Do you want professional looking print and ebooks to delight your readers? Of course you do! Following my post about the best tools I found to create and produce books, here are some 14 specific, highly-useful tips about how to use Adobe InDesign to create print-ready PDF files and ready-to-upload ePubs for the best effect! […]
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Author’s tool-chain
We talk a lot about how to write books, about author’s craft and writers’ tips. This post is instead focused on the act of writing — on the recording of words. There are probably as many methods of writing a novel as there are authors — writing longhand with a Montblanc fountain pen in a […]
The Mystery of Amazon Reviews
I’ve started the year with 116 reviews for Murder In Absentia (and, I think, there were about 3-4 reviews that have been removed over the years). By now, the number of reviews is up to… <drumroll> … 110! (EDIT: It’s now back to 116, but all the new reviews are post-launch of In Numina, after […]
Brandon Sanderson course on Creative Writing
In my continual quest to improve my writing craft, I watched the recorded Brandon Sanderson’ course on Creative Writing. I seriously recommend it to anyone writing novels, especially SciFi / Fantasy. Below are my thoughts about how to make the best use of it.
Action Choreography for Novels
This post arose out of my review of Six of Crows. I complained that many action sequences were problematic. I didn’t provide examples, to avoid spoilers and in fairness to Bardugo, but I think this subject deserves a full post. There were a few scenes in the novel, more than a passing oversight, where the […]
Plotting? Pantsing? Plotsing!
In the eternal quest to improve my writer’s craft, I do three things. These are, for me, the three pillars that make the best, most stable structure for growth. They are: Writing often (novels and short stories – there’s always something going on in my head) Reading voraciously (in and out of my particular genre mix […]
Roman Roads and Pollution
I’ve blogged recently about a collection of Roman coins, but let’s examine some of the flip side of Roman economy: roads and pollution. In this post I want to present you with several resources about the far-reaching effects of the far-reaching effects of the empire, from unusual angles.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing
I recently came across Kurt Vonnegut’s eight rules for writing a short story. I thought they are pretty brilliant, regardless of the scope of you story (they could apply to a full-length novel just as much), so I have reproduced them below together with my thoughts about them. 1. Use the time of a total […]
How to Optimise your Amazon Page for Conversions
I’ve mentioned before the importance of setting readers’ expectations as part of my article on how I review books. This is a companion article for indie publishers and authors, about what you can do to make sure that your book hits the right target audience, for best reception. First for foremost, it should be absolutely […]
Breaking the International Author barrier
In another step towards international fame and fortune, I am proud to announce that Murder In Absentia is now available in Russian! Due to the tireless efforts of a Russian business partner, the novel has been translated, edited, and formatted to fit the Russian ebook market, with a language that should feel native to and […]
FELIX THE FOX MYSTERIES 