Dear O'Abby: Do my previous sales matter?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm querying again...  Long story so I won't bore you.  What I need to know is, do I need to let the agents I'm querying know that I have been published before?  Both self-published and traditionally.  None of my books have had what you would call significant sales and my new book is in a different genre and I have written them under a pseudonym.

Do I need to tell agents about the lackluster sales performance of previous books?

Best,

No-sale

Dear No-sale,

This is not an enviable position to be in.  Agents and publishers are always interested in previous sales figures and will research this.  Using a pseudonym for your new books is a good idea, but at some stage you will need to reveal your real name to the people who are representing you and that is not the time for your poor sales record to be revealed.

I don't think you need to include your previously published work in your query letter, but it is something you need to reveal to any prospective agent when you are having "the call".   It is something that will influence their decision-making and you need to be upfront about it before you get to the stage of signing an agent contract.  Dishonesty is never the best policy.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here.  Any agent considering representing you will look at your previous sales figures regardless of whether they are for the same genre or not.  And poor sales figures do influence agent decisions.  Remember that agents only get paid when you do, so they need to know that whatever you send them is something they can sell.  And if you have a history of books that don't sell, it's not great for you.

My advice is to be upfront about your previous sales once you have agent interest.  If an agent loves your new work enough, and sees its potential, they will find ways to get around your previous record.  Using a pseudonym is a good idea as it will keep your older work at a distance for a while.

I hope this helps!

Good luck with the querying.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby, What do I do if my book doesn't sell?

 Dear O'Abby,

My debut novel was published over three months ago, and it really hasn't sold well at all.  I got my first royalty report and it was... well, let's just say it was embarrassing.  I'd planned to splurge on a new dress or pair of shoes with that first cheque, but I ended up celebrating  commiserating with a bottle of off-brand domestic champagne that I bought on special because it was past its best-by date.

What do I do now?  I was so certain it would sell at least a few copies.  I'm realistic enough to know I wouldn't do Stephen King or John Grisham numbers, but this is devastating.

Do you have any advice?

Yours,

Dejected.

Dear Dejected,

All may not be as gloomy as it might seem.  I don't know if you self-published or were published traditionally, but if you just received your first royalty report, it may not include all the sales for your book.  It sometimes takes a while for sales made by third-party retailers to be collated and reported, and you will find these sales will show up in your next royalty report.  I had the same devastating shock when I received my first ever royalty report from my publisher.  Especially since the book had been a best-seller in its category the first weekend it went on sale.

But it could also be that your book really hasn't sold well.  I read somewhere recently that most books published sell 250 copies or fewer.  So at least you're not alone with your miserable royalty report.

As for what to do next, my suggestion would be not to give up.  If you believe in the book, if you're certain it's good and worth the price it's being sold at, keep pushing it.  It doesn't stop being worth selling just because it's not a new release anymore. And don't stop writing either.  Sometimes it takes more than one book to make your mark. 

Maybe your marketing wasn't right.  Take a look at what you did and see if there is more you can do without spending a small fortune.  Remember the idea is to make money and if you spend more on advertising than you earn, you're not making anything.

 If you self-published, take a look at your cover and blurb.  Do they do the book justice?  Are they eye-catching?  Intriguing? A book can sometimes get a whole new life just from a change in cover art or a new, tighter description.

On social media do you just talk about your book?  Or do you engage with people about all sorts of things?  You are not your book and the more you engage with people and let your personality shine through, the more likely people are to be interested in reading your work.  My suggestion would be to only pimp your book occasionally on social media, maybe if it's on sale, or if a particularly good review comes through.  Otherwise, stick to talking and sharing other things.  Engage with people in a genuine way.

Have you had any reviews for the book?  If they're good, use them as marketing material to help push the word out that this is a book worth reading.  If they're not good, look at what the reviewers have said and see if you can use anything they said to your advantage.  I'm not saying to re-write the book based on a couple of reviews, but if a reviewer mentioned poor editing or continuity, if you're a self-publisher, you should be able to fix that.

Reviews are important, so if you didn't reach out to reviewers pre-publication, it's not too late.  You can still get reviews and they will still be valuable.

Just remember that books don't disappear.  The right person might find it in two years' time and sing its praises to the rooftop, sending it skyrocketing to the top of the best-seller list.  Or it might be your next book that really connects with readers, and that will send them searching for anything else you might have written.

