Design

Articles about book and cover design, as well as design as it touches on aspects of author platform.

Help! My Book Isn’t Selling. 10 Questions You Need To Answer Honestly If You Want To Sell More Books.

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I love answering your questions and I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned on the journey, but recently I have been receiving the same question over and over again, namely,

“Help, my book isn’t selling. What can I do?”

Most of the time people include a link to their book on Amazon and I can see immediately why they aren’t making any sales, because although I’m an author, I’m a reader first and I’ve been shopping for books on Amazon for years.

The ProWriter multimedia course ‘How To Find Readers & Market Your Book‘ covers this in great detail, but the following checklist will also help you identify your problem and solve it quickly. I have also included lots of links so you can find all the extra material on this (ever-growing!) site.

[As always, these are not rules, because there are no rules in this crazy, fast-moving self-publishing world. There will also always be outliers who get away with not doing any of the following, but these will at least help with some guidelines!]

1. Is your book available as an ebook?

99% of indie authors will not have print distribution in physical bookstores, and I would postulate that all the success stories we have heard in the last 2 years about indie authors and huge sales have come from ebook sales, not print.

I personally don’t do print books anymore because the cost/benefit didn’t work out for me and I want high quality print books (one of the reasons I am pursuing a traditional deal for my thrillers). But if you want a print book, fantastic, go ahead and use print on demand to do it.

BUT/ if you want to sell a lot of books online, then make sure you have an ebook for sale as well.

There has been an influx of ebooks (and print books) self-published in the last year, as well as traditional publishers beginning to re-issue backlists digitally. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about this so-called‘tsunami of crap’, but personally, I believe you can surf the wave and make good sales even if you’re starting now. The ebook market is growing globally as new countries come online and even within markets like the US and UK, ebooks are becoming more widely accepted.

So first off, get your ebook published.

I use Scrivener for formatting in Kindle, ePub and Word formats and then I publish on Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life and Smashwords or BookBaby for the rest (US citizens can use B&N Nook PubIt as well.) It’s not hard if you spend some time with the various help pages.

2. Has your cover been professionally designed?

Book buyers still shop with their eyes. If people make it to your book sales page and your cover is terrible, they will not click the Buy button.

Don’t use a painting your child did or that you did yourself. Don’t DIY based on a YouTube video. Don’t assume you can make a professional cover.

Do research your genre on Amazon and take screenshots of books that stand out in a good way.

Do take pictures of books you like with fonts and designs you like.

Do check out the ebook cover design awards at TheBookDesigner.comto see some great covers and some truly awful ones. Then hire aprofessional cover designer, give them that information and work with them to create a professional cover.

If you don’t have a budget for this, then work extra hard until you have that extra money. Seriously, I believe this is non-negotiable if you want to stand out in the crowded market.

3. Has your book been professionally edited so it reads well?

I am passionate about the value of editing and editors, especially for new writers, or books in a new genre.

editing ARKANE

Some of my own editing

You should edit your books until you can’t stand them any longer, and then you should consider hiring a professional editor to help you take it further, because you cannot see your own words after a point because you know the story so well.

You need other eyes, preferably professional eyes who will critique you honestly and tell you where the problems are, especially if the book is truly awful – and sometimes it is (and that’s ok because you can write another one).

Stephen King in ‘On Writing’ says to rest the manuscript for a while, so put it away and when you have some distance, read it again. You may be horrified by what you find but better now than when it’s out there in the world. Here’s some more articles on editing and my recommended editors.

If you can’t afford a pro editor, then you can try using a critique group of readers within your genre, or join a group like theAlliance of Independent Authors to network with other like-minded authors in order to network and potentially barter your skills. Bartering shouldn’t be underestimated in the online world.

But definitely do not publish your book if only you and your best friend, or your Mum, have read it.

4. Have you submitted the book to the right categories on the ebook stores?

Sorry, but not everyone will like your book.

You may think that everyone will, but they won’t. You might not want to put it in a box or a genre or a category, but you have to because that’s how readers find it. The category/genre reader has expectations and if you don’t ‘fit’ they will be disappointed. That’s not to say you need to follow any specific rules in your writing (let’s not get into that now!) but when you load it up to the distributors you do have to choose which categories and tags to use and they need to be meaningful.

You need some distance from your book in order to do this, but consider where your book fits within the online bookstores. This means deciding on the categories, tags and keywords associated with your book.

It’s also important to match reader expectations and the promise of what your book delivers with what your book is actually about.

