Saturday, July 30, 2011

Negative reviews


A bad review can seem devasting to an author, but in truth, it may not cause much harm. 

This is from a journal report in Marketing Science:
"Crunching data that cross-matched book sales against critics’ appraisals in The New York Times Book Review, they found that negative reviews of a new book by an “established” author hurt sales. 

“For books by relatively unknown (new) authors, however, negative publicity has the opposite effect,” increasing sales by 45 percent over their expected sales trajectory, they write. Evidently this boils down to increased awareness: the mere act of introducing something to a broader public — even by saying that it stinks — increases the chances that more members of that public will want it anyway."

So cheer up friends, and remember to offer to review books for fellow writers. 
I write book reviews professionally, and while my reviews are not always five-star winners, I almost always get a thank-you from the publicist, and often, from an appreciative author.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

A new hangout, just for writers

Everything old is new again. In addition to Google Plus, which is a new competitor to Facebook, Google has launched  

Google + Hangouts for Writing Groups


MediaBistro.com has a full report and posted a link to a how-to by Mary Robinette Kowal.

In its early stages, it looks useful for writing groups in distant cities, for friends logging in for the commitment to write and then checking back with the group, and creating a structure for discussion or critique. Learn more here.

Mary is one of the people testing the new Hangout for Writers. Learn more and sign up here if you too want to be an early adopter. https://plus.google.com/up/start/?sw=1&type=st

Here's feedback from participants: http://www.jamierubin.net/2011/07/14/my-first-google-writers-hangout/
Helen

Monday, July 18, 2011

Reinforcing the message about the need for a quality book cover.

Those of you who have seen my workshops and presentations on publishing know I always show this slide:


It is important to not only choose a good title for your book, but to make sure your cover has clarity at thumbnail size.

An online colleague, Stephanie Chandler of Authority Publishing, went much further in explaining how a homemade cover can kill your book.  Click here to read her full article: http://authoritypublishing.com/book-publishing/how-a-homemade-cover-design-can-kill-your-self-published-book/