Review: "Once you stop groaning, we will proceed."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 24, 2013
I stopped groaning and saved this book for my reference list as a future writer. The author did a great job on a couple of issues that are usually obscure to authors as they have been traditionally handled by publishing houses, such as: the one-line pitch of the book, the third-person bio and present-tense synopsis, and the most important one, the your-name domain name rather than your-book-title one. If you were ever wondering what the publishers were doing (or failing to do) for your book, here are some of the answers.I am not giving the advice away with the above - those were just some examples of the nuts and bolts of getting reviews and building PR that could form a proper plan of action, should you agree with the following: "You have to accept that it's your job to market the book."This must have been a risky book to write. First, the writer is told that, unlike Hemingway, she is in fact a business owner. And, that if the book she wrote is fiction, she aimed to entertain a segment of the masses (God forbid!). Finally, her own personal brand counts, notwithstanding the origin of the word from branding cattle with a hot iron. Fortunately, there is enough humour spread through the pages to sweeten the pill ("Don't scare away any potential customers [with your photo].") and plenty of honesty to warn against gimmicks: not one marketing activity is crucial in the sales of your book, but the accumulation of marketing activities over a (longer) period of time.This is the most honest account I have read where someone tries to turn writers into sales people. I always thought the advice to authors was: "don't stop writing." Hank thinks is: "don't stop blogging." Well, I guess this is a different century.