it better so that I will do it on a more consistent basis. Whatever that thing is, we're now able to do these things. That could be updating keywords in Amazon or making sure we're aligned across all of the sales platforms that we might be on and things like that, that Claude can do and do well. Jo: Yes, I think marketing is just the killer app really for people, isn't it? I think most authors do not enjoy marketing. I find Claude better for creative work, for strategic work, for doing work through Cowork or Code, but— ChatGPT with marketing copy is very, very good. So I've actually been using that as we record this. I've got a Kickstarter launching next week, so I've been getting it to do ad copy and social media copy and all that kind of thing. This is stuff when you have to produce—give me 20 taglines, give me 20 hooks, give me another 20 and another 20. I mean, we just cannot do it as humans, right? Jeff: Yes, I have found GPT wildly helpful. I mentioned trying to get Bargain Booksy and Fussy Librarian promos. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And you have to give it the marketing hook, and it can't just be the blurb that's on Amazon—it's got to be something fresh, and they each have slightly different requirements. Having GPT—here's the blurb, give me a dozen different options—and then I may take pieces of all of them and create one of my own. But it reworks that much faster than my brain was ever going to try to find the right thing I want to give to Bargain Booksy. Jo: Yes, you are right. Or it says write this in 300 characters or less. Jeff: Yes. Jo: I do exactly the same. That kind of transformative work can be really good. In fact, there was somebody I know who has been rampantly anti-AI for years and then said, “Would this help me? I have to do a synopsis for an agent, so I've got this 100,000-word book and it needs to be a 10-page synopsis. How would I do that with AI?” So I was encouraging her to take each chapter and ask it to summarise the chapter, and of course read through it and everything. But I mean, doing a synopsis once you've actually written a book—that can be super useful. So I think what we're saying is— There are levels of need in terms of both the author and the audience. Then there are levels of your personal use from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of how far you want to go in every area of the business. And in that way, it's just different for everyone. Jeff: Yes, and I think getting to that mindset shift that we were talking about a little bit—it can be so easy to dip your toes in. That one author came to you and said, “Do you think it could do this?” And I think that's the beginning exploratory area for perhaps anyone. People are going to hear us talk about this and it might inspire them to go try something that we've talked about. But these things, whether it's Claude or GPT or Gemini or whichever one it is, you can come to it and say, “I'm an author, I have X, Y, Z going on in my life”—whether that's a disability, whether that's a time constraint because you have a day job and maybe you have kids and a family that need your attention—”I have these time constraints, I want to do X, Y, and Z in my business. How can you help me with that?” It's going to tell you what it can do to help you with that. I would even say, if you have the ability to have multiples of these, you could ask the same question to GPT and Claude, and they're going to give you similar answers in some instances, but they may also have different ones because of the abilities that the different platforms have around these things as well. That can help you make that mindset shift of, “Well, now I see that it can do that. Could it also do this?” And then ask it if it could do that. Because I know for me, Jo, I've taken so much from you and your journey with Cowork that it's like, “Oh, she did that. I wonder if I could do this.” And all of that piles on top of itself. Then eventually I think your brain starts to think on its own, “Oh, I have to do this task. Can Claude maybe do this for me? Let's go find out.” Jo: Yes, and if it couldn't do it for you yesterday, you never know, it might be able to do it tomorrow. Jeff: Right? Because I haven't tested yet its new ability to actually use your computer. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And I'm curious what that might open up. Because one of the things that I've seen that I wish it would do is be able to take the EPUB that's on my drive and actually put it into a platform I'm trying to upload to. Cowork on its own hasn't been able to cross that barrier, but I wonder if with computer use added to that, if it could. Like, “here's the EPUB, upload that over there,” be able to pick it from the file picker, essentially. Jo: Yes. I think, well, a little tip for everyone: I wouldn't give access to your entire file system to the AI. Jeff: That's a good point too. Jo: Yes. I have a Claude folder in my drive and it only has access there. So if you put files in that drive, it might be able to do that. But I know what you mean. I have been using it to help me publish things in German on KDP. Now I can use the browser, so you can actually do that. In terms of uploading the actual file, I know what you mean. These things will change. As we record this, again middle of April, we are almost about to get the next models being Mythos, which might be Claude 4.7 Opus, or also ChatGPT has a new model coming, and these models are getting very powerful. With every shift they can do more things. So as you say, the very first thing to do is ask it, “I want to do this—what are my options?” And some of them, for example, doing an AI-narrated audiobook, ChatGPT and Claude don't do that. You want ElevenLabs or one of the other services for that, but they can tell you what your options are. So that's one thing, but I wondered if you have any thoughts on the gaps that you are seeing. You mentioned one there around file uploads, but— What do you hope might come and some of the things that might be exciting if they arrive? Because you never know, they might be here already. Jeff: There's certainly some movement in some areas. One of the things I'll share is, in March I was at the 2026 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference—CSUN is California State University, Northridge—and they've run this conference for some 40 years now. One of the sessions I went to was from Tara Maisel—I hope I'm pronouncing her last name right. She's a senior project manager in books accessibility at Amazon, and she was doing a session specifically on readability. She had all kinds of statistics and information about what goes into making something readable. One of the things she talked about with AI was the future of personalised reading. If you think about the Kindle app, for example, there's a lot of settings you can make there—font size, colours, brightness, text spacing. There's a lot of tools in there. She was pointing out that potentially readers don't even know what they actually need for the optimised visual reading experience. She sees a world where AI can perhaps do an analysis of your reading behaviour and then help you find the optimal settings. Maybe even multiple optimal settings for, say, if you were reading in a room that had daylight versus at bedtime, and the ways you might shift it. I was almost thinking of this like when you're at the optometrist and they're like, “Which lens is better—this one or that one?” Jo: Oh, sometimes that is very hard. Jeff: Yes. It's that AI could step you through that a little bit to help you find that optimal reading experience in that moment. And then it might even notice, potentially, if you're changing something in the way that you're moving through a page, that it might flag to say, “Hey, do we need to adjust something?” Some other areas that I think are really exciting, for everyone and perhaps particularly for people who are disabled and needing the support of some assistive technology, is what we're seeing in the browsers. OpenAI's Operator has been out for quite a while now, since sometime I think autumn of last year. Perplexity Comet has been around even longer. Then we've got browser extensions from Gemini and Claude that are available, that can let you just type natural language. You know, “Please go find for me jeans in this size that are on sale on this website. Find me the best price for blue jeans on this site and this size,” and it'll just go do it. Which can certainly speed things up for people in the disabled community to find things quickly, to spend time navigating less, and maybe ending up with the AI coming back and saying, “I found these five things. Which one would you like me to buy for you?” Or, “I found this one thing that you do need and it's waiting for you in your shopping cart.” The ability for that on the horizon is an amazing jump from an accessibility point of view. But really it's one of those things that accessibility will then help everyone because we can all just shop that way, if we choose to. These are early days for these browsers and these extensions. The other side of it comes back to basic web accessibility too, because I've seen these types of activities not work so well on a site that may not actually be accessible on its own. A great example is something I ran into with Claude Cowork about a month ago. I was testing to see if it could help me navigate and get things uploaded together for a site where I wanted to upload books, knowing again that it's not going to upload the actual file, but it could fill in the metadata from my master database of metadata stuff. There were areas on the site that it actually couldn't hit the button, because the site itself was also not functional to a screen reader. So there are gaps there. It's early days, but I really see that as an interesting future that'll really help people with disabilities—but again, help everybody too, just manage time better. Jo: I know exactly what you mean there. I've done some collaborative work with Claude Code when it's like, “I can't click the button,” and I'm like, well, I'll click the button—you fill in everything else. Jeff: Exactly. Jo: It's actually quite a funny situation. But goodness, coming back to IngramSpark again—these things need APIs. We need better functions. It's funny because I think a lot of traditional publishers have these APIs or backend upload things that you can do. I'm like, well, we need to get to that with these systems. But I think things will change. Another thing that I think has also shifted is the use of voice. Voice for dictation—it used to be with dictation that you would have to say “comma,” “open quote,” “new line,” and all of that. And you'd also have to make sense. Whereas now I feel like you can just dictate a whole load of things to these AIs and then say, “Tidy that up,” and they will do a lot more than the old situation. So I think voice will also help. Also automatic translation. I don't know if you know this about X, and if you're on X anymore, but just this week they've made it multi-language. So I can read tweets by people who've posted in another language in English. I can read something from Korean or read something that someone French has posted and it gets translated. It has made a huge difference to the content I'm seeing, which is fascinating because I don't think we've ever had this kind of automatic “everything is translated into your language” situation. It's really got me thinking about how [automatic translation] might work for eBooks or other things if the rights are there. I don't know. Have you seen stuff like that? Jeff: There's so much available now with voice and the ability to not have to speak all the other stuff that went with it—comma, full stop, next line. It was a little mind-bending sometimes, trying to think about quote marks and all that stuff. And now it's so good. Different platforms do it to different degrees of ability. Even being able to speak your prompts into the very platforms themselves without having to type all of it. Chronic pain comes to mind, any kind of mobility thing—all the typing would be a drain or maybe even impossible. So the voice ability is so powerful there and unlocks more things. At the same time, those translation abilities—I believe AirPods now have the ability, if you've got the right stuff on your phone, that you could be talking to somebody, they may speak back to you in a language you don't speak, but your AirPods will give it to you in your language. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: Google has, I believe, a live captioning app that you can use. I think there's even a split screen—I don't know if that's available now or something in their future—where you could put the phone on the table and tell it who's looking at what side of the screen, and it'll put the language that I need on my side and the language the other person needs on the other. So there continues to be such a shift in how we're being able to translate stuff that really opens up communication and can open up our books to so many more people. I'm very interested to see—I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet—but how Amazon's auto-translation rolls out and how that's received in terms of the accessibility around our books and being able to put it in someone's hands who doesn't speak—I think it's only English to other languages right now—but who doesn't speak the language it was written in but wants to read that book. We could never, as indies, or really even big five publishers, wouldn't have the money to create custom translations everywhere. But if the AI can help do that and spread those books around so that everybody could have the story they want to read, I think that's such a win for the reading audience. Jo: Yes, I think it's so exciting to think what might be coming, and that's what I want to stay on the side of on the AI discussion. There's enough negativity out there and you can get that information somewhere else, but for me I want us to stay on the positive side of how this helps both the author and the reader. And hopefully the community, to create more and read more and enjoy being human more. Right? Because I find that I do get out more and listen to stuff, or I'm out walking instead of at my desk, and I mean, that's what it's about. I'm pretty excited about the future. How about you? Jeff: I am. I think there are, quite honestly, some scary things that could be out there in the future. I mean, there's been a lot of talk about what Mythos is capable of. But on the other side of it, there are all these advances. I also look back at Google and AlphaFold and what DeepMind was able to do there for science. There's more of that stuff out there, and individually for each of us, spending a little bit of time—and I do have to say, I think you need to spend time on a paid plan because the free stuff doesn't give you the idea of what these platforms are actually capable of. So if you only drop in, even briefly, to experiment on one of the $20-a-month plans and give it your situation, ask it what it can do for you, I think you'll see where, on a personal level, AI will help you unlock some things. It can help you move some things to the next level in your business that for whatever reason you haven't been able to do. You don't have to use it for everything. You may decide that it's still not for you for whatever reason, and that's fine. But I think there's so much to explore here and to let your curiosity run for a little bit to see what's possible and what you might unlock with it. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jeff: So pretty much everything lives at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jeff. That was great. Jeff: I loved it, Jo. Thanks for having me..The post Accessibility And AI: How New Tools Are Opening Doors For Indie Authors With Jeff Adams first appeared on The Creative Penn.

