Tag Archives: books

resources

Guerilla Marketing for Writers

guerilla marketing for writers

Will you be able to use all the tactics in this book? No. Will you get inspired to modify them in ways that best suit your circumstances? Definitely. Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman and Michael Larsen hit the marketing nail squarely on the head with this one. Guerilla Marketing For Writers is a valuable tool if nothing else than for it’s inspirational effects. There is always something more we can be doing to promote our work, another idea to try, another tactic to put yourself ahead of the competition. With Guerilla Marketing for Writers, you might just come up with an approach nobody’s beaten to death yet.

advice

Five Ways to Get Press Attention for Your Book

freelance-writing-advice

So you have a book out soon and you need some press…what’s a first time book author to do? You aren’t a “name” yet, you hardly know a thing about the PR game, and you’re worried nobody will show up at your very first book signing. Need some help? Here’s some good advice that can make the difference between hearing the crickets at your book signing and dealing with an actual room full of people. Continue reading Five Ways to Get Press Attention for Your Book →

advice, reading

Line By Line: How To Edit Your Own Writing

line-by-line-how-to-edit-your-own-writingTransparency alert: I have NOT read this book. But the title says it all. Line By Line: How To Edit Your Own Writing is the sort of book I wish every writer who works for me would purchase.

There’s nothing worse than having to edit pointless mistakes a writer should be catching before they click “send”. When I sit in the editor’s chair, it gives me actual physical pain to see yet another abused apostrophe or the word “advise” instead of “advice”. Suppressing the urge to kill is the least of an editor’s problems. The desire to play drinking games with those article submissions and blog posts is overwhelming.

Spot the wrongly used “there,” “their” or “they’re” and take a drink. See the contraction of “there is” followed by a plural? Take TWO drinks.

All those dead brain cells could be avoided if all writers would buy books like these and start SELF-EDITING! Please, for the love of all that is nice and true, do this one favor for us overworked editors.

Thank you.

gear

Snap Tell

snap

Hello iPhone users……a quick “App” suggestion for writers out there…..snaptell can be found in the App Store and is a neat thing to have handy–plus, it’s free. Writers are generally readers, and this application works with books, DVDs and CDs as well. Simply snap a picture of the cover and you will instantly get back comprehensive information such as reviews and more on the item. Regular cell phone users can use it too. Simply take a photo of the cover and send to fun@snaptell.com.

lifestyle, resources

Freelance Writing Distraction #782: Bookslut

bookslutlogo.jpgWhen you spend all your working hours in front of the infernal machine (read: laptop), you find yourself eager for any distraction from the drudgery at hand. I am a sucker for well-written material on other writers, musicians, anyone at all involved in media. Bookslut is one of those distractions I must force myself to save until late in the day when the work is nearly done.

Having only recently looked into this Chicago-based site, I find plenty to keep me occupied. The author interviews alone are worth the time drain. One example: In issue 73, Jason Jones interviews author Jeff Warren about his book The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. The interview is thoughtful, the chemistry between
the two is good, and it’s a joy to read. Some freelance writers shrug and say, “So what?” They are used to reading high quality material, but the context is quite different for me. With an editing background in music journalism, military reporting, and commercial writing, I’ve spent years wading through other people’s poor preparation, clumsy interview questions, and just plain hopeless work. It’s enough to make you give up the game and run screaming for the nearest Civil Service exam.

That’s why I tend to take notice when I discover another outlet for solid writing in any field remotely close to my own. Bookslut is aimed at people who love to read. That’s me, so this is more than just a case of me having respect for writers with skill; they are talking directly to ME. As an omnivorous book consumer, I have acres of tomes with subjects ranging from sexual life in ancient China to the life and times of Lester Bangs. Bookslut is my kind of people.

If you are the kind of person who writes by day and uses a pry bar to cram another two or three titles into an already-distressed set of bookshelves by night, Bookslut is definitely for you. My warning–don’t make any plans once you click the link, you’ll be there for a while.

reading

Sell Your Book on Amazon.com

2 Comments

sell-your-book-on-amazon.jpgBrett Sampson tells all. This book is about how to get listed on Amazon, how to promote your book and increase sales. We borrow a quote from Sampson’s Sell Your Book on Amazon product page:

“Penny C. Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts says, “Finally! A book that helps you demystify Amazon. If you have a book to sell, you simply must own Sell Your Book on Amazon.”

The marketing copy for this also claims to help you “beat Amazon at their own game”, and learn how to create “virtuous circles” (as opposed to vicious cycles, I’m guessing). While I’m no fan of breathless marketing hyperbole, I have to say that any book which helps a writer properly value their work and assign a reasonable price should be worth a read. Sell Your Book on Amazon has all the right chapters, and according to the author himself, this does NOT tell you how to get on the bestseller list. Instead, it offers strategies to help your book do well over the long term. If you’re a believer in Chris Anderson’s Long Tail concept, this book should appeal.

In short, not a bad way to spend $14.95 if you have a book ready for the world, or very nearly so.

Sell Your Book on Amazon sells for $14.95