In the article Using Amazon’s Sales Rank System we discussed how to use Amazon’s search engine and the Amazon Sales Rank (ASR) to compile a bibliography of books for use in the “Competing Books” segment of your nonfiction proposal or for a “Comparative Book Survey” to accompany your fiction… Read more   

Amazon’s Sales Rank (ASR) is a powerful tool for searching out competitive books for your nonfiction book proposal or for a survey to accompany a fiction manuscript submission. Amazon has a very comprehensive search engine for finding similar books, but the ASR puts legs under your selections by allowing you… Read more   

The Amazon Sales Rank (ASR) is a powerful tool. It determines the commercial viability of any book you might wish to use in the “Competition” segment of your nonfiction book proposal or for a competitive survey to accompany a fiction manuscript submission. Not only can it indicate how a book… Read more   

As a member of several writing and book marketing social networks, I get my share of requests to become “friends.” It continues to amaze me how many of these people write erotica. Equally amazing is how few of these folks are men. There is a constant barrage of sweet elderly… Read more   

In last week’s article, I explained that I am undertaking a new approach to marketing a novel. An unpublished author normally provides a complete manuscript of their novel to an editor, and if that editor “just loves it,” they bring it forward into the labyrinth of the acquisition and publishing… Read more   

OK, here’s the problem: You are an unpublished author, and an editor has requested a complete manuscript of your novel. They read the manuscript, and they “just love it,” BUT they’re not sure of the market for the book. There is something a little quirky in the book that the… Read more   

A friend of mine wrote a screenplay based on the book, Tuscaloosa, by W. Glasgow Phillips. The book was published in 1995 by the Plume imprint of Penguin and received massive literary accolades, went into translations, and got a film option. A writing grant was awarded to Phillips,… Read more   

Book Expo America is coming up May 29th thru June 1st at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It might hold some opportunity for writers seeking a home for proposals and manuscripts. I say “might” because my experience was not that rewarding. At the suggestion of my agent, I attended the… Read more   

I boxed up my ego, my pride of accomplishment, my certainty that I am a good writer, my belief that anyone who feels otherwise simply is out of touch with reality, and submitted my first chapter of Vamonos!, my second novel, to Ray Rhamey’s blog Flogging… Read more   

I just became a co-agent on a book publishing project. I don’t know if agents often invite clients to share in commissions when they bring good stuff to them, but mine did. I didn’t refuse the offer. And if you are a publisher, you need to check this story out.… Read more