How To Increase Book Sales on Amazon
We often talk about book promotion here at Change The World With Words, and there’s a lot to learn if you’re just starting out as a self-published or indie author.
Gaining exposure for your book can involve everything from planning blog tours to producing book trailers and a whole lot more. But if you have a book for sale on Amazon, you might be missing out on sales simply from lack of visibility on the site. Many authors have no idea how easy it is to increase their book’s exposure by updating a few things from their Amazon Central account.
Three simple tricks that can help you get more exposure for your book:
- Update your categories, keywords, subjects, and tags
If you put some time and research into choosing the best categories, quality keywords, specific subjects, and appropriate tags, you can quickly raise your ranking on Amazon, and that can make your book more visible to prospective buyers.
- Fill out your Amazon sales page
Include as much information as possible on your books sales page. The more you can tell your potential customers about you and your book, the more likely it is that they’ll spend money on it.
- Put together a best-seller book launch
Having a best-seller book launch can encourage people to buy your book, and increase your rating at the same time. Just because you’re a new or little-known author, it doesn’t mean you can’t put together a professional book launch, complete with press releases, a basic media kit, book readings and prize-winning contests.
If you want to find out more about creating a bestseller book launch, and the other strategies mentioned above, you might want to consider Shelley Hitz’s new product: ‘Amazon for Authors’. This guide for authors-on-a-budget walks you through the process of optimizing your book sales on Amazon and Kindle. Besides covering the above tips in detail, Shelley covers tricky issues like digitally “autographing” your books, how to track your sales data, and much more. Learn more at her website Self-publishing-coach.com and consider signing up for her free newsletter for regular self-publishing and book promotion tips.
Thinking about self-publishing your next book, or re-publishing a previously published out-of-print book as a self-publisher? New technology is making both options more common, and easier to do. Check out our huge resources list, Fifty Self Publishing Resources for Authors.
Two Great Affiliate Programs for Writers and Authors
This year I’m partnering with a couple of cool organisations to bring you some useful resources for writers and authors. Some of them are free, some of them aren’t. If you’re at a stage in your writing career where you want to start investing in yourself, you can choose to buy through me and support this site at the same time (see what that means here).
If you’re not, that’s fine too. All articles here at Change The World With Words are free and always will be. (I also get a real kick out of sharing other free resources I find, and I seem to find a lot – maybe it’s Karma sending me free writing goodies because I always pay them forwards. Feel free to subscribe if you want to know about new free writing resources as I find them.)
If you’re a writer looking for affiliate programs to join in order to offer your readers valuable resources and create an extra income stream for yourself, I recommend these programs.
In 2012 I’ll be working with an organisation called My Help Hub.
Why?
They have really high quality products for writers, mainly ebooks and online courses, that cover different types of writing and other skills related to writing and getting your work published.
Their paid products are reasonably priced, often come with bonuses and offer a money-back guarantee.
They have a good mix of products that will appeal to different readers (we’re an eclectic mix here at CTWWW), from The Wealthy Writer online course to their Writer’s Block CD to the Novel in a Month course. Perhaps my favourite E-product purchased last year was their excellent How To Write A Children’s Book.
Like me, they like to be generous. They offer a huge selection of free resources for writers through Writers Giveaway, that you can start downloading right now if you want (click here).
If you’re a writer with your own blog or site and you’d like to partner with My Help Hub to offer some of their products to your readers and followers, check out their affiliate program here.
I’ll also be working with the lovely Shelley Hitz from Self-Publishing-Coach.com.
Why?
Shelley also offers great products, albeit in a narrower range. Most of her products are aimed at helping writers develop specific skills in the area of self-publishing and book marketing, though her book marketing and promotion resources are also excellent for traditionally published authors looking to build their brand and sell more books.
These products are very affordable. Shelley is known for over-delivering and offering far more (including bonuses) than you would expect for the price she charges.
The range of products covers almost everything new and aspiring authors need to know (and lots of things more experienced authors should know but don’t). Products include Ebook Publishing Success, Get Your Kindle Ebook Done, and Twitter 101 For Authors.
