Writing and Publishing News

If you’re not going out and speaking to groups about your book, you could be missing out on sales. I’ve heard authors say, “I’m not doing any more signings, I don’t sell enough books to make it worth my while.” Or “There’s no sense in spending my time speaking to groups, they never buy many [...]

It’s time to start planning for the Ojai Wordfest. This is an 8 day event in our community in early April during which local authors present 100 activities, events, workshops, presentations, readings, etc. all over town. There might be readings by novelists at coffee houses, workshops at the library, meals in private homes with readings/workshops, [...]

This is a revised repeat of a blog I posted within the first few months of this blog site—December 2005. Promotion can be a silent and lonely activity. As an author with a book to sell, you spend quite a bit of time each day/week trying to find readers. (If you aren’t doing this, you [...]

I’m going to say it (write it) again, personality sells books. More than ever, readers want a relationship with their authors. We are exposed to books for sale everywhere we go, online, a variety of specialty stores downtown and in the emails we receive. There’s a lot of competition for authors. Those of you with [...]

Yesterday we talked about speaking outside the club and using speakers bureaus. I want to tell you about a strange situation I got involved in some time back related to someone arranging speaking gigs for me. I have a couple of people who act as minor players in finding speaking and interview opportunities for authors. [...]

There are speakers bureaus with many different agendas, purposes and programs. But the main focus of a speakers bureau is to provide opportunities for speakers as well as to provide speakers for various activities and events. Corporation and organization program directors often turn to speakers bureaus to locate appropriate speakers for their conferences, conventions and [...]

I have a busy week ahead. I’m preparing a presentation for the Cat Writers Association Conference in Los Angeles Friday morning. I’ll be talking about self-publishing (or pay-to-publish services). Saturday morning, I sit on a book promotion panel at the Ventura County Writers Weekend in Camarillo, California. I have been asked to prepare a brief [...]

Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More has its first review—a 5-star review. You can see it at Amazon.com or at the reviewer’s website: www.SimonTeakettle.com/13reviewfry.htm Order your copy at Amazon today. It’s discounted already! To get to the book page at Amazon, type the [...]

There are many tasks involved when you take on the responsibility of promoting your book. And if you publish a book, you most certainly have taken on the responsibility of promoting it. If you don’t accept that responsibility, your book will die. That’s the hard truth of it. Public speaking is a major book promotion [...]

I’m preparing for a presentation Saturday and have been lining up talks for my 2013 calendar. In the process, I noticed that my list of possible presentation ideas was kind of sparse. I decided it was time to add to my repertoire. So I came up with around ten new, hopefully, intriguing speech titles. Once [...]