One of the first stories I wrote on the road becoming a ‘serious’ freelancer was comparing train travel between London and India. It was a subject close to my heart and the words flowed. Delighted with the end result, I pitched the essay to an ‘about-to-be-launched’ magazine in London. They loved the idea and accepted it for the inaugural issue.
Ali and Frank had their first formal dance last weekend. Ali (age 17) went with her boyfriend and Frank (age 15) went with Ali’s best friend, who just happens to be a senior. Now, don’t worry. There is no romance there. They just went as friends. The boys looked quite spiffy in their tuxedos and the girls looked so beautiful.
This week, we’re going to start a new series on successfully marketing your book online. If you have any unique or lucrative online marketing ideas to share, please send them along to me at: angela – at – writersweekly.com
SAD ASSUMPTIONS AND IRRATIONAL EXPECTATIONS
There once was a pencil maker named Peter who puttered around popping out pretty pencils from his place in Pennsylvania. After many months of hard work, he finally finished his first box of pencils and Peter the Pencil Pusher was now enthusiastically pushing those pencils on local store owners and some online stores as well. Peter finally managed to get the local pencil store to carry his box of pencils. He went in there, week after week, but his pretty pencils were still there on the shelf, gathering dust, surrounded by thousands, perhaps millions, of other people’s pencils. Nobody bought his pencils! Peter didn’t understand! His pencils were so special! Why didn’t anybody pick up and pay for his pretty pencils?
Peter also listed his box of pretty pencils for sale on the biggest online pencil store in the world…
You stand by your table, book in hand, smiling at the mother dragging a toddler as she walks into the bookstore. She smiles and moves to the children’s section. She’s in no mood to chat about a grown-up book. Then a teen strolls by, sees you wrote a mystery and turns away
Can you send me your list of recommended freelance illustrators?
-Melinda
Success, for a writer, can be measured by a leap into the spotlight with a high-end book deal, or by steady publication over a long period of time. My own path has been the latter.
I’m happy to say that I have been sticking to one of my New Year’s Resolution! I worked for an hour every morning last week (and for three hours on Sunday), and finally finished formatting one of my new books. We then printed it out for one last crack at editing. I always have to edit twice on paper – once using the manuscript and then once more using a real, printed copy of the book. That’s the nice thing about Print on Demand (POD). You can make changes whenever you want.
I received the following letter last week:
I was interested in your article on book return policies. Recently, I published a book with AuthorHouse and was expected to contact bookstores myself. When they found out there wasn’t a return policy in place they wouldn’t order my book. AuthorHouse then came out with a fee (currently $699) for book returns. They wouldn’t cooperate with advertising either even though it was part of the package. The publisher would not help with the most important part of the presentation of my book. Both publisher and bookstores expected me to do it all myself.
Your newsletter is the most valuable resource out there, bar none. No come ons, gimmicks, or insulting get rich quick schemes. You tell it like it is, and it’s much appreciated.
Tris
