To supercharge your sales, use your best-looking portraits
In the past, I’ve talked about the importance for authors to see themselves as authorpreneurs, the CEOs of their writing business. Just like with those corporate leaders, authors need professional portraits. Writers know that people judge a book by its cover. The more compelling the cover, the greater the odds that a reader will pick up the book…
What walking the Camino de Santiago taught this indie author
Four years ago today I left for the Camino de Santiago, and my life changed forever. One of the unexpected results was becoming an indie author—with all the work that it entails. Today, on Labor Day, I reflect on the lessons I learned on this adventure and how they affect me as an indie author. The Camino de…
Creating a book marketing plan
In a recent blog (To be a successful writer, look to business), I wrote about the need to take a business approach to writing. I expounded the necessity for indie authors to become “authorpreneurs” to get the clarity needed to make sound decisions. Whether you decide to use a publicist or do the work yourself,…
Book promotion—does it really work?
This is the sixth and last installment in the book promotion series. Other topics in the series are Getting noticed, Getting book reviews, Book trailers, Word of mouth, and The book cover. Note: For the next six months as I hike and bicycle around Europe, I will publish only one post per week on this site. I…
How to sell your books
After months of hard work including several copy-edit iterations, I finally published my book on Amazon and Createspace. To celebrate my accomplishment, I invited family and friends to a release party where I sold a few books. I sent out press releases, tweeted, and wrote about it on Facebook. Having cultivated an audience prior to…
5 Lessons learned from the USPS postal rate increase
Yesterday I went to mail an autographed book to Australia. I was shocked to find out that the Priority Mail International postal rates increased over 40% (from $16.95 to $23.95), making the postage to Europe and Australia more than the cost of the book. My immediate thought was that this postage hike would adversely affect…
Things to consider when setting up a blog
Have you just written your book and wonder what to know next? I was at that point just six months ago. I had read about how successful bloggers are in driving readers to the website, and I wanted to do the same. Since I had experience with the Internet and even had a personal blog,…
Six-month assessment and setting goals
It is six months since I published my book. It is time to assess my status and to plan the next six month’s goals. Do you routinely assess your goals as an author or indie publisher? If you are not selling the number of books you would like, are not writing to the extent you…