The Local, Homegrown, Handcrafted Publishing Model

I visited Williamsburg, Virginia recently for a business conference. I decided to bring my wife along and once the conference was over, we explored the old colonial town of Williamsburg.

It was amazing seeing the shops, taverns, government buildings, and living streets of a colonial town. It really gives perspective to how far along we’ve come.

My two favorite shops were the print shop and the quilt shop. Both of these are two sides of the same coin really. It takes days to complete a book or a blanket, and the words and patterns displayed on each tell unique stories or convey certain beliefs.

CLICK TO SEE HOW THIS TWO SHOPS HELPED ME ENVISION THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING

Is this the future of book publishing?

Book publishing is in a bit of a weird place right now. The internet, much like Gutenberg’s printing press, has put power back in the hands of individuals. The spread of good (and bad) ideas, great stories, entertainment and knowledge has never been so easy.

That being said, there’s also a lot of noise. Finding an audience can be tricky because sometimes the internet feels like a big wide open space that you can shout into without ever being heard.

Click to explore the future of book publishing with me.

 

 

Why Traditional Publishing Will Fail (and what it means for writers)

I saw an interesting job posting on LinkedIn recently. Macmillan Publishing was hiring a Digital Strategist/Product Owner for a “new online self-publishing platform and community.” From the description, it looks like they’re on track to create a competitor to Booktrope.

There’s lots of money to be made after all. Self-publishing is the future because it’s so easy to do. Give authors a community, a platform, and some resources to help with outreach and the technical aspects of online publishing and you’re bound to get a few winners. Take 30% of all book sales with little to no work on your end and boom! you’ve struck gold. It’s worked out for Booktrope so far.

HERE’S WHY TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING WILL FAIL. CLICK TO FIND OUT WHY IT WILL BENEFIT YOU.

Book Marketing Isn’t Easy: 3 Questions For Every Author

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately about book marketing. Authors feel frustrated that they haven’t figured out how to “get the word out” about their books as one reader put it. Many don’t have a whole lot of money to spend on promoting their books and they don’t know how to invest their time wisely.

I’ve worked with a few authors over the past year or so on their book marketing strategies. There are three main questions I always want to find out before we get started. These questions form the basis of how successful an author will be and which direction they need to go to find that success.

Hopefully sharing these questions with you will help provide direction in your own book marketing efforts.

CLICK TO SEE THE 3 QUESTIONS EVERY AUTHOR SHOULD ASK

Social Media Marketing and SEO: Two Sides of the Same Coin

“You’ve got to be on social media,” says every marketer ever.

At this point, that’s a given. Being on social media today might be more important than having your own website. Recently search engines like Google have been ranking content shared on social media sites higherthan content posted on blogs and individual sites.

Search engines tend to favor sites with a lot of traffic and your personal blog can’t reach nearly as many people as Twitter or Facebook.

Take a look at these following examples:

My article, “Book Marketing Isn’t Easy: 3 Questions For Every Author” ranks number 1,2,3, and 5 on Google, but not on my own website. The first result is from Medium, the second and third are from LinkedIn, and the fifth is from Google Plus.

CLICK TO LEARN HOW SEO AND SMM AFFECTS YOU