Category: article writing

How to find the precise book subject that others want to buy

I particularly liked a posting by Rob Carver who suggested that writers simply talk to the ultimate buyers in their market to see what they want to read and buy. (This was part of a very interesting discussion in the Linkedin Group called Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing.) Getting new book [...]

Friday June 14th, 2013 in article selling, article writing, articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche marketing, niche publishing, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, pre-testing, product development, public speaking, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, speaking, webmarketing, writing | No Comments »

Don’t pick a “must-use” title before writing your book

Never start writing a book with some title in mind that you aren’t willing to improve, change, or totally replace. When I taught college journalism, an early assignment was to have the students write a 500-word newspaper feature piece. I’d tell them to write it, then see what they had to put in print, then [...]

Sunday June 9th, 2013 in article writing, articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche publishing, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, product development, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, writing | No Comments »

(#5) Your book needs a description, a price, and your bio

#5 in our “how to publish your own book” series focuses on a description of your book, its price, and your biography to list in your book “open” publishing listing. Since the submission form requires all three items to have your book published free, or almost free, at Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, iPad, CreateSpace, Scribd, and [...]

Monday April 29th, 2013 in article selling, article writing, articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | No Comments »

How to Interview a Famous (or Infamous) Person Abroad

Some years back I was headed to northern South America to write five or six travel articles. I got tickets to/from Manaus, Brazil, on the Amazon River, and planned to divert to Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia, if I had time when I returned. A lot to squeeze into three weeks. I followed the process [...]

Wednesday February 13th, 2013 in article selling, article writing, articles, editing, travel writing, writing | No Comments »

What do you do with a 5,000 to 30,000-word “book”?

Whatever your fame or literary legerdemain, a “book” like that is a size orphan. It’s too big to fit in a magazine, newsletter, or journal and too small for major publishers to even consider. Of course, you can publish it yourself. It may be too short to get a spine as a paperback at CreateSpace [...]

Tuesday January 29th, 2013 in article selling, article writing, articles, e-publishing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, product development, publishing, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | No Comments »

Interviewing famous men at the urinal

Sorry, ladies, but this is one place where male reporters have a leg up, so to speak… Don’t despair. I only interviewed one famous man, or any man, that way once, and that was by chance. But it worked, and since that was all I needed at that moment it let me dance (better said, [...]

Tuesday November 27th, 2012 in article selling, article writing, articles, editing, travel writing, writing | No Comments »

Ebook enhancements, prices, novel distribution, platforms, and more…

Randy Kuckuck spoke at the BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Assn) meeting this past Saturday, Sept. 8. Let me share some of the key points, as I heard them. Randy is a veteran publisher who began as the CFO at BookCrafters, which was one of the industry leaders in short-run book printing—and, years back, my [...]

Tuesday September 11th, 2012 in ancillary publishing, article writing, articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche publishing, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | No Comments »

Four ways to get magazine or newspaper interviews

Over the past 30-years, in my “Writing Travel Articles That Sell” seminar, I’d talk for about 20 minutes about interviewing. The entire process has almost completely changed during that time. First, though, why bother to interview at all? Who really cares? The editors who will hopefully buy your article (even book) care a lot. It’s [...]

Friday August 24th, 2012 in article selling, article writing, articles, e-publishing, editing, newsletter writing, niche marketing, publishing, writing | No Comments »

What do you do first to deduct your travel-writing trips?

Two premises: (1) you want to write and sell something about a coming trip, and (2) you want to be able to keep all of the money you earn, or at least increase your IRS tax deduction as much as you can. Good thinking—and totally legal. You are supposed to take every deduction allowed. More [...]

Monday August 20th, 2012 in article selling, article writing, articles, editing, newsletter writing, publishing, travel writing, writing | No Comments »

Resell your article again and again? Here’s the needed tool.

If you’ve had a good article in print, why not sell it again and again? To do that you need a cover letter to send to the second editor. These are full-page letters sent to editors who buy reprints (same as second rights)—usually editors who pay on publication. If you sold first rights to the [...]

Tuesday August 7th, 2012 in article selling, article writing, articles, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, newsletter writing, publishing, travel writing, writing | 1 Comment »