May 2009 Archives

Do you want to be quoted by the national press on a daily basis? (How much would that be worth to your business?)

In the past six months, I've been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Entrepreneur, The Associated Press, PBS, Voice of America, Family Circle, Glamour, Redbook, Self, Health, Prevention, Parents, Parenting, Women's World, First for Women, Newsday, Newsweek, Salon, In Touch Weekly--and even The National Enquirer.

We're all susceptible to the impulse purchase. That's why the grocery and discount stores line the checkout lanes with goodies to catch your eye. It works - you buy more.

Put this human impulse to work in your favor by using point-of-purchase displays to put your books in direct line of sight of people with their wallets already out of their pockets.

I encourage authors to become writers.

Here is the distinction:

An author is someone with authority. That is, you are an author if you have something you wish to convey to readers, whether it is a story you have invented, an experience you feel is instructive, an opinion you want to express, or knowledge you want to preserve. You are the subject-matter expert.

As writers, we ensure that we use a great opening, that the content is spectacular, and each scene (in fiction) ends with a cliff-hanger. In short, we spend the majority of time tweaking our story. And of course, that's the way it should be.

If you are considering a book signing, you should understand how people shop in different environments.

THE DESTINATION SHOPPING CENTER

A destination shopping center is almost always a strip shopping center where all of the stores are entered from the outside, facing the parking lot.

How, exactly, does a book get accepted? And what happens after that? These two questions are vitally important to understand if you want to make a living as a novelist. When I first started out the entire process was a bit of a mystery to me and it is something that comes up time and time again whenever I teach a workshop or make a convention appearance. So, as part of the launch of Rock Your Writing Career, I thought I'd give a short primer on the steps from proposal to publication.

Have you been thinking about finding a literary agent to represent you to a publisher?  If you have, there are a few things you should know before you try to secure an agent.

First, literary agents prefer to work with published authors who have already proven themselves within their marketplace.  If you have authored a booklet, or self published a book, and it has sold well, you have met this criteria.  You have an audience for your book.  But, this is about the only good thing you'll have going for you with an agent.  Here's why.

It's done! You have just finished your novel or non-fiction book. You finished countless updates with your book organizer and layout artist, and at long last the final zip files have been shuffled on over to your book printer's account. How do you proceed? You definitely do not want to sit back shooting the breeze waiting for your boxes to arrive. The waiting period between sending and obtaining your finished books is the perfect moment to write your book press release.