Sam Henrie

15 October, 2013

Too much competition for your book?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:25:06-07:00October 15, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Too much competition for your book?

It used to be quite easy for someone to start a small business in a small town and make a success of it. Granted there weren’t ten million customers available for whatever they did, but there was a small group of people that were available and these people would stop by and give the new shop a try. Or at least take a peek in the window. After all, there wasn’t that much going on in the small town and you were something to look at.

Today with the Internet, every business is toted to be available to a millions of people all at once.

It’s true. It’s amazing. Millions of people.

But there’s a catch!

Just because your online business is available to millions of people doesn’t mean millions of people are going to take a look.

In fact, maybe none of them will.

There’s nothing wrong with your business perhaps, but your business itself […]

30 September, 2013

Why you should create small realistic book marketing goals

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:26:27-07:00September 30, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Why you should create small realistic book marketing goals

Every author would like to sell a million copies.

More authors can achieve this goal if they go about it with a realistic plan.

For instance, while you may not sell a million copies in a week or a year, there is a much stronger possibility that you might sell that many books over a longer period of time.

It’s better to make a reasonable goal that you meet and then, once it is achieved, set the bar higher for the next round. Make the first goal easy and doable. Success builds upon success. With each achieved goal you will have the knowledge and expertise, contacts and methods for raising your next level of book selling.

The first goal should be small because you will be putting in a lot of the ground work for future sales. That ground work will take more time and have a deeper learning curve as you get started. […]

15 July, 2013

The most important factor in becoming a successful author

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:27:42-07:00July 15, 2013|Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on The most important factor in becoming a successful author

Simply getting started might be the most important factor in becoming a great author. I list it as a good second.

The numbers of people who dream about becoming an author but actually never do anything to make that dream come true is probably in the millions. So, I don’t want to neglect the point that to succeed you must first start, but that’s not what’s going to set you apart from the hundreds of thousands of people who do actually set pen to paper and write a few chapters.

The number one factor in becoming successful in writing is persistence.

The best talent in the world is of little value if one doesn’t use it.

The best teachers and instructors in the world can do little for someone who throws down the pen or the tablet and gives up when the going gets tough.

Persistence is a virtue that gets little limelight in most […]

13 July, 2013

How to market your memoir

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:27:51-07:00July 13, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media, Writing|Comments Off on How to market your memoir

Marketing a memoir is quite different from marketing fiction or even most nonfiction books.

With a memoir, you will need a platform built around you or the topic that you write your memoir about. It’s all about you. Your reader must fall in love with you. Not the character in a novel or a unique business idea in your self-help book, but lovable, likeable, plain old you.

It is imperative that you are accessible to your reader. Since the power of a memoir is that you are giving an inside look at the inner workings of your life, you must put yourself in the public eye enough that they will want to know more.

Blogging is easily the memoir writer’s best platform tool. With a blog, you build the bridge between your daily writing and your life story. As your posts reveal what is happening with you today you automatically encourage interest about […]

28 June, 2013

Rewriting your book after the first draft

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:28:04-07:00June 28, 2013|Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Rewriting your book after the first draft

Once you have a first draft of your book, it’s time to rewrite it.

Plan to rewrite at least four times before submitting your book to an editor.

The first rewrite will be the deepest and cruelest but also the most necessary one. This is called a structural rewrite. Look at the big picture of the book and ask some serious questions:

What scenes are to stay and which ones are to be deleted?

Are the characters staying true to form throughout the story?

Are they believable, likable, and lovable?

Do the good people have any weaknesses and do the downright nasty, bad folks have any redeemable features?

Does the book flow well? Does it get bogged down in description or in dialogue?

Does the tension build too fast? Too slow?

Are the characters described in one massive word dump or are they gradually introduced through scenes, actions, conversations, and body language?

Step away from your book as the author […]

21 June, 2013

Which came first: The audience or the book?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:28:54-07:00June 21, 2013|Marketing, Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on Which came first: The audience or the book?