What mysterious ingredients make a book launch successful? What number of first-week and first-year sales truly make a difference to a book's longevity? What can you do to turn lagging numbers around? In a flagship illuminating post for the industry, Todd Sattersten, publisher and owner of Bard Press, shared his findings in The Magic Number. In this behind-the-business conversation from October 2023, you'll hear him generously talk me through how I could help Free Time get there—with a much-needed morale boost at the end. More About Todd: Todd Sattersten is the publisher and owner of Bard Press, a book publisher that works with authors to create best-selling books in business, personal development and technology. Before Bard Press, Todd served as general manager of IT Revolution and president of business book retailer 800-CEO-READ. He is the author of Every Book Is a Startup and the co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (Portfolio, 2009). Todd lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Amy and their three awesome kids.

This episode shares the top 7 things I'm doing as part of the “Small Town Stilettos: a modern marriage of convenience” book launch! We discuss…The specific marketing strategies and platforms I'm using, and why I'm doing these particular types of experiments.How this is different from my previous book launches.What's working well and what I've already decided to do differently in future book launches.My conversion rate estimates and book sale goals for this book launch.And more!Resources & links mentioned in this episode: Episode 77 — Book launch recap for “Her Bad Idea,” Part 1 (organic marketing) https://www.buzzsprout.com/400015/5400808-077-book-launch-recap-part-1-organic-marketing Episode 78 — Book launch recap for “Her Bad Idea,” Part 2 (paid ads and book sales results) https://www.buzzsprout.com/400015/5489476-078-book-launch-recap-part-2-paid-ads-book-sales-results Subscribe to Sagan's author newsletter to view the “poster” for Small Town Stilettos, plus a few other goodies: https://saganmorrow.com/secretpodcast Enter the Small Town Stilettos giveaway on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/369459-small-town-stilettos-a-modern-marriage-of-convenience Pre-order Small Town Stilettos on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Town-Stilettos-marriage-convenience-ebook/dp/B0C776DB4M Book marketing resources: Fussy Librarian, Booksprout, and BooksirensBook marketing platforms: Kindle Unlimited, TikTok, Teachable digital downloadTune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at https://saganmorrow.com/podcast Learn more about all of Sagan's books (including the Polyamorous Passions romcom series, Small Town Stilettos, and her business books for solopreneurs) at https://saganmorrow.com/books/ Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/indie-author-weekly/id1469586590 Check out Sagan's YouTube channel to watch the video versions of these podcast episodes: https://www.youtube.com/user/SaganMorrow Get success & life coaching: https://saganmorrow.com/coaching Enroll in the Productivity Powerhouse anti-hustle e-course: https://saganmorrow.com/powerhouse Work with Sagan: https://saganmorrow.com/workwithme/ Let's chat about this episode:@Saganlives on Twitter and InstagramHashtag: #IndieAuthorWeeklyEmail: hello@saganmorrow.com Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) at https://saganmorrow.com/question Support the show

