50 questions about self-publishing

I’ve always wanted to write a sort of guide on self-publishing as a means to share some of the info I’ve gathered. You know, stuff about editing, cover design, online retailers, distributors, etc.

But the thing is, I wasn’t really sure how to write such a book. Now, I kind of know. So it’s going to be like this: you ask me what you want to know about different aspects, and I’ll do my best to give you a proper answer. If I don’t know the answer to your question, I’ll do my best to find someone who does.

The best part is that I’m going to offer this guide for free. I just hope that the indie writers who are following this blog have 50 questions that they want to ask.

So, yeah. You can ask the questions in the comments section of this post.

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New release: Dream City

dream_cityI’m proud to announce the release of a new novel. Exactly as the titles states, it’s called Dream City, and it’s about a painter named Paul. I know it doesn’t really sound interesting so far, but there’s more, like the fact that Paul is dying, and he wants to leave something behind.

A magnificent painting, a few memories in a notebook, a letter to his son. And he wants one more thing: he wants to feel he’s in control. He doesn’t feel free anymore, just because a disease is eating away his life, so every morning when he wakes up he puts a gun to his temple and closes his eyes.

Like he says, “True freedom comes from the realization that you can kill yourself at any time.”

I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. You can buy the novel here for only $2.99, where it’s available in all e-formats known to man. You can also download a PDF sample here.

I know I don’t say this as often as I should have, but I do have to thank you all for your tremendous support.

Sincerely,

Cristian

The “baby”

babyIf you write long enough odds are that you’ll start working on a story for longer than normal. Odds are that you’ll try to make it perfect, even when it’s clear that you’re just afraid to let it go. You’ll fear rejection and bad reviews. You’ll think you’re not good enough to write the story the way it deserves to be written. You haven’t lived long enough and stuff like that.

Maybe you do so because you feel this story’s the “one.” This is the story where you actually say something no one else can, where you leave behind more of you than you’ve done before. It’s a story that defines who you are more than anything else ever written. Continue reading →

Text ad sale – 50% off

There are 8 more text ad spaces available, so I decided to offer a 50% discount. If you want to promote your blog in my sidebar, all you have to do is go here and pay $25 for a full month of advertising.

That’s it, actually.

Also, there are 7 spots for the link ad option, which means your name and a link to your blog. One month of advertising costs $15, and you can buy it here.

We need superheroes

DeathofsupermanI “created” my first superhero when I was five years old. His name was Captain Hank, and he possessed super-human strength, speed, and he couldn’t age. That was all, basically.

Then, of course, I had to make some villains, and then some other superheroes to aid Hank in his fight against evil.

To some, the concept of  superheroes acts simply as a metaphor for greatness. It can be easily understood by almost anyone, regardless of age, education, culture, and so on. I never actually agreed with this definition.

I believe the concept itself is so primordial that most of us actually miss the point entirely. My definition is that superheroes are characters who possess certain abilities and traits that make them better than normal people in many ways.

But they also have flaws and weaknesses, and they make mistakes. Continue reading →

Good writers

good_writersWhen I was sixteen I thought I was a good writer. I had won a National writing competition with a magical realism novella, and the sister of a long dead, famous Romanian poet we were studying in high-school told me I wrote just like him.

This kind of gets to your head, especially at that age. This novella I had written received lots of praise from some of the best writers in the country. Published writers, award winners, people who owned publishing houses. And most of them didn’t even know I was only sixteen. Continue reading →

Don’t judge a book by its cover

Unfortunately, this saying doesn’t apply to actual books. Potential readers always judge books by their covers. Maybe it’s so  because we live in a world of first impressions, maybe it’s because a professional looking cover “promises” the same type of care to its content, maybe I don’t know…

Traditionally published authors usually don’t have to worry about these sort of things. Most traditionally published books look respectable enough. But when it comes to indie writers… Continue reading →