Supercharge Your Success As An Indie Author. The Write Stuff Bundle Available Now For A Limited Time

There are two sides to being a successful author these days.

The writing and creative side are clearly the bedrock because writers write, and without black on white, you have nothing. But if you want to be a successful author, then once you have written, you have to put on your business hat.

There are lots of books and courses on the writing craft out there, but until recently, there weren't a lot about creating a successful author business, perhaps because publishers and agents handled that side.

But times have changed and  I have something very exciting for you today!

The Write Stuff Bundle 2016 contains 10 books on the business of being an indie author that go through everything you need to know as a publisher and author-entrepreneur.

If you're completely happy with the way your author career is going, then maybe this is not for you.

But if you want to write better and faster, sell more books, and make more money with your writing, then this bundle is for you.

Click here to check out the Bundle, or read on for selected excerpts from the books below. If you bought all 10 separately, you'd be paying around US$50, but this is pay-what-you-like, so it's a bargain!

“What stops most people isn’t lack of time, it’s fear.”

“Committing words to paper means you might have to show them to someone. The words might fail; you might be found wanting. So it is easier to let the fear stop you.”

In this book, Dean goes through the challenges of sticking to Heinlein's Rules which are:

1. You must write
2. You must finish what you start
3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order
4. You must put it on the market
5. You must keep it on the market until sold

You'll learn how to overcome the fear of writing and publishing, how to release your unconscious mind and ‘dare to be bad,' as well as discovering how Dean conquered his own writing issues to develop a long-term, successful, professional writing career.

Heinlein's Rules by Dean Wesley Smith included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

“Writers fight a battle every single day”

“We fight to carve out time to write. We struggle to define our work, to determine whether a particular book fits into our overall vision of who we are and what we create. We campaign to craft an image for potential buyers, to define ourselves in a way that makes readers want to buy our books.

Some days, it’s downright overwhelming.

A strategic plan can help with overwhelm as it functions as a roadmap. When I’m confronted with a possible new journey, I look at my plan and determine whether the proposed path will take me to my ultimate destination.”

There are also chapters on time management, data tracking, quantifying success so you can measure your journey, and some interesting extras like rapid-release publishing and using box-sets.

The Rational Writer: Nuts and Bolts by Mindy Klasky included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

“If you want to make a decent living, you have to develop multiple streams of income”

If you learn anything from me through this blog, my podcast or my books, I hope it is this one thing! I'm passionate about helping people to make a living from their writing and the reality is that one book will never make you a long-term sustainable income.

So this book gives you a ton of ideas as to how you could actually make writing pay the bills so you can join the ranks of creative professionals, a life I love! It contains everything that goes into my own multi-six-figure income, which is all based on my writing through books, blogging and more.

How to Make a Living with your Writing by Joanna Penn included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

Plot the story of your writing business

Written in plain English with no business jargon, this straight forward guide shows how creating a business plan for your writing business is a lot like plotting a story. Whether you are a non-fiction or fiction author, traditionally published or self-published you will be more successful if you take a couple of days to devise a plan for the different aspects of running your own business.

“Building a self-publishing business or a writing career is a lot like following the plot line of a quest story. The author is the hero of their own tale and they determine whether the story will be a comedy, a drama or a tragedy.

Like any hero on a quest, you first need to determine your business mission … and you need what every hero needs – a plan and the willingness to revise your plan when the unexpected occurs.”

The Writer's Business Plan by Tonya D. Price included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

“The most important thing you must decide about creating an online presence is what you want to accomplish with it.”

“Whatever you can do to connect readers and your books will help build and maintain your career … A little time spent planning now will pay off ten-fold down the line. Figuring out what you want to do with your online presence, how much time you want to invest in it, how you'll measure success, and how to best maintain your privacy are all things you'll want to contemplate before getting started.”

The book contains options for building your platform based on how much time and budget you have available, which is super useful.

Creating An Online Presence by Cat Rambo included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

Your indie author journey will be different to everyone else's, but there are fundamentals that every publishing business needs

“As an artist, I intuitively understand that what I create is unique and different than what anyone else has created. I have my own Voice, I tell my own stories. I think this helps me with my business. My publishing business is also unique, different than everyone else’s. What I decide to do for my business may not be the right decision for your business.”

This book goes into detail on the decisions that you will need to make for your publishing business. It includes the practicalities like business name and website setup, production and organization, marketing by genre, the steps in the publication process including formatting, post-production steps, reviews, contracts, distribution, marketing and branding.

Business for Breakfast: The Beginning Professional Publisher by Leah Cutter included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

Stages of a fiction writer: Where are you?

“There are four basic stages of commercial fiction writing that are pretty clear … The lines between the stages are not dark and concrete, but are transitions that often take time to cross.
All of us, without exception, go through the early stages of fiction writing. No way around it.”

“Stage one writers believe fiction writing is sentences and grammar and punctuation.”

This book will challenge you if you're a fiction writer at any stage of the journey. I really found it useful to see where I was in order to understand what I could improve and I love learning from Dean as he shares honestly with no BS.

Stages of a Fiction Writer by Dean Wesley Smith included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

Know What You Want

“That sounds elementary, but most people don’t know what they want before they enter into negotiation.”

Packed with non-nonsense guidelines on how to negotiate, as well as specific details about contracts and the ramifications of what you might be signing. Kris Rusch is one of my creative business mentors and I highly recommend everything she writes.

You will definitely need this book at some point in your writing career, most likely sooner rather than later. Contracts are just a fact of life if you want to be a professional creative, and even if you want to work with a literary agent, it's important to know at least the basics so you can get the best deal at all times. This book could potentially save you significant money and heartache!

How to negotiate anything by Kristine Kathryn Rusch included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

“An outline is a tool, the equivalent of a painter's preliminary sketches. Use it to whatever extent it is helpful.”

In this updated version of his original book on writing, Laurence Block shares his thoughts and tips on the writer's journey, filling it with anecdotes from his own incredibly varied career.

“as a rule, people who make a success of novel writing work regularly and consistently … I've learned to keep at it for as long as it takes, because for all the agony of their composition, those pages are apt to read just as smoothly as the ones that came with no effort.”

Writing the novel from plot to print to pixel by Lawrence Block included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

“Never attempt to write what you don’t care about.”

“Previously, school had tried to teach me a different rule: Write what you know about.

I’ve violated that rule countless times in my career. In fact, I start most of my writing projects because I don’t know about something. For me, writing about a subject is one of the best ways to learn about it. And, of course, if I don’t care about it, why would I want to learn about it?”

I totally agree with this and found the book fascinating in its detailed process of how to construct a novel through the metaphor of building a wall. For example, in finding ideas and material for our books:

“During this gathering phase, you’ll traipse about in the fields of your life with an eye peeled for stones that might go into some wall, some day, some where.”

Weinberg on Writing by Gerald M. Weinberg included in The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle

So if you want to write better and faster, sell more books, and make more money with your writing, then this bundle is for you.

Click here to check out the Bundle.

If you bought all 10 separately, you'd be paying around US$50, so this is a bargain!