Missing? Don’t Market Your Book This Way

missing-person-1756985_960_720So here I am, sitting at my desk and scanning Facebook when I should be doing … well, just about anything else. My to-do list is long and only going to get longer if I don’t knock a few items off of it. Then I see the post. In big white letters on a red background is the message “Have you seen me?” Under that is a picture of a teenage girl. Below that is a line with a single word, “MISSING” screaming at me in red. A few more details (“blah, blah, blah”) are outlined after that. I start thinking: Continue reading “Missing? Don’t Market Your Book This Way”

The Indie Author Roadmap – Part 2

indie author folding-map-360382_960_720Guest Post
by Kevin Tumlinson

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this article, I wrote about book formatting and end matter. Today, we’re going to talk about what comes after that.

Wide Distribution

You likely won’t have been in the indie author space for more than a few minutes without hearing the terms “exclusivity” and “wide distribution.” Welcome to the Debate of Our Time: Indie Author Edition. Continue reading “The Indie Author Roadmap – Part 2”

How Not to Get Publicity for a Book

Author Sock PuppetShortly I’m going to tell a true story about a man who is using a false premise to get publicity. This story is full of generalized and vague statements that will break most rules of telling a good story. When you get there, you’ll understand why. But before I even dive into the story I’m going to take a short tangent. (If I’m gonna break rules, I might as well go all out.) Even worse, that tangent is about politics.

Politics makes up a large share of the public discourse today. As some of my Facebook friends complain, I talk politics more than most. However, when it comes to my reviews, especially fiction, I try to put my personal opinions aside. If a work of fiction has a political ax to grind, it should be judged based on the story, not on whether I agree with its slant. In fact, the second worst backlash I’ve experienced from an author over one of my reviews was a situation where the author felt the real reason for the negative review was political. He was wrong. I agreed with his politics. His story just sucked. As a general rule, I don’t think my book-related sites are an appropriate place to stage or participate in political battles. However, if it is related to books or the business of publishing, I can imagine scenarios where I might make an exception. Which leads me to the story I promised. Continue reading “How Not to Get Publicity for a Book”

Can Your Book Marketing Be Detrimental?

author marketing_bubbleIn a world where purchasers often need to see a product as many as twenty times before they decide to purchase it, is there anything an author can do, in terms of marketing, that is bad for their book?

I pose the question, even though I don’t entirely have an answer. I am leaning toward yes, but first let me tell you why I posed the question. An author I know told me something they were planning to do to market their book. I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. (And, NO, I won’t tell you what it was.) While I can be fairly blunt, I’m not blunt enough to blurt out that I think an idea is completely idiotic. I did, however, ask, “Do you really think that will be effective?”

The author’s response. “Can’t hurt, can it?” Continue reading “Can Your Book Marketing Be Detrimental?”