There is no point having a book with a swirly, girly pink chic-lit cover in the horror section of fiction. It won’t sell, however good it is.

There are some scammy sites out there that will tell you to aim for the categories that will rank the best in order to have a Bestseller on Amazon. That’s just silly because your book won’t match the expectations of the readers and even if you get a bump in sales, it will completely dry up very soon.

You can choose a category that fits your book AND is easier to rank in, for example, I use categories Action Adventure and Religious Fiction. I rank occasionally for the former and consistently in the latter. That’s optimization, but it is still true to the book and to the reader’s expectations.

If you’re struggling with this, choose 3-5 authors your book is like, not what you want it to be like, but what it is really like. That will help you find the right category.

5. Have you optimized your Amazon sales page with a hook, quotes from reviews and other material?

I have seen some Amazon sales pages with not just typos but terrible grammar.

Some of them make no sense at all. Some are just the back blurb with no review quotes or other things that might draw a customer in.

Basically you need to treat the product description like a sales page. People will not buy your book if your description is badly written or hard to understand because it’s an indication of the quality of your book. Here’s another great article on 11 ingredients of a sizzling book description.

If you want to see a fantastic example, check out CJ Lyons Bloodstained which continues to rock the Kindle charts. That product description seriously rocks. CJ also explains all of this in our ProWriter Marketing course.

6. Have you priced your book realistically, or at least tried different price points?

It’s important to say on pricing that no one has a clue how to price ebooks and authors are having success at many different price points. Check out this great article on The Passive Voice and the comments below to get an idea of the widely different levels of pricing and success.

However, I had one author ask why his debut novel wasn’t selling, and when I checked his sales page, the ebook was priced $11.99. It was his first novel and he had nothing else for sale.

However good your book, however marvelous the cover, your first novel is unlikely to sell at that price. Most ebooks are under $9.99, and a lot of fiction is under $7.99, with many indie books being under $5.

The 99c price point still has some power even after the algorithm changes but you might go somewhere in between, changing your price with promotions as well. I have my books at $2.99 right now so I make $2 per ebook. You get to set your own prices but there’s no way you’ll sell much at those very high prices.

7. Have you written, or are you writing another book?

Sure, there are some breakout successes, but most indie fiction authors making decent money right now have 5 or more books. For non-fiction authors, you can expect to make your money on back-end products ans services and not book sales anyway.

The more books you have available, the more virtual shelf space you have, the easier it is for people to discover you. Plus if a reader finds one they like, they may buy them all so you make more per customer.

I was as guilty as anyone of trying to hype my first novel, because it took so long and I thought it was a precious snowflake. I still believe you have to hustle those first thousand sales with everything you have, but my sales and income jumped when I released the second novel with very little fanfare because I already had an established presence on Amazon and they do a lot of marketing for you when you have multiple books, e.g. emails to people who bought your last one.

I am also fascinated by the rise of novellas and serials as a way to create more books, more quickly. Hugh Howey is a great example of someone who wrote novellas in different series and then continued the direction of the stories for the novellas that took off, Wool being his most famous and lucrative. I am definitely moving into this model in 2013 in between longer works.

8. Have you done some kind of promotion or marketing to let people know it is there?

Again, there are no rules and in fact, everyone has different results from different marketing tactics. Some hit a mega-success with none at all, but I do think that you need to hand-sell your first 1000 readers because they won’t just appear out of nowhere.

Remember: Marketing is sharing what you love with people who want to hear about it. You don’t have to be hard salesy, scammy or nasty. Just be authentic and share your passion.

Lots of marketing info here.

If you need some starter tips, you should definitely be building your email list from your own website and also from a signup at the back of your book.

If you do that with book one, you will have at least some people to market to with book 2. It’s a start, and it grows over time. This is my only non-negotiable recommendation for authors, because you never know what will happen with all these sites we depend upon for sales. If they disappear, or the terms we publish under change, then your email list of fans and buyers is all you have.

I also believe that social media can sell books, but it is a slow build over time and you have to have other goals than just book sales, e.g. networking with peers and other authors. It’s not instant sales so you can’t rely on it. The whole author platform thing is massively useful in so many ways but it is only one aspect of book sales.

If you have some budget you can pay for promotion, but be targeted and track results.

The biggest leaps I had on the Amazon charts were from paid promotional pushes on sites that market direct to Kindle readers. I have used Kindle Nation

Prophecy Joanna Penn next to Lee Child

Prophecy with Lee Child on the Action Adventure Bestseller List

Daily and Pixel of Ink and there are new opportunities all the time. I more than made my money back but the rankings were worth it. Prophecy hit the Action Adventure list above Lee Child! (of course, it dropped away but the screen-print is worth gold!)

