“I tell myself to forget about the potential audience/publication for a moment, and remember ultimately I write first and foremost for myself – then I find it becomes easier to let go, to let myself loose and see where that boldness and vulnerability takes me. The poem knows when you are holding back.”

“As writers we fool ourselves into thinking that the world wants to read our words – and even that readers owe us their attention. ISBNDB estimates that there are 158,464,880 books in the world. How will readers find yours? And why should they buy or read yours ahead of all the others? That’s where marketing skills come in.”

‘Rather than being motivated by imagined commercial success, be driven by the joy of telling stories which give pleasure to readers.’

‘You are in the business of writing and selling books, and to do that you have to promote and advertise. You have to develop a loyal readership that will come back for more – which is why most successful indies write in series.’

For this month’s First Friday Club, our Program Officer Ashley Kalagian-Blunt spoke to Joel Naoum of Critical Mass, a consulting business for authors and publishers.

Do you want to self-publish your book, but you’re not sure where to start? This extended program isn’t just about covering the specifics of how to take your edited manuscript through the process of self-publishing – when you complete the program you will be able to have your book for sale in print and digital […]

Our final First Friday Club guest speaker for the year was Lou Johnson, co-founder of The Author People and former Managing Director of Simon & Schuster Australia. With an extensive 25-year career in the national and international publishing industry, Lou has witnessed and played a role in its shifting landscape. Lou moved through various sales […]

Patrick Lenton is an author and digital marketing professional. He has worked for Momentum Books, the digital-first imprint of Pan Macmillan, and now runs Town Crier, a digital marketing and social media consultancy for authors. So authors can’t make any money from self-publishing, can they? Very not true – as long as authors treat self-publishing […]

Anna Maguire has been working in Australian publishing for over 20 years and has established a reputation as a trainer for authors and publishing students navigating the challenging world of publishing. A published author of Crowdfund it!, Anna has run or participated in courses for the NSW Writers’ Centre, Australian Writers’ Centre and spoken at […]