ISBNs For eBooks Many authors choose not to buy ISBNs for ebooks, although under certain circumstances— especially with distributors—you still need them. Depending on which distributor you use, you might have to pay a small amount for that unique identifying number. I know that Smashwords and Draft2Digital offer them free. Bookbaby and eBookpartnership and a few others charge a small amount—Bookbaby charges $19, […]
How Important Is Character Development? Since books have been written, and especially since “bestsellers” have been on the minds of publishers, almost everyone has tried figuring out what makes a good book. Some people swear it’s plot—that a well-developed mystery with a few good twists will keep readers turning pages. Others swear that character development […]
How Does Author Visibility Affect Book Sales? Before we get into visibility, let’s talk about invisibility and how great it is. Animals have been using invisibility in one form or another for a long time: moths, butterflies, snakes, caterpillars, chameleons, octopuses, lots of fish, and many others. (For a picture of an unbelievable stick caterpillar, check out […]
Murder Takes Patience—Launch of New Mystery Book Before I get started today, I want to apologize to all of the readers who might have pre-ordered from Nook, Apple or Kobo. I made a huge mistake and uploaded the wrong file. The result is that the book you received—if it was delivered before 9/3—has mistakes in it. […]
Building a Library Presence With Smashwords and Overdrive There has been a lot of talk about Smashwords’ deal with Overdrive. Some people claim that indie authors have been relegated to an “indie ghetto” and that librarians won’t even be able to find an indie author’s books if they wanted to. Let’s examine that for a […]
Launch of A Bullet From Dominic I’m thrilled to announce the long-awaited launch of my new mystery book— A Bullet From Dominic, the sequel to A Bullet For Carlos, in the Blood Flows South series. A Bullet From Dominic features Detective Connie Gianelli and Tip Denton, with a special appearance by Hector “Ribs” Delgado, who you will recognize from Necessary […]
Email Is Still the Best Marketing Tool This post is for anyone who needs to build an email marketing/subscriber list. I’m an author, so it is written from that point of view. I think that most authors are finally seeing the light and are starting to wonder, “how do I build an email list?” And […]
New Interview Book I’m writing to announce the launch of my new book: No Mistakes Interviews: How to Get the Job You Want. It is the second book in the No Mistakes Careers Series. Far too often the people who should get the job, don’t. And the reason they don’t is because they aren’t prepared, or, they make mistakes during the interview process. […]
Why Indie Authors Fail I’m not saying indie authors aren’t making it; in fact, some of them are doing amazingly well. Every day it seems as if another success story is in the news, not to mention that indie authors have staked permanent spots on the bestseller lists. It has taken a few years, but […]
Smashwords Levels The Playing Field With Pre-orders Smashwords continues to offer authors more tools to help them compete with the big publishers. Pre-orders have long been inaccessible to indies. We’ve been forced to sit on the sidelines and watch with envy while traditional publishers touted their up-and-coming releases. If you’ve ever wondered how to sell […]