Show Notes:  After you've created the foundation, there is a time when it is advantageous to spread out and reach another audience. You're in a silo, but there's another one right next to you! Other authors are looking for ways to do this, too.   Some of these work better for selling books or getting reviews, and some work better for increasing your mailing list size.   Newsletter Swaps: 1. (BEST) Organic swap with an author you know (in your a genre). 2. Find other authors to do this with on FB Groups (i.e. Mystery Authors) 3. Book Funnel, Author XP, Story Origin (set up author profile)= put the call out for a newsletter swap. Look for exclusivity, if you can. (Link to whatever your freebie is... permafree, sale, reader magnet.) (Erick looks at this weekly to see what swaps are available right then.)   Group Promos: 1. Baseline for building a mailing list, effective for getting numbers, but not for quality subscribers. Erick does 3 times a month. 2. Look at the other books in the promotion. Will this fit with my audience? 3. Clean mailing list every six months. But most will unsubscribe on their own.   Bundles:  1. Very similar to group promos.  2. Less control for the reader. They get added to a load of other newsletters automatically. (Erick does it every quarter.) (700+ subscribers but open rate low.)  3. Costs $.   Blog Swaps: 1. For non-fiction.  2. Guest blog (link to website). 3. Google likes "back links." (Credibility in the algorithms.)   Not really the same as ideas above, but adjacent, is paid ads on someone else's list:  Instead of buying someone's mailing list (not cool anymore), you can buy a SPOT on someone's list. (BookBub, Bargain Books, Free Booksy, Fussy Librarian.) Works better for advertising one book as opposed to getting an email address.   10% of promotors DON'T promote. Your reputation matters. Promote your promos, or you won't be allowed in other group promotions.   Find Us: Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor  

So, I decided to list Suspicion for free and promote it using various newsletter book promotion services ahead of the release of the second book in the James Lalonde series. The promotions I booked were with AuthorsXP, Fussy Librarian, Kobo, and Free Booksy; altogether, these promotions cost me £176.67 or US$209.96. I used the Google exchange rate from the 19th of November, just in case you're interested. So, in this behind-the-scenes author diary, I will discuss the results of my experiments with Ad stacking on my first-in-series novella or short novel.But first, let's discuss my expectations.My ExpectationsTo be honest, my expectations were relatively low in terms of download numbers. Still, I expected around 2,000 downloads from the Free Booksy promotion only because of an experience in the past. But I was hoping some people would download Suspicion like the store and either follow me on Amazon and buy the next book when it's released or even purchase the preorder. Even though I was hoping for these things, I was pretty pessimistic about the results and knew it was more of an experiment. On top of this, I was terrified that I would receive more harsh reviews or low-rated positive reviews, thanks to my experiences with BookSirens. As a result, I was starting to think this third edition was crappy, and as a result, I was a crappy writer. But that's a story for another time.Without further ado, let's get into the episode.Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show NotesThe Previous EpisodeHost Your Author Website with SiteGround *AuthorsXP, Daily DealFussy LibrarianFree BooksyBookSproutInterested in the mini-course on how to outline a novel?Am Writing Fiction Community by The Authorpreneur Podcast (Facebook Group)Support the show by buying me a coffeeWant the podcast straight to your inbox?My ServicesTry The Formatting Wizard Book Formatting Services for FREE **The Formatting Templates offered by my services.Le Villain Book Covers (Affordable Premade Book Covers) **My BooksMy Short Story, the LawnThe Candidate (Rookie Reporter, Book 1)Suspicion (James Lalonde, Book 1)Duplicity (James Lalonde, Book 2)Entitled to Murder on my blogEntitled to Murder on WattpadConnect with Me on Social MediaTwitter: @WriterADHayFacebook: www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFB group: Am Writing Fiction Community by The Authorpreneur Podcast Instagram: @authorpreneurpodcastYouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videos

I've been setting up book promotions with a number of companies for my first in series for the festive season. Today I take you through the process of each of these companies, explaining the prices, the reasons for doing the promotions and what you can expect. 

