Author: Marion Hermannsen

Marion is a bilingual author, working in both German and English. She holds a masters of artsan MA in English, Spanish, and Italian, as well as a DipM (Marketing). She spent thirteen years both in London and Ireland while working in the finance and consulting industry. Marion loves learning about writing craft and marketing best practices. She spends time mentoring other writers and enjoys the freedom of being able to work from anywhere. She now lives in Frankfurt and is an active member of the local writing community, having published eight novels to date. Her Irish husband has not only taught her the benefits of drinking copious amounts of black tea, but has impressed his Irish accent on her, to the amusement of her friends and colleagues.

Atticus: A Writer’s Goldilocks Solution for Writing, Editing, and Formatting

A lot of buzz surrounds the brand-new software Atticus, the brainchild of Dave Chesson, the founder of Kindlepreneur. Atticus has been described as the love child between the well-established programs Vellum and Scrivener. Early access was by invite only, but since the beginning of November, the app is available for purchase at https://atticus.io.  The software […]

Steve Higgs, Fast And Furiously Cozy

Steve Higgs is a man of contradictions—a tough ex-army man who writes about a bad-tempered, crime-solving police dog and a bored housewife-turned-sleuth. He’s also known as the British author who wrote over sixty books in three years. He is funny, a family man, and yet hyper-focused. He puts some of his success down to having […]

“Have you ever thought about not doing that?”

Forging Your Own Path with Becca Syme Marion Hermannsen Becca Syme is probably best known for her Dear Writer book series.The first volume’s title, Dear Writer, You Need to Quit, is provocative in an environment where indie authors often feel they need to do all the things all the time to stay in the game. […]

Everything You Need To Know About Formatting, From Terminology to Trim Sizes

Key Definitions to Remember When Formatting Your Book Your story is written and edited. The next hurdle is how to make it available to your readers.  There are several options: you can use software such as Vellum to create a stunning e-book and print version. Or you can pay someone else to do it. Or […]

Business Shifts: Beat Burnout and Grow Your Team With Outsourcing

When you hear the term “Outsourcing,” what comes to mind? You are most likely familiar with the concept of hiring external talent for editing and cover design. For most indie authors, that’s as far as they go. Partly because at the beginning of their author journey, they will likely bootstrap their careers. Money is scarce, […]

A Guide to Publishing Your Book on Amazon

So, your book has been edited, and your designer has sent you an amazing, genre-appropriate cover. Congratulations! Now it’s time to upload it to the Amazon store, a retailer which accounts for 70% of the US e-book market. This article will take you through the process step-by-step and point out any pitfalls.  How to Find […]

Ten Tips for Goodreads

At its core, Goodreads is a social media platform. It lives for the interaction between its users. Yet authors aren’t as active as they need to be to get the most out of Goodreads. A recent survey showed that nearly half of all author profiles were out of date, and another 50% had a broken […]

Andrew Dobell – Best of Both Worlds

Andrew Dobell is a highly regarded British designer whose bright and colorful covers are easily recognizable. He’s also an author who straddles several genres, which makes him the perfect person to ask questions about how his writing influences his cover designs and vice versa.  From the Art Andrew started out as an illustrator, finding freelance […]

The Do’s and Don’ts of Dictation

We’ve all read that publishing fast can be one of the drivers for a successful indie publishing career. In fact, there are writers who consistently produce a book a month. But how do they do that? What single factor enables these people to write 80,000 words in four weeks? Apart from an outline, the consensus […]

A Look at Advanced Outlining Methods for Plotters and Pantsers

Let’s look at two representative methods for plotters and pantsers: the Snowflake Method and the Skeleton Draft. To lead us into the discussion, we’ll briefly touch on the topic of beat iterations. This is an important concept that will help you to be a better drafter, whether you plan your outline meticulously, or whether you […]