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I do not read every book/author I spotlight or book tour I host!
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Wednesday, December 4, 2019

#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

8 comments:

Personalized Marketing Inc said...

Great advice!

Dee
#PMInc

pastprimetravelers said...

She is right about all the crap being churned out every day. My main advice is when writing up anything about your book, USE ENGLISH CORRECTLY. Don't start a sentence with 'So' A quality book requires quality marketing.

And Pam, when I used to buy Christmas gifts for my family that were living abroad with my military father, I started writing up a list of names and gifts in August. Sending overseas means mailing early Oct. Keeping to my list was important to find that special gift for all.

Laura Tolomei said...

I remember writing this advice last year, but it seems truer today than it did back then. Seen in these terms, competition between authors is monstrously fierce, and I for one have always relied on the quality angle rather than the quantity.

Which is why lately I had taken a step back, caught up as I was with work and family matters.

But don't despair, my readers!

As of the 1st of December I have officially retired, so now I'll be writing more than ever, devoting all my energy to it LOL

Just keep a lookout for new releases in 2020!

Laura
#LauraTolomei #LallaGatta #romance #VirtusSaga #SoulmateSeries #ReScueSeries

pastprimetravelers said...

We all look forward to seeing more of your work in the future. I also, am retired and it seems most of my time I'm writing for the zoo or the emagazine or the mobile park newsletter. Hope you too can find more places to write for. Maria

Jacqueline Seewald said...

I've been published by quite a few good, small publishers, but they do not market their authors' books to any extent. It is a serious problem, especially with so many self-published books on the market.

Kara O'Neal said...

This is very good advice. I'm terrible at marketing. I can't seem to find the time, or the money, to do what is necessary. I need to get serious about it because writing is important to me. I'd love to have it as my full-time job.

Alicia Dean said...

Excellent post!! Thanks for taking the time to share your advice.

Laura Tolomei said...

Thanks to everyone who stopped here and commented on this post.

I'm glad to see so much interest in this topic that evidently touches all of us in one way or another.

I guess the true advice here is that we cannot afford to neglect our marketing, considering how important it is as authors that our message reaches the max number of readers and how exponentially selfpublishing has risen in these last few years. So I'm sure we'll all dedicate more time to it while writing our new and better stories :-)

A great big hug to everyone.

#LauraTolomei #LallaGatta #Romance