When you try to land reviews for your new book, the last thing you want is to be just another random new author reviewers have never heard of. Yet it’s not uncommon for authors, and especially indie authors, to wait until the last minute to think about book reviews. So for this week’s quick tip, let’s make sure you don’t fall into that group. Rather
In my recent book marketing plan series I shared a book marketing plan outline. One element of that outline involved marketing and PR tactics to support your larger promotional strategy. These are the specific things you’ll do to promote your book and your visibility as an author. While I’m working on a short e-book covering basic book marketing and PR tactics, I wanted to give
In my free book marketing plan outline, I suggested creating a book marketing calendar or schedule to keep track of your marketing activities in the months leading up to, and extending beyond, your book launch. But when exactly should you pursue each promotional tactic you’re considering? This post offers a book marketing timeline that you can use as a guide. This book marketing timeline includes
Continuing with this week’s series on book marketing plans, it’s time for a freebie. This is a book marketing plan outline that you can use This book marketing plan outline is a short form “real” marketing plan for indie authors (meaning it goes beyond a simple, and often untargeted, list of tactics). While a simple list might be fine when pitching publishers, a list of marketing
Market research is an essential step in creating a book marketing plan. But it doesn’t have to be as scary, dull, or time-consuming as you might think. You can’t afford to ignore it. So why not keep it simple? In this post, my goal is to help you do just that — simplify market research for your book marketing plan by helping you focus on
Today marks the first day in a week-long blog series on book marketing plans. In addition to sharing some background on what book marketing plans are all about, I’ll also release a few fun tools and resources to help you create your own. Let’s kick things off with a quick introduction to book marketing plans. Who needs them? What can they do for you and
It’s no secret that when it comes to tackling large writing projects, I’m a planner. I work from outlines for nearly everything I write (even this blog post). I’ve tried several outlining strategies over the years. And ultimately I’ve taken bits and pieces of each strategy to customize my own process. Last year, I came across someone on the NaNoWriMo forums talking about The Snowflake
I’ve been working on building up my professional site, thinking up some killer blog post ideas for it, gathering some (embarrassingly) flattering testimonials from my best clients, and am almost ready to launch it — all I need is a good head shot for the front page and a “rates” page. And that’s where I’m getting cold feet. I’m looking at the Writer’s Market rates…and
We recently talked about preparing for NaNoWriMo during October, and I shared some of my own plans such as using the Snowflake Method for this novel’s outline. Today I’d like to share some of the best resources for helping you plan your NaNoWriMo novel (or any novel for that matter). Here are links to character planning resources and some of my favorite more general tools
I’ve been chasing my tail on this topic for a few days now and have worked myself up into a frenzy of confusion, so I’m coming to you O Wise Ones. Here’s the deal: For three years now, I’ve been writing under my real name. Fiction (and some related things, like the column I have at a horror webzine) under T.L. Bodine, nonfiction (and any
Last year was the first year I took part in NaNoWriMo. I participated mostly as a challenge that I could document here on the site. It went well. And I’m doing it again this year, although I’ll be following the traditional rules rather than last year’s “rebel” approach where I combined a few projects that I needed to work on anyway. This year I’m working
October marks the start of my favorite time of year: when we hop from one holiday to the next. It kicks off with Halloween and continues straight through New Year’s Day. There’s decorating. Shopping. Family time. And a crazy work schedule. Fall and the beginning of winter are probably my most hectic time of the year as a freelance writer-blogger-publisher, largely because I have so
In an earlier post I explained how it can help to think like a boss when running your freelance writing business. In that post, I suggested conducting self-evaluations (as if you were an employer evaluating an employee’s performance). Here is a simple self-evaluation worksheet that you can download and fill out for yourself to identify some of your biggest strengths and weaknesses. The idea is