How to Blog for Other Websites: Simple Steps to Guest Blogging, Including Sample Pitch

Blogging for other websites allows you to reach a whole new audience, gain exposure, build credibility, and potentially drive traffic back to your site. Here’s how to become a guest blogger: 1. Locate sites you want to write for. The first step is to find appropriate sites, and that means sites that reach your target […]

How to Sell Your Book to Colleges for Use in Courses

One of the many benefits of writing nonfiction is that we can educate our readers. Whether we do that with a how-to guide, a memoir, history, science, or other kind of reference book, many well-written nonfiction books have the potential to be adopted into curriculum for college courses. Getting colleges to adopt my books as […]

Understanding Publishing Contracts

If a publisher offers you a contract, get ready for your head to spin. These contracts can vary greatly in what they offer and what they expect from the author. In general, a contract will outline the following: Payment Terms A book advance fee ranging from $2500-$10,000 is most typical for first time authors without […]

How to Tap into the Marketing Power of Street Teams, Super Fans and Micro-Influencers

Guest post by Penny Sansevieri Did you know that 95% of books are sold via personal recommendation? There is no doubt that the biggest source of sales for just about any type of product is personal recommendations. Remember the last time you heard a friend tell you that XYZ was an awesome product, or book […]

How to Write an Effective Author Bio

As an author, there will be many situations where you will need to contribute your bio for promotional purposes. Your bio is often needed on your website in the “About” page and the “Media/Press” page, the back cover of your book, the last page of your book, at the end of articles or blog posts […]

8 Tips for a Marketable Nonfiction Book Proposal by Melanie Votaw

Over the years, I’ve met many first-time authors who underestimate the difficulty of writing a successful nonfiction book proposal. Writers often lack the marketing skills that proposals require, and they fail to realize one important fact: A book proposal is a business plan for their book. If you remember that and also keep these tips […]