The Writing Life: Wisdom In A Small Package

On the shelves in my office, I have a wide variety of books. Some of these books are lengthy reference books. Others are picture books for children. Some of these books are even pocket size. Today I want to tell you about two pocket size books which are related and have some great information for writers. While I read both of these books in the print version, I'm also going to tell you how to get each of these books for free online and why.

Pocket Guide to Book Marketing

Last week I read John Koehler's Pocket Guide to Book Marketing. I have known John for a number of years. (As an aside, your personal connection to an author is something I can include in this blog but it is best not to include it in a book review. If you do, your review can get pulled from places like Amazon). Through Koehler Books, John has published a number of books. I recently learned about his little Pocket Guide to Book Marketing.

As an author, I want to learn from experienced professionals who understand the realities and complexities of publishing. Thousands of new books enter the marketplace every day and publisher John Koehler knows these realities. Pocket Guide to Book Marketing provides insights for every author.

As Koehler writes in the opening chapter, “I do not pretend that this pocket guide is an exhaustive discourse on book marketing. Rather, it’s more of an overview providing enough specifics to know what to ask about and where to look….What I offer here are not specific marketing or techniques, but rather lessons we have learned in the past fifteen years of publishing books. Among those lessons is a dizzying array of prescribed solutions or approaches. Deciding what works best for your book is key.”

This book is loaded with insights. For example, “There are a number of things authors can do on their own, or with some help. Others require more technical knowledge or skill. Some authors are comfortable with technology; others fear it. How much you do on your own depends on what you kknow, your willingness to learn, and how deep your pockets are.” (page 60) This sentence is an example of the practical information in these pages.

Whether you are publishing your first book, or you have published many books, you will find valuable action steps in the pages of Pocket Guide to Book Marketing. I highly recommend every author get this book and not only read it but where the real value comes is when you apply it to their own books.

Pocket Guide to Publishing

Several years ago, I read Pocket Guide to Publishing and gave this book a five star review on Amazon and Goodreads. In fact, as I reviewed this book today, I saw my endorsement on the first page. Publisher John Koehler co-authored this book with In this book with Joe Coccaro, vice president and executiuve editor at Koehler Books. It provides a terrific overview of publishing and the various complexities.

As I wrote several years ago in my revieww: When I’m going to learn on any topic, I want to get information from experts or someone who has produced hundreds of books and worked with many different authors. You gain this type of experience with Pocket Guide to Publishing. To successfully publish a book, you will need to consider and handle hundreds of details such as type of publisher, contracts, editing, production issues, distribution, understanding what a publisher does and what the author does, and marketing. John Koehler and Joe Coccaro have worked with hundreds of authors and give straight-forward easy to understand insights in small doses in this little but powerful book. As the subtitle says, “100 Things Authors Should Know.” Every author needs this tool. This book is a lasting resource and highly recommended.”

How to Get Each of These Books

Each of these books include templates and valuable resources outside of the book. I read the printed book but reaching these additional resources is much easier using the electronic version. John Koehler told me each of the electronic version of these books have been downloaded thousands of times. You can get them at:

Pocket Guide to Book Marketing or Pocket Guide to Publishing Use the links and the PDFs come right away to your email address. Scroll down on these webpages to find where you can get each book.

No matter where you are in the process of getting your book published or into the market, you can gain a great deal of wisdom from these two books that come in small packages. Have you discovered some great resources in publishing or marketing? Let me know in the comments.

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