Free is still a great option, especially if you have multiple books, as it means people can discover your work with no risk. Fantasy author Lindsay Buroker talked about this in our interview where she revealed that the first book in her series is permanently on free with her other books at $4.95. You can do this by making your book free on Smashwords and eventually Amazon will price match it.

9. Have you asked for reviews, or submitted to review sites?

reviewsThere’s been a lot of scandal about the sock puppet reviews but reviews are still critical because they give your sales page social proof and they feed into the book site algorithms.

I give away a lot of free books to people who might like my genre and ask that they leave a review if they like it. No hard sell, no pressure, no expectation. This is easy if you have built up a list from the last book, or if you have built a platform and in fact is one good reason to do this. Traditional publishing has been doing this forever so it is not a new or a scammy tactic.

Remember that not everyone will like your book and not everyone will leave a review, or a good review, but it is a start. [And remember, don’t respond to bad reviews!]

You can also contact book bloggers or Amazon reviewers to get more reviews. This is hard work but well worth it. You can listen to Rachel Abbott in this interview talk about how this strategy got her to #1 on Amazon.co.uk.

10. Are you working your butt off?

hard work aheadGenerally, I’m an even tempered type of girl, but when I get emails from people asking why they’re not successful and they’ve done nothing on this list, I get a little annoyed!

Especially when this site has over 500 free articles on writing, publishing and marketing and there’s 70+ hours of audio for you to learn from for free. Oh yes, and a 57 page Author 2.0 ebookon all this. That’s all available for free, but I also have a number of multimedia courses as well, so there is no excuse not to be educated, even just from this site.

I absolutely believe that you can be a great writer and make an income from writing.

I have to believe that for you because I believe it for me, and I have left a stable job and steady income to take a chance on being an author-entrepreneur. I’ve been on this path since 2007 when I decided to write my first non-fiction book, so I am 5 years into working my butt off to change my life.

But writing books is not a get rich quick scheme.

I look at authors like CJ Lyons, Scott Sigler, Chuck Wendig, Joe Konrath, Bob Mayer and so many others and I know they are working their butts off every day writing and getting their work out there. The recent success ofSean Platt & David Wright in landing a Serial deal with Amazon is because they work incredibly hard at writing all day, every day to produce new content for their market. They are my heroes.

These guys are pros and they know it takes hard work to get there and hard work to stay there.

So please, if your book is not selling any copies at all, go through this checklist and honestly evaluate what you have done and how much effort you have put in. Please also share this with other people who may be asking the same question.

I’d love to know what you think, so please leave a comment below. What other tips can you give for people who aren’t selling any or many books?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Note-Taking And Writing Apps For iPhone and iPad

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Sometimes it’s hard to find ideas for a new blog post, short story or a poem. That’s why it’s so important to catch them at the moment they come to mind.

Mobile devices are a great way to capture ideas, no doubt about it. You’ve got a mobile phone always with you. It’s much quicker to start writing ideas on a tablet than a computer.

Most smartphone or tablet users will probably agree that those devices are not meant to write and publish a complete piece of work. You can write draft posts, scratch new ideas, or list topics to be included in a presentation. You can and should develop them on a computer if you want to work with text effectively.

That’s why syncing is one of the most important features of any note-taking or writing application. It gives the opportunity to access your work from any device and to make your writing as productive as possible. 

 Notes

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: Gmail | Price: free | Default app

The default iOS note-taking application. Users usually neglect it as it’s very basic. Many still don’t know that the app can sync files via Gmail account. All updated notes are stored in a Gmail account, under a Notes tab. More details in this post.

If you write notes from time to time and need a simplest possible way to do it, you won’t need probably anything more advanced than Notes.

EvernoteEvernote

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: Evernote | Price: free | App Store link

The most powerful and advanced note-taking, idea-grabbing solution for iOS. You can add not only text, but also audio and photo notes. Access them via web browser and Mac or PC applications.

To start using the app you have to sign up to Evernote. A free account allows for 60MB of data transfer per month. Offline note-taking is not enabled, but you can send notes to your account via e-mail, to a special address created for your Evernote account.

With Evernote, you are either a powerful user or don’t use it at all. Premium account costs $5 a month or $45 a year. A comparison of features is available on this page.

