Words of Inspiration: KDP Author Brenda Rothert

"The best books come from deep within us. Consider your life experiences when you're seeking inspiration for characters and stories. I drew from losing a baby halfway through a pregnancy for one of my characters and from the loss of my dad for another. Readers can connect with characters who go through the same struggles they experience in their own lives. Tapping into how my own losses affected me allowed me to create more emotional, authentic stories. I treasure messages from readers who tell me they've gone through similar losses and that my books helped them find healing." --Brenda Rothert, author of Bound. www.amazon.com

Createspace Resource: judging a Book by its interior

An engaging plot or main objective hooks readers, but poor design choices can lose them. Many eBooks allow readers to choose your book's interior font style and size. That's not the case if you decide to take your eBook to print.
The most important but unassuming decision authors make when designing print interiors is font. And while there are thousands of fonts available, most print books are designed using just a few.
Check out our designers' professional recommendations, and let CreateSpace turn your Microsoft Word document into a professionally designed print interior.www.createspace.com

You Can Earn Additional Revenue on Your Book

You can earn advertising fees from the Amazon Associates Program by linking readers from your website, blog, or social media content to Amazon. When your readers make a purchase on Amazon through your referral links, you could earn 4% or more in advertising fees on eligible books and other products. Just register and place Associates links on your online content channels. Referring readers to find your book on Amazon can boost not only your potential book sales, but also earn you potential referral fees at the same time.

26 Amazing Writing Residencies You Should Apply for This Year

It’s a dream of many writers: to spend time at a quiet colony or residency where you can focus on your work. But too often the only writers’ colonies we hear about are The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, prestigious residencies that only accept a tiny percentage of applicants.

The truth is, there are lots of other wonderful writer’s residencies to choose from, many of which are less competitive, so you’re more likely to get accepted.

Our founder, Alexis Grant, enjoyed three highly productive residencies at The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, and she is convinced that a big reason we don’t hear about the non-MacDowell-level residencies is because the writers who frequent these places aren’t always digitally savvy; rather than participating in online communities or blogging, they spend their time writing.

Here are 26 high-quality writing residencies and retreats you may not know about yet. While some of these are quite selective, others are a little more open with their admission policies.

15 ways to get most out of your blog post: by Raena Lynn

1. Share it on Facebook immediately
2. Link to it in any past or present relevant posts
3. Create a graphic and share it on Pinterest
4. Create a infographic that explains the content and share it on Pinterest
5. Share a blurb from the post in relevant Facebook groups
6. Share that infographic in relevant Facebook groups
7. Link to the blog to help people in Facebook groups asking questions that the blog post answers
8. Share the link on promo days in Facebook groups
9. Link to the blog post in forums where people are asking questions the blog post answers
10. Search for questions your blog post answers in Google, use the advance search settings to only see pages from the past week and link to the blog post in any groups or forums the questions were asked
11. Share the image for the post on Instagram
12. Tweet the blog post out that day, the next day, the next week, the next month and at least monthly for as long as it is relevant
13. Engage with anyone who shares or re-shares the post on social media
14. Do a Periscope and Blab on the topic and send them to the post as your ending call to action
15. Create a content upgrade opt in for the post

Little by Little: How to Achieve Your Goal in a Simple Way

Hi friend,

There are many ideas flowing and swirling around in my head. I’m not special because we all have ideas. There are ideas floating and swimming in your head, every day. Of course, some are great and some are bad.

The thing is, you won't know if they are great or not until you actually bring them to life.

I’ve five (almost finished/ get stuck) books.Do you know why I didn’t finish writing them? It’s because there are many things I want to write about. As I am writing one, another idea pops in, and then I drop it, and go to another.

Do you want to be like me? I guess you don’t want that. Of course, you want to be an achiever. You want to be awesome.

So, how can you be one? It’s simple! Just take it bird by bird. By bird by bird, I mean you should take things one step after another. You have to crawl first before you have to walk. That's the philosophy of life. If you try to do it other way around, then you won't achieve anything.

16 Facebook Groups for Writers You Don’t Want to Miss

Whether you’re a freelancer, a blogger, a fiction writer or anything in between, we could all use a little company on the sometimes lonely road known as the writing life.

Maybe you just got your first offer to ghostwrite a book and have no idea what to charge. Maybe your characters refuse to do what you want them to do (isn’t that just like them?), and you could use someone to commiserate with. Maybe it’s after midnight and you’re still up trying to wrestle the words into submission, and you dearly need to be talked down off the ledge.

Whatever the reason, Facebook groups can be a fantastic way for writers to connect, trade advice, swap war stories and find new opportunities. Knowing there are other people out there who “get” what it’s like to be a writer can be a huge comfort, and the chance to share experience and tips with people on all stages of the writing journey is invaluable.

So we polled writers to find out which Facebook groups they personally could not live without. (Want to share this list? Click to tweet it.) Here are the results:

1. The Write Life Community

We’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you about our own Facebook group! Writers of all experience levels can share their struggles and wins, ask each other questions and otherwise support and encourage the community throughout the writing life.

What We Put In, Is What We Get Out

You are about to attract resources, human, financial, material like never before.

I am sure by now; the picture you have envisioned of yourself on December 31^st is getting clearer and hopefully richer. Awesome! That is my desire for you. I have no doubt in my mind that if you have been listening and acting on my teachings, that you will achieve your goals.

Why am I speaking so confidently?

Have you ever taken a picture of yourself and then go back to take a look at the picture only to find the picture of a fish instead of yours?

Do you think it is possible for that to happen? If it does, what will you think?

Wouldn’t you ask yourself how that picture of a fish got there instead of yours?

I am sure you would, because the camera would only print out the images in its memory.

Well that is how our minds work. What we put in, is what we get out. We can never get out of our lives what we have not put in it. this last quarter will favour you.