Hello #AmWriters! This week, I’m answering a bunch of questions we received via [email protected] and our #AmWriting Facebook group. Here’s to flattened learning curves!

* I just got my first speaking inquiry. How do I know how much to ask for?

* Someone asked me to provide video content for a conference/summit/virtual event. What should I charge?

* What’s all this about affiliate codes and revenue sharing for conferences?

* What reference books would you recommend for writing nonfiction?

* It’s time to ask for blurbs for my book! How do I figure out who should blurb? How do I ask? Can someone quoted in my book blurb my book?

* If I quote myself in my own book is that plagiarism? What if I really need to use that quote, how do I do it?

* I’ve been asked to speak but I’m freaked out by my time slot/some other challenge to audience numbers. How do I get people to stay and listen?

* What are the “marketing materials” you keep talking about for events and where did you get all of it?

* Scam alert! See also “I Got Scammed So You Don’t Have To” by Jen Mann of People I Want to Punch in the Throat.

Hey writers. I'm Jennie Nash, founder and CEO of Author Accelerator. It's back to school time, which means it's a great time to start training to become a book coach. By this time next year, you could be certified and out there helping writers bring their books to life- even if you're not a published author yourself. Take our quiz, The 10 Characteristics Of a Great Book Coach, to find out if you have what it takes to become a great book coach. Visit bookcoaches.com/characteristics-quiz that's the clunkiest URL ever so let me say it again: bookcoaches.com/characteristics-quiz We'll also put it in the show notes so you know you're going to the right place.

Hey readers—KJ here. This episode of #AmWriting is brought to you by my latest, Playing the Witch Card. I wrote this at a moment when I needed more magic in my life—but it turned out to be a book about how until we know who we are and what makes us happy, even magic doesn’t help. My main character, Flair, is a total control freak who fears the chaos created by her family deck of Tarot cards and the cookies it inspires her to make until she decides that she can harness their power to control the world and people around her—but that’s not what the cards are for at all. I was inspired by what I see as the real magic of Tarot cards—and tea leaves and palm reading and every form of oracle: they help us to see and understand our own stories. As someone for whom stories are pretty much everything, I love that. You can buy Playing the Witch Card on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org and my local indie—and I hope you’ll love it too.

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