MSI Press Blog

  It is Tuesday. 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 mailing lists. Wait! You mean that authors need mailing lists? You bet they do! Nowadays, a great many readers expect direct interaction with authors -- not with publishers. And the best way for an author to establish and maintain this relationship is through a newsletter and through targeted mailings, one of the best ways to promote and sell your back. Those require mailing lists, which are a  must for all serious authors.  So, where can you get mailing lists?  Build your own. This is the best way – most economical, most effective, longest-lasting. ·         If you have a website or blog, it is easy to build your m

  It is Tuesday. 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 marketing, but rather than advice, it provides a link to free guidance from Dr. Judith Briles, the Book Shepherd. Check it out, and if it works for you, do it, follow it, and/or follow the shepherd. Are YOU  Ready  to Create Your  Book Marketing Success Plan? Bottom line: Good marketing requires plans. Good plans often require learning and guidance. Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Look for help wherever you can get it. Authors are generally not marketers, so guidance, even if free (or especially if free), can be invaluable.  Read more posts about publishing  HERE . The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions bet

It is Tuesday. 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 the role of advertising in marketing -- and how it is changing (or has changed). Is it cost-effective? Should you include it in your marketing efforts? Read on. Current facts about advertising: 1.       The cost of advertising has gone up (along with the cost of printing, shipping, etc.), but retail prices have not gone up a parallel amount, so it is a bigger stretch to get good return on investment. 2.       Readers seem to be reading less print media, and some print advertisers have turned to e-blasts instead of print mail and to online sales sites instead of catalogues.  3.       More and more, readers can—and want

It is Tuesday. 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 factors that lead to book success (or note). Factos include pre-publication efforts and post-publication efforts. From the time you decide to write a book, factors that pre-date publication are as important as those that post-date publication--and unlike what all too many authors expect, factors that post-date publication are critical. Pre-publication: Writing is the easy part; revising is the hard part. Some authors think that once the last word is on paper, they are done. In reality, the last word is just the beginning of producing the manuscript that will become the book. Revision includes reviewing the concepts--i

  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 blogging as a form of marketing. Specifically, how to keep posts relevant and how to build audience, which, of course, go hand in glove. Here are some thoughts on the topic: Find a nexus between your book and a current event: Check out new health findings. Our Cancer Diary posts, for example, report on the latest cancer research in addition to our regular posts. The research can be considered a current event. If, for example, you have a book about aging, perhaps some new information on that topic has appeared in the news, or new discoveries about child development if you have a book on parenting, and

  What do politicians and authors have in common? They each have to reach zillions of people and get them to want their product (the politician himself/herself together with an ideology and the author a book). Here is an interesting insight from a long-term, experienced political pundit, Thom Harmann, that popped up in the scores of articles on the US 2022 midterms, this one from Raw Story , October 25, 2022. It applies to authors just as much as it does to the politicians for which it was written. "While creativity and 'production values' in advertising are important, they’re both subordinate to frequency when it comes to producing results. Even a poorly crafted message for a mediocre product will convince people to act the way you want them to if it’s repeated frequently enough." He goes on to cite supporting evidence accumulated over the past 12 years since the Supreme Court opened the door to dark money and unlimited spending. All the statistics point to his concl

  1.       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 takes a detour from the usual format of this column in order to share an experience as a warning to other publishers and to authors -- a great get-rich scheme for the company doing the offering and stay-poor scheme for authors, presented as a collaboration. I almost got trapped by this one and there are some takeaways I have learned (and should have known) that could be warning bells for others.   Months ago, I was contacted by ORIM, a legitimate company, offering to collaborate on marketing of some of our e-books. It was a very fair offer: we would put up the e-books, ORIM would market them on

  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 contracts -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I will answer these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing content. So far in this series, we have looked at paragraphs 1-7. Now we will look at paragrahs XX. At this point, it is important to know that all contracts differ, sometimes even those from the same publishing house, and numbers are not going to match. However, all contracts should have essen