Archive for August, 2007

Ron Pramschufer

What can you tell us of Amazon’s new direct POD service, CreateSpace.com?

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Many years ago I remember walking into Book Expo America in Chicago and seeing Amazon banners hanging from every girder. What was an Amazon? Within a few years, Amazon was a household word. To consumers it was an online e bookstore. To investors it was a giant black hole where tens of millions of dollars were dumped with no return on investment.

Filed under: Book Distribution, Publishing Basics, Vanity & POD Publishing | 20 Comments »

Fern Reiss

The 5 Best Ways to Get Media Attention for Your Business

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

How do you get journalists to write articles about you? In the past year, I’ve been featured in over 100 magazines and newspapers worldwide (including many of the biggies, from The New York Times to Fortune Magazine). How do you get that kind of attention for your book or business? Here are my top techniques

Filed under: Advertising & Promotion, Book Marketing, Publicity, Publishing Basics | 3 Comments »

Brian Jud

Sales Forecast vs. Fortune Telling

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Have you ever listened to a forecaster’s prediction of pleasant weather and then made plans around that forecast? You may have been dismayed when it rained instead. But that is the nature of a forecast — it is simply a person’s best guess of what might happen in the future. The metaphor for publishers is that we should calculate a forecast that is a possibility, not a pronouncement of some definite, distant occurrence.

Filed under: Publishing Basics, Sales And Marketing, Sales Tips | No Comments »

Patrica Fry

Publishing—The Raw Truth

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

More people today than ever before are becoming authors. Unfortunately, most of them fail in their quest for success. According to a Jenkins Group survey, seventy percent of books published in this country do not make a profit. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) backs this up. Their statistics show that in 2004, over seventy-six percent of all titles sold fewer than 100 copies. Why are so many authors failing?

Filed under: General Questions About Self-publishing & Planning, Peer - To - Peer Advice On Self-publishing, Publishing Basics | 16 Comments »

Marilynn Byerly

How to Write a Blurb (Back Cover Copy)

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

A blurb is the book description you find on the back of a book or online to describe a book’s contents. Most run several paragraphs, but some publishers want them shorter or in a special format so be sure to check with your publisher’s guidelines before you begin work.

Filed under: Book Marketing, General Questions About Self-publishing & Planning, Publishing Basics | 2 Comments »