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As I turned to face the thousands of options lining my library’s shelves, I asked my librarian, “How do you pick which books to read?” I hoped that she might tip me off to a trade journal or confirm the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations. Her neck blushed pink before she paused and leaned toward me. “To be honest? I read books based on their covers.” A nervous laugh seemed to indicate …

In the early days of my publishing career, I worked as an editor for a publisher based in Ireland. While it started as primarily a digital-first romance house, it quickly grew into a multi-genre powerhouse. During that time, two of my titles were accepted by the publisher. The first was a little military thriller called Stray Ally, a story about a not-so-great guy who meets a dog in the wildern…

Do you like easy money? Yes! Then you need to set up your affiliate marketing links. What is affiliate marketing? If you read the informational pamphlets for each affiliate site, they are full of jargon—performance-based channels, leveraged partnerships, pay-for-outcome alternatives—that is confusing and hard to decipher. But the basic answer is you get paid when you refer a reader to a vendor …

Amazon “We may also suspend your Program account at any time with or without notice to you, for any reason in our discretion.” —from Amazon Terms and Conditions Fenella Ashworth panicked after she discovered her Amazon account had been closed, and she got only 90 minutes of sleep over the next three days. “You might think it could only happen via a staged process after lengthy discussions, but …

Most indie authors focus on selling books through the major book distributors. We study ads and agonize over how to get visibility and traction on these sites. We watch our numbers go up and down with pride and alarm. But, as we’ve been doing that, a few pioneer authors have been forging other paths to readership: Wattpad Patreon Kickstarter Serial apps If you find them all tempting, no worri…

We made it through 2022! A round of applause and therapeutic chocolate for everyone. Now it’s time to look forward to 2023, and I’ve put together a list of resolutions based on trends I suspect will drive book marketing throughout the new year. Where does this list come from? My own extensive research and experience running a small marketing think tank. I’ve been tracking data and trialing diff…