On Thursday (July 28), all day long, come to Romance University to learn how to boost revenue for your writing business. I’ll be there giving free advice on ways writers can develop and use a business mindset.

If you’ve never visited Romance University, I recommend you stop by (link below) any time. This is a robust site filled with writing craft, business advice and just fun writer’s life discussions. The amazing thing is that the ladies who run this site don’t charge anything for it. It’s easy to take free for granted on the Internet. But if you look around free and quality aren’t that easy to find nowadays even on the Internet.

To thank and celebrate everyone who joins me at Romance University (plus my blog readers) I’ve timed my summer sale to correspond with my appearance on RU. My new book, “Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue”, is now $6.99 discounted from the regular price of $8.99. That’s a discount of 33%! The book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble under the e-books, business books section (links below).

Although Amazon and Barnes and Noble don’t have a mechanism that allows me to show the sale end date (or the regular price), I’m letting you all in on the secret that the sale will end when real summer does- that is when school starts, the sale ends. On September 1, the price will rise again to the regular price of $8.99.

Happy Summer!

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Business-Rocket-Fuel-ebook/dp/B005AXY472/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310220277&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/small-business-rocket-fuel-candice-hughes/1104197103?ean=2940012843357&itm=1&usri=candice%2bhughes

http://romanceuniversity.org

In New England, we’ve passed from inferno hot back to pleasantly cool and grey. I admit it was hard to think in the heat sometimes even with the air conditioning on. So nice to be past that. Despite the weather had some good writing days this month on my thriller #4 manuscript. Starting to see the “light at the end of the tunnel”. It’s always hard to write middles. But I love writing endings! That’s what I’m into now.

Also not forgetting the Small Business Rocket Fuel series. This is such a great series and there are so many more ideas to explore. So exciting to be contemplating a blank slate of a new project.

Hard to believe we’re moving into the final stretch of summer…

My very first blog/book tour stop will be at Romance University where I get to be “Visiting Professor” for the day of July 28.

I’ve prepared an exciting post on how writers can holistically market themselves and their books to boost their sales and revenues. My approach is based on hard-won experience in the business world spiced up with top-tier MBA training- a unique background that few others offering advice to writers have.

I hope you will join me on July 28 at RU (link below) and bring lots of questions. I look forward to meeting you and answering your marketing questions!

http://romanceuniversity.org

A writer colleague asked me this question yesterday. Immediately I thought, “Wow! Great question.”

Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue started life as a training lecture for medical writers and was presented at the American Medical Writers Association a few years ago. This year as the economy dragged on negatively affecting many small businesses, I thought why not revisit this topic and expand it so more types of small businesses can benefit? So I started setting aside time from working and studying for my MBA to expand and revise the talk, adding more images, more worksheets, more topics, turning it from a lecture into a book.

But that story just tells you about the origins of my book. What I believe writers gain from my book and what makes it different from any other book available is its focus writing as a small business. My book doesn’t just tell you how to sell one book (there are plenty of books that do that), it gives you an entire framework for how to boost revenues for your entire writing business. By looking at your business one book at a time, you may short change your overall business. Too often I see writers struggling (even if they actually sell a lot of books) because they aren’t viewing writing as a business. Truly successful writers take writing as a serious business. I use JK Rowling as an example. She’s leveraged her books into films, toys, video games and more. She retained e-book rights and set up a whole interactive web site to promote her books. For her, writing is a lucrative business. You don’t get to that point overnight. You get there by taking the right steps at the right time and viewing your writing as a long term business.

What I bring to the table with my book is having both the MBA/business’ plus the writer’s mindsets. You may find other books out there that tell you how to sell books, but you won’t find other books that tell you how to make money from marketing them.

I read a great article about James Rollins recently (he’s one of the founders of the International Thriller Writer’s Association, which recently held it’s annual conference in NYC). I  had been searching for awhile for a good definition and most seemed nebulous or incomplete. However, I thought James Rollins’ definition to be complete and on target- at least for my work.

