Video Presentations

Whenever I get paid to teach a workshop, once those who have paid me have gotten their moneys worth, I turn it into a free to watch video on YouTube.

Earning Beyond Royalties

Bob made a video version of his popular workshop about diversifying your revenue as a creative. Grab the PowerPoint below!

Organic Marketing for Authors!

Using actual examples from his career, he shows you how to market your books without paying money, all organically.

"So You Want To Write A Book..."

Bob presented this workshop "So You Want To Write A Book..." on tips and tricks to finishing that first novel! This is essentially the part 1 to his other workshop "I've Written A Book, Now What?"

I've Written A Book, Now What?"

Bob presented this workshop "I've Written A Book, Now What?" on what you should be doing once you finish writing that first book! This is essentially the part 2 to his other workshop "So You Want To Write A Book..."

What Authors Need To Know About AI

This is a recording I made of the workshop I presented at the Atlanta Self Publishing Conference. Title says it all.

Bob's Guide To Elevator Pitches

I'm known for my elevator pitch. So I thought I would break it down, what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, what makes a great one.

The Saga of a Table: How Bob's Event Table Has Evolved Over the Years

Bob breaks down the history of his table at events, from the early days until now. He talks about why he has added (or removed) things from his setup, with the logic and results behind it. If you want to level up your table at events, learn what to do and what not to do!

Classes and Workshop Files

Here are the files that go with the presentations above. Click each button to download the files you need.

Want to Shadow a Portly Author and Learn about Selling Books?

Let me help you.

The picture here? The one with the guy with incredible, jealousy inducing hair, and even more jealousy inducing book covers standing beside me? That's Alexander Nader, and this was his first event doing in person sales.

Alex and I have been friends for a couple of years now, and when I saw I was doing an event somewhat near him in Tennessee I reached out to see if he would want to share a table with me. He was all in, but made it clear he was going to have some questions ahead of time. I made it clear that I would absolutely love to answer his questions. He asked me stuff like how many books to order, what he needed to bring, that sort of stuff. We then spent a weekend hanging out and slinging books.

I followed up a couple weeks after, and asked if he thought he'd be doing anymore in person events. He rattled off a list of things he had/was applying to be in. My fat little heart grew three times that day.

Are you like Alex was? An author/creative who has never done in person sales before, but want to? Or maybe you've done it on a small scale, but aren't sure how to take it to the next level? I would LOVE to help!

If you would like to come shadow me for a weekend, be my intern as it were, I would be happy to show you the ropes. Just look at my upcoming events. Is there one near enough to you that you could easily come out? Then just shoot me a message on social media, or on my contact form on this site. We'll coordinate the details, and then you can come learn from the...well not the best. The mid? The pretty decent?

Look, this is free, moderate expectations.

If you think you are ready to actually sell in person, got your table laid out and such, then this offer isn't really for you. In that case, just see if I am looking to share a booth, or if I know someone who is, and we will get you set up if possible. This offer is for folks who are just starting to dip their toes in the water as it were. I'm happy to help drown you.

What you will learn things like:

• How to lure people to your booth without being super annoying.

• Why I set things on the table the way that I do.

• What mistakes I have made, and how I fixed them.

• Why coke zero tastes better than diet coke.

• General best practices around selling in person.

• You can also pick my brain about anything really. You have a captive audience, as long as I am not in the middle of a sale, you can ask me anything.

Things to consider before messaging me:

• If this is an event with an entry fee, you will have to cover that for yourself (unless my booth has a spare badge I can let you use (which is not often)). Same goes for parking. Unless we are able to coordinate riding together in some way. Spoiler: I kinda hate coordinating ride sharing when I am trying to get to/get set up at a con.

• I can't cover any sort of food or lodging. I mean, I will ensure you are properly hydrated, but food at these events is expensive, and margins are tight.

• Are you a student of some sort? Or someone for whom a letter of recommendation as an 'intern' would help? If you help out, I will write you one, no problem.