SimplenoteSimplenote

 

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: Simplenote | Price: free | App Store link

Evernote made easy. The app is very simple to use, yet has all the features you would need. You can access and edit your notes from a web browser as well as many third-party apps and add-ons, listed here. You can publish a note and it will be available at a unique simp.ly url address. You can also share the note with others by tagging it with their e-mail addresses.

A free account is ad-supported. The ads are not intrusive, but if you want to remove them, you have to spend $19.99 a year or $1.99 a month for an upgrade to Premium account – which also enables Dropbox sync and writing notes by e-mail.

Awesome Note (+Todo)Awesome Note (+Todo)

 

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: Google Docs, Evernote | Price: iPhone – free or $3.99, iPad – $4.99 | App Store links: iPhone, iPad

Note taking application and to-do manager in one. Out of all applications featured in this post this one has the best design and richest personalization options. You can change not only a font but also a theme to match the type of note.

I’ve used the app for some time as I’m very keen to be connected with Google Docs ecosystem – and Awesome Note can sync with it. It’s not perfect, though, as you can only do it manually. It’s good to remember to sync before you open and after you finish your note to make sure you don’t lose anything.

To use Awesome Note on both iPad and iPhone you have to buy two separate versions.

MoleskineMoleskine

 

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: no | Price: free | App Store link

The official application of the legendary Moleskine notebooks. It’ll surprise you with a modern UI concept and design. You can draw sketches as well as add pictures and labels from a large selection of Moleskine icons. You can also geotag your notes.

There is no sync functionality, so the only way to use notes on another device is to send them as an e-mail to yourself.

ElementsElements

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: Dropbox | Price: $4.99 | App Store link

This is how I think a writing application for mobile devices should look like. Once you open a note you can focus on writing. The design invites to write longer forms, but you can always use scratchpad to write a quick idea.

You can check word, line and character counts for every note, send a note by mail or print it. The notes are synced back to your Dropbox account as .txt files.

iA Writer for iPadiA Writer

Available for: iPad | Syncing: Dropbox | Price: $0.99 | App Store link

The application makes writing on the iPad serious. It helps you focus on writing by providing features no other app has. You can use FocusMode to concentrate on one sentence at a time.

The keyboard is tailored for writing needs – word and arrow keys as well as most used punctuation marks are available without switching. Word count and reading time is shown at the top bar. You can manually sync notes with a Dropbox account.

The overall design, typography and care for details make this app a great choice for professional writers.

Pages for iPadPages

 

Available for: iPhone, iPad | Syncing: iTunes File Sharing | Price: $9.99 | App Store link

The ultimate text processor for iPad. It includes Apple-designed document templates, several formatting options and advanced layout tools. You can style text, set intents and margins and insert tabs with ease.

You can import and work with Pages ’09, Word and text files. Share your work as Pages ’09, Word and pdf.

Pages includes most of the features of the desktop word processor. The only question is, whether you really need them on an iPad or iPhone.

* * * 

If you are looking for ways to write and edit Google Docs on your iOS device(s), there are applications like Go Docs ($4.99) or Documents ($0.99). Use them with care as you can lose formatting of your original document when you open it in the app and start editing. This happened to me a couple of times. When I really need to change something in one of Google document, I’m using either Safari browser or Safari-powered G-Whizz.

My favourite app is Simplenote. You can’t write for a long time on an iPhone. iPad is not for writing a content but for curating a content. What I really needed was a simple, fast, reliable app which syncs notes across all devices seamlessly. Simplenote matches those needs perfectly. 

If you liked this article, please share it with your friends. Get free updates by e-mail or RSS, powered by FeedBurner. Let’s meet on Twitter and Facebook. Check also my geek fiction stories: Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed. 

 

This is a reprint from Piotr Kowalczyk‘s Password Incorrect. 

eBook Cover Design – That Annoying White Box Around Images [Photoshop Help]

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This post, by James A. West, originally appeared on his blog on 9/29/12.

Several weeks ago I did a blog series on eBook cover design. For anyone interested in those posts, there were three. The first was about choosing your image, the second covered turning your image into a finished cover, and in the last one we talked about branding and how it relates to your cover. 

Lately, eBook cover design has been on my mind again. I just published the first book in a new fantasy series Reaper of Sorrows: Songs of the Scorpion Volume I. I had to design a cover, and as my wife and I worked on it in Photoshop, we both asked the same question—how in the hell do you get rid of that white box around your image? Another way to think of this is, how do you extract an image so you can layer it over another? Don’t worry, if you don’t already know how I promise I will tell you before this post ends. 

