Sell

Articles about book / author promotion and marketing, and author platform.

Create Printed Marketing Materials to Promote Your Book

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Many authors and indie publishers rely on online book marketing tools like websites, blogs, email and social media to promote their books. But you may also need some printed materials such as bookmarks, business cards, postcards, sell sheets, and posters.

Designing and printing marketing materials can be costly, so make sure you have a clear need and purpose for these items in your book marketing plan before you purchase them.

Bookmarks are great for distributing at book fairs and events and to bookstores that stock your book. Posters may also be useful for events and bookstores. Libraries like to receive posters and bookmarks for children’s books. If you do a lot of speaking or other events where you’re selling books, consider having a retractable banner made.

If you meet people at speaking engagements, networking events, or other venues, you’ll need business cards. Two-sided business cards cost a little more, but you can showcase your book on one side and your contact information on the other. If you need business cards only occasionally, you might design bookmarks with your contact information so they can double as business cards.

 

Postcards are especially effective for announcing the publication of a new book, but make sure you have a good mailing list before ordering them. You can send postcards to friends, family, and business contacts, and you may also be able to rent mailing lists for your specific target market or exchange lists with a colleague.

Postage is expensive, so if your mailing is more than 200 pieces you may benefit from using bulk mail rates. Check with a local mailhouse for pricing. You can also save by printing your postcard at 4×6 inches and mailing it at the 28-cent postcard rate instead of first class.

Most correspondence is done by email these days, so it’s likely that you won’t need any printed letterhead. If you ship books to customers, you may want to buy mailing labels or return address labels.

A sell sheet is a flyer that’s used to promote books to libraries and bookstores and can also be included in press kits or distributed online in PDF format. It’s important to include the ISBN and other vital statistics and a list of wholesalers where the book is available. Here’s an example of a sell sheet.

If you’re a nonfiction author with other products and services to sell, you might benefit from using promotional items like custom printed pens or sticky notes.

Your book cover designer may be able to design coordinating marketing materials for you. Cover designer Anton Khodakovsky has several samples of book marketing items on his website, including a poster, sell sheet, postcard, business card, and bookmark, all designed to coordinate with the cover of George Beck’s thriller, Trounce.

Many subsidy publishing companies offer book marketing materials such as postcards and business cards. Before purchasing these products, have a plan for using them and find out how much input you will have in the copy and design. You can probably get these pieces printed at a lower cost elsewhere, but be sure to factor in the cost of graphic design.

Here are some more tips for producing book marketing materials to promote your book:

•    Make sure there’s a sales message on your printed materials, not just a book cover and title, and always include your website address.

•    Brand your printed materials to coordinate with your book cover, website, and other marketing items.

•    Items like bookmarks and postcards are much cheaper per unit when ordered in larger quantity. Think about all the ways you can use these items and consider ordering in quantity.

•    Compare prices with local printers as well as online printers such as PrintingForLess.com, but don’t forget to factor in shipping costs. Local printers may be more economical for smaller quantities and they may also have graphic artists available to prepare artwork the artwork.

Printed materials can be very effective in promoting your book, but you’ll get the most benefit from your investment when use them strategically.

 

 

This is a cross-posting from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

If Only I Had More Time…

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"The time has gone, the song is over. Thought I’d something more to say." – Pink Floyd
 
I originally had planned on blogging the next installment on breaking the rules in writing. But the past couple weeks have seen the chronic problem of time management rear its ugly head. I’ve gotten relatively little writing and promotion done, and that looks to continue for a while.

 
The fact is that if you want something badly enough, you find a way to do it. Almost everyone can find an extra 30 or 60 minutes, and you can get a hell of a lot done in an hour a day. A lot of writers can write a thousand words (or more) in an hour – that’s 365,000 words a year in that extra hour. If it’s important, you’ll do it.
 
I don’t want to spend the post complaining about my specific problems. Whatever I could say is keeping me from working much on writing/promotion, someone could point out examples of people who worked through much worse. I’ve thought a lot about the details and the options and I have come to a conclusion: writing is not important enough to me.
 
Now don’t get me wrong, I love to write, and I have no intention of stopping. I’ll have more novels, more short stories, more podcasts, and more promotions. This is not a post about giving up or stopping. But writing isn’t the only thing I love to do. Nor is it the most important thing I do, either personally or generally. And the other things that are also important are preventing me putting in the time I need to keep my writing "moving forward" on the various necessary levels.
 
So that means I need to make some choices. A while back I wrote a post about writers not letting themselves off the hook. The gist was that it is critical not to let yourself say that because you can’t do something perfectly or completely, you won’t do it at all. In a lot of ways, what I’ve been struggling with over the past two weeks is how to remain true to that.
 
So I have come to a decision, one that I think will feel more definite if I put it in writing, in public. From now until the end of June, I am going to focus on completing a thriller novella that I am about 9000 words into. I may also do a few edits of a short story, and I may do a submission or two of existing work, but blogging, promotion, social networking and podcasting are all going to take a back seat. Those things are important, but at this point I need to generate some more content. Both for my own sanity and for the potential growth of my fan-base, this is what I must do.
 
I fully expect that sometime in the future, I will write a post saying something roughly the opposite of what I’m saying now: that I’ve written some things and now I need to buckle down and spread the word. Life is not static; things change. I have found that in order to continue making progress, I need to re-evaluate things on a regular basis. And that’s what I’ve done in recent weeks.
 
If you’ve gotten through this post, I’d ask two things of you. First, tell me in the comments how/if you deal with situations where something simply has to give.
 
Second, wish me luck. This new thriller? It’s gonna rock.
 

This is a cross-posting from the Edward G. Talbot site.

Establishing A Brand

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I have been working my way through the Platform/Promo Lessons in Publetariat’s Vault University curriculum  by April Hamilton and Zoe Winters (I was fortunate enough to win access to Vault University as a winner of Publetariat’s First Anniversary Contest.) While I don’t plan on revealing any detail on the excellent material presented in this curriculum (if you are interested, the fee is just $5 a month for monthly lessons, and I would highly recommend signing up and/or purchasing a copy of April Hamilton’s Indie Author Guide), I am using the subject headings of the sixteen “lessons” in the curriculum to evaluate my own attempts at promotion of my historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery. As someone who has been teaching (and therefore evaluating students) for 35 years I figure it will be a humbling experience to see how well I have learned my lessons!

