Book Promotion Articles

A Name and a Face: Exorcising My Anonymity

I want to tell you about something that happened to me a couple of months ago. After spending most of 2012 working on the edits of my second novel and putting off multiple opportunities to visit family in the process, the prospect of killing two birds with one stone—visiting family and promoting the book—seemed like a good idea. Near the end of October, my wife and I packed up the car with our suitcases and a huge box of books. We hit the road.

In the weeks leading up to our departure, I did what any other author is supposed […]

2014-05-05T22:34:16+02:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: |

eBook Marketing: How Do You Target Your Reading Audience?

One of the first questions a new indie author must ask is what audience will buy my book? The second question is how will I market to this audience? Both questions should be asked way before you get to the publishing stage of your book.

In the old days, there was a very standard set of rules and procedures. If you were fortunate enough to get picked up by a publisher, you got the finished product to the editors and off your book went into the market place.

On the other side, if you had to do the publishing yourself […]

2019-02-18T12:13:45+02:00September 28th, 2012|Categories: Features|Tags: , |

Self-Publishing News: E-Lending, Big Deals, Book Pirates

In this roundup: As recently discussed here at SPR, we are inching closer to the day when self-published eBooks will be stocked by libraries. Consider using your author platform to promote your local library’s eBook lending policy and make friends with your local library ahead of time. Also, is landing a publishing deal for your self-published book one of your big dreams? Plus, tips on how to know if your eBook has been pirated, and what you can do if it happens.

Two items from TeleRead regarding eBooks and libraries. First, “ALA OITP releases backgrounder document on eBooks […]

2012-07-11T08:28:23+02:00July 11th, 2012|Categories: News, Resources|Tags: |

Self-Publishing News: Ebook Sales and Resales, Losing the Plot, Fighting for Libraries

In this round-up: the Smashwords July sale for either hemisphere, GalleyCat’s weekly lists of eBook sales ranks, new legal ruling in Europe on eBook resale, a lengthy opinion piece deconstructing why The Authors Guild among other things attempts to invoke sympathy for PublishAmerica, and a save-the-libraries campaign from The Bookseller.

Enroll Your Books in the 2012 Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale (July 1 – 31):

Here in the Northern hemisphere, it’s mid-summer. Readers everywhere are loading up their e-reading devices for summer beach reading and vacations. But what about the good people South of the equator, who are now in the middle

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Gee, Thanks! – Ebook Promotion & Giveaways

Media Bistro has put together a list of places where self-published authors can promote their eBook at no charge. The list was culled from Kindle Boards:

We’ve collected more information about the sites in a simple directory below, linking to the submission pages for these eBook sites. If you are an avid eBook reader, these sites are great for finding new books to read as well….

Note that there is a difference between free promotion (regardless of price) and promoting a free eBook, so read carefully. Also check the comments section under the Media Bistro post for possible additional links.[…]

2019-02-03T08:55:55+02:00June 30th, 2012|Categories: Resources|Tags: |

Book Dreams and Schemes: Questionable Promotion Offers

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has a warning for self-published authors about a couple of promotion “opportunities,” part of her series of posts on the topic.

The first of the “suite of services,” the Hollywood Book-to-Movie Treatment, costs a cool $3,299. For that, you get a 7-10 page “creative adaptation” of your book written by a screenwriter. Which screenwriter? What are his/her credits? Sorry, that info is not available. …

It hurts my heart, and my brain, to think that authors might actually shell out this kind of money for services that would likely net them zero results even if

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2012-12-20T11:42:50+02:00June 27th, 2012|Categories: Resources|Tags: |

Self-Publishers and eBook Authors Need a CHAMPION to Assist Them in Gaining Access to the Library Lending Process

Amazon’s entry into public libraries and their own lending process through the Prime program has just quadrupled the activity in ebook lending. With this rapid growth of the ebook lending process comes some inherent problems as everyone rushes to get a piece of the action.

At the top of the ladder are the traditional publishers, Amazon and Overdrive. They are the people that have the most control. Their motive is profit. At the bottom rung are the libraries and the authors.

I have discussed this issue with several authors recently and the sentiment is the same. “How do I make […]

2020-02-21T03:31:36+02:00November 30th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: , , |

An Experiment in Serial Fiction and Self-Publication

At the start of the year, I had an idea for a project. I wanted to write a serialized fiction story in pieces small enough to fit inside a single Tweet. One tiny chunk of narrative prose every day, slowly building an ongoing, real-time story for the audience to piece together.

Then every so often, I’d do something a bit more, something to enrich the story and experience — a full short story perhaps, or an in-character piece of music, or an audio play.

I had several goals in creating a project like this. One was to have a story […]

2014-05-06T10:00:57+02:00October 26th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: |
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