Shelley also loves a freebie. You can pick up over 200 free tools for authors over at her site Self-Publishing-Coach.com or download a couple of her free reports, Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: YouTube Strategies for Authors and Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Guest Blogging for Success right here at CTWWW.
If you’re looking to invest in yourself in 2012, please consider some of the products mentioned above or listed on the resources page (or check out the reading list and online book store for good-value books about writing and publishing). And if not, go ahead and download the freebies mentioned above.
If you haven’t already seen our Win an iPad2 or Kindle Fire contest, you might want to check it out. You’ll need something to read your new Ebooks and online course materials on:)
Four Great Author Resources
| Just a quick post today to let you know about a great offer for authors looking to improve their social media presence, build a platform, gain exposure and promote their books. Shelley Hitz, the author of the “Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget” series, is moving house, and celebrating with a giant moving sale over at her website, Self-Publishing-Coach.com. For a limited time only, when you purchase four of Shelley’s products, you get them for 75% off!
Here are the details:
For 72 hours only – December 7th, 8th and 9th – you can get the following promotional package for only $21:
• “Get Your Facebook Page Done!” ( usually $47) • “YouTube Marketing for Authors” (usually $17) • “A Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging” (usually $10) • “Twitter 101 for Authors” (usually $10)
Here’s what authors are saying about Shelley Hitz, and her author resources: “Shelley helps you get your Facebook done and is a great resource if you need more personal help. She is professional, has great follow-up and will get you up to speed quickly. I highly recommend her seminars and personal services! She makes it fun.” - Linda Pyle, Author of “Peaks, Palms and Picnics” “If you’re looking for a resource that will teach you how to increase your online exposure quickly and easily, then you need to read Shelley Hitz’s, A Step By Step Guide to Guest Blogging…. A Step By Step Guide to Guest Blogging gives you the training, the tools, and the direction you need to jump into the exciting and valuable world of guest blogging. This is a must-read resource that needs to be within arm’s reach of every author tasked with doing his or her own promotion and marketing.” - Tony Eldridge, MarketingTipsforAuthors.com “I am grateful to have found Shelley’s website because she is an incredible source of information and resources related to self publishing. She way over delivers and offers so much for free and the content is high quality. She is also warm, friendly and caring with her customers.” - Sharon Gibson, www.15minutewriter.com I’ve been working with Shelley for a while now (yes, these are affiliate links, find out what that means here), and I’m so impressed with her products and attitude. Plus, she’s offering a 60 day money back guarantee if you’re not happy with this promotional package, so you can see if you like her resources as much as I do, and return them if you don’t! To learn more about the products Shelley has to offer and take advantage of her $21 offer, visit her website before the end of Dec 9th 2011 : Self-Publishing-Coach.com. |
Kindle Publishing: Diversify Your Income and Sell More Books
Publishing for the Kindle is something you can do yourself relatively easily, once you have the right tools, yet many authors still don’t bother. Whether you’re working on your first book, or an experienced author with many books in print already, it’s definitely worth considering publishing for the Kindle. In this guest post, author Shelley Hitz explains why.
Kindle Publishing: Diversify Your Income and Sell More Books
Every writer wants to get their work out there. They actually want people to read their books. In today’s world, one of the best ways to get your writing out there and actually be read, is to put your work on the internet.
The eBook industry is growing rapidly these days, and there are some pretty practical reasons. You don’t have to wait to have the book shipped to you; you simply download it and start reading immediately. If you have a Kindle or a Nook, it’s so simple to take your entire library of books with you. Instead of lugging around a heavy book bag, you simply have one small item to carry. Most ereaders hold thousands of books. They just make things simpler.
Even with eBook sales outpacing hardcover sales, many authors still miss out on the eBook market. Again, for legitimate reasons: they don’t know where to start, they don’t know how to format eBooks, or they might just be ready to be done with the book after it’s published as a hardcopy and are ready to start their next one.
