He is the Silk who endures the burning day, and she is the Iron who commands the cooling night; and the world breaks upon them like rain upon the earth, for they receive its fury without bending or fear. Their love is a treasure buried deeper than the wells of old, a truth concealed not by shadow, but by the Lie they wear in daylight— a truth no Elder can fathom, for none imagine her shield of the tent.

Just wondering if Jack Slater has contacted any of you about Fiverr? Do you know about it? Have any of you used it to self-publish?

If you have a finished manuscript...or if you're at least halfway...you're in the right place. Inside this Guild, we focus on the full publishing process: - Creation (writing) - Development (editing) - Production (turning the manuscript into an interior and exterior) - Distribution (where it’s available) - Promotion (how it gets into readers' hands) That’s what we’re here to work through—practically. Please introduce yourself! Share: 1. What you’re currently working on 2. Where you are in the process: writing, editing, production, publishing, marketing 3. What you feel you need the most help with right now

I am an emerging author who just joined this week. My original (still unpublished) novel, "Muffin's Story", took on a life of its own and got away on me, turning into a 3 volume series with the first volume over 500 pages long. Probably need to do more developmental editing on that one, LOL. In the Muffin series, Vols 1 & 2 are drafted and have undergone several rounds of editing, Vol 3 is in progress. The length of vols 2 & 3 is under better control, and I may have to cycle back to split vol 1 somehow and turn it into a 4 vol series. So far, the set is close over 1,000 pages. My goal was never to finish the entire set before publishing any of it, I started out with a single novel that had to be split into two when I realized it was getting too long, and now I'm chopping each half up again as the story fleshes out. Once I get a better grip on vol 1, I'll publish it ahead of the others. My writing approach is best described as bicycling. As a new author, every time I learn something new, I cycle back through my written work to apply it, and the writing gets better. Slower than taking a car, but better for the health of my writing. However, with a work this size, it takes "forever" and I was feeling like the goal posts kept receding into the distance faster than I was finishing the work. So I decided to get some experience in publishing a smaller novel first. I also started to use AI assistance in devising the storyline, finding the process valuable as the AI was quick to pick up on what I was going for, which in turn helped clarify my thoughts faster. I also found it helpful in getting cultural nuances nailed down--although I always double-check because AIs are prone to too narrow a view. AI was also useful in getting through writer's block occasionally, but I had to rewrite most of the narrative it suggested. At the end of the day, I'm accountable for the quality of my writing--not the tools I use to write with. The resulting smaller novel, "When Silk and Iron Lie", is 98% completed (nearly finished final editing) and is a more reasonable 360 pages. I expect to be distributing ARCs of it this summer to generate some reviews in time for when I launch (hopefully before Labour Day).

Build an email list. Start a TikTok. Post every day. Don’t post every day. Run ads. Don’t run ads until you have a series. Get on podcasts. Build a launch team. Do newsletter swaps. Go wide. Stay exclusive. Make reels. Write long-form posts. Create a reader magnet. Optimize Amazon. Sell direct. Start a community. Build a brand. And the exhausting part is that they’re not wrong. That’s what makes it maddening. If the advice were all terrible, you could ignore it and go make a sandwich. But a lot of it is good advice in the right situation, for the right author, at the right stage, with the right book, for the right goal. So instead of clarity, you get a thousand open tabs in your brain. And there you are, holding your book, wondering whether you are supposed to be a writer, a content creator, a media company, a data analyst, a publicist, a graphic designer, an ad buyer, a community leader, and a mildly unhinged motivational speaker with good lighting. No wonder authors freeze. The framework I’m going to share with you today is one that you can do each day, and it’s a great place to start. It will not suddenly solve all your marketing problems and produce shiny rainbows and bunny rabbits with gold coins shooting out their fluffy little butts, but it will get you going. It will bring you forward motion. Remember, every beautiful oak tree begins with a buried acorn. Every perfect result begins with imperfect action. ASK So here is what I want you to do today. Do not try to formulate a marketing strategy. Figure out where you’re stuck. There’s only five places that could be the core of the problem: visibility, clarity/positioning, trust, sales, or connection. To help you figure this out, ask yourself the following questions: Do people not know the book exists? Then your problem is VISIBILITY. Do people see the book but still not understand what it is, who it is for, or why they should care? Then your problem is CLARITY. Do people seem interested, but they are not confident enough to buy, join, sign up, or take the next step?