No. Not everyone can write a book. Sorry. But can you write a book? Probably. I’d call it a really good bet—if I had money to throw at bets, I’d throw money at the likelihood that you, person reading this, can write a book.
Writing a book comes down to 3 things:

I can’t tell you how many times I googled “how much money does an author make per book” before getting a book deal, myself. It’s such a black hole. It also varies tremendously... So while I can’t give you a specific answer for how much money you will make per book, let me start with the basics.

Today I'm sharing three things that no one tells you about getting a literary agent. First, I'll cut to the chase. Yes, you need a literary agent, probably.

There are two exceptions. One, if you're self-publishing, you don't need a literary agent. And two, if you're only pursuing small publishers that accept submissions directly from writers. And these smaller publishers will say on their website if they accept what they will call unrepresented submissions, or they'll just say, we accept submissions directly from authors, but there aren't too many of these and you're going to need to seek them out.

I get this question all the time from people who want to write and publish books, and it’s a fair question. The problem is that the publishing industry is often extremely opaque when it comes to money, and the amount of money you can make varies tremendously: are you writing a novel or memoir? Are you a first-time author? What genre is your book?

But good news: I’ve got the data! Yep, I’ve got numbers. Today, I’m going to break down how much you can make as a writer so you know what to expect. Let’s go.

Today I want to share three things that no one tells you about becoming a published author. I published three novels over the last few years, which I'm not going to lie, was truly a dream come true.

Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to see your book on shelves when you didn't even bribe someone to put them there or sneak it in yourself? And it's awesome. I mean, it feels mostly amazing, but there are a few surprises you may not expect. I sure didn't. And I'm going to share those with you in this post.

So you’ve heard that you need a literary agent to sell your book to a publisher. Cool. And you know you’re supposed to go out and find one. Cool again.

But are some literary agents bad? How do you know if an agent is…a creep? Or a fraud? Or a shyster? Today, I’m going to tell you three things to look out for when you’re approaching literary agents, so you don’t find yourself in an unfortunate situation.  

If you’re thinking about getting an MFA in Creative Writing, I understand the temptation. I struggled with this decision for years. Ultimately, I didn’t decide to get one.

It worked out, because I found an agent and saw my novels published without one. Today, I’m going to share with you why I didn’t end up going to get my MFA.  

You know by now that you need a literary agent to sell your book to most publishers, at least the big ones. If you’ve checked out some of my other posts, you may even know the steps to get one.

But how do you know when you’re ready for a literary agent? Today, I’m going to share with you four must-dos before you’re ready for a literary agent. Let’s go.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably wondered if publishing a book could boost your business. I’ve been in a number of business groups since I launched my own business a few years ago, and I’ve learned a lot from these groups and from my fellow entrepreneurs.

But there’s one trap I’ve noticed a number of entrepreneurs falling into that I think keeps them from understanding how powerful a book could be for them. Today I’m going to talk about that trap, and how writing a book can be a great marketing move. Let’s go!