Bowker recently released the “2009 Book Consumer Annual Review: U.S. Demographics & Buying Behaviors.” It was based on responses from 43,000 people in book publishing. And while it would cost you a whopping $1,000 to download and read the complete report, here are some highlights, courtesy of Publishers Weekly. This is some pretty interesting information […]
The Bookselling Market: What’s Hot, What’s Not Read More »
There are lots of companies that say they can market your book online. And maybe they can. But what they fail to tell you is that there’s not one standard formula that works for all authors. Marketing a teen horror novel is very, very different from trying to sell copies of a self-help book about
Marketing a Fiction Book vs. Marketing a Nonfiction Book Read More »
There was a really interesting article this week in the New York Times about authors and book trailers. I highly recommend you read it (but please be aware you need to create a free NY Times account to do so). Here’s the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/fashion/11AuthorVideos.html For those of you who don’t feel like registering, or don’t
How to Create a Book Trailer: What’s Working, What’s Not Read More »
What’s the purpose of your author website? It’s probably to sell books. When you sell your book to an individual, you’re probably only selling one copy. But when you sell it to an educator — be it an elementary school teacher or a college professor — you could be selling a boatload of copies. So
Reaching Out to Educators on Your Author Website Read More »
One of the biggest challenges in developing a website — any type of website — is speaking to a variety of audiences. For instance, when I was working on developing a website for a private school, it was hard to make sure that current parents, potential parents, and alumni all felt like the website spoke
Finding a Balance Between Potential Readers and Previous Readers Read More »
This is one thing that I often recommend to clients as we’re discussing what kinds of content their author website should include. It’s a downloadable book club discussion guide. If you think your book might be appropriate for a book club (and what book isn’t, really?), then you should be making it as easy as
Book Club Discussion Guides on Your Author Website Read More »
There are thousands of author websites out there. And most of them are pretty standard in terms of what they include. But sometimes, an author website has to be pretty different from others. A book that’s being published internationally is one of those instances. I’m going to use a few of the author websites I
Building a Book Website for an International Book Read More »
When you look at other authors who write in your genre or on the same subject matter, you very well may view them as competition. But the purpose of this post is to convince you that those authors aren’t your competitors. They’re your potential allies. First, when someone has an interest in a subject matter
Content Swapping With Other Author Websites Read More »
I received a post card in the mail yesterday (and it’s been a long time since I last got a real post card). It was promoting an upcoming children’s book that will have its own booth at Book Expo later this month, encouraging me to come by the booth and get a taste of this
Promote Your Author Website in Print Read More »
Okay, I must confess that I’ve changed my tune on this one. I remember reading a while back (and blogging about) some things that people said they wanted to see on author websites. One of them was a printable backlist. At the time, I wasn’t really sold on the idea. After all, it seemed a
An Author Website Staple: A Printable Backlist Read More »