• I'm not going to make you work hard. If you are there and want to help load in/set up, cool. If not, the rest of this 'job' is standing around talking to folks. It's not super taxing physically, so long as you are good with standing for a few hours. Feel free to bring a chair if not.

• You will probably be left to watch the booth while I run to the bathroom/a panel at some point. Unless I know you really well, you won't be handling money during those times, unless Ben or someone is around and you are cool with it. You may end up making a food run to whatever food source they have on site. That's about it.

• If I am sharing a booth space with another author(s), I will get their permission before I agree to let you come hang. They may work you harder than me. Ben likes his steak medium, with a nice house made aioli. Venessa likes her tea served at precisely 173.5 degrees. Paige is going to pistol whip the next intern who brings her coffee without a splash of vanilla cream.

• I kid of course. We're authors: we're all pretty easy (like your mom, oooo).

• A sense of humor is required. You don't have to have one yourself, but you have to be ok with us having one. And be ready for all manner of bad/great puns.

• You aren't locked into hanging at the booth. Go check out other stuff, have fun, go to panels. Treat my table as a home base where you can ask a million questions, but you don't have to stay there. I'm not your mom (I'm even easier, oooo).

• I want this to be accessible to as many folks as possible. If you have a financial hardship that the above would absolutely preclude you from taking part, reach out, maybe we can work something out. Same goes for if you have a disability, visible or not. Just loop me in as much as I need to be, and I will work with you.

So yeah, there it is, my offer to you! Come hang, and lets get you started down the path to in person sales! Here is what Silas Reames had to say after interning for a couple of days. Of note, the very next year she did the same event with us as a full member of the booth! Here is what she had to say, after her stint as our 'intern.'

"This was my second ever con and I had an absolute blast hanging out with Ben (Meeks) and Bob for the weekend. As someone who had largely stuck to online sales until recently, sharing space with other authors who knew what they were doing took a lot of the pressure off. Ben has all the confidence I aspire to, and he knows how to engage with people and get them to the booth to begin with. Both of these guys are masters of the short pitch. It's hard to beat "a redneck wizard with a crippling meth addiction". That line always got a response. While this isn't the fun part, Bob is also incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to the business portion of things, including taxes. No one likes taxes, but he cleared up for me in ten minutes what multiple calls to state offices hadn't gotten answered. It's not the most interesting part of being an author, but at least now I know how to get my tax paperwork together and avoid angering the IRS. These two, along with the other authors at the con, were friendly and welcoming. I'd absolutely share a space with either of them again. That may also be because I'm not quite ready to do a solo booth yet!" - Author Silas Reames

Silas Reames, Intern Extraordinaire!

Bob and Ben, the Handselling Dream Team

Alex selling at a later event, and killing it!

Bob and Alex at Chattacon

My Recommendations

Writing Excuses

If you want a podcast to listen to about the craft of writing, I recommend Writing Excuses. 15 minute episodes featuring Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Taylor as hosts. Just remember to take it in small doses, or it will overwhelm you. Maybe just do a couple episodes a week. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Or check out the website HERE.

The Writers' Troupe

Most facebook groups, especially author based ones, are rarely worth the time. As such I can only recommend one group if you want to be a writer, The Writers' Troupe. Its a mix of authors, published and not, with lots of activities like weekly write-ins. Very welcoming to new people. You can check it out HERE.

Specific Software I Recommend

One common theme you will see across all (but one) of these is that none of them are software that require a monthly fee. Each of them you buy it once, and you own it. This is why you won’t see programs like Adobe or Word on this list. So here is my list of the software I have learned to use to do…whatever I need to do. I am listing them in the order in which I started using them regularly enough to say I am at least somewhat proficient with them:

Google Drive - Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms

I use this in place of the Microsoft Office suite of products. As an added bonus, it's hosted in the cloud, so wherever I am I can access it. This means my laptop, my phone, a desktop at a friends, wherever. I can pick up and write anywhere in the world, as well as track information in sheets, like my monthly recaps. This is free software.

