We've shared with you tips on formatting, self-publishing, and marketing your book. Next week we'll talk about cover art and design as well as help you expand your social networks so that you have a support system in place when your book launches, but that hardly covers everything.

Earlier this month we reached out to indie author and returning guest blogger Brenda Perlin (@BrooklynAndBo) for her suggestions on how to set up a book signing event. Here's what she had to say:

Book Soup in Hollywood was at the top of my list. I’d been going there for years. But how would I get through their doors as an indie author? I’m nowhere near what anyone would call famous. They’ve hosted celebrities like Jewel and Grace Jones. Still, I had to give it a shot. You shouldn’t be afraid to do the same with your own book.

Do you believe in your work? Do you have good cover art? Has it been professionally edited and formatted? Would you be proud to read an excerpt in person? These are all things you must consider. Then, once you’ve researched bookstores in your area, like Book Soup in L.A. for me, consider some of the following authors’ suggestions.

(And don’t forget, if you’re in the Los Angeles area, come by Book Soup this Friday at 7:00 p.m. where I’ll be signing copies and reading excerpts from LA Punk Rocker. Look for a follow-up blog piece next month in which I’ll tell you how it went!)

Before I share part of the email to Book Soup, just know that I might have laid the flattery on a bit thick, but I was on a mission and did not want to be turned down. I wasn’t ready to take no for an answer.

“My name is Brenda. I am interested in doing something with you at Book Soup in the way of a book launch or book signing. The paperback should be on Amazon shortly and the e-book just came out. There has been a bit of a buzz after Billy Idol bought the book and responded to me on Twitter…

“L.A. Punk Rocker has just been released. It’s an anthology based on eighties punk… I wanted to take the reader back in time. Back to when I was a teenager and felt misunderstood and alienated. A time when nothing was better than the music and being on the streets of Hollywood in clubs or hanging out at our local dive, Oki Dog. When I felt connected to something for the first time… my very first taste of freedom....”

I then shared the official blurb/description of the book, thanked the reader for their time, and closed with, “Thank you for your time and consideration. It would be a complete pleasure to be invited to your store. I love Book Soup!”

What I said worked because they contacted me back shortly thereafter and scheduled my signing for the end of October. I’ve been counting down the days ever since. Only two more now!

Success.

This approach might not work for everyone, though, so I recently contacted a few of my fellow author friends to see what they did to pull it off. How do they prep for a book signing?

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Stay tuned for the full article, fully-loaded with insights from indie authors Martin Crosbie, Lorraine Devon Wilke, and others, later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com.

In a world full of books, how do you get noticed? Will your story ever have a chance to shine in the over-saturated world of publishing?

As more people take to publishing books, the Indie community is increasing in volume at record speed. So, how do you compete with all the other authors?

My answer to this question is that you don’t. I would suggest that you not even try to compete.

Think of the Indie publishing world as a team: we are all working together for the greater good of a collective. Very early on in my career I learned that, together, we are more powerful than if we were to go it alone. And who doesn’t want support? What you must remember about this com-munity is that we all need extra support now and then, so make sure you have your proverbial karma dollars in the bank.

I’m not saying everything should be tit for tat, but I have found the more I give the more I receive.

Writing a book is a largely selfish endeavor. It’s all about you, your story. But, marketing that same book doesn’t have to be as divisive or isolating. Create the cleanest manuscript you can produce. Then the next step is to sell the product. For that you are going to need a sizable support network. In my experience, if you step out a bit to help others before you need an extra push, you will have people waiting in the wings- all too happy to assist you when the time comes.

Of course, not all people are as responsive as we would like. You should be prepared for some disappointment but, generally, people won’t forget you. Whether it’s sharing your book on Facebook or Twitter, helping with your blurbs (thank you, Janni Styles, who seems to have the secret to writing perfect blurbs and is worth her weight in gold), or putting together a blog post for your latest work in order to spread the news.

But, even with all of these digital resources at our disposal, word of mouth is still the leader when it comes to sales. Many of us lack the support of our friends or family. So, who better to understand what we are experiencing than other authors?

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Tune in to The Official Prose. Blog later today for the full article by returning guest writer, Brenda Perlin (@BrooklynAndBo), at blog.theprose.com.

They all call it the demon of Bethel Cemetery.

There are many who disagree on who it was, or where it came from, but they all agree on one thing - it's out for no good.

Some said it's the servant of the devil, bent on destroying those who do not please and revere the Lord. Others, they think it's the soul of a murdered tribal warrior, bent on destroying the white man that had stolen his land and killed his people. No matter the story, the ending is always the same - if you find yourself alone in the old Bethel Cemetery when the moon is high and the hours late, you're bound for trouble from beyond.

