Interview with James Thomson from eBookBooster

ebookbooster logoA couple of months ago, our own Bob Hammond wrote a post discussing some promotional sites for authors he found to be ineffective. Shortly after that post, James Thomson, from eBookBooster, one of the sites mentioned, contacted IU to express his concern, and to see what he could do to make Bob’s experience better.

I’ve used a lot of promotional sites over the past few years. A couple of them do offer refunds if the author doesn’t see results, but most — understandably — don’t. I was impressed by James’ willingness to reach out, and began an email correspondence with him regarding his services. Given James’ willingness to engage and work towards a happy resolution, I thought it only fair to give him the opportunity to better explain the services he offers, particularly since his services are a bit different. I’ll let him explain.   Continue reading “Interview with James Thomson from eBookBooster”

The Real Question is – Who’s Going to Pay?

dollar signsI attended elementary school in the seventies. As a kid, I knew what hippies were and one of our teachers even explained communes to us too, or more specifically, her opinion on the breakdown of communes. The teacher told us that the ideology behind communes – everyone contributing and helping each other – was a unique concept but ultimately the system would always break down. According to her, problems always arose and the lifestyle built on humility and benevolence would fall apart. They didn’t all fall apart though. One of the more famous is Farm Community Commune in Tennessee. It’s sometimes referred to as the Mundo sister’s commune. It’s still active, but they had to make changes too.

Those old hippies were paying it forward, just like many of us do today. Fortunately, in our ever-interesting world of self-publishing we don’t have to live in a communal setting. Many of the authors who have excelled and managed to connect with thousands of readers have indeed paid it forward though, and they’ve passed along their time and knowledge to others. Their motivation varies. For some it’s because they were helped themselves and want to pay back, and for others their mandate is to help professionalize our industry and raise the quality of presentation and content higher and higher. Both are noble intentions and I like to think I do my little bit to help achieve both aims. As authors we’ll ultimately gain followers and perhaps readers by adhering to this philosophy. We’re not the only ones paying it forward though. Continue reading “The Real Question is – Who’s Going to Pay?”

How to Buy Book Advertising & Promotion Services

nailbiting lady by MS clipartI was once there: afraid to buy book advertising. I almost forgot what that was like. Recently, in the comment thread of my article discussing What My House Taught Me About Selling Books, I was reminded how scary this industry can be. It’s extra-intimidating if you don’t have someone like Martin Crosbie to show you the ropes. I’m extremely fortunate.

So, I thought it might be nice to offer a little hand-holding and some baby steps for those of you who have yet to take the plunge into advertising their books. Here are a few easy steps to take you from Petrified Author to Seasoned Pro. Continue reading “How to Buy Book Advertising & Promotion Services”

Advertising on Goodreads

goodreads logoGoodreads has been in the news quite a bit the past year, first for joining up with Amazon, and second for the well-publicized tension between authors and reviewers. All this discord has frightened some authors away from Goodreads. This is unfortunate, because Goodreads offers a variety of opportunities for authors.

One of those opportunities is their paid advertising option. You can access the paid advertising option midway down on your dashboard:

goodreads advertise your bookClicking will take you to their “Advertise With Us” page, where over on the right you’ll see a “Self-serve advertising” link: Continue reading “Advertising on Goodreads”