MSI Press Blog

   It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic asks, very simply, what of the standard advice to authors is still viable, given the many changes in the book industry and life in general during and post-covid? Let's look at various pieces of advice that most authors have received from their publishers or from online writing sites. For books to sell, you need a lot of reviews.  Over 100 reviews is the recommended quantity. That is the classic advice. However, we have had hot-selling books that have had nearly no reviews. In those cases, there has been word of mouth "selling," in which influencers have recommended the book, book clubs hav

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses how authors can sell their books. After all, it makes no sense to put all the effort into writing a book, self-publishing it or getting it published, and then having it sit on a shelf for ever, with no opportunity for it to share its message. Unfortunately, many, if not most new authors, in our experience, never think beyond the day their book appears in print (or, in some cases, beyond their first month of book launch activities). They assume that, of course, they did the work of writing the book, and the publisher will do the work of marketing the book. It does not work that way, and marketing

  Have you ever found yourself learning a different way of doing something and then regretting all the inefficient time and effort you spent initially doing things the wrong way? I always feel like that when I'm trying to change a tire or work on a project around the house. How many hours have I lost in my life prior to buying an electric screwdriver? Writing books is just one of the ways that I conduct my outreach to the pornography addiction and betrayal trauma communities. I also coach, but I have a fairly large presence on social media and have appeared on more podcasts talking about these subjects than anybody else in the last five years. I thought I had all of my bases covered. Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram were perfect for hitting the communities I most thought needed my message. Facebook is political opinion I don't want to get into, Snapchat appears like it's mainly to trade naked pictures and TikTok just seemed like my kids' friends acting their age and I do

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic looks at how maximize the promotional value of writing an article related to a published book topic. Writing articles for magazines is a good one to promote a new book. The book provides the credibility for writing the article, and the article, in turn, ends up promoting the book even if the author does not mention the book itself in the article (it is listed in the author's bio). Whether a book is a self-help idea, parenting advice, inspirational, or some other topic, there are at least two ways to use article writing to promote the book: stand-alone (national-level) articles and regionalized articl

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about how to market books inexpensively. If you have big pockets, go for the television, radio, newspaper, and saturation ads. Buy time on radio and television shows. However, most authors do not have deep pockets. So, looking at inexpensive ways to get the word out is not only necessary but sometimes the only way to market a book. This post describes some sources and activities for inexpensive marketing. It is, of course, not complete. Do all these things, then seek out more opportunities, or start again with another virtual blog tour. Things to do (not necessarily in any kind of order) Word of mouth

(photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about book launches. A book launch, planned and carried out well, is a great opportunity to introduce and market your book to a large number of people. So, what are the ways books can be launched? What is the best way to launch a book? What are the benefits and risks of various kinds of book launches? So, let's take each question separately. What are the ways in which you can launch your book? A typical launch for a high-powered author is a tour of bookstore signings; a typical launch for a low-powered author is a book signings at one, perhaps two, local bookstores.  High-powe