Authors Academy Archives - Page 5 of 7

11 January, 2019

Book Signings and Back-of-the-Room Sales

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:53:41-07:00January 11, 2019|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on Book Signings and Back-of-the-Room Sales

You may know that here at the Authors Academy, we’re strong advocates of using the Web to build your author platform.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to build an audience face-to-face, too: either locally, regionally, nationally, or beyond.

The truth is, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of meeting your readers (and gaining new fans) in person!

And, of course — in addition to being a great way to build buzz for your projects — book events can be just plain fun.

Join us next week as we tackle “Book Signings and Back-of-the-Room Sales” with one of our favorite Tucson-based publicists, Lynn Wiese Sneyd.

Lynn Wiese Sneyd coordinates national, regional and local publicity campaigns for authors of non-fiction and fiction books. She’s scheduled author appearances on major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS affiliates), Sirius Satellite, syndicated AM/FM radio shows, and internet podcasts.

In addition, she’s worked with […]

1 December, 2016

What Is Hybrid Publishing?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T10:59:37-07:00December 1, 2016|Authors Academy, Publishing|Comments Off on What Is Hybrid Publishing?

There’s a lot of buzz about hybrid publishing in the writing and publishing communities, coupled with an equal amount of misunderstanding and confusion. Not surprising. As the name suggests, hybrid publishing is a cross between traditional and indie publishing, incorporating some features of each. There are a wide variety of hybrid publishing business models, depending on which features are incorporated. Here are some of the features to watch for when evaluating a hybrid publisher:

Curation

The best hybrid publishers do the high-level editorial work that traditional publishers do: Screening submissions and accepting only those of merit with a reasonably large potential market, and working closely with authors on design and editing to create the best books possible.

Financing

Nearly all hybrid publishers require the author to finance all or part of the publishing, editorial, and marketing costs, usually through the payment of upfront fees.

Rights

Some hybrid publishers want an exclusive license to sell your book, […]

26 October, 2015

Procrastination

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:09:39-07:00October 26, 2015|Authors Academy, Writing|Comments Off on Procrastination

“Procrastination.” In many circles, it’s a dirty word.

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today,” it’s said.

All of us are guilty of it, though… at least a little bit, from time to time.

For many of us, one of the activities we’re most likely to procrastinate over is also one of the most important: writing.

You see, all of us can benefit from writing regularly, whether it’s for our business goals, to tell a story that needs to be told, or simply to pass on family history to the next generation.

But regardless of subject, it can be hard to get motivated and start, continue, or finish a project—particularly a lengthy one, like a full-length book.

There’s something about staring at that empty page…

Here’s a quick tip for you if you’re stuck on a book project right now and can’t seem to make any progress.

It’s an old trick I learned from my […]

22 September, 2015

The World’s Worst Ebook Artwork

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:10:46-07:00September 22, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing, News|Comments Off on The World’s Worst Ebook Artwork

Wheatmark client and Authors Academy member Bill Corbett sent me the link to this sobering article the other day.

It talks about how the digital era has led to a decline in income for authors.

The article cites a number of reasons for this, but another one (which the article doesn’t discuss) is increased competition.

According to recent numbers I’ve seen, there are now more than 4,500 books published every day.

That’s a heck of a lot of books vying for readers’ attention!

How do you compete with all those titles? One great way is to submit your book to—and win—contests.

But—and you can see this one coming—with all those books being published each day, far more books than ever before are being submitted to contests for consideration.

How do you ensure your book has a good chance of standing out from the crowd and getting recognized?

Some tips are obvious. Don’t make this mistake.

But there […]

16 July, 2015

Amazon gets flamed

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:11:01-07:00July 16, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on Amazon gets flamed

As I write this, folks all over the Internet are flaming Amazon for over-hyping its latest sales promotion, Prime Day.

Here are some choice tweets:

Amazon has gone crazy! I mean, 64% off Antarctic krill oil? http://t.co/mVRgvP5o3k
— John Aboud (@jaboud) July 15, 2015

Amazon sub-prime day. https://t.co/qu6jitO6SL
— Brenda Kelly (@Brenda_Kelly) July 15, 2015

Amazon Prime Day? More like Amazon “let’s get rid of this excess inventory” Day
http://pic.twitter.com/y0g2fVs1dD
— Neil Cybart (@neilcybart) July 15, 2015

The outrage is perhaps matched only by the recent uproar created amongst authors when Amazon announced that it would pay self-published Kindle Direct Publishing Select participants only for the pages that readers actually read of their books.

(Before you freak out, too, be sure to check out the rebuttal in this article.)

