I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with best-selling children’s book author Krystaelynne Sanders Diggs. I met Krystaelynne at the San Francisco Writers Conference and got to hear a little bit of her story and knew I wanted to find a way to share it with more authors.  What makes Krystaelynne so unique is that being a children’s book author is her full time job, and she’s managed to do it all without a traditional publisher backing her. What’s her secret? She didn’t start out looking to become a successful children’s book author.  When a child close to her opened up about bei ..read more

One of the most efficient ways to sell more books as a self-published author is to get yourself booked on podcasts. Podcast marketing doesn’t cost you anything, and it allows you to promote your book to dozens of new potential readers. Podcasts also give you a nice piece of content to share through your author platform channels.  It’s true that nearly every book marketing resource out there will tell you to get booked on podcasts as a way to market yourself and sell books. But how exactly do you do that? Let’s break it down.  How to Find Podcasts Before you can start pitching yoursel ..read more

We’ve been helping authors self-publish and promote their books for over a decade now. While not everyone we talk to ends up hiring us to help with their book, we’re always willing to talk to both first-time and established authors about the publishing process.  Here are 5 of the most common self-publishing questions we hear from people: Question: How should I spend my money?  Answer:  No one has an infinite budget when it comes to publishing and promoting a book, and yet if you do a quick google search for self publishing services there are a myriad of ways you could spend you ..read more

I recently had the privilege of meeting one of my writing heroes: Michael Larsen, author of what I consider to be an indispensable book How to Write a Book Proposal. We bumped into each other at the San Francisco Writers Conference, an event that he started with his late wife in 2003.  If you haven’t heard of Michael, you should! In addition to writing the book and starting the conference, he’s dedicated his career to helping writers achieve their publishing dreams. He was a literary agent for many years and has written two other books, including How to Get a Literary Agent (third edition ..read more

Effective book promotion is both an art and a science. You will first need a high-quality product to promote, of course. But then you need a plan to get the word out. One strategy you can employ to promote your book is to engage your local media.  Why Engage Your Local Media A lot of first-time authors think of book marketing as something that needs to happen on a national level and forget the power and often-untapped potential of their local media. These authors will often submit a copy of their book to the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle in hopes of getting some press coverag ..read more

When you are self-publishing a book for the first time you’re bound to make a few mistakes. After all, making mistakes is how we learn and progress.  That being said, there are a number of self-publishing mistakes that can easily be avoided with enough planning.  Here are 10 self-publishing mistakes to avoid with your next book:  1.Skimping on Cover Design Too often indie authors think they can design a book cover themselves because they already know what they want, or they are aware of free design tools like Canva for Amazon’s cover designer that will do the work for them.&nbs ..read more

Almost all successful self-published authors will need a platform.  What is a platform, you ask? It is a single space where you as an author can engage and connect with your fans, readers, and potential readers.Your platform might include your social media pages, your newsletter, and your author website. It should also definitely include a blog.  Blogging is arguably one of the most effective ways to build a following of loyal readers, boost SEO to your website, and even generate content to trickle out on social media and your newsletter. Yes, a blog can help you do all that.  S ..read more

The ugly truth about self publishing is that most self-published books entering the marketplace are going to fail – and it has nothing to do with how good the book is.  Many of the books out there that just aren’t selling have the potential to be successful, they just weren’t given the proper chance.  So why is it that most self-published books fail?  1. They Skimped on Quality Nothing screams self-published more than a book that looks self-published. What do we mean by that? Books with Amazon-generated covers, or that weren’t professionally copy-edited and proofread because th ..read more

If one of your goals for the New Year is to spend more time marketing your self-published book but you aren’t sure where to start then you are in the right place.  Marketing a book is hard. It’s probably harder than writing the book, which is why a lot of authors (especially first-time authors) get discouraged and give up. Or, they think they have to spend thousands of dollars to get any traction with readers. The truth is that, yes, marketing is hard and can be time consuming, but with the right strategy in place you can market a book without spending thousands of dollars or making it yo ..read more

Publishing a book is a monumental moment for any writer. It’s probably something you’ve dreamt about for years, but you also know that the chances of getting a book agent and a traditional publishing deal are slim to none. Not because your book isn’t good enough, but rather because the market is flooded with book proposals. Failing to get an agent to pay attention to you does not mean your book doesn’t have value, or a potential market; it just means you are going to do a lot of the work yourself – and that’s okay!  So how do you know if you are ready to self-publish your book?  (Sid ..read more