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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Burton H. Wolfe Interview: Award Winning Author, Journalist, and Humorist

!±8± Burton H. Wolfe Interview: Award Winning Author, Journalist, and Humorist

Author: Burton h. Wolfe

ISBN: 1419619748

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest, author, journalist and humorist, Burton h. Wolfe.

Burton is the author of The Hippies, Hitler and the Nazis, Pileup on Death Row, The Devil and Dr. Noxin, The Devil’s Avenger. He was considered by many to be the foremost investigative journalist on the West Coast of the USA.

Winner of many awards, Burton’s articles have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines from San Francisco to Athens, Greece. He is also listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the West, Who’s Who in California, Dictionary of International Biography, Contemporary Authors, and Outstanding Intellectuals of the Twentieth Century.

Recently, Burton launched Lucifer’s Dictionary of the American Language, published by Wild West Publishing House.

Good day Burton and thanks for agreeing to participate in our interview.

Norm:

When did your passion for writing begin? What keeps you going?

Burton:

At age 12, in Washington, D.C., I decided I wanted to be a sports columnist like Shirley Povich of the Washington Post. I abandoned sports writing for literary, philosophical, social, and political writing midway through college. Somehow the desire to communicate through the printed word remains as I navigate through old age, though mentally I do not feel old. Motivation is a difficult psychological factor to fathom. My onetime dear friend, Earl Conrad, author of such landmark books as Scottsboro Boy, kept writing until his death, and his answer to the motivation factor was simply: “For me writing is a habit I can’t break.”

Norm:

Why did you feel compelled to write Lucifer’s Dictionary of the American Language?

Burton:

Over the years I have become more and more aggravated by the way Americans butcher the English language, by the way members of the media misuse terms, by the charlatanical ways in which corrupt persons in power desecrate noble words such as “democracy” which, coming from their mouths, is the equivalent of the word “love” emanating from the mouth of a whore.

Satirizing all of that, much in the way that Ambrose Bierce and H. L. Mencken did the same in a previous era, provided a release for me. Also, I have an extremely slim hope, undoubtedly quixotic, that if the book becomes popular members of the media will become more careful about the way they put words into print or sound them on the boob tube, and that at least those who read the book will begin to try using the English language, a beautiful language when it is used properly, in a more accurate and original way, understanding that just as you are what you eat, also you are as you speak.

Norm:

How long did it take you to compile all of the words contained in Lucifer’s Dictionary of the American Language? Can you explain some of your research techniques, and how you found sources for your dictionary? How did you come up with your unique and sometimes hilarious definitions?

Burton:

I conceived the book around fifteen years ago. Every time I heard a word, term, or phrase used in the atrocious way English is butchered in the U.S., I would jot it down and provide a definition for it. There was no research, just observation, and with a few exceptions the definitions originated inside my restless brain. Where an exception occurs and I owe conception of the definition to someone else, even if I reformulated it, you will see an acknowledgment.

Norm:

Your dictionary has been compared to Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. Could you tell our readers something about Bierce’s dictionary and did you pattern your dictionary after his? If not, what is the difference between the two?

Burton:

When Bierce lived in San Francisco, where I live now, he was a columnist for Hearst’s foundation stone newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, and later he journalized in his own periodical. As he became angrier and angrier at the phoniness and hypocrisy and the social injustice he saw everywhere, he became ever more cynical and satirical in his approach to commentary. He was called “Bitter Bierce.” Out of his bitterness and cynicism, his Devil’s Dictionary emerged.

I have followed his method of employing satire to demolish standard applications to words that mean something entirely different from the way they are generally used, to provide the true meanings of them, and to add iconoclastic commentary; but our styles are of necessity very different. Bierce wrote toward the end of the Victorian era, and so much of his writing appears stuffy and even archaic. More importantly, most of the words I define either did not even exist in Bierce’s time or were used in ways that have been drastically changed. I can only imagine how much deviltry Bierce would have found in villainizing words such as downsize and outsource as they emerge from charlatanical business moguls and politicians. But such words did not exist in Bierce’s time on earth because the conditions that have generated them did not exist.

Norm:

Your dictionary has a broader mission than simply entertaining. Can you talk more about that mission and what you hope readers will take away from reading your dictionary?