However, publishing an eBook shouldn’t be something that any author overlooks these days.
Once you have written your book, you might as well get it out there in as many formats as possible. Why not diversify your income from that book, so you have more time to work on your next one? Think about it. Wouldn’t it be nice to see more money flowing into your bank account? I believe ePublishing is the key to making that happen.
However, knowing you should publish an eBook is just the beginning. You still have to find the answers to the original questions, or you could end up hurting your reputation as an author. Get Your Kindle eBook Done! covers every aspect of getting your book eBook ready. While its main focus is Kindle, it covers Smashwords and iBooks as well. It also highlights ways to market your eBook and maximize your profits.
With the continued growth in the eBook market I have to ask, what are you waiting for? Get Your Kindle eBook Done, today.
Shelley Hitz is the author of Get Your Kindle eBook Done! She provides valuable advice and free tools for authors at her website self-publishing-coach.com.
Image by Tina Phillips at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Five Tools To Help You Plan Your Online Book Tour
Online book tours, along with other forms of online book promotion, are the obvious way to promote your book in an efficient, cost effective way. An online book tour (or virtual book tour, as they’re often called), is simply a series of interviews or guest posts on blogs that reach the book buying public, with a link to where they can buy your book online.
Traditional book tours are a thing of the past for most authors. Unless you’re J K Rowling or an author of similar standing, your publisher won’t spring the money for a book tour any more. The return on investment is too low.
You may be tempted to fund your own book tour, but I’d encourage you to think twice. The chances of you selling enough books to cover your costs range from slim to fat, and more importantly you could damage your long term career. If you fund your own book tour for your current book you will make extra sales, but unless you can do it for your next book you may find sales of your next book are down on your current one. Publishers care about the bottom line. Falling sales are never a good thing. You’ve actually jeopardized future book deals.
If you’re traditionally published whatever you do to promote your first (or current) book should be sustainable for the next one. That way your sales should (all other things being equal) go in the right direction. If you’re a self-published author you can promote your book however you want, but I’d still advise an online book tour, and if you take my advice you’ll definitely want to check out these resources.
Savvy Authors Blog Tour Wizard
The blog tour wizard at SavvyAuthors.com is a program that puts authors with a new book out in touch with bloggers who are willing to ‘host’ those authors on their blog. Authors and bloggers fill out a short form so the wizard can match them with the most appropriate partners. Authors can request up to 10 stops per blog tour, and once the wizard has made the matches it will put you in touch to confirm details.
This service is only available to premium members but premium membership only costs $30 a year and if you’re an author there are lots of benefits, such as writing tools, an agent/editor database and blog pitch events with agents and editors. If you’re a blogger you can submit your blog for free. As an author, you can also try out the basic (free) membership first if you just want to get a feel for the site. Find the details here.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging by Shelley Hitz.
This guide is specifically aimed at authors planning a virtual book tour. It’s the perfect resource if you really don’t know where to start, or need help pulling together all the details. It’s very affordable, at only $10, and currently comes with several bonuses that make it even better value. If you’re on a tight budget, this may be the only resource you need to invest in. Check out the details here.
If, however, you’re on a bigger budget…
Virtual Book Tour Packages from Pump Up Your Book
Pump Up Your Book offer three virtual book tour packages (silver, gold and platinum) ranging in price from $399 to $799. These packages offer one to two months of tour stops, personalized tour pages and banners and lots of publicity.
They claim that their online book tours reach “USA Today, Chicago Times, Washington Post, Reuters and more.” The price seems a bit steep but it’s possible the publicity could be worth it. I haven’t personally used this service. If any readers have I’d appreciate a comment about whether you thought it was worth the money or not.
Book Blogs “Promote Your Book” Page
Book blogs have a “promote your book” page where authors can add their books, book trailers and announcements of online book tours. You have to be a member but membership is free. Once you’ve got your online book tour organized, this is a simple, no-cost way to promote your book tour to a targeted audience of book lovers.
