promotion Archives

It’s (finally) the end of 2025, and here we stand, with another year of marketing our books behind us … and an empty calendar ahead, waiting to be filled. If you do your planning annually, December seems to be the logical time to plot your marketing course for the next year. While I’ve toyed with the notion of running my promo year from February to February, giving myself the month of January f…

Sometimes, I think I might be a little psychic—and not always in a good way. Earlier this summer, I chose our topics for the fourth quarter of 2025. Marketing dread is something I’ve been thinking about for a while as I hear friends and colleagues gripe about how much they do NOT like that aspect of publishing, so that fit for October. Planning for a new year was also a natural fit for December…

How to find the phrases that sell your books Anyone who’s paid attention to advertising and marketing can tell you that the right phrases and words get a reaction from consumers. And that definitely goes for the marketing of your books. So how can you find the phrases and words that work for you and sell your unique books to your unique audience? What’s the point of your marketing? Marketing is…

If you’re a professional author, chances are you’ve had a love-hate relationship with Goodreads. Maybe it’s the clunky interface. Maybe it’s the Wild West of one-star ratings. Or maybe it’s just the nagging feeling that your beautifully crafted book deserves a little more …  sparkle. The good news? New kids on the block—The StoryGraph and Fable—are offering fresh alternatives that are built w…

I was first introduced to Substack by Joanna Campbell Slan, who migrated her newsletter list there in December 2023. “Substack has brought me 207 new subscribers,” she said. “Since I don’t pay Substack, I count that as a huge win. Previously, I was paying around $120 a month, and the other email list servers sure didn’t recommend me to anyone.” Should you use Substack to deliver your newsletter…

In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare writes this line from Juliet to Romeo: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Likewise, authors sometimes wish readers would judge our books purely based on prose, character, and plot. But let’s face it, readers are often swayed by an eye-catching book cover or a clever title. The reality is that there are mil…