The Wicked Writing Blog

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Showing Tag: "self publishing" (Show all posts)

How To (Really) Sell Your Novel - The Shocking Truth

Posted by John Yeoman on Friday, April 5, 2013, In : Libels & Wickedness 
How do you sell a novel? That’s the number one problem for every self-publishing author and it probably accounts for all the other numbers too. Unless your novel sells, you may well be a writer but you’re not a novelist. Here are four ways that don’t work.

1. Banner ads don’t work.

Many sites will sell you a banner, in a choice of sizes, to promote your book and each at a fancy price. None will yield a profit. You might not even get a single click-through. Why? The average click-...

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How Author, 80, Won $130,000 For A Debut Novel

Posted by John Yeoman on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, In : The Writing Craft 

If your novel has been banging on agents’ doors for years and got nowhere take heart from Berwick Coates, an English author who this week nailed down a $130,000 deal and a two-book contract at age 80.

His historical thriller The Last Conquest was snapped up by one of the world’s largest publishers Simon & Schuster after Coates had failed to impress agents with several previous novels. “They were clearly not being read,” he said.

A retired history teacher, Coates succeeded only when ...

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What price a 99 cent book?

Posted by John Yeoman on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, In : The Writing Craft 
The recent trend for desperate self-publishers to mark down their ebook novels to 99c - around 65 British pence - is worrying. That's half the price of a typical newspaper, which is price-subsidised by advertising, and a quarter the price of a cup of cappuccino downed in a few gulps.

Have we reached the age of gulp fiction?

It's worrying because it sets price expectations in the market that self-publishers who prefer not to write in consumable gulps may be forced willy-nilly to follow. The argu...
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John Yeoman

Dr John Yeoman, MA Oxon, MPhil, PhD Creative Writing, FSRS*  is a UK university tutor in the short story. He has 42 years experience as a successful commercial writer, newspaper editor and one-time chairman of a major PR consultancy.

He has published innumerable works of humour, some intended to be humorous.

* Founder, the Society for the Rehabilitation of the Semi-colon