Whenever people ask me what the most difficult part of writing a book is — the beginning, middle, or end — I usually say, “All of it.” Each section of a novel comes with its own set of challenges: Middles are hard to plot, ends need to be satisfying (and in my novels, they … [Read more...]
Self-Publishing Tips
Looking for publishing tips? Self-publishing a book can be a complex process — from finalizing edits to designing a cover to deciding what distributors to use. Here are a few of our top posts offering information on the self-publishing process:
5 Ways a Professional Cover Design Can Boost Book Sales
One of the biggest fallacies still held by some in the publishing world is that cover design doesn’t really matter. In other words, a great book will still thrive even if it has a terrible cover. But in the absence of overwhelming word of mouth or a gangbusters publicity … [Read more...]
5 Ways a Book Cover Could Hurt Sales — And How to Fix It
Before launching Sterling & Stone in 2011, we were a trio of indie authors, and our early years were filled with missteps. We wrote furiously, churning out more than 2 million words per year. All those drafts needed to be made into books, but at the start we only had so … [Read more...]
Should You Make a Book Available for Preorder? 14 Authors Weigh In.
Preorders are a significant part of many authors’ and publishers’ new release marketing plans, but there are several different strategies for using preorders to boost sales for a new book. We talked to 14 self-published authors to learn how they approach preorders for their … [Read more...]
How Hiring an Author Assistant Can Boost Book Sales
An author is the CEO of their own business. However, they’re also creating the product, performing quality control, marketing, doing accounting — the list goes on and on. It can be overwhelming to wear so many hats, which is where hiring an author assistant can help — … [Read more...]
68 Holiday-Themed Book Covers We Love
’Tis the season to cozy up with a good book! If you’re promoting a holiday-themed book, a festive book cover can help attract your target audience. In general, holiday-themed covers include a lot of wreaths, decorated trees, festive lights, snow-covered landscapes, and … [Read more...]
Self-Publishing Your NaNoWriMo Book? Don’t Miss These Steps!
If you finished National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with a 50K-word draft, congratulations! Only 12% of NaNoWriMo participants finished last year, so getting this far is a huge accomplishment. If you decide to self-publish your work rather than seek traditional … [Read more...]
Relaunching & Marketing a Book After Getting the Rights Back
Relaunching a book — or even an entire series — can be a great way for authors to reinvigorate sales and get new loyal fans. Independently published authors and publishers can relaunch books at any time. Traditionally published authors sometimes get the opportunity to … [Read more...]
Book Marketing Trends: From Blog Tours to Mailing Lists
Being an agile marketer is imperative to selling more books, as promotional channels quickly become oversaturated and ineffective. So how can anybody keep up with book marketing trends that are constantly evolving? Self-published author Lee Strauss has some ideas. She … [Read more...]
What are the Most Popular Title Trends in Your Genre?
Your book title — along with your cover — is the first thing a potential reader sees, and can be the deciding factor between hitting the buy button or not. Your title is a great opportunity to indicate genre, plot, atmosphere, or characters. Readers like to know what they’re … [Read more...]
