Make Newsletters A Part of Your Marketing Plan
By: Jane Ryder | Posted on December 7, 2018
Newsletters are one of the best ways for authors to reach their audience, and should be part of any overall marketing or promotional strategy. Yet many authors are hesitant to get started with one, for a variety of reasons – all of which Jane Ryder has heard before. Jane’s been helping authors succeed for many years, and today she’s giving us all some tips on not only how to get started with your newsletter, but how to make it as painless as possible! A lot of authors I work with fight the idea of sending out a regular newsletter even more than they fight the idea of regularly engaging on social media (which is saying something). I understand you would rather be devoting your writing time to, you know, writing, but if you want to sell the books you write, you have to spend some of your coveted writing time… Read More >
Ginger’s Guide to Marketing & Advertising Your Books: Part Four – PROMOTIONS
By: Ginger | Posted on November 30, 2018
Hitting ‘publish’ on your book is the biggest step in the road towards self-publishing success, but only the first one. In this final part of his four-part series, self-published author Ginger gives a top-level introduction to how to promote your book, using paid and free methods, to get as many potential customers to see it as possible. Last week, we nearly broke the website with a massive post about advertising your self-published books – and we barely scratched the surface! In fact, as reader Erin Wright pointed out, there were other advertising opportunities we hadn’t even explored in that post; like Bookbub. We’ll be revisiting options like that in both the original post and future ones – so stay tuned, and don’t be shy about letting us know what you think we missed! Today, though, we’re going to be looking at the adjacent avenue to advertising: Promotions. There’s some crossover with promotions… Read More >
Ginger’s Guide to Marketing & Advertising Your Books: Part Three – ADVERTISING
By: Ginger | Posted on November 23, 2018
Writing your book is only the (biggest) first step in the road towards self-publishing success. In a four-part series, self-published author Ginger is giving a top-level introduction to what happens next. Here in part three, he gives an overview of advertising and where you need to focus in order to get all your hard work in front of potential readers. Last week, in part two of this series, we discussed Marketing – an umbrella for all the materials and strategies you need to come up with to put your book in front of potential readers. Today, we’re drilling down into one of the two most important aspects of that; and the one that most new authors have questions about: Advertising. Advertising isn’t something that needs much explanation – each and every day you’re bombarded with countless advertisements for services and products. Advertising is and always has been a ubiquitous presence… Read More >
Ginger’s Guide to Marketing & Advertising Your Books: Part Two – MARKETING
By: Ginger | Posted on November 16, 2018
As we discussed in part one, actually writing your book is only the first step of your journey as a self-published author. The path to success has many hurdles, but our four-part series aims to clear them all away. In this week’s installment, veteran self-published author Ginger dives in deep, giving you everything you need to know about how to market your book effectively. Last week, I spoke about the importance of marketing and advertising when it comes to your self-publishing career, and recently that’s become more important than ever. In the past, every book page you visited on Amazon was stuffed with thumbnails of ‘also boughts’ – books that were purchased by the same customers who bought the book you’re looking at. Being included in that list was a fantastic – and totally free – way to drive potential customers to your own book. In the last few weeks, Amazon… Read More >
Ginger’s Guide to Marketing & Advertising Your Books: Part One
By: Ginger | Posted on November 9, 2018
Actually writing your book is only the first part of your journey as a self-published author. You’ll have to think about a lot more on your road to success, but resident author Ginger is here to lay it all out for you. This is part one of a four part series, and below Ginger shares some of the basic techniques you need to understand in order to get your book in front of the eyes of potential customers. Links to the next installments are posted at the bottom of this article. Okay, so you’ve written and published a book – that’s the hard part, right? Well – yes and no. Once your book is in print, it’s important to get as many pairs of eyes on it as possible. For a lot of new authors, though, they have no idea where to start – and not much money to waste… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: C. J. Tudor
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on November 6, 2018
Hidden Gems regularly tries to sit down with some of the most exciting authors in print today, and although we (barely) missed Halloween – we still have a super-spooky writer to chat with today. C. J. Tudor is the author of The Chalk Man – a horror story so chilling that Stephen King himself recommended it. She kindly spared us some time to talk about her writing journey, inspirations, and what she’s working on next. Those who know author C.J. Tudor in real life call her ‘Caz’ – and this British-born writer had a plethora of careers before her lifetime of writing finally led to the publication of The Chalk Man in January of this year. The Chalk Man is a breathtaking horror debut and you don’t need to take our word for that (although we did recommend it back in August). The sovereign of modern horror himself, the inimitable Stephen King,… Read More >
Tax Tips: When Should An Independent Publisher Use A 1099?
By: John Endris | Posted on November 2, 2018
With tax season approaching, authors in the USA have to start worrying about the IRS and various forms they need to fill out – especially if they aren’t making enough money to warrant hiring an accountant to handle it all for them. One of the forms that independent publishers have to think about most is the 1099, and when it should or shouldn’t be used. That’s why we’ve asked John Endris, a guy who wrote the book on this sort of stuff, to give us all a quick primer. Most independent publishers cannot afford to hire editors, cover artists, and assistants as a full or even part time employee. Therefore, they usually maintain a network of independent contractors (IC) to do these jobs for them. Like them, those workers are also small businesses, who have the same ability to make a profit or sustain a loss. Since they are also… Read More >
Create the Perfect Writing Environment
By: Ginger | Posted on October 26, 2018
Creating and fostering the perfect writing environment can really help supercharge your productivity. Back in May, author and podcaster Andrew Mackay shared his 5 tips for fighting procrastination – and one really spoke to me. It was #4 – “Why aren’t you writing?” It led to me talking to a lot of fellow authors about how they get into the ‘flow’ of writing, and what helps and hinders putting pen to paper (or, more accurately, finger to keyboard.) One theme that seemed to come up time and time again was the ‘environment’ for writing – and it’s something that resonated with me. As the parent of three rambunctious kids – and the husband of an equally rambunctious wife – it’s not always easy to get into the ‘headspace’ of writing; and sometimes you have to ‘set the mood’ just like you might for a romantic date. What that mood is… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: Lilian Monroe
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on October 23, 2018
It’s been a while since we last sat down with an author, so today we’re excited to share an interview with Lilian Monroe, author of a dozen successful romance books on Amazon and a rapidly up-and-coming romance writer. While she’s not (yet) in the New York Times bestseller lists, the pace and success of her writing have earned her an increasingly loyal following and hundreds of 5-star reviews, and we’re excited to think that this blog post will be one of those ‘you saw her here first’ milestones in the future. On Lilian Monroe’s Author Page on Amazon, she jokes about living in a “luxurious jungle treehouse” but that’s not necessarily so far from the truth. Canadian-born, Lilian has used writing as the opportunity to earn a living while traveling the world, with stints in Australia and other far-flung destinations, and currently a base of operations in beautiful Thailand. Lilian’s… Read More >
Making Magic Work In Your Novels
By: Gail Z. Martin | Posted on October 19, 2018
A convincing magic system can make or break a fantasy novel, and is often the best remembered aspect of the book or series. Growing up, I read a lot of Fantasy – from Piers Anthony’s Xanth and David Eddings’ Belgariad, to Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series or Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time – I remember these books most fondly because of the rich and diverse magic systems that their worlds were built on. But coming up with those sorts of systems and worlds from scratch is a daunting task that requires a lot of thought and planning, and that’s why we turned to Gail Martin for an article on the subject. Gail is a prolific novelist who is very experienced at coming up with complex and varied magic systems, having done so for many of her own books and series. Here are her tips on how to make magic work… Read More >
