Grael Norton

About Grael Norton

Grael Norton is Wheatmark's Director of Marketing, specializing in helping writers design the business of selling their books. His book, The Author's Guide to Choosing a Publishing Service is currently available for free at http://authors.guide.
26 November, 2012

Author news release headlines that get noticed

By |2023-06-09T11:35:45-07:00November 26, 2012|Marketing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Author news release headlines that get noticed

The purpose of this article is to help writers create news release headlines for their books. This is part three of the series ‘Sell more books with news releases.’

A news release to a media outlet is not a sales letter to promote your book. It’s a one-page presentation to get an interview or share something newsworthy. Your headline should deliver the message that you have something of value that the editor will want.

Your mission is not to sell books at this point but to help the editor, reporter, or blogger with a story, message, helpful tip or information that their followers will be interested in.

Editors will often get a hundred or more news releases a day. They barely have time to scan the headlines. If a headline is interesting enough they will move on to the first sentence and, if that is intriguing enough, take in the whole paragraph.

A […]

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19 November, 2012

3 mental and 4 health reasons that cause writer’s block

By |2023-06-09T11:35:55-07:00November 19, 2012|Resources, Writing|Comments Off on 3 mental and 4 health reasons that cause writer’s block

Every writer suffers from blocks now and then. When no matter how hard you try to get your brain to function, come up with a creative idea, or solve a problem, nothing seems to work. In fact it seems that the harder you try the tougher the resistance.

Here are a few reasons that our brains may go into this catatonic state:

The inner critic has moved into the driver’s seat. This happens when we start thinking negatively about our writing. Remembering old criticisms from parents, teachers, or colleagues seem to take on a power greater than we can overcome.

Having too high an expectation can be just as deadly. In this case, we become our worst enemy by setting up goals that are impossible to reach. I found this quote recently by the American poet William Stafford who stated “There is no such thing as writer’s block for writers […]

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13 November, 2012

3 ways to identify your audience before you publish a book

By |2023-06-09T11:36:09-07:00November 13, 2012|Marketing, Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on 3 ways to identify your audience before you publish a book

The first thing you must know before you decide how to publish your book is the age of your target audience.

If your audience is below 18 or over 50, paperback or hardback is still a more viable option.

An article from the 2012 Pew Internet & American Life Project stated that “those who read e-books are more likely to be under age 50, have some college education, and live in households earning more than $50,000.”

Does that fit your target market? Although it is certainly cheaper and faster to go digital, if that’s not where your market is you won’t make many sales.

Children’s books, especially picture books or read-a-loud books, are best in a print format.

While more and more readers are turning to digital readers it may not necessarily be where your audience is. So even though print book sales dropped by more than 9 percent in 2011 and […]

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9 May, 2012

Book Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics

By |2023-06-09T11:36:53-07:00May 9, 2012|Authors Academy, Marketing, News, Resources|Comments Off on Book Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics

It’s one of the most common misconceptions in marketing: that a marketing tactic is the same as a marketing strategy. Not understanding the difference between the two leads to a whole lot of pain and frustration for many authors as well as entrepreneurs, speakers, and other professionals who use the written word to grow their businesses.

Have you ever heard someone say “I’m going to use Twitter to market my book,” or “I’m going to use the Internet to market my business?”

This sort of statement rarely leads to success.

This is because most of the time, the speaker is already talking about marketing tactics but has skipped not just one but two critical steps: setting a specific, measurable goal and developing a strategy for reaching that goal.

(If you’ve ever said this sort of thing yourself, don’t worry, practically everyone has at one time or another. I’ve made this same mistake myself; multiple […]

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8 May, 2012

How to Create a Strategic Marketing Plan for Your Book

By |2023-06-09T11:36:58-07:00May 8, 2012|Authors Academy, Marketing, News|Comments Off on How to Create a Strategic Marketing Plan for Your Book

It’s one of the most common misconceptions in marketing: that a marketing tactic is the same as a marketing strategy.

Not understanding the difference between the two leads to a whole lot of pain and frustration for many authors as well as entrepreneurs, speakers, and other professionals who use the written word to grow their businesses.

The blueprint for your book’s marketing strategy is your book’s marketing plan.

This is the single most important piece of marketing collateral for your book you will create – besides the actual book itself!

Join us on Friday, May 11 as marketing plan expert Echo Surina walks us through “How to Create a Strategic Marketing Plan for Your Book.”

During this LIVE online presentation, you’ll learn the secrets to:

  •   Creating your big picture
  •   Applying SWOT analysis to your project
  •   Identifying your target audience
  •   Crafting your key messages
  •   Selecting your outreach methods
  •   Evaluating your […]
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6 December, 2011

7 Writing Mistakes Editors Constantly Fix to Make Your Book Saleable

By |2023-06-09T11:37:33-07:00December 6, 2011|Authors Academy, News, Writing|Comments Off on 7 Writing Mistakes Editors Constantly Fix to Make Your Book Saleable

Do mistakes that authors commonly make keep your writing from being powerful—and saleable?

How can you fix them before you hand over your manuscript for editing?

Barbara McNichol presents an hour-long teleclass on Wednesday, December 7 that addresses seven writing problems you might not easily recognize on your own—and how to fix them.

By participating in this teleclass, you’ll learn how to avoid these seven writing mistakes so your editor won’t have to fix them:

  1. Losing awareness of what your reader experiences.
  2. Addressing readers as readers, not as a single important person.
  3. Skimming the surface, not going deep enough.
  4. Having no rhyme or reason to the order of the paragraphs.
  5. Overusing weak verbs, extraneous phrases, and wobbly words.
  6. Using multi-word noun phrases when one active verb will do.
  7. Writing sentences that ramble on and on and on and on.

Don’t miss this opportunity to “go deep” and learn what fixes can strengthen your writing!

About […]

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28 February, 2008

BusinessWeek Wants You to Get Published

By |2023-06-09T11:41:06-07:00February 28, 2008|Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on BusinessWeek Wants You to Get Published

This just in: publishing a book is a smart move for your business. Yesterday, BusinessWeek ran a nice article about how to get a book published to help you grow your business.

To summarize:

1. You could try getting an agent and selling the book to a publisher of business titles.

2. You could publish the book yourself by getting an ISBN and marketing it online.

3. You could use a “transitional” publisher. (This, apparently, is a new way of referring to a “self-publishing service.”)

It all sounds so simple!

All sarcasm aside, however, the article is a good introduction to the broad strokes of how book publishing works.

To read the full article, click here.

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