Advice on Writing

1. Write, write, write. The more books you have out on the market, more you are going to sell. John Locke sold 1.7 million books in 5 months partially by writing 9 books in a year. He did this by writing a staggering 7,000 words a day (I write 300-500 a day). The more you have on Amazon, the better (assuming they are well-written books, of course). Make sure to add a “More books by” page at the front and back of all of your books to help with cross-selling. The ideal scenario is to create a series of books with the same main character but don't need to be read in a certain order, like Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series or Stephen Cannell's Shane Scully series (both of which are great). The next best option is a series that needs to be read in order like most fantasy series like J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones), but if you do a numbered series make sure your finish the dang thing in a timely fashion (right, George?) and not string readers along for decades, okay? The worst option is the one I've done. I've written an epic fantasy (The Heretics' Power), an end-of-the-world comedy (Mayageddon 2012), a non-fiction spiritual book (Mere Theosophy), a non-fiction how-to book (this book) and am working on a modern comedy with a Terms of Endearment feel to it about an octogenarian who wants to get himself thrown in jail to get decent healthcare (working title: Crime Does Pay). Stephen King and John Grisham have pulled it off, so I'm hoping I can too.