Writing and publishing is a long game. It may take years and several books to reach the level of sales you dreamed of.  You might never get to that level of sales. But you're still a published author and you should be proud of that, regardless of if you sell five books or five million.

Hope that helps!

Dear O'Abby - How Much is Too Much?

Dear O'Abby, 

I have a friend who 90 to 95% of her posts are sale ads for her books.

Every other author and website I see suggests a max of 30% ads for your books, but mostly staying engaged with others and posting engaging content.

The thing is, my friend does actually earn a few grand a month in book sales.

So I'm curious as to who is right? Is filling Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest almost entirely with ads for your books really the way to go?

Yours,

Bemused

Dear Bemused,

This is a good question.  I would tend to agree with you that having over 90% of your social media devoted to advertising is too much.  But then you mention that your author friend's books sell well enough for her to earn a few grand a month from the sales.

From that we have to assume that she's doing something right.  

The most important thing to remember is the reasons why people use social media - to be entertained, educated, informed and to feel heard and connected.  Most people don't use social media to be sold things.  They tend to scroll past anything that looks like an ad - I know I do!

Clever social media users manage to make the majority of their ads look like something else. They aren't screams for attention saying "buy my book".  At least, not all their posts.  No, smart social media users engage with their followers in a variety of ways.  They are in conversation with their followers on a variety of topics depending on what their interests and expertise might be.  And it's very possible to slip a reference to that upcoming book release into that conversation.

While you do want people to recognize your book cover if they come across it, splashing it continually across your social media feeds is not necessarily the best way to boost sales.  Images are important, but people are more likely to scroll past posts which feature your book cover prominently while they may pause if the image is something cute, topical or plain striking. 

Remember that it's called social media for a reason - because it's social.  That means you need to socialize with your followers.  Let them get to know you.  That doesn't mean you have to share everything about yourself, warts and all, but be genuine.  Share as much as you're comfortable with and no more, but make sure what you share feels authentic.  

And finally, there's the connection part.  People who feel included are more likely to engage with your content so bring them in.  Ask questions and respond to people who answer them.  Get to know your followers so you can make sure you post more of the content they like.  The more they like you, the more likely it is that they will buy your books.

Not sure if that really answers your question, but without knowing a little more about your friend and what she writes and how she advertises, it's a little difficult to know whether she's doing too much or not. If you want to get more specific, email O'Abby at operationawesome6@gmail.com and we can take a closer look.

Just to add something else to this in light of everything going on this week.  Whenever you are advertising, be sensitive to what is happening in the world and if something huge blows up, pull your ads until things settle down.  You don't want to look tone-deaf or insensitive.  That's no way to build a following.

X

O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: How do I get more reviews?

Dear O’Abby,

I’m a published author with four books released, but sales are slow and despite working really hard to get reviews on Amazon – which I have been led to believe are the key to good sales – they are really hard to get. The reviews I’ve had have been good, mainly 3-5 stars, but there just aren’t enough of them to have much impact. Do you have any advice on how to get more reviews and therefore more sales?

Best wishes,

Reviewless

Dear Reviewless,

Getting reviews is hard, I know. For my last book, I wrote over 100 emails to book bloggers, sent out numerous review copies, and still only received a handful of reviews in return. It’s a little soul destroying, particularly when you’d rather be working on your next book instead of pumping out email after email with little return.

There are services that offer to help find reviewers for you, but be careful of these and do your due diligence before dropping any cash. It is against Amazon’s rules for you to pay for reviews and some of these services are pay-to-play and you may end up spending a lot of money for reviews that Amazon will remove right after they’re posted. This includes offering any kind of gift or incentive in exchange for reviews, even offering a review to another author in return.

Personally, I have used two different review-finding services, one of which was excellent value for money, the other, less expensive, but also less effective. Predictably, the next time I wanted to use the excellent service, they were booked up over a year in advance, so were not available at the time my book was being released.

There are also a number of free sites where you can offer your book for reviewers. I have had zero success with any of these, but they’re free, so even if they don’t generate any reviews, at least it’s not costing me anything other than the time to fill in the online form.

I have read that targeting the top Amazon reviewers who review similar books to your own is an effective way to generate reviews, but have not tried this myself. I had a look, but so few of the top reviewers had contact information available, it felt like something that would be more time consuming that it was worth. If anyone has tried this, I would be interested to know if it paid off…

Another thing I’ve heard about is adding a page at the end of your book urging readers to leave a review if they enjoyed the book. I’m not self-pubbed, so can’t do this, but if you are, this could be something that helps remind readers to leave a review.

