Information, inspiration and interviews on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and making a living with your writing. If you need help with writing your book, or you want to learn how to navigate the new world of publishing and book marketing, then join Joanna Penn and her guests every Monday. Also covers the business of being a writer and how to make money with your books.
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Book Titles That Sell, Productivity For Authors And Marketing For Introverts With Tim Grahl
OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna PennA wide-ranging discussion with Tim Grahl about writing book titles that sell, productivity and habits for writers, how to build a platform around you rather than your book, and marketing for introverts. Super fun!
In the intro, I mention the upcoming self-publishing conference, IndieRecon.org, which is a free event with some amazing speakers so make sure you register and check out the schedule. I also talk about my trip to Charleston for PubSense, some of the plans I have underway with my new agent, plus Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, now available in audiobook format.
Tim Grahl is the author of Your First 1000 Copies: A Step by Step Guide to marketing your book and the founder of Out:think, a firm that helps authors make money with online marketing tools.
Launching a book? Get your free copy of Tim's Book Launch Blueprint here.
You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher, watch the interview on YouTube here or read the notes and links below.
* How Tim started out in the more technical side of the internet and started helping authors with their marketing. He's always been a big reader so working with authors was preferable to big corporates.
* Tips for book titles. Authors are generally too close to the project to make a good decision. Your own fans know you so they aren't the best either. You want to know what title will make someone new click to look at your book further. Tim advises using data to make a decision and talks about using PickFu.com to work out what gets clicked the most. It is unlikely to be what you think. You can do this with titles and sub-titles, which is how Tim ended up with his. You can also use PickFu for book covers as you can use images. [I talk about my own title change based on SEO reasons]. We also talk about fiction book titles – which are very difficult! It's more about genre, reviews and author brand and the eco-system around the book than title.
* On reaching 1000 readers. Most books sell around 250 copies (that includes traditionally published).