Last week, we discussed how important it is to offer a free excerpt of your book. We also shared URLs to “free article” websites where you can post your excerpt as an “article.”
Unfortunately, fiction authors are sometimes left out in the cold in this area. How do you turn a fiction excerpt into an “article?” Well, good luck with that. The good news is now you don’t have to!
Letters will return next week.
For writers, the challenge of taking trips and hoping to recoup the cost of their expenses with sales of their articles is very daunting indeed. Writers can save much if not all of their expenses (and thus, net more from their writing while getting new ideas) when they participate in group or individual press trips (also called FAM {for Familiarization} Trips), where the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of a city or region (or the Public Relations firm who handles their account) pays some or all of the writer’s trip expenses, like air, hotel, attraction fees, and meals, or gets the local venues to “comp (make it complimentary)” the charges. These organizations do this to encourage writers to write about the sights and activities they are proud of and want the world to know about via the travel articles they hope to see published.
Hi Angela,
First, great work on the Writers Weekly site, it’s a very valuable resource.
I am working on some ideas on e-books. One question I had was, if it is produced in PDF format, how can it be prevented so that one person can’t buy it, download it, then send/email to a couple other people, and so on and so on, etc. Is there a way to make it so that the only person who can read it is the person who bought it?
Any help/info would be appreciated.
Thanks!
M.
Subjects for non-fiction books often come from our life experiences, but they needn’t be confined to our professional knowledge. My co-author of The ABC Checklist for New Writers is a family history researcher and has a book on genealogy published as part of The Greatest Tips in the World Series.
A few weeks ago, I posted a sad note about my friend, “G”, who, at the age of 41, had a heart attack, suffered subsequent “severe brain damage” and was on life support.
At that time, lots of my dear readers/friends out there sent notes of hope and prayers from all over the world. One friend even went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and lit candles for G. Another friend added G to her child’s private school’s morning prayers. Another friend posted G’s story on her blog to ask for more prayers from more people. And another friend of a friend was praying for G all the way over in Israel. Even more friends added G to their church prayers, their prayer chains, and even their family dinner prayer-time. So many of you were praying for G! Well, I wanted to give you an update…
Last week, we talked about sad assumptions and irrational expectations new authors usually have about book sales. We then discussed the dire need for an author to have his OWN website (not a URL controlled by someone else) and a periodical (ezine/blog) to market their book.
Regarding Angela’s statement: “Ezines Are Better Than Blogs: You Gotta Reach Out to Readers, Not Wait for Them to Remember You Exist”
Hi Angela,
Just a quick note about blogs vs. newsletters and people having to remember to come back. This is true, but one thing you can do on most blogs is install an email sign up from Feedburner. This sends your post to the subscriber’s email.
I’ve subscribed to a blog this way and I like that the post comes to my inbox. If someone uses Blogger.com (free version), there’s even a button that will do the install for you right on the Feedburner site once you set up an account (no cost). I even figured it out for the blog I’m going to launch shortly and I’m very much NOT tech-oriented. If by chance you aren’t familiar with this feature, you can see how I’ve set mine up if you’d like at https://www.publishinganswers.blogspot.com.
Some people also send a newsletter that simply has a few words with links to their blogs to help avoid the sp*am filters. This could also be an option for some as well who don’t have time to write a lot and do both.
Hope I’ve helped in some way. Have a great day.
Cheryl Pickett
The latest way to promote your book is with a video. Book Trailer
I found a new website that rents books to people by mail. They have my book listed on their site but my publisher says they never ordered a copy. Do you know what’s going on?
-M