Bethel Cemetery is located in the s-bend of the over-travelled Tracy Road. It lies cradled in a patch of dense, temperate woodland, and is heavily shaded, even on the hottest of summer days, by dense clusters of ancient, ashy oak trees and ancient, mottled magnolias. Just to the left of the old cemetery sits a tiny, square, brick Presbyterian church, tucked neatly in its own cluster of dusty, old oaks and regal, towering magnolias.

While this little red, brick church only dates back no later than the late 30's or 40's, legend has it that the original church had been burnt down in Sherman's "March to the Sea" during the Civil War. An even grimmer version of the story claimed that not only had Sherman burnt down the original church - a tiny, white washed building made from knotted clapboard - but he had imprisoned all the residents of the surrounding town inside and burnt them all alive in a show of dominance and conquest.

There is no doubt that the church had figured into the violence of the Civil War. The area had been ravaged by the "March to the Sea", a fact that could be found in any journal, diary, history book or government record of the time. In his master plan to burn the South into submission, General Sherman had happened upon the tiny town, an important train depot with local access to the Mississippi River. Here, he had found a people that had not only backed the Southern Rebellion, but were determined to see its success or die in attempting to protect it. He ensured that many of them did die, whether by fire, massacre, or other means, and their bodies were buried in marked and unmarked graves throughout the little church's cemetery.

An even darker chapter of the tiny town's history revealed that the area had also greatly figured into the slaughtering of the local native tribe, the Atokas. In the late 1700's the area had been gifted to a several Revolutionary War heroes for their loyalty and bravery in the battle against Mother Britain. However, the land was already inhabited by a large tribe of Native Americans who had lived in the area for time untold. While initial efforts were made to live side by side peacefully, tensions soon boiled, and the tribe was wiped out through disease, famine and warfare with the newly planted white men that claimed the land all around them.

These gruesome facts seemed to explain it all when the attacks began.

The first recorded attack was reported in the early 70's. A man, whose identity had been protected at the time, claimed that he had been attacked by a demon creature as he had been wondering through the cemetery late one night in autumn.

Mr. John Doe claimed to have been out on a night hunt, when he decided to cut through the cemetery to get back to his car parked on Tracy Road. As he entered the center of the cemetery, he had suddenly felt very cold and said the air had gone still. He claimed that everything had inexplicably fallen silent, and the hair on the back of his neck had risen to points. Feeling uneasy, he had turned around, coming face to face with a pair of glowing, red eyes. He had turn and run at that point, but claimed that he could hear growling just behind him, and feel the hot, stinking breath of the creature that pursue him. As he had neared the other side of the cemetery, he tripped and fell, throwing his arms over his face as he hit the ground. He had then been set upon by the demon, who had shredded his clothes and the skin of his arms and chest.

They had taken pictures of the man, showing his ripped and bloody clothing, as well as the heavy bandaging of his arms. He claimed to have never seen more of the beast than the glowing red eyes, but claimed that he had smelled the sulfurous flames of hell reeking off of it. John Doe claimed that as the beast tore at his flesh, he could hear the savage laugh of the devil and feel his pitch fork stabbing down on his flesh over and over again.

Even those who did not fear the Lord were struck with fear at the tale. Suddenly, mothers no longer let their children walk home along Tracy Road, and the church decided to put up a fence to surround the cemetery, a tall, wrought-iron fence, with a heavy black gate that bore a great heavy chain and padlock.

But curiosity has a way with cats and men.

The next reported attack happened not even 6 months later. A young girl made the claim this time, and the facts were nearly identical to the first report. She had been out in the cemetery with her boyfriend, a star on the local football team, at an hour past midnight. It was a chill autumn month, and they decided it would be fun to find the demon of Bethel Cemetery. They had been wondering around in the cold, sharing a flask of whiskey between them, when they had heard growling in the underbrush that lined the new, heavy fence. Her boyfriend had grabbed her hand as the red eyes had appeared in the darkness. They had turned and run, but the handsome football quarterback had sustained grievous scratches, and his letterman jacket had been torn to bits before they could make it into the cab of his truck parked just yards away.

More and more stories began to circulate. Each one rang to a similar tune - red eyes, growls, scratches, dark shapes and exploding fireballs of light. Every few months, someone would step forward with a new tale, a new experience.

The demon of Bethel Cemetery was born.

Now, everyone in the town knows to avoid Bethel Cemetery, especially when the moon is high and the night is bright. It is said that if you enter the cemetery during the full moon, you are guaranteed to meet with the demon, and that the night you see him might very well be your last.

To us, the inheritors of this town, this is the place of shadow and death. It is a glance into the abyss of unknown - the gaping mouth of hell. To the people of the tiny town of Atoka, Bethel Cemetery is the haunt of the past and the future; the place where the seeds of yesterday's tragedy are sowed to yield a crop of hateful evil and discourse. This is where we stand, toe to toe with our past, and are forced to look into its bloody, glowing red eyes.

