BookMarketingBuzzBlog

Sunday, December 3, 2023

16 Best-of-the-Year Author and Book Expert Interviews

Below are the 16 most-viewed interviews to run on BookMarketingBuzzBlog over the past year. From best-selling authors to book publishing experts, learn about their views on books and insights on trends in the publishing industry.

Interview With Author & Business Book Strategist Cathy Fyock About Her Book, Writer Crisis

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/interview-with-author-business-book.html

Interview With Cardinal Rule Press Publisher & Children’s Book Author Maria Dismondy

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/interview-with-cardinal-rule-press.html

Interview With Director of New York Writers Workshop & Author Tim Tomlinson

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/interview-with-director-of-new-york.html

Interview With Mafia Author Scott Hoffman. This Guy Is Gangsta!

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/interview-with-mafia-author-scott.html

University Press Week President Advocates For Publishing More BIPOC Books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/university-press-week-advocates-for.html

Interview With An Artist & Author About A Unique Coffee Table Book on Food, Art & Love

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/interview-with-artist-author-about.html

Interview With Screenwriter & Novelist Shelby Renjifo

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/interview-with-screenwriter-novelist.html

Interview With Renowned Israeli Journalist & Best-Selling Novelist Sarit Yisha-Levi

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/interview-with-renowned-israeli.html

Interview with Author Mark Andrew Jennings On His Memoir, Secret Son of a Legend

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/interview-with-author-mark-andrew.html

Interview With Best-Selling Author & A Foot Soldier In The Fourth Industrial Revolution

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/02/interview-with-best-selling-author-foot.html

Interview With Children’s Book Author Trevor Witchey

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/interview-with-author-trevor-witchey.html

Best-Selling Author Deborah Levine Herman Interviewed About Her Book On Spiritual Writing

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/best-selling-author-deborah-levine.html

Interview With Talented Gen Z Book Editor Adina Edelman

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/02/interview-with-talented-gen-z-book.html

Interview With Serial Entrepreneur & Best-Selling Author Matthew Higgins

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/02/interview-with-serial-entrepreneur.html

Interview With Artist & Author Aimee Erickson

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/01/interview-with-artist-author-aimee.html

Interview With Body Language Expert & Author Gavin Stone

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/interview-with-body-language-expert.html

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their 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

Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. 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. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent. This award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ 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.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs 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. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. 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. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Top 10 Biggest Book Stories Of The Year

1. Prince Harry’s Spare broke all kinds of records.

It had the best one-day debut of any non-fiction book in the history of the UK, selling 400,000 units across all formats. The tell-all memoir by former royalty sold 1.43 million units on Day One between the UK, US, and Canada, making it best global debut for a non-fiction book in the long-storied history of the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House. After initially selling two million copies quickly, it went back to press.

2. The United States Copyright Office refused to grant copyright protection to AI-generated works.

For now, only human-authored content can officially have a copyright protection, but we should realize it is likely that AI-created books, in part or whole, already circulate amongst us. How? Publishers use the technology quietly and stick real human names on books that were constructed by metal and plastic.

3. The increasing number of banned library books have become such a problem that the federal government appointed a Book Ban Czar to try to protect against more challenges to what our nation’s libraries stack.

Matt Nosanchuk works under Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Office For Civil Rights, is helping to save books from the clutches of hateful, organized, and ignorant book-killers

4. Barnes & Noble opens dozens of new stores for a net gain and announces it has greatly cut down on the costly process of returns.

They average a seven percent return rate after being around 30%.

5. Book publishers won most if their copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive, a site that has scanned five million books without permission or compensation.

However, only books available for sale or license in electronic format are covered. Otherwise, the archive can lend books that remain unavailable for sake to license as e-books.

6. A study showed that self-published authors gross more money than traditionally published writers.

A 2018 study claimed published authors each took in a little over $6,000 in the US; $8600 in the UK. Those paltry numbers don’t subtract out expensive costs for marketing, advertising, literary agent, legal services, etc, so it is quite possible that most published authors net barely anything from book sales. However, a 2022 survey of self-published authors conducted by The Alliance of Independent Authors, showed such authors make an average annual income of $12,749 — again, sans expenses.

