Tag: author advice

Have others promote your book – How to get Reviews

Fellow Indies Unlimited Minion Ed McNally had a great post the other day about self-promotion. We all hate it, but it is a necessary evil. I want to shift gears a bit from where Ed led us and examine a method to allow others to promote us—reviews. Reviews are more important than just getting feedback about your book. It’s common knowledge that Amazon figures reviews in their ranking system. So the more reviews you have, the better ranked your book could be.

Please stay with me until the end of the post where I’ll divulge a super million dollar secret for book promotions (I’m not selling anything, just in case this sounded like an infomercial.) Okay, maybe not a million dollars, but it sure helps.

Reviews are one of the best methods to generate buzz about your book, without you being the one shouting from the rooftops. We’ve all spent countless conversations begging our friends and relatives to “post a review, please!” It’s frustrating and many times, a fruitless endeavor. So, how do we go about getting reviews? Continue reading “Have others promote your book – How to get Reviews”

Getting it Right

Did you ever see a beautiful painting of a ship with white sails billowing, the prow slicing through the waves, colorful banners fluttering behind? I’ve seen some beautiful paintings like that. Of course, those paintings are absurdly wrong, and that irritates me. A sailing ship is wind-driven. That means the banners and flags are blown in the same general direction the ship is moving and the sails are billowing—not streaming along behind the ship. A wind-driven vessel can not move faster than the wind. A painting like this, however well otherwise done, shows the painter does not know his subject. Continue reading “Getting it Right”

Ed’s Casual Friday: So *that* is why they advertise…

I hate promo.

I really do. And I don’t mean other people’s promo (OPP?), though I’m not a fan of it, either. I mean I hate doing it myself – flogging my book hither, thither, and yon. And yet, it seems to be at least half of the Indie gig, as all the time and energy spent getting the good cover and crafting the effective blurb and gathering reviews, let alone writing and editing a whole book in the first place, won’t matter at all if nobody ever sees it. Not if no one ever visits that listing on Amazon or B&N or the iStore. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: So *that* is why they advertise…”

Do I Have to?

K. S. Brooks at the PACA Awards
K. S. Brooks at the PACA Awards

Yes, you do.

We all have to do things we don’t enjoy. Personally, I loathe the thought of personal appearances. I’m quite happy being a curmudgeonly hermit. It’s very safe here in my secret mountain lair. But sometimes an invitation comes my way – and I know I have to say yes.

Public appearances and events really don’t hurt that much. They can be tedious, and usually the amount of time spent in preparation usurps the event itself.  So why do them? Well, unless you’re famous – or extremely eccentric – you sort of “have” to. Continue reading “Do I Have to?”