Jennifer Mattern 
Today marks the first day in a week-long blog series on book marketing plans. In addition to sharing some background on what book marketing plans are all about, I’ll also release a few fun tools and resources to help you create your own. Let’s kick things off with a quick introduction to book marketing plans. … Read more
It’s not enough to simply have an author website. You need to make sure the website you have actually works for you. It has to reach whatever goals you set for it. And if it’s not currently doing that, you should consider making some changes. Not sure if your author website needs work? Conduct a simple website audit to … Read more
For any of my readers who are sick and tired of hearing about the Amazon-Hachette e-book pricing BS, let me start with an apology. I’m sorry for bringing that topic here. I’m sick of it too. I’ve tried to stay out of the issue thus far because most is little more than fodder for linkbait … Read more
While checking my feed reader this morning, I came across this post by Cate Baum at SelfPublishingReview.com: Why Pay for a Book Review? Now I’ve made my feelings about paid book reviews clear here before in: Should Indie Authors Pay for Book Reviews? [Hint: No.] And I went so far as to put my decade-long … Read more
As of today, indie authors can qualify for either active or affiliate member status with the Horror Writers Association (HWA) based on earnings from their self published books. Previously, the only way to earn these member statuses from your books was to work through a traditional publisher. I’m particularly happy about this change for a few … Read more
If you’re an author, you’ve probably heard that you should consider having a blog. Some authors swear by them. Others swear them off as a distraction and waste of time. But the marketing value of blogs is undeniable, and they can be effective promotional tools for both nonfiction and fiction authors. In a future post … Read more
Getting potential readers to visit your author website isn’t enough. You need to convince them to stick around long enough to get a feel for you and your books, and hopefully convince them that they want more. Yet many author websites follow a very boring template. Let’s look at five ways your author website might … Read more
There is a common misconception out there about author platforms. Many fiction authors seem to think that author platforms don’t apply to them. There is this notion that platforms are only relevant to nonfiction authors. But that’s far from the truth. While the fiction author’s platform might be different than their nonfiction counterpart’s, an author … Read more
I hear it all the time. Authors complain that they’re fed up with book promotion. They want to spend their time writing and not marketing their books. In many cases you can cut down on marketing time significantly. All you have to do is stop making some common book marketing mistakes, doing things to help … Read more
Have you considered taking part in a virtual book tour to promote your book or e-book? Have you put it off because you’re worried a virtual publicity tour might take too much time? It’s true. There are a lot of ways these promotional events can waste time. But the biggest waste of time is to … Read more