Writing Tips, Marketing Advice and Book News: What’s Happening This Week?
By Joni Di Placido It’s a new year and we’re bringing this feature back: a place to share the most interesting book news and author tips…
KWL Ep 133 – Let’s Talk Podcasting with Amanda Cupido
In this week’s episode, Cristina sits down with author and podcast producer Amanda Cupido to talk about her book Let’s Talk Podcasting: The Essential Guide to Doing it Right.
In Praise of Public Speaking
How I went from petrified to panelist By Judy Penz Sheluk My earliest memory of public speaking goes back to the eighth grade, when I stood…
The Best of the KWL Blog 2018
Happy New Year from us all at Kobo Writing Life! As we leave 2018 behind, let’s take a moment to celebrate and revisit some of the…
Six Remedies for a Conference Hangover
By Linda Shenton Matchett Even though 2018 marks my eleventh year of attending Crimebake, a mystery writing conference held each November in the Boston, Massachusetts area,…
2018 Holiday Content Processing
This is a friendly reminder that as the holiday season approaches, the schedule for our regular content processing services will be adjusted.* December 21 is the…
Update: New Categories for your Book
You’ll now have the option to browse through over 2,000 categories to find the ones that best suit your book and help tell your story.
Setting Up a Multi-Author Bookstore Event
When my debut mystery novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, was published in 2015, one of the first things I did was set up a bookstore event at my local Chapters. Visions of eager customers lining up outside the door danced through my head.
The reality was considerably different.
10 Steps to a Bestselling Novel
By Sierra Delarosa Are you aiming for your next book to become a bestseller? Why do some books become more popular than others? While there’s no surefire…
A Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up Affiliate Links
By Joni Di Placido Affiliate income is an absolute no brainer for any independent publisher or author. Vivian Arend wrote a comprehensive guide about making the…
What, Why, and How Readers Read: 10 Fun Facts
This one is for those stat-hungry authors among you! A KWL author conducted a reader survey: here are some of the take-home messages.
4 Steps to Starting Your Novel
By Signe Pike “I’m working on a novel” If you’ve ever uttered these words you are most likely acquainted with the particular horrors of trying to…
How To Win NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo is a fun way to connect with a global writing community and a great way to focus on really prioritizing your writing for 30 days
Self-Care Strategies for Authors on World Mental Health Day
While many of us work to keep ourselves physically well and look after our bodies, it’s easy to neglect our mental health. This is a gentle reminder today and every day, to be kind to yourselves and take care of you.
Academics Should Consider Self-Publishing—Here’s Why
What I can say is this: Whether through Kobo, or through a different platform, I am absolutely convinced that more professors will soon be self-publishing.
My 30-Year Road Trip to Indie Publishing
It’s a great time to be an author.
Overcoming Writer’s Block with Automatic Transcription
Here’s the core idea: thinking out loud is often less arduous than writing. And it’s now easier than ever to combine the two, thanks to recent advances in speech recognition technology.
My Title Was Rejected From a Kobo Promotion – Why?
By Elyse Daniels, Global Audiobooks Merchandiser *If you don’t yet have access to the Kobo Promotions tool and your titles are uploaded directly through…
DIY: Designing Your Own Book Cover
By Peter Staadecker Peter Staadecker is a KWL author and illustrator whose book The Twelve Man Bilbo Choir has been shortlisted for the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer…
5 Ways Travel Writers Earn Money From Their Craft
The most successful travel writers today are not writing for magazines on the newsstand or books on a store shelf.
KWL Podcast – Ep 107 – Sarah Wendell
In this episode, Stephanie and Cristina sit down with Sarah Wendell. Sarah is a writer, blogger and podcaster and chats to us about running her successful romance book blog and podcast.
The Lasso of Truth About Entrepreneurial Publishing
Independently publishing my books gives me freedom and empowers me to pursue my passions, connect with my fans, and create the life I always dreamed of.
The 5 Traits That All Successful Authors Share
Great authors are seldom born; instead they’re moulded, sculpted and polished over time.
Marie Force: Building a Self-Publishing Empire
My life was changed forever by self-publishing, and I’ll always be thankful for the opportunity to take control of my career.
10 Things Top Kobo Authors Have in Common
Christine will be hosting a free Bublish webinar on Wednesday, March 21 to talk about what’s new and exciting at KWL and what’s driving book sales at Kobo today.
Indie Author 101
Thinking about publishing independently? Our latest #KWLWonderWoman gives her top tips for new authors!
What Makes A Good Author Bio?
Like yodelling on a mountaintop, when I say the words ‘author bio’ I can hear the collective author groan echo from every corner of the globe. Like eating your vegetables or doing your taxes, writing your author bio is unfortunately an inescapable part of literary life.