There is an internet group called The Fussy Librarian whose members can get to read and keep a weekly selection of ebooks for free. The list on offer, which changes every week, generally consists of thrillers, mysteries and romantic novels, all by relatively little-known authors, and you can select as many as you like for no charge at all. We are constantly reminded that there is no such thing as a free lunch. So, how come there is such a thing as a free read? The answer is that the writers who participate in the scheme want to attract as many free readers as possible, in the hope that at least some of them will in future become cash-paying customers of their works, paving the way for the authors' ascent to ‘bestsellerdom'. In marketing argot, this is what is called a ‘loss leader'. The seller of any product, from a new brand of instant coffee to a range of cosmetics, will put on special sale an item at a loss-making price as a hook to attract future buyers at much higher prices. The Fussy Librarian could be an example of a loss leader sales strategy. However, could there be a non-commercial reason behind the modus operandi of The Fussy Librarian? When he was a young, struggling writer in Buenos Aires, Jorge Luis Borges would haunt working men's bars and cafes in the evening and, surreptitiously, slip in the pockets of their jackets and coats hanging by the doorway copies of the poems he had written, on the chance that the sheets of paper would be discovered, and read, before being thrown away. What impelled the aspiring writer to seek communion with those whose worlds, both outer and inner, were so very different from his? Before Newton explicated the workings of gravity, scientists and philosophers described gravitational phenomena as ‘action at a distance', effect B being linked to cause A with no discernible connection between the two. What was called action at a distance in the physical world has a parallel in the realm of human consciousness. What is this action at a distance, this force of gravity that can connect two or more people and turn them into a gestalt, an entity which is larger than the sum of its individual parts? To someone like Borges, who sowed the seeds of his penned thoughts to reap a random harvest from the minds of men very dissimilar to him in almost every respect, the action at a distance, the gravitational bond, was to be found in the written word used as a bridge to span the separateness that encloses us, islands in the river of life. The writer – be it of a novel, a poem, a postcard, a text message: How r u? C u l8r – by the very act of writing affirms the existence of a reader, the one for whom the writer has written. Writing is an affirmation that an other, the reader, must exist. By such an affirmation the writer's own existence is predicated on the logically prior existence of the reader. Descartes said: I think, therefore I am, a statement which leads only into the blind alley of self-conscious solipsism. The writer's symbiotic credo is: You read, therefore we exist.

If you listened to the previous episodes of this podcast, you'd know that I've been struggling to finish my next novel. By now, you're probably wondering what drama got in the way of me achieving my writing and publishing goals. In this show, I'll share a momentous writing update. On top of this, I discuss my fears and a surprising update on my Fussy Librarian book promotion. And, I discovered a great tool for self-published authors at a great price.So stay tuned for all of this and much more.Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show NotesThe Previous Episode Fussy LibrarianBetaReader.ioHeyBetaBetaBooksTry The Formatting Wizard Book Formatting Services for FREE **The Formatting Templates offered by my services. The Authorpreneur Podcast Community on FacebookSupport the show by buying me a coffeeWant the podcast straight to your inbox? My BooksMy Novella, Missing My Short Story, the LawnBecome a Beta Reader and Start Reading DuplicityEntitled to Murder on my blogEntitled to Murder on WattpadConnect with Me on Social MediaTwitter: @WriterADHayFacebook: www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFB group: The Authorpreneur Podcast CommunityInstagram: @authorpreneurpodcastYouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: www.goodreads.com/authoradhay* This is an affiliate link where I receive a very small commission if you purchase this product.** This is a service offered by me

