"I read it once, then went right back a second time with a yellow marker to highlight the important stuff. You will too."

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Storytelling is as old as humans sitting around a cave fire. Maybe even earlier. There's nothing that says you are in for a treat as settling in a comfortable spot near the warmth with a few friends and family while a good storyteller begins their tales. Stories entertain us, teach us lessons and brings us together. Good storytellers are a gift from the Gods themselves, though not everyone can be a "good" storyteller. It takes inspiration, a bit of wit, and an eye for your audience.

Though to be a "successful" storyteller takes one more thing, business sense and the knowledge of how to sell your story. This book, "Career Indie Author" by Bill and Teresa Peschel will teach you that.

I've been writing now some 40 years, with a few successes and many failures. I was lucky though, my first short story actually sold to a publisher, a major magazine of the time. That money and the feeling of having something you wrote viewed by literally millions, gave me the push to continue writing. Not many writers get that.

Like most writers of that day, I subscribed to the magazines put out for writers. I bought the "how to" books, and took a few college courses. There were many articles and books telling you how to write a "good" story but few resources telling you how to "sell" that story. The common advice then was, "Write your story, then mail it out". Sometimes you'd also be told to find an agent, but the chicken and egg problem was you can't get an agent without publishing a few stories and you can't get published without an agent. Luckily I was in a niche that bough a lot of material and got a few more stories published. If I hadn't, I would have probably don't what most unsuccessful authors had done then, given up.

That was then, and this is now.

Today the new writer has a incredible amount of resources to get your story out there. Self publication, ebooks, forums and websites. Its the exact opposite from my early days but has the same problem. "How do you sell your story?" Its all well and good to have your story read, but its even nicer to be paid for the privledged. Navigating all those avenues is hard, and where do you begin?

Bill and Teresa Peschel bring years of work as publishers and writers to tell you just how to do that.

"Career Indie Author" is both clear and concise, taking you step by step through the process of getting the money for your work. While they give you solid advice on how to write a sellable story, more than that, they teach you to be a successful business person no matter what your niche. Lessons on scheduling, accounting, marketing and promotional techniques are put together in simple, easy to understand short sections. You can do like I did, carry the book with you, then when you have a few minutes free waiting, read a section and be able to understand and absorb the information. And more importantly then implement it in your writing business.

With practical examples of techniques and resources they themselves use, and the problems they have run into, its like having your own publishing house and experienced editor a phone call or email away. Its hard to tell anyone who hasn't tried to market their own product how helpful that is. You will find like I did, that you go back to "Career Indie Author" over and over.

In the Long Descent of collapse that we here at Green Wizards expect for the Future, we will need good stories and successful storytellers. They will be as important to our survival as all the equipment and skills we can muster in the challenges ahead because their tales around the new campfires will give us hope.

I recommend it highly and expect it will be at easy reach in my office from now one among my favorite and most helpful books.

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Two final comments.

First a minor point on the book I found distracting. Bill and Teresa Peschel sprinkle the margins of the book with short little comments, information and quotes. This is something I see more and more as the boundary between book and website blur. I found it a bit distracting, because those tidbits were so interesting. They would pull my eye away from the main text and I'd lose focus. Its a minor quibble and probably more to do with my age than anything. Younger authors who have grown up in the digital age will not have the same problem.

The second point I'd like to mention is that "Career Indie Author" is not just a book for writers. I would encourage Bill and Teresa Peschel to market it to all website owners and ecommerce entrepreneurs. The business basics they describe in their book are incredibly useful for those people too. As the owner and chief bottle washer of the Green Wizards website, as I read this book I could see many ways that I absolutely needed to implement their suggestions for this site.

Pick up a copy of "Career Indie Author" by Bill and Teresa Peschel today. And pick up a couple of yellow highlighters too. You'll need them.

(You can purchase a copy at Peschel Press HERE.)