Resources

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 […]

What is author branding? Author branding is presenting yourself in such a way that when readers think of you they associate a feeling, a message, a book with you. A type of book, a style of writing that, like your fingerprint, is you. Even if you write in different genres, the essence of how you write will always be yours.

Today’s popular authors have a style of writing and message unique to them no matter what they write about. Their readers come to know, love, and trust their writing.

Have you ever fallen in love with a book and, immediately upon finishing it, wanted another one just like it? That’s the power of branding.

Developing your author brand is important if you want to sell a lot of books this year, more next year, and a lot more the year after that. Write each book and blog post with the goal of building […]

Almost every author wants to sell more books.

New authors think if they can just get one lucky break the yellow brick road of fame and fortune will magically open and their worries will disappear.

If only that were true.

The truth is even if an author does get a few lucky breaks there will still be periods of time when they will have to grab their bow and arrows and go hunting for readers.

In order to do that successfully you need to find the hunting grounds where your readers are feeding.

Your readers.

Not the reader of another author who writes in a different genre than you do or appeals to an audience that has nothing in common with your style of writing.

Finding the common threads between your book(s) and your book buying audience is the basis of target marketing for authors. There are many different factors in breaking down an audience demographic. Some […]

To sell more books you have to let more people be aware of them. If your audience is small, the number of books you sell will be small. If you have a large audience but no one sees your book, you have to work to make it stand out. This article will show you seven ways to make your book stand out among the 14,000,000 readers on Goodreads.com.

1. Become a member of the Goodreads Author Program

This program is completely free. It is designed to help authors reach their target audience and promote their book(s) to them. Over 44,000 authors, including New York Times bestsellers and other national bestselling have their books listed with an author profile. If you are not on it, don’t waste any more time! Sign up and get started.

2. Advertise your book. Yes, sometimes you have to put […]

How important is building a brand name for an author? Very important!

Most readers don’t remember titles of books as well as they remember an author’s name or the main character of a novel. As an author writes more and more books, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember single book titles. Readers will walk into a bookstore or start searching on Amazon or Barnes & Noble for the latest book by the author’s name.

That’s what they remember. That’s why you as an author must build up your author brand if you want to sell more books.

Fiction writers may create a character that becomes very memorable. Think Harry Potter, Nancy Drew, etc., but even with memorable characters the author’s name will still be very important.

If you write nonfiction, it is even more important that you make your name as widely known as possible.

Once your name is established, any product or topic you […]