#WednesdayWordswithFriends guest Laura Tolomei

Good Morning!

Four. More. Days. And I'll have made it through another Medicare AEP LOL!

Seriously I am counting the hours and am SO ready to get back to my 1-5 work schedule.

Enough about me though. Have YOU started your Christmas shopping yet? I have. Honestly I think this is the earliest I've ever done so. Still have to get my tree up and house decorated but that's going to have to wait until next weekend. I look forward to sharing this exciting time of year with you....

Meanwhile, Laura Tolomei was in the Spotlight earlier this year so please welcome her back to share some words with us on the publishing industry....

3 Insane but True Things About the Publishing Industry and Book Marketing

The publishing industry changes all the time, and it's often a constant battle to keep up with it when it comes to marketing your books. As publishing has evolved so has my approach to book marketing. Here are three insane but true things about the publishing industry, and book marketing, and some solutions to how to modify your writing and book marketing practices to get around them.

1. There are literally thousands of books being self-published to Amazon and other platforms daily. The way to handle this from a marketing perspective is to have a regular book marketing practice. The only way to compete with those thousands of new authors is to keep your books in the limelight as far as your target market goes as often as possible.

2. There are a lot of published books that are pure crap. That's right, people that have no business publishing are now publishing. They're rewriting public domain books, they're not taking the time to learn their craft, and they're attempting to do everything themselves without proper research into, for example how to make a good book cover, or how to edit a book. The only way to combat this, is to make sure you have a good book cover, and that you have your books professionally edited, or that you learn to edit and to find your own mistakes in your writing.

3. Self-published authors are churning out a book or more a month, and then only charging .99 per full length novel. This trend has made it difficult for traditionally published authors to sell books, but the solution is not for authors and publishers to lower the price of their own books, but rather to step up their marketing and approach it from a quality -vs- quantity perspective.  Readers are willing to pay more for books that are well written, while cranking out a book or more every month, and lowering your book prices may seem like the solution in the end it only leads to burn out, and lost fans because the books aren't well written, oh, and authors who quit writing. By writing quality books and having a regular marketing routine that includes your back list you have a much better chance of staying in the publishing game for the long term.

I hope an understanding of these trends and this advice helps you to stay ahead of the competition and sell more books!

If you really want to know, I was born in 1965 in Rome, Italy, but soon started my travelling career. At the age of five, my parents took me to Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up free and hot like I've never been since. I loved it there and still think of it with nostalgia. Anyway, it was also where I learned English. 

After my African experience, I was ready to tackle the US. I lived in Atlanta, GA, five teen-age years, attending the Crestwood High School, where I started my writing career by publishing a short story Nostalgia on the Crestwood Journal. Very thrilled about discovering my new talent, I went ahead during college, writing for the Emory University journal The Phoenix. Three articles mark my first-and last-steps in journalism, "The peace Corps", "WAMM, Women Against Military Madness," and "Lesbism".

After my American experience, I moved back to Rome, but still kept living from time to time abroad, spending several months in Mumbay India, a country I always felt very close to me in more ways than one.

Today, I write both in Italian and English, mostly fiction of various genres, from fantasy erotica, to mysteries up to plain ordinary life stories.

Feel free to look over my current and future projects by visiting my website www.lallagatta.com.

GREAT advice Laura, thank you for sharing! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings on your writing career.

Hope you enjoyed today's post friends and that you'll check back weekly for more Wednesday Words with Friends and another Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT