Should I Pay Money to Display My Book at Book Fairs?
My POD publisher keeps hounding me to pay them money to display my book at book fairs, for a fee of course. Do authors ever sell lots of books at those things?
Soft Selling Brings Success By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
I often write business profiles and how-to pieces for various trade and consumer publications. I get to know these businesses well and, especially with small companies, I keep in mind any writing they may need to promote or operate their businesses.
After we’ve built a level of trust, I approach the owner with a soft sell. I have good reasons for this: I’m a freelancer and I don’t want to make the business owner resent me by feeling harassed…
PENCIL + SOLE OF FOOT = TRIP TO URGENT CARE CENTER
Max (age 10) is very creative, and is always using household items to make a variety of contraptions, as well as artwork. I give him free access to several boxes of my craft supplies and, of course, anything in the recycle bin is fair game.
Last week, he made a medieval weapon by taping two plastic bottles together, and then taping freshly sharpened pencils all over it. It resembled a spiked ball – or a flail without the handle and chain. We praised his creativity and I told him to put his new “weapon” up on the top shelf in his room because it looked pretty dangerous. He didn’t.
A few minutes later, he came to me, and sheepishly said, “I have some pencil lead stuck in my foot…”
WHO’S FOR SALE?! AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford, and WordClay are! Let’s Dissect the Numbers, Shall We? By Angela Hoy
Last week, Author Solutions announced they’re for sale. Author Solutions, which is owned by Bertram Capital, has several publishing services companies, including AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford and WordClay. They also have some lesser-known services like HollywoodPitch.com, AuthorHive.com and Palibrio.com. The announcement included some pretty revealing financial information about the company. It sure looks like Author Solutions has separated authors from a LOT of their own money! Let’s dissect the numbers, shall we?
Letters To The Editor For March 14th
Letters will return next week.
The Rewards of Face-to-Face Employment Interviews for Freelancers By John K. Borchardt
After a frustrating dry spell in terms of getting new corporate clients I changed my marketing strategy. Actually, this new strategy is the old strategy I used when I first became a full-time freelancer. Specifically, I returned to a focus on medium and large-size companies ($500 million to more than $1 billion in annual sales) located in my city (Houston). I had drifted into doing long-distance marketing by e-mail with interviews by telephone. I got some very good short-term gigs over the years. However, overall I had a low response rate to the letters of introduction I e-mailed to corporate contacts. In addition, in most cases these clients had no loyalty when their work assignments were intermittent (1 to 4 assignments per year).
Don’t Invite a Lawsuit with Your Memoir
I hope that you’re doing well. I read and printed the article about self therapy and I’m interested in writing personal experience stories. However, do I need to worry about lawsuits?
Success Story By Lisa Evans
My first publishing success came about thanks to a normal workday in my former marketing job. I was working for a human resources company as a marketing coordinator. My position was to research possible avenues for advertising the organization’s many conferences and workshops. That fateful day, I was in charge of advertising a new workshop being held in Toronto, Canada for new immigrants who wanted to pursue a career in human resources.
A Google search on “immigrant publications Toronto” revealed a monthly publication called “Canadian Immigrant”…
Disney Again?!
I’m not a big fan of amusement parks (especially The Magic Kingdom) but I am excited about visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We’re meeting Richard’s sister and her family there later this week and Frank (age 19) is bringing his new girlfriend so we’ll get to know her better. She’ll be here all day on Wednesday with us while Frank is at school so I’m thinkin’ that’ll be a good time to pull out all the old photo albums. Heh…
POD SECRETS REVEALED: Why Some Bad POD Publishers Ignore Public Criticism
It’s no secret that that there are just a handful of major players in the Print on Demand (POD) industry (with a few thousand smaller ones) and that there are numerous complaints about the largest ones online. Oddly, under those complaints you rarely see the company in question defending itself. Why?