 
Over five years ago, in one of my last attempts to get an earlier version of my book published through traditional means, I went to a local writers convention where numerous speakers talked about the need to establish a brand. At the time, I remember being discouraged by the news that marketing departments of traditional publishers seemed to have achieved the ascendency in publishing, and that only those authors who could demonstrate a sure-fire market for their “brand” had a hope of getting published.  Nevertheless, I had to admit as a reader I responded to the visual cues book covers and posters offered me when I browsed bookstores, looking for the latest work by a favorite author, or looking for new authors to try out. If this is what was meant by a “brand,” well, that I could understand!
 
Consequently, a year ago as I began to rewrite my manuscript, I also began to think about how I would establish those visual clues for my future readership. The most obvious information I needed to convey about my book was that it was an historical mystery set in the Victorian era. The book was also to be the first in a series of mysteries with the same protagonists, set in San Francisco, emphasizing different female occupations of the era. Ultimately the choices I would make for the title of the book, the name I used as author, and the cover of the book would all be part of providing the visual clues that would “establish my brand.”
 
Title:
I had already decided on Maids of Misfortune as my primary title, (it sounded dramatic, domestic servants play key roles in the mystery, and no other books by that title seemed to exist), but now I had to decide on the subtitle, which I would carry through the subsequent books in the series. I had done enough reading about the increasingly important role the internet plays in modern book marketing to know the title of the book could play a crucial role in determining whether or not a potential reader could find my book. Using “late Nineteenth Century” sounded too academic, and I eliminated the two most obvious alternative terms used for the late Victorian period, “Gaslight” and “Gilded Age” because a google search revealed too many other authors with multiple books had already expropriated those tag lines. So I decided simply to make my subtitle as descriptive as possible, referring to both the time period and the setting, and the sub-title A Victorian San Francisco Mystery has certainly done the trick.
 
If you do a search in Amazon books and use the term “historical mystery,” over 7000 titles pop up, but when you put in “victorian mystery,” the list narrows to 323. In addition, after being out for 6 months, Maids Of Misfortune is second on that list. If you put in another term that is popular for series with female protagonists “women sleuths” you get over 11,000 titles, but when you put in the term “San Francisco mystery” you get 589 titles (who knew there were so many mysteries set in San Francisco!) and I am pleased to say that currently Maids of Misfortune comes up first on that list. My intention is to use this subtitle on the rest of the books in the series, which should cement it as part of my “brand.”
 
Author’s Name:
My birth certificate says Mary Louisa Locke, but growing up I was always called Mary Lou, a hokey 1950s sort of name (for those of you out there of the baby boom generation-all I need to say is Ricky Nelson).  I never wanted to be called Mary (my grandmother’s and oldest Aunt’s names), and Mary Louisa sounded so old-fashioned-so Mary Lou it stayed. When I married in 1972 (not coincidentally the year Ms Magazine started) I decided to keep my own name, so I remained Mary Lou Locke. When I got my doctorate and started teaching, I shifted to Dr. Locke as the way I introduced myself because it was easier than correcting people when they called me either Mrs. or Miss, since nobody seemed willing to use Ms. Besides, as part of a small number of women with doctorates in history, I was proud of the honorific. Meanwhile, my husband and close friends got in the habit of calling me Lou.

 

So, what variation of my name should I use as an author? I find it amusing to realize I never spent any time as a girl wondering what my “married name” would be, but I have spent a good deal of time over the years wondering what my pen name would be. In part this was because when I started writing a novel, I was at the beginning of my academic career, had written several articles as Dr. Mary Lou Locke, and thought that it might be useful to keep my fiction and non-fiction personas separate. But fast forward thirty some years, and I was now at the end of my academic and teaching career, and this motivation was gone. I tried different iterations of my name (including adding my husband’s last name in the mix) but the one that sounded the most Victorian to me was M. Louisa Locke. In fact when I said it out loud, it always reminded me of the name “Louisa May Alcott,” and what could sound more Victorian to potential readers than that?  So M. Louisa Locke became my pen name, and not a few people have mentioned how very “nineteenth century” it sounds.
 
I also decided to use that name as my domain name for the website I established, for all social networks, and my email address. It was a name that didn’t show up when I first searched for it, so I knew that by using it consistently it would also start establishing a high web presence. Now when you google M. Louisa Locke it is the only link you find in the first page of listings.
 
Cover:
There are numerous articles on why the cover design is one of your most important marketing tools, and I decided that this was one area of self-publishing my book that I did not want to do myself. However, one of the benefits of publishing my own book was that I could have full control over the final design of the book cover. After doing some comparative shopping on the web, looking at book covers of historical mysteries, and asking everyone if they knew any professional designers, I came up with someone who met my needs perfectly. I wanted someone who was not only a professional designer, but someone who might actually read and enjoy the kind of light, romantic mystery I had written.
 
Michelle Huffaker, who designed the cover of Maids of Misfortune, was local, so I could actually talk face to face with her and lend her books I had accumulated on Victorian fashion, interior design, architecture; she was both an artist and a professional web-designer, so she knew how to present for the web and prepare images for electronic books and print on demand; and she was a reader of light fiction (and didn’t begin her design until she had read the completed manuscript.)
 
I knew what elements I wanted on the cover. I wanted the background of the cover to represent Victorian wallpaper, which was characterized by linear patterns and I wanted a deep red, which is a signature color of the Victorian period. In the center of the front cover I wanted an illustration of a mistress and servant I had found in a late Victorian magazine.
Michelle Huffaker gave me that and more (and at a very reasonable price).
 

 
If you look closely at the cover you will see that she manipulated the classic Victorian pattern she found for the cover so that the edges were darker than the center, and, as a result, it really looks like the kind of fading you would find in old wallpaper. She researched Victorian fonts, finding fonts that not only stand out, even in small thumbnails pictures, but also evoke the nineteenth century. And she placed the black and white illustration into an ornate frame, again very historically accurate, so that it looks like you are seeing a reflection in a mirror. I have gotten nothing but compliments on the cover, including how professional it looks (a real plus for an independently published book.)
 
I couldn’t be happier, and I feel that the cover design, along with the title, and my name, provide the strong visual clues I was looking for. I don’t think that anyone who sees the book would think they are looking at a contemporary mystery, or a hard-boiled detective novel, so I feel confident I am on my way to establishing my “brand” as the writer of cozy-style, historical mysteries that are set in Victorian San Francisco.
What do you think? Comments are welcome.

 

This is a cross-posting from M. Louisa Locke‘s The Front Parlor.

Writing Q&A: Finding Time, Finishing Work, Short Story Markets And What To Do After A First Draft

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Here are some questions that have been sent in by readers.

