Writing and Publishing News

Do you ever think about this? You should, because no one will buy your book if they don’t know it exists. And didn’t you write it and produce it so it would be read—so people would buy it? How can you find out how many people know about your book? Now that’s a tough one. [...]

You’ve all seen them—those complimentary blurbs printed on the back of the books you read. Sometimes you even recognize the names of those who wrote them. What are they for, who should have them and why? Here’s the deal, for many decades—maybe forever—authors have relied on credible experts in their fields to endorse their nonfiction [...]

Someone emailed me after my presentation Tuesday night to tell me that he’d heard me speak before and that he got more out of my talk this time than he did the last time. He figured it was either that I had more to share now or that he was at a place where he [...]

There are two concepts that you need to consider when you have a book to promote. • No one will buy a book they don’t know about. • It is up to the author to promote his or her book. I spoke to a group of 50 or 60 authors and hopeful authors last night—all [...]

What does it take to successfully promote a book? Money or effort? Does it take a bankroll or time and energy? Do you get results from pursuing costly marketing programs or by using a little elbow grease? I suggest spending your money to educate yourself about the huge process of publishing and marketing books. This [...]

How important are book reviews? Is it necessary to get your book reviewed? If you’re still unsure as to the benefits of book reviews and/or if you aren’t quite sure where to go to get a book review, maybe this blog post will help. The fact is, there are many, many opportunities to get your [...]

There are a lot of creative ways you can promote fiction at your website. You do have a website for your novel, don’t you? Here’s what I suggest: • Have an attractive, appealing cover designed for your book so it looks good at your site and when you have it displayed at book festivals and [...]

We’ve been talking about book promotion—in particular, promoting fiction. Today, I’ll discuss a specific promotional activity for novelists—the one that probably scares you the most. I believe in going out and speaking personally to your audience. Readers like to meet the authors they read. When I said that to a new author recently, he laughed [...]

If you write novels, you are probably not the most assertive marketer for your books. And you probably agree with the majority of novelists that books, blog posts and lectures on book promotion are prepared strictly for nonfiction writers. So untrue! Exactly like your nonfiction author counterparts, you need to know who your audience is, [...]

This week, we’ve talked a little about marketing different types of books. I think we’ve established that, while authors can use similar activities to promote their dissimilar books, the venue is often different. Public speaking is a great way to introduce yourself and your book to a group of people who gather because of a [...]