5 Reasons Your Book Isn’t Getting Attention

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In the fall of 2009, I self-published my first novel, The Dreaming Highway, a coming-of-age tale of a young man in the midst of a divorce, but holding onto a dream of his former love.

As you might have guessed, my book sales tanked.

My self-publishing failure taught me a lot about writing, but it taught me even more about marketing.

And so without further ado, here are 5 reasons my book sales tanked, and they’re likely the reasons your book sales are tanking too! Continue reading →

It’s Time to Kill Comic Sans

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You know that old family newsletter you get once a year from the aunt and those cousins you never talk to? The one with the photo of everyone smiling that almost creepy “we all get along all the time” look? You might give it a sideways half-smile if there is a cute little kid on there. And if you’re like most people who receive this newsletter, you either scratch your head at the horrid design structure of the letter or you can’t read it. And this is because, most likely, this aunt created this newsletter in Microsoft Publisher or some other free-with-their-PC design software and – in an effort to be more “creative” than the typical Times New Roman or Arial fonts that were already in place – used a pseudo-handwritten font like Comic Sans. Continue reading →

6 Writers that will Thrive Now that the Printed Page is Dead

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I’m a little surprised that brick-and-mortar video stores bit the dust before book stores did. I really am. Blockbuster, Hollywood, and Movie Gallery are all dead, but Barnes-and-Noble and Borders (I guess Borders are all dead, too.) are almost sure to follow shortly, and the shadow of death is looming with a bony finger pointing toward them. Continue reading →

Write For Us

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Are you passionate about writing? Blogging? Social Media? And Self-Publishing?

Maybe you’ve had some experience on any of the above, on agents, on publishing companies, and on ebook publishing?

We’re looking for your content! And specifically, looking for content on:

  • How to write compelling stories
  • How to get the attention of literary agents (yes, I know it’s a world without agents, but it’s also a world WITH agents for many writers)
  • How to market books
  • How to write dialogue
  • How to connect with your readers
  • And much more
Email your article pitch to guestpost (at) questforauthorhood (dot) tk.

Hi, I’m Bryan, and I’m Going to Help You with Your Book

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Hi, I’m Bryan. I’ve always loved to tell stories, but I’d never have dreamed five years ago that I would be the author of three books!

Writing is a full-time passion of mine, and I want to help you build your own stories, and take them from conception to the printed (or digital) page!

I’m just a simple guy who doesn’t like to pay for things, and who does like cheap and free solutions to get a quality product. And I can help you do that with your book as well.

Follow me on Twitter or Friend me on Facebook!

Contest Time: Enter to Win a FREE eBook of "The Dreaming Highway!"

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I hope you’re having a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! Americans: you deserve it! Take a day off! And if you’re from another country, you deserve it, too, but I can’t publicly recommend you take the day off. You might get fired.

It’s time for a good old fashioned drawing! That’s right: you can enter to receive a FREE eBook of my novel, The Dreaming Highway!

There is one thing you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post. In the comment, make sure and leave your full name, email address, and your favorite method to read an eBook (say Kindle, Nook, iPad, PDF, etc.)

That’s it! I will randomly select up to 5 winners.

The contest will run from now (September 5) until two weeks from today (September 19) at 11:59 pm. I will announce the winners on this blog on Monday, September 20.

Why More People are Switching From Outlook to Gmail, and Why You Should Consider It, Too!

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If you have been using the Internet for the last six years, you are undoubtedly familiar with Gmail, Google’s web-based email service. Gmail has far passed Yahoo Mail in users and even further passed MSN’s Hotmail service, making Gmail the number one email service in the country. What you may not know, however, is that Internet users – business and pleasure – have begun abandoning their off-web email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail, and using Gmail’s web-based interface.

Why the switch to webmail? Most users say it’s because Gmail offers so much – drag-and-drop attachments interface, easy-reply, and a new-and-improved contacts web-application (not to mention the easy accessibility of Google apps and Google Docs rendering Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint more irrelevant to business needs) – and they offer them all for free. Microsoft’s high ticket prices for Office is becoming seen as a liability in these uncertain economic times.
As an Outlook user at work and an Apple Mail user at home (this could create a whole new argument, but not with email clients as you might guess), I haven’t quite made the plunge toward webmail-based email completely, but I am closer than ever to deciding, and here’s why:
1 – The Google Freebies (listed above)
2 – Easy signature customization
I admit it, I’m a graphic design geek, and I love designing email signatures to help me sell services at work and help me advertise my book at home. I like advertising my social media hangouts (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), and with Apple Mail, there’s no customization (or no EASY customization). With Outlook, there’s easier customization, but it doesn’t work well with HTML.
But, with Gmail, there’s a great email signature designer called WiseStamp, that allows you to customize your signature with easy links to your social media.
3 – Social Media Integration
I began to get into this earlier, but web-based email just has an easier ebb-and-flow with social networks. Gmail is basically a social media outlet in itself, and when combined with Google’s Buzz network and GTalk, it gives easy compatibility with chatting and social networking.
4 – Pop3 and IMAP integration

