Inside Publishing

Now that your book is finished, what happens next? We're here to guide you through the publishing process, from editorial to distribution and sales.

Twelve Tricks for Amazing Author Websites

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Dec 15, 2020

Is your website working for you? Is it helping you sell more books? So many authors really don’t know the answer to this question. And with so many options out there for websites, how do you know which elements you must have to be successful?

Most authors want to sell more books, and that is (or should be) the main goal of your website. If you wrote a business book to help you sell more services, build your business, or book more speaking opportunities, then you may have slightly different goals. However, even with that in mind, a successful website should still have many of the same key attributes.

Here are 12 simple things you can do to make your website a more effective and efficient vehicle for your book marketing promotion.

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Marketing & Publicity

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Planning For Uncertain Times

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Dec 1, 2020

At the beginning of 2020 we all set aggressive goals based upon an optimistic view of the coming year. That changed abruptly with the advent of Coronavirus in the first quarter, with the subsequent quarantines and closed businesses. While this year has been a difficult one for making sales, we learned some valuable lessons for succeeding under dire circumstances. The key to survive in the future is to apply those lessons to make your business profitable over the long term.

Even though no one knows what the future brings, you can still create plans for what might happen. In this case, do not think of the word plan as a noun, but as a verb, a work in progress to which you can refer regularly and adapt to unforeseen conditions. Think of it as the first draft of your manuscript, needing multiple rewrites.

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Marketing & Publicity

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Aiming to Please Your Target Reader

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Nov 17, 2020

Just what is “discovery” in book publishing? Simply put, it’s exposure for your book. Many in the industry, including both publishers and authors, believe exposure automatically equals sales. Actually, while gaining exposure isn’t that hard, it doesn’t guarantee book sales. We worked with an author who spent all of her book marketing money to purchase ads in advance of a film release, but ultimately the needle never moved on the sales chart. Her efforts didn’t yield a single sale.

So the challenge is not discovery. Why didn’t her method pan out? I mean, aren’t ads a good book marketing idea? The answer is: it depends.

How Readers Buy Books

Back in early 2017, I was at Digital Book World in New York, and one of the speakers brought a set of slides and some fascinating statistics. I learned that very few sales result from ads, but most books, an incredible 95% of them, are sold via word of mouth.

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Marketing & Publicity

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How Sell More Books – Non-Returnable

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Nov 3, 2020

There are two large markets in which to sell books. One is through bookstores (bricks and clicks) and the other to non-bookstore buyers. While that is correct, there is a better way to define the two opportunities for book sales. One is Business to Consumer (B2C) and the other is Business to Business (B2B). This distinction more accurately reflects the disparity.

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Marketing & Publicity

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Inside Publishing

Twelve Tricks for Amazing Author Websites

Planning For Uncertain Times

Aiming to Please Your Target Reader

How Sell More Books – Non-Returnable

Pages

Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

FAQs about ISBNs

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Do You Have the Write Stuff?