It is important to understand how bookstores and libraries get the books they display. They don’t just put your book on the shelf because you send them a copy. Au contraire. Instead, when a library receives an unsolicited and undirected copy of a book, it will likely end up in their annual book sale!
Book marketing is almost a dirty word, at least to many authors. The very idea of thinking about marketing ALL THE TIME, even when we’re writing, seems abhorant. At least it did to me. But understanding the realities of publishing, and the goals of my writing, helped me to view marketing in a new way. Here are the lessons I’ve gleaned as an author and publisher.
When we work our imagination muscle, we improve our skills — description, construction, development. And we expand our repertoire—breadth, depth, and the magical ability to connect with the reader.
It is important to understand how bookstores and libraries get the books they display. They don’t just put your book on the shelf because you send them a copy. Au contraire. Instead, when a library receives an unsolicited and undirected copy of a book, it will likely end up in their annual book sale!
Book fairs and festivals are not only a good way to connect with readers, they are great for networking with other authors, meeting publishers, editors and other movers and shakers in the industry. And they are usually a lot of fun!
If you think you can avoid AI, good luck. It is the MSG flavoring our digital world. If it is not already in everything now, it will be—unless we put some laws in place that spell out the parameters and side-effects, which we don’t even know yet, but certainly include heart palpitations and sweating!
If you think you can avoid AI, good luck. It is the MSG flavoring our digital world. If it is not already in everything now, it will be—unless we put some laws in place that spell out the parameters and side-effects, which we don’t even know yet, but certainly include heart palpitations and sweating!
THE most important question to ask: Is the book’s ISBN number distributable or does the book have a non-distributable ISBN? The number one reason for a bookstore to reject your book is because it has a non-distributable ISBN.
WRITING TIP 002: Annihilate Adjectives. Authors “show” by describing action. Get into the character’s senses — what do they hear, see, touch, smell, taste — by using action verbs instead of adjectives. But how can you make your character three dimensional?
WRITING TIP 001: WRITE BADLY. Because most writing is actually revision, it doesn’t matter exactly what you get on the page to begin with, as long as there is enough content to edit later. But how do you get words on the page when you have writer’s block?
