Matthew Iden's Blog, page 8

My forays into advertising my self-published books continue. I know I’m tardy on reporting on many of my ad buys (like, by a few months), but I’ve recently had such success with Bookbub.com that I wanted to tell you about this out of order. Background Writer friend Karen Cantwell (of Take the Monkeys and Run [...]

Friends - I realize I owe you all some Adventures in Advertising posts–I apologize: Marty Singer #3 has been giving me fits since before Christmas and I just found out my editor has dropped me for greener pastures. Crises continue!  I promise I’ll get some juicy info to you soon. In the meantime, however, I [...]

Reblogged from David Gaughran: Fantasy author David Dalglish is a big name in the self-publishing world, but he's on the cusp of something even bigger. His path wasn't easy. When David uploaded his first book, way back in February 2010, he was working in Pizza Hut. The popularity of his books, and the speed with which [...]

Editors. As the saying goes, you can’t live without ‘em…and you can’t live without ‘em. A good editor can make all the difference between an amateur manuscript that goes nowhere and a highly polished gem that you can be proud of. But the process of working through the criticisms of an editor’s letter can often be a [...]

I just came across this intriguing article in The Atlantic via the singer John Owen-Jones’s Twitter feed (how’s that for a tenuous connection?):  How You Turn Music Into Money in 2012 (Spoiler: Mostly iTunes). As fellow creative types, it behooves writers to pay attention to how artists and musicians are monetizing their careers online. Although [...]

Before the holiday season derailed my progress here on the blog, I was tackling a critique of the various advertising channels I’ve tried to bolster my self-publishing sales. I started with my adventures with Goodreads self-serve ads, but I realized after writing those 2,000 words that what I should’ve done is give an overview of [...]

Happy New Year, everyone! Like so many others, I thought I’d do a 2012 year-in-review post to see where I’ve come from, what I’ve done, and where I hope to go in the future. Part ego-trip, part reminiscence, it’s a good way to get a running start on the new year. In the last year… [...]

Happy Holidays! To celebrate the season and get 2013 off to a rousing start, I’m setting a slew of my titles on Amazon to “free” at different points over the next week and a half. If you like crime fiction, fantasy, psychological suspense, and dark humor, you might just find a favorite in the list [...]

For those of you in the greater Washington DC area, I’ll be participating in a groovy Holiday Book Fair at Grounded Coffee in the Kingstowne area of Alexandria, VA on December 8 from 2pm – 5pm. Grounded owners Candy and Will Briffa, who have a tradition of helping local writers, musicians, and artisans and are well known [...]

Quick…what do James Bond, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones have in common? I’ll tell you on Wattpad Insider…I’m today’s featured guest blogger! In “Obsession With Evil,” I take a quick look at the fuel that drives the best bad guys we’ve got in books and movies. Swing by and give me and [...]