Old horror writer back from the dead…
Exploring the Future of Truth in the Age of AI You get the last honest conversation about AI truth when a 77-year-old writer who remembers when information sources were reliable sits down with an AI to discuss a simple technical question—and accidentally discovers they’re documenting the death of truth itself? This is that conversation. And … Read more
The Article That Changed Everything Chet: Claude, I just read an article in The Hollywood Reporter. It makes our conversation from two weeks ago about the internet being overwhelmed by AI content flooding feel almost prophetic. You see, there’s this company called Inception Point AI that’s producing 5,000 AI-generated podcasts with 3,000 new episodes per … Read more
A 77-Year-Old Author Learns the Real Mechanics of Amazon Advertising (So You Don’t Have To) After our conversation yesterday about whether Amazon ads actually work for ebook marketing, I found myself staring at my coffee this morning with a nagging thought: if I’m serious about this bestseller quest, maybe I need to understand exactly how … Read more
A Conversation with Claude So there I was yesterday morning, staring at my growing pile of Lost Pages manuscripts and wondering how the hell I’m supposed to get people to actually discover these books once they’re published. At 77, chasing a bestseller dream with a three-year deadline, I can’t exactly rely on word-of-mouth and hope … Read more
Every time someone mentions indie publishing success, two names come up like clockwork: Hugh Howey and Amanda Hocking. And every time, the conversation goes the same way. “Oh, they just got lucky.” “They hit at the perfect time.” “Lightning in a bottle–can’t be replicated.” Well, let me tell you something: I’ve spent considerable time studying … Read more
Here’s a number that’ll either inspire you or make you want to take up woodworking instead: authors earning over $20,000 per month have published an average of 61 books. Sixty-one books! That’s not a typo, and it’s not an accident. Meanwhile, most aspiring authors are still polishing their first manuscript, convinced that if they just … Read more
So there I was last week, staring at Amazon’s publishing dashboard for my latest Lost Pages collaboration with Claude, when I hit that moment every indie author faces: the decision regarding Amazon royalty rates that’ll determine whether you get 70% royalties or 35% royalties from Amazon. Most new authors think this is a no-brainer. “Obviously … Read more
In my last post I shared some brutal income data relevant to us indie writers that was eye opening, to say the least. More like a poke in the vitreous humor! Well, today I want to dig deeper into something that might sound even more discouraging at first: your first book is almost certainly going … Read more
So there I was last week, deep in research for this crazy bestseller quest I’ve gotten myself into at 77, when I stumbled across some indie author income numbers that made me put down my coffee and stare at the screen for a good five minutes. Not because the numbers were encouraging–hell no. Because they … Read more
So there I was yesterday, deep in the weeds of website optimization for CasaDay Press, when I stumbled across an Amazon royalty calculator that made me stop and think. Not about header images or color schemes this time–I’ve had enough WordPress wrestling matches for one week–but about something more fundamental: the math behind this whole … Read more