When my first book was released, I assumed authors wrote a book then sat back while royalties flooded in from everyone who had bought it, and the publishers did everything else. Expecting to sell millions of copies under my pen name (because all proper authors use a pen name, don’t they?) it was quite an …
Tag: Amazon
Books, blogs and marketing.
When I started my blog, the idea was to bombard you with ‘Buy my books’ messages so you all rushed out and bought them. That way I would be rich and famous and could sit around all day writing, which is what I love to do. It didn’t quite turn out that way and in …
Plagiarism
Blogger, Janet of 'Tidalscribe' mentioned an interesting fact recently about reading on a Kindle compared to a paperback. Even if you’re enjoying a book, it’s easy to forget what it’s called as the title is not staring you in the face. It reminded me of my recent brush with plagiarism. Shortly before Christmas I mentioned …
Book Fairs and Book Covers
Have you ever heard the expression ‘I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like?’ I think it was originally intended as a mickey-take for someone who didn’t understand the Hoi Polloi snobbishness of ‘good art’ and was intended to make them feel foolish. Research showed that surprisingly the quote was published …
Blogs and Books and winter draws on.
As a very small child the phrase ‘Winter draw(er)s on’ always gave us the giggles imagining our grandmother in her best bloomers. It seems to have gone from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. For the first time this year I’ve succumbed and put the heating on, more to combat the damp …
Procrastination and Social Media
As an author it’s sometimes difficult to decide where to concentrate your marketing efforts. Facebook is probably the first choice, but then you need to get to know your readers so should your personal page include fans, or be restricted to actual physical friends and family? If you have a business page, should it constantly …
Reviews and ABC
Authors are a funny lot and often have a way of connecting things which on the surface are totally unrelated. In a convoluted way I moved from enjoying an Elvis tribute artists’ show on Facebook, to explaining the scenario of one of my books to an elderly man who doesn’t read English. Would you believe …
Author Interview
There are so many different outlets for authors to try and publicise their books, it’s difficult to decide which ones to use. Blog, web site, Facebook author page, Twitter, Amazon author page, You Tube – I have all of these but keeping them up to date can take up all the hours which should be …
Indie authors book reviews
What makes you decide to buy a particular book? Is it because it’s the latest release from a favourite author so you are confident it would be money well spent? Are you swayed by the publicity and feel you will miss out if it’s the latest ‘must read’ on everyone’s lips? Do you only read …
Writing and Publishing
‘You should write a book.’ How many times has someone been told that by a friend and thought ‘It seemed a good idea at the time?’ There are two routes to becoming a published author (or possibly three.) Write a book, perhaps find an agent, submit it to a publisher and do the happy dance …