It’s the rare book that somehow goes virulent and captures the public’s attention and admiration all on its own. Indeed, around 800 books are published daily in just the United States alone, so no matter how good your book is, the odds of it even being noticed are nil at best.

The reality is that indie authors and those who self-publish need to market their own books.

For most authors, the idea of marketing their book is anathema. Marketing for many literary writers means using guilt and fear to convince people to buy a product. Even for those authors who don’t hold such a view, they probably never studied marketing and have no idea of how to begin such an effort.

But the reality is that unless you’re satisfied with your book languishing in anonymity, you need a marketing plan to promote your book. As a minimum, you’ll need to do the following:
• Website – An online presence that at the least tells about your book and you the author as well as providing a sample chapter is necessary for almost any book. A website offers the media and fans who want to know more about the book and the author a place to obtain that information.
• Press releases – Once your book is available for sale, you’ll need to send press releases to media outlets in your hometown as well as to bloggers and periodicals that cover your title’s subject.
• Public appearances – If you’re a novelist, a book reading is a great way to connect with fans. If you wrote a nonfiction book, speak at conferences related to its subject. Radio interviews are another good way to get out the word about your book.

There’s a lot more you can do, from making business cards to even advertising. It’s a broad topic – broad enough that I’ve dedicated another book in my 7 Minutes a Day… series to it: 7 Minutes a Day to Promoting Your Book.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks:

Looks like a lot of people could some use some advice on these two words.

A councilor is a member of a group, usually in the government: The townspeople re-elected Councilor Brady to the village board just last year.

A counselor provides advice to others, and typically is a psychologist or an attorney (Attorneys often are referred to as “counsel.”): To deal with her depression, Amy sought the help of a counselor.

With that settled, there’s no reason to be guilty of mixing up these two words again!

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks:

In a day when everyone touts social media, never underestimate the value of using mainstream media to get word out about your book. Indeed, there are plenty of benefits of getting an article in a newspaper or magazine and an interview on the radio or television.

First and foremost among them is free publicity that reaches a lot of people. While the reach of newspapers, magazines, radio and television certainly is not the same as in the pre-Internet age, it is still is seen by a sizeable number of people, and at least a few of them will be interested in your book. In addition, mainstream media articles invariably appear online and so are tweeted and shared using social media, which only expands your reach to your target audience.

Mainstream media coverage also gives you credibility. A bias against self-published books still exists (though it’s decreasing) but that vanishes for your book when articles about you and your book appear in print or are broadcast. Because mainstream media deemed you rather than someone else worthy of coverage, others will take this respect from the gatekeeper as meaning you are worthy of their respect, too.

The respect from this publicity can lead to additional opportunities to sell your books. You may be contacted by those organizing events related to writing or to your book’s topic. You might garner additional coverage from competing news outlets or from local bloggers. You can use the fact that you received coverage as a selling point to get your titles into bookstores or other retail outlets that sell books related to our topic.

Lastly, such popularity helps build your author’s platform. It gives you items to post on your blog and website and articles to tweet or share via social media. Doing this in turn leads to more followers on various social media platforms and more addresses on your email list.

No time spent working on and sending out a press kit is wasted so long as you generate one article or interview from it. Speaking from personal experience, coverage in mainstream media sometimes alone is enough to propel my books to No. 1 in sales; when combined with a good social media campaign, it’s a guarantee that my book will top Amazon.com’s charts.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks:

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise upon receiving a mysterious gift. Here are four writing prompts for stories that involve the motivation of resolving the mystery of a gift.

Man vs. man
As the main character attempts to find out why he received a mysterious gift, he learns that another person wants this item. What actions does this nemesis take to commandeer the gift? Why does the main character simply not give up the gift? What is the secret behind the gift?

Man vs. society
The main character possesses a wonderful talent – a “gift,” as others in society term it – perhaps as a musician or an artist. What if the main character does not wish to express his gift as society wishes him to? Why does he want to act contrary to society’s desires?

