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10 Words and Phrases to Delete from Your Writing—Right Now
Do you ever hear a word or a phrase so often that it begins to make you cringe? Sometimes it is a phrase that sounded so original the first time it was said that it quickly becomes overused to the point that instead of sounding original, it turns into a cliché. “Thinking outside the box”…
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Who Is Your Reader?
If you’ve spent any time at all in business you’ve heard the phrase, “find your target market.” As a writer, your target market is your reader. When I ask the writers I work with who their target reader is, the most common answer I get is “everyone,” or some variation of the word, such as…
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It’s Time to Think Holiday Book Marketing
It’s time to think about holiday book marketing—and I don’t just mean Christmas. The Fall book buying season begins in October. Halloween is a book-buying holiday, especially for young adults and children’s books, but also for any ghost stories, horror stories and supernatural tales for any age group. If you have a book that fits…
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What’s Your Point of View?
What is your point of view? Don’t worry, I’m not asking about your politics—just your storytelling. But the question of the point of view from which you write may be just as fraught with conflict as a question about your political or religious views. There are four points of view in storytelling. First Person or…
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All about Vella Amazon’s New Storytelling Platform
Vella is Amazon’s new way for authors to bring their books to readers. It quietly rolled out on July 15. But what exactly is Vella? And how can authors use it? Vella is a story subscription service that lets authors bring their stories to readers in a serialized form, written specifically for the platform. Think…
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Consistent Press Coverage = Staying Relevant
Andrea Pass, Owner Andrea Pass Public Relations www.AndreaPassPR.com www.Facebook.com/AndreaPassPublicRelations Public relations is the practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between businesses and the public using media sources. It is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their public. Consumers spend an estimated 11 hours per day consuming information.…
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Going Wide vs. Amazon Only: What’s Right for You
I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from authors who want to “go wide” with their books, both paper and e-book. The question is complex and there is no one right answer for every author. What is “going wide?” In the book world it is a term that means that you make your book,…
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How to Sell Your Book Today
This is an excerpt from Karen Hodges Miller’s new book, How to Sell Your Book Today: Focus Your Book Marketing for the New Digital Economy. The book is now available on Amazon.com as both an e-book and paperback. Before you can effectively market your book, you need a plan. Without one, your marketing will feel…
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Top 20 #Hashtags For Your Book on Twitter & Instagram (or, Mastering the Art of the #Hashtag)
By Haley BCU Haley BCU is the author of Four Letter Words published in January by Can’t Put it Down Books. She is a master of the hashtag. So, you wrote a book! Let me be one of the many who will congratulate you, be impressed with your dedication and hard work, and purchase a…
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Are You Sabotaging Your Book’s Marketability?
Here’s an example we hear so often: “I don’t need to hire an editor. My mother is a retired English teacher. She knows all about good grammar.” It doesn’t matter if your mother is the world’s greatest expert on grammar, she should not edit your book. Why? Because she loves you, and she is going…
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11 Trends for Authors in 2021
It’s a new year! Finally! And that means it is time to assess the changes that happened in the world of books in the previous year and make a few predictions for the coming one. Yes, 2020 has given authors some new things to think about, so let’s take a look at the trends and…
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We gave away 3,000 books. Here’s why you should give away your books, too
A few weeks ago, I organized a free e-book giveaway with several of the authors I work with. We didn’t know exactly what to expect, but we all wanted to do something to give back and help readers staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results were more successful than any of us dreamed.…
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Marketing Your Book in the Age of Coronavirus
The world needs books right now! As we are facing days, or possibly weeks of social distancing, lockdowns, and quarantines people need a way to keep themselves occupied indoors. Yes, a lot of people are turning to streaming TV shows, but just as many are turning to books. And that’s where we, as authors, come…
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The 411 on Your ISBN
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. If you want to sell a paper book anywhere, including bookstores and other brick and mortar stores, book websites, libraries, book wholesalers, or distributors, you will need one. The ISBN is a unique 13-digit number. Just to make things more mystifying, it corresponds to a 10-digit number. Sometimes,…