Eight Tools That Will Help You Start Your Novel
By Joni Di Placido Sometimes the biggest challenge in writing is finding the time and the focus to just sit down and do it. Between the…
Be Authentic: How To Build Relationships With Readers
By Julie Strauss Julie Strauss wanted to maintain control of marketing and distributing her own titles. She spent considerable time doing research on self-publishing—seeking out articles,…
Plan To Succeed: How To Give Yourself The Best Start As An Indie Author
by Rachel Amphlett Rachel Amphlett decided to strike out on her own in 2011 after being told by a Big 5 publisher that there was no…
5 Ways to Make Your Editor Think You are Awesome
By Lisa Lepki As the Editor of ProWritingAid’s blog, I am constantly reading submissions from writers, and few things irk me more than common technical gaffes…
An Editor Is Your Novel’s Best Friend
By Carrie D. Miller If you’ve taken the self-published route, you have a little more than a hint of control-freak in you. I know I do.…
How Going Wide Helped Me Quit My Day Job
by Tracy Cooper-Posey Here’s a question for you: Why did you get into indie publishing?
Grammar Girl’s Editing Checklist
by Mignon Fogarty Some time ago, Grammar Girl distributed an editing checklist that turned out to be so popular we decided to make it widely available. Go…
Single-Focus Marketing (or How to Write Better Email Newsletters)
We all want to increase our reader engagement, right? More social media comments, more newsletter opens, more purchases. But did you know that offering more choices might actual result in less action from your readers?
You’ve Got One Chance
I made many mistakes with the original cover of my debut novel, The White Raven. This self-publishing journey has been a series of learning experiences. No matter how much research you do, you’re going to screw up along the way. And that’s okay.
Multi-Layered Readers and How to Reach Them
When I thought about my readers, I lumped them all into one huge bucket. When I sent an email newsletter to my 500 readers, I couldn’t understand why some didn’t open and others didn’t click. . .As an indie author, identifying your readers offers opportunity to brainstorm new ways to connect with her.
How To Avoid Clichés in Your Writing
Clichés can be a writer’s worst enemy, and the reader usually doesn’t like clichés much either. Writers from Jonathan Swift to George Orwell have ranted against the cliché like it was the Devil tempting an innocent seminary student.
How To Show Facebook Love In Just 20 Minutes A Day
Whether you’ve been avoiding Facebook like the plague or are fighting a social networking addiction, you can benefit from trying a schedule like this. You’ll be able to make the most of your time online and save valuable hours for writing!
Five things I learned putting together bundles at Bundle Rabbit
By Barbara G. Tarn Have you heard this great marketing tip? Include your book in a multi-author bundle, so that readers can cross-pollinate among various authors.…
Distribute to OverDrive via KWL
Did you know that you can distribute your eBooks to OverDrive with one click, right in your Kobo Writing Life dashboard? Reaching millions of library readers—and receiving the best royalty rate you’ll find anywhere—is as easy as opting your eBooks in and setting a Library price.
Tips and Tools to Help You Complete NaNoWriMo (or any writing project)
You’re down to the wire. The deadline for NaNoWriMo (or another writing project) looms on the horizon. But you’re behind. You’re afraid you’re not going to make it. You simply don’t have enough time to write the requisite number of words at your typical writing pace. Or the words just won’t come. Or both. What’s a writer to do?
Active Voice Versus Passive Voice
Today’s topic is active voice versus passive voice. Many people believe they should avoid the passive voice, but fewer people can define it or recognize it.
Be A Smart Indie
If you’ve been an independent author for any length of time, you know the market has grown more competitive. So how can your books stand out in such a crowded marketplace?
How Kendall Ryan Became a Bestselling Kobo Author
I wanted to pass along a few of the things I do at Kobo, specifically, that I believe have helped me to driving success on the platform.
Making Promotional Videos on the Cheap
I started making videos last July to promote my first novel, A Time and a Place, published October 1st 2017 by Five Rivers Publishing. I chose videos as a primary means of promotion because I believed they could make the biggest impact, and I could distribute them via multiple platforms for free.
Word Power: Boring Words & What To Use Instead (Seem)
The folks at Custom-Writing have gathered 28 of the most common words that are often too boring to use and have selected a number of alternatives you may be able to use instead to make your prose a bit more specific or perhaps just varied, rather than using the same words repeatedly.
The Five Stages Of Revising Your Novel
You’ve finished a first draft of your novel. Now what?
Learn to love Microsoft Word
By Joan Frantschuk Have you ever screamed at Word because it just will not cooperate? Word is a writer’s best tool, best resource, best friend. Writing a…
5 Habits of the World’s Most Successful Writers
by Justin Osborn Every writer dreams about the moment when their work hits the bestseller list. We wish for the perseverance and inspiration to churn out…