Make It Snappy!

Last December, I was fortunate enough to do a talk at the Warner Leisure Hotels at Cricket St Thomas, for the wonderful readers of The People’s Friend. Afterwards, I was …

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Amazon A+ – All Pluses and No Minuses

How can Amazon’s A+ Content help self-published writers? Simon Whaley chats to two authors who explored its promotional opportunities. A year ago, Amazon gave self-published authors access to a new …

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Seven Coronation Sites

To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, this month’s BBC Countryfile magazine has a right royal theme running through it. Check out my Top Seven Coronation Sites across Great Britain where …

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Pre-Order Pointers

Sell your books before you’ve written them. Simon Whaley explores the business of pre-orders. Picture the scene: your readers have devoured your latest self-published book and want more. They go …

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Radio Waves

Talking to local radio can be a great way to publicise your book. Simon Whaley chats to two writers who’ve taken to the airwaves. I shall never forget the time …

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Taxing Writers

(NOTE: tax references detailed here are UK only and correct at time of writing (March 2022), and so are subject to change in the future.) It only seems like yesterday …

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The Price of Love

Roses are red, violets are blue, with love all around, why aren’t you writing romance, too? Mills and Boon publish over 700 books a year and claim that in the …

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BookBub Bonanza

With BookBub celebrating its tenth birthday in January 2022, Simon Whaley chats to three authors who use promotional email newsletter services to boost their writing business Launched in January 2012, …

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Pitch Perfect

Time is money, so submitting articles to magazines speculatively does not make business sense. Instead, professional writers pitch their ideas first. They approach an editor with their article idea, and …

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Mail Order Mogul

Napoleon may have called the British a nation of shopkeepers, but it was a young 19th century Welsh draper who turned the British into a nation of mail-order shoppers. On …

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