How does one find the time between work, family, and other commitments to write the book one wants to write?
This is one of the most common questions asked, and basically there is only one answer.

There is not enough time to do everything, so what are you going to give up in order to write your book?
I personally went down to working 4 days per week, plus gave up TV ( I do download shows from iTunes but it cuts out watching crap!). I also have very little social life, but am a happy hermit! Here are some more ideas for finding time. Here is a free audio on Beating Procrastination.
 
What is your inspiration that keeps you moving towards finishing your book? I’ve got lots of “chunks” of text that i need to assemble into a coherent title (or series of titles).
The only thing that can keep you moving is wanting to achieve the goal of writing your book. Much of the ‘assembly’ can be boring but you have to push through that. Persistence and discipline have to be the hallmarks of anyone successful at anything. Here is some more help:
I’ve almost finished my 1st draft, what do I do next?
“Writing a book is rewriting”, I think Michael Crichton said that, but many other writers will say the same thing. The first draft is just the very start, but at least it gives you the rough material to work with. From here, you need to think about the following:
  • Rewriting, editing, proof-reading and rewriting cycle – here is a great post on different types of editing from Self Publishing Review. Whether you are going to submit to an agent, or going down the self-publishing route, you need to go through editing and rewriting to make the book as good as it can be. Yes, you will be sick of it, but it will be a better product. I have hired editors before to get a professional viewpoint.
Short Story markets. For question #–I’m a short story writer and would be interested in doing an anthology.

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Promote Your Book by Commenting on Blog Posts

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Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to get visibility, build relationships with bloggers, subtly promote your book, and get links back to your site (if the site gives "do-follow" links). But you can hurt your credibility if you go about it the wrong way. Here are some tips for successful blog commenting:

Actively look for relevant blogs to comment on. Subscribe to the feed of the most important blogs in your area of interest, and use tools like Google Alerts to keep an eye out for relevant posts on other blogs. You can also use Google Blog Search or blog directories like My Blog Log to find blogs that are a good fit.

Contribute to the conversation. Don’t just drop by and say "great post."  Instead, make a thoughtful comment that contributes something. You might offer an additional tip or real-life example, or expand on a point the blogger made. If you’re commenting on a book review, explain why you enjoyed reading the book. Your comment doesn’t have to be long, but you do need to say something useful and relevant. Do not give the impression that you are just there to promote your book or leave a link to your site.

Don’t make inappropriate comments. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with a point that someone has made (and many bloggers encourage disparate views), but do so in a polite, respectful way. I’m amazed at some of the rude and tacky things people say on blogs and in online forums.

Don’t be overtly promotional. Commenting on someone else’s blog is not the place to blatantly promote your book or services.  However, there are subtle ways to convey that you are an expert on the topic being discussed and encourage people to click on your name to visit your website.

You might work in a reference to your book related to the comment you are making. Here are some examples:

"Twitter is such an important tool for authors that I devoted an entire chapter in my book to promoting through Twitter."

"In researching my book, Selling Your Book to Libraries, I discovered that . . ."

"Because I write mystery novels myself, I really appreciated the way that the author . . ."

Depending on the topic under discussion, I sometimes sign my name with a tag line such as "Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer" or "Dana Lynn Smith, author of Facebook Guide for Authors."  Some people include their website address in their signature, but many bloggers frown on this. Creating a signature that’s several lines long and blatantly promotional is not appropriate. Some people think that including any type of signature or reference to your book is too promotional.

You will have to use your judgment to determine what is appropriate, but you might look at what other commenters on the blog are doing as a guideline. Just remember that you are a guest on someone else’s site and mind your manners. Comments, anyone?

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Blogging for Authors by book marketing coach Dana Lynn Smith. For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s Savvy Book Marketer blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter.

It's Not Who You Know

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We’ve all heard the old adage:

It’s not what you know but who you know that matters.  
 
Apart from being a conspiracy-theorist’s dream excuse, the adage does have a grain of truth in it. Relationships and networking may matter as much or more in business as your skill set.

 
I mention this because of a blog post put up by Debbie Stier, Senior V.P. and Associate Publisher at HarperStudio, and Director of Digital Marketing at HarperCollins. It’s a short personal piece about an epiphany in Debbie’s work life, but it also speaks volumes about the book business and how it actually works.
 
Like many would-be authors I used to think that writers wrote books in little cottages in the woods, bleeding truth onto pages already saturated with tears. When a book was done the author then agonized over query letters, blindly attempting to appease personal idiosyncrasies that each agent somehow believed to be an industry norm. If, against all odds, the author managed to land an agent for his book, the agent went through a similar process trying to generate interest in an editor at a publishing house. If, against these even-longer odds, an editor became interested, that editor then went through a similar process trying to get the support of the person or group that was responsible for pulling the trigger on an actual deal.
 
Read Debbie’s post about the five new books she’s excited to be working on and you’ll see none of that. In fact, there is no direct mention that Debbie read a single word by any of these authors as a means of discovering them:
I’d heard him speak at the Web 2.0 conference and I wanted desperately to work with him.
…
The next author to sign with HarperStudio was Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com. I’m a huge fan — have been following his blog, twitter, videos, etc. for some time…
…
Jill Kargman is a novelist. I saw her on Samantha Ettus’s show Obsessed TV six months ago and knew I wanted to work with her.
…
I’d been thinking a lot about merits and challenges of being a small company within a large corporation, and Bob suggested that there’s a book in that. Nick Bilton from the New York Times lead me to Ryan Tate at Gawker, and he is now writing a book for us called Skunkworks, which I can’t wait to read.
…
One more author who I want to mention who signed with HarperStudio, though it was slightly before that December epiphany, but still very much part of my process of realizing how much I love my job, is Melanie Notkin, the Savvy Auntie. She’s writing her Savvy Auntie’s Guide to Life.
Here’s what Debbie did not say: ‘I read Author X’s novel/manuscript and it knocked me out.’ And yet there’s nothing wrong with that. As noted above, this kind of book-production paradigm may actually be the norm these days.  
The point I want to make is that here you have someone in the business talking about five books she’s excited about, and none of them is a book that exists because of an author’s personal convictions. Rather, those five books came into being because Debbie Stier contacted five people and suggested a writer/publisher collaboration.
 
Again — and I really mean it — there’s nothing wrong with this. If it cuts against the romantic grain of the literary world, or your own authorial fantasies, it’s also the way most corporate entertainment works. In fact, if you really think about it, it couldn’t work any other way. Predicating the success of your business or industry on the speculative output of a bunch of writers would be like putting on a sporting event and hoping that some athletes show up. If you sell gas you can’t wait for someone to strike oil; if you sell food you can’t wait for the crops out back to mature. You’ve got to drive product yourself or partner with people who can deliver a steady supply.
 
