Took 24 hours to get VERIFIED as an author on Medium. I think that every author with a published book should do this. It's free and has upsides with no downsides. Let me know when you get your Verified Author badge and we can party. Apply to be a Verified Author on Medium here: https://medium.com/verified-authors Just fill out the form with info and links to your book. Post your Medium Profile if you want a FOLLOW. Here's mine: https://medium.com/@realchrisgreen

I got the price-drop alert from Keepa. Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T32F351 You can track any Kindle book using Keepa (free). You'll get an alert when the price drops. Here's how I use it: When the prices drop on books like these, I buy HUNDREDS of them. You can do this on desktop (doesn't work on mobile) where you "Buy for Others" and get Kindle redemption links. Then, use these as lead magnets and give them to people when they join your email list. I did a whole video about this here:

Just my opinion of course, but I think that if you want to hire a book cover designer and expect to pay under $100, you're going to struggle and be frustrated. It's not that a good designer can't knock out a killer design in s short amount of time to make the $100 worth it to them, but that's just so rarely the case. Designers can't read your mind. It takes time to go back and forth with a client about what they want/need. Then add in revisions? It just doesn't make sense for a designer to take on projects like this for $100 (or less). And that's even if you can find a designer willing to take the chance in the first place with such a low dollar amount on the line. A lot of designers won't even consider working with a client with a sub-$100 budget because there is a high likelihood that the time involved won't be worth it. My advice: Be willing to PAY MORE. TRUST DESIGNERS when they tell you what it costs. Good designers are not in the business of ripping people off. If you can't do either of these, take some classes or courses and watch YouTube videos and learn how to make your own book covers. You'll either learn and start saving yourself money or you'll realize that cover design is hard work and that you should pay designers for their skills and talents (rarely under $100). Remember, you're paying for the skill and expertise. Don't get mad when they make you a BADASS book cover and then you find out it only took them 30 minutes. You are paying for their talent, not their time. Thinking in terms of hourly wages can really mess people up, but think it through: Do you really want to pay a designer by the hour? They would be incentivized to TAKE LONGER and charge you MORE. Is that what you want? No, of course not.

Authors, did you know that you can apply to be a Verified Author on Medium? Just fill out the form with info and links to your book(s). You’ll get a cool little logo/icon! Use this link: https://medium.com/verified-authors Thanks to @Nate McCallister for the scoop.

I had been doing LIVE office hours to talk about book marketing and self-publishing on Tuesdays at 11 AM EST on Zoom. I'm looking to add some office hours to this group with reminders in the Calendar section. Any days and times work better for people? I'm east coast, USA. AM? PM? Evenings?