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5 Common Book Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020

5 Common Book Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020

Photo: Bill Barber, “1958 Edsel – Lousy Car But Great Planter,” visualhunt.com

  Guest Post by Desiree Villena

Upon finishing work on your book — and I mean finishing everything, from editing to getting a cover design to actually publishing it — your natural instinct may be to sit back and relax. You’ve worked very hard, so at this point you’d just like to watch as readers come pouring in. But…

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LAmericana19

July 4th, 2019 — a block party in the heart of Los Angeles, celebrating Independence Day. It’s probably a duplicate of the block party that took place in your neighborhood today, somewhere in America. However, in case you missed it, here it is again — with all the required 4th of July elements — for you to enjoy, just as though you’d been there!

Flags on Fences:

Balloons and Chips:

Yummy Food:

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Who's Your Book's Audience?

Who’s Your Book’s Audience?

“You Are the Star” Mural in Hollywood (Wilcox Avenue) by Tom Suriya

The population of the world is currently 7.7 billion, give or take. Are they the audience for the book you are writing? (Answer: No) What about the 327 million people who live in the United States? Are they your audience? (Answer: No) What about the 2.32 billion active users on Facebook worldwide. Are they all going to buy your…

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UPDATED FOR 2018! AWARD-WINNING BOOK “THE THERAPIST WRITER” NOW UPDATED FOR 2018 by Sylvia Cary, LMFT DID YOU KNOW…

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Nana's Magic Pen

Nana’s Magic Pen

Definition of Magic: The art of producing illusions by sleight of hand; the use of means (such as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power. . .

          ― Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I’m not a fussy eater, but I am a fussy writer when it comes to pens. A pen has to be just right or it interrupts the creative flow, distracts me, and makes me go scrounging around for another.…

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Keeping up to Date Can Get You Down

Keeping up to Date Can Get You Down

  My book had been out for 5 years, so I started looking for just a few now-dated references and marking them with sticky-notes. I used a whole lot of  sticky-notes!    Photo by Sylvia Cary

Ever bite off more than you could chew? I did that recently. I made the mistake of re-reading my own book, “The Therapist Writer: Helping Mental Health Professionals Get Published,”which I  had indie-published…

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Living in the Blurbs

       8 Ways to Get “Blurbs” for Book Marketing                       Photo by Morguefile

“Blurb” is a great little word, a kind of a nickname for the more official-sounding words like “testimonial,” “acknowledgment,” “endorsement,” “review” or “comment.” A blurb is a snippet of something that somebody says about your book you can use in your book marketing. It can be anything from an eloquent…

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The Declaration of Independence - A Document for Writers and Cats Alike

The Declaration of Independence – A Document for Writers and Cats Alike

My rescue cat, Pearl, reading The Declaration of Independence that was printed in the New York Times today. She is appreciating no longer being in a cage.

JULY 4th, 2017 – The country’s birthday and my blog’s birthday. I started it on July 4th, 2011, and even though I’ve neglected it terribly the last few years, I do always blog on July 4th.  This morning when I picked up my New York Timesfrom…

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Gimme a Fiverr

Book Covers, eBook Formatting, Marketing & More for $5

Self-Publishing Has So Darn Many Parts 

When an author steps into the world of self-publishing for the first time, carrying what they think is a finished product (their book manuscript) under their arm, they are in for a big shock. That finished book they may have spent years writing is only the firstof many parts making up this thing called…

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Writing for Your "Inner Circle" - And Skip the Book Marketing

Writing for Your “Inner Circle” – And Skip the Book Marketing

If you write and publish your own unique thing people will be able to find your book even if you choose to avoid book marketing

How to Get Published and Skip Book Marketing 

Getting a book published is a big job, but the biggest part of it isn’t the writing or even the publishing; it’s the book marketing. For many authors, book marketing is a chore and a drag.  And scary! Put myself out there on…

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The “Amazon” of Ancient Egypt

The “Amazon” of Ancient Egypt

It’s the 4th of July. While the nation is having a birthday, this blog is, also. It’s 5th. My first blog post went up on July 4th 2011 celebrating “writer independence” for self- or “indie-” published authors. I’m still celebrating that 5 years later! DIY publishing has gotten bigger and better!

Now, on to my blog post…

The Library of Alexandria

As someone in the business of books as well as…

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8 "Starter"Book Marketing Tools

8 “Starter”Book Marketing Tools

GUEST BLOG: “The First 8 Things to Do to Start Marketing Your Book”

by Catherine Auman, LMFT, Author of Shortcuts to Mindfulness: 100 Ways to Personal and Spiritual Growth, Publisher – Green Tara Press, www.greentarapress.com 8 “Starter” Books Marketing Ideas

You didn’t know that becoming an author meant becoming a marketer, did you? That’s okay; neither did I. The fact is, you’ll need to…

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Portrait of a Neighborhood Book Signing

Portrait of a Neighborhood Book Signing

Have you ever attended a book signing by a celebrity author at a major bookstore (think Barnes & Noble), the kind where you are required to purchase the book in advance before you can get so much as a glimpse of the man or woman you have come to see? Then you have to wait in a line, sometimes a long line, and when you finally get up to the signing table, the author may be flanked by sharp-eyed…

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My Valentine to the Adirondack Chair

My Valentine to the Adirondack Chair

Love Song to the Adirondack Chair

It’s VALENTINE’S DAY. Roses are nice. Chocolates are yummy. But what really makes my heart sing is the sight of an Adirondack chair.  Wood only, never plastic. They come in all colors, although white is my favorite — memories of Cape Cod summers as a kid and rolling green lawns with white Adirondack chairs plopped down in the middle of them. While I don’t happen…

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"It's Too Nichy"^

“It’s Too Nichy”^

Sylvia Cary, LMFT, received an IRWIN AWARD from the Book Publicists of Southern California (BPSC)  for “Best Niche Campaign” for her book, The Therapist Writer: Helping Mental Health Professionals Get Published (Timberlake Press). The award is named for the group’s founder, Irwin Zucker, and was introduced in 1995 as a way to formally and publicly recognize BPSC members who conduct the best book…

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Getting Self-Published is Actually Doable - A Guest Blogger's Story

Getting Self-Published is Actually Doable – A Guest Blogger’s Story

Compared to the way it used to be, self-publishing today is easy. Just imagine writing a whole book on this little gizmo!          Photo credit: Morguefile.com

The story goes that Mark Twain bought one of the first typewriters ever made and hated it so much he traded it in for a buggy whip.

For those of you who think self-publishing is just too complicated to even consider — and are about to give…

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Field Trip with Nana to The Last Bookstore

Field Trip with Nana to The Last Bookstore

The Last Bookstore. Supercool!  Known as the largest (two floors, vaulted ceiling) independent bookstore in the world. Breathtaking decor; many public events, located in downtown Los Angeles at 453 S.Spring, LA 90013. As it says on their website, “As physical bookstores die out like dinosaurs from the meteoric impact of Amazon and E-books,” The Last Bookstore may end up being just that. There’s a…

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