You should also remind your fans to do so. If you have a mailing list (and you should), you will send out regular newsletters to people who have signed up because they already like your work. These people are your strongest allies and it’s important you use them effectively. Offering free review copies to these people is not effective because as your fans, they are likely to buy your new book anyway. But they are the people who will talk about your book and raise awareness of it. Use them to create advance buzz and be your street team in letting people know your book is coming, and that you’re looking for reviewers.

Keep track of who reviews your latest book so you can reach out to them again for your next one. Some reviewers state in their guidelines they are not open to reviewing unless they’ve worked with an author previously, so these relationships are important. So are the relationships you build with other writers. You can ask your beta readers and critique partners to review your book when it is finally published. You can ask your editor and copy editor. You can ask your cover designer.

Long story short, getting reviews is hard. It’s time consuming and there are really no short cuts. You just have to do the work, reach out to as many people as possible, and nurture the relationships you build this way.

If any of our blog readers have come across any great way to get more reviews, please post them in the comments.

Hope this is helpful, and good luck!

X O’Abby

Why the Standard “Author Platform” Doesn’t Work

Welcome back to guest blogger, A.P. Fuchs. He's spent well over a decade in the business and has seen many trends come and go. Thanks for sharing with all the readers at Operation Awesome!

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All right, let’s talk straight. Specifically, let’s talk author platforms. You’ve read the articles. You’ve been told how important they are. You’ve been given a list of what to include. Heck, you’ve even taken all that information to heart and acted upon it.

And the book sales aren’t happening.

So you keep at it, hoping one day it’ll all pay off. Day in and day out you bust your tail on social media and the Web only to keep missing your goal sales-wise. Or, perhaps, you hit it some months and others you wonder what it’s all for. Frustration sets in and you don’t know what’s going on. You did what Author A said. You got your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your blog, your Instagram and all the others—yet still you’re just another author voice shouting into the storm.

Here’s the issue: you’re following someone else’s advice. Worse, you’re following it to the letter and in the game of publishing, following the author platform advice to a T is a death sentence.

This is why:

▪ Publishing is a giant crapshoot. There is no sure-fire way to do anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or trying to sell you something. While true there are basics and groundwork you can lay, that’s all those things are. Yes, your standard author platform recipe should be part of your game plan. That’s no different than saying you want to sell your book but you know you can’t sell your manuscript as is. You need to make it pretty and put it between two covers before you can do so. That’s a given. The basics.

▪ The standard author platform isn’t working for you is because you aren’t making it yours. You’re making it like someone else’s or, simply, following the basic recipe without adding the personal tender loving touch that makes your cookies taste better than the other guy’s.

This is how to fix the issue, written step-by-step, but don’t treat it like an instruction manual. Customization, you know?

Step one:

Lay down the standard recipe. All good baking has a fairly consistent base across the board. Have your Facebook page, your Twitter, blog, Instagram and all that. Customize each page and make it about you and your books then commit to a Web plan where you’re active on each on a regular basis.

Step two:

Start adding the TLC. Don’t make your Facebook page like Joe Famous’s. Make it like yours.

I hate the word “brand” when it comes to this author stuff. It turns us into a product and, frankly, art is never about product. It can become a product, but should never be a product. See the difference? This world is sickly loaded with consumerism and people pushing products non-stop twenty-four hours a day. Most of us have tuned out the racket. But what draws us and captures our attention? Unique items and unique people. This so-called “brand” you’re supposed to become? How about voice? After all, your voice is what makes your art what it is to begin with. Why turn that off when sharing it with people?

So . . .

Format and design your pages to reflect you and your books. Don’t be all authorish. Don’t be all bookish. Don’t make people feel like they’re in a stuffy library when they visit you on the Web. In other words, don’t be so professional you come off as cold. Cold people suck.

Into baking or crafts? Build that into your page designs and content.

Into superheroes and comics? Put up some indie superhero character art as part of your banner and pictures.

Into sci-fi and tech? Give your page(s) a mechanical flare and make the electro-junkies squee on the inside when they visit you.

Into horror? Spook it up, man.

Get the idea?

