I'd be interested to learn what authors/publishers on this network think their biggest challenges are with their book. I wonder if there's any common, pervasive challenge we all face.
The agreement of sale or return for small publishers is the biggest challenge. We promise our authors that we will organise book signings but we usually end up losing money. We send the books out for the events but because they are EVENT stock (and if the author is unknow or their title uninteresting) most books get sent back at our expense. We pay for postage to the store and then have to pay for their returned books postage. We realise book signings are good publicity but unless the books actually sell (often up to what the author does at a signing) we lose out. The authors don't seem to realise (or don't want to) that all the risk is with us because the stores have 150 days to decide if they want to keep the books on their shelves before returning them. It's so difficult to tell if a book is actually sold!
Promotion of my book is my dilema. FINDING HER PERFECT MASTER, is a paranormal romance released by Eternal Press on April7, 2010 as an ebook and print on demand. EP is a small press and I'm extremely grateful to them. However, as with most small presses, they rely on authors to do most of the promotional work.
I work full time for a hospital that blocks social media access within its computer system, so, I cannot promote on blogs and writer's loops from work. It has received great reviews from Coffee Time Romance and Siren Book Reviews. While these reviews have been wonderful, I am not sure where to go to get "big name" reviews and which websites/loops to go to in order to create more traffic for my book which is on Amazon, Fictionwise and Mobi.
The title sounds compelling even though I'm not usually interested in that type of book. Do you have your own website? You can link to Amazon from there and earn an affiliate commission at the same time.
There are companies you can hire to review your book ie Apex Reviews but I haven't used them... yet. Not sure what else to recommend as I'm in a very similar situation.
I'm trying an experiment on my blog where I post author's press releases. It is a chance to get one more listing for your book on the web.
If interested go to Project Savior and leave your press release in the comments
People giving you the benefit of doubt, when you are not yet famous, to pick your book and benefit from the content. My new book POTENT WITHIN, faces that uphill task. The few ones who eventually do come back praising the work and then I wonder why not the whole world!!!
I've just finished my latest YA novel, EPIWORLD, and I wrote it in the first person present tense (there is actually a good reason why). What a nightmare! Past tenses crept in unconsciously, because my character needed to refer to what happened in his past. I found it hard work maintaining the consistency of present tense, and I don't think I'll be using it again.
My second book is just about ready to roll. But I have a question I'm hoping someone can help with. I want to use quotes, five different ones, on the "Part One, Two, etc." Short, sweet and well-known. Do I need written permission even if I give credit to the writer? How do you know if they're in the public domain? Many thanks....