Interviews with forty-nine writers as they speak about writing, publishing and promoting their books in the digital age.
The interviews include John Locke, Gordon Ferris, Stephen Carpenter, Dakota Banks, Linda Wisdom, Matthew Reilly, Loucinda McGary, David Lender, JR Rain, Jack Dann, Dale Brown, Stephanie McAfee, Andy Briggs, Kat Martin and many, many more.
Some of the writers are traditional authors. Others have built careers as self-published ebook authors.
All their stories are inspirational, including:
John Locke, the first self published ebook author to sell a million copies of his novels.
Micaela Wendell who was thirteen when she wrote the first draft of her book The Branding.
Dolores Durando who wrote and published her first book when she turned ninety.
And the amazing Robert J Randisi who has written over five hundred novels.
All of them share tips and advice garnered from the front line as they have successfully become writers in the digital age.
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At least one error authors will need to know about… Secrets of Successful Writers contains transcribed interviews with fifty authors, both traditionally published and self-published (or both). It is not made clear whether the interviews were conducted face to face or via email (I suspect the latter). Little of the information is new and a lot of it is either predictably similar (e.g. everyone has a blog and a website) or predictably contradictory (e.g. plotters vs. pantsters).Of the fifty authors interviewed, I’ve actually only heard of two (John Locke and John Marsden), although that is probably not suprising as most of the authors tend to be indies, writing in genres I don’t read, or both. While some of the authors state their books have been in the Kindle Top 10, those same books are currently lurking closer to 200,000. Perhaps they meant the UK Top10? Either way, it can’t be denied that making the Top 10, whether on Amazon UK or US, no matter how briefly, is a huge achievement.In looking at the product page, I noticed that ’3 Kindle users’ have highlighted this quote from author Michael Prescott:”promote your book using Amazon’s discussion boards, which can be accessed toward the bottom of any Kindle book’s sales page…”Don’t. Even. Think. About. It.This is outdated information. Since May 2011, Amazon.com have ONLY permitted authors to promote their work in the Meet Our Authors discussion board, not in the general discussion forums (e.g. Kindle, Kindle Book, Romance). Authors who do mention their book/s outside MOA are reported and their posts deleted (especially those who follow Michael’s advice and post five self-promoting comments each day).New authors need to know this, to save them the flame wars that erupt when they are discovered self-promoting or spamming. Amazon UK have the same rules, but don’t seem to enforce them so rigidly (although they could just have less spam all round). This is the only error I have found in the book, although there are a couple of typos (it’s either FaceBook or Facebook. It can’t be both). Apart from this, it’s an OK read. Nothing really new or exciting, and probably nothing that isn’t already on Pitt’s own website. Mildly interesting, but neither bad nor great.
Inspirational I didn’t really read this book looking for tips on how to publish, but mainly for inspiration. I just like to read about how other authors spend their days, how many pages they do per day, etc.There are a lot of typos in this book. The interviews are very short, with the exception of one very long interview with Dakota Banks in the middle of the book. She just goes on and on, about a variety of things, in particular about what she remembers about growing up in a funeral home, which may or may not have had something to do with influencing her writing. I don’t know, because I glossed over that too-long part, since the little I did read didn’t seem to have anything at all to do with writing. That interview just really stood out, only because it was about five times longer, and five times more boring, than all the others. Most of the interviews are so short they leave you wanting more, but the aforementioned Dakota Banks interview was so long it left me wanting far less. No offense to Ms. Banks.But it’s a good book, and I would recommend that any writer read it. It’s not really a how-to guide, so don’t expect instructions on how to write or publish.Very interesting and inspirational interviews.