Often, when I mention brand and platform, writers assume I am talking about promotion and marketing (ads). That is not only a false assumption, it can be a fatal one. When we (regular people) hop onto Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or whatever social site, only to get barraged with book spam, a big reason it …
Category: Business
Aug 23 2018
This is Gonna Leave a Mark: What Makes a “Real” Writer?
Those who’ve followed my blog long enough know I’m no fan of the Schrodinger’s Writer Game. Is the writer real or unreal? What IS a real writer? For ages, we quibbled that a real writer had an agent. A real writer scored a legacy publishing deal. One had to pass the NYC gatekeepers to be …
Jul 24 2018
Targeting Readers: Audiences Have Evolved & So Should Marketing
How many times have we been told we should be targeting our readers, audience, and customers? Am I the only one disturbed by this advice? Targeting seems like it should involve a Predator Drone…or at least a trebuchet. For the record, I imagine many authors would view sales (and targeting) with far more enthusiasm if …
Jul 18 2018
Author Newsletters: The Good, the Bad & the PLEASE JUST STOP!
Today we’re tackling author newsletters. Do we need one? Do they sell books? Does a human sacrifice help? Oops. Last time I posted at length about sales, namely what it is, what it isn’t, and why we shouldn’t be afraid of it. Science proves that, the better writers are at sales, the more books they sell. Sort …
Jul 13 2018
The Evolution & Devolution of Sales: Why Your Books Aren’t Selling
Sales can be one of the most terrifying words in the English language. If one happens to be a creative professional, let’s just multiply that fear level by ten…or a thousand. In fact, many writers long to sign with legacy publishers for the sole reason they believe a major publisher will tend to all that …