My wife is one of the most laid back people I have ever met, and being a photographer, she knows a few things about Photoshop, but stick that white box in front of her, and even my ears were burning! I decided to delve into Photoshop tutorials, not only because we were stuck on the cover until we could get rid of The Box, but also to save my wife’s sanity (and the computer). It didn’t take long until we found the answer. I couldn’t believe how simple it was! 

As you read these instructions, I will assume you have some basic knowledge of Photoshop, so when I say to use the Magic Wand tool for instance you know what I mean. If you don’t know, no worries. Just Google Magic Wand tool, or whatever you aren’t sure of, and you should get a quick answer. I wish I could post a sassy tutorial with photos for you to see, but I haven’t quite mastered those technological superpowers yet! 

Also, I won’t take credit for this information, because that belongs to all the excellent tutorials I found online. I simply want to share what I’ve learned in hopes of saving at least one person time and frustration, and possibly wives and computers everywhere 🙂  

I will give you an answer with detailed instructions, and a short breakdown at the end. 

And now, drum-roll please, here is The Answer. Goodbye little white box from hell:

1) Open two files in Photoshop. One is your image with the stupid white box, and one is a new blank file (I usually make mine 900 x 1200 and 300ppi, but that is personal preference). Also, quick but important note here, be sure to make a layer via copy or save a master file of your image just in case something goes wrong!!

2) For this tutorial, make your blank file background a different color than white, just so you can see the white box is really gone when you finish! Just pick whatever color you like and use the Paint Bucket to fill the layer.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on James A. West’s blog.

Eight Resources for Ebook Cover Design

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This post originally appeared on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks on 4/19/12.

 

We covered the top things to consider when making an ebook cover in an earlier post. But if for some reason you don’t want to make your own ebook cover, you have a few options. Here are some resources to check out for ebook cover design.

Take a look at 99Designs for 100% custom-made covers. Here’s how it works: You post what you’re looking for and what you’re willing to pay for it, the site’s community of artists will submit options, and at the end of a selected period of time, you choose a winner. The more you offer to pay, the better quality work you will receive.

DeviantART runs on a different model, in that it’s a community for artists, rather than a marketplace of for-hire creatives. You can find an existing piece of art to purchase that you may use as a cover, and many times you can get the artist to customize the art for you.

Then there are actual book cover creators for hire. I like Carl Graves’ ebook covers a lot, and he often does fire sales where he will offer up pre-existing templates for sale at a discount price. He’ll only sell each template once – so you know your cover is unique – but it is pre-created art with minimal opportunity for customization. KillerCovers  and CoverGraphics are other cover creation services for hire.

As for free options…

 

Read the rest of the post on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks.

Splurge & Save: How To Be A Thrifty Indie!

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If you’ll allow me, I’d like to take just a second to clarify an important point before we resume our regularly scheduled blogging…

Last week, our post on Self-Publishing Costs was added to Reddit.com by a well intentioned reader who felt we were projecting way too much overhead cost for indie authors (a sentiment that was echoed by many other readers on that website).

Holy misinterpretation Batman, that’s definitely not what we meant.

Judging from the comments we received here on Duolit from our wonderful readers, you guys seemed to have no problem picking up on the point of the guide – it was an overview of the possible costs associated with self-publishing.

 

But just in case that wasn’t clear, we want everyone to know that it was never our intention to say that self-publishing required the purchase of every service, product, tool, and coaching session we mentioned in the post.

Just like the example we used at the beginning about going to Wal-Mart – it’s possible to spend thousands of dollars in Wal-Mart (especially if you like camo and beef jerky) but it’s also possible to spend $5.

It all depends on your wants, needs and budget.

The same goes for self-publishing.

*Phew! Glad we got that straightened out!*

Moving right along, we thought that this week we could delve a little deeper into the possible costs of self-publishing by giving some advice about where you’ll get the most bang for your buck and where it’s okay to scrape and save a little.

To simplify things, we’re going to use the same breakdown from last week.

The Costs of Writing

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  • Organizational Materials: The dollar store sells post-its, pens, highlighters, thumbtacks and a variety of other office supplies that we love (!) but don’t need to spend big bucks on.
  • Coaching: Find a friend or family member who can be your sounding board/motivational coach through the writing process. You can also buddy up with a fellow author to keep each other on the straight and narrow for free!

