Amazon now Allows Pre-orders to Authors

Aug 17, 2014 | Marketing, Publishing

A month ago, I published Mad Water, the third book in my epic fantasy series Pearseus. I had announced the imminent publication on social media and to my friends. A lot of them asked me if they could pre-order the book. “I’m afraid Amazon doesn’t...

What Readers Look for when Buying a Book

Aug 9, 2014 | Marketing

Tara Sparling recently wrote a couple of blog posts about  self-publishing; namely, What makes people buy self-published books, and What Puts Readers Off Self-Published Books. I loved them both, and confess to a tiny bit of envy at her excellent material....

Conclusions from Smashword’s Survey: How to Sell your Books

Jul 27, 2014 | Marketing

All my author friends spend sleepless nights agonizing over one question: how can I best promote my books? Well, Smashwords recently attempted to answer that question through a survey examining what works and what doesn’t in terms of ebook sales.  You can read the...

The Best Book Marketing Strategies

Jul 24, 2014 | Marketing

I was following the other day a conversation on the best book marketing strategies on LinkedIn. Authors Trish LeSage and Simon Denman, among others, shared some valuable insight, which I think interests us all. The conclusions of the conversation can be summed up as...

When Science Meets Book Reading

Jul 20, 2014 | Marketing

As you know, I enjoy a long love affair with science.  I particularly like scientific discoveries that have some connection to our everyday life, allowing us to extrapolate into other areas. I recently ran into a post on the Daily Mail describing a clever research by...

What’s the Ideal Length of your Post?

Jul 17, 2014 | Marketing

In other words, how long is long enough? Now, now, my dear readers, please take your mind off the gutter. I’m simply referring to the ideal length of a social media post – any social media post. Abraham Lincoln was asked, “How long should a man’s legs be...

The Week I Challenged Social Media

Jul 4, 2014 | Marketing

Now that the week is over, I will call it “the week when people challenged social media”.  I had a couple of clients who were pretty unimpressed by the response they got in the social media. Their problem was not with my work (thankfully!), but with the...

The Science of the Perfect Blog Post

Jul 2, 2014 | Marketing

MMJaye recently paid me a high compliment, in her usual generous way: she said that I write “perfect blog post titles.” So, today, I’ll share my secrets – just don’t tell anyone. 🙂 Since there is a science about pretty much everything in...

How to Use Psychology to Market your Book

Jun 24, 2014 | Marketing

Fun fact: ever since I was a teenager, I have wanted to study psychology.  Sadly, the education system in Greece meant I became an engineer instead, devouring psychology books in my free time (Jung in particular). Then, I went on to post-graduate studies in the UK....