Writing forums and social media
We’re back to no-cost options here. If you’re a DIY enthusiast on a budget you can certainly find opportunities through writing forums and social media. I interviewed Lynda M. Martin (author of the wonderful This Bird Flew Away) right here on my blog after ‘meeting’ her in a writing forum, and this guest post, (Na)No Pain, (Na)No gain? by author Maija Haavisto was the result of a shout out I sent out on Twitter asking NaNoWriMo participants if they wanted to share their experiences and promote their books.
What are your plans for your online book tour? High budget, low budget or no budget?
As always, if you have friends or followers who may find this post useful, please share or forward. Thanks.
Image by JSCreations at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Fifty Self-Publishing Resources For Authors
I’ve been doing some serious research into self-publishing options recently and one thing I’ve learned is that self-publishing is not for everyone. It can, however, be a great option for those who are prepared to market, promote and sell, as well as write.
My research has turned up over fifty resources (including some great freebies and some very affordable paid services) that I think could be useful to self-publishing newbies (and some of them to traditionally published authors too). Have a browse through them and let me know what you think.
Six Self-publishing Companies That All Offer A Little Extra
AuthorHouse offer a free Writers Guide To Publishing in their Author Resources section.
Booklocker.com has an online Guide to POD and Ebook Publishing at their website that offers a surprisingly honest look at the process of self publishing (including a section titled “The Reasons Not To Use Us”)
CreateSpace is the self-publishing branch of Amazon, and provides self-publishing services including free DIY tools such as a Cover Creator for easy online design. Note: You do not have to publish with CreateSpace to make your book available on Amazon. You can do that through the other self-publishers.
Lulu offers a free consultation with one of their services consultants to assess your needs. Some of their book options also include a free ISBN.
Trafford offer a free publishing guide and monthly newsletter to potential self-publishers.
Xlibris also offer a free Publishing Kit to prospective authors
Six Essential articles about self-publishing:
Subsidy Press or Author Services Publishers
A good article that explains exactly what the self publishing companies or book packagers actually do.
25 Self-Publishing Companies Analyzed, Compared and Ranked
Essential reading before you even make a shortlist of self-publishing companies to approach.
Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know
25 tips from someone who has been through the self-publishing process, and learned a lot along the way.
Top 10 Tips for Self-Publishing a Book That Doesn’t Look Self-Published
There’s no shame in self-publishing, but there’s also no reason for your self-published book not to look every bit as professional as a traditionally published book.
Top Ten pitfalls to Self-Publishing Success
What not to do and how not to do it.
Marketing Your Self-Published Book
From creating a marketing plan, to book signings to web casting, everything you need to know about marketing your book, with links to a sample press release and web page.
Three Great How-To Ebooks for Self-publishers:
Self-Publishing Secrets
No-nonsense guide that reveals the tips, tricks and secret pitfalls every self-publisher needs to know.
Kindle Kash
How to publish your book for the Kindle, make it available on Amazon, and earn 70% in royalties.
The Best-Seller Secret
How to turn your book into a #1 Amazon best-seller. This system guarantees your book will hit the #1 spot on Amazon – in its category – or your money back. (Note: I haven’t used this system, yet. I’m told it really does work, but it requires time and effort. If you have time and effort to spare – why wouldn’t you try it?)
Four Professional Editing Services for Self-Publishers
Professional editing/critiquing is often what makes or breaks a self-published book. Don’t publish your book without putting it through the editing process. The following are all professional editing companies that offer editing services to self-published authors.
Twelve Useful Free Resources for Self-Publishers:
You don’t have to pay a fortune (or a penny) to start researching your self-publishing options, or creating your books.
WritersGiveaway.com offers The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing – By author Shelley Lowery. Available for free download when you sign up for the free newsletter
WritersGiveaway.com also offers a free E-book creator.
50 YouTube Strategies for Authors is a free report from SelfPublishingCoach.com.
Book Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: Guest Blogging for Success is also free from SelfPublishingCoach.com.