He said, “Thrillers deal in science fiction, romance, suspense, mystery.” That encompasses all the various aspects of my thriller and it’s a useful framework in developing new novels.

Hope you find this definition useful too!

If you’re looking for me on Facebook, I now have a new author page.

Here’s the URL:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Candice-Hughes/131065013641606?v=wall

Or you can catch up with me on GoodReads:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5028511.Candice_Hughes

(see permanent links in Blogroll)

Enjoy!

A number of people have asked me recently how they can read e-books if they don’t own a Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader. Amazon has free downloadable software that allows you to read Kindle e-books from your PC, smartphone or iPad.

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sa_menu_karl3/187-1215568-9405767?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

Here is a link for reading Barnes and Noble Nook e-books on your PC, smart phones and iPad:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/free-nook-apps/379002321/

Here is a link for how one mom turned used $10 Palm devices into an e-reader:

http://www.momsgadgets.com/how-to-read-bn-free-ebooks-without-the-nook/1064

I absolutely love paper books and still read many of my books on paper. But, the volume of e-books sold is growing rapidly as they are somewhat less costly (you save a couple dollars per book in production costs) and can store and transport them easily. (Just don’t spill anything on your electronic device or drop it. This is where paper has the advantage of being less delicate.)

All those quiet months when it seemed like nothing was happening here in freezing hot New England…were actually feverish months of intense work that have finally come to fruition.

My first book on Amazon is now available: Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue. (link below for Kindle- No Kindle? Try Kindle PC and Kindle iPad app too). I have often seen writers, consultants and other small business owners struggling to get their work noticed and open up the tap of revenue that will keep them in business. Why should writers know how to market? Their skills lie in storytelling, which is what they do best. Only a few eccentric writers like myself have this aberrant affinity for business and marketing (and it brings us many sideways glances and odd looks because everyone knows writing is left brain and business is right brain- isn’t it? It’s almost like Frankenstein’s monster to do a mash-up of the two.) The book will be available soon for the Nook on Barnes and Noble as well.

But, being able to market your work is critical to your success. And it can be fun! Really!

To show you how much fun I have, take a look at my free (funny) You-Tube video:

http://youtu.be/L0SdAWmekds

Then if you want to get some great tips on marketing try my new book:

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Business-Rocket-Fuel-ebook/dp/B005AXY472/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310220277&sr=1-1

Comments on so let me know what you think!

A few days ago, Eric Felten published an interesting essay in the Wall St. Journal on the value of the publishing industry. His take is that the publishing industry primarily serves as gatekeepers or bestowers of quality labels. This function allows the book buying public to have some confidence that the book they’re buying is up to the acceptable standards for quality publishing.

In comparison, self-publishing is the Wild West. Or as Mr. Felten calls it “American Idol” for authors. I agree there are a quite a few poor quality books in the self-publishing world. The worst being people who don’t even write their books, but essentially steal material from other people then publish under their own name (book spammers, in Mr. Felton’s lexicon).

However, I don’t believe the entire self-publishing arena is bad. There are books that have a small audience that can’t be profitably produced any other way. For example, some years ago I worked on a book (nonfiction) on a medical topic. I dutifully sent it out and eventually found an agent to assist me. However, the word came back that the target market was too small. I put the book aside. But, what if it could have profitably been published? Wouldn’t people concerned about this condition have been able to learn from my knowledge? Maybe felt better able to handle their condition or even to avoid developing it? No one will know since the book wasn’t published. But, now, in the crazy, wild world of self-publishing, maybe those type of books can have a home.

Where publishers need a large staff and have considerable overhead, self-publishers can publish with a small coterie of freelance assistants. The reduced overhead means that books with lower sales can be profitable since the creation and production cost is lower. Thus smaller, niche audiences can be served.

Yes, in the Wild West of self-publishing, much sifting is needed. However, there just might be other Amanda Hockings out there. Plus what is one man’s dross could be another man’s gem.