Burton:

For me to believe there has been a “mission” in publishing Lucifer’s Dictionary, I would have to be a Don Quixote, or at least a Pollyanna. The most I can hope for is that readers emerge from a reading of the book with a determination to use the English language accurately and with originality instead of conforming to so-called “pop culture,” that the readers will recognize when members of the media and business and socio-political leaders are spouting claptrap, that the readers will take time to write letters to the media or even op-ed pieces to correct some of the widespread butchering of the language, and that maybe, just maybe, some of all of that will have some effect.

Norm:

You mention the game of Monopoly in your dictionary and it appears you have extensively researched the history of this popular board-game. Would you briefly inform our readers why Monopoly interested you and what did you discover?

Burton:

I became interested in the origin of the Monopoly game when a San Francisco State University economics professor, Ralph Anspach, produced a game called Anti-Monopoly and Parker Brothers sued him for infringing on its patent and copyright. As the result of newspaper and television publicity about the lawsuit, Anspach heard from individuals who had played the game in varying forms and under different titles long before Parker Brothers began manufacturing it and suing everyone who tried to produce the game or any similar game or any similar board under any other name.

Out of his research and what is known in law as the discovery process which occurs during a lawsuit, a long-buried story merged.

It turns out that a follower of Henry George’s single tax theory, Lizzie Maggie, produced the precursor of the Monopoly game in 1904 as “The Landlord’s Game.” Using it as an educational tool through the same kind of entertainment Monopoly provides, Lizzie roasted the greedy acquisition of more and more property by landlords, real estate moguls, the railroads, etc.

That was quite a different purpose than providing fun via the Monopoly game of today in acquiring more and more property until the game is won that way or, as Shelley Berman put it, until you experience the fun of wiping out your friends. As the game spread across the U.S. under different names, including the name “Monopoly,” traditionally the players fashioned their own boards and rules.

The purported “inventor” of the Monopoly game as produced by Parker Brothers, Charles Darrow, joined with his wife in a group, mostly Quakers, playing the game in the Philadelphia-Atlantic City area. The Quakers had collectively put together the same board with all the same names, and had created the same rules, as exist today in the Monopoly game produced commercially by Parker Brothers.

Darrow saw the potential for making a fortune from it, copied the board and the rules, and passed off the game to Parker Brothers as his own invention. When the top officers of Parker Brothers learned the truth, they told Darrow to keep his mouth shut and they would all earn a fortune from this game that was stolen by them; and so they have.

I put the whole story into print in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and other writers for other periodicals picked it up from there and summarized what I had written. This was typical of the kind of pioneering journalism I practiced in the 1960s and 1970s. It is also typical that even with the kind of exposé I generated, you cannot eradicate a lie once it becomes part of a culture.

There is a plaque at Broadway and Park Place in Atlantic City commemorating “Darrow’s invention” of the Monopoly game, and the mass periodicals – New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly – continue repeating the myth that Darrow invented the Monopoly game, which is the equivalent of saying he invented fire and the wheel; and no amount of letter writing and telephone calling by Anspach and myself, no amount of excoriating the media and Atlantic City government prostitutes, can induce them to eradicate the Big Lie and tell the truth for history.

This is why I define Monopoly in the way I have, and this is an example of why I define many words in the cynical style I have used, in Lucifer’s Dictionary.

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

Burton:

I submitted the book to at least fifty literary agents, all but one of whom declined to try to market it. The agent who took it on gave up after a dozen rejections. Eventually I submitted the book to around 100 prospective publishers. Most rejected the book with the usual “not quite right for us.” Some of the editors, however, commented that they found the book to be as funny as it is truthful and even described it as “a great book.”

Some said they felt Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary had exhausted the potential market. Others offered no reason for not publishing the book. None would admit what I have always suspected: that the book is so controversial and pinches so many teats of so many of American society’s sacred cows that there was too much fear of boycotting or other repercussions. A program for authors offered by the BookSurge division of Amazon.com offered me a way to get the book into print in both online and quality paperback versions even while using the name of a small press I started and then abandoned in the 1970s: Wild West Publishing House.

Norm:

How would you describe the quality of journalism today?