And if Gmail didn’t have it all already, they also offer POP3 and IMAP integration, allowing you to retrieve email from all your other accounts, business and personal. You can reply to people with fully functioning HTML email if you wish, and interact with them in social media outlets easier than ever. The mail that would ordinarily live on your Outlook at work can now come into your Gmail account.
If you aren’t convinced yet, it might help to know that more people are switching to web-based (or cloud-based) applications for other things – Documents, Spreadsheets, and even the social media moguls who used off-web Twitter/Facebook clients like TweetDeck and Twirl are now using the web-based HootSuite (I am one of them) to connect with clients, readers, and friends.
What about you? Can you see yourself jumping off the Outlook bandwagon and onto the Gmail only bandwagon? Why or why not? Leave a comment!

How to Create the Most Productive Environment to Write Creatively

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If you’re like me – or most people, for that matter – you may have dreamed of writing that article, that winning blog, or even a book, but you keep asking the same question: “Where do I find the time to write all of this?” I am often asked where I found the time to write a novel. For me, the answer is simple: I wrote it whenever I could.

Writing is one of those special trades where you aren’t required to have a musical instrument, a football, or even a laptop to improve your craft. All you need is your brain and some mode of writing words on a piece of paper. Stephen King has often claimed to write many of his best-selling thick-thick books by hand. His 2001 thriller, Dreamcatcher, was written entirely in freehand while King recovered in the hospital from his near-death injury.



If you’re preparing to take on a serious writing project, here are some basic tips that will help you create the perfect time and environment for you to write your story, memoir, blog, or someone’s eulogy. Just don’t try to write your own eulogy. It’s a very humbling experience. 
#1: Know Your Topic 
This may sound like a no-brainer, but it seriously helps your writing project when you know what you’re going to write about. This doesn’t require an outline (in fact, I rarely ever use an outline). It simply requires that you have a topic in mind. Something you can toss around and play with. 
#2: Keep a Small Notebook With You At All Times
Whether you write music, stand-up comedy material, poetry, or ways to catch squirrels that you learn on your cousin Jed’s farm, this tip is one that will never let you down. Get into the habit of keeping a small pad of notebook or scratch paper on you at all times. A pen, too. Just make sure it’s not a leaky pen. When I was writing stand-up material, I got in the habit of keeping this notepad next to my bed. When I would awake in the morning, I would try to spend the first few moments of consciousness writing down anything that popped into my head. Sometimes it was writing about the dreams I had dreamt up the night before. Sometimes it was about what I would be eating for lunch that day. It didn’t matter what it was, I wrote it down. I would keep these semi-conscious ramblings collected and at the end of the week, I would sort them out and see if there were thoughts that stood out or made me laugh. Those that did made the cut for potential material.
You may ask if you can go high-tech here and write everything on your smartphone. While I am a huge proponent of technology and wouldn’t be caught dead without my iPhone, I think it is a good idea to go stone-age on this one. No matter how good a texter you may be, there is nothing like writing those semi-conscious ramblings as fast as you can to get your brain kicking new thoughts around.
#3: Write Down All the Creative Ramblings in Your Head
Most of us don’t get paid seven-figure incomes to write stories and blogs. The moment you figure out how to do that, please let me know. So for most of us, the question becomes about time. When do you write down the ideas? And the answer is simple: write them whenever you can. 
You may have to keep your desk job and you’d best keep your performance up there, but you have your topic in mind, you have your notepad, you have your brain. When an idea flows through you – and if you’re a writer, ideas had better flow through you – write them down. If you’re in the middle of helping a customer, don’t ask him to wait while you write your brilliant idea down for your next big thriller. But at your first convenient moment, write the idea down. Do this enough and your story will begin to write itself.
#4: Find the Right Time to Write It All Down
FInding the perfect time to write is all dependent upon what you do, what you have the freedom to do, and how supportive your family is. While my family is supportive of my writing, I also have small kids, and I don’t want to be the dad who spends all of his time at work and then finding more work to do. For me, I made the decision to be with my family until they go to bed. From their bedtime on, I write and work on my creativity.

