Today we're going to focus on optimizing our email opt-in forms and creating automated emails to welcome people to your email list. Many authors miss opportunities when it comes to the opt-in forms you put on your website by burying them in a far corner.

Let’s face it; selling books isn’t always the best way to stay afloat as a writer, especially when you’re starting out. Most of us need more than printed books to pay the bills. The good news is that I have a suggestion for you that won’t have you investing money in inventory or shipping; the digital product.

We’ve cleared our author websites of clutter and broken links. Now we’re ready to complete a content audit to improve the performance of our site.

We're ready to give your blog a fresh look. Many authors overlook the importance of blog design. This is a mistake — a big one.

This year, I’ve decided to take this slower time to focus on creating new content and getting my website prepped for the upcoming busier months. Maybe you want to do the same? If so, here we go.

My coach is always asking this powerful question: Do you like your reasons? Sometimes we make decisions without stopping to consider whether or not we like our reason for doing something.

I find that the average writer is very hesitant to set grand career goals. Yet, almost all of us have an opaque picture buried in our subconscious of what runaway success looks like.

I'm writing today to make the case for doing scary things. Choosing to be the kind of person who writes books and builds an audience for them is pretty damn terrifying, when you think about it. Which you probably have. Excessively.

Here's a quick and dirty plan any writer can follow to keep their marketing game strong while busting out a new book during NaNoWriMo—or whenever you're in the cave.

If you want to claim the mantle of writer, you will be rejected. Your challenge is figuring out how to roll with it and not get dizzy; how to maintain some sense of equilibrium in the chaos of the writer's life you signed onto, so you can get your work done.

A small investment, good copy and careful attention to a few basics will give you a professional looking author website that will help you attract and retain readers.

What should we do if we start writing a story and lose our inspiration? This hateful lack of inspiration happens to every writer, even those who meet deadlines in rapid succession.

We're storytellers. We write books that plunge readers straight into other worlds and other lives. It’s a super power. But doesn’t it suck when we use our own story telling abilities against ourselves?

Are you ready to write the book description for your back cover—your blurb—for a book of nonfiction but don't know where to start? Have you started writing your blurb and gotten stuck?

Here’s some summer listening that that will enrich your writing life…and happens to features a few of the women from Pages & Platforms.

Are you ready to write the book description for your back cover—your blurb—for a book of fiction but don't know where to start? Have you started writing your blurb and gotten stuck?

Almost all writers who sell a lot of books are do these three things. Writers who don’t sell books aren’t doing these things. Simple.

If you don't really want to offer your knowledge to others, there are much better ways than writing a book to make money and improve your social status.

If you want your book to succeed, you are going to have to put your own energies into making it happen. And there are plenty of good reasons to start your marketing well before your book is published, or before you even have an agent.

My editing colleagues and I go to packed writers conferences and ask everyone we talk to, “Are you a writer?” You wouldn’t believe the amount of “Well…sorta,” responses we get.