Guest post by Bronwyn Green

Authors need to foster a lot of relationships—relationships with their readers, book bloggers, their editorial staff, and their cover artist to name a few. Working well with your cover artist is hugely important, because after all, your cover is the first thing potential readers see.

So, assuming you don’t already have a cover artist you love and adore *bats eyes at my ridiculously patient cover artist* let’s look at how to find a cover artist.

Other than Stephen King personally recommending your book on social media, few things are as coveted by authors as a BookBub featured deal. Being selected pretty much guarantees a significant spike in sales. Authors who have been lucky enough to be selected have said it feels like hitting the "author lottery." But like Amazon's mysterious algorithm, BookBub's selection criteria can feel random and perplexing. Frustrated authors have been searching for the right formula for years. Luckily for you, the wait is over. We have the secret sauce and most importantly, we're going to share it with you. The best part? The infographic is straight from BookBub so we're not guessing here. This valuable info is coming straight from the source. You just can't do any better than that.

So, the book you’ve been working on for months (or years) is officially available on Amazon. Congratulations! Now you’re wondering how to get people to buy it. You’ve done some research so you know promotion is critical but marketing isn’t really your thing. In fact, the idea of “selling” anything kinda makes you feel kinda icky.

We get it. Been there, done that. But here’s the thing, marketing your book isn’t really about “selling” it’s more about developing relationships with people. Not just readers (although they’re definitely important) but fellow authors, bloggers, reviewers and just about anyone who can help you get the word out about your book. Think of it as developing your own neighborhood of book friends. Right now, you’re the new guy on the block so go ahead and introduce yourself.
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Yeah, but how do I do that? We're glad you asked.

Guest post by: Chris Larson, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado

When “Fifty Shades Freed” opens in theaters on Feb. 9, fans will no doubt flock to see bad boy Christian Grey (played by Jamie Dornan) bested by naughty-but-nice heroine Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson).
A less racy but equally thrilling story, my research shows, is how romance writers are getting ahead in the digital era.

With the rise of the internet and social media, the common wisdom says that fewer people are reading books. But, according to multiple sales reports, there are still billions (yes, billions with a “B”) of books being sold worldwide every year. Hardbacks and paperbacks have made a slight comeback lately, but not surprisingly, the segment with the highest growth expectation is still ebooks. This is good news for indie authors who almost always choose to release their books electronically, given the economic advantages of that publishing method.