BookMarketingBuzzBlog

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Time For A Book Marketing Retreat?

Writers, at times, need a boost of energy, a feeling of renewal, a dose of confidence, a fresh vision, and a healthier perspective on life. What they need is a solo book marketing retreat.

Yes, a time-out at a new location. It is not exactly a vacation nor a roadside work office, but something in between. It is a chance to reflect, project forward, and think through roadblocks, many of which are self-imposed.

Writers seeking to find themselves, by escaping their lives, have to determine:

* Where they will go
* How long they will be gone for
* That they will go alone
* They will be disconnected from the things and people in their day-to-day lives
* What your goals are for the retreat
* What relaxation techniques you will practice
* How to allow for the creative juices to flow
* What environs will induce a transformation

Some authors find taking a break can be helpful, but may want to be around other writers, so they attend large weekend writer conferences, smaller one-day workshops, intimate months-long residencies, or multi-week writer retreats. So, where should you go?

Here are some databases and lists to consult:

180+ writing conferences, writers residencies, retreats, workshops for poets, fiction and creative nonfiction writers.

pw.org

Fee-Free Writing Residencies

erikadreifus.com

Residencies & Writing Retreats - The Writer's Center

writer.org

However, you can go anywhere in the world for your solo writer retreat. Pick a spot with an inspiring environment, one that won’t distract you but that will also help you break patterns and unshackle from soul-draining people, time-sucking obligations, and energy-depleting activities.

There are holistic wellness retreats out there, filled with yoga classes and meditation by the sea, to spa treatments/massages and frequent naps. That may relax you, so good, but you also need to work out why you are feeling stuck, depleted, brain dead, or anxiety riddled about your writing and book marketing.

You want to free yourself up to discover your big ideas, and find new hope for making changes or initiating something different. It is time to take a solo book marketing retreat.

PS – I was inspired to write this post after reading Find Your Happy Place: The 8-Step Guide to Boosting Your Creativity Through A Personal Retreat, by David. A. Bossert.

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” Copyright 2025.

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook. It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Interview With Self-Help & Inspirational Author Paula Price

What inspired you to write this book? The inspiration behind this book really started with my own journey. I felt called to share what I had learned with others because I saw a need to let people know they can take back their power and choose happiness.

2. What exactly is it about — and who is it written for? The Quest for Happiness is an interactive journey to find and keep more happiness in your life. It is written for those that want to become more self aware and bring more self-love and gratitude into their lives.

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? By reading my book, I hope readers walk away with tools they can use to not only create daily happiness, but also live a more grateful, fulfilled life. I hope it helps them find love, connection, and purpose in their lives and realize this journey is for life.

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? I had always envisioned a windy road with a vehicle going up the hill towards the sun for the cover. It’s just something that spoke to the vision of the book. I happened to find the exact picture in my mind on a website for book covers and purchased it right away! As for the title, it was what inspired me to write the book in the first place. The title of the book came before the actual writing of it.

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!? I talk to so many people who say they have always wanted to write a book. I always tell them to just start!!! You can’t finish what you never start. Also, I think it’s important to know that some days are harder to write than others. I keep notes on my phone and when I get stuck, I look at my notes and just start writing from one of them. It may or may not make the book, but sometimes you just need to start writing something that day to get the creative juices flowing.

6. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? My entire book is written from either my own personal journey or people I am or was close to. There are many things I discovered to be helpful and therefore wanted to share them, like writing thank you notes or getting out in nature to heal would be two small examples.

7. How would you describe your writing style? I would say my writing style is pretty conventional with other self-help books with the addition of adding poetry to the mix at the end of each chapter. I loved being able to let my own creativity flow with the poems. I felt it hit another level at showing how important creativity is in the journey towards happiness.

8. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? This was my first book (I also have a journal, out now, Journal Your Quest for Happiness and a children’s book, Happiness is for Everyone, coming out later this year) so actually finishing it, as well as all the learning what goes into launching a book and everything that goes along with it was a HUGE learning curve. The blessing is that I discovered that authors in general (and the groups and organizations that I found) are very giving and I read and watched everything I could find that they shared. I am happy to pay everything I have learned and still learning forward to all new authors as well!

9. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours? I think the timing to read my book is perfect. When the world seems chaotic, it’s the perfect time to go inward and heal yourself. My book is an easy read with an interactive journey and my hope is that all who read it take something from it to make their lives a little more joyous and purposeful.

About The Author: Paula Price is a mother, wife, daughter, fixer of things, recovering perfectionist, voiceover actress, and certified happiness coach. She received a BA in Communications: Radio/TV and a Business Minor from Xavier University and has done everything from running a corporate video studio to producing her own films. Each day in sunny Los Angeles brings about new blessings and challenges but Paula has learned to take everything in stride with a sense of humor and fiery drive. Her goal is to help others find and use their own light to live in their true purpose. For more info, please see: www.anchorheartbooks.com

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

About Brian Feinblum

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

Interview With Journalist John W. Miller About His Book On A Baseball Managing Great, Earl Weaver

1. Earl Weaver last managed a game nearly four decades ago. Why a book now about him?

His influence on the modern game — he was the first manager to use data analytics in the dugout and the first to use a radar gun, to cite two examples — is so important. He’s in the book Moneyball and in all these other books, but no book had properly considered his legacy.

