James Frey Quotes

The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.

The problem most people make with their media presence is they're trying to craft a media presence as opposed to just consistently publishing who they are.

If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of people out there toiling over your unpublished manuscript, trying to make your way across that vast ocean in a bathtub, I can only say this to you: keep paddling. Well, either that or start vlogging.

I'm never, I hope, stupid enough to believe that Twitter or blogging or any of this stuff is a substitute for actually doing the work or writing a book.

I'm very comfortable with tweeting, I have a very active author Facebook page, I Skype book clubs all over the world.

Obviously it makes a difference if an author has a public online profile of some sort, even just down to the level of having a moderately popular blog. Most books sell 5, 10, or 15 thousand copies. Most are midlist books. With those people, even a modest online presence can make a difference in sales.

I don't Twitter or blog. I'm bad at small talk, and don't have good 'chat'. Talk to me about publishing, and I can go on for hours.

It's hard for a newbie author to get noticed.

There's a lot about being "A Writer" that has nothing to do with writing. That's one thing I've discovered. You've got to meet with the sales force, and you've got to have all these luncheons, and be gracious, and you've got to give a lot of presentations and you've got to give a lot of speeches, and you've got to be on tour.

Start writing the things that you are reading or that you want to be published doing.

The most important thing is readers. I've got a huge Twitter following, but I don't really think it sells books; I don't think a huge Facebook following sells books - although these things aren't bad, of course.

I write for a lot of places, so I'm on a lot of promo lists.

When you write a book for publication, you're writing it for other people to read.

Publishing in a way doesn't have a lot to do with writing, and writing doesn't have a lot to do with publishing.

Social media for the majority of companies is not about helping customers or improving products.

My first job is to write a book that I believe is compelling and deserves the long sustained attention that any novel requires, and to worry about the commerce only late in the game.

I have a Facebook page and a website. Beyond that, I'm actually a very private person. I'd rather see the focus on the books than on me.

It may not always be profitable at first for businesses to be online, but it is certainly going to be unprofitable not to be online.

My favorite part of speaking at events has never been the speaking, but the reading of my books.

I've always viewed myself as a brand. When I started 10 years ago, that was very controversial. 'Marketing' and 'PR' were dirty words for the literary world, but that has changed. Once the book is finished, I want as many people as possible to read it.

Let's face it - online promotion of your books could easily become a full-time career if you're not careful. But if you're not writing regularly, then it won't be long before there's nothing to promote.

Not surprisingly, the chief way self-published authors get the word out about their books is through the Internet.

People get TV deals by doing something in their grandmother's basement. It is definitely the wave. Everybody is trying to do all that stuff. I mean, the Internet is the only reason that I've gotten work is because I've somehow created a line and people have seen it. And then I've been asked to auditions.

I was told having a website would help me. I have yet to figure out why my life story needs to be on the web.

I find it hard to think of myself as selling books. I don't even have a Web site. I want to sit and write, not sell.