In order to protect the bottom line, people in the book business (in any incarnation) cannot wait around for good books to find them. They have to be proactive in priming the pump and reconciling the content of a title with the objectives of their business. Again, who else other than publishers would be qualified to make such informed decisions? Agents? Writers?
 
Whether Debbie had the budgetary authority to make these projects happen herself or not, it’s clear that her personal interest in the people now working on the new HarperStudio titles short-circuited the much longer approval process facing a writer with a spec manuscript. It’s also clear that those five people did something that helped catch Debbie’s attention, and that that was critical to the book deals they signed. Debbie didn’t hike into the woods and knock on a door, or even plow through a slush pile: she looked at interesting people who made themselves visible to her in a variety of ways and asked herself if they might have a book in them that also fit HarperStudio’s goals.
 
This is another big reason why you constantly hear everyone talking about having a platform as a writer. It’s not simply that a manuscript you’ve written will gain more visibility, it’s that you as a writer will also come to the attention of the decision makers in the industry. Maybe a publishing house needs another writer for a series project. Maybe they’re looking to capitalize on a trend. Maybe they like your attitude and a blog post you wrote suddenly helps focus a hazy idea they’ve been wrestling with. Whatever the project, the chance that you’ll be working on it is pretty much zero if they don’t know you’re alive.
 
That’s why it doesn’t really matter who you know. On any given day you can call up your publishing contacts and pitch book ideas until you turn blue, but the majority of opportunities in your future are probably not ones you’ll be initiating. They’re ones the industry will create, and the simple truth is that you’re not going to have a shot at those opportunities if the industry doesn’t know who you are.
 
Does this mean that writing a book is a waste of time? Absolutely not. What it means is that when you write a book you’ve created two properties. One is the book, the other is you as a writer. Neither of them will see if nobody knows they exist. If you’re already committed to getting your manuscript some visibility, then you should be willing to do the same thing for yourself.
 
If you have the conviction of your own creative vision, and you’re willing to suffer and die for that cause, I’m not telling you to change your ways. I wouldn’t do that to myself on a project that I initiated. Having worked as a writer on collaborative projects in multiple industries, however, I can tell you that there’s a lot to recommend them. And not just the fact that you get paid.
 
First, there’s the implicit networking bonus that goes with any collaborative project. Assuming you don’t reveal yourself to be insane or abusive, and assuming you do what you say you’re going to do, you will, simply by demonstrating those two traits, successfully separate yourself from approximately 90% of potential competitors. (That’s a conservative estimate.)
 
How many people does Debbie Stier know? How many times a year does she sit down with a co-worker or a peer at another publishing house and talk about projects which can’t find the right writer, or projects where a writer pulled out and they need someone at the last minute? I have no idea, but I’m guessing the number of people that Debbie knows is not trivial, and that the percentage of her contacts who can approve projects is higher than most agents you’re likely to sign with.
 
Second, you might get to work with people who are actually happy to work with you. One read-through of Debbie’s post and you’ll see that she’s clearly good at marketing — almost instinctively, reflexively so. But I’ve also read enough of her tweets, posts and musings to believe that there’s a real person in there who had a genuine epiphany about the fact that she loves what she’s doing. And that in itself is rare.
 
There are a lot of people out there in positions of power and authority who are really not happy. They don’t like their life, they don’t like their work, they don’t like the people they work with. The only thing they like is spreading unhappiness around like shrapnel. You might even run into a writer killer or a writer hater who loathes you for the very skills that brought you to their attention. Does that sound like fun?
 
Take a moment and think about what it would be like to work on a book with someone who wasn’t jaded. Not someone who’s in your grill every minute, telling you how to write each paragraph, but someone who is interested in you, in your skills, and in the project you’re both working on. Writing is lonely, and there are times when it’s satisfying to have someone other than you cat say they’re excited about a project or thrilled with your last chapter.
Finally, as much as any author believes they know it all, they don’t. As I said in a previous post, there are good editors and bad editors. A good editor knows craft. A good editor listens.
 
I have no experience working with Debbie, but in reading her post she says the right things. She talks about kicking ideas around and finding something that works for both parties, and that’s what you want. You want someone who actually listens, instead of just smiling and saying nice things. You may not always get your way, and the project may have other masters (including time and money), but when you work with someone who takes your concerns seriously you get to take a break from the exhaustion of being your own biggest fan and your own worst critic.
 
There’s no way you can plan for this kind of synergy, of course. If you actively try to impress the Debbie Stiers of the world you inevitably end up making an idiot or nuisance of yourself. The goal is not getting attention, but being who you are and doing what you already do in a way that is visible — whether than means blogging or attending conferences or speaking or giving readings or something else. Even if you can’t make anyone open a door for the book you wrote or the writer you are, and you probably can’t, you can be there when they open the door.
It’s not who you know. It’s who knows you.

 

This is a reprint from Mark Barrett‘s Ditchwalk.

How To Attract Subscribers to Your Author Blog

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Wouldn’t it be great if people in your target audiences automatically received your blog posts, rather than having to rely completely on new readers to find your blog and repeat visitors to remember to visit your blog periodically?

Set up an email subscription widgetThere’s an easy answer — RSS feeds allow your author blog posts to be automatically delivered to your readers’ email or feed reader, and even to other websites. All you need to do is provide a sign up mechanism for your visitors to subscribe.

In the right column of this blog, under the heading "Get Blog Updates," is an area where readers can sign up to receive my author blog posts. I’ve reproduced it here for illustration. My blog visitors can enter their email address in the box to receive blog posts by email or click the "subscribe in a reader" link to choose their favorite feed reader or have my blog feed delivered to the "RSS Feeds" folder in Outlook.

Some blog visitors may not be familiar with RSS feeds. I created a "learn more" link that takes readers to this page for a brief explanation of how feeds work and how to sign up. I also offer a free bonus report on that page, as an added incentive.

FeedBurner is the best tool for managing your author blog subscriptions. Your blogging platform may provide an easy widget or plug-in for creating feeds, but it’s best to set up your own account at FeedBurner. You will have more flexibility in the set up and be able to track the number of subscribers to your author blog.

FeedBurner is now owned by Google, so you will use your Google user name and password to set up your account. For step-by-step instructions on setting up your RSS Feed in FeedBurner, I highly recommend Just the FAQs: Feeds by MaAnna Stephenson. This ebook walks you through the process of using FeedBurner to set up, optimize and manage feeds. You’ll learn how to best format your feeds for delivery to mobile devices, how to republish feeds on another website, how to offer updates by email, and more. The non-techie language make it a snap for anyone to master RSS feeds.

