Barbara Gregorich's Blog, page 3

Windycon 50 — A Celebration

Twice last year I blogged about selling books at a fair or conference, and today I return to the subject, specifically to write about my first science fiction conference: Windycon 50, held in Oak Brook, Illinois, November 8-10, 2024.

What an enjoyable experience this was!

I tried to register for both the conference and a seller’s table back in February or March, 2024, and was told I couldn’t apply for a seller’s table until late May. When late May rolled around, I applied for such a table ...

Free Chapter of Exit Velocity

Years ago I used to give away a free chapter from one of my books every January 1, offering it on my blog. I think I did this for three years with Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel: Lots of Examples, Plus Dead Bodies. And at least one year  with Charlie Chan’s Poppa: Earl Derr Biggers.

And then, for some reason I don’t remember, I stopped doing this. But now, I think, is the time to start again. So here’s the first chapter of  Exit Velocity. The story is told from three points of  view: Row...

Social Justice Fiction Sampler

Way back in 2018 I decided to start putting together excerpts from some of my writing to create inexpensive/free samplers to be offered on Amazon. Because I write in different genres, I ended up with five of these samplers: Baseball Sampler; Mystery Sampler; Fiction Sampler; Nonfiction Sampler; and Poetry Sampler. 

I published these in digital format only and offered them for 99 cents. On Kindle Select I get five days of promotion for each book every ninety days. I can choose any days I want ...

The Mule Book: Final Stretch

Although I know I’ll be marketing Exit Velocity for two or three years, I also know I won’t be doing this every day. And so it’s time for me to return to the book I was writing before I published Exit Velocity. That’s the book I affectionately call “the mule book.” Even though, after years of working on it, I finally came up with a title that I like, the title is long, and “the mule book” is short, so that’s how I continue to refer to it.

When last seen, some time around July 2023, the mule b...

Exit Velocity: Revamping My YouTube Videos

I started creating YouTube videos approximately four years ago. At first I created a few for some of my older books such as She’s on First and Women at Play. Then, in 2021, I created six or seven videos for The F Words, which was published in September of that year. Then in 2024 I planned a series of videos for Exit Velocity.

But in spring of 2024 I happened to take an Authors Guild course and somehow from that course (I don’t remember the exact path), I learned about Branch & Bramble, a mark...

Exit Velocity: Reader Reviews

Amazon’s policy on paid-for book reviews is that these can go under the Editorial Reviews on a book page, but not under Reader Reviews. And while Editorial Reviews are very important to people searching for books to read, Reader Reviews appear to be equally important, if not more so. 

That’s because Amazon shoppers are influenced by high numbers. A book that has 2,000 reader reviews will impress a shopper as a safer buy than a book that has 20 reader reviews, no matter how many editorial revi...

Columbus Book Festival 2024

In my previous blog I wrote about book festivals and conferences in general. In this one I’ll write about my experiences at the Columbus Book Festival 2024, held July 13-14.

I applied for a vendor’s table at CBF early in 2024 and my application was accepted. But I wasn’t aware that I could have applied to be a visiting author/speaker or on a panel. The deadline for that was in December 2023 and I missed it. 

The CBF was very well run, the staff very helpful, the setting lovely (in Topiary ...

Why Fairs and Conferences

During my writing life I’ve gone through periods where I attended book fairs and writing conferences and sat at booths to sell copies of whatever book I had just published. This was particularly true during the 1990s, when Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball was published, and then again in the early 2010s, when I began to self-publish books. When Jack and Larry was published in 2012, I traveled to a lot to give talks and sell books.

Tabletop display created for the Columbus Book Fe...

Exit Velocity: Out of Stock

Did I do something wrong? I asked myself on June 4, 2024, when my latest novel, Exit Velocity, was published. Or did I do most things right?

What caused me to ponder these questions was that Exit Velocity was published at, I presume, 12:00:01 am — and twenty-three hours later, Amazon was out of stock.

When I woke up that morning at 7:00 am CDT on June 4, several friends had already left messages saying they had received the book. Most of the books were ebooks, but a few were paperbacks.

...

My Favorites on the To-Do Lists

Those of you who have been following me for the last year know that, since August of 2023, I’ve been working on publishing and marketing my new novel, Exit Velocity. I guess you could say that the marketing started in August, when I decided that I would sign on with BookBaby for this novel. Up until then, I had used KDP. I wanted to try something different, to see if it would help me sell more books.

I feel that my official date of starting the publishing process was September 1, 2023. It end...