Contributor to Willow Wraith Press. A Grave for Us All out now! Host of Authors and Adventures: Next episode in July. Father. Husband. Punk. Christian. He/Him.
Haven’t done comps in awhile.
The Crown and Tide Series is perfect for fans of—
🗡️A Song of Ice and Fire
🗡️The Last Kingdom
🗡️Vinland Saga
🗡️Joe Abercrombie
🗡️Crusader Kings 3
Character-focused political intrigue with some magic and brutal battle!
Check it!⬇️⬇️⬇️
Some people have told me that I should talk to my local library about my book. How do I do this? Bring a copy and be like, “this is mine, now it’s yours” and back out slowly? This is the only way I see it going.
Why aren’t there bookshops that are also bar?
And like you can play board games there.
Also I own it and make enough money to support my family and bookshop cat, Purrnest Hemingway.
Why isn’t there are place like that?
I really hope this doesn’t come across as bragging or gloating. I know I’ve been posting this a lot. But this is the first month it has felt like this dream could become a reality.
My second best month was just over $100.
Thank you.
About a year and a half ago I decided to self publish. I wasn’t sure how it would go or if anyone would be interested.
I sit here today with over a thousand books distributed to 14 countries.
I appreciate all the support. I can’t wait to see where my story goes from here.
Unethical author tips: find a reader with the same name as a very famous author. Have them read your book and say something nice about it. Put that quote on the cover.
You are welcome.
Now to find more people named Neil Gaiman.
Underrated new author advice:
Name your book something that when you search it, it’s one of the only things that comes up.
I can’t tell you how many times I tried to find someone’s book and struggled to find it.
That’s gotta be affecting sales
Hey, I do book recommendations every Friday for my students. I realize I couldn’t buy all the books. From now on I will pick one book to feature from my Twitter feed as long as it is high school appropriate and won’t get me fired. Drop me a cover image below id you wouldn’t mind:
52 books sold in two months! Thank you to everyone that supported my dream! When I decided at the spur of the moment to quit querying shortly after starting because I hated it, I didn’t know how this would go. It is humbling that people have bought and enjoyed my work. Thank you!
Today, a student from last year met me at my classroom in the morning and asked me to sign my book, wanted to talk all about it, and told me she wants to publish her own poetry now that she sees it can be done.
My heart is very full.
37 years on this crazy planet! I’m guessing like a quarter of my life is done, so let’s see what’s next.
(PS gift ideas [no obligation]: tell a friend about my books, read my books, rate my books, buy my books, literary awards, publishing contracts, a cool robot to be my friend)
Guys, I gotta confess something.
I’m not a super friendly guy in real life. It can take me years to warm up to people. My wife can’t believe how many cool people I’ve met and formed real bonds with on here.
Y’all are amazing. You are the best part of this book stuff. Thank you.
I literally told my wife I play dungeons and dragons early when we met and she was good with it even though she wasn’t into it.
Don’t listen to this guy.
There is nothing in the world that turns off women more than video games.
Especially the computer games where your character dresses like a wizard and casts spells.
If you’re single and over 16, grow up and start living in the real world if you want to attract a non-desperate,
Book promotion on Twitter is weird. Any of you have an indie book or even traditionally published book that has a kindle version that’s like 3 bux? I wanna give something my seal of approval and really shout about it. I feel like promo would work better for you that way?
My publisher (me) wants my agent (also me) to let you know that if you want to book me on a podcast, YouTube video, or other business opportunity—you need to forward all requests to my secretary (hey, me again).
Please respect the chain of command 🙏
I tried to write this tweet yesterday, but today is a better day:
I’ve been struggling for awhile with mental health. I talked to my doctor yesterday and we are going to adjust my medication.
If I’m not as responsive or if I drop the ball with something, I apologize
Don’t worry if not everyone loves your book.
Some people will hate it.
Some people will DNF it for no reason.
Some won’t even look twice at it and walk right on by.
BUT strange magic happens when your book gets in the right hands and it makes it all worth it.
For both parties.
Writing Twitter lesson:
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is the absolute WORST advice I was given for marketing a book.
What’s your writing Twitter lesson?
I was starting to feel like I needed to apologize or preface my work by saying I’m Self-Pub or Indie based on some negative reactions from others on the internet. Those that scoff at independent books and their authors.
I’m not doing that any more. Indie and proud.
I think it would be neat to do a series of collabs where fantasy writers switch worlds with each other and write unique short fiction set in another author’s world.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about self publishing?
I’ll go first: it has to be a money hole.
Traitors is profitable. I’m not making a killing, but I definitely made more than I put into it.
Self-published author appreciation week:
Remember to let authors (especially self-pub/indie) know how much you enjoyed their work!
Many of us feel like we are banging our head into a wall.
Any review/rating/nod of approval/spreading of the word means more than you can know!
I’m never going to justify why I felt like I had to unfollow/mute/block someone. I’m just going to do it if they make me u comfortable.
You should too.
Doesn’t matter what book they wrote, who they know, what they do.
Life’s too short to waste on people that don’t deserve it
I’m really tired of genius polyglot autodidactic characters.
Give me your morons who make bad decisions. Give me the characters that are overconfident because they have almost nothing to actually be confident about
I might start doing more in-depth reviews for indie books I read on my blog, and maybe try to contact authors I’ve read about doing a (email-based) interview with it.
