I’m assembling a crack team of regular readers and prospective authors who’d like to participate in the launch of my book Build a Better Business Book over the next two months. What you get: insider perspectives on what’s happening, early access to content, and camaraderie with fellow authors on the same quest, and, within reason,…
If you’re going to wade into controversial public discourse, you’d better be prepared for the controversy. Otherwise, you could end up like Bethany Mandel, the author who humiliated herself on video, then made things worse by writing a vacuous essay about how bad it felt. Bethany Mandel is the coauthor of Stolen Youth: How Radicals…
If your friend just published a book, what can you do to help? You can say “congratulations,” which is nice, but what your friend actually needs is for as many people as possible to hear about the book, consider the book, buy the book, read about the book, and talk about the book. This is…
When it’s time to promote your book, one strategy is obvious: write articles about it and post them online. But what should you write and where should you place it? Here’s a quick guide. Where to place articles The simplest location to post articles about your book is in places you control: your blog, your…
The marketing section of your book proposal is crucial to getting picked up by a mainstream publisher. If you’re part of a company you’ve lined up help from the company’s public relations and promotions department, you have a huge advantage. Here’s how to describe that asset in the proposal. Making the most of a corporate…
I’ve been studying successful book launches. The key is a self-reinforcing surge built on ideas and people, together. Let’s start with preliminary results from my author survey. Among 172 published nonfiction authors, the most successful book promotion tactics were the following (in this order): Public speaking engagements. Solicit back-cover blurbs. Encourage people to post Amazon…
Disruption in the publishing industry is confusing for authors. Getting published in the traditional way is harder now, but there are a lot more ways to get a book done — and a lot more people who can help you. I’ve collected all my book wisdom into this post, with links to more detail. Potential authors…
Today, I’ll share some insight into how I do outreach to influencers . . . and the power and courtesy of the answer “No.” I am going to reveal how I’m doing publicity and how it feels. I’m doing most of my own publicity outreach for the new book. The publisher has a list, but…
If you want a great book launch, your focus after completing the manuscript should be on promotion and relationships. Great books sell, but they don’t sell themselves. The traditional publishing process has three stages. In the first stage, you create a proposal and pitch the book to publishers. In the second stage, you complete your research and…