Why is Twitter the best tool to find your target audience? This picture tells...
ou hear the one about the two authors who walk into a bar? One has a mailing list. The other one has zip. Nada. Mailing List: “I saw that tweet about your book sale the other day.” Zip Nada: “Yeah. I...
View Article8 tips to write an effective book description
We need to eat. Forget it. We need to go pee. We won’t. We need to sleep. Yeah, right. Writers go from one discomfort and life-draining behavior to another when we work on our stories. But then comes...
View ArticleHow to write an author bio that sells books
Isn’t it fun to write about yourself? Wouldn’t you love to make a career out of coming up with new ways to talk about how interesting you are? Me neither. Can author bios sell books? If you believe...
View ArticlePromote your book on 30 sites in 15 minutes
As usual, I’m at my standing desk doing squats (poorly). I’m in the throes of marketing bliss as I find ways to promote my book. I check on the sales of my book Shirley Link & The Black Cat....
View Article5 steps to choose the right genre for your book
How important is book genre? Here’s a worst-case scenario: 1974: Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, is released. The publisher lists it as a Biography by accident. The book sits on the wrong shelf...
View ArticleChoose the best genre for your book on Amazon
Cheat sheet. Use it once you’ve read the rest of this post! n my last post, I covered the general rules of choosing the right genre for your book. I spoke briefly about Amazon’s categories. I’ll go...
View ArticleBook trailer or no book trailer? The question that burns…
Many of us think in words. Authors are like that. Our thoughts take on a distinct inner voice — dependent on mood, muse and cups of coffee. So when we’re faced with the option of building a book...
View ArticleFind keywords that smell terrific. Because they’re your book’s perfume!
What are keywords? They’re the words you use to describe your book. Sometimes you’ll hear them called keyword phrases, but that just means keywords that are more than one word long. For example, “hero”...
View ArticleHow to price your ebook
How to price your ebook can be a tough decision. Which is surprising since there aren’t many standard price points to choose from! $.99 – $9.99 That can be broken down in fifty cent increments or one...
View ArticleAdd your book to Goodreads
I’m not sure why Goodreads hides their “Add a New Book” page from us. Are they afraid of some kind of literary hack? Or an avalanche of white papers? A storm of porn? Whatever the reason, just try to...
View ArticleThe basics of social media
The basics of social media fluctuate around the edges. Use your real voice, be useful and go heavy on images when you can. But if you look at the list below you’ll see some essentials that are harder...
View ArticleThe top 9 podcasts for writers
Spend an hour a week listening to one of these podcasts for writers. Go in with eyes wide open!Click To Tweet From Joanna Penn‘s excellent selection of business tips to The Self Publishing Podcast‘s...
View ArticleWATCH: I discuss The Camelot Kids and Shirley Link with Lindsay Buroker,...
Wow, that was fun! I got to sit down with three excellent authors and talk about writing and marketing Fantasy books. We covered my philosophy on marketing (i.e. keep it comfy and save the challenge...
View ArticleUsing Facebook to find friends of friends to buy your book
This is either a “No duh, Ben” post or a “Holy cow, that’s cool!” post. I was playing around with Facebook search the other day and found it to be much more useful than I thought. There may be a buried...
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