Pretty Much Everything I Have to Say About How to Do What I Do

Today I planned to blog about Jacqueline Susann, and how she really is a huge inspiration for me (be charming, be everywhere, work hard, and write romance). I think there's some really good advice in there for aspiring authors, and I've been getting a lot of questions from them lately.

But because I really, really need to turn of the internet and get some serious work done, I'm going to keep it brief, but give you the best advice for authors that I have in a nice bullet point form.

-If you're looking for good advice on how to be a better writer, check out Stephen King's On Writing. It's a great book, and he's a better writer than me, so his advice is more sound.

-If you're looking for info on how to e-publish your books and get into it, check out J. A. Konrath's blog and book A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. Also, check out Smashwords style guide for tips on formatting, as well as the Kindlboards.

-If you're wondering how I managed to self-publish and end up being a best seller, you can check out my post about I got started in an epic tale of how it all happened.

-If you're wondering if/how you should publish your book, you can check out a couple posts I did My Thoughts on Indie Publishing and Indie vs. Traditional. And you might possibly want to check out How Everything Went the Opposite of What I'd Been Told.

-I pointed out a lot of great places that helped me out when I started in this, but the stuff I'm showing you is only the beginning. The number one thing you need to do before you decide to publish is RESEARCH. Look up and learn everything you can about everything involved with writing and publishing, even if you think it doesn't affect you. It's vital that authors understand the market and their readers. And if you think you don't have the time or inclination to do that much research, then the sad but brutal truth is that you do not have time or inclination to self-publish.

-And if you want the best piece of advice I've ever gotten, watch this video.  I posted it before, but it really, really bares repeating. You can watch the whole interview if you want, but the question/answer starts at about :55 seconds in and goes until about 2:10, so it's short and sweet. They're talking about music, but it applies to everything.

And, now, I have to step away from the tantalizing interwebs, and go do what I do: write.