If you aren’t yet offering feeds on your blog, get started right away and watch your readership soar! And be sure to subscribe to The Savvy Book Marketer blog using the tools in the right column, so you don’t miss any posts!
 

 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

What Does Self-Publishing Cost: Online Self-Publisher

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This is a continuation of the What Does Self-Publishing Cost series:

 
Today let’s look at the next level of ambition, the author who decides to publish and seriously attempt to sell books in an economical way. Let’s call this publisher the Online Self-Publisher.

 
9 Cost Categories for Online Self-Publishing
  1. Company setup—It’s more likely this self-publisher will formally organize her company, probably as a sole proprietorship. She’ll pay attention to costs and have some way of accounting for sales and expenses, doing it herself. Taxes are getting complicated so it’s probable our publisher will need tax help at the end of the year too. All these costs are due to the added complexity of selling book wholesale and retail and the effect on your personal income and tax liabilities. At the beginning you may have an offsetting loss on your taxes since your business will likely spend more than it takes in just to get your book ready for publication.

    Total: $100 – 300
     

  2. ISBNs—You’ll definitely need ISBNs since you can’t sell through online merchants like Amazon.com or BN.com without one. The question now becomes: how many ISBNs to buy?

    One ISBN will cost you $125 at the myidentifiers website run by Bowker to sell these oh-so-precious numbers. But if you plan on ebook editions and, in the back of your mind you’re thinking that if this book sells, you’ve got another one you could follow up with, you need more. Ten ISBNs will cost you $250, but you’ll be prepared for a couple of years of publishing to get you going.

    Total: $250
     

  3. Manuscript preparation—The Online Self-Publisher will likely do as the DIY self publisher did, and do all manuscript preparation themselves.

    Total: $0
     

  4. Editing—The Online Self-Publisher knows that editing is important, and will try to find an editor to help organize, or to “polish up” their manuscript. Although some authors will use a fuller range of editorial talent, starting with developmental editing, typically the limited budget of the Online Self-Publisher will dictate a light but thorough review of the manuscript by someone who has at least has professional editing experience

    Nothing is more difficult to estimate in the book process than editing. Recent books I’ve worked on have ranged from 45,000 to 227,000 words. Some are challenging in their language and aspirations, others are intended to be casual and conversational. Each author brings different communications skills to their books. Some books need a lot of fact checking, or have copious notes sections that have to be painstakingly formatted. Each of these factors influences the time it takes to edit the book, and therefore the expense.

    Let’s say our self-publisher finds an editor on a writing forum, or through a writer’s group, or through a service like elance.com. And let’s also stay with my model book, a 65,000 word, 200 page 5.5″ x 8.5″ trade paperback. This will give us at least a framework for what the editorial cost might be, $700-1,500.

    We can add to this the cost of a basic proofreading. In many cases the Online Self-Publisher herself, or a friend, will proofread the book. In my experience it’s unwise to skip this step. $0 – $500

    Total: $700-2,000
     

  5. Design—Online Self-Publishers know that a book that looks decent will be more appealing than one that looks like your nephew did it in Apple Works. She will budget for a cover designer but will probably skip an interior design, preferring to stay with the DIY model in the interest of saving money. At a minimum, the publisher will have to learn to submit files to the Print on Demand provider, or pay someone to do it for her.

    Total: $200 – 500
     

  6. Review program—Reviews for the Online self-publisher will typically be limited to online reviewers, where a PDF of the book can be submitted at no cost. But it’s also likely that he will run a small review campaign offline as well. Prepublication reviewers, specialty media, local newspapers and any trade associations are likely candidates for review copies and a DIY media kit. Due to the expense of packing, mailing and digitally-printed books, this can add up pretty quickly. Lets assume 24 books split between reviewers and authorities or other authors who might supply blurbs to help in promotion. 
    Cost of one book: $3.50. Add a Jiffy bag: $1.79. Add media mail postage: $2.38. Oh, and something for the rest of the paperwork that gets sent with review copies: $1.00. That’s a total of $8.67, or $208 for 24 copies.

    Total: $200 – 300

     

  7. Platform building—In addition to the free resources for building her author platform, our new internet marketer may also consult with a search-engine optimization expert to help with online visibility, or opt for custom work to be done on her website or blog. Remember, this will be the main hub of her business, and she may even install some ecommerce capabilities to be able to take orders directly on her website. Making excerpts available, capturing names and email addresses for mailing lists and other tasks are commonly outsourced to freelance technicians. Our budget should account for some mix of these tasks. Let’s make it an estimate, since the options are extremely broad.

    Total: $200 – 500
     

  8. Proofing and Reproduction—Like our DIY self-publishers, Online self-publishers will use digital printing through print on demand suppliers to manufacture their book. However, some of these publishers will have moved from author services companies like Createspace to a more manufacturing-oriented and economical supplier like Lightning Source. There are setup costs associated with this move, and some fees you would not have to pay the author service companies. However, if you expect to sell any quantity of books you will quickly make up this expense in the savings on per-book prices. We’ll also include an initial order of 50 books to the publisher for direct sales and other promotional uses.

    Total: $300 – 400
     

  9. Fulfillment—Book sales through online retailers require no fulfillment expense on the part of the Online self-publisher. Using a fulfillment service to pack and ship orders is far too expensive for the quantity of books sold, so the Online self-publisher will likely do her own fulfillment. Hey, she bought that big box of Jiffy bags for the review campaign, remember? Here’s where we use the rest of the box.

    Total: $0
     

Let’s Add It All Up
 
The Online self-publisher is serious about putting out decent books and trying to sell them using lots of tools at her disposal. Adding our nine categories, we have a total of $1,950 – 4,250. This is a significant business expense but, considering that you are starting a new business and simultaneously developing a new product and the means to market it, I would come to a different conclusion.
 
By far the largest investment of the Online self-publisher—or any of the other self-publishers, for that matter—is the time and effort it takes to put this whole project together. The time to understand enough about the parts to have some idea of how they fit together. The time to research, meet and talk to people, to work on all the incidental projects that come up in the course of the publishing journey.
 
This is truly what will make or break the publication of your book. The commitment you make and the actions that come from it are far more important than the money you will invest, and will go farther to determining the success of your book.
 