In this monthly q & a session, the guys answer listener questions. Whether you're traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author. The days of just turning a manuscript into your editor and walking away are gone. If you want to succeed in today's publishing world, you need to understand every aspect of the business - editing, formatting, marketing, contracts. It all starts with a good book, then the real work begins. Join international bestselling author J.D. Barker and indie powerhouses, J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon, as they gain unique insight and valuable advice from the most prolific and accomplished authors in the business. Join us on Patreon and ask your question LIVE on the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/writersinkpodcast Questions asked: I know J. has tried doing a dialogue only first draft, and I'd love to know what you think now. Will this be part of your normal process going forward? I'm trying it myself now, after a conversation with Jeff Elkins. I can definitely see the benefit, but it's taking me a lot longer. Any tips to share? Thank you! I will be releasing the final book in a trilogy soon, and I'm thinking about whether to start some paid advertising. I'd start with services like BookBub or The Fussy Librarian to test the waters. Since the trilogy will be complete and I can get read-through, is this a good idea? Or should I wait until I have a few more books out? Thanks! What aspect of the writing process have you recently changed or tweaked? My question is about chapters/episodes in serialized fiction. I have a space opera trilogy almost ready to go and have decided to release it in a serialized version first as an experiment (on Substack instead of Vella because I'm Canadian). Is a chapter a chapter regardless of how it's released? Or should I reconsider the arc of my chapters for each format? What's the best way to get started offering author services? Where might you be able to cut corners on editing? What writing achievement would you like to be remembered for? Links: J. D. Barker - http://jdbarker.com/ J. Thorn - https://theauthorlife.com/ Zach Bohannon - https://zachbohannon.com/ Story Rubric - http://storyrubric.com Nonfic Rubric - http://nonficrubric.com The Career Author Summit 2021 - https://thecareerauthor.com/summit2021/ Proudly sponsored by Kobo Writing Life - https://kobowritinglife.com/ Music by Nicorus - https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep Voice Over by Rick Ganley - http://www.nhpr.com and recorded at Mill Pond Studio - http://www.millpondstudio.com Contact - https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/ *Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/writersink/support

When it comes to #indiepublishing, there are many things an #author must consider. One of the concerns is #indiebookmarketing. How will your prospective #reader know your #book is available?Don't forget to follow me on your favorite social media: https://linktr.ee/angelakayaustinThe Fussy Librarian founded by #JeffreyBruner. The website is dedicated to helping #readers find #books of interest. How does this help #authors? It helps us because they have two newsletters. Newsletters that go straight into the email boxes of avid #readers who could be searching for our #books.As #self-published #authors, we don't have the time to do everything ourselves. And we shouldn't. We should use established resources that help us get the word out about our #books.#TheFussyLibrarian has one newsletter that has 390,000 subscribers, and another that has #120,000. Now, don't you want its users to know about your #books!To learn more about The Fussy Librarian, check out their website here: https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/Don't forget to check out my #YouTube channel!Check out this interview with Jeffrey, and drop a comment below to let us know what resources you've used to get your #books in front of #readers. #bookmarketingstrategies #bookmarketingandpublicity #bookmarketingideas #bookmarketingtips #bookmarketingonamazon

Have you ever wished you could get all the writing and reading tips you need and inside scoop you want in one place? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening on today’s episode of Indie Author Weekly, as a special celebration of our 100th episode! This is the podcast for indie authors, aspiring authors, and curious bookworms who want the inside scoop, tips and motivation, and behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books. TUNE IN NOW to access all 100 writing and reading tips... Resources & links mentioned in this episode: Get podcast and book updates delivered to your inbox at SaganMorrow.com/behindthescenes .Learn more about all of Sagan's books (including the Polyamorous Passions series) at SaganMorrow.com/books .Small Town Stilettos: a modern marriage of convenience .Episode 97 of Indie Author Weekly: experiences with participating in a short story challenge .Episodes 5 & 28 of Indie Author Weekly: tips for doing National Novel Writing Month and Camp NaNoWriMo .Chicago Manual of Style .Fussy Librarian .Episode 78 of Indie Author Weekly: behind-the-scenes of paid marketing for a book launch .Canva for creating graphics (check mine out by searching #PolyPassions on Twitter or Instagram) .Episode 93 of Indie Author Weekly: writing meditation .The Creative Penn podcast .Page Fright .On Writing .The Word Detective .Episode 79 of Indie Author Weekly: writing prompts .Episode 17 of Indie Author Weekly: character situationals (writing prompts) .Episode 44 of Indie Author Weekly: how to use mind mapping for writing your book .Toggl time-tracking softwareTime-saving tips cheatsheet with 23 ways to save 10 hours this week: SaganMorrow.com/savetime .Reach out to Sagan on Twitter or Instagram: @Saganlives .Learn how to maximize your energy & creativity with Productivity Powerhouse at SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .Goodreads .Bookbub .Get your own Polyamorous Passions merchandise (including the Relationship Rebel shirt and Make Your Own Rules pens) at SaganMorrow.com/shop .Episode 12 of Indie Author Weekly: book review prompts .Episode 95 of Indie Author Weekly: why stories are so powerful .Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .Subscribe, rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .Let's chat about this episode: @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .Email hello@saganmorrow.com .Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question Support the show (https://saganmorrow.com/secretpodcast)