I had one problem: In my early twenties, late nights were my best creative times. I thought creatively in the wee small hours of the morning. But now that I have kids, I don’t stay up as late as I used to. But, since this is my only writing time, I decided to write. But I’m not as creative. The solution? I am creative during the day. I kept my notepad on me, I wrote down my thoughts over a period of two years, and at night, I wrote them all down. The Dreaming Highway was born out of this hectic schedule. 
Hopefully this blog has helped you find your creative times. And if yours is different from mine, please leave a comment and weigh in. What are your best creative times? 

What Do You Read to Keep Your Mind Awesome?

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There’s no need to berate you with the same knowledge your mother told you over and over again as a child. Let’s all admit: books make you smarter, sharper, and more open-minded. And there’s no shortage of interesting topics to read about, so I am curious: what do you read that keeps your mind in tip-top shape?

Is if Fiction? I am an avid fiction buff. In fact, I wrote my own last fall! (Shameless plug of the day.) And studies show that reading an hour of fiction every night before falling asleep can calm nerves, wire up the right brain that likely doesn’t get much activity in the course of your accounting, data processing, call-taking, plumbing, or electrical work during the day. That rewiring of the right brain can make you better at problem solving and cause you to perform better at your left-brained job the next day.

But maybe it’s Non-Fiction for you. Non-Fiction is by far the biggest selling mega-genre of books. And it’s not a genre at all. There are thousands of genres and topics worth talking about. Books that give great ideas for business, leadership, parenting, and anything else.

If I can offer any advice for keeping yourself well-read and well-rounded, I would ask you to consider both. I have made the practice over the years of reading one fiction book followed by one non-fiction. And I am a connoisseur of them all. I am as avid a Malcolm Gladwell fan as I am of Stephen King’s. I devour anything by John Grisham or Nick Hornby, and I devour just as much from Seth Godin and Henry Cloud.

You may say you don’t have time to read much, and if you are a stay-at-home mom of young kids under the age of five, like my wife (who has material worth reading), then I believe you. But if, like me, you spend a lot of time driving, working, and connecting with clients, not to mention the time with your kids, believe me: there are ways! In fact, you might be shocked to discover I have not read a physical book in almost a year. But, when I turned 19, I became introduced to audiobooks, and my life has never been the same.

So, what are you reading? And what drives you to read it? Share your top picks below!

How to Create a Dynamic Resume that Gets Results

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Have you found yourself kicked around in a bad economy? Maybe you’ve found yourself on the receiving end of a layoff, even if you’ve invested years, decades, even your whole life into your job. Being downsized sucks, but there are several things you can do to be a step ahead of the game, even when the job market is tighter than usual. Of course, my ultimate advice would be to create the goal of working for yourself, but even then, it helps to have a safety net – especially if you have a family. And there’s no better place to build a safety net than by investing in you. And there’s no better place to begin investing in you than the resume.
As a former HR administrator, I have seen a lot of resumes. The first key to starting a resume is to come to the understanding that the resume does not get you a job! Let me repeat that: The Resume Will Not Get You a Job! The real goal of the resume is to land you an interview. The interview is where you can verbally talk yourself up and show why you should be the next President of the United States. Okay, maybe you’re not that good of a talker, but this should be your first goal: to get that interview.
Describe Yourself – You Are the Starring Role
Let’s face it, most resumes are boring! There is no more boring piece of literature to read than, “Waited tables at Ruby Tuesday.” Would you find enjoyment reading 200 lines of text just like that, even if it were for your job? HR staffers would have the most boring jobs in the universe if they only consisted of reading lines like that. But this is what most resumes look like. You have invested years of time to acquire the knowledge you have now. Let your resume show it. Give those HR staffers a break when they see your resumes.
Think of your resume as a novel and yourself as the starring role. Changing this very perception of the boring resume into something daring and exciting will change the moment for the HR staffer reading it, and if they have read past your name, it will stand out.
But before we start crafting the resume, let’s start with a blank sheet of paper. And let’s forgo the computer for now and write this by hand. Freehand often gives you more room to brainstorm, and that’s just what we’re going to do here. On this sheet of paper, write down as many words (in list form) as you can think of to describe yourself. And make them creative. Don’t just write, “Happy, fun, etc.” Don’t neglect those if they are part of who you are, but don’t leave out “witty, creative, energetic, inspirational, reflective, etc.” Make this list as long as you want, and give yourself a good five to ten minutes to just brainstorm. And don’t be modest here. Let it all out. You’re awesome. It’s okay to write about it.

