Last week I received a lovely email from a man named Keith. He’d recently published his second book and signed up for my newsletter looking for any and everything he could learn about marketing. Beneath the message he included his name and a (LONG!) hyperlink to his book’s Amazon page, so in my reply I […]

If you’re an indie author, you know how hard––it not impossible––it is to get your book onto the shelves of brick-and-mortar stores. Some shady companies offer “distribution packages” that make it sound like your book will be everywhere, but all it really means is that your book will be on a massive list of titles […]

By far the most common complaint I hear from authors, especially those who go the indie route, is, “I have no clue about marketing!” A close second is, “I have no money to spend on marketing!” Here are two things you can do that won’t cost more than time and effort: Reach out to book […]

A few years ago I attended a seminar on starting a small business, and each of the six or seven speakers I heard that day emphasized how important it is to build the list! At the time I remember thinking that was the one thing they all had in common. Now I also think they were right. […]

I’m a big fan of applying for book awards. My first novel (Perfect on Paper) was originally self-published, and I believe that one of the reasons it got picked up by a traditional publisher was that it won multiple awards. However, like every book marketing strategy, applying for awards has its drawbacks. I asked Lauren […]

I once met up with a friend to visit a store I wanted to describe in the novel I was writing at the time. It was dreadfully hot that day, so after I’d finished my research we b-lined for a quiet (and air conditioned!) pub on a random side street in Manhattan. As soon we’d […]

When I speak with indie authors about their marketing efforts, one thing I hear quite often is that they have no idea how to find people who will review their books. For many this is a huge source of frustration, not to mention disappointment, which is completely understandable given all the time and effort they […]

Did you know that you automatically have an Amazon Author Page if you have a book for sale on Amazon.com? To find yours, do a search on the site for your book’s title, then click on your name, which appears directly under the title. If you haven’t touched your Author Page yet, you’ll see just […]

When my novel Chocolate for Two came out, I threw launch parties in New York, where I live, and Silicon Valley, where I grew up. For fun I teamed up with a chocolate company called Mission Blue Confections that was open to clever marketing opportunities. They agreed to provide a small box of chocolates with the purchase of […]