Blog
How to Find Your Target Audience
By Jori Hanna No matter what kind of writing you do, the first step in the process of sharing your work with the world is identifying your target audience. Your target audience will help you determine your tone, your word choice, your style, what rhythm or flow you...
The Name Game
By Kylee Wooten Coming up with a name is challenging. Whether you’re deciding on the name of the new family pet, battling over whom to name your child after, or trying to come up with the perfect title for your new novel, it’s almost impossible to know if you’re...
10 Tips for Writing an Attention-Grabbing Review
What’s the one thing that’s worse than reading a terribly dry book? Reading a terribly dry review about a book! Here are some tips by our Senior Editor to help you rise above the noise and catch the attention of book pros. 1. Choose wisely. You don’t have time to read...
How to Write a Book Cover Blurb
You've finally finished your hours of researching, writing, and editing! You've sent in your manuscript and your publisher asks for a book description... That shouldn't be hard, right? All you have to to do is condense everything you know about your book into 250...
How to Choose a Winning Book Title
For many authors, choosing a title for their book is much like choosing a name for their child. A book's title is usually for life, and you want to be sure it's "just right." After all, as much as we say "Don't judge a book by it's cover," everybody does. The title...
Ask the Authors: Finding Your Path
Do ideas just come to authors, or do they have to work for them? How do they decide what kind of book they’ll write? Betsy Streeter and Dave Edlund talk about how they found their path. Do you have any questions for our authors? Let us know by leaving a comment...
Ask the Authors: Finding Success
What defines success for an author? Is is the number of books sold? The number of awards they recieve? Authors Brad A. LaMar and Susan Örnbratt join us for this week's Ask the Authors blog post on defining and finding success as an author. If you have any questions...
Ask the Authors: How to Plot a Murder and Get Away with It with John Desjarlais
We asked John Desjarlais to discuss his process writing (and plotting) a murder mystery. In these books, everything is important. Characters, settings, interactions, motive—especially motive—all play into whether or not your reader will believe your story. Packed with...
Ask the Authors: From Ghostwriter to Mystery Writer with Eva Shaw
There are many ways to go about writing a book. Whether you outline or sit down with a blank page, write it yourself or hire someone else to write it for you, you have options. Eva Shaw got her start by sitting with others and learning how to tell their story. This...
Ask the Authors: Repurpose Your Skills
People often assume it takes an incredible stroke of luck or skill to become an author. But how many authors started out from the beginning desiring to write books? How many of them, instead, started out in a completely different field? We asked Rebecca A. Miles to...
Ask the Authors: Becoming an Author
The journey towards becoming an author can greatly differ from person to person, so Nancy Boyarsky and Rebecca Stevenson offer their own unique perspectives and experiences. Have more questions for our authors? Leave us a comment on Facebook! Could you both start off...
Ask the Authors: Finding Success
What defines success for an author? Is is the number of books sold? The number of awards they recieve? Authors Brad A. LaMar and Susan Örnbratt join us for this week's Ask the Authors blog post on defining and finding success as an author. If you have any questions...
8 Things to Do with Your Author Website to Sell More Books
By Jori Hanna One of the biggest misconceptions that authors face is that their work is done once the book is published. Whether you’re self-publishing or you have a world-renowned publicist, you should expect to spend as much time marketing your book as you did...
Understanding Terms: Get Started with Email Marketing
By Jori Hanna Jumping into email marketing is one of the best steps you can take in connecting personally with your readership. Email marketing consistently leads to higher sales numbers than any other form of marketing. Jumping into this early allows your list the...
Questions to Ask When Book Sales are Slow
By Jori Hanna It’s easy to get discouraged when your book isn’t selling as well as you hoped or expected. After all, as an author, you signed up to write books. You likely don’t have a business or marketing degree, and when it comes to the world of book sales, it’s...
5 Publicity Opportunities to Help your Book Launch
By Jori Hanna In the age of digital marketing, the world is your oyster as you launch your book. There are millions of readers out there, waiting for a book like yours to cross their screen. But how do you reach them? There are a few options you can use as you create...
10 Things All Authors Need to Know About Amazon
One of the things that we continue to stress to our authors is the importance of a strong presence on Amazon. Amazon has a dedicated "Author Central" page, where authors can "claim" t books, post a bio, updates and trade reviews, and more. As one of the largest book...
6 Social Media Dos and Don’ts for Authors
By Kylee Wooten The biggest “do” of all: You should need to be on social media. These days, having a Twitter account and a Facebook page are almost as essential to your success as an author actually having a book. 1. DO: Cultivate a large, engaging network. Start with...
Online Marketing for Busy Authors
By Fauzia Burke One of the nation's leading online book marketing experts, Fauzia Burke recently published Online Marketing for Busy Authors: A Step by Step Guide. Sharing her expertise of online publicity, book publishing and social media, Fauzia points out trends...
Creating Content for Social Media
So now you have all of the accounts set up—but maintaining 2 to 3 social media platforms isn’t as easy as it seems. Creating original content for each individual site can be tricky. Do you always and only find yourself retweeting on Twitter or sharing other people’s...