Self Publishing Resources is giving away JUMP START YOUR BLOG IN 28 DAYS: Blogging Checklist for Authors & Self-Publishers free when you sign up for their monthly newsletter.
Fast Pencil provides a range of free writing and publishing tools, including a way to import your blog posts if you’re converting your blog to book form (an increasingly popular way of producing a self-published book)
Go Publish Yourself is a site you can join for free and receive a self-publishing package including an “Author’s Bill of Rights”, “Why Self-Publish” PowerPoint, “32 Simple Ways to Market Your Book Online”, Teleseminars on publishing and marketing, plus a load of discounts on self publishing services.
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide: How To Market any Book for Free is available for free download from Amazon.
FreeEbooks.net have A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-Publishing eBooks available for free download (you’ll have to register, but this is also free and then you’ll be able to download 5 free ebooks each month).
FreeEbooks.net also have 147 Killer e-publishing Strategies available for free.
The Top 10 Things You Should Know about Self-Publishing Your Book (free video tutorial)
How To Self-Publish A Book (free video tutorial)
Four Specialist Book Promotion and Marketing Companies:
You can do all the promotion and marketing for your self-published book yourself, but if you do decide you need to hire some help you could consider these specialist marketing companies:
Three Book Trailer Production Companies:
Books have trailers these days, just like movies. It’s not essential to have one but if you do you can post it on Youtube, your Facebook fan page or your blog. They can be quite an attention grabbing promotion tool.
Four Cool Book Design Companies
You’ll need a cover design and perhaps a design for some of your interior pages. As with most self-publishing tasks you can do it yourself, but if you want to look into professional design, consider the following:
Ten Useful Books For Self-Publishers
The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living by Peter Bowerman
The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier
Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters (Kindle eBook)
Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poytner
Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors, Book Publicity through Social Networking by Steve Weber
The Self-Publishers Marketing Guide by Debbie Higgs (Kindle eBook)
Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book by Patricia L. Fry
Wham! Bam! Publishing: The Strategic Marketing Plan for Authors and Publishers by Janice Marie Phelps, Joan E. Phelps and Janice Phelps Williams
Promote Your Book: Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author by Patricia L. Fry
There are, of course, hundreds more that I could have included. If you have a self-publishing resource to recommend, please share in the comments. If you have friends, followers or blog readers who are interested in self-publishing, please consider sharing or linking to this page.
Promote Your Book on a Budget
Whether you self-publish or go the traditional publishing route, it’s likely that you won’t have a huge publicity budget for your first book (or first few books). This may not be a bad thing (read on to find out how you can potentially damage your writing career by spending too much money and time on publicity). There are hundreds of cost effective ways to promote your book. Here are just a few.
A Writer’s Website
This can be a very simple site that you put together yourself. The best domain name is obviously YourName.com (You can have a site for each book that is NameOfTheBook.com, but we’re on a budget here).
If money is really tight you could even use a free blogging platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com (in which case the domain name will be YourName.blogspot/wordpress.com).
If you have a traditional publisher that allows you control over an “author page” at their site you could consider developing and promoting that as your author site. If you already have a blog, you can add a page entitled “my book” as a promotional tool. In an ideal world these options would be in addition to a “proper” author site, but the world of writing and publishing isn’t always ideal for new, cash-strapped authors.
A giveaway
You will doubtless have some “free’ copies of your book to give away (remember there is no such thing as a free book – that is valuable merchandise you hold in your hand. Use it wisely).
If you decide to do a promotional giveaway (perhaps a signed copy of your book) decide what your objectives are. What do you want the potential readers of your book to do? Sign up for your monthly newsletter so you can market this and other books to them in the future? “Like” your book’s Facebook page so that they spread the word to their friends, their friend’s friends and so on? Whatever you want them to do, make this a way to enter the giveaway.
