Guest Author: Rai Aren
As an author, your success is ultimately in your own hands. We all have limited time, and that time must be split between writing and book marketing, amongst other things. Deciding how to spend that marketing time to get the best return on our investment is a critical success factor for our books. So which book marketing efforts work, and which ones don't? These are my top three tips to help you find and connect with your audience and keep it.
1. Consider what's unique Read more [...]
Archive for: September 2011
The Extreme Power of Social Networking & Digital Publishing
Bringing Great Authors To the Literary Realm
Guest Author: Amy Lignor
In 2007, as we all know, Amazon came out and launched an ‘e-reader.’ Many thought this was a joke, but I can honestly say that there is no one laughing now.
Digital publishing and branding have become the ultimate ways to get ahead, or even recognized, in the cutthroat recession-wary publishing world as it stands today. Publishers are looking at the bottom line. Are they poor? Are publishing houses becoming dinosaurs? Read more [...]
A Mobile-friendly website: From Design & User Perspective
Guest Expert: Sharat Potharaju
Research by Gartner has forecasted that by the year 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide.With mobile market expected to reach 1.7 billion by 2013, a major bulk of your audience will be viewing your website or blog on a screen that takes up just a few inches. The rapid evolvement of mobile ecosystem, supported by availability of high-end mobile devices (including tablets) and better internet accessibility makes it an Read more [...]
Can Pro Editing Help You . . .
Land a Publisher & Sell Tons of Books?
Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield
Is professional editing worth it?
The answer depends on just one thing: Where, in your development as an author, you currently are.
If this is the first book you’ve ever written and you’re mostly self-taught, professional editing is most likely not the only step you need to take between banging out your very first manuscript and landing a publisher.
In fact, for a first-time author with no formal training, Read more [...]
How to Create a Winning Author Contest!
A new kind of giveaway turns contacts into evangelists to sell more books
Guest Expert: Penny C. Sansevieri
We have marketed hundreds of books over the years, and many of our authors have launched their own book giveaways. For them and every other author we’ve spoken with, those giveaways just don’t do much to generate awareness, buzz, excitement or sales.
While book giveaways are common (a Google search for "book giveaway" yielded 1.7 million results), they don’t do much for the author, Read more [...]
Publishing Your Book for Mobile Readers
Guest Expert: Aggie Villanueva
There was a time when we only needed to format and publish our book manuscripts in print form and eBook versions for simple e-readers such as the Kindle. That day is gone.
If we don’t want to ignore a huge population of readers, we now must think beyond print and electronic pdf galleys. We also need to include apps in our publication formats (interactive eBook applications). Interactive eBook apps have already become one of the preferred reads for the under-30 Read more [...]
5 Free and Easy Ways to Become a Savvy Author
Guest Expert: Dana Lynn Smith
As book authors, we need to learn about a number of topics on an ongoing basis:
the craft of writing
our book topic or genre
the publishing business
our target audiences
how to promote books
Here are five free and easy ways to stay up to date and expand your knowledge as a savvy author:
1. Subscribe to the top blogs in your areas of interest.
It's not easy to remember to visit blogs on a regular basis, but there are several ways to get notification Read more [...]
How to be a Chartbuster on the Kindle Store (An Interview With Angela White – Author of The Survivors)
We recently discovered that one of our Author Pro Subscribers had broken into the top 5 on the Kindle store. While these lists change constantly, it is still a moment to savor if you are an indie author. Especially when you notice that your book is ranked ahead of a mega author such as Stephen King (in the picture it is the book ranked #4 and titled “Survivors.”)
Editor’s Note: You can win a free copy of Angela’s book on Freado.
We requested her for an interview to share Read more [...]
Book Authors Need Mobile Friendly Websites
Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller & Yael K. Miller
Whether you have physical books or eBooks, you want your books available to potential readers using their smartphones to surf and buy.
According to a recent Pew Research survey, more than 1 in 3 of all U.S. adults owns a smartphone, and 23% use it to go online on a typical day (information taken from Socialcast's infographic).
If you are an author selling eBooks, you will definitely want to enable potential readers to buy your Read more [...]