I feel like I’ve got this resource just sitting here and haven’t been able to do much with it.
Any interest?
Ok, hear me out: an indie contest where everybody (EVERYBODY) gets cut. This way people get practice with how to deal with it with grace.
We will call it, "Self Published Science Fiction and Fantasy Cut Off"
What makes a fantasy novel really grab you? Characters? Aesthetics? Prose? Plot? Vibe? Magic systems? World building? Prose?
For me I think it’s characters first and vibe second with world-building a close third.
I’m sorry. I was gonna keep this civil. This has to be QT’d.
Every reader brings baggage to their interpretation of a story based on who they are and what they’ve experienced.
To say this about women is extremely reductive.
Thank you for all of your support during
#indieapril
. This is far and away my best month as an author.
I’m humbled there is interest in my work. You have my word that I will conclude Crown and Tide with a worthy ending.
Thank you again. I couldn’t do this without all of you.
I know this isn’t a lot for many of you guys, but this is the first month I’ve passed 10k page reads.
In 2022 when I launched, I had 4-5k total for 11 months.
This is incredible. Those reading on
#ku
, I hope you are enjoying my work!
2 years ago I decided querying wasn’t for me and hit publish. I haven’t looked back.
The Traitors We Are surpassed my expectations. I expected to sell a few and for people to think it was ok.
It’s been wild.
And now I’ve finished edits on book 2.
Thank you for your support!
Just hit over 50 sales for the month and already have more
#ku
reads in 2023 than I had in all of 2022!
I’m sitting here getting The Revenge of Thousands ready, and realizing how blessed I am.
I love you all, happy
#indieapril
!
Advice for new authors: if you can’t be positive about your book, no one is going to be positive about it.
We all feel self-doubt. It is ok to throw the occasional pity party.
But if complaining becomes your identity online, that’s your brand.
Would you want to read that book?
Giveaway! I just hit 4k followers and my bday is in March. So, on March 28th I’m going to give away several signed books and other things!
What you need to do:
🗡️Like and Rt for 1 entry
🗡️qt for 2 entries
🗡️follow me for 1 entry
🗡️join my mailing list 5 entries
Prizes below:
My editor has been slacking. My agent hasn’t bothered to check his email. My publisher wants my book out 2 months ago, and I suspect embezzlement. To top it all off, I really can’t fire any of them.
#selfpublishingproblems
The Traitors We Are tells the story of a rebellion based on lies set in a world where writing disappears upon death. It’s prequel, The Revenge of Thousands also released this year!
The Traitors We Are:
The Revenge of Thousands:
#IndieApril
sale with
@Narratess
!
There has NEVER been a better time to start the Crown and Tide Series!
Enter an intriguing war-torn world where writing disappears upon death.
Book 1:
Prequel:
Book 2:
Reminder: please rate/review/shout out the books you read, especially the indie ones.
Most of us have low to no advertising budget. Getting the word out there is always great!
Also: feel free to rate my works whatever you feel they deserve. You will never hear me complain.
My time in
#spfbo9
has come to and end! It was a fantastic journey, and I want to thank the judges at
@FantasyFaction
for taking the time to read my work. I’m left drinking defeat beer, but I know that this is only the beginning for me and my work.
Thank you all for the support!
Hey guys. I’m never paying for Twitter. I love you all, but it’s a matter of principle and budget.
If this place goes pay to play, find me where the skies are clear, strings, instant grammar, or whatever.
34 sales away from 400 sold since publishing in February 2022! 🥳
I remember just hoping I would hit a hundred overall or even 200 at the year mark.
Thank you all!
Still .99 in the uk/us through tomorrow!
Writers if you could have your works made into a video game, what would you want it to look like?
I would like a sandboxy open-world rogue-like with meaningful decisions for future play throughs. Combat would only be one play style. Conversation would be just as deadly.
You?
I’m coming up with a fake book award for an author to put on their book.
I’m thinking about calling it, “The Roberti Prize for Achievement in Words and Phrases” the little silver or golden thing would be a nice little circle with me giving a thumbs up.
Any takers for 2023?
I was going to do a marketing blog post forever ago, but I lacked (and still lack) the mental energy.
What I’m going to do is make a thread where I talk about how to be an indie author on a shoestring budget. I hope this helps someone.
So what did I do? What do I recommend?🧵
Sometimes I marvel at the fact I wrote something and people read it.
Like, really? That was the dream. Everything else is gravy.
Still would love to write for a living, though 😂
1st 1⭐️! I feel like a real author now.
Does anyone know what the formatting issue is in The Revenfe of Thousands? The only thing I’ve heard about is one chapter has a background color?
I mostly only read novels that made the New York Times Bestselling List.
My thinking is that novels that didn't make the list are examples of what not to do to be a successful writer.
#WritingCommunity
Anyone else feeling like writing book 2 is way harder than the first one? I feel like I’m gonna have to go back and reread the first one from start to finish again, not that I mind. Granted, I only released Traitors four months ago. No rest for the wicked.
Friendly reminder to rate your reads on Amazon and Goodreads, especially if you are reading indie! It helps us more than you can know and inspires us to keep going!
You can check out my indie reviews on that site, or my expanded reviews on my blog!