Writers' Forum - January 2023
Top 10 Publishing Trends 2023
Best Book Marketing Articles 2022
Goals for the New Year: Ideas and Advice from 52 Authors
Self-Publishing News: Amazon, Audio, and AI – was 2022 a Triple A Year for Indies?
FEATURED ARTICLES
Top 10 Publishing Trends 2023
Clayton Noblit for Written Word Media gives us this list of top publishing trends for 2023. The first four are AI (artificial intelligence related). Clearly, this is going to be a big topic for 2023. Other trends include indie author marketing focus as well as advertising/sales strategies. These are wonderful and in-depth resources!
Best Book Marketing Articles 2022
Sandra Beckwith shares here the top ten 2022 marketing articles from her Build Book Buzz website. She’s a trusted resource who I often feature here in the Forum. Check out these articles to see if you’ve missed some key advice that can help you in 2023.
Goals for the New Year: Ideas and Advice from 52 Authors
AJ Jack brings us this wonderful resource from 52 authors who are offering up ideas and advice for the new year. Super resource – bookmark this if you don’t have time to read it right now.
Self-Publishing News: Amazon, Audio, and AI – was 2022 a Triple A Year for Indies?
The Alliance for Independent Authors offers up this review of 2022’s publishing industry news . . . also worth a read as an excellent recap of the biggest changes in publishing in the past 12 months. Read it here:
How Barnes & Noble Transformed its Brand from Corporate Bully to Lovable Neighborhood Bookstore.
Rob Walker’s article on the Fast Company website is an insightful analysis of how “after years of store closings, B&N is making a comeback with 30 new stores planned for 2023—and a new image.” https://www.fastcompany.com/90834188/barnes-and-noble-brand-makeover-comeback
So much about AI tools / new applications . . . I almost made this its own section:
5 Ways to Benefit from AI as an Author – from Daniel Parsons on Selfpublishingformula.com
Bookwire to offer text-to-speech technology on a global level with Google. - This is all about audiobook narration using AI tools in partner with Google Play.
Apple rolls out AI-narrated audiobooks and it’s probably the start of a trend – from Samuel Azon on arstechnica.com
Book Idea Validation Mastery: Is Your Book Idea a Bestseller?
Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur.com has created a step-by-step guide to help authors determine if their book idea is a marketable one. These are key steps any author should take to determine if there’s a high likelihood that their book will sell.
3 Critical Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Draft (or Revise!) a Novel
Susan DeFreitas gives excellent advice in this post on Jane Friedman’s blog diving into the quality of your character’s arc, the strength of your plot, and the goals and motivations of your protagonist. I need this article right now, so perhaps that’s why I was drawn to it. Read it here:
How to Restart Your Unfinished Book
Also from the Jane Friedman blog, Allison K. Williams provides good advice, particularly for the beginning of the year when we are often looking to begin anew with projects. https://www.janefriedman.com/the-inspiration-factory-how-to-restart-your-unfinished-book/
How to Pants a Novel
Scott McCormick unpacks what it means to ‘pants’ a novel – writing by the seat of your pants. This is how I often write—when I can. I think it gives space for more of the ‘happy accidents’ and ‘inspirational ah-ha moments’ that occur. This is a fun jaunt through the pantsing process.
How to Leverage the Power of a Strong Title in Your Writing
Oooh, I love this article from Audrey Wick on Writers Digest’s website. I haven’t seen many discussions on title development/considerations and, clearly, they’re incredibly important. Read it here:
What do you need to quit? Podcast with Joanna Penn and Orna Ross
This is worth a listen . . . the discussion revolves around how to identify and let go of certain projects that aren’t meeting your goals anymore to make room for the new projects. Listen here.
What Do You Call a Writer Who Never Reads?
As always Kristen Lamb presents thoughtful and astute advice in a humorous manner. I remember a question from when I was on a publishing panel discussion at a conference. The writer was lamenting that their manuscripts were being rejected, and we (panel members) asked if the writer had spent time making sure that their story followed the expectations of the genre. The writer responded that they didn’t know as they never read …. Yeah … we don’t know what to say either.
Enjoy Kristen’s article here: https://authorkristenlamb.com/2023/01/what-do-you-call-a-writer-who-never-reads/
Traditional publishing or self-publishing? The harsh reality you don’t want to hear.
In a publishing world where it is increasingly difficult to receive a contract offer from a traditional publisher . . . will you even have the decision to make? Really honest look at the reality of publishing today.
Book Bundling Strategies You May Not Have Tried (Plus Examples!)
If you have a series, this article from the BookBub Partners blog by AJ Jack is a must read. We have to get creative in how we bundle books, create boxed sets and more. Excellent suggestions.
How to Use Online Review to Market to Different Generations
I never thought of trying to find out how my book’s target age group uses reviews to determine what books to purchase. This is a fascinating look at behavior by age that might help you with your book marketing. Even if it doesn’t, it’s a really interesting info graphic from Barb Drozdowich.
How to Get People to Your Book Signing
Michael Gallant gives this list of tips for the BookBaby blog. We all live in fear of the event where NO ONE SHOWS UP! This article will help you do everything you can to make sure that doesn’t happen.
How to Choose a Color for Your Website
Another fun infographic from Barb Drozdowich gives some theory on how to pick the right color for your website. Now some of our choices might be pulled from our book covers or are based on the genre we write, but we forget how important color can be to how we present ourselves online.
23 Successful Marketing Strategies for Authors to Start Using in 2023
Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts offers up this list of 23 marketing strategies. Some of these you are likely doing or have done, but others are possibly new suggestions worth trying. See what you think:
The Author-Creator Marketing Playbook
Michael Evans offers up an excerpt from his forthcoming book Creator Economy for Authors in this post. I like his approach to book marketing and think this book might be helpful for most of us. Check out the excerpt here:
https://www.janefriedman.com/the-author-creator-marketing-playbook/
Top 25 Most Popular Social Media Platforms
Wait! What!? There’s 25 . . . hmmm . . . I guess there are. See the platforms with the most worldwide monthly active users here.
BookBub Ads 101: How the Auction Model Works
Are you running BookBub ads – are you planning to? You should read this article then and learn more about how your ad ends up being shown to readers. https://insights.bookbub.com/a-beginners-guide-to-the-bookbub-ads-auction-model/
Facebook – Facebook – Facebook
Can a Facebook ad really sell books? One nonfiction author says “Yes!” - Randi Minetor, author of more than 80 books, gives her best tips for making Facebook ads work. https://buildbookbuzz.com/can-a-facebook-ad-really-sell-books/
How the Facebook Algorithm Works in 2023 and How to Make it Work for You - Christina Newberry explains how the algorithm ranks content and gives tips for you to get your posts seen.
And as a comparison, here’s an article that talks about the same thing from a year ago: Facebook Organic Marketing: What Works in 2022
5 Important Reasons to Use YouTube for Book Marketing (and how to do it.)
Sandra Beckwith (as always) gives good tips on how to utilize YouTube best for expanding your reach as an author. Concise and clear tips here:
https://buildbookbuzz.com/5-important-reasons-to-use-youtube-for-book-marketing/
The Power of TikTok for Marketers and Advertisers
I’ll end with another infographic from Barb Drozdowich on TikTok “the fastest growing app in the world.” Crazy stats . . . but oh, man, I am so not interested in jumping into this platform. Does anyone feel the same way?
Happy Writing (editing, marketing, and more!) - Valerie
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