Putting out L.A. Punk Rocker was not without its headaches, yet book marketing has never been so hilarious. This has been the most fun I have had publishing a book. Of course the thrill of the first one, Shattered Reality (formally titled Home Wrecker), will never be forgotten. Doing something that you enjoy and are passionate about is imperative. For me, if there is no passion, there is no story.

Social media has its glory which, in my experience, has been the joy of reaching out to the people.

When Billy Idol responded to a Tweet I sent out about L.A. Punk Rocker, I went bonkers.

"Pretty wild chapter on me…maybe u should've written my book, good luck with it..BFI.”

My boyfriend had no idea what had just happened. He thought I needed to be rushed to the ER. I wasn’t paying attention to him. I was too busy making sure the tweet was actually from Billy Idol. That feeling was like an ice cream sundae with a cherry on top. Extra fudge. I mean, Mr. "Rebel Yell" himself actually took the time to pick up the book and leave such a cool comment.

He is tops, in my opinion, second only to UK author Mark Barry who wrote two stunning fan fiction pieces speaking from the man himself. He did Billy proud. Definitely worth the read.

This tweet was the best surprise I could have imagined. I mean, hanging around Twitter is not exactly a party. Every now and again there is some interaction and a few chuckles, but it's mostly re-tweets and business. The social part suffers as you deliriously send your message out over and over. If not dull, it can be quite depressing spending all those days, afternoons, and nights plugging away (or whatever they call tapping a keyboard) with little to show for it.

Just another day in the social media sphere.

I haven't laughed so much since I was a young punk. Now I am middle-aged and relishing in acting as juvenile as I did back in the day, some 35 years ago. I'm making new friends on Twitter. Girls involved in the Billy Idol fan club (#biffww) and guys who are still into the music of the eighties. The girls even convinced me to send another tweet out asking Billy Idol to come to our book signing in Hollywood on October 30th at Book Soup. Not sure if the man is sick of me yet but we are both on the Amazon Bestsellers list under Punk. What could be better than that?

Mark Barry convinced me to share some of the experiences I had being a ‘rebel with a cause’. An outcast teenager looking to find acceptance in a very unaccepting place. High school. As I began to write I suddenly remembered the girl I once was. There was something liberating about going back to that time as my adult self. After all, I survived it and that is a pretty big accomplishment considering all of the suicides and overdoses I witnessed. It was also nice to go there without my teenage insecurities and worries. It reminded me just how important the music was. The crushes I had on the rock stars such as Billy Idol and Bono of U2. MTV had just started airing music videos and we sat glued to our TVs watching, captivated, for hours on end.

Most of us are after the same thing when it comes to publishing a book. Sales. Sadly, sales are hard and, at times, we have to practically beg people to read our books. Even when the book is free it's like pulling teeth trying to get people to read.

Where are the readers? Why isn't anyone interested? Maybe it's because we haven't found our target audience. Were we even looking in the first place?

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Tune in to The Official Prose. Blog later today for the full story by author and returning blogger, Brenda Perlin (@BrooklynAndBo), by visiting: blog.theprose.com/blog.

Get ready to take some notes, people.

If you’re an indie author, and you’re going it alone, writing your book is only 20% of becoming a household name. As Brenda Perlin stated in her blog piece “So, you’ve written a book. What now?,” our job is to go out and find the people interested in our stories.

But, how the hell do you do that? Where do you even begin?

I have had plenty of authors come to me within my career asking me to help them further their book sales. The first question I always ask them is, “What have you done in terms of marketing?”

Cue the blank expression and the shrug effect that follows.

If you don’t have a publishing deal, which includes marketing, then I have news for you: your book should sell itself, but it won’t. You have to spend quality time getting to know your audience. The goal is to become more than just an e-book. You represent that body of work which, in turn, serves as your individual brand.

I have three steps for marketing yourself and your book(s), which will make your lives a bit easier and your pockets that much fuller.

Step One: Social Media

Yes, I know, it’s the dreaded social media. While we may love to hate it it is an incredibly useful marketing tool.

Some marketers will tell you to pay for advertisements or followers. DO NOT DO THIS. I have many years of research behind me, and I know that paying your way to the top doesn’t work in the long term.

Unfortunately for you, unless you already have deep pockets to pay someone like me, you are going to have to work hard in this arena to get noticed. Pay no mind to the amount of followers you have. Quality of your followers is much more practical and beneficial to you. The impression rate (on Twitter) and your reach and engagement (on Facebook) is your gold.

Watch these stats wisely because they will give you much needed insight into what your followers like to see from you.