$ Spend $

  • Books and Courses: Research is valuable. The more information you have at the outset of your project, the more you will save down the road by avoiding costly mistakes. Don’t go overboard by any means, but find a few resources that you trust and invest in your author education.
  • Software: If you’re planning to do your own formatting (see below for more on that) Microsoft Office is a better bet than any of its open source counterparts. There are more features, it’s user-friendly, and you can easily find support for it online if you have questions. It’s worth the extra cost for less headaches!

The Costs of Editing/Revision

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  • Beta Readers: This is a no-brainer my friends. If you start your marketing early on in your writing process (like we recommend!) you should have some fans in your corner prior to publishing who would be happy to test drive your novel. You’ll get valuable feedback, earn new fans, and not have to spend a dime. That’s the definition of a win-win!
  • Proofreader: When it comes to copyediting (finding those pesky typos, misspellings, inconsistencies and general word flow) you can probably find a friend, family member, or former teacher who can read over your manuscript for the cost of a nice dinner (or maybe a gift card). It’s so cheap we’d recommend getting at least two people to proofread for you.
  • One other quick savings note for editing: Do the less expensive editing options above before you dive into the professional editing below – you’ll take care of all the basic fixes before you put your manuscript in a pro’s hands and start incurring some pro costs by the hour.

$ Spend $

  • Professional Editor: A good editor is worth Fat Albert’s weight in gold, if you know what I mean. This is not the place to cut corners – find someone good, with good references, who has experience in your genre. Get this domino positioned perfectly and all the rest will fall into place behind it. [Check out our Indie Resource Directory if you don’t know where to find someone!]

The Costs of Professional Design/Layout

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  • Layout Design: If you really need to save money, you can DIY your interior formatting with the right software (see the discussion about software above).  To avoid piling up your set-up/submission fees with your publisher, you should do your research on margins, bleeds, fonts, letting, etc. (see the discussion about courses and books above). Believe it or not, eBook formatting is actually more complicated in a lot of ways than print formatting, so be sure you know what your publisher requires before you dive into this one and if you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, you can hire a professional without breaking the bank.

$ Spend $

  • Cover Design: We all know this by now, but you absolutely do judge a book by its cover. There are simply too many books in the marketplace not to make snap judgments based on a book’s immediate visual appeal. To compete in this market your book design *must* hold its own against traditionally published titles. Still, you can sometimes college art students or online designers who can give you a good deal without sacrificing quality.

The Costs of DIY Design/Layout

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  • Software, Stock Images/Photography & Fonts: Toni gave pretty good details on how/where to save here, so I’ll just offer one other tidbit for you – if you are a college student (with a valid college email account), you can get major awesome discounts on design software like the Adobe Creative Suite through AcademicSuperstore.com. If you are not a college student, I would NOT ever tell you to find a college student in the family and use his credentials to get your discount. I would NOT tell you to do that. NOT.

The Costs of Publishing

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  • ISBN: If you plan to write multiple books, it’s well worth it to buy ISBNs in bulk (lots of 10) directly from Bowker (keep in mind that your eBook has to have a different ISBN than the paperback version, so that’s two separate numbers right there). If you’re just getting started, it’s totally okay to use the provided ISBNs from publishers like CreateSpace and Lulu. You absolutely maintain the rights to your work, they just get listed as your publisher in the files and on your title page. Not a big deal, yo.
  • Setup Fees & Distribution: Do your research on publishers before hand to find out who has the loweset fees for set-up and distribution (but be sure you’re comparing apples to apples – what you get for the money is as important as the money itself).

$ Spend $

  • Proof: Once your book is approved and sent out to the distribution lists, releasing a new edition becomes time consuming and often requires you to pony up those set-up fees all over again. It’s MUCH better to get the proof copy and clear up any issues from the outset than to try and fix those mistakes down the road.
  • Review Copies: Like Toni said, where possible you’ll want to provide eBook copies to reviewers, but some will require paperbacks so it’s worth it to have a stash of printed copies on hand to mail out.

The Costs of Promotion/Marketing

¢ Save ¢

  • Website Design: I recently put on my big girl pants and redesigned my website all by myself (even though I have a world class designer for a best friend and business partner). With the newest Twenty Eleven WordPress template (free) it was easy peasy to add a custom header and background. You can also add navigation tabs and set-up pages with one click, it really couldn’t be any easier. (Also, take a look at Suzanne Collins’ website and you’ll feel much better about anything you can design yourself.)

