S.G. Lovell's Blog

I bought this beauty a couple of months ago and absolutely loving it. The sleek design, easy to use interface and stripped down functionality is a productivity rocket launcher. No more converting hand written notes into digital documents. Brainstorm, outline or write your entire book on it. The reMarkable 2 converts your handwritten notes to typed text. You get the benefits of kinaesthetically remembering your characters and storyline with all the advantages of digitally edit...

I did my first author interview years ago for the girls over at Will Read For Feels. The blog no longer exists, but I stumbled across the interview recently as I was going through my backlist.

The interview was part of my blog tour for the release of Second Time You. That readers would be interested in the process of me writing my books was still a bit foreign to me back then and I remember the nervously excited energy of being asked to answer questions.

I felt a lot like I was fumbling my way th...

So you built a website. Great.

But it’s doing rather average. Not so great.

You’ve tried everything to increase your traffic. You’ve read hundreds of posts on organic growth. But whatever you implement, it doesn’t translate into an increase in visitors. It doesn’t affect the page views you have. Maybe, you think, you need to overhaul the design again. Or maybe, you feel, you don’t have enough content on your site. Whatever it is, you are annoyed, a bit angry and a lot confused. What are you missin...

It took five books and two children for me to tackle one of the most difficult and convoluted tasks in self-publishing. Self-publishing a paperback in Australia.

I had heard plenty about the issues one faced if one should undertake this challenge. I was not prepared. From Amazon suggesting I could consider their Expanded Distribution option, which would have given me less than 5% royalty on my US published paperback in Australia. The Amazon AU website listing my book for a ridiculously...

So, you’ve written a novel. Congratulations! You’re in the small percentage of people who do what they say and stick with what they do. But to make a career as an author you have to go one more crucial step and sell your novel to your intended target audience. “But how?” you ask. “And how much will it cost?”

Let’s answer the easy question first. The cost is almost entirely up to you. Will you be able to sell more books with a bigger budget? Quite possibly. But if you’re working with your purse...

One of the biggest benefits of being a self-published author is the freedom to make decisions on everything: the timeline, the plot, the price, the title, the distribution channels. At the same time, this freedom can be overwhelming. Especially, when it comes to doing things outside of your comfort zone. Like designing a book cover, for example. These easy to follow instructions can help you get the process started and give you the best chance at success.

For my on-trend illu...

One of the biggest benefits of being a self-published author is the freedom to make decisions on everything: the timeline, the plot, the price, the title, the distribution channels. At the same time, this freedom can be overwhelming. Especially, when it comes to doing things outside of your comfort zone. Like designing a book cover, for example. These easy to follow instructions can help you get the process started and give you the best chance at success.

For my on-tr...

One of the biggest benefits of being a self-published author is the freedom to make decisions on everything: the timeline, the plot, the price, the title, the distribution channels. At the same time, this freedom can be overwhelming. Especially, when it comes to doing things outside of your comfort zone. Like designing a book cover, for example. These easy to follow instructions can help you get the process started and give you the best chance at success.

For my on-tr...

Hi friends,

(This is an old post I’m reposting with some minor updates. The book cover for Hate to Love has since changed, but these are still the steps I use to create a new cover. Enjoy!)

I know many of you are struggling to create appealing book covers for your self-published novels. Today I want to share 10 easy steps to help you create a fab ebook and print cover from scratch using Photoshop and a stock photo from Adobe.

One of the biggest benefits of being a self-published author is the fr...

Building a readership or following as a writer on social media these days truly is a long slow burn, especially if you commit to being true to yourself and maintaining your authenticity in the process. If I were to dare compare myself with some of my contemporaries, then I would without a doubt be considered the slow fumbling tortoise in a race against seriously social media savvy hares. I’m certainly not someone that can dish out all the tips and tricks of the trade when it comes to building...