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Selling Your Story

Queries, synopses, blurbs, and packaging tips and advice. Sample topics: writing pitches and back cover copy, book covers, writing a successful synopsis, creating reader expectations, book tours, etc.

Save Money by Designing Your Own Promo

Wooden box filled with money with text: Save Money with Promo Design

While I paid for a cover designer for my books, I created the bookmarks myself to save money. Several people asked me how I made them complement the cover so well, and since saving money is always a good thing, I figured I should post about the topic.

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June 18, 2015

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Do You Have a Publishing Plan?

Field of daisies with text: Can You Daisy Chain Your Release Schedule?

Those of you who have been following my publishing process might be wondering why the one book I have out so far is free. After all, it costs money—potentially lots of money—to publish a book. Let’s take a look at a publishing plan for when it might make sense to give our books away for free.

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May 7, 2015

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Marketing 101: Creating a Strategy — Guest: Jennifer Fusco

Dart board target with text: Marketing Strategies to Find Target Audiences

Whether we want to push our publishers to live up to their marketing promises, hire a marketing team, or do all of our promotion on our own, the best way to make sure things work out the way we want is to be informed. To help educate us, Jennifer Fusco, author and marketing expert, gives a rundown on the basic marketing strategies.

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March 26, 2015

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How to Punch Up a Blurb or Query — Guest: Julie Glover

Fist punching into water with text: Punch Up Your Blurb!

No matter how we publish, we have to come up with a great book description. Queries and blurbs have always been my weak point, so I asked my editors at each stage of the editing process for help. Julie Glover’s here today with tips for how to go from good to great.

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March 5, 2015

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The Perils of a “Dead” Genre

Black and white image of dead tree with text: What Should We Do with a Dead Genre?

It’s been almost a week since my release of Unintended Guardian, and I’ve been getting lots of questions about how I made my decisions for what to do with my books. Let’s start at the beginning: How did I decide on my publishing path? For that, we have to go back to when I first started on my writing career path.

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March 3, 2015

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Boom! Publishing Like Beyoncé

Firework explosion with text: Boom! Publishing Like Beyoncé

A bit over a year ago, Beyoncé surprised the music world by secretly dropping a new album with zero promotion in advance. Can we apply this strategy to the publishing world? If we run a lot of promo pre-release, by the time we have buy links, will people think our book is old news?

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February 26, 2015

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How to Create a DIY Book Trailer — Guest: Angela Quarles

Movie clapboard with text: Be a Director: Create a Book Trailer

We’re all familiar with the concept of movie trailers, but book trailers are becoming more common too. Like a movie trailer, a book trailer is meant to increase interest in a story. Where queries and back-cover blurbs pitch a story in writing, book trailers pitch a story by showing. Literally. Some publishers […]

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September 9, 2014

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