Once you have written your book, you naturally want to get it into as many hands as possible. However, learning how to do that is an undertaking in itself. As an author, you must be familiar with what parts of a book are most valuable to readers. Of course, your content is valuable, but there are other, smaller features your book must have to carry weight. Two of these features are your book’s ISBN and book metadata.

First gourds start popping up in the grocery store. Then come the Black Friday ads. Soon Mother Nature gets in on things and the leaves start to change. Before you know it, the holidays are here and you’re rushing to get your end-of-year orders in. The holiday sales season isn’t sneaky. Some of the signs are already here, but it still manages to take authors by surprise. But not this year. This is the year you beat the holiday rush and here's how.

If independent bookstores are part of your sales strategy, it's important to understand what booksellers are looking for in the books they carry, but first you'll need to get their attention. Booksellers don't always have the largest budgets or the most free time to work with, so if your book marketing materials communicate how your book helps them help their store and represents something they can utilize for in-store marketing, they're more likely to use your marketing materials. And when a bookstore not only purchases a copy of your book, but also displays it with your marketing materials, that means more attention for your book on the shelf.

Do you know how to create impressions for your book? Traditional publishing houses use multiple impressions to create buzz about the books they publish. You, too, can create impressions that will generate interest in your book and increase sales. The goal is to get as much attention as possible in a variety of ways, and here are a few tips how.

Have you ever found yourself waiting for the next book in a series to come out? And the next one after that? The truth is book series sell a lot of books. When compelling characters are engaged in exciting storylines, readers look forward to finding out what happens to them even if they have to wait for another book. If you haven't already thought about writing a book series, consider why you might want to and how to do it. 

You had a great book idea, you wrote a fine book, and now you think you're ready to self-publish it. Before you take that leap of faith, however, there are several things you should consider in order to publish like a professional. 

All authors love their books, but some struggle with the idea of promoting them. Sometimes this is because they don’t like the idea of attention or feel self-promotion is arrogant. Other times, it’s because they feel confident in their writing ability, but not in their marketing and distribution abilities. The truth is that you must build your following if you want to be known as an author. Self-promotion is a reality in today’s writing world, and it is neither arrogant nor painful if it is done well.

Your book is finished, and hopefully the orders are ready to start rolling in, but you aren't sure how the ordering process works. Well, there are two ways you can order your book yourself, either specifically for you or for your customers. And the third way your book can be ordered is by booksellers, retailers, and libraries directly from Ingram to sell on your behalf.

A highly important aspect of your book marketing plan is to determine how to price your book. Before you can do that, you should consider your publishing goal. Is it to make as much money as possible? Do you just want to reach as many readers as you can? You will have to take this big question seriously and think strategically about setting your price, but pricing is less overwhelming when you consider a few basics.

Thanks to Print-on-Demand (POD) technology, the costs associated with maintaining inventory for independent publishers have all but vanished. Because POD allows you to print anywhere from 1 to 10,000 copies of a particular title, depending on demand, independent publishers are off the hook when it comes to determining how much to invest in an initial print run. In fact, there are numerous benefits for indie publishers who incorporate POD into their publishing plans.