Random Acts of Publicity

This week is Random Acts of Publicity Week to help out all your favorite books and authors. While we of course would love it if you helped out some of our authors (who can resist a good book from an indie publisher?), we understand that you might have others on your mind. AND THAT'S OKAY! We mostly just want to see you helping out the authors. After all, shameless self-promotion can be a bit tiring on their end.

Here's the drill. Random Acts of Publicity was started by Darcy Pattison about three years ago. It focuses "on helping a Friend’s book get noticed, but you can also choose to help your favorite book get noticed." Anyone can help with a bit of social media. Interested in participating? Check out the FAQ to help you get started! Make sure to BLLurT and Post a lot!

What authors need to know: Submissions

Publishers get a lot of manuscripts submitted to them. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming for the acquisitions department. Publishers do their best to maximize an effective work flow, without overlooking great pieces of work. Authors don't necessarily care about that though; they care about getting noticed - they care about getting through the slush pile.

If it's a big publishing house, such as Random House or HarperCollins, the submission process is simple: agented or solicited submissions are the only way to get looked at. It's the easiest process for any publisher, but it also means that some really great books by unknown and unagented writers are overlooked. Thus, this process is not used by many small independent publishers.

Tips: How to help out your favorite Authors!

At Scarletta Press, we can't help but push for you to love our authors. And we know there is a lot of love out there, but can you show it. Sometimes, that's all an author needs! Thanks to Lindsay Buroker, here are a few things you can do to help our authors, or any of your favorite authors!

Helping out on Amazon

Amazon is the big kahuna of book sellers, especially when it comes to ebooks, so helping an author “get found” on there can give them a big boost. You can certainly do these things on other bookstore sites as well (nothing against copying and pasting a review, for example), but Amazon tends to have more cool features to help an author get found.

Here’s the list (any one of these things can help):