Help on Selling Books- and Recommended Book

Here's a bit of help for struggling authors.
How To Sell Loads of Books - My Approach by Russell Blake

This 27-point piece gives much good advice on just what it says. While Your Mileage May Vary, it still has something for most writers looking to sell their books online. Some of it is good, hard-nosed business advice that will cause some folks consternation (you mean we have to work? And think?). There are points of argument, but overall a great list that should be studied.

While waiting for copies of my latest Zack Taylor mystery A Shadow on the Wall to arrive, I'm currently listed on the Sisters in Crime website, with a cover of the previous Zack Taylor mystery, A Fall From Grace as part of their display. Very cool to get this up.

A friend of mine, Chris Bernard, has his new non-fiction book out: Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now. It's received a lot of critical praise already, and my copy just arrived today. Chris went to Alaska and discovered some long-forgotten roots in the guise of an ancestor who went Alaska exploring years before. So you get a feel for our largest state in the past and in the present.

A writer I know, Chris Bernard, has been tapped to write a book about bicycling in New England to be published next spring. It's a narrative travel guide to bike rides throughout the region, and includes family-and-beginner-friendly rail trails and bike paths, leg-busting road rides up to about 150 miles, and off-road routes like fire roads and mountain bike singletrack. Some rides are just good bike rides, others are scenic, and some travel through areas of historical or other interest. He's also recommending accommodations and restaurants in the vicinity of each ride to help cyclists string trips together.

He's lining up trips now, and looking for places to stay--couches, floors, B and Bs, hotels, the Lincoln Bedroom, any and all are fair game. He's also trying to identify good bike rides, so if you know of any, please send them his way.

His blog for the journey is at http://bikingnewengland.blogspot.com, and he says to check back often (or subscribe to be kept abreast of updates).

Please pass this link along to anyone you know who might be interested. His audience for the book is anyone who rides, or might ride, a bike, whether occasionally, recreationally, competitively, or otherwise.