Shelah Johnson

Writers need visibility, but forcing every author to perform for the feed is not a book marketing strategy. Here’s how to build better entry points into the work. There is a special kind of nonsense that happens when people tell writers to “build a platform.” It sounds reasonable at first. Practical, even. You wrote a […]

Why indie authors need to stop waiting for permission, think like small business owners, and build real paths to readers. For years, authors were told the room was shrinking. Bookstores were dying. Barnes & Noble was finished. Amazon had eaten the world. The only serious path was through an agent, then a publisher, then a

Book promotion scams are getting slicker. Here’s how they sell hope to authors — and the red flags worth memorizing before you pay anyone. I kept a book scammer on the phone for almost two hours once. I had a slow day, and honestly, I wanted to see how long the performance would last. She

Why indie authors need more ways for readers to enter the work — not more pressure to feed the algorithm. There is a phrase that gets tossed at writers as if it means something useful: You need to get above the noise. It sounds smart. It sounds strategic. It sounds like something someone says while