Step three:

With your on-line base of operations already established, leave it alone for a bit and start playing around with other marketing ideas.

Some items . . .

▪ Set up book signings. Table at conventions. Hook up with some craft shows and flea markets. Arrange a book tour, say, local at first then, depending on success, look at traveling out-of-province/state, even country.

▪ Set yourself up as a unique property at these events. Don’t just have a plain table. Add some posters and signage. Add some props. Display your books in a pyramid-like tower. Stand out. Fool around. Don’t be the lonely author who sits there with a handful of books laid out boring and flat in front of them, longingly gazing at the passersby, your eyes pleading, “Please come talk to me. Please come buy my book.” I mean, you took all this time to personalize your on-line presence, why wouldn’t you do the same for your off-line one?

▪ Casually bring up you’re an author into everyday conversations. You can subtly work your pitch into whatever you’re talking about with someone—choose appropriately, of course—and at a bare minimum leave them with a business card. But have books on-hand or in your car in case a sale is to be made. Trust me, it happens.

▪ Go to open mic nights and share story excerpts or poetry. This is your chance to pimp your work, network and perhaps get hired for new projects.

▪ Do workshops.

And a thousand other things. These examples are to make this point: lay your groundwork—that author platform—then play around with other marketing avenues. You’ll be surprised what works. You’ll also be surprised at what doesn’t because what works for Author A doesn’t always work for Author B.

Book marketing is all about customization. It’s about finding what works for you and putting energy into those things while discarding the things that don’t after you’ve given them a fair chance (i.e. six months to a year or something). And you know what? Even that thing you did that didn’t work for your first novel might be the goldmine that works for your second one. Each book is different. Even each book in a series is different.

Authors want the easy way out. “I just want to write,” they say. Well, if that were really true, you wouldn’t be publishing as well, right?

Or they want to be told what to do: that standard author platform recipe. Come on. How can you be so creative in fiction then totally useless outside of it? Don’t you know your life is a story and so is your book career? That creative flare that you put on the page can be used off of it, too. Stop thinking inside of your book and start thinking outside of it.

After this article is drafted, my plan for the day is to revisit my platform, one that I’ve already customized to me over the years—self-publishing since 2004—and take inventory on what’s working and what isn’t. I’m going to make some changes and try new things. Going to add my own TLC instead of relying on the standard Author Platform recipe.

I’m eager to see how these cookies turn out. I already know my zombie chocolate chip ones are dead ringers for a win and my Axiom-man cookies are super.

Screw the standard author platform. It’s boring and useless. But your own? The one with your personal touch?

That’s something special.

Get to it.

About the Author: An independent writer and cartoonist, A.P. Fuchs has been part of the underground publishing scene for twelve years. He is the author of more than forty books, loads of comics, short stories and poetry, and has a weekly newsletter called The Canister X Transmission, in which he currently discusses publishing and marketing tips, past work, indie creator spotlights and whatever’s on his mind that week. Heck, he’s so passionate about writing and publishing he even wrote several books on the subject, one a collection of the first year of his weekly newsletter, another called Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. Plus a few others. Sign up for his newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs and get a free thriller e-novelette out of the deal, and be sure to visit him on-line at his main hub at www.canisterx.com

Why You Should Stop Selling Your Book (and Do Something Better)

Now, repeat after me: selling your book is bad.

Very bad.

“Wait . . . what?” you say. “If I don’t sell my book, who’s going to read it? Isn’t selling my book and making money what authors are supposed to do after publication?”

I don’t know. Is it?

If you want to ensure your book won’t sell, sell your book.

Here’s what I mean:

The on-line world is loaded with authors whining and begging people to, “Buy my book!” They form groups on Facebook, which amount to nothing more than broke writers marketing their books to other broke writers. They tweet purchase links all day and hit up social networks with ads . . . then cry at night because it did absolutely nothing for them.

How do you get a following these days with everyone and their dog writing a book, publishing it and calling themselves an author?

Or how does someone who starts from scratch come out of nowhere and move copies of their work without shoving it in people’s faces? (And we’ve all seen them: those authors whom we’ve never heard of move a gazillion copies.)

To build a following, marketing your book will get you nowhere. Sure, you might catch a few sales and feel like a success story all your own—and rightly you should, to be honest—but to keep those sales going and to build a readership, you need to switch up your game plan.

You need to start marketing yourself.