Burton:

In some ways it is more accurate than that which existed in the days of so-called “yellow journalism.” But hundreds of the stories and ideas of most critical importance to humanity are being not only censored but also blocked from dissemination altogether, and the would-be authors of them are being blacklisted.

Terminology is being used in such a horrendously inaccurate manner that it amounts to nothing less than a form of brainwashing of the kind that George Orwell (Eric Blair) predicted in his definition of “newspeak” in 1984: words used in such a standard and commanding manner that they can have no meaning other than that which is provided by Big Brother and its cooperating media.

For example, the media universally refers to genocidal maniacs using themselves as weapons to kill and maim en masse as “suicide bombers.” That leaves them in the realm of martyrs for their cause. But “suicide” is an act of taking one’s own life, not an act of using oneself as a weapon to kill everyone who does not believe in an imam’s version of Islam.

There is another depressing way in which journalism in the U.S. today has deteriorated, become insipid: we have lost character writers such as Bierce, Mencken, Art Hoppe, Charles McCabe, Artemus Ward, Finely Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley), Don Marquis (Archy and Mehitabel), or (however cornball) Will Rogers. There are no longer any flamboyant character writers in the newspapers, no longer any writers with guts. The only place you can find them is on the internet. I have a long essay about this on my web log, Wolfebites, [http://burtonhwolfe.blogspot.com].

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while putting together your dictionary? How did you overcome these challenges?

Burton:

The major challenges were to keep going in the face of rejection and to keep from allowing myself to slip from satire into tirades against all the cant and hypocrisy which exist. Belief in the value of my book made me determined to find a way to get it into print. My sense of humor, my ability to laugh at the foibles which can otherwise be depressing, rerouted me away from definitions that would emerge as tirades, kept me on the satire road. I was laughing all the way at what I wrote, and thus enjoying myself.

Norm:

What's your advice to achieve success as a writer?

Burton:

Apply your butt to a seat in front of a typewriter or computer, or stand up with either machine mounted on a bookcase ala Ernest Hemingway who did that because of back problems, or lie down on a sofa and scribble on lined legal pads ala Truman Capote – but whichever method you choose, make sure you get to it part of each day or night, do not procrastinate, do not make excuses for not writing.

Even if you run into what is euphemistically called “writer’s block,” get into the writing position you have chosen and do nothing else for two or three hours, until you will write something out of sheer boredom from doing nothing at all. Either believe in the worth of your work or choose some other vocation or avocation.

Believing in it, send it out and keeping submitting it no matter how many rejections you get – unless you decide to self-publish. And forget about the supposed stigma against self-publishing. Some of the most renowned writers in the history of American literature began by self-publishing, and not just individuals identified as writers. Statesmen did so. Benjamin Franklin’s essays were self-published. And promote yourself, brag about yourself, pester anyone and everyone you can think of to pay attention to you. Follow the dictum of the longtime head of the coalminers’ union, John L. Lewis: “He who tooteth not his own horn, it shall not be tooted.”

Norm:

In the last few years or so have you seen any changes in the way publishers publish and/or distribute books? Are there any emerging trends developing?

Burton:

There are more and more mergers among the major houses, and more and more concentration of promotion on select books that are designated in advance to be the moneymakers, leaving the authors of the “lesser” books to do more and more of their promoting.

More and more the sales department of a publishing house is determining what will and will not be accepted for publication – with what seems to be a standard test: if the sales department does not envision sales of at least 30,000 copies of a book, forget it. More and more it becomes harder to find a major house that will look at a manuscript not submitted by an established literary agent. Fortunately, there are many small press publishers still available for non-agent submissions. When one of those publishers has some success, a major house has occasionally offered to make it a subdivision of its operation and help with distribution and promotion.

More and more the big discount distributors and sellers – Barnes and Noble is the major example – are taking the bulk of the market by offering discounts based on volume, and lesser distributors and booksellers cannot compete with that. More and more books are being remanded quickly and sold off at prices far less than the original cover price.

There is too much competition. An individual author has a dismally poor chance of making money on a given book. You have to be lucky as well as persistent with self-promotion. There is also an increasing trend for publishing houses to operate in the same way as vanity publishers: the author has to pay for printing and publicity. Prestigious publishing houses, especially those that produce books by scholars, are resorting to that method of operation out of financial necessity.