Total Online self-publishing cost: $1,950 – 4,250
 
Takeaway: Online self-publishers can produce quite acceptable books at a reasonable cost. While there may be inconsistencies and a lack of finesse in the book interior, a diligent self-publisher should be able to turn out a book of decent quality to sell online.

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

What Does Self-Publishing Cost: DIY

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In my earlier article I looked at a framework to determine what it costs to self-publish. I described 9 cost categories and three paths to publication as a way to organize the costs for different kinds of self-publishers.

After all, not everyone wants the same kind of book, nor do people publish for all the same reasons. It seems practical to help people decide which category they’re in and look at the costs for each approach.
Today I’m going to collect the kinds of costs a self-publisher might encounter if they want to keep their cash outlay to the absolute minimum, doing much if not all of the work themselves. These are the DIY self-publishers.
 
 
9 Cost Categories for DIY Self-Publishing
  1. Company setup—The choice here is to establish a sole proprietorship or to simply publish your book under your own name, without any company structure. The cost of establishing a company vary, but the minimum cost would be whatever you are required to pay to register a business name.

    Here it costs $42 plus about another $40 for the classified ads you need to run as a public notice. These costs aren’t strictly necessary, but if the self-publisher is treating her publication like a business at all, she will take this step.

    Total: $0 – 84 
     

  2. ISBNs—Another way to control costs is to print with one of the services that will supply you with an ISBN. For someone with a book project but a small budget, this can be a considerable expense at a minimum of $125.

    You only need an ISBN if you intend to sell your book through a book trade channel, such as Amazon.com. If you don’t plan to make your book available through those channels, or if the book is strictly for private or personal use—for instance a fundraiser—you can skip the ISBN completely.

    On the other hand, if you’re concerned about the future publishing possibilities for your book, and that you might someday want to take the book to another printer or service provider, you should think about buying the ISBN up front.

    Total: $0 – 125
     

  3. Manuscript preparation—At the DIY end of self-publishing, the author will do all manuscript preparation, usually using their favorite word processor.

    Total: $0
     

  4. Editing—If our DIY self-publisher can find someone to look over the manuscript for errors, it will likely be on a free or barter basis. There probably won’t be any editing except self-editing, so expenses here are pretty much eliminated.

    Total: $0
     

  5. Design—The DIY self-publisher is the designer of the book as well. Some publisher services companies provide templates that authors can download and use with programs like Microsoft Word. And some have cover generators to help create a decent-looking cover. But the principle here is that the author completes all these tasks on his own, with or without the help of customer service staffers.

    Total: $0
     

  6. Review program—Reviews for the DIY self-publisher will probably be limited to online reviewers, where a PDF of the book can be submitted at no fee. In my experience, most of these books are not submitted to reviewers with any regularity, saving more money.

    Total: $0
     

  7. Platform building—The DIY self-publisher who wants to spread her work, find new readers and sell some books will look to online resources to do her author platform building. Typically this will involve a blog at one of the free blog hosting sites, and a lot of time spent online.

    Total: $0
     

  8. Proofing and Reproduction—Virtually all DIY self-publishers will use digital printing through print on demand suppliers to manufacture their book. A copy of the book essentially acts as the proof if one is considered necessary. Since these services—like Lulu—only charge for the books you actually buy, you could say that there is no cost here. But let’s assume our self-publisher orders 5 copies of her 200-page book, and that we consider this part of the expense of getting into print.

    Total: $27.50
     

  9. Fulfillment—Books sold will be by hand, through the self-publisher’s website, or on retailer websites. The first two options could encounter costs for packing and shipping, but they are transaction costs, not included in getting into print.

    Total: $0
     

Let’s Add It All Up
 
Each publisher has different goals for their book, but for many getting into print at the lowest possible cost is a major consideration.
 
Adding our nine categories, we have a range of $27.50 (plus shipping, of course) to $236.50 if you go for the ISBN and company set up. This plan is completely reasonable, and shows just how far we’ve gone to eliminate the obstacles to publishing your book.
 
Keep in mind that a book coming out of this process will be an amateur production. It wasn’t editing, designed or produced by publishing professionals, and it’s very likely to show it. But you will be in print, the proud owner of 5 copies of your book, with the possibility that many more people will discover you.
 
Total DIY Self-Publishing Cost: $27.50 – 236.50
 
Takeaway: It’s entirely possible to get a book into print for almost nothing. The effort, ingenuity, and talent of the author-publisher are what will determine the final quality of the book.

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

How Google Editions And New Google Search Affects Authors And Their Books

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Here are two massive developments from Google this week that you need to know about. From looking at these together, it seems clear that Google search will bias books on the Google publishing platform.

Google Launches Editions Digital Publishing
 
Google Editions ebook store now has a start date of June/July this year. This article from the Wall Street Journal suggests that they will allow any retailers to add books to the store and they will be highlighted on their specific Books search page. Any device will be able to read them as long as the manufacturer allows it. So people can search with Google, find books and immediately buy them.
 
Google Search has split books out separately
 
This week, Google changed their search to split out different categories and Books is now a separate way to search. Clearly, Google controls search and once they have a bookselling business they will show books that are in their program, not others.
The first image to the left is a search for my name on Google.com which returns my blog, twitter etc. But there is now a split on the left hand side bar which means separate sub-searches can be done.
 
 
 
 
 
Click Books and only one of my books is displayed, “How to Enjoy Your Job”. I only have this one book on Google Books so far. The others are on Amazon.com, my website and other places but not Google Books, and as you can see, they are not displayed at all against my name. Interesting!
 
 
 
 
Actions for you in order to take advantage of this
  • Set your self-published or backlist books up on Google Books if you haven’t already. Here is a page of information on it. They show up in Google Book search with links to buy at other places but presumably will be sold direct from Google once Editions is available. If you have a publisher, check with them how your book will be integrated with Google Editions.
Consider the very near future. The biggest search engine in the world returns your book based on keyword search terms and people can buy within that page immediately, on any device. Brilliant!  This is yet another way for you to reach an audience with your work, and make it pay. Exciting times indeed!

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Virtual Book Tours For Fiction Authors

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On a virtual book tour, authors visit a series of blogs, websites, radio shows or other virtual venues during a certain time frame – usually one to three weeks – to promote their book. Most tour stops involve making guest posts on blogs (either by writing an article or being interviewed by the blog owner) or having the blog owner review the book.

Virtual book tours can be a good way to promote fiction. When planning your tour, look for book blogs related to your genre, general book review websites, and blogs that cater to the specific target audience for your book. Here’s an example of an interview-style tour stop on a highly targeted blog, Suburban Vampire.
 
