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! …
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. …
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... …
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. …
This time of year, most of us are feeling ambitious and thinking about ideas for new books we want to write. It always happens to me, too. New Year's Day = New Book Ideas! I can't help it. They come spilling out of my brain faster than I can process them. In fact, I have a "book ideas" folder in my email box. It's filled to the brim with ideas for books that I will never, ever have time to write. …
Last week, I wrote about paper sculptures, personalized dolls, and personalized snow globes. The snow globe materials arrived this week but it's slow going so I don't have any pictures of the finished goodies to show you yet. We took photos of the children that make it appear they are holding their breath and swimming in the globes.. I originally took photos of the backs of the children, too, so there wouldn't be just white photo paper on their backs. Well, that didn't work... …
I have a big problem buying stuff for people who already have everything... especially when I know they probably won't want whatever I could find on sale at the mall or at the department store. I'd much rather spend less money, but more time, making homemade gifts for family members and close friends. …
If your home business has grown to the point of bursting, and you are thinking about hiring someone, but don't want the headaches associated with that, you should seriously consider trying to automate some of your processes. …
Okay, I need to confess something to all of you. I have a problem with... delegation, the act of entrusting another to MY work. That's right. MY work. I like to maintain complete control of our business at all times. From A to Z (accounting to Zach), I am convinced that if I am not controlling everything simultaneously then things will definitely and completely fall apart. I recognized this problem long ago, and I know the stress my little control problem causes is probably slowly killing me. But, I was always afraid to turn over my tasks to another person. And, it seemed the time it would take to train someone to do it would just take up even more time that I did not have! Over the summer, our business boomed and it got to the point where I had to finally say, "No more!" My breaking point turned out to be a blessing. …
Last week, I gave you a tour of our hectic house and "home office." That was important because it gave you a good idea about how our surroundings can affect our productivity (and creativity!). This week, I'm going to share how we manage to homeschool Max while we work more than full-time on our business... …
Today, I'm starting a series on organization, automation, and delegation. How does one run a house, a marriage, five children, and a business in only 24 hours a day? It's not always easy! The keys are organization, automation, and delegation. Today, I'll give you a tour of our house and explain how we (try to) keep it organized. …
I'm pretty backed up this week so I'm going to share another installment of our popular column, World's Worst Book Proposals. Yes, these are real! Enjoy! In the actual book - Chapter 1, Line 3: A person who practices witchcraft is indeed a witch, yet what is a witch and how does a witch practices witchcraft. …
DISCLAIMER: Many deadbeats use legal threats and intimidation to try to scare their victims. These bullying tactics are common when you're dealing with psychotic, anti-social crooks. While anybody can sue anybody for anything these days, you should remember that they would have to open all their books in the event of a lawsuit and many deadbeats don't want to do this. In addition, they would likely have to sue you in your own state. And, defamation lawsuits are hard to prove and may be very expensive, especially if they are out of state. Ironically, some deadbeats would rather pay their attorney thousands than pay a writer the hundreds they legitimately owe. But, their legal hot air is usually just that - hot air. You may want to consult an attorney if you plan to take the action below against the deadbeat. We aren't attorneys and none of this should be considered legal advice. …
In last week's missive, I discussed disappointing book sales resulting from authors appearing as guests on radio shows. I inquired if readers have had similar or different experiences and asked you to to share your experiences. All but one of you reported poor book sales. The one positive email I received wasn't actually sent by the author himself, but by the radio host who interviewed him. However, some of you did report other good things that resulted from your radio interviews. Here's what you said... …
An author sent me a note this week inquiring about using an 800 number during radio interviews to sell books to people who are listening in their cars. I shared my opinions with him (see below). I'd love to hear from other readers who have attempted to sell books through radio interviews! Was it successful for you or were you disappointed in the results? Do you think ipods and satellite radio have made radio shows less lucrative for authors trying to market their books over the airwaves? Do you think my statements below are incorrect? Or do you agree with me? …
You did it! Your book is finally in print! After months of sweating over details like editing and cover colors and even the final list price, you're ready to start that marketing campaign! You've even figured out that you can make more money buying copies at your author discount and doing your own fulfillment at appearances than you would if you sent potential readers to your publisher's website. But, wait... You just tried to place an order for 100 copies of your book...and discovered that your publisher is charging you around $1 per paperback book for shipping and handling! Say what?! …
At BookLocker, we sure are tired of our competitors giving Print-on-Demand (POD) publishing a bad name! From poor quality books, to horrible customer service, to unnecessary costs in the thousands, to refusing to answer new authors' questions about prices, enough is enough! …
Angela, Mason and Max all have a cold. Her column will return next week. So your click will not have been in vain, here's an interesting tidbit sent in by author Burt Close: …
So, your book is finally being published! Congratulations! If you're like the rest of us, you envision yourself walking into your local bookstore and seeing your book on the shelves. You start to plan book signings and appearances. And you dream about how big your first royalty check will be! But, if your traditional publisher is a small one...or even a new, unestablished POD publisher, how long will it last, and how much money and time could you lose? …