Norm:

Although you are not leaving us just yet, how do you want us to remember Burton h. Wolfe?

Burton:

As somebody who told the truth at all costs, bearing in mind my favorite quotation from George Orwell (Eric Blair): “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” 1984

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered and in particular to Lucifer’s Dictionary of the American Language?

Burton:

GET THE BOOK AND READ IT!

Thanks Burton once again for participating in our interview.


Burton H. Wolfe Interview: Award Winning Author, Journalist, and Humorist

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

How To Be A Published (Non-Fiction) Author

!±8± How To Be A Published (Non-Fiction) Author

Turning your idea into a book

With non-fiction books the question of whether or not to write one has to be a business decision, rather as you would take over any new product or service.

With general non-fiction there is usually room for a good new book on the market, provided it's likely to attract a substantial group of readers because:

*It's about something entirely new and very interesting that no-one has written about before, or...
*It's about something that's not new, but to which you contribute something entirely new and very interesting

So why write a business book? Well, there aren't many more effective promotional tools. Having a book published still holds a certain kudos and perhaps in Pavlov-dog fashion, people automatically associate someone who writes a book about something with that someone being an expert on the subject.

Used correctly, your book will also be a helpful PR tool in other areas, and will make a business gift that has a very high perceived value. But never make the mistake of thinking you will retire to the Bahamas on the proceeds of its sales.

Pick a good title

A book's title is a very important part of the marketing of a book. With non-fiction and particularly business books, like every other piece of marketing communication the book title has to offer or at least suggest a benefit to the reader.

It's the title people react to when they see a book displayed, whether that's on a shelf in a bookstore or online. When people are looking through books you only have one chance to get their attention, which is why your title needs to be powerful enough to stop them in their tracks.

Sub-headings are now quite fashionable and they help a lot to qualify the promised benefit. I've used them for four books so far and they work nicely.

There are two basic publishing routes you can choose: self-publishing, or conventional publishing by an external publisher. In addition there are a few hybrid options available, as well as publishing services organizations which offer services to self-publishers on a menu basis.

The conventional publisher

The advantages of getting your book published externally are:

*It gives your book status (less so than in the past, but still good if it's a well known, respected publisher)
*Your book will be distributed to all the agreed markets at no cost to you
*They will handle and pay for all design, setup, print and production costs
*You'll probably get paid a small advance on royalties

The disadvantages are:

*They will be in the driving seat, although they will listen to what you want to do
*They will say that they'll market the book, but many of them won't (see below)
*You will need to negotiate your contract with them very carefully
*The percentage of each sale you receive will be far less than if you self-publish

Finding a publisher to approach is easy with the Internet. Because publishers tend to stick to specific genres of book (called "lists") you'll find them simply by searching for your type of topic via a search engine or online bookseller. There are also print directories of publishers.

Most publishers have websites, and some even give you the option to submit your preliminary book proposal online - which is well worth doing.

Approaching publishers and submitting proposals

If you're going into a publisher cold, you're best to start with a covering letter addressed to the correct person - usually a senior editor - and enclose with the letter a one-sheet on which you describe the essence of the book. Then wait for feedback before you submit proposals.

Once you have submitted your detailed proposals you may have to wait quite a while - several weeks - before you hear anything.

The offer and the contract

If you get the green light, the publisher will come back with a formal offer, saying "yes, we want to publish your book." The "offer" part of it is the advance on royalties - but don't expect much! Advances are normally paid in 2 or 3 tranches with payment points at signing of the contract, delivery of the manuscript, and publication.

Until you sign a contract you're not under any obligation to proceed, even though you will have accepted the publisher's offer. There are a number of key areas you need to take special care, so be sure to research them thoroughly.

Self-publishing

As the nuts-and-bolts elements of book production become cheaper through the advancement of technology, self-publishing becomes increasingly attractive for some business book writers. With modern print-on-demand facilities, too, you avoid the need to have hundreds or thousands of copies printed initially just to keep the unit cost down. Now you can have a handful of books printed at a time and still keep the unit cost within reason.

