After several years of unsuccessfully hiring book marketing experts, I realized I had two choices. The first was to not do any book promotion. The other was to do it myself. With great reticence, I decided to do it myself. I did this knowing it would detract from my writing and reduce my output. I […]
Hiring someone to market our books seems like a logical decision. After all, we hire professionals to edit our books and design our covers, so why not book marketing too? This is exactly what I thought and precisely what I did. Over the years I’ve hired a book launch expert, a publicist, a book marketing […]
Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words Peter Lyle DeHaan’s latest book is Successful Author FAQs. Do you have questions about writing? Publishing? Veteran author, publisher, editor, and freelance writer, Peter Lyle DeHaan answers questions writers often ask. In 15 topical chapters, tackling over 100 questions, Peter […]
I blogged parts of two books, and the posts serve to draw readers into my topic, and then point them to my books. Some people turn blog posts into a book, while others blog parts of their book once they have written it, and a few people blog the book as they write it. This […]
There are several blogs I follow; I read them whenever I can. Sometimes I just read, and other times I read and comment. Only a small percent of blog readers take time to comment. The reasons are many: too busy, a lack of confidence, not knowing what to say, fear, and so forth. There are, […]
Book publishing is more than just writing and producing books; it is also about selling them. Selling books requires a host of skills, including marketing, promotion, and public relations. Yes, public relations—PR for short. At its most basic level, public relations is managing the flow of information from an entity (a company, organization, or an […]
It seems people are jumping on the podcasting bandwagon. They want to grow their audience and build their platform in order to sell their books (or whatever other product or service they have to offer). This makes sense. Look at the recent surge of interest in audiobooks, with people who “read” books by listening to […]
Have you ever wondered if you have a marketable book? Most people have, especially anyone who wants to make a living from writing. You can pay someone to give you their opinion on what’s marketable before spending hours writing. Although you can do internet searches to find them, I recommend going to the websites of […]
Finding an agent is easy. Just do an online search for “literary agents.” However, getting an agent to agree to represent you is hard, very hard. Unlike hiring an accountant or attorney to represent us where we can vet them and pick the best one to meet our needs, agents vet their clients so they […]
Is blogging your book a good idea? If you blog your book, why will people buy it? Logic suggests they wouldn’t, but the reality is that most people will. Let me share what I’ve learned from other writers. I’ve yet to talk to anyone who felt their blog posts hurt their book sales. Even when […]