Digital versus Print

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine

Let’s all take a quick breath.

Print isn’t dead. Yes, it is changing, but this change will be better for authors. Print is moving over to let digital have space beside it to increase the reach of authors to their readers.

Don’t get fooled into believing it is a war between digital and print. It isn’t. These two avenues will benefit authors in publishing their manuscripts. Think about it. Once you had only one avenue, the print side. Now, you have the digital side added to increase your exposure to readers. It’s another way to get your book out to the masses. You have people who like digital…they love to read on their readers, pads and computers. But, guess what? You still have people who like to hold a book in their hands and read. So don’t be fooled into thinking print has gone by the wayside. It is still alive and doing well.

In case you have forgotten, authors also have another avenue to reach more people interested in books. Actually, they've had it for a while. But, I guess the majority of authors never thought to use that avenue. What is it you ask? Audio. Authors are now seeing where audio is a possibility for them.

Now to me, that gives authors three strong avenues to reach a whole lot of audience. If your book is good, your audience will be buying in more than one of these avenues.

So, you are wondering what the message is? Don’t sell yourself short. Embrace all three avenues. Use them for your benefit. The more access you offer to your wonderful book, the bigger your fan base.

Authors Take Five With Southern Writers Magazine

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine

Authors are knocking themselves out to get their books noticed. While it is true, a source of traffic comes from Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., still that is not enough to get your book to the top of the sales register. The reason––you are competing with more authors than you can imagine. According to stats over a million books are published a year.

It is certainly important for you to have a location on the Social Media highway. But if you really want your book to sell more––then you need to have the title of your book and your name in as many places as possible. Why? Think of it like stores. The more stores you have your book in the more books you have a chance of selling. There are also sites you can put your book on and it is sent to people by email. Getting your name and book title out there is the key. However, don’t spend too much time just what is required to do the listing. Although authors need to put their names out you also want to know that some of the places you are putting them are not going to be deleted. Make sure some of those places you post your name and book title is going to be shown indefinitely…which means they are archived.

Sometimes it is difficult for authors to toot their own horns. They are not comfortable proclaiming to the world their book was just published. But if not you, then who?

Take pen in hand, not to write a story, but to make a list of the entire Social media available, list which ones are good for you. Obviously anything, that has to do with readers, books, eBooks is a definite place you want your name and the title of your newest book.

Commenting on other people’s blogs is a must. Every time you find a blog that has to do with writing, authors and such, be sure and make comments on the blog. The exposure you gain from doing this is priceless. This is one of the major areas authors are falling short…they are not commenting on blogs. Be sure and sign your name, your website, blog address and the title of your book. Again, we are going after exposure.

Promotion and marketing is sometimes difficult for authors but it has to be done to get your book noticed and taken to the sales register. Many authors tell me I can’t spend time promoting my time needs to be spent writing books. I agree with that, but unfortunately, unless you as an author can afford to hire someone to handle your promotion and marketing of you and your book then the job is left to you. Otherwise those books you are writing won’t get read.

We have created a way to help authors promote their books; it doesn’t take but a few minutes, five to be exact. It’s called TAKE FIVE. It is a great tool for an author to sell books because the author connects with their reader. The author chooses a part of their newest book––an intriguing part, a cliffhanger, a warm and fuzzy part or an action scene that will make the reader want to know what happened and will make them want to get the book to find out what happened. It gives the reader a taste of the flavor waiting for them when they buy the authors book. Readers connect better and bond with an author if they hear them read from their book. Take a few minutes, check out TAKE FIVE, and hear some of the authors. Your reading stays on the site, it is archived so you can link it to your sites to send your readers and fans back to hear you read your book. A great sales tool for authors to use.

Southern Writers Magazine helps authors promote their books.