2. The NYT, WSJ, Kirkus Rrviews, Ken Burns, and George F. Will each praised your new book, The Last Manager. What is it about your book, do you think, that will resonate with so many baseball fans?

Weaver is one of the great characters in baseball, and American cultural, history. He was smart. He was hilarious. He was a winner. And his story moves through all these amazing places, from 1930s St Louis and its taverns and bookies to minor league teams in the Deep South in the 1950s to Baltimore and even the California tech sector in the 1980s, when he helped design a famous video game.

3. He was raised by a mobster uncle. How did that influence him?

Earl’s Uncle Bud, a baseball bookie, is who took Weaver to ballgames in St Louis when he was a kid. Weaver loved to gamble, although there’s no evidence he bet on baseball during his career. It’s clear he saw decision-making through the prism of odds and probabilities. He talked like a bookmaker, according to one baseball executive. All that came from Uncle Bud.

4. He never got to play in the Majors. How did this impact his managerial style?

He came so close that it gave him a great capacity for evaluating talent. He knew where the bar was between majors and minors because he was the bar.

5. He only had one full losing season out of 17 seasons — but won just one World Series. Why do you think his teams choked in the postseason, only winning one ring?

There’s no question to me that’s unfair. His teams went 26-20 in postseason games. They won 4 of the 6 ALCS they played in. The perception is skewered by bad breaks in the 1971 and 1979 World Series. Those both went to 7 games. In both series, you can point to just 1 or 2 plays that made the difference.

6. How do you compare him to the other top managers of his day: Billy Martin, Dick Williams, Tommy Lasorda, and Sparky Anderson?

He was better! He still has the highest winning percentage of any manager since 1969 with over 1,000 wins. He was smarter, funnier and more honest than those guys. Who else could pull out lines like “we’ve crawled out of more coffins than Bela Lugosi”?

7. Do fans miss seeing his kind of managing — a guy who would argue anytime, anywhere on the field — or has instant replay, the polite corporatization, and reliance on technology-driven analytics of the game pushed feisty guys like him to the sidelines?

Yes! For younger readers, I think only professional wrestling can offer a sense of what Weaver going out to argue with an umpire was like. It was a spectacle of the highest order. I think we all miss that. He spoke his mind, too, in a way that pro sports teams now would never allow. He and Billy Martin would say things to reporters like “next time I see that guy I’m going to punch his f—-Ing teeth out.” And they meant it!

8. President Trump recently said baseball is dying, and indeed ratings are in decline over the years, but the sport made a record amount of money. What is baseball’s future?

People have been predicting baseball’s demise since the 19th century! I coach high school baseball (at Allderdice HS in Pittsburgh) so I see young people passionate about the game. But Major League Baseball has some problems for sure. Too many strikeouts. Too corporate. It should be more of a spectacle. More fun and spontaneous. Like Earl. I think people like the book because it reminds them how much fun baseball can be.

9. What are three take-aways from your book?

1. America has changed more than we realize. When Earl went to play pro ball in 1948, he took a train from St Louis to Albany, Georgia. You could get from any town in America to any other town by rail.

2. Failing at your childhood dream like Earl did (he wanted to be a big league player) can lead to great things.

3. Never be afraid to change your mind or evolve. That was Earl Weaver’s superpower.

10. How do the Baltimore Orioles look in their division against defending AL champ Yankees, an improved Boston Red Sox, and a solid Toronto Blue Jays team?

They’re still a very good baseball team.

The pitching staff is a question mark but they’ll muddle through. Gunnar is a top-10 player. Jackson Holliday’s looked terrific in spring training. Most importantly, they have a healthy Adley Rutschman. He doesn’t play on losing teams. Prediction: 93 wins. 2nd place. Wild card. Lose in ALCS.

About The Author:

John W. Miller is a writer, baseball coach, and contributing writer at America Magazine. He has reported from six continents and over forty countries for The Wall Street Journal and has also written for Time, NPR, and The Baltimore Sun. Miller is the codirector of the acclaimed 2020 PBS film Moundsville and the founder of www.Moundsville.org.

“Vivid...Most sports books are pop flies to the infield. Miller’s is a screaming triple into the left field corner.”

—The New York Times

“An illuminating, entertaining biography of a mercurial tactician who changed the national pastime.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Baseball books don’t get any better than this.”

—George F. Will

“A special book that reminds us why we love baseball.”

—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

“Miller expertly shows just how long Earl Weaver’s shadow still is. Weaver was the last of a breed of men, stunning geniuses all—profane, indefatigable, genuine characters—who shaped the golden age of baseball, in striking contrast to the careful, calculating corporate men who try to manage today.”

—Ken Burns, Emmy Award–winning documentarian of Baseball

“Earl Weaver was an old school archetype—a heavy drinking, chain smoking, foul mouthed, umpire baiting terror—and a visionary statistical analyst long ahead of his time. John Miller’s fascinating and entertaining portrait shows us how his genius was formed. A great read.”

—Ron Shelton, writer and director of Bull Durham

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

About Brian Feinblum

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum