Topic: Business101

Today we have a guest post from Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen. I'm often asked about how to run a blog and how to become a published author. I thought a post on self-publishing would give some great insight into the process!

I am going to share my journey of self-publishing my two cookbooks, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment and The New Fast Food: The Veggie Queen Pressure Cooks Whole Food Meals in Less Than 30 Minutes …

At least once a week I get an email asking for advice on getting a book deal, and getting a book published.

I'll talk about how I got my book deal, and give some suggestions, but first let me clarify a major point:

Publishing a book is a lot of work for very little pay. Most books aren't successful and many authors never see money for their work outside of the little something they get when they sign their contract. …

One of my motivations for becoming a minimalist was debt. Scott and I did not have a lot of it. I have a mound of educational debt, true, but that didn't bother me. The problem was the small amount of credit card debt. It was only a few thousand, but it was a few thousand more than I wanted.

I think what bothered me most about it was that I felt like I didn't deserve to have it. Yes I …

Every time I speak at conferences, someone in the audience always asks for advice on how to create a successful blog or brand... How can they recreate what I did with Happy Herbivore?

Truthfully, I always feel a little silly giving business advice. I think, "Who am I to give advice? I'm no Donald Trump!" but to get the guts to write this post, I told myself that's exactly why *I* should give advice. I'm NOT Donald Trump. 

After the post of my advice about starting a business, I received several emails with questions about starting a blog.

Blogs are a lot of fun, but they can also be a lot of work. Several of my friends start blogging, only to quit to find it takes up too much of their time. BUT I do believe that blogs can be a good tool for business. You won't make money off a blog, and blogging won't pay the bills …