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Self-publishing: Ask the Doctor…

Kelly and I are happy to introduce a new resource to this blog – Bobby Christmas, Book Doctor. Bobby is an editor, ghostwriter, publishing consultant, and owner of Zebra Communications.

Bobby brings extensive general publishing and editing experience to the industry and offers outstanding consulting services to publishing authors. You can check out her book, Writing in Style, on Amazon. Bobby has been running Zebra (based out of Atlanta, GA) as a resource for authors since 1992. 

Bobby will begin to help with weekly posts, beginning tomorrow, from her newsletter titled Ask the Doctor, which offers general author advice in question/answer format.

– Karl

Book Promotion

Promoting Your Self-Published Book to Libraries

In the course of promoting and marketing your self-published book, have you pursued libraries yet?

Libraries are a great place to conduct readings and a great way to get involved with your community. The contacts you make at your local library may be able to help you bridge that larger gap to national exposure.

Here is a website that lists all the public libraries by state. I hope you find it helpful.

http://www.publiclibraries.com/

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self-Published Book Review of the Week: Murder in the Backstretch

Murder in the Backstretch
by Stuart Held

Genre: Mystery & Detective Fiction
Publication Date: June 18, 2008
Pages: 260

September 8, 2008
Long Island horse racing at its best
By Richard Felix “Long Islander”

Stuart Held writes about the real Long Island just as Jimmy Breslin used to write about the the real New York. “Murder in the Backstretch” captures the Long Island horse racing scene using details of places, people and the LI racetracks. It took me to the Belmont Stakes and into this exciting tale of murder and treachery.  It’s his best book yet.

September 2, 2008
A great read!
By Wendi Jo Mathis “Wendi” (Silverthorne, CO)

I had recently finished Blind Spot by Stuart Held so I was excited about his new release Murder in the Backstretch. I was not disappointed. It was another page turner. There is a lot of interesting information regarding horseracing as well a good mystery. I was shocked each time another answer to the puzzle was revealed.

For more information about Murder in the Backstrecth and to purchase copies, visit the author’s webpage: www.outskirtspress.com/backstretch

Book Promotion

Using Podcasts to Promote Your Self Published Book

Perhaps you’ve heard about podcasts? These are recorded sessions of either music or talking. Podcasts that focus on books are perfect because they are already written (so you aren’t making something up at the same time you record) and they are either entertaining or educational (or both).

Recording a podcast of your self-published book is a great way to promote it. Once your podcast is recorded, you can upload it to popular sites like itunes.com and reach a whole new audience.

Podiobooks.com is a relatively easy way to start creating a podcast for your book. You will find helpful instructions for what you need in the way of hardware and software to make your first recording. They also allow you to upload your files to their site for free, but once you have your podcast file (usually an mp3 file) don’t forget to upload it to other popular sites, too.  You can conduct a search on Google to find sites where you can upload your podcast, and you can submit your podcast feed URL to the iTunes Store here.

Other links that will help you down the road of podcasting include:
audacity.sourceforge.net
mypodcast.com
switchpod.com
blogtalkradio.com

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

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Even More Writing on the Road to Self-Publishing

Nothing necessitates production like demand. Whether that demand is real or imaginary is irrelevant when it comes to motivation. Of course, “real” demand is certainly better in terms of promotion and readership. But “imaginary” demand also accomplishes the same goal – incentive for you to write a certain amount within a certain period of time.

We’ve discussed writing to publish (in some form) everyday, and great resources like Yahoo Groups and Google User Groups to help accomplish that. It doesn’t matter what; just the act of writing is inspiring and moving in the direction of book publication. Perhaps you even subscribed to a group or two, or at least reviewed a few to become comfortable with the new medium.

There are also a couple of additional options for writing online. These options accomplish the goal of writing publicly but add the additional incentive of “demand.” Both also create great marketing tools for promoting books, especially for those self-publishing authors when on sales in the ever growing online marketplace.

The first option is a “blog.” If you’re reading this chances are good that you’re blog experience is already there. Do you have a blog of your own?

Short for web-log, blogs are online diaries that allow you to post content quickly and conveniently for the world to see. Each blog posting is time-stamped with the date and time of your entry. Other readers can post comments to your blog if you allow them to. And you are open to comment on other interesting or related blogs.

Blogs that are updated consistently and frequently are more popular than those that languish. There’s your demand. If you want a blog with “buzz” you will find yourself motivated to add to it every day. Even if you’re only adding a paragraph with every posting – those entries add up.  Keeping ahead of your public’s expectations is a great motivator to write.

The second option is an online newsletter, or e-newsletter. If you vow to distribute an e-mail newsletter on a consistent basis (let’s say once a week), you’ll be motivated to contribute new content to each newsletter before distributing it.

 

i hope that helps. Have fun and keep writing!

Sincerely,

Karl Schroeder