Tag: marketing
Getting Your Book Into A Bookshop
I speak as a bookshop owner. Someone who loves books. Most of us that run bookshops do, so please bear in mind that if you want us to stock your book we theoretically, will lend a receptive ear. But here are a few tips to help make the whole submission process a bit easier. Running […]
A Day in the Life of a Book Publicist
When I first daydreamed what it would be like to be a book publicist I imagined myself introducing an author to a packed Barnes and Noble book signing. In my daydream I also look like Angelica’s Mom from Rugrats. The reality turned out to be a bit different. When I’m asked what it’s like to […]
Shouting From The Rooftops: Self Promo
Way back in the mists of time (2000) at the instigation of author Margaret Murphy I was one of seven northern crime writers who clubbed together to launch Murder Squad. We created a website, produced a brochure and were soon appearing at libraries and festivals throughout the country to promote our work. The impetus for […]
Asking Questions, Finding Community
“You ask the best questions,” Kristy Woodson Harvey exclaimed, if you’ll lend me the liberty of saying people can exclaim via email. Working at home as a writer can be a lonely business, and I’ll take human contact and emotion in any form I can get some days! But through the beautiful world of the […]
Confessions of a Book Buzz Builder
When I first signed with my agent to represent my memoir, she reviewed my book proposal. I’d included this tidbit: “as a former book publicist of ten years at several major publishing houses, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and Doubleday, I have the skills to promote my book extensively.” She scribbled in the margin, […]
The Dos and Don’ts of Promotional Blog Tours
When I invited my blog followers to host a guest post to publicise my forthcoming novel, I never imagined I’d be embarking on a marathon tour of twenty-five posts over five weeks. I’m not sure if that makes me someone to emulate or a narcissistic masochist but, for what it’s worth, here are some suggestions […]
I Published My Book! Now What?
Once upon a time my writing life centered on writing, getting a short story published, writing another story, and so on. It went this way for decades. People asked me from time to time why I didn’t get a collection together, and publish an actual book. Finally, I did. All The Roads That Lead From […]
5 Stories about Publishing that are No Longer True (and maybe never were)
Maybe all professions like to scare young hopefuls — to weed the flock, so to speak — and the publishing industry, notorious for its gloom and doom predictions, is no exception. As a graduate student in a Creative Writing department, I heard all sorts of stories from teachers and other students that made it seem […]
Letter to My Pre-publication Self
It’s now 8 months since the book was first published, so I decided to invent time travel (patent pending) to give you a preview of what will happen and what you will learn during this crazy, baffling, exciting, scary time. You can thank me later. 1. Writing the book is not job done. It’s just […]
Creative-Hyphenate?
‘What do you do?’ I used to say ‘I’m an author’. Now I’m not sure. The challenge for many free lancers in the creative arts is to describe their occupation. Usually they have several skills in their portfolio for artistic challenge, variety AND in order to pay the bills. Last week, a 4 year old […]
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