Please join me on blog talk radio tonight from 8.00 to 9.00 EST for a discussion of my book Women For All Seasons. You may log in to
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Black-Author-Network or you can call 646-200-0402. I would be happy if you would come back here and leave a comment. If you wish to purchase a copy of the book, I’m offering it at a discounted price of $12.00 with FREE shipping. Just drop me a line and I’ll tell you how you can get a copy. Hope to see you there.

As promised, here’s the continuation of that great piece by Penny Sansevieri.

3) Don’t fall in love with your own ideas. This is a big one. It’s
great to love your work; in fact, you should love it. You should be passionate
about it. But don’t love it so much that you aren’t open to feedback. Feedback
is critical to any successful book launch campaign. Further, if you aren’t open
to feedback, you might miss some advice that could save your book and you from
spending thousands of dollars pushing something that isn’t quite ready for the
mainstream – or worse, a book that’s missed its mark only slightly. Be open to
feedback and then seek that feedback from professionals you trust and respect. (more…)

If you have been reading my blogs, you know that I’ve been focusing on the marketing efforts for my book Women For All Seasons. However, I must confess that one of the big mistakes I, and I daresay other authors, have made is waiting until the book is published to begin promotion. Actually, as you will see in this article by marketing expert, Penny Sansevieri, you should be thinking about the market for your book before you even write the book. This makes sense, because if you spend months or years crafting what you think might be the perfect book and there is no viable market for it, then all your promotion will be in vain.

When it comes to publishing, there is a certain recipe for success. And while nothing is guaranteed, there are significant activities which must happen in order for your book to have a chance at success. I often speak of promotion, websites, and gathering a social media footprint. Today we’re taking a look at the equally important back-end issues. Now, I can’t guarantee if you follow this that you’ll come out leading the charge with the most perfect book, but you’ll certainly be close. Writers never intentionally write a bad book, or a book that’s not marketable. We do our best, and we often hope for the best. But in a world full of clutter, you have to do more than that. You have to step out to succeed, and you have to learn the ropes of your market and the publishing industry. Here are 11 points for you to consider: (more…)