Social media is very much trial-and-error but, with the nature of the speed at which social media runs, it’s also forgiving. You make an error, no big deal. In less than 20 minutes, on Twitter at least, it’s old news and no one pays attention to old news.

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Visit The Official Prose. Blog for the full article by marketing professional, writer, and social media manager, Sammie Thomas (@sammielee46) later today: blog.theprose.com/blog.

“I wrote a book.”

This statement does not define your career as an author. It is the point at which your career really begins.

As indie authors, we all are in the business of selling. It’s not just about writing a great book. It should not be a one-way street. Give and take is golden.

There has to be humanity in this “social” media world.

Practice makes practice, like a doctor who practices medicine. They do their best but there are no guarantees. There is no exact science in marketing a book. There is no “perfect” because we are human, which makes us vulnerable to making mistakes. All we can do is our best. There is something notable about that.

Being an indie author leaves us vulnerable.

We put so much of ourselves into this and so much of it we can’t share with the people closest to us. Friends and family who want to hear about the books are rare. It can feel like “my books” are a dirty subject. Writing is still our job, but you can’t really talk about it. It’s not unlike having an elephant in the room. Most people work jobs where they are asked about them. In our case, most of the time the subject is avoided and it is intentional.

Sad but true. 



What I have learned ever since I started marketing my first book is don’t expect your friends and family to be interested. Expectations will lead to disappointment.

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For the full article by novelist and returning contributor, Brenda Perlin, please visit The Official Prose. Blog later today at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

Move over, Big Brother.

Amazon, the world’s leading independent publishing marketplace, has its eyes on everyone with cross-hairs pointed directly at indie authors. That is the overarching message we have gleaned from a topic of intense debate and discussion in the literary world today.

In June, Amazon announced that its policies for book review (among others) would undergo a complete overhaul. The purpose of instituting these changes was, allegedly, to give more credence to “helpful” reviews in the hopes of thwarting junk or spam reviews.

What’s the difference? Is not every review helpful in some way? Authors lean on this form of feedback. Five-star reviews are just as valuable as one-stars, aren’t they? Unfortunately, there are people who have willfully “gamed the system,” delivering low ratings and negative feedback for personal reasons. Because of those people (perhaps more aptly named trolls) the entire indie author population is up in arms- and rightfully so.

As of early last month, Amazon changed its customer review policy which had a major retroactive impact. Not only were thousands of reviews, positive and negative, removed without warning, Amazon automatically disallowed reviews from anyone that the author knows personally. That makes sense, right? Your friends and family, coworkers, colleagues, everyone that knows you would have some sort of bias. Any review they provided then, therefore, would cause the scales to tip unfairly in your favor.

It is not a question of intention or logic, though. One of the most prevalent inquiries that keep popping up is, how does Amazon know who knows whom? The corporate “e-tailer” seems to be in no hurry to answer.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a concern of privacy. We were recently approached by an indie author, one who has contributed to our blog previously, about this issue. On the heels of a huge book launch, Brenda Perlin says that the change in Amazon’s policy, though global, hits hardest in her own back yard:

“The consequences of this new policy may change where authors are selling their books and where readers are buying them. Personally, I am going to do as little as possible with them and have taken my books out of the Kindle Unlimited program. I hesitate to take any drastic steps but eventually I might consider selling my books anywhere but Amazon.”

With the help of readers and fellow authors, she says, it is possible to avoid taking such measures.

But how?

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Stay tuned for the full article, with sources cited, later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

Right now I am in “publishing hell.”

It’s nothing new, it just goes with publishing a book. Even if you are organized, there are always headaches, obstacles and many F words flying around right before you press the PUBLISH button.

I don’t mean to sound negative but I have yet to have smooth sailing on any of my launches and this latest book, L.A. Punk Rocker will be my sixth, not counting the anthologies I have been involved with. Lucky for me, those headaches never reached my desk and they were published without incident.

The advantage to being an Indie author is that you have full control. The downside is you that have full control. With that, mistakes can be made. The luxury is you get to decide on the way you want your book to look, the price, and the marketing plan. There is freedom in that but, at the same time, plenty of room for errors.

People often come to me with a book idea thinking publishing is a breeze when in reality, it is a ton of W O R K. And then some. There are many factors to take into account and you can never be too prepared.

Here are some suggestions. Through trial and many errors I have learned a few things.

Book publishing takes a village:

The Indie community is rapidly growing. It’s always helpful to have support and that is why it is important to build your team of supporters early on. I look at it as a give and take. It might not always be rewarding but in my experience if you are willing to go out of your way for another writer they will most likely do the same for you. It’s best to build this village as soon as you get involved in the industry. Even before you have finished your books. These people will stand behind you when it is time for your book to be published and stick with you long after.

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Stay tuned for the article in its entirety later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.