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In celebration of my son and my upcoming birthdays (we’re two days apart), and to celebrate the April 6th launch of Eddy’s Treasure which we wrote together, I am making my other titles e-books either free or super-cheap ($0.99) over the next couple of weeks. The bonanza commences tomorrow on the 2nd of April when... Continue Reading →
Image from an early promotion When I published Incite Insight roughly three and a half years ago, I said I wanted to sell a thousand copies. I was laughed at, more than once, right to my face. I was naïve about what it took to sell books, especially at that quantity, but that number wasn’t... Continue Reading →
Door-in-Face This technique is the opposite of foot-in-door (see Compliance Techniques). Here you make an extreme request which you think will be turned down (ie door slammed in your face) and then a smaller request (the target). It is based on the idea of reciprocity. The reciprocity principle isn’t only for gift giving, it can... Continue Reading →
My previous post Odd ways to increase your sales seems to have interested a lot of people, so I thought I'd discuss a few more techniques to increase sales. Before I begin discussing compliance techniques, I should point out that they will neither guarantee you a sale, nor convert a firm “no” into a sale. All... Continue Reading →
Everyone knows the traditional places to sell books – ie bookshops or online retailers, and selling them yourself at markets, author talks and amongst your friends. These work and work well, but there are other places you can make handfuls of sales, which add up over time. Small independent shops with high volumes of ‘foot... Continue Reading →
How can you increase the chances of making a sale?Offering a free bookmark or sample chapter is one way to improve your chances of getting someone to buy your book. This works for a simple reason, the law of reciprocity, which is well-known to marketers - the gift of the bookmark (if they take one)... Continue Reading →
Networking is an important skill for an author to utilise and (for the purposes of this post) distinct from social media networking. Networking is hard simply because it's purpose is to achieve more than just "getting your name out there." It's about building relationships and that takes a lot more effort than social media posts.... Continue Reading →
The following is a list of things I've seen authors achieve through their own interpersonal network. (nb: excludes social media which is why i'm not using the phrase social network). Get 5 offers from publishers to read a book that was still being drafted. Get an invitation to speak to a school group. Get a... Continue Reading →
One of my favourite cartoons about writing is of a man being x-rayed to reveal a book in his chest. Part of the caption reads “You’ve got a book in you.” I like this idea - that we all have a book in us, and to an extent it's true, everyone has a tale to... Continue Reading →
When I pitched some books to movie producers at the recent Melbourne International Film Festival, it was really clear they were interested in books with strong female protagonists. If your book only had women as damsels in distress, minor characters or weak characters they weren't interested. I found this fascinating and it made me think... Continue Reading →
Robert New 