Publishing Archives - Page 8 of 11

24 March, 2014

What authors need to know before starting a crowd funding campaign

By Wheatmark Team|2023-06-09T11:21:06-07:00March 24, 2014|Marketing, Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on What authors need to know before starting a crowd funding campaign

First-time authors as well as seasoned ones have successfully raised money through crowd funding. Campaigns have been funded that were as simple as $150 to pay for an inexpensive cover design and as complicated as over $49,000 to publish a coffee table book with glossy, colored pages. The main crowd funding sites used are Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Pubslush , although there are countless others.

Whether the amount is small or large though, crowd funding for a book has some hidden benefits that might be equally or perhaps even more important than raising money to pay for book printing and marketing costs. Consider these:

Benefit No. 1: Connecting with new readers.

Benefit No. 2: Getting your book known on a wider platform.

Book marketing is about finding readers who will be attracted to your book enough to read it. Once you have shared the book with […]

8 November, 2013

Amazon Source opens profit sharing for Independent Bookstores

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:24:07-07:00November 8, 2013|News, Publishing|Comments Off on Amazon Source opens profit sharing for Independent Bookstores

Brick-and-mortar bookstores have long been waging a rather futile battle against their enemy of destruction, Amazon.

Who knew that terms of peace were on the horizon?

In a press release dated Wednesday, November 6, 2013, Amazon announced the war might be over. In its latest bid for more of the book market, Amazon will offer brick-and-mortar bookstores a chance to team up.

Amazon’s newest program called Amazon Source, allows independent bookstores to reap some of the Amazon book-buying profits when their customers purchase Kindle products and ebooks. Bookstores can now sell Kindle products in their stores and make profits in two ways. The first option includes a discount on purchasing Kindle devices from the manufacturer and a 10% commission on every book that the Kindle buyer purchases through Amazon for the next two years. This is easily the most viable option for bookstores to take. The other option is designed […]

16 August, 2013

Why every author should create a book marketing blueprint

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:26:59-07:00August 16, 2013|Marketing, Publishing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Why every author should create a book marketing blueprint

Writing a book? Ask yourself these three questions:

Question: What do you do once your book is written?

Answer: Get it published.

Question: What do you do once your book is published?

Answer: Sell it.

Question: How?

Answer: Create a step-by-step book marketing plan.

A friend of mine is an avid fan of Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing. His latest post she told me is about creating an action plan for marketing your business. Leaving things up to chance, Middleton says, “Is simply going around in circles with your marketing.”

Certainly, you may get some random moments of success. But, how about consistent moments? Moments that build up your book selling so that each month you sell more books than the month before?

That is done most effectively by creating a book-marketing plan. Not a “to do” list for today. Not scribbling down a few things you could do in the next week but a step-by-step, three-year book marketing […]

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 […]

27 June, 2013

Do you need an editor?

By Wheatmark Team|2023-06-09T11:28:07-07:00June 27, 2013|Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Do you need an editor?

The biggest trap that most self-published authors fall into is believing there book is good enough if they write it once, have a few friends check it over and send it out.

The truth is that writers do not see their own mistakes.

It’s like looking in a mirror and thinking that the one-dimensional reflection is how we really look to other people.

Besides seeing ourselves in only one dimension we unconsciously put on a good face before that bit of glass. A pleasant expression. A smile. Do we see the frown, snarl, or grimace we make when someone cuts in front of us?

As a writer, you know what you want to say. That knowledge can get in the way of sharing what we want to say completely.

Remember the old kid’s game of Pass the Secret? You tell the person next to you a sentence about something. She repeats it to the next […]

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 […]

18 March, 2013

How to get book reviews for a self-published book

By Wheatmark Team|2023-06-09T11:30:08-07:00March 18, 2013|Marketing, Publishing, Resources|Comments Off on How to get book reviews for a self-published book

How important are book reviews for new authors?

The best way to sell books is by word of mouth. The primary way to get that word of mouth rolling is to get your book reviewed.

The more important the book reviewer is the greater exposure your book will have. A book reviewed in the New York Times is going to outperform a book review on a small book blog with 200 readers.

Does this mean you should ignore the small ponds and fish for reviews only in the big ones? Not necessarily. If you are a new author, getting your foot in the door of book reviewers of any size might be well worth your while.

Ten reviews from small-sized bloggers will give you exposure to new readers that would otherwise never find your book. Keep adding to the pot and you will slowly build up your readership. Every book review that is posted […]

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, […]

23 January, 2013

7 myths about being an author

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:33:23-07:00January 23, 2013|Marketing, Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on 7 myths about being an author

Ever dream about becoming an author? Today it’s easier than ever. And I will be first in line to encourage you to pursue your dream. But making your dream come true means one also takes into account the cost, the reality, and the practicality of how to make that dream actually happen.

The following seven “dream-busting” myths are not meant to discourage you but rather to toughen you up for the exhilarating but often difficult journey almost every author encounters.

1. Publishing a book will make you an instant celebrity. The truth is, it may make you a celebrity in your circle of family and friends but there’s a lot of book competition. In 2011, three million books were published in the United States and the count has been doubling, tripling, rising steadily every year.

2. Becoming a published author will make you rich. The average book sells 500 copies. That’s an average. […]