B.L. Berry's Blog, page 2

My Summer Reading List

It’s almost summer time!!! Which means in a few weeks, you can find me by the pool with my kindle in hand.

[image error]When I was little, I always had a summer reading list for school. And brace yourself for this confession … I LOATHED reading. I enjoyed writing, but the notion of sitting down and reading, especially when I could be outside playing with my friends in the sunshine, really annoyed me. There were a few books that drew me in … mostly Nancy Drew and a few Baby Sitters Club titles. But on the...

Podcast: Will You Be Ready for the GDPR on May 25th?

Last week, Stephen Campbell of The Author Biz stumbled across my lil’ ole website and reached out to see if I’d be interested in chatting about the GDPR and Privacy Policies with him on an upcoming episode of The Author Biz Podcast. And because I’m a firm believer in shared knowledge and helping other authors, I obviously said “yes!”

I think one of the important things we do in this podcast is talk about the core rights that make up The GDPR, which ones will impact authors the most, and what...

10 Strategies to Build your Mailing List

There’s a lot of chatter going on about email, list growing, and the GDPR these days. With list building methods now needing official trails for compliance, I think it’s going to push authors to become more creative on how to grow their mailing list.

List building, in my experience, has been nothing short of mind numbing. But I want to take a moment to say don’t get discouraged if you don’t have many contacts on your mailing list. As long as your contacts are engaging with you–that means open...

Book Pricing Strategy: Royalty & Volume Calculators

Goal setting for my upcoming releases has been something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve never set any defined goals with my book launches and the prospect of putting tangible numbers against sales or a desired royalty is a little bit terrifying.

But it’s necessary so I can market my books correctly.

So I created some some calculators to help me with the big picture. And when it comes to the nifty lil’ author tools I create, what’s mine is yours!

[image error]After all, marketing is one giant...

Learn to Love the Numbers

Pardon me, my inner nerd is about to show in glorious fanfare.

I love words. I love them so much I write them down in semi-sensical fashion in the hopes that someone will pick up one of my books and read it. And by some divine intervention, they do.

But you know what else I love? Numbers.

Numbers are usually terrifying, especially for people who love words, but over the past year I’ve taught myself to embrace the suck … and embrace the numbers.

Numbers are critical for goal setting. Analytics...

Dear Author

A long, long time ago, I posted this lil’ blog called Dear Book Blogger. At the time, it garnered some good attention and I still love that post dearly (if you haven’t read it, go check it out).

But with all of the negative self-talk I’m seeing online from my industry peers lately, I think we’re long overdue for the next iteration. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the game or well-established, I think these are some good reminders for all of us.

Dear Author,
I know it’s driving you insane...

6 things I wish I had known before starting AMS ads

Lately I’ve been fielding a lot of questions when it comes to AMS ads. I’m no expert by any means, but I’ve become a student of the channel, done my homework, and the tricks I’ve implemented have worked for me thus far. And worked pretty well, at that.

So if you’re considering running AMS ads, or are currently running them with lackluster results, take a look here and see if these 6 tips help you make sense of it all.

1. Running AMS ads is not a “set it and forget it” tactic.

For your ads to...

Tracking Your Author Expenses

It’s nearly here. That day we all dread … April 17, 2018. Tax day. [insert dramatic villain sound effect here.]

If you’ve managed to keep on top of things throughout the year, you’re in a great position! But for the rest of us … it’s not too late to start getting your crap together for next year.

[image error]It has taken me some time, but I have finally found my rhythm when it comes to logging my outbound expenses throughout the year to make my life significantly easier when it comes to preparing taxes,...

Write Erotica? Read Erotica? Read this.

This week there have been some changes brewing (yet again) over on Amazon. Recently erotica authors have found their sales ranking stripped from their books without warning or explanation. I’m here today to hopefully shed a little light as to why.

Just this week FOSTA-SESTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act + Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act) was passed. This new law in the U.S. is a good thing (at least the sentiment is). It aims to tackle online sex trafficking. I highly doubt that any ro...

Win a Kindle Oasis!

It’s giveaway time again for all of my awesome readers, followers, and fans! Up for grabs in this giveaway are not one, but TWO Kindle Oasis e-readers.

[image error]The Oasis is especially awesome because not only is it water resistant (hello, pool and bathtub reading without consequence!) but also a high-res, 7″ inch screen, bluetooth connectivity, and integration with your audible account. Plus there’s SIX. WEEKS. OF. BATTERY. built right in!!! Thank you sweet baby Jesus!

In short … if you win, we shoul...