Today on Indie Author Weekly, I want to continue with our book launch recap of Her Bad Idea. Last week, I shared with you about the organic book marketing that I did for the book launch, and my experience with the book blogging community and the advance readers who helped me promote this book. You can tune into Episode 77 to get the inside scoop on all of that. Okay! So today, we’re on to Part 2 of the book launch recap for Her Bad Idea. The release day was August 25, so I consider the book launch to be a two-week period. In this episode, I want to share with you the money side of things with this book launch: which paid promotions were worth it, and which weren’t, plus how many book sales I actually made, and how much money I made from my romcoms during the two-week book launch period for Her Bad Idea. I wanted to experiment with different combinations of promos… I figured that doing a blitz of multiple different promotional methods would give that extra boost and that punch you need to hit the bestseller list. It’s a multipronged approach! So that was my mindset behind buying a bunch of promos. If you want to learn more about strategically planning ahead, then check out my signature program, Productivity Powerhouse, to get my best tips for doing just that. Visit SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse. TUNE IN to this episode of Indie Author Weekly to learn all about paid advertisements for book marketing and my book launch results... Resources & links mentioned in this episode: Learn more about all of Sagan's books at SaganMorrow.com/books .Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea at SaganMorrow.com/booksGrab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Amazon .Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Kobo .Grab your copy of Her Bad Idea on Barnes & Noble .Episode 77 of Indie Author Weekly: Book launch recap for Her Bad Idea, part 1: organic marketing .Productivity Powerhouse: SaganMorrow.com/powerhouse .Publisher Rocket .Written Word Media (Red Feather Romance and New In Books) .Awesome Gang book ads .BookBub ads .Bknights book ads .Books Butterfly "pure gold" book ad .Fussy Librarian newsletter promo .Tune into Indie Author Weekly on your favourite podcast platform at SaganMorrow.com/podcast .Read sample chapters of the books at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .Subscribe, rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts .Let's chat about this episode: @Saganlives on Twitter and Instagram .Hashtag: #IndieAuthorWeekly .Email hello@saganmorrow.com .Share your thoughts (or submit requests for future episode topics) in this survey at SaganMorrow.com/question Support the show (https://saganmorrow.com/secretpodcast)

In this episode, Mark shares the details of a recent book launch, including the series re-branding, the promotion efforts taken in the metadata, the third party promotion sites used, and also shares the good, the bad, and the ugly of the results. Prior to his personal update and the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes and a word from this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices. You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. In his personal update, Mark shares details about the Kickstarter that he launched on August 25, 2020 called Feed the Obsession, as well as the advice he took from Russell Nohelty (Episode 149's guest), and what advice he didn't employ. Mark's Kickstarter funded in less than 48 hours, and he is now working on the stretch goals. In his anatomy of a book launch, AKA anatomy of a series re-launch, Mark shares information in the following areas: A Brief history of the stories/books in the "Canadian Werewolf" series Why he went with the re-branding and new covers The actual launch - and multi-product approach he took to release all titles in eBook, Trade Paperback, Hardcover, and Audiobook The Launch related promotions he purchased (including sites like Freebooksy, Fussy Librarian, and others) Goals and disclaimers about his expectations for the promo and short-term VS long-term Results so far (1 week and 2 days in) Other promotional activities such as a virtual book launch, sending out press releases, and one-sheets to libraries   Links of Interest: Episode 149 - Killing it on Kickstarter with Russell Nohelty Mark's Feed The Obsession Kickstarter Space 1975 Kickstarter (Robert Jeschonek) Mark's Virtual Book Launch for Stowe Away (YouTube) Video Trailer for Stowe Away (YouTube) This Time Around: A Canadian Werewolf Story - Teaser (YouTube) Mark's Canadian Werewolf Series This Time Around (Book 0) A Canadian Werewolf in New York (Book 1) Stowe Away (Book 1.5) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles (Book 2) 927 Rock Sudbury - This Werewolf is a Super Hero Sudbury Star: Author reflects on how Sudbury shaped his latest book Findaway Voices Wide for the Win Submission Form Patreon for Stark Reflections     The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0    