It’s best to create a web page with a schedule listing the stops for your tour. Here’s a great example for the tour for TimeSplash by Graham Storrs.
 
For best results, seek out sites with good traffic. You can estimate website traffic by comparing the Google Page Rank or Alexa ranking of different websites.
 
What kinds of topics can fiction authors talk about on their blog tour? Of course, you can talk about the characters and plot in the book you are promoting. But, many people are fascinated by the writing and publishing process, so you can also cover topics such as these:

• How do you come up with story ideas and characters?
• When and how do you write?
• What other authors inspire you?
• How did you find your publisher?
• How long does it take you to write a novel?
• How do you overcome writers block?
• What’s your next project?
• How long have you been writing and how did you get started?
• How does your background influence your books?
 
If you’re wondering whether virtual book tours are really worthwhile, read Blog Tours for Authors – Do They Work? by Fiona Ingram.
 
For a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a virtual book tour in progress, see Andy Shackcloth’s series of articles about Graham Storrs’ tour for his sci-fi ebook, TimeSplash.
 
To learn more about the advantages of doing a virtual book tour, see Why Authors Should Do a Virtual Book Tour by Nikki Leigh

 

This is a cross-posting from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Marketing to Indie Bookstores

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The following are some considerations when developing a marketing plan for independent bookstores. The primary questions are surprising: “Do you really want to?” and. “If so, how should I do it?”

Do You Really Want To?

The most important question is, “If I sell books to independent bookstores, will I get paid?” The answer is probably, but very slowly. Why? Indy bookstores are fighting for survival against the big box stores and the online retailers. Cashflow and dependable suppliers are very important. When it comes time to pay the bills, many stores will prioritize where their bill-paying money goes. Usually they will pay their primary suppliers first: Ingram and Baker and Taylor Distributors and perhaps a regional distributor. These book sources are their lifeblood. They must make sure they keep them happy, especially because these sources are very hard-nosed about keeping current and have the collection resources to back it up. Lower on the priority list are the major publishers and then finally small/self-publishers. 
 
Understanding this reality necessarily should drive your policies of doing business with the bookselling community. Yes, you should seek their business, but understanding the above realities will help you to develop these. 
  • First, it is imperative that you get accepted by the major distributors so Indy bookstores can easily order your books in whatever quantity they need without having to pay heavy shipping and handling charges. Ordering convenience is paramount to them. One stop shopping is also important—only one bill at the end of the month to keep track of and pay. You can expect to give these distributors a 55 to 65% discount. They, in turn, will sell your books to the bookstores at a 38 to 42% discount.
     
  • If a bookseller orders from you directly, make it easy, fair, and smart. Some small publishers have sell-defeating discount policies. They may have a structure such as this: 1 book= no discount, 2 to 9 books= 20% discount, 10 or more= 40% discount. This is absolutely insane. You may think this will urge booksellers to order more books from you. It really has the opposite effect. Bookstores must be very careful about their inventory. Their display space is limited and valuable. They would rather depend on just in time inventory replenishment than on carrying unnecessary multiple copies. Regardless of how many books an Indy orders, give it the standard 40% discount. Make the process as easy and fair as you can.
     
  • Understanding bookstores’ bill paying priorities makes it imperative that you urge on the spot credit card payments. This makes much more sense than trying to urge multiple copy buying with an unrealistic and restrictive discount schedule. If you want to extend billing privileges after they have gone through a credit application process, you can take your chances with their payment priorities. You also are going to have to establish a collection process. Will it be worth it?
     
  • Offer an additional 5% discount for non-returnable purchases. This makes far more sense than a complex copy vs. discount plateaus such as above. Again, make it easy for the bookseller while protecting your cashflow.
     
  • Match your marketing campaign to the above realities. First priority is to the distributors in terms of announcing new titles and any marketing aids that will make their job easier and more effective to their bookseller community. If you want to conduct a postcard or email campaign to booksellers, stress your books are available through the distributors.

Some effective marketing strategies you might want to consider: 

  • Direct mail to booksellers with postcards
     
  • Emails to booksellers
     
  • ABA (American Booksellers Association) white box program (monthly package sent to 1,200 Indy bookstores with sample books and marketing materials) guaranteed to get you in front of the book buyers.
     
  • Indy regional booksellers marketing email blasts. See my blog post Getting the Attention of IndieBookstores by Bob Spear 
Pot Sweeteners
 
Here are a few marketing aids you might consider using:
  • Bookmarks
     
  • Sell sheets
     
  • Some bookstores have reading groups or support local reading and education groups. Provide a downloadable reading guide or a teacher’s guide for children’s books.
     
  • Indy bookstores are always looking for excuses to have events as a way of standing out from the big box stores and making their store a destination. Provide an event kit upon request, if that is appropriate. That will be more likely for children’s books, but maybe it will work for specialty niches. If you have a touching story about a pet, for instance, maybe you can think of some fun activities that would involve customers bringing in the their pets of at least having a pet themed party about similar pets. If you have a book about dating, provide a speed dating event kit. Your imagination is your only limitation.
In summary, use your head. Make doing business with you as convenient and fair as possible. Support your channels. Provide marketing materials that make sense and set you apart as someone with marketing expertise.

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

26 Ways To Win At Self-Publishing

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I visit a lot of blogs about publishing, writing and related topics. There’s a huge interest in self-publishing, and it seems that many developments in the publishing world are helping to stimulate that interest. New technologies, new devices, new formats are making it easier and easier for authors to get their work out into the world by making an end run around the gates that the gatekeepers are so fervently guarding.

Balancing the interest and opportunities is the drumbeat of warnings, prejudice and downright threats that seek to discourage people from diving into the independent publishing pool. “You’ll ruin your career.” “My friend spent $10,000 and all he has is a garage full of books.” “We’ll be buried in an avalanche of crappy books.”

It seems pointless sometimes to engage with these attitudes, since there often seems to be a fixed idea behind them: self-publishing is for losers, people who couldn’t get published any other way. And nothing you can say will change this view. It’s my opinion that this attitude arises from some need for personal validation, but hey, that’s just me.
 

This Is For The Winners

Many people “win” at self-publishing. That’s because there are lots of reasons why authors decide to publish their own books. Some self-published books aren’t even meant for sale, and will never change hands for money. Some are published for reasons that have nothing to do with monetary reward, career advancement, or ego gratification.

People are funny. Given the chance, tens of thousands of ordinary people have decided to publish their own books over the last few years, and more are certainly on the way. I applaud every one of these authors for taking their destiny into their own hands, for turning a deaf ear to the people who said “You can’t do it,” or “You’ll look a fool.” They accomplished something. They expressed themselves in the world—these are not small things.

