Social media – technology’s gift to the 21st century. As a writer, if you’re NOT on it, promoting your work gets a whole lot harder. But being on it does soak up a lot of time. So how do you get the most out of each platform? And if you
Having trouble harnessing your hashtags, keeping your pins sharp or posting things that people will read? Social media seems to be both a blessing and curse for writers – offering a chance to tell more of your story, and yet piling on a bunch of bells, whistles and EXTRA TIME
Question: I’ve written a book, but how do I get more people to read it? Answer: First, congratulations on writing a book! Some would say that the difficult part is over, but if you want to share your creation with as many readers as possible, the work has just begun.
Earlier this year, in episode 4 of our top-rating podcast, So you want to be a writer, we spoke with internationally published author Allison Rushby.
Now, many writers begin self-publishing and end up with a traditional publishing book deal. However, Allison has done it the other way round – choosing after 14 years as an author to self-publish for the first time this year when the rights to four of her earlier books reverted to her. Then, on a roll, she chose to self-publish her new young adult novel, Being Hartley, at the same time.
Allison provided some valuable insights into the relative strengths of both of these two publishing methods, and writing in general – which we have summarised here.
The rise of online shopping has revolutionised the way that we buy books. From a bookseller’s point of view, the playing field has been significantly levelled – with every book just a search and a click away. And from an author’s point of view, this makes marketing your book more important than ever.
One man who knows all about this is John Purcell, chief book buyer and head of marketing at Booktopia – Australia’s fastest-growing online bookstore. Not only does he decide which books to stock, but he’s also been a published author himself, seeing first-hand the effect good marketing can have on sales.
Clearly if you self-publish, by definition you do the sales legwork yourself. But when it comes to being traditionally published, don’t assume someone else will do it all. Finding success with a publishing house is definitely impressive (congratulations!), but this is no time to put your feet up and wait for the cheques to start flying through the door. Back in episode 5 of our top-rating podcast So you want to be a writer, we chatted with John Purcell and here are his 3 top tips for ensuring your book meets its marketing potential.
As a writer (or wannabe writer) you’re often juggling many other priorities and it’s easy for writing to become the last item on your to-do list. So how do you find the time to write?
The short answer is: you make time. There is no way to wave a magic wand and hope that more than 24 hours will somehow appear in your day. If you want time to write, you are the only person who can make this happen.
Too many writers think: “I’ll write that when I have more time” or “I’ll wait till I retire or the kids grow up”. The reality is that’s an excuse. If you really want to succeed as a writer then you need to … write! And the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll succeed. Because guess what? It takes time to…
Blaise van Hecke is the publisher and co-owner of Busybird Publishing. She is also the author of The Book Book: 12 Steps to Successful Publishing and a contributing author to Self-Made: Real Australian Business Stories. For more information visit www.busybird.com.au or contact [email protected]
It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to be published, there was only one route: submitting to what’s known as a commercial (aka ‘traditional’) publisher. Of course, this was during an age where you banged out your work on a typewriter and had to mail out submissions. After all, this was before computers became as common to households as toasters.
Then vanity publishing (now known as self-publishing) came into vogue, but it was an expensive endeavour and lacked credibility. If the book couldn’t make it with a real publisher, then it couldn’t be any good, could it?
This is a guest post by Barry Newman of Armour IP – Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys. Barry wrote to us in response to a discussion about trade marks recently on our podcast.
Just a quick glance at the relative size of a bestselling author’s name compared with the title on a book cover will tell you that our names can be valuable commodities. But can an author register a trade mark for themselves? What about their book title? And what protection do they actually provide?
When it comes to creative endeavours such as writing, the rules surrounding Intellectual Property (IP) rights aren’t always black and white. To provide a little more clarity, we threw some quick questions across to Barry Newman, principal at Armour IP – patent and trade mark attorneys. They assist their clients in dealings with IP Australia and other government and international bodies.
Australian author Tristan Bancks has long been a fan of the book trailer. Like movie trailers – which tease audiences with scenes from the movie, giving them a taste of what’s to come and leaving them wanting for more – book trailers are meant to intrigue and entice potential readers to buy the book.
However, they are still in their infancy, with some book trailers hitting the mark, and others barely resembling a mish-mash of images set against some really bad music.
Along with the release of his new book Two Wolves, Tristan has released his latest book trailer. You can view it here.
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