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6-Month Business Planning Guide for Authors

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6-month business planning guide for authors

As an author, you know that publishing a book is just the beginning of your journey. In order to turn your book into a successful writing career, you need to have a clear plan in place. This 6-month business planning guide for authors will help you lay the foundation for long-term success.

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Before you can create a plan, you need to know what you’re working towards. Take some time to think about your goals as an author.

  • Do you want to make a full-time living from your writing?
  • Do you want to build a platform to help you land a traditional publishing deal?
  • Do you simply want to share your message with as many people as possible?

Your goals will shape every decision you make, so it’s important to be clear about what you want to achieve.

Write down your goals and keep them in a place where you can refer to them often. This will help you stay focused and motivated as you work towards your objectives.

[Read more…]

Book Marketing 101: The Crucial Basics of Promoting Your Book

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book marketing 101

Karen Ferreira’s creative agency specializes in providing high-quality, affordable illustration services for authors. 

As a keynote speaker at her annual conference, Children’s Book Mastery, Karen interviewed me about the crucial basics of promoting your book.

We explored the following:

  • What mindset should authors adopt when promoting their book?
  • What are the most crucial elements of promoting your book?
  • What are some creative and unusual ways to promote your book?
  • How can authors come up with their own marketing ideas?
  • How can an author create a promo kit for themselves?

Because book promotion is such an important – but challenging – topic, Karen generously provided a transcribed copy of our discussion to use here on the blog.

We wrapped up our chat with Karen asking me what my top tip is to help authors succeed. (You’ll have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to find my answer. ??)

[Read more…]

How Writers Can Make the Most Out of Co-working Spaces

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How Writers Can Make the Most Out of Co-working Spaces | YourWriterPlatform.com

Writing can be tricky at times. It can be a grueling and monumental task that often requires the stars to align.

It can also be socially isolating and mentally exhausting.

This is why we’ve discussed the topic of persevering through the difficulties of writing and of life in our article on How to Stay Motivated When Life Gets in the Way.

We recommended getting rid of all distractions to get you over your writing slump. And while turning the TV off and ignoring your apps may help, sometimes what you need is a change of scenery.

Luckily, the rise of co-working spaces gives you many affordable and accessible options.

Co-working spaces can spark motivation and get you back into writing. They also provide a platform for writers, freelancers, and startups who want to experiment with new ways of working.

[Read more…]

How to Reach Out to Reviewers: a Publicist’s Guide

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Book publicist Ben Cameron has been in the game for twenty years, working with both traditional and self-published authors.

But he’s noticed a bigger change in the publishing world in the last five years than he has in the last fifteen. 

“That’s come down to the self-publishing revolution, and the revolution in ebooks,” Ben observes.

He recently talked to us about these changes — and what they might mean for self-publishing authors’ publicity games.

In this article, he offers his professional insights on what kinds of reviews are out there, how to find them, and how to get them. Let’s take a look at what he has to say.

TYPES OF REVIEWS

First up: the types of reviews out there that you can secure. As you might expect, the Internet’s revolutionized this quite dramatically, such that Ben now divides them into two categories: professional reviews, and “real people” reviews.

Professional reviews 

Professional reviews are reviewers paid by media companies to review books. Places like Kirkus Reviews, The New Yorker, and The Guardian are a few examples.

These tend to work best for literary or academic books — but their standing in the industry is so great that even just one of this type of review can make a big difference for any book.

[Read more…]

Build Your Writer Platform: Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Your Writing Career

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Create a Strategic Plan to Grow Your Writing Career _ YourWriterPlatform.com

If you’ve been trying to build your writer platform, grow your author biz AND still find time to write (and failing miserably), make sure to read this entire post because I may have the answer…

I’ve spent over two years developing and testing Believe, Plan, Act: A Platform + Productivity Planner for Writers, spurred on by the frustration and overwhelm of writers just like you, struggling to gain traction and build a career around their work.

I knew there had to be a way to streamline the process, improve focus and efficiency and empower writers to take an active role in both the creative and business aspects of their writing career.

So I created a complete author business planning system, designed to specifically address the needs of writers, and to help you build the FOUNDATIONAL elements of your platform and author business – everything from clarifying your creative and career goals, to strategic marketing, launch planning, and developing your author brand. [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

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