Last time I revealed what to me was the most significant lesson learned during my last thirteen years running Wheatmark: that publishing success requires actively building an audience. A natural question many authors have about this is: Should I start building an audience for my book before or after I write it?

Ideally you’d write your book and build your audience simultaneously, so that your audience-building activities could inform the content of your book, and you could use your writing as a resource for your audience-building activities. But the deeper answer is: It doesn’t matter, because you’re going to have to do both to achieve publishing success, and you have to start somewhere! Let me illustrate this with two very different publishing success stories:

1. Start with an audience, then write a book: Just over a year ago, when Mark Baker published The Game Changer: A Simple System for […]

18 June, 2013

Sam Henrie: Why I Started Wheatmark

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:29:01-07:00June 18, 2013|News, Publishing|Comments Off on Sam Henrie: Why I Started Wheatmark

In the late 1990s I left my position as Director of Logistics at the mid-sized tech company I had worked at for nine years. I left with two great gifts: enough money to take some time off and the entrepreneurial bug. During my nine-year tenure I watched the tech firm grow from a local business with a handful of employees and under $1 million in annual revenues to a global enterprise with nearly a thousand employees and over $100 million in annual revenues. The experience had me hooked: I knew I would to start my own company. Doing what, I did not yet know.

At the time I was investigating the book publishing business; I wanted to understand why some of my relatives (I come from a family of writers) were having trouble getting their books published—books that were exceptional, and ones I was convinced had good chances in the market […]

10 March, 2013

6 reasons your self-published book will flop

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:30:33-07:00March 10, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on 6 reasons your self-published book will flop

Last year over 200,000 million books were self-published. The average self-published book probably sold less than ten copies.

The reasons for a book not to make it are many. Most self-published books need much more time, energy and yes, money, put into them than the author expects. If you plan to self-publish, here are ten important factors that stop most self-published books from making it big.

1. Poor writing. You cannot be your own judge. Nor can you expect your mother, siblings, and best friends to give you honest feedback. Your best and honest feedback will come from readers who judge your writing by the book they hold in their hand. Offer your book for free or at a low price and pay attention to the feedback. If it’s bad, don’t despair. Keep writing. You will get better.

2. Little or poor editing. No one can catch their own mistakes. You are too […]

20 February, 2013

Is Amazon Author Rank a good thing for Authors?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:31:00-07:00February 20, 2013|Marketing, Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on Is Amazon Author Rank a good thing for Authors?

On October 9, 2012 at 3:55 am, Amazon rolled out another feature for their readers called Amazon Author Rank. It rates the most popular authors by the hour. Readers who are floundering for what to read next can jump on the “what’s popular” train and make a winning selection.

So, is this good news or bad news for beginning authors who are miles away from the “Most Popular” zone? Is this a case of where the popular gets more popular and the rest of the herd slips further and further back into obscurity? You can be the judge. Here are some pros and cons for what Amazon Author rank does for authors.

The Good News

If you have any ranking at all on this list, it can be a definite pat on the back. A confirmation that you are doing a few things right and making progress.

It can also be a goal, […]

25 January, 2013

Authors: How to sell more books with bookmarks

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:33:15-07:00January 25, 2013|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on Authors: How to sell more books with bookmarks

The journey of selling thousands of books begins with selling one. If you can sell one, you can sell two.

Many times authors will neglect doing small book marketing practices because the results appear to be insignificant. But the truth is that a small practice done regularly over time can build up your marketing sales very effectively.

Book marketing is all about making connections. You never know when one connection will make a big difference. Providing as many different avenues for people to find and read your books should be an important part of your book marketing strategy.

Today’s book marketing strategy is using bookmarks to sell more books. And yes, even if your book is only available for eReaders, bookmarks can still be used quite effectively.

The basic marketing idea behind bookmarks is to showcase your book in an attractive way before your target audience. Following are seven simple tips and strategies for […]

Sam Henrie

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