More things you should know about self-publishing

Sue Collier | June 6, 2011

I recently read a great list from LLReader by Shannon Yarborough, “My Own 10 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing.” Shannon brings up a lot of good points, and I have some things to add to some of what she says that go a bit beyond just leaving comments at the blog site, so I [...]

How authors are misled into thinking they’ve self-published when they haven’t

Sue Collier | May 27, 2011

It happened again. I spoke earlier this week with an author who had recently “self-published” a nonfiction book, and she was particularly interested in reaching the library market. She directed me to her author website—which listed the book’s publisher as “AuthorHouse.” That re-routed our conversation immediately because I had to break the bad news to [...]

7 social media marketing mistakes made by authors (and others)

Sue Collier | May 17, 2011

Social media marketing. Some call it a fad. Others call it a revolution. But most agree that in some form, it is here to stay. This is a very different type of marketing from the traditional methods, however, and it’s easy to make mistakes. Here are some of the most common: 1. Not using social [...]

Social media marketing for authors and self-publishers; a preview of the Self-Publisher’s Online Conference

Sue Collier | May 4, 2011

Next week, I’ll be featured as a speaker at the Third Annual Self-Publisher’s Online Conference, next week on May 11 from 9am to 10pm (Pacific time). I thought I would provide a little preview on my topic, which is how authors and self-publishers can use social media marketing to increase their book sales. Before the [...]

27 things you can do to promote your book—Before you write it, before you launch it, and after you’ve published it

Sue Collier | April 14, 2011

I’m fond of telling authors that after they’ve written their book, the hard work begins—and by that I am referring to marketing and promoting. In reality, though, your book promotion plans should begin well before you start writing the book. In this post, I’ve listed those things you can do before you start writing, before [...]

Don’t be backward about getting a foreword!

Sue Collier | April 8, 2011

In today’s uber-competitive publishing world, each new book must be carefully nurtured to be successful. One of the ways you can help your new baby grow into robust adulthood is by christening it with a Foreword. To be effective, the Foreword should be by someone who is known to, and respected by, your potential reading [...]

Ask for help—and sell more books!

Sue Collier | February 2, 2011

Folks generally enjoy being helpful. You’re much more likely to get people to accommodate you if they know what you want. When my colleague Marilyn Ross launched the first edition of Jump Start Your Book Sales, she created the following checklist; it was enclosed with every individual copy of Jump Start that was shipped out. [...]

Take the self-publishing quiz: Is it for you?

Sue Collier | January 19, 2011

No one cares about it as much as you do. You’ve got to love it, and nurture it, and raise it to outstanding adulthood.

Why and how to generate catalog sales, part i

Sue Collier | December 22, 2010

Chances are excellent that you can sell your book or books in catalogs. You can find a catalog for every category of interest you can imagine. And although the number of catalogs available in print-only formats is decreasing, the number of print catalogs with online editions grew from 8,675 to 8,894 in 2008, according to [...]

Vanity publishing is still vanity publishing–regardless of what you call it.

Sue Collier | December 21, 2010

I saw a tweet this morning from @iuniversebooks: “What is supported self-publishing?” it asked. I have been seeing that term—“supported self-publishing”—a lot lately, so I clicked on the link, which took me to a page on their website (surprise, surprise). Basically, the page was all about a service they provide called “supported self-publishing.” Here’s how [...]