When writing your latest story, have you even considered that you may be subconsciously writing with a specific geographical reading public in mind, or has the idea never occurred to you?

Quite a while back before I went independent, I was involved in a discussion on this very subject with my former editor, long before we fell out and parted company. In particular we were talking about one specific book written by an American in the same writing stable as myself at the time. It involved its main character living in nineteen fifties America with a sci-fi element thrown in for good measure.

I put forward the argument that while I could see it doing very well within the borders of the US, whether its success there meant it would appeal to the world at large was highly debatable. Undoubtedly it would sell a few copies in Australia. It may…

by Sacha Black

I get asked a lot of marketing and publishing questions. Most are easy to answer. But a teeny tiny nanosqueak percentage of them make my eye twitch. The ‘answer on a plate’ types who think there’s a magical panacea-button that will shower them in glittery dollar bills from their millionth book sale.

Anyway. I’m leashing my rant because contrary to excessive sarcasm and perpetual moaning, there is nothing I love more than helping people, especially if that help leads to selling or publishing books. And you know what helps you sell books?

Forehead creasing, caffeine addictions, midnight dates, multiple RSI cures and a laptop for a BFF.

Okay, fine. There are a few other things that rise out of the sweaty exhausted writer ashes to help bring in the dollars:

• Understanding the market

• Studying marketing

• Studying copywriting

• Experimenting

• Being up to date with current trends

Find out more…

These are some of the things I’ve either been guilty of myself or seen in other historical books or films. Speaking from my own experience, these are honest mistakes pretty much everyone goes through. Some can also be applied to other genres.

1. Packing in everything but the kitchen sink syndrome. Prime examples are the TV miniseries The ’60s and The ’70s, which forced in every single major news story, social movement, political event, piece of pop culture, etc., of those decades. What are the odds every single person in one family or group of friends would be involved with every single thing that happened in a decade?

2. Not enough historical detail. So many of my earliest drafts had almost zero connection to their respective eras. This is the opposite extreme from gut-loading your story with every single thing that ever happened in that decade.

3. Clichés. E.g…

While bookstore events can be great, local libraries are often big, missed opportunities to connect with serious readers all over your state.

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I’m sure most of you have heard the news by now, but if you haven’t, Amazon has announced some major changes to its KDP Print program. Only two days after I was telling people in this blog’s comments that I wouldn’t even consider moving to KDP Print from CreateSpace until Amazon addressed its two most glaring issues, the company announced it had. On top of that, it addressed my major problem with CreateSpace, thus making it a whole lot more likely that I will soon be moving over.

Problem #1: No Physical Proofs (Solved)

The first problem with KDP Print concerned its means of proofing your manuscript. Well, you can now order printed proofs from KDP. Proofs allow you to review a physical copy of your draft paperback prior to publication.

Note, however, that the process is a bit more cumbersome than the one CreateSpace uses. Specifically, here’s how you…

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by Laura Peters

All writers go through periods where the creative juices dry up and then so does the cash flow. It’s not always easy to ensure a regular income as a writer so it’s useful to have a few extra tips up our sleeves, for those moments where we need to make a little extra cash. Here are a few tips, with writers in mind, on how we can make a little extra money in those moments when things dry up a little.

According to Forbes somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 ebooks are published every year in the United States alone.

Imagine being just one of them and not having marketing behind your books? Nothing sells itself.

I stopped marketing for a month, SALES STOPPED. Why? because in most cases if you do not market a product you will not sell that product. I also experimented with pricing. I actually get 10X as many page reads on KDP with a 99 cent book as I do a 2.99 book. Which I thought was weird. But the increased page rank from the extra sales o the 99 cent book probably drives the views needed to get more KDP Page reads.

It’s like any other product in the world. Nothing sells without marketing.

by Richard Risemberg

Do you love subordinate clauses? I know I do. And how about assonance and alliteration, rhythm and rhyme? Let’s face it: they can be as tasty as chocolate.

But would you make an entire meal of just…chocolate? (Okay, whoever said “yes” please leave the room now!)

Consider this a meeting of Overwriters Anonymous. My name is Rick, and I used to write overelaborate sentences. Clever and musical they were; there was just too much of them. Frankly, my dependence on brilliant phrasing destroyed my relationship with my early novels, and we haven’t seen each other in decades. The words just got in the way of the meaning after a while, exhilarating though they could be.