Guest Expert: Aggie Villanueva
Are We Unintentionally in Violation?
Are Amazon book and review deletions actually inexplicable? I’ve been following the controversy about Amazon deleting thousands of book reviews, even authors’ entire books, with no explanation to them other than that they are in violation of Amazon rules. See Reviews Accidentally Deleted by Amazon or Cover-ups and Denials? for info, links and comments from a multitude of authors starting last March, 2011.
Are Read more [...]
Category: BBMTC
Resolutions: Tis the Season for Supporting the Industry
Expert: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Aha! It is resolution time!
I’d love to give authors advice on setting goals for the New Year. Here’s the thing: I’ve done that and—in the doing of it—realize that no one author can help another set goals because each author and each title is so different.
I guess I sort of gave authors a whole book of possible resolutions to make in 2011 when I finished the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). I even got general Read more [...]
Q&A: How to Launch an eBook
On 7th of December, we had an interesting and informative webinar about 'How to Launch an eBook'. Our panel consisted of D’vorah Lansky (M.Ed. and Author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online), Phyllis Zimbler Miller (co-founder of Miller Mosaic Power Marketing) and Penny C. Sansevieri (CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.).
We answered a lot of questions but still had a few unanswered. This post answers those questions. If you have any further Read more [...]
Got White Papers? :: How Nonfiction Authors Can Use “Nutritional Content” to Attract a Zillion Readers — Give or Take
Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield
The Da Vinci Code Model
Around Christmastime, a number of years ago, I was browsing at a local Borders bookstore (now, sadly, extinct), looking for, among other things, thrillers by the mega-bestselling author, Dan Brown.
A client of mine wanted to construct his thriller-in-progress in the “Brownsian” manner, using densely applied historical research. Largely because -- as he readily admitted -- he was mesmerized by the fact that The Da Vinci Code Read more [...]
New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing Your Book: Say Yes to New Things
Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Thanks to the Internet, the release date of our published or self-published books no longer matter as long as the books are available online. We can continue to market our books indefinitely.
And this is a great time of year to look ahead and commit to trying new promotional opportunities.
Here then are some ideas to help you promote in 2012. Choose a couple of them to try out in the new year.
Sparkabook.com – a site for selling rights that includes Read more [...]
Have a Holly Jolly Promotion Season for Your Book
Or How to Jazz Up a Writing Career with Holiday Promotions
Expert: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Have you heard of The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans?
It was originally self-published. Evans believed in himself (and his book) when big publishers didn’t. When it did well, “lo and behold,” as they say in the Christmas stories. Someone saw the light.
The motto here, for writers, is "Seasonal material sells." Especially things that can be given reasonably inexpensively during gift-giving Read more [...]
The Top 3 Things You Should Keep In Mind When Selling Your Ebook
Guest: Simon Cheshire
Some say that publishing is dead, that mainstream book production is fast going the way of the dodo, and that we should all be in a state of cultural panic. Others say that there's never been a better time to be a writer, and that we're living in a publishing renaissance on a par with the days of Gutenburg.
I'm not quite sure I agree with either scenario. Making money from writing is now, frankly, every bit as hard as it's always been (and I've been in the business almost Read more [...]
What To Keep In Mind When Publishing eBooks
Guest: Andrea Susan Glass
According to Forrester Research, digital book sales tripled to $966 million in 2010 and are set to almost triple again by 2015. Last summer, Amazon said sales of ebooks for its Kindle reader had far eclipsed hardcover book sales. In about 2007, Amazon introduced its Kindle ereader and Barnes and Noble soon followed with the Nook. Then iPhones got an app to read ebooks, and next it was the iPad and other copycats. You can even read an ebook on your PC or Mac with the free Read more [...]
3 Steps to e-Book Cover Design Success
Guest Expert: Joel Friedlander
The move to e-books has brought with it a new challenge for book cover designers, amateur and professional.
The first challenge, of course, if you've been designing book covers for any time, is to understand exactly what an e-book cover really is.
Unlike print books, which we can pick up and examine, e-books don't exist in any physical reality other than as a computer file. So how can they have a cover?
And since an e-book is simply a computer file with Read more [...]
Is the eBook Expressway Every Author’s Back Road — to Big Bucks & a Bona Fide Writing Career?
Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield
While rarely noticed, there’s an instructive parallel between people who yearn to be famous authors and those who yearn to be famous actors.
The mainstream literary scene, like Hollywood, is constellated by twenty-five or so big-name authors with literary-auction-level fame (and among actors, by twenty-five or so who possess mega-watt star status).
Anything these two dozen people write or act in will sell extremely well, because their fame tends to self-perpetuate: Read more [...]
