When did you last blog about your book?

Do you blog about your work in progress so potential readers can learn about your book; creating desire to purchase and read it.

It is easier to let readers know what to expect if you keep them informed about the progress, a hint about the subject, and a possible availability date.

Blogging about your work in progress is not about hype, but a journey with your followers, capturing new followers, and growing your list of potential readers organically, the only way to grow a real list of followers.

Building a growing list of legitimate followers over time is part of marking and promoting your book to people who read. You are trying to grow interest in what you do, write.

Unfortunately, social media is becoming a den of iniquity with people on almost every platform wanting to sell you followers.

When or if an agent searches you on Google, is he going to see real followers, or is he going to see fake followers, which will be a detriment to your reputation?

There are no short cuts to building a following; it requires work and time to establish a following organically.

Even working with traditional publishers, authors need to market and promote their work. What better way than building a following or people waiting for your book.

All authors need some type of platform for building a following of readers following along the journey from concept to publication.

The point is to build a large list of potential purchasers and readers for your book. One way to do this is by blogging. Another is with an author’s page, a website, or some other platform used for building a following for your books.

For any author to succeed in publishing books, authors need to publicize their books, find readers, promote the book, marketing the book, and schedule signings.

As an author, blogging about your book’s progress is a way to engage readers to follow you, while they learn more about your book, and when they will be able to purchase a copy.

Author
Robert Medak
Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, and Reviewer learning ethical Marketing
follow the author at http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

If you need help making your copy better or have any questions, please use my contact form and we will work together.

Kindle Publishing vs.Traditional Publishing

First, accept the fact there are pros and cons to publishing your book via either method.

There is no reason to create a litany of the differences, in addition, how they are similar.

Either method requires an author’s platform, and a following. A literary agent will Google the author, the question is what will they find.

An author’s followers are potential purchasers and readers of the author’s book or books.

With a blog, an author’s followers can grow, and followers can track the progress of books, purchase books, and learn about upcoming products, learn about the author, and even about the writing journey of the author.

What will an agent find when he searches you?

Whether you publish on Kindle or Publishing House, authors need to have a presence, followers, marketing strategy, promotion strategy, and be willing to schedule book signings, and PR.

It is up to the author to sell the book, not the publisher. It is also up to the author to find honest book reviewers to obtain posted reviews to spread the word about the book. In addition, where readers of the review may purchase a copy of the author’s book.

Publishing via either method requires the author to edit their manuscript to create the best manuscript possible converted into a book for readers. Authors do not want to disappoint readers with a book containing grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, tense, or word choice errors.

If an author decides to publish on Kindle opposed to traditional, the author would have more creative control, and pricing of their book.

With Amazon being the 900 pound gorilla in the mix, can you publish on Kindle and POD simultaneously?

This would depend on any type or agreement the author enters into with Kindle publishing.

Authors need to read the fine print before any type of publishing or any type of agreement before committing their book to any publishing platform, of which there are many and new ones opening up to self-publishing almost daily. 

Author

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, and Reviewer learning ethical Marketing

Follow the author: http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

If you need help making your writing better or have any questions about how to improve your writing, please use the contact form and work together to make your work better.

Internet Presence

You have completed your manuscript, and now you might be looking for and agent.

What will the agent see if they Google^TM  your name?

Do you have real followers on social media sites, do you have an author’s platform?

There are people on the Internet that sell Facebook^TM, Twitter^TM, and other sites. If an agent sees this, your reputation will suffer.

Building a list of subscribers to a blog, newsletter, followers on social media that you work for will tell agents that you have a list of potential readers and purchasers for your book.

If you choose to self-publish your book, having an Internet presence where you have kept your readers up to date on the progress of your book, and availability to purchase is what you need to sell your book to them.

There is no doubt that writing is a business, and more so for the self-published author, unless you have a reputation and following like James Patterson, who by the way, is on television hawking his books.

If you want to sell your books, you need and Internet presence and a platform from which people can purchase your book, or a link to a purchase site like Smashwords, Lulu, iUniversise, or whoever is publishing via POD, paperback, or eReader formats.

Having sold copies may also help you find an agent.

Today’s author needs to have a marketing plan, be willing to do book signings, promote, and schedule all of this on their own. Most self-publishing houses do not do this work for you, and many traditional publishing houses expect authors to do this work to sell their books.

What are you willing to do to create an Internet presence? 

Author

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, and Reviewer learning Marketing

Follow the author: http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

Writers should be Lifelong Learners

Why should writers be lifelong learners?

First, writing is an ever-changing business. Yes, writing is a business just like any other business that requires flexibility in the businessperson to adapt to changes.

Many changes have occurred in publishing, and publishing changes almost daily. This requires you to keep up with these changes, even if you plan to self publish your book.

Publishing has changed so much that even household named authors are opting for self-publishing. Do think they do their homework with regard to the publishing business? More than likely, the answer is yes.

After working hard on your story, the last thing you need is, not having an author platform plus a marketing and promo plan. Guess what; even traditional publishing houses require a marketing and promo plan plus what you’re willing to do in marketing your book.

As part of your writing business, the time to begin marketing your book is before it’s completed. Companies offer preorders for upcoming products as part of their marketing. Your book is a coming attraction that needs marketing and promotion just like all upcoming items to build interest. If potential purchasers aren’t aware of your book, will they know you’re writing it, or when to begin looking for it online or bookstore shelves?

Second, without building a following, how will readers know about you? The Internet is today’s Yellow Pages. More people search online to find what they’re looking for.

Without a platform, how are readers to know you exist? You have to learn how to build and maintain your platform. For people to find your platform it must be dynamic, not static to achieve search engine ranking.

