Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

In this episode, Mark interviews Brian Meeks, author of Mastering Amazon Ads and Mastering Amazon Descriptions . The interview was recorded during a Facebook Live video on the Stark Publishing Facebook page. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word from the episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . . You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems aro...

In this episode, Mark interviews Nancy Christie, the author of the award-winning book Rut-Busting for Writers . This episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices . . . You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway . In the personal update for this episode, Mark shares some of the work he has done in his "...

In this episode, Mark interviews Adriel Wiggins about the behind the scenes support she provides authors as both a virtual assistant as well as a continuity editor. Prior to the interview, Mark provides a short personal update and talks about this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . . You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the worl...

In this episode, Mark shares an article that he recently had published in WRITE magazine, the official magazine of The Writer's Union of Canada. In the word about this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . . . . . Mark shares a recent announcement from BookBub regarding Chirp, the new audiobook promotion service they are launching in partnership with Findaway. You can learn more about how you can...

In this extremely short episode, Mark talks about Procrastination and how it has been a significant part of who he is and how he works on projects. He talks a bit about the Fiction River anthology project that he is currently in Vegas for as an editor (and how that relates to this topic), as well as Tim Urban's hilarious and yet accurate portrayal of what goes on in side the mind of a master procr...

In this solo episode, Mark plays clips from a couple of other podcasts, shares some personal updates related to his own audiobook products, and goes neck deep into his thoughts about audiobooks for authors. The episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices. . . . you can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaw...

In this episode Mark interviews Laura Shanae Crenshaw, a writer, a world-builder, a photographer, an all around creative person, and the creator of the Mythulu creation cards. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a few details from last week's Superstars Writers Seminars that stuck out to him, both writing and business-of-writing related activities as well as an unexpected pleasant personal experie...

This short episode includes a brief chat with Adriel Wiggins about her author resource business (author assistant and continuity editing) as well as a few quick nuggets from the recent Superstars Writing Seminars that Mark attended in early February 2019. The episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices . Mark shares a fun Valentine's promotion from them called FOR THE LOVE OF AUDIOBOOKS. Readers can u...

Mark interviews James Fell, the author of The Holy Shit Moment: How Lasting Change Can Happen in An Instant about his new book. This episode comes with a special offer. If you comment on the show at www.starkreflections.ca (Episode 60) in the first week, your name will be entered into a random draw for winning a copy of the book. The choice of the format (Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook) will be decid...

In Episode 59 Mark interviews Sara Rider, author of contemporary romances full of heart and heat about strong women and the men who can't resist them. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a few personal updates which include: Recently reading THE HOLY SH!T MOMENT by James Fell A forthcoming trip to Colorado Springs for Superstars Writing Seminars Thanks Patreon supporters with a note that there'll...

In this episode Mark speaks with Win Charles. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Win has defied the odds by becoming an author. Her memoir I, Win is an amazing story of how she remembers her life through the years of having a condition called "CP". Win truly is an unstoppable inspiration. Before the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update about the progress he is making on recording the audiobook fo...

In the episode Mark interviews Donna Cook who has published over a dozen books in two genres. She writes epic fantasy under her own name and writes contemporary romance as Jordyn White. Donna talks not only about her writing life as both Donna and Jordyn, but also offers up advice on the important topic of Cash Flow for Writers. Before the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor...

In this episode, Mark speaks with Katie Cross, a writer, mother and out-door enthusiast. On her website, Katie describes herself in this way: "I am a creator of worlds, destroyer of evil, and a born wordsmith bringing light to the dark night of those that need an escape." This is the perfect description for her, which you will get a solid taste of in the interview. Before the interview, Mark welco...

In this solo episode, Mark takes a look at his 2018 writing and publishing goals and shares the hits, the misses and the alterations that took place in the past twelve months. He feels it is important to remind writers that if they are already beating themselves up for not completing all the previous year's goals, that he didn't hit all his goals; that he failed at most of them; that he screwed up...

In the final episode of 2018, Mark interviews Science Fiction and Fantasy author Lindsay Buroker, a successful author who has been indie publishing for about eight years.  Prior to the interview, Mark shares a short personal update and thanks new Patron, Michael Lister ; he also mentions that he recently released the third special "Reflections on other Podcasts" episodes for Patrons, which appears...

In this episode, Mark interviews Aaron Pogue (President), Kris Austin (CEO) and Toby Nance (CTO), the co-founders of Draft2Digital about how they worked together and played off one another's strengths to create the company. This episode is a bit of a response from a few listeners who heard Mark mention that he recently joined the D2D team, but they weren't familiar with the company. They asked if...

Mark interviews author Gary Collins about the simple life, both the name of a series of books as well as the new life he enjoys after some very unique experiences that include military intelligence and Special Agent. Before the interview, Mark shares a personal update that involves flying to Vancouver for the annual CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers) Convention and then to Oklaho...

In this episode, Mark interviews Rachel Amplett, the author of the successful Dan Taylor and Kay Hunter police procedural thrillers as well as stand alone thrillers and mystery novels. The interview includes a lot of information related to this episode's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . . Mark shares a bit of an update about the the new Authors Direct option that Findaway Voices is beta testing. In th...

In this episode Mark reflects on five of the many things he has learned on the journey through the first fifty episodes of this podcast. Those five things are within the theme of: GLOBAL IS MORE GLOBAL THAN JUST GLOBAL THE POWER OF AUDIENCE FEEDBACK THE POWER OF COMMUNITY & THINKING BEYOND ONGOING GROWTH & IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION BRANDING & PROFESSIONALISM Throughout the five points (which do...

Henry David Thoreau said: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you imagined." In this episode's interview, Mark speaks with musician and writer Tommy Ray about how he had done just that. They talk about Tommy's experience of how he took a dream (an actual dream) and transitioned it into reality by listening to his heart and trusting his instincts in recreating his life. B...

In this episode, Mark chats with Andrea Pearson, an author, a marketing guru and a mother. We talk about how she balances all three roles, about the tools she uses, her latest fiction, how she manages to get so much writing done as well as some of her personal takeways from the recent WMG Business Master Class workshop she had attended. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update about t...

If you are familiar with the Self Publishing Formula Podcast, you'll likely recognize James Blatch as Mark Dawson's right-hand man; his co-host, or, perhaps, his co-pilot for the podcast. But in this episode Mark puts James in the pilots seat with a focus on Blatch's own writing, his background as a reporter, a videographer and, of course, as a pilot. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word fro...

In this episode Mark interviews Phillip McCollum about an intriguing project of writing 52 stories in 52 weeks. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word from the podcast's sponsor, Findaway Voices . . . . . . and then a personal update which includes a push-up challenge he participated in at the 20Booksto50K conference in Vegas. Michael Anderle instigated this challenge for a good cause, with th...

Mark interviews authors Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson about the steamy romantic comedy novels they have been co-authoring under the name C.K. Wiles. Before the interview, Mark shares a personal update explaining why he isn't participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, even though he loves it. He talks about how he will be using the month of November to get caught up...

Having just spent six days at the WMG Business Master Class workshop in Las Vegas, Mark reflects on the overwhelming and head-spinning influx of information, insight, wisdom, ideas, inspiriation, and perspective that he had just taken in. In this episode, he walks through some of the ideas on how authors can process such a deluge of information and adapt the curated learnings and ideas into things...