The LAST Word

  Authors are sometimes afraid of video. They don't like being in front of the camera. They don't know what to say. They don't understand why it matters. They don't understand technology or simple actions relating to video. Despite these obstacles, authors should use video marketing for their books. Businesses also should use video marketing. Here are some reasons why. Building a Brand – You have to distinguish your book from so many others on the market. A good way to create a brand for your book is through video. You can hire video marketers or you could do it yourself with YouTube. When you create a YouTube channel and making it look like your books, you start to build your brand. While video is important, you also need to send press releases , use social media and do digital marketing to create a brand. Ranking Higher – YouTube videos rank higher than print content on Google. If you create a channel and post them to your Amazon author page and you...

  I recently met with a potential book client. She asked me about query letters and what she needs to do to get published by a traditional publisher, such as Random House or Simon and Schuster, etc. I answered her honestly. Traditional publishers are difficult to reach. They are picky and get slammed with book proposals. They can't read all of them. Here are some tips for publishing. 1. Traditional Publishers -- They want best-selling authors, celebrities, great stories for fiction and a high market potential for nonfiction. They don't want memoirs, unknown authors and women's literature. These don't sell. Traditional publishers want books they know will sell because of how the book industry works. In retail, companies buy from manufacturers at wholesale and sell. They can't return the items to the manufacturer unless there are defects. In book industry, bookstores are allowed to buy at wholesale and send back whatever doesn't sell back to the publisher. So, l...

  Many people like the colors of autumn. They enjoy the vivid reds, yellows and oranges. Some people also like the purple and black associated with Halloween. I am not one of those people. I don't like fall for two reasons. It means that we are at the end of the year, and the vivid colors means things are dying. I prefer the colors of spring: yellows, light purple, white, pink, light green, etc. They are the colors of new life. However, I do know that things have to die to produce new life. And, you should use this metaphor in your writing. Let it die to bring the work to life again. What do I mean? Continue reading. Characters – Sometimes, characters have to die even if you like them. To move the story and make it flow, you might have to kill a character. In my first novel, The 1776 Scroll of Secrets , no one was killed even the villain. However, in The 1776 Bed and Breakfast , the villains were killed, but I also killed Buck's (the main character) mother. She had...