Author: Craig Martelle

High school Valedictorian enlists in the Marine Corps under a guaranteed tank contract. An inauspicious start that was quickly superseded by excelling in language study. Contract waived, a year at the Defense Language Institute to learn Russian and off to keep my ears on the big red machine during the Soviet years. Back to DLI for advanced Russian after reenlisting. Deploying. Then getting selected to get a commission. Earned a four-year degree in two years by majoring in Russian Language. It was a cop out, but I wanted to get back to the fleet. One summa cum laude graduation later, that’s where I found myself. My first gig as a second lieutenant was on a general staff. I did well enough that I stayed at that level or higher for the rest of my career, while getting some choice side gigs – UAE, Bahrain, Korea, Russia, and Ukraine. Major Martelle. I retired from the Marines after a couple years at the embassy in Moscow working arms control. The locals called me The German, because of my accent in Russian. That worked for me. It kept me off the radar. Just until it didn’t. Expelled after two years for activities inconsistent with my diplomatic status, I went to Ukraine. Can’t let twenty years of Russian language go to waste. More arms control. More diplomatic stuff. Then 9/11 and off to war. That was enough deployment for me. Then came retirement. Department of Homeland Security was a phenomenally miserable gig. I quit that job quickly enough and went to law school. A second summa cum laude later and I was working for a high-end consulting firm performing business diagnostics, business law, and leadership coaching. More deployments. For the money they paid me, I was good with that. Just until I wasn’t. Then I started writing. You’ll find Easter eggs from my career hidden within all my books. Enjoy the stories.

Martelle’s Motivation: Therapeutic Isolation

Someone we like or respect is doing a thing. We want to be like what we admire. So we do the thing too. Often, that isn’t healthy for us. If something you’re doing is causing you pain, then don’t do it. If it’s challenging you and making you uncomfortable, but it’s helping you toward your […]

Martelle’s Motivation: Simple Words, Not Simple Stories

A Literary Dichotomy: Simple Words, Not Simple Stories There are those who write as a cerebral exercise, and then there are those authors who make money. Here’s an axiom that you should apply to all facets of life. People don’t like getting talked down to.  Simple words don’t have to be conveyed simply. Words are […]

The Paradox of Perfection

I’ve given this presentation a few times because it’s important for authors to stay grounded. When we start writing, the only person we have to compare ourselves against is our favorite authors—those people who have been writing for a while with a team of people making sure the stories are great.  We loved those stories, […]

Martelle’s Motivation: The Great AI Debate

I’m not a fan of this topic because it’s a heavy quagmire of technical lingo while also crossing over the legal threshold and getting the lawsuit treatment, which means fitting those square techno-pegs into round legal holes.  We’ll see how the lawsuits pan out, but the takeaway will give the AI producers better guidelines. And […]

Author Outreach

Authoring is a lonely business. It’s just you and your computer, pad, phone, or dictation device telling the story that’s in your head. The good news is that there are a lot of authors. It’s better to be alone together.  How do you find other authors in your genre? Search for the type of books […]

Martelle’s Motivation: The Reader Experience

The reader experience is both subjective and objective. You can measure it in your reader recidivism: What’s your read-through rate to the next title? Are you getting good numbers of reviews, more than each previous release? Is your book ranking better than it should based on sales?  Those are all signs of a positive reader […]

Martelle’s Motivation: The Rising Tide

This past month, more than eighteen hundred independent authors gathered at Bally’s Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, to learn, to grow, and to celebrate their work as publishing professionals. We welcomed them with messages of inspiration and advice for finding success, however you define it. This month, I want to offer that same welcome […]

Martelle’s Motivation: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

When you have no books published, what does a launch strategy look like? This is a question I have been asked at every stop so far on the epic 20Books Drive Across America and the profound train ride around the UK. From a strategic perspective, you don’t know how your book will be received. You […]

Martelle’s Motivation: The Power of In-Person Author Conferences

We have 20Books Vegas 2022 coming up soon, which means it’s time for a quick refresher on the value of in-person conferences. Motivation and positive vibes. Authors are happiest when they are around other authors. It brings most of us out of our shells because we find people with whom we don’t have to make […]

Time Is Money

Consider How You’re Spending Your Most Valuable Currency Craig Martelle Time is the currency of our lives.  We invest it from the moment we’re born until our final day. Every moment is given to something that makes us who we are. Your time is the most valuable gift you can give to someone.  Invest in […]