I am pretty terrible with titles, in the professional, hello-I’d-like-to-sell-you-a-book sense (also, to be fair, in the aristocratic sense, as I have so far utterly failed to convince anyone to refer to me as The Comte Somers). When I got an agent many years ago, she wrote to tell me that while she loved the novel, I would have to change the title immediately because a) the original title was also the title of a Dave Mathews Band song (What can I say? I was young and unaware that using Dave Mathews Band songs is universally disqualifying in every aspect of life) and b) it was so bad it made her feel all-new kinds of sadness.

I used to be a newsletter agnostic.

A confession: I can’t stand spam. Everyone says that, but because of the different showbiz segments of my life, I am continually buried under heaps and heaps of email and shoveling my way toward the light, so the idea of authors piling unwanted puffery and self-congratulation on anyone’s virtual mountain makes me shudder. And as many authors do, because I hated bad newsletters aimed at me I’d built up an irrational revulsion that splashed out in all directions. Every time I spotted a frantic, shrieky newsletter signup beg, I skirted it like a sewer drain.

Can you recall the arched trail of a shooting star behind Cinderella’s castle? That’s Disney’s logo: joy, fantasy, creativity, and magic. What if people could instantly recognize your author brand, like they recognize Disney?

An effective author website is something of a magic trick: a hybrid of flimflam and scaffolding designed to hold attention and direct it artfully.

Your website is the centerpiece of your business, unifying promotion, outreach, newsletters, social media, and ads. It’s the definitive source on your brand, your persona, and what your author career means. A poor website confuses and dissuades, while a great website engages and excites, transforming strangers into contacts, allies, and fans.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of authors have learned to deal with professional obligations via the cruel miracles of online technology. We’ve all become Zoom proficient and surf-savvy, sometimes against our will, turning the lockdown into a lifesaving whirl of virtual signings and workshops and luncheons and book clubs.

Chuck Wendig is a prolific writer with more than 20 books under his belt, but he still gains new readers regularly through his blog, Terribleminds. The blog has been active for more than a decade, adding up to a blog archive of more than 400 pages filled with writing advice, updates about his books, and humorous inspiration for other writers.

When I first started writing romance, a few folks rushed to tell me what every author HAD to do (or mustn’t ever). A lot of the advice contradicted itself and others’ suggestions…which flat-out drove me nuts for a while. Supposedly everyone in Romancelandia did this stuff, right? Maybe it was my obligation to follow suit. Happily, the film industry had given me a healthy skepticism of bromides and blandishments. I tend to be an ornery cuss with a contrary streak, so I took the advice that worked and discarded what didn’t. Mainly, I knew what I was playing for.

How important your author headshot? If you answered “not much,” think again! Readers and media pros make make a lot of inferences just from your portrait. A great headshot helps your audience deduce your unique personality and connect with you on a more personal level.

One of the dumbest mistakes I ever made as a baby author transpired at my second big fan convention. And for all the crazed preparation and contingencies I’d laid out, I didn’t realize my error until I was on the ground schmoozing at 100 miles an hour. That first night, I was standing at the bar chatting with a colleague and they said, “Do you have a card?”