9 Slush Pile Mistakes: A Guest Post by 2 Slush Readers

Beverly Bambury/ September 30, 2014/ authors, editing, Publishing, Submissions, Useful Stuff, writers, Writing Markets/ 1 comments

Welcome to Adam Shaftoe (slush reader for Daily Science Fiction) and Patrick Icasas (slush reader for Flash Fiction Online). I’ve known Adam for a few years now thanks to the Toronto-area convention scene and I very much admire his reviewing skills. Read his blog, people! I met Patrick only recently via my LAB•B work, and it turned out we had lots of interests in common, and I even helped him get a very well-known comic book writer on his new blog, How to Suck Less. Woo!In any case, Patrick and Adam work hard at what they do, and they have some wisdom to share with you short fiction writers. Read and learn, my friends. Read and learn. –Beverly Short fiction can be an unfair game. Though talent,

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Teacher, Teach Thyself? Lessons Learned in Marketing Myself

Beverly Bambury/ March 25, 2014/ Marketing, Psychology, Public Relations, sales, Social Skills, writers/ 10 comments

It’s been interesting prepping for my upcoming self-promo webinar sessions. Over the last several years I’ve learned a lot about the different types of writing. Stuff I know both practically and from my education: sales writing, business writing, formal argumentation, Facebook posts, etc. So perhaps ironic would be a better way of describing my efforts instead of interesting; because I didn’t do a very good job getting this out the door. What happened was that I wasn’t getting nearly the number of conversions into ticket sales that I would have expected based on the even’ts page views. A couple of days ago it hit me hard: I’d left the Eventbrite page the same text as my rambling blog post. I’ve fixed it up now,

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Self-Promotion for Authors and Comic Creators Webinar Update: Timing Survey

Beverly Bambury/ March 3, 2014/ authors, comic creators, DIY, Self-Promotion, survey, Timing, webinar, writers/ 0 comments

Hi, all! I am planning that webinar on self-promotion for writers and comic creators sometime this month. It’s an update and expansion on the free talk I gave at SFContario this past fall. I plan to charge somewhere in the neighbourhood of $15 for the session, which I expect to take 1.5 to 2 hours. If you’re potentially interested in this, take this survey to help me get an idea of the best day and time to run a session. I’l consider two sessions if necessary, or even more, depending on response, so tell me what works for you and I’ll make a schedule late this week. Anyhow, here’s the survey for your radio button-clicking convenience: Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey ,

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Winners Announced!

Beverly Bambury/ February 21, 2014/ Announcements, author services, Book Marketing, DIY, editing, Marketing, Publicity, Publishing, Self-Promotion, self-publishing, Useful Stuff, writers/ 0 comments

Thanks once again to everyone who entered and who shared and tweeted. Your support is fantastic and I couldn’t do this without you. This has also been a great chance to promote my non-publicity campaign services, of which there are many you can see here. Some of my favourites are social media planning and coaching, and copy editing, and even though it’s not officially on the list, I enjoy critique as well. It’s likely to end up on the list at some point. So please contact me and ask about these other services. I can work with any budget, so don’t be shy. Anyhow! here are the three winners: Karina Sumner-Smith Site | TwitterJessica Meddows Site | TwitterTeri Kline Twitter (and yes, I know the name on

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Enter Here to Win Free Consulting or Critiques!

Beverly Bambury/ February 17, 2014/ Announcements, author services, Book Marketing, DIY, editing, Marketing, Publicity, Publishing, Self-Promotion, self-publishing, Useful Stuff, writers/ 0 comments

Subscribe (and confirm–check that spam email box!) to my email list and you will be entered to win two consulting or editorial hours. You can use the time toward: Help creating your book or comic’s marketing plan A complete flash fiction critique and copy edit A full social media consultation and plan A brief critique of a novella or a partial of a novel  Website critique/planning assistance Any other publishing- or marketing-related consultation time Three winners will be selected at random from mailing list subscribers who have joined and confirmed by clicking the response link (remember it may go to a spam filter) by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, February 19th. Not sure how to join the list? Subscribe right here. Note that the

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Amazon Exclusivity and KDP Select: Book Marketing without B.S. #7

Beverly Bambury/ December 23, 2013/ author services, BookMarketingWithoutBS, Budget, comic creators, DIY, Publishing, self-publishing, Useful Stuff, writers/ 3 comments

Book Marketing without B.S. is a weekly publicity and marketing advice column for writers and other creators who prefer a realistic, clear, and no-nonsense approach. My goal is to help you cut through the bullshit with direct, understandable advice you won’t be embarrassed to follow. Send your questions to beverly@beverlybambury.com. Once I began working independently of a publisher, I ran into an issue that I hadn’t dealt with before: exclusivity with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select program. From a publicity perspective I found it frustrating, as I have contacts affiliated with other book-buying outlets and I am unable to call on them in exclusivity situations. Why would they help with a book they can’t sell, after all? Still, I know it is more complicated

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GenreLitChat #1: Storify Transcript

Beverly Bambury/ December 8, 2013/ #GenreLitChat, authors, Book Marketing, Interviews, Publicity, Storify, Transcript, Twitter, writers/ 0 comments

The first #GenreLitChat this past Thursday went well. The three authors who were on the panel (John Mantooth, Heidi Ruby Miller, and Nathan Ballingrud,) had a good time, and as the moderator I found myself surprised by how quickly the hour went. I had several questions I wish I’d had time to ask. All in all, it’s not a bad thing to be left wanting more! If you missed it, you can check out the Storify transcript below. You can also follow the #GenreLitChat hashtag via Twitter itself, or on Twubs. Let me know what you think in the comments, and thank you–as always–for reading. [View the story “GenreLitChat #1: Mantooth, Ballingrud, and Miller” on Storify]

Changing/Correcting Guest Posts or Interviews, and More Replying to Reviews: Book Marketing without B.S. #3

Beverly Bambury/ November 15, 2013/ authors, Blog Tour, BookMarketingWithoutBS, Guest Post, Interviews, Publicity, Self-Promotion, Social Skills, writers/ 0 comments

Book Marketing without B.S. is a weekly publicity and marketing advice column for writers and other creators who prefer a realistic, clear, and no-nonsense approach. My goal is to help you cut through the bullshit with direct, understandable advice you won’t be embarrassed to follow. Send your questions to beverly@beverlybambury.com. Today there are two related questions. The first person asked “What if I want to change an interview or guest blog post reply after it’s already gone up?” Naturally, if there is an error of some kind–whether factual or typographical–you should politely ask the journalist or blogger to make the change and explain why if it isn’t obvious. I can’t think of any other reason you should ask to change something you’ve already vetted

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Social Media for the Misanthropic and the Anti-Social: Book Marketing without B.S. #2

Beverly Bambury/ November 7, 2013/ authors, BookMarketingWithoutBS, comic creators, DIY, Self-Promotion, Social Skills, Twitter, writers/ 3 comments

Book Marketing without B.S. is a weekly publicity and marketing advice column for writers and other creators who prefer a realistic, clear, and no-nonsense approach. My goal is to help you cut through the bullshit with direct, understandable advice you won’t be embarrassed to follow. Send your questions to beverly@beverlybambury.com. One of the best things about being a publicist, is that I get to do all the social, extrovert, asking-for-things work that my clients usually don’t want to do. I get to give them more time to create, and take away the stress of putting themselves directly out there. Also, given that my clients are overwhelmingly writers of dark fiction of some kind or another, they’re frequently put off by other social media tone

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