Training Authors with CJ and Shelley Hitz

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Submit Your Questions for our Live Q&A Session

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Announcing Our First Live Quarterly Q&A Session

At the end of last year, we asked if you would be interested in live Q&A sessions with us where we answered questions on writing, publishing and marketing books – and you responded with a resounding yes. That’s why I’m excited to let you know that we’re gearing up for the first one.

Here’s the scoop:

When: Wednesday, February 19th at 10:00 am Mountain time (11 am Central)

Where: This event will be hosted with a Google Hangout on Air so you can attend from wherever you are. We’ll also have the replay available on our blog for those who can’t make it live.  Click here to RSVP on Google +.

Cost: FREE – both the live event and the replay will be available at no cost to you.

What: We’re accepting questions on all topics, but we will focus on the topics that generate the biggest response.

Our busy schedules prevent us from answering a lot of individual questions that come into our site or offering private coaching, but we do want to provide a way for you to get your questions answered. So we hope you’ll join us for this event. This session will be driven by you and your questions. No pitch from us, just open, honest answers to help you reach for success.

What do you want to know?

Please submit your questions in the comments below. We’ll also take questions during the live event, but submitting them in advance will help us determine the focus topics. We can’t promise to answer every question, but all questions are welcome and encouraged.

UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone who attended. We’ll be hosting Q&A sessions like this one quarterly throughout the year. You can be notified via e-mail when the next one will occur by signing up for our newsletter at: https://www.trainingauthors.com/newsletter/

You can watch the replay on the video below, the event page linked above, or download the audio version by clicking here.

 

Here are the links we mentioned during the webinar:

Posts with Publishing Options:

Other links:

How to Sell Your Self-Published Book in Book Stores

Getting Your Book In Barnes & Noble

76+ Places to Submit Your KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook

Writing Good Book Titles

General Trademark Info

Trademark Search

650+ Places for Authors to Get Exposure for Their Books through Guest Blogging

What NOT to Post When Marketing Your Book

The Book Designer: Book Design & Page Layout Software

Marketing Your Book on Amazon

Book Formatting Tools and Resources:

We also have a list of recommended resources for publishing your books here on our website at: https://www.trainingauthors.com/resources/#publishing1

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

About Heather Hart

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For close to a decade, Heather Hart has been helping other writers make their dreams come true. As an internationally best-selling and award-winning author, with well over a dozen books in print, she knows what works and what doesn’t. Furthermore, she knows it’s possible to be a successful author without launching your own business. Her desire is to help writers keep writing… and have fun doing it. Find out more at ToolsForAuthors.com
 
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Comments

  1. Thomas McGann says

    My question is:
    How do I connect my blog postings with the various groups I belong to on LinkedIn as well as connecting to FaceBook and any other social media outlets? These blogs are not promotions. They are blogs I write that I believe others will find interesting. I am trying to get exposure for my writing skills.
    Thanks.

    Reply

    • Heather Hart says

      Hey Thomas, we didn’t get to your question today, but just to give you a quick tip – you can use a service such as TwitterFeed to do it automatically (http://twitterfeed.com/) Or there are also WordPress apps or widgets that will do that for you as well and even Facebook apps that will pull them for you.

      Reply

  2. Alana Terry says

    Hi there, I’m insterested in book distribution channels for paperbacks, ISBNS, Createspace vs. Ligthning Source, etc. Basically, how to get paperbacks into bookstores (online and physical.)

    Reply

  3. Jane Bettany says

    Hi ladies,

    Thanks for this. I will listen to the replay as I’m in the UK. However, I have a question. I’m in the process of finishing off an iBook at the moment. It’s aimed at 11 year olds and is about interesting creatures of the sea (it’s going to be called Ocean Oddities). I’ve commissioned some great illustrations and there’s going to be plenty of interaction with videos, quizzes etc.

    My question is this: I will obviously want to create a Kindle version of the book and realise that I won’t be able to retain all of the interactivity that I’ll be including in the iBook. However, I know that videos can be included with Kindle Fire. Where can I find out more information about how to embed videos for Kindle, and do you know if there are any other interactive features that can be included?

    Thanks and best wishes. I look forward to listening in to the replay!

    Jane

    Reply

  7. christina degano says

    Pls advise on the following..

    1. Best software to prepare/format a book.
    2. General first step suggestion for an obvious newbie.

    Grateful and cheerful salutations!

    Reply

    • Heather Hart says

      That’s a great questions, Barry! We didn’t get a chance to answer it during our live session, but I would say it depends on the author. Every author is different. Every author gives away a different amount of content. I know authors that won’t give away anything, and authors that would give away all of it. So it really depends on you, your goals, marketing strategy, etc.