The advantages of self-publishing (as I see it) are:

*You do not have to answer to anyone else on design, content, editing, etc
*You do not have to spend any time on finding or convincing a publisher to take your book on
*You get to keep all profit from book sales

The disadvantages of self-publishing (as I see it) are:

*You have to find the money to get the book produced
*You can get editorial and design support, but you have to pay for it
*You have to organise and pay for distribution of your book
*You will not find it easy to get your book on to Amazon and into other key distribution channels
*You have to run a publishing business as well as whatever else you do

Commercial sponsors

In some circumstances it may be useful to get involved with a commercial sponsor. Who this is depends on the nature of your book. If, say, you have written a cookery book about pizzas, you might get interest from a national chain of pizza restaurants. If your book is about cats, you might get together with a catfood manufacturer. If your book is about DIY property renovation, you might get interest from a chain of DIY stores. And so-on.

Well, now that you've decided on a publishing route... it's time to write your book.

Writing your book

A daunting prospect? Not if you approach it methodically. Here are some tips.

When you come to write the book and are faced with what many people call that "huge, impossible project," here's a trick that I was taught when shivering with fear about my first book.

Forget thinking about your book as one project. Think of it as XX discrete projects (one for each chapter.) Get that notion fixed firmly in your mind. 15 writing projects of 4,000 words each feels a lot more comfortable than one writing project of 60,000 words. You also get a greater sense of achievement as you're working through the book, because the completion of each chapter becomes a major milestone.

Planning and structure

Don't try to rush the planning stage and don't rush into writing the first chapter. Carry a notebook around with you and scribble ideas, reminders and any other inspiration you get while doing the chores or shopping for groceries. Play around with spider maps or mind-mapping programs or whatever works best for you. The time spent will repay itself many times over.

With non-fiction of any kind it helps enormously to work to a closely defined structure. Spend a good chunk of time planning your chapters and ensuring they run in the right order. Subdivide the chapters down into bullet point structure of their own and flesh that out as far as you can.

If you're going to use research material you need to assemble it and file it under each chapter of your book. Particularly if the research material is printed on paper, assemble it in the same order as the running order of each chapter. That way you don't have to leaf through piles of material to find what you want.

If you have collated information electronically, read through it all and cut and paste the bits you want into another document, so that it runs in the order that your chapter runs. Then have it available as a document called "Chapter X, background research" which you can either open in a separate window while you're working or print out and refer to on paper.

Chapter breakdown

Using your word processing software, separate the chapter breakdown into one document for each chapter. If you prefer to work with pens or pencils you can print out the document so that each subject heading heads up one page, then staple those pages together in order.

Now, start writing more bullets and notes under each subject heading. Leave plenty of space between them so you can add sub-notes and sub-sub-notes. Add in the information you want to include from your research material (this is much easier to do on a computer) in the appropriate places.

Work through this process without hurrying, but keep going for as long as you feel the creative energy flow. Once you have incorporated the bare bones of all information you feel needs to go into that chapter, stop and take a short break. Then go back to the chapter and edit your notes as necessary. The break is important; even if you only leave it for an hour or two. The fact of thinking about something else for a while means you look at your work from a refreshed viewpoint.

Writing it up

Now you need to take the plunge and start writing prose. Because you have mapped out the content of your chapter so carefully and thoroughly, you'll find that some it has already started to write itself. Your job then becomes one of linking and smoothing, rather than having to think up stuff from scratch. This method doesn't remove the fear of writing altogether (if you're that way inclined) but it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Then, when you finish the final chapter, take at least a week off from the project. Looking at your work again, you'll see a number of things that could be improved without really trying. And passages, paragraphs and even whole chapters that previously seemed OK but not quite there, will now look definitely not there! However because you're coming back into it with renewed energy and vigour, what may have seemed like a difficult problem to rectify initially will now be much easier to put right.

Your own edit

Take your time over your editing process. And most important of all, be hard on yourself. Put yourself firmly in the shoes of a potential reader and ask yourself if - in this role - you would a) understand everything and b) find it interesting. If the answer is no to either then rewrite the section concerned until it IS a) understandable and b) interesting.

Be mindful of the final word count required for your book. If you're over by a small amount, prune back unnecessary adjectives and adverbs (something you should do anyway.) If you're over by a large amount you will need to think in terms of removing whole paragraphs or even whole chapters. It's far better to remove large chunks than it is to prune the existing text too hard. Too much pruning will make it stilted and difficult to follow.

