You’ve seen the enticements on TV when a slew of new movies are soon to be released. The ominous TV voice, spewing forth enticements for you to venture out and watch the next blockbuster film– beckoning you like a siren’s song –triggering the overwhelming desire to relinquish hard earned cash for 2 hours of visual […]
Wholesale Discounts: Create Space vs. Ingram Spark
An Expanded Distribution Channel (EDC) offers authors access to a larger audience: online retailers, bookstores, libraries*, academic institutions*, and other US distributors. However, Create Space is not a distributor, not really. They utilize Ingram Distribution for their “expanded” service. *You must use a Create Space ISBN to be included in their EDC for libraries and […]
Amazon Buy Button Hurting Authors and Publishers
The Amazon Buy Button. It isn’t something we really think about, whether as a customer or as a seller (author / publisher). On May 9, 2017, Amazon rolled out a new policy regarding the way in which it promotes listings in the Amazon Buy Button on a book’s homepage. This can severely hurt publishers and […]
Marketing Health: Pinpointing Marketing Problems
What is your Mid-Year Marketing Health Measurement? Marketing Health: When a helicopter is at rest, the dials on its dashboard are all askew with arrows pointing in different directions. However, when that helicopter is flying straight and level, with no problems, all the arrows are pointing straight up. The pilot can glance at the instrument […]
A Writer is Like a Gardener – an analogy
When writing a novel, many do not fully understand the entire process involved. In this analogy, let’s look at the writing process itself: consider your story idea as a “seed” and your finished published book as a healthy “garden.” Consider the following writing analogy: —- There is a lot of preparation required before planting: tilling the […]
5 Fears of Publication: You Can Do this!
One question I ask aspiring writers is “What is holding you back from taking the next step?” This question is important. Not just for writing, producing, promoting and marketing a book, but for any area of your life. What is holding you back? What is keeping you from taking that next step toward your goal […]
Self Publishing Tip #3: Author Brand Website
PRE-PLAN, PRE-BUILD It is so easy to interact with the world with just a click: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs—just to name a few. And it’s (relatively) free. New authors/writers need this exposure, but not necessarily to sell books, but something far more important: AUTHOR BRANDING. Even before your book is completed, you should have an author presence on […]