L. Diane Wolfe's Blog, page 39

How to do a Successful Book Signing

Today Siv Ottem's cover art for her debut novel, Secrets of the Ash Tree, is being revealed by Michael Di Gesu, the cover artist. Be sure to visit his site after reading this post!

Book Signings
*Excerpt from How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now!

Upon hearing the words “book signing,” most people think of a bookstore. And in the past, bookstores were great places for authors to meet readers and fans.

The decline of the bookstore and the emergence of e-books has changed that aspect. Fewer s...

Royalty-Free Stock Images

Like music, images are copyrighted. Permission must be granted by the artist or photographer before you can use them. This goes for commercial and non-commercial use.

If you’re looking for an image for a book cover, you want to find one that is royalty-free. It needs to be clean with a high resolution. (300 dpi)

There are many site out there with complete free images, but there’s a downside - many also have spyware.

If you’re looking for images, it’s better to stick with trusted sites that se...

Publishing Tidbits and Interviews

I have an interview today at Susan Whitfield’s BLOG. The author of many books, she’s a fellow NC resident and a delightful person. Please stop by her site and say hello.

My cats, Rocko and Spunky, were interviewed by Shelly Arkon’s dogs at her BLOG last Thursday. I was out of town Thursday and Friday for a seminar and didn’t get the link up until lunch on Friday. If you didn’t get a chance to meet my two little black rats, please stop by her site.


If you’re looking for writing, publishing, an...

An Author Revealed and the Effects of Delayed Print Copies of The Cuckoo’s Calling on Retailers

This week it was revealed that author Robert Galbraith is really J. K. Rowling. From Entertainment Weekly -

"In a statement to The Sunday Times of London, which followed up an anonymous tip with some literary sleuthing, Rowling fessed up that she is indeed Galbraith: “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a diffe...

Promotional Tips from Tara Tyler, the Pop Traveler

Diane! Thanks so much for having me over to promote Pop Travel!


It is so professional in here. Immaculately decorated with abstract art, chrome furniture with white, leather cushions, and silver, globe light fixtures poking out of urns on long stems like alien trees. I've never been to such an intimidating office. I wish I wore a suit!

Anyway, I'm here to talk about promotion and publishing. Diane is the queen of promoting – she wrote the book!

All I can do is offer tips from my limited exp...

Book Awards

Winning an award can give a book a good boost. By itself an award doesn’t sell copies, but coupled with promotions from publisher and author, it can move books.

And the list of awards is much bigger than you think. Here is just a small sampling:

AMERICAN
Joseph Henry Jackson Award
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal
Frost Medal
Goldsmith Book Prize
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Ambassador Book Award
Walt Whitman Award
Spur Award
Autumn House Press
Best Translated Book Award
Sherwood Anderso...

Talk About Pop Travel

POP TRAVEL by Tara Tyler
Released July 7, 2013 from Curiosity Quills
Find it on Amazon

In 2080, technology has gone too far for J. L. Cooper. He is happily hidden in his simple, secluded life as a private detective in a small town, far from any pop travel laser teleportation stations. Until he takes on a client who insists pop travel made his fiancé disappear.

When Cooper investigates, he finds evidence of pop travel's deadly flaw, sparking a series of murders, attempts on his life, and threats...

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, hosted by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

We watched Ratatouille the other night, and I was struck by what food critic Anton Ego said towards the end:

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that...

Industry News and Wilmington, NC Photos

Barnes and Noble announced last week it will no longer be in the tablet business. Their quarterly report revealed that sales for the Nook Tablet had tanked. It also revealed that retail sales have dropped 10%, and some speculate this is in part to the fact Barnes and Noble is stocking few titles. You can read the full article at Melville House.

Hachette Book Group announced they will purchase Disney’s adult trade publishing imprint, Hyperion. Disney Publishing Worldwide, the world’s largest pu...

What Do Traditional Publishers Do?

With traditional publishing, writers submit their work for consideration to a publisher (or an agent), who in turn either rejects or purchases rights to the manuscript and publishes the book.

However, the definition and characteristics go deeper than that. Writers need to know all the aspects of traditional publishing, and just what, exactly, traditional publishers do.

Traditional Publishers:

• Accept queries/manuscripts from either writers or agents.

• Accept or reject submitted queries/manus...