The whole idea of “building a platform” and “marketing your book” is to get people to read what you’ve written. Whether you’re traditionally or self-published, connecting with potential readers is crucial.

There are many good ways to do this (although it’s not necessarily easy), and plenty of resources to  help you.

Today I want to point out the most common mistakes I see authors making in the effort to connect with readers.

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on Just Publishing Advice:

Do you want to set up a free ebook download on your blog?

If you use either a self-hosted WordPress or a WordPress.com site for your blog, you can do it.

It is quite easy to create a pdf version of a downloadable ebook using the WordPress media library. All you need to do is upload your .pdf file to the library and then create a link to it in a post or on your sidebar.

But how many readers are going to get excited about an ebook in .pdf format? Very few, or more likely, none.

Ebook readers want to be able to read an ebook on their preferred device, and without any fuss or bother.

They need to be able to click and read.

To accommodate this need, you really have to offer your free ebooks in both .epub and .mobi formats. However, WordPress will…

Few literary agents expectquery lettersto be 100% perfect—especially if the author is new.

That said, most literary agents DO expect a certain level of competence and a fundamental understanding of publishing industry etiquette.

If you’re a writer hoping to get a book published, Writer’s Relief explains the query letter mistakes you must avoid.

9 Things Writers Do Wrong In Query Letters

“You fail only if you stop.”

~ Ray Bradbury

“This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away.”

~ Anne Lamott

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“Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities, and have them relate to other characters living with him.”

~ Mel Brooks

“Most people carry their demons around with them, buried down deep inside. Writers wrestle their demons to the surface, fling them out onto the page, then call them characters.”

~ C.K. Webb

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.”

~Henry Green

“Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the…

Can you actually hook a reader in two sentences? I have problems with my elevator speech and that’s a lot longer than two sentences. However, the answer is yes, and I know from experience, you had better hook your reader, or literary agent, right away if you want to make a sell.

The next question for me, is how do I write a 2-sentence hook? My story is complicated, and I don’t even know where to begin.

A 2-story hook has three components. These not only provide the gist of your story, but also an abbreviated outline of what you are trying to accomplish.

1. Character –  Who is your hero or heroine? You don’t want to give that character a name in your 2-sentence write up. Give them an identity.                     Not Anne, but a young orphan girl.      …