On this page you will find links to useful information on a variety of topics relevant to authors.
DOCUMENTS PREPARED BY SHANTI ARTS
Book Awards Worth Consideration (will open as an Excel file)
Buying and Selling
Marketing and Promotion
Publicity Photos
Hanging Punctuation: Why Are the Quotation Marks Extending into the Margin?
PROMOTING BOOKS DURING A PANDEMIC
A few possibly useful and thought-provoking articles we've come across:
Michael Bourne, “Authors Reimagine Live Events During the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Poets&Writers, March 23, 2020
Rob Hart, “Book Promotion in the Age of Pandemic,” May 4, 2020
Amy Klein, “What It's Like to Promote a Book in the Middle of a Pandemic,” Electric Lit, March 13, 2020
BOOK DESIGN
A very common question: “Why are the quotation marks sticking out into the margin?” The short answer is, “They should be.”
Rob Hart, “Book Promotion in the Age of Pandemic,” May 4, 2020
OTHER USEFUL LINKS
BJ Gallagher, The Ten Awful Truths — and the Ten Wonderful Truths — About Book Publishing, The Huffington Post, December 6, 2017.
The best part is at the end, so be sure to keep reading.
Glenna Collett, Book award contests: Are they worthwhile?, June 15, 2016.
This article has some good advice and a helpful list of pros and cons of entering book award contests.
Alexander Manshel, Laura B. McGrath, and J. D. Porter, “Who Cares about Literary Prizes?” Public Books, September 3, 2019
Lots of data and charts, but the conclusion is that prizes matter.
Scott Lorenz, 40 Book Awards Authors Should Pursue, Westwind Communications.
This article includes a very helpful list of legitimate awards. Some are crossed off because awards come and go. Scott Lorenz is a book publicist, so he spends some time describing cases in which a book award led to national media coverage or a movie deal; he is of course looking for clients. Still, his list and the links it includes are helpful as a way to navigate the wide array of book award possibilities.
Literary Awards, Wikipedia
This link provides an overwhelmingly long list of book award possibilities, but you can scan the categories and focus on those that fit your genre and topic.