What I’ve been up to in September and the first half of October, plus author tips. Activities around my new release, A Sleuth & a Charlatan, including: Newsletter swaps. Newsletter promotion services with my results. (My series is historical fantasy adventure with romance.) My first orange bestseller tag on Amazon! Links for the tips and recommendations for this episode - full links and info at claresager.com/confessions: CoverVault. Newsletter promo sites that worked well for me at 0.99: Book Barbarian, Bargain Booksy, Fussy Librarian, BKnights, and BookSends. (Again, remember results can vary by genre.) Zoom – great video/audio conferencing software I used to interview Sylvia Mercedes. Connect with me: Twitter @claresauthor, email clare@claresager.com.   Credits: Intro/Outro Music: “Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Choosing how you tell a story can be confusing. With help from the Fussy Librarian, Zach and J. explore how to determine the POV and discuss why it's important to have strong narration.Thanks to our newest Patrons: Gladys Strickland, Brent YoungPodcast sponsored by Kobo Writing Life - https://writinglife.kobobooks.com Get exclusive bonus content by supporting The Career Author Podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thecareerauthorWant to work with us? Get the details at https://thecareerauthor.com/services/Links:Choosing a narrative point of view for your story - https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/newswire/for-authors/2019/06/20/choosing-a-narrative-point-of-view-for-your-story2020 Events - https://thecareerauthor.com/events/ The July Giveaway is up now! - http://www.thecareerauthor.comThe Career Author - http://www.thecareerauthor.comThe Career Author YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIYVcr1UdWgSvYpb3Ol3xg Story Levels - http://www.storylevels.comMolten Universe Media - http://www.moltenuniversemedia.comEvents - https://thecareerauthor.com/events/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 7: Interview with Julie McDonald Zander Prologue: How is Your Setting? "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" by J. K. Rowling: https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-Rowling-ebook/dp/B0192CTMYG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547746351&sr=8-1&keywords=harry+potter+and+the+sorcerer%27s+stone Laurie R. King: https://laurierking.com/ "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe: https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Cabin-Harriet-Beecher-Stowe-ebook/dp/B0084B1OUM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1547746429&sr=8-3&keywords=uncle+toms+cabin Main Story: Interview with Julie McDonald Zander Julie McDonald Zander: http://www.chaptersoflife.com/ Epilogue: Planning and Email Marketing Campaign General Marketers Bargain Booksy: https://www.bargainbooksy.com/for-authors/ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/partners   Book Gorilla: https://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise Book Sends: https://booksends.com/advertise.php Ereader News https://ereadernewstoday.com/ Fussy Librarian: https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/advertising/making-book-marketing-easier/ Reading Deals: https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook  Christian eReader Girl: http://ereadergirl.com/submit-your-ebook/ Horror Hot Zippy http://hotzippy.net/index.html International (Check for specific countries) BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/partners   Book Runes: http://bookrunes.com/submit-book/ eBookSoda: http://www.ebooksoda.com/authors/                                                                                                                       Romance Pillow Talk Books: https://www.pillowtalkbooks.com/book-promotion-services/ Steamy Romance Books: https://steamyromancebooks.com/author-services/ Hot Zippy http://hotzippy.net/index.html Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Barbarian: http://bookbarbarian.com/why-advertise/  Music "Never Surrender" by Chasing Noise, off their album, Everything http://chasingnoise.wixsite.com/chasingnoise

Episode 6: Indie Author Online Vulnerabilities Prologue: Eat That Frog Eat That Frog: https://www.amazon.com/Eat-That-Frog-Great-Procrastinating-ebook/dp/B01MYEM8SZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546545943&sr=8-1&keywords=eat+the+frog Mark Twain didn’t say it:  https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/03/eat-frog/ Main Story: Indie Author Online Vulnerabilities Derek Murphy’s story: https://www.creativindie.com/how-i-got-kicked-out-of-kindle-unlimited-and-lost-50000-overnight/ Various news sites covering the Patreon controversy: https://podnews.net/update/patreon-controversy https://patreonhq.com/hate-speech-on-patreon-a9026e52c2cf Epilogue: Email Marketing Services Bargain Booksy: https://www.bargainbooksy.com/for-authors/ Book Barbarian: http://bookbarbarian.com/why-advertise/  BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/partners   Book Gorilla: https://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise Book Runes: http://bookrunes.com/submit-book/ Book Sends: https://booksends.com/advertise.php eBookSoda: http://www.ebooksoda.com/authors/ Ereader News: https://ereadernewstoday.com/ Fussy Librarian: https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/advertising/making-book-marketing-easier/                                                                                                                              Pillow Talk Books: https://www.pillowtalkbooks.com/book-promotion-services/ Reading Deals: https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook   Steamy Romance Books: https://steamyromancebooks.com/author-services/ Music "Never Surrender" by Chasing Noise, off their album, Everything http://chasingnoise.wixsite.com/chasingnoise  

We’re usually joined by successful authors on the show, but today we invited on Jeffrey Bruner from the (successful) sponsorship site, The Fussy Librarian. He sees a lot of books in a lot of genres come through his gates, so we asked him a bit about trends and what’s selling right now, and also what it takes to start a

Matt’s weekly update for April 4, 2015. He talks about word count, writer’s block, and International Fake Journal Month. He also mentions a little about his Fussy Librarian promo and his goals as a reader. Chad’s Blog: http://www.newwriterpodcast.com/Chad