One morning last week, I woke up with a crushing sense of doubt about the book I’m about to publish. The manuscript was with the editor, and I was starting the book launch phase. The first step is sending the book to people I know and trust for their feedback. This is when fear pushed into […]
Three Myths About Free Trials
Everybody loves a free trial. Customers love free trials because they can test out a solution before buying it or subscribing, reducing their risk. Marketing and sales teams believe they accelerate the sales process. The free trial is a favorite marketing and sales strategy for subscription-based businesses. Yet the free trial is more complex and subtle than either […]
Newbie’s Guide to Sell More Books [Book Review]
A few years back I took a pause from my B2B marketing career to write a book. Then I got hooked on the book thing, and never looked back. Oddly enough, in learning about indie publishing, I forgot everything I knew about marketing. Or it seemed that way. Books Need Marketing – Duh! The B2B […]
How Much Research Should You Do?
How much research should you do? When do you stop? Are you ever really done? Nonfiction authors, workplace writers, and historical fiction writers generally write in their genres because they’re interested in the subject matter. It’s easy to get caught up in the research and never let go. Find your own balance between being diligent about researching and […]
Writing with Authority
How our speech patterns can undermine us when we write at work If you’ve ever had the experience of reading a transcript of yourself speaking in an informal setting, you might be horrified. Few of us speak in grammatically correct sentences. We ramble and leave sentences dangling. Worse, we fill empty space with um, er, you know, and the […]
Three Keys to Writing Copy That Sells More Books
[Update 2020: This is a rare guest post from the wonderful Chris Syme—a woman who shares my combined interests in books and marketing. First published in 2017, the advice is timeless. There is an updated version of her book, which is linked in this article.] Book descriptions, blurbs, social media posts, ad copy. Even though […]