If you're under the word count and you don't need to keep some in hand in case other chapters are too long, don't try to pad your work out to make it longer. This will make your book less crisp and lively. Instead - depending on the subject matter of course - insert examples, verbal illustrations, short case histories, charts, graphics or any other interesting material that supports your key messages without lengthening them.

Usually you can put material like this into a "box" so that it is seen to be separate from the main text. This way readers aren't interrupted as they go through your text, and can look at the "box" when they've finished reading the paragraph or section concerned.

The external editor

If your book is being published externally, once you've finished your edit the manuscript will go the publisher's editor. Once the edit comes back to you, you'll have the opportunity to go through the issues raised by the editor and dispute their recommendations if you feel they're wrong. Then when everyone is happy with the result, your manuscript goes into production.

If you're producing the book yourself you don't, in theory, need to use an editor at all. However unless you're a professional writer by trade, if you're self-publishing it makes a lot of sense to use a pro editor to have a look at your work. An informed but unbiased extra expert on the case will help you sharpen up your text and will pick up on all the little details that you - being so close to the material - may have overlooked.

And there you are - a finished manuscript! Now, to the final stage...

Producing and selling your book

If your book is being published externally you won't have a huge involvement with the production process. This means that you're relieved of the hassle and expense of production, but on the other hand you won't have all that much control over how your book looks. Publishers will usually send you cover designs to look at as a courtesy, but don't automatically assume they'll change the designs if you happen to hate them.

Often a business or other non-fiction book will be published as part of a series of titles and so will have to be designed with a "family resemblance" to the other books in the series. Other times the design will be dictated by the publisher's corporate image and colours. Usually, though, if your complaint is well founded they will listen and may well make some alterations to keep you happy.

"You can't judge a book by its cover" -- but it helps!

If you're self-publishing you're free, of course, to have whatever you like on the cover. Even if you have strong ideas about how it should look, in your shoes I would invest in a professional design for the cover. Particularly if you're going to sell the book remotely (i.e. without your being there) that cover is the only real point-of-sale tool you have - so it needs to be good.

Publishing services companies usually offer cover design as a service. If you use an independent graphic designer, ask to see samples of his/her work on book covers before you commission yours. Although designing book covers is not rocket science you do need to know about how books are racked in bookstores, how to display the title, where to put what words, etc.

You will also need to compose your jacket copy to go on the cover. This usually consists of two chunks of sales copy about the book and one short chunk about you, the author. However how many sections and how many words in each will be determined when the cover is designed, and that should happen first.

Just as the title and cover design are critical elements at the point of sale for your book, so is the jacket copy. This has to sell hard enough to make them carry your book all the way to the checkout and stay there until they've paid for it. If you're self-publishing and don't feel you can create the snappy words required, hire a pro copywriter to do it. It won't cost very much as it shouldn't take them long to complete, and it will be well worthwhile.

How the main text looks

When you're setting your raw text out for uploading to the designer and production people, start as you mean to continue by ensuring that paragraphs are reasonably short and that you break up your text with some or a mixture of the following:

*Section headings in bold, larger point size than main text
*Cross headings in bold and perhaps underlined
*Emboldened words and phrases
*Phrases pulled out from the text and centred, as a cross heading
*Small diagrams, charts, photographs
*Bullet points and numbered lists, if appropriate

Remember, for readers there's nothing more offputting than long, unbroken blocks of text. And you want them to read all of your book, don't you?

Marketing and selling your book

Publishers say they do marketing, but the reality is they don't do much. And it really is annoying when you think that they are taking the lion's share of the proceeds from your book sales. So if you want your book to be marketed, you have two choices.

The first choice is to hire a publicist. This is quite popular among American business gurus and public speakers who do not have the time but do have the money. Opinions are divided on whether or not you will get back what you pay the publicist in extra book sales you wouldn't have had otherwise.

The second, and the more realistic choice for most of us, is to DIY. To achieve that without spending big bucks you need to consider a number of important points following publication of your book; however, once again, book marketing is not rocket science. It's much more about using your common sense and taking up opportunities to get the word out there.

Well, that's it - with luck you'll sell a good number of books. Enjoy the experience!


How To Be A Published (Non-Fiction) Author

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