What do you think about Amazon’s announcement that small publishers need to print with their printer in order to be listed on Amazon?

To regular readers of this column, this announcement should have come as no surprise. I wrote about this last summer. Most “experts” thought I was out of my mind. Looks like I get the last laugh, now. First off, if you are selling books through a distributor or selling via Amazon Advantage, this announcement means nothing. If your book is available on Amazon via one of the various POD (Print on Demand) programs… » Click here to read full article.

How to Turn Your Book Signing into a Sell-Out!

Everyone loves a successful book signing! When I had my very first book signing it was a total flop! Well, maybe not totally, the book store did order six books and I did sell two of them! But success comes after failure only if you try again. » Click here to read full article.

Tap Into the Lucrative Library Market

When I produced my first self-published book, “The Ojai Valley, An Illustrated History,” part of my promotions plan was to go after library sales. At that time, libraries paid full price for books. Some still do, but most of them prefer getting a discount whenever they can » Click here to read full article.

Focus on Non-traditional Marketing

Non-traditional marketing is the process of writing quality content in response to an identified need, publishing it in the form desired by the reader and then selling it to people in defined groups of prospective customers. Doing this is not dramatically different from what you are probably doing now; it simply requires a change in focus. » Click here to read full article.

Publicize Your Novel

The publishing question I am most-often asked is, “How do I publicize my novel?” Publicizing a novel is not much more difficult than publicizing nonfiction. » Click here to read full article.

Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do - Overcoming Obstacles, Adversities and Discouragement

Ninety-five percent of all new businesses go out of business within the first five years or less. Why do they fail? There are many starters in life - but very few finish what they start. When the going gets tough, most people fold. They don’t persist hard enough or persevere long enough. They don’t have a red-hot flaming burning desire to succeed. They don’t make it their definite major purpose. » Click here to read full article.

I Just Called to See How Things are Going

This is a sad story. Sad but true. It was a real conversation, ostensibly a sales conversation. This sales conversation, and many others just like it, are happening all over the world. I recount this sad sales conversation here in hope that we may all learn from it. » Click here to read full article.

Eight Reasons Why Self-Publishers Fail (And How to Easily Avoid Them!)

No one ever said successful self-publishing was easy. Yet, so many authors, by making a bunch of typical, easy-to-avoid mistakes, make it far more difficult than it needs to be. No, getting all the following right won’t guarantee riches beyond your wild imaginings, but it’ll clear some of the most common stumbling blocks from your path. After all, if you’re going to crash and burn, why do it for a dumb unnecessary reason? » Click here to read full article.

Reaching the Health Food Store Market

I find it’s critical to analyze your niche, roll up your sleeves, and find out where your customers go. For example, I publish books on Lyme disease, so I went to the Centers for Disease Control Web site, learned which states had the highest incidence of Lyme disease, and targeted health food stores in those states. Since my books were refused by the primary health-food-store book distributor (NutriBooks), I was at first discouraged, but I decided to call the health food stores myself. Scary? Yes! Successful? Yes! » Click here to read full article.