Some people call this branding. What are we? Cattle? I don’t want a brand for my books. I don’t want my books to be what I’m known for. I want me to be what I’m known for. When I’m dead and gone, that’s the thing that matters, not how many books I sold.

Stop chasing the almighty dollar and start chasing the reader.

You don’t want to be known as that distant author behind a desk somewhere. You don’t want to be that high-and-lofty literary guest at some convention. You want to be that down-to-earth extra awesome person who’s a familiar face at shows and signings. You want to be that friendly and approachable on-line personality who’s a class act and is genuinely interested in interacting with their readers.

“But all I want to do is write!”

Then get out of the business, frankly. Or, if you must write, then don’t publish. As much as I’m an art-first-money-later guy, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to make a few bucks off what I do. The motivation to make cash isn’t to be rich, though. I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to make enough to live on. But I can’t do that selling my book. I have to sell me.

Let me break it down for you in really simple terms:

When you first started writing, you went through a lot of trial and error and a lot of drafts. As you wrote a few books, you noticed your style started changing and at one point you reached that magical book where everything was different and you found your voice. Since then, your voice has been your style. Writing is easier, editing is easier, coming up with stories is easier, too.

This applies to your marketing efforts. You need to find your voice. You can’t just be another author spamming the world. There are ads everywhere for everything. People ignore that stuff. But they don’t tune out unique voices . . . especially if that voice has something of value to say. This is how followings are made and grown. You become known as the author “who’s like that.” Not the author “who’s like so-and-so . . . and a million others.”

I’ve been publishing since 2003, and indie publishing since 2004. I’ve seen it all. People have come and gone. There’s been successes and failures. Ups and downs. Yet there is one thing that has remained consistent throughout all of it: the authors who found their marketing voice are the ones who are still doing well today, who have a following, and have cultivated loyal readers based on who they are and not just their work.

To be clear, I’m not diminishing the importance of putting out good books. Sometimes that can indeed be enough to build a readership (i.e. it initiates word-of-mouth, etc.). But if you’re an author lost to the din of the flooded publishing world, writing a damn good book is probably not going to cut it. You need to get yourself out there and expose yourself to readers by showing them who you are behind the page.

Some writers niche themselves and become known for a certain thing or a certain personality. Others are more broad-brush. Whatever the case, simply blasting ads everywhere isn’t going to do anything for you. But if you meet people, whether on-line or off-, and not just use it as a means to pitch them your book, you’ll be surprised at how many copies you’ll move.

Put the people first, your book/comic/whatever second. This is so important. This about reputation and, at least for me, I never, ever buy books from people who blatantly shove it in my face. I don’t care how good the cover is or what the synopsis is about. As a reader, I want to be cared for. I want to know this isn’t just a money game to the writer.

Art first, book(s) second.

And if you’ve somehow missed the point of everything above, all I’m saying is be yourself, share yourself, then share info about your book after that.

Connect with readers first, then point them to the page.

We good?

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About the Author: An independent writer and cartoonist, A.P. Fuchs has been part of the underground publishing scene for twelve years. He is the author of more than forty books, loads of comics, short stories and poetry, and has a weekly newsletter called The Canister X Transmission, in which he currently discusses publishing and marketing tips, past work, indie creator spotlights and whatever’s on his mind that week. Heck, he’s so passionate about writing and publishing he even wrote several books on the subject, one a collection of the first year of his weekly newsletter, another called Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. Plus a few others. Sign up for his newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs and get a free thriller e-novelette out of the deal, and be sure to visit him on-line at his main hub at www.canisterx.com

Are Brick and Mortar Bookstores All They're Cracked Up to Be?

One major goal every author seems to have is getting their books into bookstores. It seems like the holy grail of book sales, but are brick and mortar bookstores all they’re cracked up to be? Will readers walk into bookstores in droves and pull our books from the shelves? If we finally manage to get bookstores to stock our books, will it translate into sales?

My family loves going to the bookstore. My kids could spend hours browsing and looking through their favorite series. As a writer, I longed to one day see my books on those shelves. Well, now they’re there. I can go visit my book baby at a number of local bookstores. Dream come true, right?

Maybe not.

Notice where people tend to shop in those bookstores. They peruse bestseller tables and end caps that feature popular titles, but they tend not to sift through the hundreds of books, spine out, littering the shelves. If you’re a mid-list author, with a small publisher, or self-published, you will likely never end up on the bestseller table because real estate on tables and end caps is purchased. Publishers pay bookstores for their titles to appear in these coveted spots. Unless you can ante up, your book will be relegated to the shelves of obscurity.

