There are lots of benefits in writing daily within a journal, along with those well documented for mental health, there are great reasons on how it also helps with increasing your skill as an author. Journaling has been shown to help deal with negative thoughts, stress, anxiety and depression, so it is certainly worth considering taking up this practice for many of us (regardless of our writing aspirations).
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But for those who are looking at journaling purely from a writing viewpoint, here are several reasons why you should start writing one today.

It gets you to start writing

This is a bit obvious, however, for many authors the act of staring at a blank page can be a fear inducing experience which results in procrastination. Journaling daily forces you to just write something on a regular basis, it helps to develop your skills and changes your mindset about starting something new.
 
Overcoming writer’s block

Leading on from the first reason, this daily practice and facing a blank page each morning helps you to get into a creative state a great deal easier, writing in a journal without any pressure is a massive boost to creativity and over time allows you to adopt this state of flow when writing on any project.
 
Developing ideas

Writing in a journal is practiced by many authors, business leaders and successful individuals throughout every walk of life, it enables you to get ideas, thoughts, and inspirations down on the page and explore them further. In some cases, you may come back to those ideas at a later date, but once on paper, you’re less likely to forget them.

Practice makes perfect

It has been said, that to become an expert in anything, you should put in at least ten thousand hours practice (and that, is just under 417 days!) So, writing each day 200 – 300 words within a journal helps increase your experience and move a little close to that expert level.
 
It removes any pressure
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Writing in a journal is just for you, you don’t have to share what you write with anyone, so you can do what you like. There really is no pressure at all, and this is great, it enables you to write without fear and be creative, some of it will be great and some of it will be utter crap, but again, it doesn’t matter, just write.

Why your cover art matters (Guest post from Lauren Gebka)

​Your book cover is the first thing people see when they look at your book.
It’s the thing that reels them in and grabs their attention leading them to want to know more.
The cover is what makes the book stand out among the mundane books on the shelf and it adds an extra layer to the buyer's experience. I mean who doesn’t want to carry around a pretty book?

One thing to remember is if a book cover looks like minimal effort was put in then it sends a message to a buyer that the writing could have minimal effort put in as well.

A book cover can make or break the sale of a book.

What makes great book cover art?
​So what makes for great and memorable cover art?
Something that could catch the attention and make the sale.
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Listed below are a few tips on what makes for a great book cover as well as examples.

One of the main points of a book cover is to entice engagement. To get somebody to pick up the book and read the blurb and ultimately buy the book.

Above is an example of a book cover I personally find enticing and would lead me to pick up the book.
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Strong contrast

The reason that a strong contrast is important when wanting to create a great book cover is that you want somebody to pick up your book and be able to read and understand everything that is happening on the cover.

You don’t want your title blending into the background.

You also want your cover to be different and stand out from the crowd. Strong contrast achieves this often and pulls buyers in.

Striking imagery

Let’s think about this one...

How often when you’re browsing in a bookshop are you drawn to a plain and boring cover?

When I’m book shopping, I keep a lookout for book covers with bold and striking imagery – something that engages me enough to pick up the book and make me think “This looks interesting”

There are of course many more factors that make for great book cover art which we cover in detail in our extensive article on book cover art. We also provide 67 examples and studies done to show how cover art helps sales.

Does cover art help book sales?Many things go into book sales but, indeed, a book cover could ultimately make or break the sale.

At the end of the day, the cover is the first thing a buyer sees and the thing that entices them to pick up (or click on) the book.

So the short answer is yes professional cover art does help book sales.

JD&J Design has several excellent book cover design packages you should definitely check out if you need a cover designer.

Beyond the Book CoverWhile your cover makes a big difference, getting the exposure so that more people see your cover in the first place is important too.

Ensure you have a professional author website design and engaging author bio that sells your books and your value as an author.