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 […]

When I speak to authors who are struggling to gain traction for their books, I like to ask them what has worked for them, however small the scale. In my experience, most authors have done at least one thing that has led to a few sales. They have also usually tried a few tactics that were a […]

Many debut authors don’t know what to put in their bio. That’s understandable! In fact, I recently met a debut novelist whose bio at the end of her book said this: This is Lucy’s first novel. She lives in San Francisco. When I asked Lucy about it, she laughed and said she knew it wasn’t […]

If you’re an aspiring author, get ready to hear the following question approximately 10 billion times: “What’s your book about?” As you already know if you’ve already written a book, pretty much everyone and anyone in your life will ask you that question, from people you know well to people you just met in the […]

If you’re like most authors, promoting your work doesn’t come naturally to you. The same goes for the vast majority of your readers. They may love your book, but it would never occur to them to actively spread the word about it. And even if they want to help, they probably don’t know how. That’s why marketing […]

I once received an email newsletter from an indie author in which he essentially begged for people to review his book on Amazon. I empathized with him because I know how difficult it can be to get reviews, especially for self-published books. But then the author did something that made my jaw drop, and not […]

I recently attended a good friend’s wedding in Oregon. There were several events over the few days I was there, which gave me a chance to get to know some of the other guests. The bride is a big fan of my novels and has been vocal about them to her network, so many of the […]