paperback

New Book Coming

by

I just completed the first draft of my next book.  I mean like 5 minutes ago!  I’m approximately 3 weeks ahead of schedule.  ‘scuze me while I bask in the feeling for a few minutes.  Projected “publication date” is January 2nd (I think – I don’t have my planner with me), but it will probably be available by mid-November.

This is cool, because the book following that was mostly written but has been – well, let’s call it misplaced.  Rather than hunt for the digital files, I will probably re-write it, and the next three weeks will certainly help by giving me extra time.  The projected time for that one was February of 2015.

I’ve been thinking about my books for the last few days, since I’ve been listening to the Sell More Books Show podcast.  I need to create supporting video content for these as well, and I was thinking about cranking out a book every other month next year.  I may not be able to do that if I create the video content myself.  I’ll probably have to find at least one virtual assistant, probably more than one.

Advice For Authors

by

You’ve written your book.  It’s published – print, ebook, audio, maybe all three.  You wrote a first draft, then a second, third and forth.  Then there was the editing.  Sometimes you changed a line, or a paragraph.  Sometimes it was a word, or just a punctuation mark.  But you’re tired of the damned thing, and it doesn’t matter anymore because it’s published.  You can forget about it.

Well. . . no.  You can’t.  Novel or non-fiction, in order for people to stumble on it by chance, loving every word and telling all their friends to buy a copy, the book must be promoted.

Here’s a sad (perhaps) fact for you: all that effort to write your book is just the tip of the iceberg.  In order for you to become the next shining literary beacon, the bottom 90% of your iceberg needs to be completed.  You need to be interviewed, to be quoted, to do readings for rooms small and even smaller.  You need to remain completely upbeat when getting up early and staying up late for phone interviews, saying the same things over and over again.  Blogs and magazines won’t go out and find your book on a store shelf, rushing home to read it and gush over it to their myriad readers.  It needs to be put into their hands.

Read more…