So I’ve put together this list of ways that you can “win” at self-publishing. In this context, “winning” can be a moment of tremendous personal satisfaction. It can be accolades from your peers. It can be the joy of accomplishment. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a writer. What would “winning” be for you? Here’s my list:

26 Ways to Win at Self-Publishing

  1. You finally get the book finished, printed and in your hand: you win
     
  2. At last you have a chance to fully explain the ideas you’ve been thinking and talking about for years: you win
     
  3. You get an interview in the local paper as a “published author”: you win
     
  4. You send a copy of your book to your ex mother-in-law: you win
     
  5. You get interviewed by a local radio show and people actually call in to ask questions: you win
     
  6. You’re invited to write an article on your specialty in a trade magazine, and they actually publish it, referring to you as the author of…: you win
     
  7. You create a course based on your book and sell it to the local adult education center: you win
     
  8. You speak at the Lions or Elks or other fraternal club on the subject of your book: you win
     
  9. The local bookstore lets you have a book launch party for your book, and everyone shows up: you win
     
  10. You wander into an indie bookstore in another town, and find your book on their shelf: you win
     
  11. You gift wrap a copy and hand it to your mother, watching her unwrap it: you win
     
  12. You send an autographed copy to your 8th grade English teacher: you win
     
  13. You take a table at a street fair and sell your book, encountering people who just want to talk about your subject: you win
     
  14. You overhear coworkers talking, and one mentions that you’ve published a book: you win
     
  15. Every one of the people you care about tell you how much they love your book: you win
     
  16. You give a talk to a local writers’ group about self-publishing and find yourself answering many questions: you win
     
  17. Your dad pulls you aside at the next family gathering and tells you how proud he is that you dedicated the book to him: you win
     
  18. Your alumni news writes you up with a picture of your book cover and some nice blurbs: you win
     
  19. You send an advance copy to someone you’ve never met, but who you respect, and they send you a glowing endorsement to use: you win
     
  20. Readers keep asking you when the next book in the series will be out, and you know they mean it: you win
     
  21. You realize you’ve sold enough books to pay your printing bill, that all the rest are profit: you win
     
  22. You receive a request from someone you don’t know for permission to quote from your book: you win
     
  23. You open your mail and find a check from your distributor that you didn’t expect: you win
     
  24. A friend at a party asks if you’re still looking for an agent, and for a moment you don’t understand the question: you win
     
  25. Your local library buys two copies of your book: you win
     
  26. You start to think about other books you’ve always wanted to write and can now publish: you win

The secret is this: when you publish your own book, you get to decide what winning looks like, how success feels. You’ve taken back control of your writing destiny. You know winning comes in many ways, in many small moments, and you can finally relax and savor them.

Takeaway: When you self-publish, you get to define success, to set goals for your own publication. In a way, you’ve already won.

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

How NOT To Win Friends On Social Networks

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Social networking is a wonderful way to meet people who share your interests, develop relationships and ultimately increase your book sales. But spamming people in your network isn’t likely to win you many friends. Here are some examples:

• On LinkedIn, someone in a group that I belong to has sent me two sales pitches for her products in the past couple of weeks, by direct message. I’ve never heard of this woman and she’s not on my list of connections.

• On Facebook, the use of direct messages to send promotional pitches has become so prevalent that many people simply tune out their messages.

• On Twitter, people I don’t know send me @reply messages asking me to buy their product.

• On Facebook, some people leave frequent promotional posts on group walls or post promotional messages on their friend’s walls.

Yes, you can promote yourself and your book on social networks, but be subtle about it. Most of your communications should be about developing relationships, getting to know people, sharing information and resources, helping others, and being a member of the community. I recommend that no more than 10% to 20% of your status updates and tweets be promotional or self-serving.

Be cautious about using direct messages for promotional purposes. For example, a direct message to announce an event (like your book launch) or a message that contains tips and resources will probably be more acceptable to people than a sales pitch. Just don’t overdo it.

Remember the golden rule of social networking: treat others as you would like to be treated. 
 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Podcast: Crime Writer Seth Harwood On New Publishing Paradigms And Author Marketing

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It’s great to have crime novelist Seth Harwood on the show talking about the new publishing paradigm for his latest novel, Young Junius available for special edition pre-order on May 5th.

Seth Harwood is the author of several crime novels including ‘Jake Wakes Up‘ published last year and his latest book, ‘Young Junius‘ . Seth is also a podcaster, writing teach and co-creator of the Author Bootcamp program.

In this podcast you will learn:

  • The publishing world does not quickly recognise new novelists, so Seth used podcasting to build an audience for his crime novels.
     
  • Pre-release of ‘Young Junius’ is inspired by Scott Sigler’s self-publishing run of ‘The Rookie’ and now ‘The Starter‘ which his publisher didn’t want to publish as it didn’t fit the genre. Seth has partnered with a small press, Tyrus Books to organise a special edition that is only pre-sold on the internet with tons of special extras, photos, cover art, embossed and more. People pre-order on Amazon so why not skip them as the middleman and do this directly.
     
  • The possibility of mainstream authors doing this is out there i.e. avoid the middleman and publish straight to the market. We will likely see more authors using this model for publishing.
  • ‘Young Junius’ is a crime novel, fans of ‘The Wire’, ‘Dexter’, ‘Law & Order’ and authors Richard Price, David Simon, Michael Connelly will enjoy it. It’s available for pre-order on May5th – Cinco de Junius! If you use promo code ‘PENN’, you’ll get $3 off. Go to SethHarwood.com on May 5th.
  • How podcasting can still benefit new authors by getting your work out there to new fans. You need to have a presence where people can find out about you, and podcasting is ideal as you can podcast your actual work and people can listen when they are doing other things. [Seth has an online workshop with Writer’s Digest, a webinar on podcasting, coming up if you want to know more]. The podcast version of ‘Young Junius’ is here.
     
  • Don’t worry about your voice! Fans like to hear the author’s voice reading the book.
  • How to balance your time between writing, marketing, revisions, online promotion. It varies depending on the phase you are in for your book. But it is definitely tricky!
     
  • It’s important to write well but also sell a lot of books. Write what you love to read and create, not something that is ‘literary’ if that is not the genre you love.

You can order ‘Young Junius’ special edition at SethHarwood.com on May 5th. You can connect with Seth on twitter @sethharwood

 

 

Click here to download, or listen to, the podcast on Joanna Penn’s site.

 

 

This is a cross-posting from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn site.