Orna Ross

As featured in

The Guardian BBC The Sunday Times PWB The Book Seller
Orna Ross Header Image
Join The Club | Login
Header pattern
Header pattern

Blog

Blog Page Feature Image

Tips and tools for creatives and creativists. And my latest news.

Creative Writing.Creative Publishing.Creative Living.

Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing

Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description

June 23, 2017

A weekly column by digital book marketer, Caoimhe O’Brien. Last week, I spoke about blurbs, also known as book descriptions, and the importance of utilizing their full potential. I posted the original blurb for Orna’s book After the Rising and explained that we were going to improve it, using the techniques that I mentioned. To recap, some important points we considered were: Easy-to-read. Use spacing rather than bulky paragraphs HTML. Use HTML to make the blurb more eye-catching Length. Search engines use blurbs to direct readers to your book. Use the power of your full word allowance. Comparable titles. As…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds
June 22, 2017
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross. This week: The Wonder of Blurbs
June 16, 2017
Creative Writing: Creative Presence, My Poetry

Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds

June 22, 2017

I come down to the sea to sit on a rock, and meditate, all thought undone, in the waves’ whoosh and turn. A young man comes, sits down on another one, takes out a guitar starts to strum. Above, on the promenade the runners have begun to run. On the road, the traffic is starting to thrum. Down here where the waves whoosh and turn, we sit on, the young singer and I, two faces upturned, warmed by the same sun the same sky and the sound of the sea underscoring his song. For me, a poem is a key,…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description
June 23, 2017
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross. This week: The Wonder of Blurbs
June 16, 2017
Creative Living: Be More Creative

Creative Living: Conversations About Creative Education And Creativism

June 21, 2017

It’s been a week for fun conversations about creativity and education. I chatted to Bill Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep, in a private interview about self-publishing for his forthcoming book about the transformation of the arts and arts careers in the new economy. And I had these questions from a journalist about creativism: I thought you might like to read the answers. Is there a creativist within all of us that we can tap into or is this the difference between people? Creativism draws on what is a universal capacity and source of power. The problem is that had been suppressed in…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
The Go Creative! Show Episode 20: The Creativist Club Is Open
May 7, 2017
Walk Up To The Go Creative! Show Episode 20: The Creativist Club Is Open
May 5, 2017
Haiku of the Week Features: Seagulls
April 6, 2017
Creative Publishing: Self-publishing News

Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog

June 20, 2017

Every Tuesday, I bring you the Self-Publishing Advice Blog highlights of the past seven days. This week, our intrepid news editor, Dan Holloway’s, news round-up included Amazon’s newest acquisition, the latest ebook figures, Draft2Digital’s venture into the audio world, and justice is served to JK Publishing. I held my monthly Q&A, inviting special guest Joseph Alexander along – a non-fiction indie author. We started off by chatting about Joseph’s journey from guitar teacher to a million dollar brand, before moving on to the Member Q&A session where he offered sound, actionable advice that any beginning indie author could benefit from. Listen here. Laura Morelli addressed the contentious issue of indies…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description
June 23, 2017
Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds
June 22, 2017
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross. This week: The Wonder of Blurbs
June 16, 2017
Creative Living: Create Dates

Creative Living: My Weekly Create Date

June 17, 2017

A Create Date is a weekly outing, spent doing something that 1] you’d really like to do; 2] you haven’t done before, or for a very long time; and 3] is pure play for you (not work in disguise). It may not feel like it but it’s an important creative practice. Conscious creation is about the play of ideas and insights and this creative play replenishes our well of images, ideas and inspiration. When choosing a Create Date, just ask yourself, “what sounds like fun?” And then allow yourself to do it. (Alert: expect creative resistance. Create dates show us…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing

Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross. This week: The Wonder of Blurbs

June 16, 2017

A weekly column by digital book marketer, Caoimhe O’Brien. This week we have been re-writing some of Orna’s blurbs for her fiction books. Blurbs are so important to get right as they are one of the first thing that a reader sees when they look at your book on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks… The best blurbs are easy to read, genre appropriate, and grab a reader’s attention right away. You should always be conscious of what appears above the Read More button (see below), as you want to ensure that the reader is enticed to click through and read to the…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description
June 23, 2017
Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds
June 22, 2017
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017
Creative Writing: My Poetry

Poems To Inspire: The Daisy Dance

June 15, 2017

And what can we learn / from the daisies / on this summer day? / The lazy ways of their / opening?/ The unfurling of petal / light fingers, cupping yellow / fistfuls of wind / to dance with the sky? For me, a poem is a key, unlocking a moment in time and revealing the infinite well of possibilities that every moment holds. Poetry brings us to creative presence. Interested in reading more?

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description
June 23, 2017
Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds
June 22, 2017
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017
Creative Publishing: Self-publishing News

Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog

June 13, 2017

Every Tuesday, I bring you the Self-Publishing Advice Blog highlights of the past seven days. This week, our intrepid news editor, Dan Holloway’s, news round-up included the latest offering from Pronoun and IPR; news of Reedsy’s collaboration with Blurb, KDP’s new dashboard format, and the latest audiobook demographic info. Joanna Penn and I had our monthly Self Publishing Salon. This week we covered: Money and Creativity Where Readers Convene Amazon Buy Button KDP Categories The upcoming Dublin Writer’s Conference Joanna’s end of year books sales And more. Catch up here. Richard Lowe explains the role of professional networking for self-publishers in his post, What Smart Indie Authors Know About…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross. This week: The Wonder of Blurbs
June 16, 2017
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing For Orna Ross 2: Keywords, Categories & KDP Rocket
June 7, 2017
Creative Living: St Leonards On Sea

Create Date: Walking St Leonards on Sea

June 10, 2017

As any creative or creativist knows, life moves in mysterious ways. A year ago, I’d never heard of this place called St Leonard’s on Sea. Now we’re getting ready to call it home. Last October, we came down to Hastings for a weekend, for their 1066 celebrations. Being us, we booked late and so stayed out in St Leonard’s instead of the town center. The moment we arrived, we loved it and though we’d no thought of ever moving from London, epilepsy was making us rethink whether city life was best for us. The moment we arrived, we loved it. Although…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Christmas Light
December 24, 2011
Keeping Christmas Well.
December 15, 2010
Creative Writing: My Poetry

Poems To Inspire: I Am

June 8, 2017

I have thoughts/ but I am not my thoughts. I am/ one who sees them swirl. What can be seen/ is not the seer. I have/ thoughts but my thoughts are not me. I have a body / but I am not my body. I am / one who makes it move. What can be moved/ is not the mover. I have/ a body but my body is not me./ I have feelings/ but I am not my feelings. I am/ one who feels them feel. What can be felt/ is not the feeler. I have / feelings but my feelings are not…

Continue reading
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment in The Guestbook
Related posts
Creative Publishing: Digital Book Marketing for Orna Ross: Improving Your Book Description
June 23, 2017
Poems to Inspire: Sea Sounds
June 22, 2017
Creative Publishing: Highlights from the Alliance of Independent Authors Self-Publishing Advice Blog
June 20, 2017

Popular posts

Creative Living

The Font of All Creative Achievement

April 8, 2016
It shouldn’t surprise us that we travel through this world as we do, full of desires: we’re children of longing. Some years ago, by some strange destiny, an egg...
Creative Living: Celebrity Creativists

Go Creative Guest: Mavis Staples on Treating Everyone Right

May 17, 2016
Creative Living: Creativist Musings

Do you have an equality complex?

October 13, 2015
Creative Living: Excerpts

Susan Pollexfen Yeats: In Search of WB Yeats's Mother

November 11, 2014
Creative Living: Be More Creative, Creative Practice

The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow #7: Inspiration Meditation

August 14, 2016
The essence of Inspiration Meditation is the soundless vibration of internal creative energy.  A form of mantra meditation, it focuses the mind and draws your attention inwards, leading to...
Creative Living: Be More Creative

Creative Living: Conversations About Creative Education And Creativism

June 21, 2017
Creative Writing: Behind the books, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, Iseult Gonne

WB Yeats & Maud Gonne: The Greatest Love Story That Never Was?

February 14, 2016
Creative Publishing

The 3rd Stage of the Creative Process. Investigation.

January 17, 2011
Creative Living: Be More Creative

The Creative Breathwork Series: Beat Block & Foster Flow
 #5: 4-7-8 Breathing

August 10, 2016
Adopt the usual position. Close you mouth and place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there...