Contact Contact Contact!
Now, let’s begin the craft of creating your big-executive resume. Let’s start with the first key area that most people get wrong: Your Contact Information! You would not believe the number of resumes I received in HR that had very intriguing information, but no way to contact them. It seems they were in such a hurry to try and get the job that they neglected to write their simple phone number down. You should make sure that your contact information is clear, readable, and in an easy-to-spot location. I recommend the top left-hand corner because it’s standard and because when they’re filed, the HR staffer will always thumb through them at the top.
I wish this were a no-brainer, but it’s not. Most people intend to do it, but the contact information is usually an after-thought. Make this the case no longer.
And if you have a Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn account, by all means include it in your contact information. BUT…only do this if your Twitter account is PG-Rated and would be worth a professional reading and if your Facebook account is used for something besides Mafia Wars or Farmville. This doesn’t mean you have to be all business all the time. We want you to be yourself. When employers are interested enough in you to check out your social network, showing occasional photos of your family and what you like to do for fun (assuming it’s not Farmville or Mafia Wars) makes you a human being, and can be endearing. Emotional attachments to people aren’t all bad. There are many studies showing that social media will replace the traditional resume, but that is for another post and isn’t quite the case yet.

Describe Yourself in Paragraph Form
The very first thing you should have (below your contact information, of course) is a paragraph of who you are and why you are interested in this job. This little section has been grossly wounded by Microsoft Office and has reduced itself to a one-sentence by-line that usually looks like this: “I want to wait tables and earn tip money,” or “I want to sit in an office and type letters.” Hello, ambition.
           
Remember all of those words you used to describe yourself? We’re going to implement them here. Not all of them, but pick ones that you feel correspond to the specific job you’re applying for. That’s right: not all resumes are created equal. If you are applying to more than one job, it’s recommended that you create more than one resume. And here’s where it starts.
Write one paragraph that explains very briefly who you are in the first sentence or two. If you have a family, mention it. In the next few sentences, describe the work you have done in the past and why it qualifies you for the job you want. Describe problem-solving areas of your personality and then describe what you can give to the company.
Traditionally, these Career Summaries have been written in an almost third-person form and forgo words like “a,” “the,” and “I.” Nowadays, this isn’t really necessary, and with the advent of social media, it creates a personal effect that many employers find refreshing.
Experience and Education
This is another point of confusion among job seekers. Do you begin with Experience or with Education? That depends on the strength of your history. It’s really simple: If you have years of experience that is worthy of a Tom Clancy novel, start with that. If you have just graduated from college with a degree in Business Management and your career largely consists of Applebee’s and Your Grandpa’s Farm, you might put most of your weight in the education side.
And don’t just list when and where you graduated. Talk openly about what you did there (besides the frat parties, I mean). What clubs were you involved in? What did you do there? Did you have a radio show? (I did.)
And in listing your work experience, here again is where you should tailor make each resume to fit the specific job you’re seeking. Write about the jobs you’ve had in terms of what you did to enhance the company, and write it in a way that your hopeful company could see you doing for them.
For example, instead of writing:
Applebee’s, 2008-2010
Waiter
Waited tables.
Write:
Applebee’s, 2008-2010
Food Server and Dining Experience Liaison
Brought more than three hundred smiles to three hundred faces as I graced hot meals that have satisfied millions of Americans.

See how different those two look? Now, don’t necessarily go creating titles if you have an official title, and don’t add opinions. But, give this a little juice that will stand out when an HR staffer reads it.
You have invested years of your life in these companies and your resume should reflect the best work you did there? And even if you spent your time making baskets with food trash in the dumpster out back, you most certainly did some real quality performance there. If it was in making people smile regularly, talk liberally about it. If it was making baskets in the dumpster, not so much. (Unless it was a world record. Then, by all means, talk about it or apply to the NBA.)
Kill Microsoft Office’s Resume Maker!
Not really. Not that you could, even if you wanted to. But, don’t rely on Microsoft Word to design your resume. Put it together yourself. If you need inspiration, start here.
With more and more companies looking online for employees via Monster, CareerBuilder, and Yahoo! HotJobs, the design of the resume is becoming more and more irrelevant, and if social media has any say in the matter, it won’t matter much at all in the near future – unless you’re a graphic designer. While this doesn’t mean your resume shouldn’t be near and organized, it does mean that the content matters now more than ever.
You should organize your resume into the following sections:
Name and Contact Information
Career Objective and Brief Bio (1 paragraph)
Education
Experience (only list 3 most relevant jobs to position you are seeking)
Of course, you can switch Education and Experience. Once you have crafted the entire thing, try to limit it to one page (2 at the most). And don’t include your references here. Instead, you can give the footer tagline, “References Available upon Request.”

Also, you’ll notice I didn’t include a special skills set at the bottom. You can still use this, but I’d prefer for you to include this very valuable insight in your Career Objective at the top. If you would still like to use this by itself, it is perfectly acceptable.
Have you created a winning resume that has landed you a great position? Comment and let us know.