Free reads
Even cheaper than a giveaway – simply make something related to your book available for free download. An excerpt from the book itself is popular, preferably the first chapter. A perfect first chapter is compelling and exciting, portrays fascinating characters in an intriguing, believable world/setting, introduces a high stakes problem to be overcome, raises questions the reader can’t wait to have answered and ends with a hook (your opening chapter does do all this, doesn’t it?). Generally people will want to buy the book if they loved the first chapter.
Alternatively you could post something exclusive for download. I recently saw an author site where the author had posted a short story that was actually a prequel to the book. A good tool for getting new readers hooked on the story, but also interesting for readers who have read the book, loved it and decided to check out the author site.
Guest posting
Beware: guest posting can be time consuming, but a few well placed guest posts about the publishing process on popular writing/publishing related blogs (with a link to your own author site and somewhere to buy the book) can bring in extra sales. Remember blog readers don’t want to read a sales blurb for your book. They want to learn something about what you learned during the process. You have to be quite skilful to provide this and work in enough detail about the book that people want to buy it. Of course, if you do a series of guest posts on different blogs, all highlighting your book launch, what you’re actually doing is a virtual book tour (see below).
A Virtual Book Tour
IMPORTANT TIP: A real book tour can cost you money AND your future as an author. Unless your publisher is paying for it (and unless you’re a well-known author, he isn’t) your book tour will cost you money (your traveling costs). It is extremely unlikely that you’ll sell enough books to cover costs and you’ll be using time you could use to be writing the next book.
Dean Wesley Smith addresses this issue in Write Good or Die (highly recommended and available for free download from Amazon). He points out that a new author can easily spend about $5000 on a three week self-funded book tour, and he can reasonably expect to earn about $250 in royalties on extra books sold during that time. As if that’s not bad enough, he goes on to point out:
“Here’s the worst part. Remember, publishing is bottom-line focused. Let’s assume that’s the author’s fist book for Bantam and he doesn’t do the exact same thing for book number two. What would happen? The second book sales will decline from book number one. The sales trend will be DOWN on the accounting sheets. Not a good thing in publishing and he won’t sell book number three.”
In terms of book tours whatever you do for your first book should be sustainable for your second and third, and so on (until you’re so famous your book sells itself).
A virtual book tour (being interviewed or guest blogging about your book on websites and blogs frequented by the book buying public) may not sell the same amount of copies, but it is a lot less time consuming and more cost effective. You can contact blogging buddies or the owners of sites and blogs you read regularly and ask them about an interview or a guest post. Or you can consider using a site like Savvy Authors. They have a program that puts authors who want to do a virtual book tour in touch with bloggers who want to host them. Shelley Hitz from self-publishing-coach.com publishes a great guide for authors planning a virtual book tour. You can check it out here.
A Facebook Fan Page
It’s free and surprisingly simple to set up. You can post news about any events (online interviews, author talks, giveaways etc) there. As mentioned above, you can make liking the Facebook page (and perhaps leaving a comment) a way to enter a book giveaway, pulling in fans and activity, which will show up in the newsfeeds of the friends of people who liked your book.
We’ll be returning to the subject of cost-effective book promotion here at Change The World With Words on a regular basis. If you’re interested in hearing more, consider subscribing to the newsletter.
If you’re currently on the book promotion trail (and on a budget) you might want to consider the following books:
Promote Your Book: Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author and
1001 Ways to Market Your Book.
Or check out the ‘publishing’ section of the brand new Change The World With Words Online Book Store. (This is my first attempt at putting together an online Amazon store, so I’m on a steep learning curve. Feedback and constructive criticism welcome, but please be gentle.)
Image by Bill Longshaw at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing, With New Author Kate Lightfoot
Today I have the HUGE privilege of interviewing my good friend and new author Kate Lightfoot. Kate is an English author who has just self-published her first book. She complicates her life and career by writing and publishing from her base in a non-English speaking country (Spain).
Her book Recipes for Life: Tales with Taste is an intriguing mixture of wry observations on life and love, and recipes for delicious food.
A big thank you to her for agreeing to be interviewed here at Change The World With Words, and (as always) being brutally honest about the pros and cons of the self-publishing process.