Man vs. God(s)
A gift comes in the form of a “miracle.” What if the main character, though, doesn’t see it as a miracle? What if this miracle is not enough to resolve a need, wish or prayer?

Man vs. himself
The main character possesses an ability – a “gift,” as some view it – that he views as a terrible burden. In fact, the character doesn’t want to use his gift. Why is this? And what if a crisis arises that only the main character can resolve by using his special ability?

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Sometimes when selecting which word to use, our aim is off. Usually, this can be resolved simply by thinking a little bit more about exactly what is meant and then changing that word.

When our aim is off on more than a word but a whole passages of text, writers commit the error of “subjective tension.” This is “the difference between what you mean and what you actually say,” an apt phrase coined by science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany.

Usually this difference amounts to something that is humorous or campy, which can break the tone of your piece. Some examples include:
• Her jaw fell to the floor.
• He jumped through the door.
• She strained her eyes as looking through the window.
• He twisted up her face.

Of course, none of these images literally can take place. Hence, the suspension of disbelief that a reader brings to a story is broken.

A variant of subjective tension is the gag detail, which is “an unnecessarily unrealistic detail that blows the story’s credibility,” according to CSFW’s Sarah Smith, who devised the term. An example of a gag detail she gives is, “I can accept a Neanderthal going to Harvard, but a Neanderthal with a middle name? Gag.”

Sometimes, though, subjective tension and gag details can be used to great effect. They can help form the repertoire of jokes in a humorous story, as in Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” If done right and maintained throughout the entire piece, they can create a deliberately campy and fun story, such as the 1960s “Batman” television series.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks:

“The spirit of creation is the spirit of contradiction. It is the breakthrough of appearances toward an unknown reality.” – Joan Cocteau

“Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.” – Joseph Conrad

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” – Virginia Woolf

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded; it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.” – Mary Shelley

“No tale is so good…but can be spoilt in the telling.” – Terence

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Sometimes after finishing a nonfiction book, readers want to review a specific concept or idea that appears on only a few pages of the volume. The table of contents probably is too general to give them the exact page numbers that they want to read. Instead, they turn to the index.

Indexes offer alphabetized listings of key concepts discussed in the book, telling what pages they appear on. The index typically comes at the end of the book following the appendices.

What should be indexed? As proofreading your book, look for key words in the text, particularly those that paragraphs are about. Begin writing those words on a separate word processing file, including the page numbers that they appear on.

In addition, you’ll want to keep track of related concepts. For example, in my book “Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids,” one of the key concepts discussed is “Crossing terrain,” so that word receives an entry. Since there are different types of terrain one could cross, related concepts that appear under “Crossing terrain” include “rock hopping,” “scree,” “slopes” and “waterways.” These related concepts typically are indented to show that they fall under the main concept’s heading.

Further, sometimes there are synonyms for keywords. Rather than list the pages twice under two different words meaning the same thing, you might send a reader to the other concept. For example, my hiking book refers to “cougars” as “mountain lions,” so the index entry for “cougars” says “see mountain lions.”

Page numbers often are shortened to help keep the index from looking too cluttered. If text about “rock hopping” appears on both page 122 and 123, the page numbers in the index may simply be abbreviated to 122-3.

A set of index entries following the above rules would look like this:

Cougars, see mountain lions
Crossing terrain, 121-3
   Rock hopping, 121
   Scree, 121-2
   Slopes, 122
   Waterways, 122-3

When formatting the index, have it take up two columns per page in books that aren’t any wider or taller than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Most authors also opt to have the index printed in a smaller point size than the main body of text to ensure that more keywords can get on the page and to distinguish it from the rest of the text.

Given that you need to include page numbers, compilation of the index needs to occur near the end of the writing process. Don’t place any page numbers in the index until you’re down to your last proofreading, in which the only changes you’ll make is correcting a rare typo, or you’ll soon find your page numbers are wrong.

The challenge then is to set aside just the right amount of space for the index. In a self-published 220-page book, four pages probably are enough.

Finally, the index takes page numbers, continuing with the Arabic numerals that began back with the index.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks: