New Marketing Column Coming!

We're excited to announce that we've got a brand new marketing column starting up next week.  Linda F. Radke of Five Star Publications will be offering her wisdom for producing and marketing the small-press/self-published book.  


Since 1985, veteran publisher Linda F. Radke, owner of Five Star Publications, has been ahead of her game––self-publishing before it was commonplace, partnership publishing before the rest of the world even knew what it was and producing award-winning traditionally and nontraditionally published fiction and nonfiction manuscripts for adults and children.

Radke’s odyssey to becoming one of the nation’s leading consultants in the areas of book production, marketing, publicity and distribution began simply enough with the desire to print a few books to complement the household employment agency she owned. For Radke, who on more than one occasion has been teased about having “printer’s ink in her veins,” the experience of publishing the books was exhilarating, prompting her to change careers and launch Five Star Publications without looking back.

Eventually, Radke added services and acted as a publishing consultant for other self-publishers, ventured into traditional publishing and pioneered partnership publishing to allow her to publish more authors and make them a more integral part of the creative process of publishing.

Among her many accolades, Radke is author of The Economical Guide to Self-Publishing (a Writer's Digest Book Club selection that is now into its second edition) and Promote Like a Pro: Small Budget, Big Show (a Doubleday Executive Program Book Club selection). She is a founding member of the Arizona Book Publishing Association and was named Book Marketer of the Year by Book Publicists of Southern California. 

Linda's column will begin on Monday, November 9th.  Stay tuned for some great advice!

Marketing 101 - Publication Dates

We've been running a weekly column every Monday on marketing, written by Sara Dobie of Sylvan Dell Publishing. As that column has come to an end, we decided there were still plenty of marketing suggestions for our readers so.... introducing Marketing 101. Every Monday we'll offer suggestions to help your book reach its target audience.

As the year nears an end, we've received several books in for review that have a December publication date. We have to ask - why? Why choose December for your book's publication? Is it to get the holiday sales? If so, you're several months too late. Is it simply a matter of "that's when the book will be ready"??? Please consider changing the date to early 2010. December is probably the worst month to release a book. Did you know that bookstores will consider a book with a December 2009 publication date as last year's book? To them, current, immediate, just published is what they want. Unfortunately, most won't look beyond the 2009 date. In January, 2010, just a month after release, your book is viewed as old by so many. Getting attention in the over-crowded book world is hard enough. Don't make it harder by making your book old before its time. Move the publication date to January, or even better, February of 2010. January sales tend to be a bit light because shoppers' wallets are still recovering from the holiday season.

Self-Promotion or Death: PR Tips from Sara Dobie

Follow up. You have to follow up, and you can’t be afraid of being annoying. Don’t get me wrong—sending an email repeatedly, every day, obsessively, like Andy’s library in Shawshank Redemption isn’t the idea. However, here’s how it goes in promotion. Let’s say you want to do an interview on a certain blog, so you send them an email. You don’t hear back. After a week, you should NOT pout and go eat worms. You should send a follow up email, as in, “Hey, wanted to follow up on that email I sent your way last week. Did you have time to consider my interview offer? Keep me posted!” And always include the initial email, pasted beneath your signature as a reminder. If you still don’t hear anything, start posting comments on the blog of interest. Sooner or later, you’re going to get the host’s attention. Then, you’ll get your interview. Success. So the lesson for today: FOLLOW UP!