I have a confession to make. A couple of weeks ago, I looked up the rate of inflation over the past few years. I discovered that inflation has risen 20% since 2000. While we hadn't raised our prices at booklocker.com during all that time, we also hadn't raised the rates we pay freelance writers at WritersWeekly.com. I was mortified and embarrassed. Why hasn't anybody complained during all these years? We made an immediate decision. At WritersWeekly.com, we are raising our rates 20% for features and 33% for success stories... …
Last week, we talked about how many self-published authors have landed traditional contracts only after self- publishing. This week, I'd like to talk about authors who avoid traditional publishing houses for some (or all) of their titles, and why. Years ago, I wrote and self-published a book with another author. It was a book about successful online publishing. We put the book up for sale as an ebook and it sold very well...so well, in fact, that it sold at auction to a large New York publisher a few weeks later. The initial advance was nice - very nice. It helped pay the down payment on our new home in Maine. But, there were quite a few downsides... …
I keep hearing the same question: "If I self-publish, can I still land a traditional publishing contract?" Yes, you absolutely can! On Monday, I received a note from a fiction author who said an agent told him he can't land a traditional contract if he self-publishes. We told him that was hogwash. …
I'm pretty backed up this week so I'm going to share another installment of our popular column, World's Worst Book Proposals. Yes, these are real! Enjoy! …
I've chosen to whine long and loud this week about what happened to me last week. My laptop has had an electrical short for the past few weeks. The plug in the back would jiggle loose and I'd lose power. It also sucked the life out of two batteries. Sure, I had every intention of taking it in. But, as long as I could keep jiggling it back into working mode, I figured I could just put it off. Well, on Friday, it died for good. Luckily, I had backed up all my information the night before... …
I occasionally receive orders for books that authors plan to sell at book fairs. Unfortunately, in almost every case, the authors are sorely disappointed in the resulting sales. …
A couple of years ago, I decided that releasing books every single year just wasn't working for me. I thought that maybe planning and taking notes during odd years, and writing, editing and publishing during even years, might make more sense for me. If I hadn't written any new books for an entire year, I knew I'd be chomping at the bit to get some done the following year. …
Last week, I ran the following in WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings: Creative TECHniques / creativetechniquesmag.com / All American Crafts Inc. / allamericancrafts.com - Writer alleges she's owed $350; publisher got upset with writer and terminated the contract...after the articles were finished and submitted. What do you think? Does the publisher owe the writer the money? WritersWeekly would love your opinion on this one! Quite a few of you wrote in with your opinions! Some of you agreed with my opinion while many of you didn't. The responses are great! Please read them here: https://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?t=7250 …
I frequently receive emails from authors who have paid a company to publish their book, but who are later surprised by some of the terms of the contract they signed (that they usually didn't read), and are also flustered by the myriad of add-on services offered by their POD publisher. Understandably, they can't believe a company that they paid to publish their book has taken such liberties. There are some things you should never, ever agree to when paying another company to publish your book. And, there are optional extras that will cost you a small fortune, and will, in all likelihood, never be paid for with any resulting book sales. Here, I'm examining the contracts and add-on services offered by the most popular POD service companies - iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, Lulu and BookLocker (the latter of which I own, by the way). All the information below assumes the book is a standard, black and white interior paperback with similar distribution (through Ingram). You wouldn't believe the ways some of these companies milk authors! …
As WritersWeekly.com Whispers and Warnings becomes more well-known in the industry, there is a growing list of writers who I just can't and/or won't help. …
One statement I often hear from new authors is, "Oh no! My book has the same name as another book!" This is actually a common problem. There are lots of books with identical names. While you can't copyright a name, you can trademark a name or phrase. Not many authors go to the trouble of registering a trademark. And, honestly, registering a trademark is pretty expensive so I wouldn't advise doing it, unless you plan to roll out an entire business or line of books using a phrase from your title (i.e. Chicken Soup for the Soul). …
I frequently receive emails from readers asking for advice on how we balance working at home with our home life. Here's the latest letter I received: I wanted to let you know what a great resource your weekly newsletter is to me and how eagerly I anticipate it in my e-mail inbox. Thank you for providing such a wonderful tool for anyone who will sign up to receive it. I am especially inspired by your personal stories from home, and I hoped you would share some tips on how you organize your day and get everything done. It seems amazing to me that you can manage a family (especially a young baby) and demanding (albeit rewarding) work and not be overwhelmed. Thank you, Amy …
Last week, I wrote about the growing controversy over crappy writing jobs that pay only a buck or two per article. I also published an email I'd received that complained about a job I ran that paid $9/hour. I then wrote, "Is $9/hour low-ball pay or is that a home-based wage you would accept? What do you estimate you are you currently earning per hour on your writing jobs?" …
There has been a lot of controversy lately about the crappy writing jobs posted online by people who will only pay around a buck or two for an article/blog posting. We've also been getting complaints about writers getting writing jobs and then subbing those jobs out to other writers, unbeknownst to the publishers, for only a buck or two. …
As promised, this week I'm sharing the steps I take when somebody sends me a bad check. Sure, I understand that bookkeeping mistakes happen, but by the time my bank has notified me of a bad check, the person whose check bounced has usually already been notified by their bank. If they haven't contacted me immediately to right their wrong, I have to assume their actions were malicious. …
While many companies are happy to have their market listings and job ads posted on WritersWeekly, I receive frequent complaints about how our readers respond to those ads. I want to address this ongoing problem here today. …
A man who claimed to be in Japan contacted the author directly, saying he wanted to purchase 100 copies of her book. He was using a free email account and didn't provide a company name.…
