A Few Tips on Becoming a Real Author

Congratulations!

Maybe you just signed your first book contract. Maybe you self-published a book. Or maybe you’ve even had a book out there for a little while and not much is happening with it. Whatever the case, there are some basic steps you can take to up your chances of getting your book into readers’ hands.

Do you have an author‘s page on GoodReads? Do you have a video trailer? APEX does great work. You can check mine out as an example. And don’t stop with GoodReads. You can get an amazon author’s page, too. Linked-in is great. Try and get yourself on others’ blogs. Do interviews. Offer your book for free maybe for a week with a coupon code on smashwords. Comment on authors’ blogs who have books similar to your own. Mainly just get your name out there as much as you can.

I know I had no idea of the amount of energy I needed to expend on marketing my books AND myself. I started a blog and put up a website where people could buy my books free of shipping. I’ve done radio shows and now feel fairly comfortable with that, especially if the interviewer knows what they’re doing.

You could also look up some good author blogs and newsletters and subscribe. I continually take in new information on how best to get well-known. I have a lot of author friends all over the world through social networking.

That’s about all I can think of for now, but feel free to ask me anything that I can help you with. I love helping new authors.

Happy Writing!

Glowing Praise for Quantum Earth by Jen Knox

Jen Knox, author of the exceptional memoir Musical Chairs, had this to say to me about my debut novel, Quantum Earth:

Julie,

Not to turn this into a sappy love-fest or anything, but speaking of books… I concluded one thing quickly after reading your book: You have got to be one of the most intelligent people I know!

I posted reviews for Quantum Earth, and Deadly Lucidity will be read in a few weeks.  QE: How did you do it?  I’m serious… I mean, you put a lot of information/story into that book.  Talk about not wasting any words!   You want to give a lecture to my creative writing students?  I think teaching writers how to be economical with words is the biggest obstacle I’ve found so far, and you are the queen of creative economy.

DL looks so vastly different, too… I look forward. 

___________________________

Jen Knox

Author of Musical Chairs