For Readers (and Authors, too)
This blog is for anyone that reads my books, as well as for anyone else who is self-publishing, thinking about self-publishing, or just curious about what it’s like to be an author during rapidly changing times. Whenever you visit here, I hope you’ll share your own comments and thoughts. If you’d like to know whenever I post a new entry, please type your email address into the box in the right-hand column and check the appropriate box (and the newsletter one, too, while you’re at it).
Author Poll Results: Which promotional methods produce the most sales?
While the sample set was not large, the results were interesting. Thanks to those that participated in the poll I posted last week. read more…
Poll: What Promotional Methods Work Best?
A week ago I posted a piece here titled Book Promotion: What Really Works? and promised to pour the results of your feedback into a poll that I’d then post for broader participation.
Writing a Book Proposal (Remember Book Proposals?)
Once upon a time, when someone was done writing a book (or even before), they tried to find a publisher, or an agent and then a publisher, willing to take on their book. Of course, that was eons ago – say, oh, five years or so. Now we’re in the self-determining Age of Self-Publishing, and although you can read a thousand blog entries and promo pieces on exactly what you MUST DO to self-publish, the must-dos of the agented sale era have passed into dust as surely as the portrait of Dorian Gray. Such as? Such as writing the perfect book proposal (the what?)
Book Promotion: What Really Works?
These are the best and worst of times for authors. We can publish and promote our own books, and there are almost endless ways to go about doing so. The problem is, most promotional methods either don’t work well (or sometimes at all), or they need to be done in just the right way to be effective. How is an aspiring author supposed to know what’s worth trying and what’s a total waste of time? How about we find out the answer together?
Remembering Those you Love: You’re Not Alone
Sooner later, mortality catches up with every family. There’s no good way out of this life, but some ways are more difficult than others. The process can be long, and often it’s painful. Sometimes it can even be degrading. Being given the ability to walk down that last road with dignity is a gift beyond value. Thankfully, there are some wonderful people in the world who have made it their life’s work to make that possible.
An Interview with Nico Laeser, Author of Skin Cage and Infinity
A month ago, I posted a review of Nico Laeser’s excellent novel, Skin Cage, a novel written in the first person from a most unusual perspective. The choice of that viewpoint, as well as the degree to which the author succeeded in accomplishing what can only be described as a challenging task, left me more than usually interested in conducting an interview. Happily, Nico said yes.
Book Review: Selkie – Julia Lund (Fiction)
The simple title of Julia Lund’s well-crafted “Selkie” may fall strangely on non-U.K. ears, but the legends that it draws on are as old as the peoples that returned to the wind-swept coasts of Scotland in the wake of the receding glaciers. The hold these legends have on their descendants, and the clash that results when fate casts a young woman from away among them, provides the tension the author employs to build a captivating tale of coming of age, keeping faith with family, and self-realization
Do You Suffer from Post Printum Depression?
So there you are, at long last. The writing, the revision (and revision, and revision and revision…) are over; the proofreading, too, and the cover design. The files are uploaded, and in due course your book has winked live at Amazon, for all the world to buy.
Or, well, not. read more…
Huzzah! The Lafayette Campaign is Available at Amazon
Well, it really is a great feeling to push that final “submit” button after you’ve uploaded the cover, the file, and all of the metadata and other information that Amazon asks for. And behold – only an hour later, my second book, titled The Lafayette Campaign, a Tale of Deception and Elections, magically appeared on line. What a great feeling.
Now, don’t everyone just run out and order it at the same time. Of course, on the other hand, who’s stopping you?
Cover Reveal: The Lafayette Campaign – A Tale of Deception and Elections
When I released my first book, I had never heard of a marketing op called a “cover reveal.” Well, that was then (four years ago), and this, of course, is now. And so, with apologies to Marcus Case for one last posting that might be considered to be a tease, here we go.
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