Introduction to the Costs of Self-Publishing 101
Anytime I see a post titled “the costs of self-publishing,” I immediately get suspicious. So often, these posts are punditry making spurious claims and connecting disparate dots of information to “prove” that self-publishing is still somehow a terrible money-making...
Special Guest Post – Mark Dawson on Facebook Advertising
Recently we attended BookExpo America and UPublishU, a large publishing-industry conference and tradeshow. While there, we had the opportunity to host a panel that included the talented and wonderful AD Starrling. Dr. Starrling talked with great excitement about Mark...
Sales Tools – The Product Description
The back-cover-copy. The dust-jacket-flap. Promotional copy. Whatever you call it, when your potential reader bites the bait of the title and swallows the hook of the cover design, the product description is what reels them in. It’s everything fascinating and...
Sales Tools – The Cover Design
Never judge a book by its cover, or so the saying goes. Except we all do it all the time! And, as commercial authors, we actually want people to judge our books by the cover. That’s why we spend so much time and money on them (or ought to). But are there any...
Sales Tools – The Title
A title. Every book has one. It’s often the first thing that could grab a potential reader. But how do you know when you’ve found a good one? Should it be clever? Informative? Provocative? All of the above? And how should a self-published author best leverage the...
Sales Tools – An Introduction
Writers write for a million different reasons, and rarely just one. For pleasure. To memorialize. To exorcise personal demons. For posterity. Because there’s a story to tell. But everyone reading this post almost certainly has one reason in common: we write to sell....