  • Domain Name & Hosting: I hate their commercials, but Go Daddy is cheap and easy when it comes to domains and hosting. You can choose to pay monthly or quarterly (for less commitment and smaller upfront cost) or get long term savings by paying for a year in advance. Either way, it’s a bargain.
  • Mailing List: We seriously love Mail Chimp like whoa. We are unfortunately in the process of leaving them for AWeber (only because we’re planning some more advanced marketing stuff coming up in the near future) and it’s breaking our hearts. But for your indie author purposes MailChimp is a dream come true!

$ Spend $

  • Book Trailer: You don’t have to do a book trailer, but they are becoming pretty popular and give a three-dimensional feel to your book. If you do decide to get one, it’s worth it to spend the extra bucks and get a quality one versus using something that looks like it belongs in a bad corporate media presentation.
  • Author Branding: If you’re really serious about making a career out of this author business and you are clueless when it comes to design, it’s worth it to get with a designer and plan out a logo, colors and general brand aesthetic you can carry through everything you do (website, book designs, business cards, etc.). It will help readers begin to recognize your books from the very beginning and I think it has a lasting impact!

Don’t smash the piggy bank just yet!

That’s our two cents (get it???) on where you can save and where you should splurge when self-publishing your book.

We have one other tip that’s worth mentioning – and it’s you! If you’ve already been down the self-publishing path, you probably learned where you could save in the future and where you were glad you spent some extra money.

Help your fellow authors out and share some of those tips, you’ll probably learn a few secrets as well!

 

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

A Plea to Book Trailer Producers and Authors, too…

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In one of my past lives – still actually overflowing into this one – I spent more than twenty-five years as an Adman of sorts. I worked as a graphic designer/art director and also copywriter for a variety of agencies and eventually my own design studio. My learning curve was a rugged one and while I learned from many of the very best professionals, I also learned from some hacks. As a result, my experience ranged really widely, but touched on just about every area of marketing from Mom n’Pop to Corporate. When I sold my design business and became a full time writer and Indian Trader (really, no kidding…), I had to keep up my design skills so I could work up websites and promotions as the technology of marketing shifted, for our new business.

All that said, I have now added cover design as a sideline, and as a result, I get a lot of inquiries to review covers, make suggestions for improvement and even re-design them, create advertising for launches, posters, collateral mailing pieces and now, it seems, book trailers. A few days ago, I received a request from a fiction author I know and respect, to do a review of the trailer for his upcoming launch.  OK – I’m always glad to give my opinion, as you probably have already figured out.

The trailer was alright. It did a passable job of conveying the nature of the book, the period, the mood and a little tickle about the characters. But the end?  Really, really problematic.  The producer had chosen to end the trailer with an ultra-fast scroll down of the Title, the author’s name, and the sales availability/retail locations for the book. Much too fast to read, but following the scroll down, the viewer had to look at a still self-promotion frame for the video producer/artist for a full three seconds, and if I tell you that the images in this frame had nothing to do with the style or content of the video, it is a huge oversimplification. It was awful and I had to stare at it and the artist’s contact info/cred until the trailer was finished. Since it was U-Tube, I was left with the still frame of this artist’s promo, long after the trailer ended.

Let me be perfectly clear here. No professional marketing artist/designer/producer would ever so compromise a client’s message. Ever. Not only did this smack of hobbyist level production, it completely killed the trailer message. I told the author what I thought he should do to improve the trailer, and a day later, he sent in the revision, which corrected some redundancy in the copy, added a credit to an outside reference he’d missed, and slowed the scroll down at the end. IN addition, at my suggestion, following the scroll down, was a last image (or so I thought…) of the book cover. But then, scrolling up from the bottom was a copy blurb promoting the trailer producer/artist and when the trailer actually ended, I was still looking at the promotional page of thumbnails of this artist’s work.  I was aghast, but replied to the author’s request by saying that the video was much improved, but effectively hobbled by the unprofessional addition of the producer’s promo. He indicated it had been a friend or something like that. I assume I won’t hear from him again on this matter.

Here’s the thing. If you launch a book with an unprofessional trailer, it is never going to go away, unless you only release it on television broadcast – then it has a relatively short life, and I’ve seen bad commercials forgotten and the product resurrected to sell well. Online, though, it will never die. It will live on and on and on long after its useful  lifespan, to haunt you, your book and maybe your future work as well. Don’t make this mistake.