Hard to believe it, but 15 years ago, Amazon was just a hardscrabble online bookseller (albeit one already worth north of $16 billion.)

Meanwhile, the Kindle was just […]

9 June, 2015

Is your book cursed?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:11:44-07:00June 9, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing, Publishing|Comments Off on Is your book cursed?

Wheatmark client Michelee Cabot forwarded me this fascinating entry from Wikipedia about the dreaded “book curse.”

The best way I can describe it in contemporary terms is that it was like medieval copyright protection!

According to the article, “a book curse was the most widely employed and effective method of discouraging the thievery of manuscripts during the medieval period.”

Punishments usually included excommunication, damnation, or anathema. Harsh!

These days, the punishment for swiping someone else’s work is more pedestrian: typically, the ripped-off author is entitled to financial damages.

Copyright is one of least understood areas of publishing, while simultaneously being one of the areas of highest concern for authors… and first-time authors in particular.

Here’s the scoop: even in its draft-manuscript stage (for example, in a Microsoft Word document stored on your computer’s hard drive) your manuscript is copyrighted under US law.

If someone steals your draft and publishes it as their own work, it’ll be […]

24 April, 2015

What should you be doing to market your book?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:12:48-07:00April 24, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing, News|Comments Off on What should you be doing to market your book?

I received an email recently from long-time Wheatmark client Eddie Browning that invited him to display his books at Book Expo America (BEA) next month.

Eddie’s kind enough to keep me in the loop about all the different kinds of promotions authors receive on a daily basis that claim to help them market their work.

Eddie doesn’t have any intention of taking the bait, but I saw this as an opportunity to share a valuable marketing lesson with all of our readers.

The lesson is that good marketing is a process, not an event.

This is a tricky concept for many authors to grasp.

They equate “marketing” with “selling.”

They’ll often say things like “I tried marketing my book, and it didn’t work.”

Usually, what they actually mean is “I tried selling my book, and it didn’t work.”

What’s the difference?

“Selling” is pretty straight-forward. It means asking for the sale:

“Would you like to buy my book?”

“Would you like […]

5 January, 2015

New Year’s Resolutions…and a pretty neat trick

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:13:11-07:00January 5, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing, Publishing|Comments Off on New Year’s Resolutions…and a pretty neat trick

It’s that time of year again… time to resolve to finally get those things done that somehow, we’ve failed to achieve every year prior to date.

For some, it might be losing weight.

For others, it might be getting their books finished and ready for publication.

Still others might finally be ready to make some progress on their marketing.

The problem is: everyone knows that most resolutions are broken by February, if they even last that long.

How do you ensure that you follow through on your resolutions?

Today I’m going to share a neat trick that I learned from one of my mentors, marketing legend John Carlton.

John’s trick is simple, but profound: sit down and write a letter to yourself, but date it January 1, 2016.

That’s right: one year from now.

In the letter, write down all that you have accomplished this year—that is, in the year to come.

Of course, you’ll write it in the […]

3 January, 2015

5 Things Your Author Website Should Do

By Support@wheatmark.com|2023-06-09T11:13:19-07:00January 3, 2015|Authors Academy, Marketing, Social Media|Comments Off on 5 Things Your Author Website Should Do

I could have titled this article “Five Things Your Author Website Should Have” instead of “Five Things Your Author Website Should Do.”

And it would have been a very different article.

When we market our message or services, it is a very common error for us to think in terms of features instead of benefits. It does not matter how many bells and whistles your website has if they aren’t doing anything in terms of accomplishing your website’s goals.

Does your website have goals? A reason to exist? If you’re asking the question, What should my website do? you’ll be closer to thinking in terms of goals than if you’re asking, What should my website have?”

Only you can come up with a goal for your website, but I’m listing five below that you should consider.

1. Establish or solidify your credibility as an author or expert in your niche.

What would communicate this goal to […]

15 December, 2014

My Book Got Optioned. Here’s What Happened.

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:13:57-07:00December 15, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on My Book Got Optioned. Here’s What Happened.

I came across this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education and thought I’d forward it on to you.

As many of you know, I was a screen-writer in my former life, so I can really relate to this piece.

I was working in the indie world, and, since we’d arranged our own financing, my first professional writing gig was made into a finished film.

We sold it to a number of foreign TV markets, and landed several domestic DVD deals.

Yes, this was a “straight-to-video” project—domestically, at least.

But at least we got it made, and then got it out there.

To get a film or TV project made, you need to have three ingredients:

1. Material to develop
2. Access to distribution
3. Financing (money)

In my case, we had all three. But if you’ve written a book, you’ve got number one above covered, too.

That means all you need is numbers two and three, and you’re good […]