Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Dear Fellow Writer, I was surprised to learn this week that the sale of books only makes up 7% of Amazon's total revenue. That seems tiny, considering all the fuss the Big Five publishers make about Amazon. Amazon's core business is in being an online Walmart, recently promising delivery of groceries within thirty minutes across America. That's impressive, even a little disturbing when you think about what must happen behind the scenes to achieve that result. Clearly, Amazon is intent on taking over the world, if Google doesn't get there first. We live in interesting times. Keep Writing! Rob @easywaytowrite.com Your Success is My Concern   Formatting Your Book For Kindle   If you're the type of writer who's gotten used to all the rules for formatting manuscripts for publishers, you'll probably be completely confused by formatting for Kindle. Whenever you have a book ready for publication on Amazon, you will need to think about what it will look lik...

Dear Fellow Writer, I've been taking a break of sorts this week. Not something I do often. Filled a couple of days with admin then felt the urge to dive into writing another book. Resisted - determined to take that break... Yesterday I couldn't fight it anymore. Started a new manuscript... Felt much better: no longer aimless, empty, lost, and frustrated. I guess that makes me an addict. Keep Writing! Rob @easywaytowrite.com Your Success is My Concern   Market Test Your Next Book - For Free In the world of traditional publishing, highly paid marketing people spend numerous man-hours researching whether bookstores, libraries, and book clubs will order a new book based on its author, his or her reputation, the genre, the subject matter or premise, the perceived intellectual status, authority and/or celebrity of the writer, and the effectiveness of all-important cover design.  And much of this they will attempt to discern way before the book is officially release...