7. The biggest publisher to be sold this year was Simon & Schuster.

A private equity firm bought them after the Department of Justice blocked Penguin Random House, the largest publisher, from gobbling them up based on antitrust laws.

8. Tik Tok, already locked and loaded to sell millions of books, launched its own book publishing firm, 8th Note Press.

This presents a conflict of interest into the hands of Generation X to figure out.

9. E-book sales, based on recent trends, should have surpassed 200,000,000 units this year. 23% of the $26 billion publishing industry in 2020 came from eBook purchases.

In that year, 191 million e-books were sold.

10. In 2022, audiobook sales continued to grow, but not by double-digits for the first time in seven years.

As many as one book sale in 11 comes in the form of an audiobook and represents about a two-billion-dollar book industry segment.

Need Book Marketing Help?

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Why Do Authors Fear Marketing Their Books?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/why-do-authors-fear-marketing-their.html

Don’t We All Need Some Bibliotherapy?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/we-all-need-some-bibliotherapy.html

Authors Need A Key Fob Book Marketing Moment

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/authors-need-key-fob-book-marketing.html

Breaking Book Publishing News!

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/breaking-book-publishing-news.html

Are Romance Books Killing Sex?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/are-romance-books-killing-sex.html

We All Lose When Libraries Close

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/we-lose-when-libraries-are-closed.html

Book Marketer Shoplifts To Save Humanity!

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/book-marketer-shoplifts-to-save-humanity.html

9 Steps To Authors Having Great Media Interviews

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/9-steps-to-authors-having-great-media.html

Is American Journalism Dying?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/is-american-journalism-dead.html

Does Self-Help Advice Help Authors?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/does-self-help-advice-help-authors.html

About Brian Feinblum

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Why Do Authors Fear Marketing Their Books?

What if it fails -- then what?

What if it succeeds-- then what?

Are authors ready to market their books?

Most are not equipped - mentally, skillfully, financially, or knowledgeably to do so - or at least that’s what they believe. The way to defeat fear is first to acknowledge it, to break it down from a general or broad feeling to specific things, and then to identify real solutions to real challenges.

The best cure for fear is success. Even a small win.

You just need to experience success and to enjoy a moment where you saw that if you act wisely, try your best, and dedicate time to something, that you will come out on top. Not all of the time. Maybe only some of the time. But that’s good enough when you battle on the competitive playground of marketing books.

No is the second most common thing an author will hear; most often what they hear is silence. Rejection comes packaged up in many formats. Authors need to increase their odds of success by reducing the things that can go wrong. Put yourself in a position to win -- not lose.

The more common fears authors have are:

Asking someone to buy their book
Talking to strangers
Not feeling they are worthy of attention
That they don't know what to do or how to do it
Discovering people really don’t like their book
Running out of money to properly promote it
Not having enough time to do what’s needed
Lacking the basic technical skills to market a book

Some people have a lot of fears and hang-ups. That’s their nature. Maybe meds and therapy - or avoidance techniques helps quell their anxiety. But as soon as you are grounded and centered, but have legit concerns and fears, start to list and confront them. If that doesn’t work, I suggest this strategy:

Outsource your publicity and marketing
Do what you can -- ignore the rest
Try things that beat your fears, such as doing advertising if you don’t like speaking and lack time for social media or lack the ability for getting media coverage
Work through your fears by trying to do what you fear -- and discover you won’t die doing it.

Dear authors, I have only one fear, that you’ll simply give up on your book. Never, ever capitulate.

You’ve got this.

Need Book Marketing Help?

Read This!

How About A Sleepover – At A Fabled Library?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/how-about-sleepover-at-library.html

Can Authors Hook Readers In?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/can-authors-hook-reader-in.html

Authors Should Scale Their Book Marketing

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/authors-should-scale-their-book.html

Authors Face Novel Pseudonym Dilemma

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/authors-face-novel-pseudonym-dilemma.html