MSI Press Blog

  It was mid-morning on a slow Saturday, the kind where I sometimes— just sometimes —let the phone ring through instead of letting voicemail do the screening. It was a local number (831-458-2629), and I was waiting for a call from the plumber, so I was not suspicious and answered  A man on the line introduced himself as a Medicare employee. He said my Medicare Advantage card was being replaced by the end of the month. The script was polished, almost believable, and if I had a Medicare Advantage plan, instead of basic Medicare, the flexibility of which I prefer, I might have been deceived a tad longer. But even so, I have a protocol for "official" calls from strangers. Get the person's name, end the call, contact the agency for confirmation, and be routed to the office that would take care of the issue that the call was about. Or, if the call turned out to be a scam, report it. When I requested the caller's name this morning, according to my unknown caller protocol, h...

  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...

    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.  This week, we share feedback about offers that authors, particularly self-published ones, who get offers, particularly via email, but sometimes by phone, text, and, rarely, postal mail for services like re-publication, marketing, promotion, awards, and you name it. Most of it sounds too good to be true, but those offers can be enticing. How do you know if they are legitimate? There are ways -- and all offers should be checked out thoroughly, keeping in mind that a legitimate publisher will rarely contact an author for republication of a book seen on Amazon. They have too many good submissions overwhelming them to seek out others....

  (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. They also provide useful (we hope) information for first-time published authors who perhaps are not getting as much feedback from their traditional publishers as they would like or need. (Some publishers are more proactive in this way than others.) That latter phrase is important. Even published authors can be attacked by scammers, posing as book competitions, book reviewers, and literary agents. This blog post focuses those scammers posing literary agents. To separate the wheat from the chaff, there are some easy means: Literary Agents are listed in the Literary Marketplace ; yes, it is expensive, ...

  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.  This week, we note that many of MSI Press authors receive letters, once their book is published, from all sorts of companies, offering a wide variety of deals: books reviews, book trailers, radio/TV interviews, magazine articles, help with marketing, re-publishing (yes, they do have the temerity to suggest this for a newly published book), and more. Some look fishy; many look good. How do you tell what is a scam? What is phishing? What is a legitimate offer? As At MSI Press, we have knowledge of many of the scams. We run down the legitimacy of offers that our authors forward to us. Authors can do themselves what we do for them, but they...