I’ll admit to being puzzled at the f-word backlash my book has received. I’ve often wondered if it was because it was marketed as women’s fiction, that perhaps I’d broken some unspoken rule. But after reading about your experiences I’m forced to reconsider.

Thanks Henry! Marion, the sales ranking at Amazon is a little wonky. I don’t completely understand how it works myself. But I can account for my sales numbers and can tell you that it’s real readers who are buying my book. I attribute any success I’ve had (and I do use that term loosely) to [...]

I was just citing KB as one example of the way authors need to market themselves now, with social networking taking the place of traditional press releases and that sort of thing. Authors can’t, for example, only Tweet about their books, writing, etc anymore. Same with Facebook status updates. We have to use those forums [...]

Exactly. I began by giving my book away (it’s actually still available for free). I felt it was the best way to get readers to take a chance on an unknown, self-publishing author. It worked, and started generating a little buzz for the book. I experimented with pricing when I put it up on Kindle, [...]

My two cents: I think this speaks more about the way authors market themselves than anything else. A great number of the authors listed are very active members of the Kindle message boards. They’re willing to go directly to the reader and not just sell themselves and their books, but are actually interacting with the [...]

The agents *we’ll* remember are those who are embracing self-publishing and new technology. Esther Newberg opened up BEA with this: “I’m scared to death. One of the only good things about being old is that I’m not going to have to deal with this for long.” Why would anyone want to throw their hat into [...]

RJ Keller commented on the blog post The Real Source of Self-Publishing Stigma

Yep. It can be done. Because who needs sleep?

  1 year, 11 months ago · View

RJ Keller commented on the blog post The Real Source of Self-Publishing Stigma

Aw, go eat’cher spinach. That’s good for you, too.

  1 year, 11 months ago · View

RJ Keller commented on the blog post The Real Source of Self-Publishing Stigma

Well, I friended you, Matt. Facebook is cool. Zoe just doesn’t know what’s good for her.

  1 year, 11 months ago · View

RJ Keller commented on the blog post Happy Read an E-Book Week

1. “Backwordian” is a cool word. it’s like Edwardian, but not.
2. I was pleased and surprised to discover that heck is free.
3. I am SO stocking up on books this week.

  1 year, 11 months ago · View

RJ Keller commented on the blog post Remaining True

“All that I know is that my character just had an affair with her boss and I’m a little disappointed in her.”
That is awesome. Keep up the good work.

  2 years ago · View

RJ Keller commented on the blog post Do writers use Twitter? You bet your sweet tweet they do.

I can trace several sales to Twitter. Not because of direct marketing, but because of “conversations” I’ve had there. People tend to treat marketing as spam there, and I don’t blame them.

  2 years ago · View