Tim Grahl

  • Launching a book is one of the more exposing and stressful things a writer can do. Putting out articles and blog posts is pretty easy. There’s not a lot of fear around one of those failing. But putting out a book is completely different. It’s this thing that you’ve worked on for a long time.…

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  • There’s an open secret in the publishing industry… It’s easier to sell someone a book than to get them to read it. While in the short term, selling books is helpful — you make some money, your Amazon ranking goes up — if nobody reads the book, it creates a long-term problem. You can only…

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  • It was going to be different this time. I had DECIDED. This time I was going to read the entire book, build the system, and stick with it. I picked up my copy of Getting Things Done, managed to slog my way through the entire manuscript, set up my system of inboxes, check-ins, lists, etc…

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  • Over the last few days, I’ve fielded a lot of questions about what to do with book marketing during this COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve got all this time, what should I do with it? Is it rude to try to market right now? Am I going to annoy people if I do outreach? In this article,…

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  • Build the Right Audience

    I’ve seen this happen far too often. A fiction author wants to start a platform. Let’s say he’s a scifi author. So he sets up a blog and email list. He starts writing about the craft of writing. He discusses creating the characters, editing, second drafts, and so on. It’s pretty exciting. He starts building…

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  • There seem to be so many ways to connect with fans and build our author platform. In my book Your First 1000 Copies, I outline a proven three-part framework that any author can use to build their platform, connect with readers, and sell more books: Permission – Communicate with your fans in a way that…

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  • My latest book Running Down a Dream: Your Road Map to Winning Creative Battles came out last year. As with all books, a lot went into getting it published and out in the world. One of the hardest things for a lot of authors is getting blurbs. It’s hard to know who to ask and…

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  • I get a lot of email from authors asking for my help. I love it.  The whole reason I do what I do is to help authors get their books into the hands of more readers. Any time I can help an author reach more people, it makes me happy. However, many of the emails authors…

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  • Every single time I teach one of my book marketing workshops, I get some form of this question: “That sounds great, but does it work for fiction authors?” I get it. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your head around. How are you going to build an author platform when you can’t share tips on getting…

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