Congrats on the new book. What’s it about?
Recipes For Life is about …..life! Normal everyday life from, the first date, to divorce and beyond. Definitely written from a female point of view and definitely written with lots of English humour and sarcasm, Recipes For Life looks at the emotional rollercoaster ride the majority of women go through.
Take the example of getting ready for a first date (what to wear, how to act, what to eat, what to talk about, sex on the first date, or not). A simple date is a minefield of disasters just waiting to happen! How we survive all that stress, I don’t know. We survive that and then it is meet the parents time, then living together, getting married, having children and so on. How do we not end up jabbering wrecks? How? Because we can laugh at these situations. That’s what Recipes For Life is all about – laughing at all the poop life chucks at us!
It’s a great concept, to finish each chapter with a recipe that somehow ties in with the theme of the chapter. How did you come up with it?
I wanted to think of something different, a gimmick or quirk. In these times of economic crisis, I thought I needed something to make my book stand out. I love food (I’m just not great at cooking it) and I thought food and problems went well together! Fortunately my friend Shirley, who created the recipes for the book, is a great cook – otherwise the recipes would have been fish fingers and chips and beans on toast!
Why did you decide to self-publish? Did you consider traditional publishing as well?
I certainly did consider traditional publishing routes and sent off zillions of letters and manuscripts and sat by my letter box waiting for all the ……refusals! It is so difficult to get published if you are not a known writer or have a famous name. Publishers are not taking any chances, at the moment, with newcomers. So, why spend my money on self publishing? This book was my “baby” and – by hook or by crook, I was going to publish this book!
What has been the most difficult/annoying/frustrating part of self-publishing?
The most difficult and, at the same time, annoying part of self publishing was that I was not aware that I would have to actually know something about computers! I am computer stupid – actually I am technology stupid and am all in favour of bringing back the carrier pigeon! Additionally, I now know that an awful lot of what the self publishing company does for you, you can do for yourself (if you are not computer stupid!) I also found I was passed from person to person (and actually from continent to continent – I started with UK contacts and ended up with folk from The USA) so not much of a personal touch! They are all over you like a rash, but once you have paid your money…..not quite so attentive!
And the best/most fun/most satisfying?
To tell the truth, I loved the whole process! Getting together with Shirley to discuss recipes was great, and actually realising I could make the scrummy dishes she thought up for each chapter was a huge bonus (my children were delighted at being fed something new!) Yes, it was frustrating at times but, on the whole, Author House were quick in responding to my many queries and they helped me with all my computer doubts (poor things!). I loved seeing the front cover design – done by my daughter and, of course, just about passed out when I held my book in my hands!
How are you promoting the book? Will you be doing any book signings/author talks/online promotion etc?
I am doing a pathetic job at promoting my book! As part of my package with Author House they arranged for it to be advertised on Amazon and sent me 25 free copies. Perhaps if I was in the UK I would get myself out and about selling my wares? Perhaps I would hold book group meetings, pester my local book shops, supermarkets (food bit!), attend book fairs – but as I am living in Spain, I have the perfect excuse for just being…lazy! I did not self publish my book to make money. I published my book because it was a dream I wanted to make come true- and it did!
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned? Any advice for new authors who want to self-publish?
Look around for the best deals – the services are more or less the same. Some charge ridiculous prices and most can be bargained down or will add extras.
Take your time with each aspect of self publishing.
Find some friends who will proof read your material – it is expensive through the self publishing companies.
Do not expect help promoting your book for nothing. Once you have published, you will get lots of super expensive offers to “help” you promote your book.
Remember…..nothing is for free, everything has a price. They are not being nice to you, because you are a nice person or have talent….they want your fee!
Kate blogs at Recipes For Life and Love.
You can order Recipes for Life: Tales with Taste here.
UK readers can order through Amazon in the UK or direct from Author House.
And Kate is right. (Almost) nothing is for free. But we always have freebies for writers here at Change The World With Words. Check out the newly updated Freebie page.
