I write friendly, helpful and authoritative how-to books for other authors.
How to Get Your Self-published Books into Bookstores
I’m an established technical author for the Alliance of Independent Authors, as well as being Commissioning Editor of its Authors Advice Centre blog.
My second guidebook for ALLi is How to Get Your Self-published Book into Bookstores, commissioned by ALLi and due out in 2017.
My next book project for ALLi will be a handbook on how to set up and run an independent literature festival, based on the model set by my own event, the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival.
How to Work More Effectively with the Book Trade
Opening Up To Indie Authors is the first in a series of books that I’m writing for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), which shares best practice with self-published authors all over the world. My co-author for this book was Dan Holloway, an author, performance poet and renowned campaigner for indie authors, and series editor Orna Ross, ALLi’s founder, added general wisdom and guidance.
The book’s purpose is two-fold. The first part explains the modern self-publishing landscape and the opportunities and challenges that lie within it for aspiring authors. The second part addresses various sections of the book trade and advises authors how to stake their claim and raise their profile within each one: bookshops, festivals, libraries, awards and membership organisations.
The book was launched, amid great acclaim, at the London Book Fair in 2014, and I was delighted to have the chance to talk at length about it in an interview with the fabulous Joanna Penn on her Creative Penn website.
- Watch the interview on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xofWBleDf4
- Read a summary of the key points and listen to the podcast here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/02/26/bookstores-debbie-young/
How to Sell More of Your Books
My first non-fiction book for indie authors, Sell Your Books!, was commissioned by author services provider SilverWood Books, as part of their commitment to help self-published authors market their books.
Although so much has changed in the world of publishing and self-publishing since this book’s launch in 2012, it still provides a friendly, handholding guide to help even the most nervous, newest author navigate their way through the marketing maze, while also providing a handy aide memoire to help more seasoned authors promote each new book as they publish it.