      Reply

  10. Jane Joseph says

    Heather, I would like to know more about enhanced Kindle eBooks. Also have you looked into the new comic program that recently came available though Amazon? I am intrigued by the idea and would love to know more ideas on the subject!

    Thanks, both of you, for all you provide for free. That is just heartwarming. You are the best.

    Reply

  11. frederick carmichael says

    i just written my first eBook the Intrepid Explorer and i went through lulu.com to get my eBook distributed on the barns and noble nook and iTunes, everything has been up and running for couple of months now and i’v sold about 12 copy’s, and that was it, nothing else has been happening its as if i ran into a brick wall or something, i have also tried my hand in self promoting by starting a website. guiltystyles.com , posting links on Facebook and twitter, honesty that’s where i think my 12 buyers was from…….please help

    Reply

  12. jane joseph says

    Question for Q&A session:
    If I were to use Amazon’s CreateSpace for print on demand through them, can I also print the same book through another printer like Lightning Source?
    Thanks.

    Reply

  13. Malva Tarasewicz says

    I read about the service that guarantees “10,000 downloads” of one’s ebook during Kindle Select free promotion days. I tried to research it a bit, worried that it might be a scam, and the folks on “Warrior Forum” where the paypal button for the service is located couldn’t come up with answers — in fact, they didn’t seem to know which of their many offerings I was referring to! Can you share more of your experiences (or people’s experiences that you know of personally) about this – is it really legit? Thanks.

    Reply

  15. Kristi says

    I have questions about publishing a children’s book with illustrations through CreateSpace. Is it even an option? How do I get started?

    If CreateSpace isn’t the ideal publisher for children’s books, who would be your next suggestion? The least amount of money upfront, the better!! 🙂

    Reply

    • Shelley Hitz says

      Kristi – there are options to print children’s books via CreateSpace, but they are limited in what they can do. They don’t offer hard back covers yet and the costs tend to be high with full color images. I recommend calling their support and talking to them about your options.

      There are great options for eBooks though. Here is a video on a template I’m using for ours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV_-61kWvpE

      Once our book is published, I will write an entire post on children’s books so be looking for that (hopefully soon).

      Reply

  16. Travis Rusko says

    Hey guys!

    First of all thank you so much for your awesome article!

    https://www.trainingauthors.com/47-places-to-submit-your-free-kdp-promotion-for-your-kindle-ebook/

    I used your suggestions and had wonderful success. I had 14,564 FREE downloads in FIVE days!

    I also SOLD 94 copies of my ebook that same month and 7 copies of my paperback! My best month before this was 9 or 10 ebook sales!

    Here is my question. I was enrolled in KDP Select. I didn’t auto renew my enrollment because I was planning to add my book to other storefronts (Nook, iBooks, etc.). However, life has been crazy busy and I do not know if I will get the time in the next several weeks to add my book to those other stores.

    Do you recommend I enroll in KDP Select again if I am not currently able to add the book to other store fronts? Do you find that your sales on Amazon tend to go lower over time if your book isn’t enrolled in KDP Select?

    Thanks for everything!

    Reply

    • Shelley Hitz says

      Travis,
      How many borrows are you getting through the KDP select program? That is one factor I use to determine whether to keep a book exclusive with Amazon. If you are getting a decent # of borrows, it may make sense to keep it in KDP select. Another option if you enroll in the second 90 day period is to use the Kindle Countdown Deal this time around vs. another free promotion. You can lower your book price for a certain period of time to help boost sales.

      Reply

      • Travis Rusko says

        Thanks for asking. I forgot to mention that. During January (the month of my 5 Day Free offer) I had 16 borrows.

        In February I have only had 4 borrows, but that is because my KDP Select enrollment ended on February 8, so it was 4 borrows over the course of 8 days.

        As you know I am new to this and these borrows I am getting are without any kind of website or real marketing as I am just getting off the ground. So does it sound like I should enroll for KDP Select again?

        Also, do you have a post for a list of websites to add your Kindle Countdown Deal to, much like you had the post I listed above filled with pages to add your FREE Kindle book to? That would be an awesome resource. Keep up the great work!

        Reply

  17. Carole says

    I have a WP tech guy who is dragging me out with finishing installing new theme and widgets. Q: He has a mockup of my site up on new theme (old one doesn’t show up when G’d) Can I just go in & change the administrator & PW, and remove him from the action? He’s been paid to date. I don’t want to take a chance in losing my website info, What would you do?

    Reply

    • Heather Hart says

      I’m hesitant to answer that without more information. It is your website, so you can remove an administrator at any time. But if it’s just a mockup I would make sure that you have all the rights to leave it up as is. I would recommend contacting him and letting him know you’d like to pull out and see where that would leave you.

      Reply

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