So, unless someone walks in the door in search of your book, they likely won’t buy it, which also means your time on those shelves is limited. No sales, means no new orders and, in fact, can mean the return of unsold merchandise.

All my bookstore sales have resulted from signings, launches, or people walking into the store asking for my title as a result of my or my publisher’s marketing efforts. I’ve seen sales spikes after radio interviews and newspaper interviews. My bookstore sales as a result of Enslavement sitting on a shelf and just happening to get noticed have been next to zero.

I have to reach people before they set foot in the bookstore.

So, while I like seeing my book inside bookstores, its presence is not a goal in and of itself. My goal is the sale of that book, so that retailers want to continue to carry it. My focus has shifted from getting my book into stores, to introducing it to readers because if they want it, they’ll find it.

What are your thoughts on brick and mortar bookstores?

* * * * * * * * * * 

Melinda Friesen writes short stories and novels for teens.

Convention Basics: Five Tips to Make Your Book Stand Out

Please welcome today's guest blogger, author A.P. Fuchs who has some great tips for making your book and you stand out at conventions.

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With so many writers these days focusing all their marketing efforts on-line, they’re putting themselves in a corner and limiting their exposure. Off-line sales are where the bread and butter is at if you play your cards right.

I’m talking conventions, which are basically glorified book signings.

Since 2007, I’ve been tabling at Central Canada Comic Con here in Winnipeg, a giant comic book convention. This show is also a big part of my paycheck, and my books fit right in because I write nerdy stuff like monster stories, superhero fiction and sci-fi.

A lot has been learned about having a successful show over the years. Here are some basics to get you started:

1. Display 

Have an eye-catching display. When competing against so many other booths and tables, you need to stand out. Bring a tablecloth because not all shows provide them. Use signage, big ones, like 11”x17” set up on stands so folks catch sight of your book’s cover or what the deal of the day is. Want to really stand out? Get a big banner printed up, one you can put behind you. This can display your name and what you do. It can feature your book covers, a web address. Lots of options.

By all means, lay your books flat if you want, but if you prop them up on book stands, all the better. It raises them above the table and draws the eye. Simple picture frame stands work fine. I use iPad ones because they compact better for transport.

Have a series? Lay them out in order of reading.

Write in multiple genres? Organize them as such on the table. Makes it easier to direct the customer to what’s what.

2. Pricing 

Big sales point. Offer convention-only pricing. I do ten dollars a novel, five bucks a novella. I make sure the customer knows the convention is the only place to get the deal. Get my stuff at a store or on-line and you’ll pay more. Everyone likes saving money.

You can also bundle your books. Have a series? Instead of three books at ten beans each, how about three for twenty-five? You can also do a buy-two-get-one-free thing. Whatever works for you provided you come out in the black all things considered.

3.  Book Stock

Better to bring more books than necessary. Nothing worse than selling out and having someone want something. With time and experience, you’ll learn your top sellers and will stock up accordingly. For a first-time show, I recommend at least fifteen copies of each title. If you only have one book out, bring at least twenty.

4. Miscellaneous Items

Scatter bookmarks and business cards around your table. If someone doesn’t buy something, at least you can send them off with a card for a potential after sale.

5. You

Be courteous, be nice, give the customer the time of day. Don’t be a fake. Answer their questions honestly. Be active. Don’t squirrel yourself away behind your table. Say hi to people as they walk past. Smile. And, please, don’t do the lonely-author thing where you sit there staring at folks, the look in your eyes saying, “Please come talk to me.” Just be cool. Relax. With time and experience, you’ll find what works for you in your personable approach. Ultimately, be yourself. This isn’t a show.

There’s so much to expand on regarding the above, but space doesn’t allow it. Why not sound off in the comments below and exchange tips and tricks with your fellow authors? I’ll tune in when I can and do the same.

About the author: 

A.P. Fuchs is the author of around thirty-five books, a plethora of short stories and comics, and has a thing for a certain ferment hops-based drink. His weekly newsletter, The Canister X Transmission, goes out Saturdays and is all about writing, publishing, marketing and book stuff. You get a free novelette upon signup at http://www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs His main website is www.canisterx.com