Barry Weston writes entertaining detective novels set in Tasmania. Perhaps Australia's answer to Nordic noir? We wanted a dim, grimy and ambient feel for the cover -- the gumshoe on the cover is none other than the author. The title typeface is Veneer One.
Public Relations and Authors
If you are one of those independent authors to whom selling does not come easily, you might want to consider a publicist. Local publicist Phillip Anderson offers reasonably priced six week campaigns. Such campaigns typically feature the following:
- Author interviews and reviews in relevant newspapers
- Author interviews with key online news sources
- Book reviews across national and regional newspapers and online publications
- National and local author radio interviews (where possible)
Phillip can be contacted via email: phillip@phillipandersonpublicity.com.au. Before engaging in such campaigns, authors will need to get their ducks in a row:
- Make sure their books are easily available in the areas reached by the publicity
- Ensure that they have spare stock in case sales go well (though this does not apply to print on demand and ebook sales online)
- Rehearse the points they want to get across in interviews, the key selling strengths of their book, the so-called 'elevator pitch'. And have some kind of idea of potential customers and what kind of angles might appeal to them
These might seem obvious points, but we have seen a remarkable number of authors who weren't really across any of them before initiating publicity efforts. Remember: bookstores will be much better disposed to independent authors who are making a clear and sustained effort to promote their work.
If You Liked Author A You Will Like Author B
Amazon and other online booksellers are very good at picking up on your searches and purchases to anticipate other items you may be interested in. Of course, the selections are made by algorithms rather than Amazon staff members. Awesome Author Recommender goes in the other direction, using human beings to point the way from one author to the next. Judging from my searches, the site does not go very deep at present, but the authors it did highlight from the searches I made were definitely top drawer.