How Does Supporting Your Local Library Support Your Favourite Authors?

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How Does Supporting Your Local Library Support Your Favourite Authors?

Since April is Drop Everything and Read month, it got me thinking about how supporting my local library supports my favourite authors. I love using the library it saves me a ton of money every year, but I also want to support my favourite authors so they keep creating amazing stories.

Best I can tell, there are two main ways supporting your local library helps support my favourite authors: royalties and exposure. When authors sell books they receive royalties. This goes for both traditionally published authors and self-published authors. Libraries buy books through publishers, therefore traditionally published authors receive royalties from those sales to libraries.

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Read More to Write Better: 3 Types of Books Every Thriller Author Should Read

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Read More to Write Better: 3 Types of Books Every Thriller Author Should Read

Did you know April is Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) month? Me neither! I’ve recently started reading every morning before I do anything else. I was tired of getting smacked in the face by my book as I fell asleep reading before going to be at night. Please tell me I’m not alone on this!

It turns out that reading every morning for about an hour is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m amazed at how much I’ve read and learned. I’ve heard many successful authors say that if you want to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader, and I feel like all the extra reading I’ve been doing has really helped me be more critical of my own writing. Well, I’m always critical of myself, but this is a much healthier version.

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How to Create an Awesome Author Website with These Basics

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How to Create an Awesome Author Website with These Basics

Have you ever found a new author you're really excited about and search for them online only to find... nothing? No author website. This has happened to me quite a few times and it left me feeling pretty disappointed. I wanted to sign up for their newsletter and be the first to know when they had a new book coming out. Sure, I can follow their Amazon author page, but that's just not the same to me.

Do you really need an author website?

There are certainly other ways to connect with your readers online: social media platforms and sites like BookBub and Bublish are great places to connect with readers, but what happens if those sites are suddenly gone one day?

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Happy World Poetry Day 2019!

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Happy World Poetry Day 2019!

When people think of poems, they often go straight to love poems, but there are many different forms of poetry. You could say there’s something for everyone! I thought it would be fun to share the beginning of my rhyming picture book designed to teach kids the value of budgeting and taking good care of their money. It will also be fun to look back on this post and see how much my illustrations have changed!

Enjoy!

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Sales Taxes for Canadian Authors

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Sales Taxes for Canadian Authors

Noooo... Not sales taxes! Ugh!!

I have been hearing a lot about the sales tax changes in the US lately, and I thought it would be helpful to discuss how things work in Canada when it comes to sales taxes and your book sales. This is for Canadian authors who sell their books directly to customers, whether that is through a website or in person.

Good news if you’re in Canada…

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Want to Write a Book? This Online Group Coaching Program Will Help You Do It

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Want to Write a Book? This Online Group Coaching Program Will Help You Do It

Many people dream of writing and publishing a book ‘someday’, but statistics show only about 2% of those people actually realize their dream. I’m going to share a secret weapon with you that’s helped me with my books, and I know it will help you too!

It’s very fitting that I’m writing this post on March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day. It’s the final day of the Women In Publishing Summit, hosted by one of my favourite women in publishing, Alexa Bigwarfe.

Two years ago, I met Alexa after I won a spot in her group coaching program for writers as part of an online summit I was speaking at. Talk about divine intervention—I didn’t even know there were prizes for speakers or that one of them was for writers. I had just published my first book and had started working on my first novel, so I was super excited to meet Alexa and learn about her program.

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Do You Need an Accountant?

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Do You Need an Accountant?

It depends!

I know that’s probably not the answer you were hoping for, but like most things when it comes to taxes, the answer to the question, “Do I need an accountant?” isn’t a simple one.

Because most people hire an accountant to do their taxes, let’s look at taxes first. Taxes can be grouped into two broad categories: personal and business.

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Busting Common Myths About Accountants

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Busting Common Myths About Accountants

As a writer, it’s hard for me to ignore stereotypes. They serve a purpose in stories and it’s easy to fall back on them when I need a character who is a “typical” Canadian, stay at home mom, or fill-in-the-blank. But, what makes a story (and life) really interesting is when the characters defy the stereotype.

Since I come from an accounting background, I thought it would be fun to look at what people think is “typical” of accountants. When I typed “stereotypical accountant personality” into Google, words like dependable, structured, and practical came up.

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