GoDaddy - Website Hosting/Builder

Obviously I pay a recurring fee for this. Also, this isn’t really a bit of software. I include it to show that this is what I do to build my websites. They provide a website builder as part of the fee, and this means I can make changes on my own, as many times as I want, without having to go through a webmaster/web designer. Honestly, if you plan to have more than one website (like me) I do not recommend GoDaddy. But if you have plans for only one site, it's great. Slightly pricey, but I think it’s worth the expense. Check it out HERE.

Audacity - Audio Editing/Podcasts

Audacity is an open source audio editing software. Whenever I record a podcast I take the MP# file and drop it into Audacity to adjust the overall volume levels, add in the intro and outro, that sort of thing. You can also use Audacity to make recordings, and if you are doing a solo podcast, it’s actually great for that. It just runs into some issues I have found when you try to use multiple microphones and the like. That may have changed over time, but I’ve moved on now for that use case. This is free software. Check it out HERE.

Affinity Designer - Vector Editing, Marketing, Covers

Affinity Designer is a direct competitor to Adobe Illustrator. And you know what? You don’t have to pay each month to use it. I use it to make all of my promo images, and my book covers. It’s a really powerful tool, that honestly I only use a fraction of its capabilities (because I haven’t as yet had to use them). There are tooooons of youtube videos that will teach you all manner of niche use cases. I got this (and the two companion products Publisher and Photo) for 25 bucks each during covid. When they released the second edition of it, I was able to get them all for 25 each again. Check it out HERE.

OBS - Open Broadcasting Software for Recording Podcasts

Remember how I said I moved on from Audacity for recording? I used Protools for a bit, then shifted to zoom. But Protools was expensive (I was using a free version that I refused to upgrade), and zoom had a monthly fee (to record longer than 45 minutes which most of the time I am). So I finally took the plunge of learning OBS…which was actually a lot easier than when I tried to do so years ago. You can use it for livestreaming, recording livestreams, and recording…pretty much anything. This is how I record things like Books, Beards, Booze and my workshops. This is free software. Check it out HERE.

Affinity Publisher - More Complex Book Layouts/Zines

I have had Publisher as long as I have had Designer, but I only recently (2024) started actively using it. It’s book layout software. And I will be honest, it's a bit more complicated than I would like for just laying out a normal book. Powerful, but that power comes at a cost, and that’s total ease of use. But I am loving it for Zine layouts! Zines are more complex to layout, so they really need that power. Check it out HERE.

Atticus - Book Layouts

Atticus however is about as intuitive as you could ever want when it comes to book layouts. This is what I am using for all my book layouts now. Upload your edited file, and it will probably go ahead and split into chapters for you, build out your table of contents, etc. You can drop in your back matter with the click of a button, automatically generate your copyright, and have it laid out for pretty much any print of digital format you could dream of. I got it on sale for Black Friday 2023. Check it out HERE.

Want This Type Of Stuff, But In A Book?!

I got you fam! I wrote a self help book for creatives, that shows you how to become me, just hopefully slimmer and with even more puns.

Being creative is a great thing!

Using that creativity to get noticed is even better.

You want to know how to achieve your goals as a creative, and this book is here to help you do just that! But lots of books will help you in that regard, so why choose this one?

Because it’s not boring.

Author Bob McGough is an odd dude who has lived a weird life. Drawing from many years of quirky lived experience, he details how to use your creativity to get noticed, using actual examples from his life. Sure, you could read a book from an actual big name success. But why not try one from a creative who’s in the trenches grinding away alongside you? Someone just a little farther along the path, who has taught others how to reach their goals?

Part autobiography, part instructional guidebook it will keep you interested as an otherwise usually boring topic gets discussed. He gets incredibly transparent with you, be it with exact sales numbers or how depression has influenced his career. There are guides to get you started, ideas to get you thinking, and actual examples to keep you interested!

And with this second edition, it’s now over four times longer and contains over 50 curse words, several terrible puns, and more self-deprecating humor than is probably healthy!

Create Your Way To Freedom!