This needs to be said every now and then: If someone calls themselves a publisher, you DO NOT PAY them. Ever. End. Of. A publisher takes risks on your behalf. They invest in the presentation and advertising of your book. They make money from selling that book, not from selling…
Further to the epic rant I shared last week, I listened to Mark Dawson’s interview with the mysterious Data Guy this morning. I got up at 4am, drove to the city to drop off my husband to the bus to Canberra (where he has a course this week, so has…
As I’ve said before, once you become a self-published author, there are some who will view you as a walking wallet to be divested of as much money as possible. There are a good number of reputable sources of advertising. Some will give you spectacular results, some are decent, some…
As I prepared to go to the gym this morning, I scrolled through my marketing podcasts to see which one to listen to. It struck me that they were all one of two varieties. Type 1: How to write a novel in 5 days How to write 24 novels a…
A while ago, I wrote a post Why Don’t My Books Sell. It was originally written on this blog, but before I did the crash & burn to fix weird problems with this blog, I moved it to the “Self-publishing” section on my author site. That post is all (well,…
If you poke around the internet, you will find posts by various wise writers exhorting you to spend x amount or proportion of your time marketing and the rest writing. Often it comes down to 80% writing and 20% marketing. I think these sorts of enforced schedules miss a really…
In conversation. GH = Grasshopper VA = Veteran Author GH: Soooooo, I hear Bookbub is all the rage, but is that site even open to us indies, because I submitted my book once, and they didn’t want it. VA: *loud belly laugh* You submitted ONCE? Mwahahahahahahaha!!! GH: But they didn’t…
I came across this post in my Twitter feed. TL;DR: an author lamenting how much it costs to produce a book, and how little she has sold. The expenses side in her post looks fine. I tend to budget about A$1500 per book for editing, cover design and formatting. I…
General warning: as soon as you decide to self-publish, a certain section of the population decides that you are a cow to be milked. Some will be blatant about it by sending you emails soliciting your business. Usually, it’s to buy into some form of marketing. Mostly, you’ll be marketed…
Listened to the Marketing SFF people’s podcast with Elle Casey this morning. I love Elle and the nice, unassuming way she treats her career and the success she has had. She said a lot of things that I agree with. But she went on a little bit of a crusade…