Writers, it’s up to you to learn what’s necessary to engage your readers, and build a following.

 Followers are your readers, and readers properly engaged are book buyers.

Continue to learn about your craft, publishing, and your business. 

About the author:

Robert Medak is a retired Communications Technician turned freelance writer, blogger, editor, proofreader, and reviewer learning marketing.

He was born in southern California, and lived in Kansas until moving to southern West Virginia with his wife and their cats and dogs. While in California, he and his wife Connie ran an animal rescue where Robert wrote job descriptions, flyers, and was treasurer.

To Self Publish or Not

Whether to self publish or vie for traditional publishing is a question brought to the forefront because of the direction publishing is moving.

With fewer traditional publishers, more books written, and fewer readers, many traditional houses aren’t willing to work with unknown authors.

Authors need a platform with followers, a book marketing plan, and more laid upon the shoulders of authors, many authors feel that self-publishing is the way to get their book into the hands of readers.

If you self publish your book, how traditional will look upon your book if you decide to vie for a traditional publishing house in the future is a question only the publishing house can answer. Experience from some writers is that self-published books are akin to what we used to call vanity press books, pay money and they will publish anything as Amazon found out with blatant plagiarism of many titles that Amazon published, and then had had to remove when they finally knew it. Amazon’s reputation was hurt, and rightly so.

Why have reviewers been complaining about the quality of self-published books?

The complaints range from editing to grammar. Publishing houses once employed editors to clean up these problems for authors; this is no longer the case. Self-published book editing is now the purview of the author, and authors need professional editing. Don’t rely on software like spellcheckers and grammar checkers to find the errors.

A literary agent may cost writers thousands to have their book shopped to publishers. Many authors can’t afford these costs, and opt for self-publishing.

Ultimately, it is up to the individual author how to publish their baby. First, is to hire an editor that has no interest in the book other than making sure that they edit for typos, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, redundancies,  over use of words like “and”, “or”, and “but”. Editors will notice these because they have no stake in the book other than making it the best book for the reader.

If an author such as James Paterson, David Baldacci, or Orson Scott Card wants a book published, most traditional publishers will take a chance, but are probably not willing to take on self-published authors or unpublished writers. Authors need to find creative ways to convince publishing houses to take a chance. One creative way is to create a well-written, well-edited book. Don’t forget a well-crafted proposal.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, Reviewer, Marketer

http://rjmedak.wordpress.com

http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

Why Authors Need a Platform

Like it or not, let’s start with the fact that writing is a business for better or worse. Authors are entrepreneurs with a product. Whether self-published or traditionally published a book is a product or commodity in search of customers. That is what business is about, finding customers.

Authors need readers and they need a platform for readers to find them and their books.

Does building a platform take time away from writing?

Anything that authors do other than writing is time away from creating the story. Unfortunately, platform building comes with the territory of the author. Either the author builds the platform or they must outsource the platform building to someone else.

When building an author’s platform it would be nice if one platform were enough, but never rely on just one to work for you. Authors just like businesses need more than one platform to inform potential customers what you have to offer by online platforms.

What are the platforms?

Platforms come in many varieties. One is a Web site; others are social media (Facebook, Blog, Twitter…), newsletters, video trailers (YouTube or posted on a blog...), any way for readers to find out about an author’s book.

Platforms are a way for authors to promote and advertise their books as well as a way to sell books. A blog is a good way for others to build interest in their book as they blog about the creation of the book by writing about the book on their blog and keeping potential readers up to date on how the book is advancing.

Platforms are free advertising for authors; and create interest in potential readers making them customers.  

Platforms like blogs and Web sites are a great place to post chapter excerpts and receive feedback from the people who visit our blog or wherever you post an excerpt from your book building interest and creating a list of potential purchasers and readers waiting for publishing of author’s book.

Finally, there is no question that authors need more than one platform; the question is whom is the one building it. Either the author must take on the job or outsource it.

Robert Medak

Freelance writer, blogger, editor, proofreader, reviewer, marketer

http://www.authorsden.com/robertmedak

http://rjmedak.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/RJ_Medak

Do you have a marketing plan?

Once you’ve written your book, how do you plan on marketing it? Today’s publishers will be asking about your following, various platforms that you use for promotion and sales. This is part of the process that will be part of your advance from publishers. The better your marketing plan the more money, it’s that simple.
An author must wear several hats in today’s publishing environment. The author is marketer, PR person, promoter, and book seller. It is up to the author to do all of this today. The publishing houses won’t. In fact, they may not work with you at all if you don’t have some platform in place.

You will also have to begin establishing a following before your book is completed. The time to begin promotion and marketing is before you begin writing your book. There are social media sites where you can begin, but consider creating a website for the book and promote the website everywhere you can. Network with people; establish relationships, and market, market, market without being pushy of salesy.
Welcome to the publishing world. Bet you didn’t know that you need to be a salesperson as well as an author, did you?

You must also ask yourself if you want to go the route of a publishing house of self-publish. This is the author’s decision. There are numerous places to self-publish or POD to get your book on the market.

Amazon has be playing hardball with printing houses as far as having a buy button for your book if the particular house doesn’t want to follow Amazon’s rules; Amazon also has their own publishing brand.

One of the problems with self-publishing is how much the author is willing to spend for an editing package. Also, some of the publishing houses for self-publishing create books that are sub-par in design, illustration, formatting, and printing. The books are easily recognizable as self-published and that will make them hard to sell in bookstores.

Whoever you chose to publish your book, make sure you have a marketing plan and followers to entice the publishing house if you choose to traditional route to publication, and if you choose to self-publish be wary of who owns the ISBN when publishing via this route. The person that owns the ISBN technically owns the printing and how/when the book is published.

Good luck with your book.