July Tips for Authors

There are approximately 400,000 titles being published each year, but it is estimated that there are many times more books being written. There was a time when writing a book was viewed as something only certain elite people could do. Now, authors are in no short supply.

Here are a few tips and facts:

~ Bestselling genres are business career, personal finances, health, psychology and parenting

~ Bestselling e-books are nonfiction how-tos

~ Autobiographies are not always the best book for beginning authors unless their story is truly dramatic.

~ According to a Gallup survey, it appears that men read more nonfiction than women

~ Fiction is traditionally a harder seller than nonfiction, particularly for the self-publisher

~ Regional books can perform well, and are actually growing in popularity

~ Poetry is one of the poorest selling genres

~ Children's books, when well-written and illustrated, can be timeless, selling for many years. They rarely have an expiration date

~ Serials do well in e-publishing, especially when kept to a reasonable length