Six or seven years ago my advice to aspiring authors of nonfiction books was to build an audience platform by blogging. An example of how critical blogging could be to securing a publishing contract can be found in the case of Ann Marie Ackermann, author of Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee. After an initial assessment of her manuscript, I had recommended she start a historical true-crime blog, and she did. In fact, the editor of the ideal book series at Kent State University Press became a fan of her blog and invited her to submit a book proposal. Her book won a 2018 IPPY in the True Crime category, closed a 180-year-old cold case, and has also been translated into German where it received critical acclaim and was recognized for its scholarly contribution to the history of forensics. Today, blogging may or may not be something an author decides to invest time and energy in. If your authority as an author is based on your subject-area expertise, it remains an important goal to have a visible presence on the internet establishing your credibility. Whether blogging is the best means to achieve that goal depends on you and your project. It may be more important to be listed as an expert source available to journalists and appear as a credible source in news publications covering your subject area. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) may be a better fit to…
A former television producer and college professor, Dr. Jean Raffa changed directions in midlife to discover and write about her passions. Informed by over 30 years of psychological and spiritual study, her books and teachings guide others to growth and self-empowerment. To be released in October 2020, her newest book, The Soul’s Twins, is about reconciling differences between masculine and feminine, overcoming oppositional conflicts, and… [Read More]
Filed Under: #MeToo, Amaterasu, Apollo, archetypes, Artemis, Carl Jung, Jean Benedict Raffa, Jean Raffa, Jungian psychology, The Soul's Twins, Tsukuyomi
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By Ann Marie Ackermann When the director pointed out a plot hole in my movie script, I winced. We were walking through the old section of a German town, scouting possible shooting locations, and she was trying to imagine the film, scene for scene. “If you don’t put the murderer and victim together right away,” she said, “the audience won’t figure out their connection. We… [Read More]
Whether you are preparing to launch your new book, still writing the manuscript, or marketing your book a year after its release, you can’t ignore the importance of your author platform for your success as an author. Today you need to demonstrate to a publisher you have built a big enough platform to sell a sufficient number of books before they’ll offer you a contract…. [Read More]
Taking a girl’s voice is the same as taking her power. Petals of Rain: A Mother’s Memoir by Rica Keenum is a memoir about love and loss, secrets and lies. When a young girl from a broken family meets a charming man, she attempts to build a new life. But after a whirlwind marriage and the birth of two sons, their love story rips apart… [Read More]
Filed Under: Alliance of Independent Authors, Amazon Kindle Direct, Australian Publishers Association, Book Reality, Draft2Digital, Elephant Journal, Ellipsis Zine, Fictive Dream, Huffington Post, Indie Publisher, IngramSpark, Literary Mama, memoir, Motherwell, Petals of Rain, Print-on-demand, Rica Keenum, Sunlight Press
January begins a new fiscal year. It’s also the best time to organize your tax information for last year. Whether your book has been out for more than a year, or you’re more than a year out before you finish writing your book, this is the best time of year to gather the information together for tax purposes. On the income side, identify the sources… [Read More]