Here’s the thinking: a book trailer is a “commercial”, if you will, for your product. A published book is a product, like any other, that is sold to consumers. When you market your product to consumers, you must work hard to set is aside from all the marketing clutter they will read/view. In the case of a book trailer, at least you know some viewers will see it that are readers within the genre, so some of your work has been done for you already. Still, in the most tangible, personally connecting way you can, you need to do the elevator conversation.  In three minutes, you must tell a total stranger what your book is about and motivate them to buy it. A trailer is much shorter, but it uses images which can be more useful than words as they enter a different part of the brain. The imaging cortex stores images along with associations. Words are just stored words, but the two: images and associations, are retained, intact. This is something you can actually control and direct. Amazing stuff!

If your pockets are not deep, you may have to rely upon the services of a friend or acquaintance to produce a trailer for you: mix and stream the music and voice over if you use one, etc., plus find stock footage, shoot new footage and stills and edit it all down to make your pitch with as much impact as possible. It’s not an easy job, and to do it right takes a great deal of skill. But the lasting impression a viewer will retain may well be that last frame. Don’t ever negotiate a trailer deal where the last frame is a promo for the trailer’s producer. EVER. If mutual promotion is the deal breaker, then offer live links on your blog, do a guest blog, tweet out the producers site, etc., etc., but don’t be such a wuss that you let them destroy the efficacy of your promotional trailer by plastering their name on it.  As I’ve said, an unprofessional launch can hobble your book.

And those of you, who want to be trailer producers, read this again: Your client’s trailer is not a place to promote yourself. Do it on your own time, anywhere but in their trailer. It makes you look like a dilettante, or worse…  It might be tempting to see your name up there, but don’t do it. You will be hurting your client as well as yourself. Consider this a fair warning.

 

This is a reprint from Richard Sutton‘s site.

10 Quick Tips to Get Your Manuscript Ready for Publication

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One of the first decisions you have to make when you decide to publish your own book is: Who’s going to turn your manuscript into the book you want it to become?

Lots of people decide they can do it themselves, and I’m sure some of them are happy they did. For others, the whole process of learning about book design, pagination, fonts and the rest of it just isn’t the way they want to spend their time.

 

As an author you can decide to hire a book designer, either on their own or through a company that provides access to contractors.

But that’s not the end of the story. You still have to prepare your manuscript for publishing. Let me tell you, as someone who has worked on hundreds of authors’ manuscripts, it makes a big difference to your book designer how clean the file is when it hits her hard drive.

A messy manuscript takes longer to tidy up so it doesn’t cause problems when you get it into your layout software.

How can you help? Here are ten tips on how to get your manuscript ready for production. Keep in mind you only want to start doing this once you’re sure—no, I mean really sure—that your manuscript is final, ready for print.

Okay, now that you’re ready, let’s dive in.

  1. Get rid of extra spaces. Whether you’ve used them for spacing or between sentences, your file should contain no double spaces at all.
     
  2. Get rid of extra paragraph returns. We space things out so they look nice on the screen, but we don’t need or want them for typesetting. Your file should have no double paragraph returns in it.
     
  3. Style, don’t format. When you highlight and format a piece of text, it may not survive the transition to the layout software. But if you learn to use styles your document will be more consistent and all the styles will translate just fine.
     
  4. Account for unusual characters. If your manuscript uses unusual accents or other diacritical marks, make sure your designer knows in advance. They’ll be able to tell you the best way to ensure they are accurately translated.
     
  5. Eliminate underlines. In book typography, we use italic fonts for emphasis, and almost never use underlines, not even for URLs.
     
  6. Eliminate bold in your text. See #5, above. Although bold is often used for headings and subheadings, it doesn’t belong in the body of your text, use italic instead.
     
  7. Resolve markups. Sometimes manuscripts arrive with unresolved issues in the markup, perhaps from an early reader or an editor. Your designer won’t know how to resolve them before the file is stripped of its code and ported to layout software.
     
  8. Check for completeness. It’s very common for some parts of your book to arrive later than other parts. For instance, you might be waiting for a Library of Congress number or a CIP block, or there might be permissions late to arrive, or an index that will be dropped in after everything else is done. But don’t send a manuscript off to production if it’s missing major elements, whole chapters, some dialogue you’ll “be finished with in the morning,” or the rest of the quotes you want at the chapter openings, but haven’t picked yet. All of this makes the production of your book less efficient and more prone to errors.
     
  9. Find and eliminate errant spaces. This is a tricky one, but will be caught in a close reading. You are proofreading before you go to press, right? What happens here, especially in books that are heavy with dialogue, is that a space will creep into the wrong place. You can’t catch these by searching for two spaces in a row. For instance, a space before a closing quote might turn it into an open quote when it gets to typesetting.
     
  10. Proofread a monospaced copy. Every one of the errors I’ve talked about here is easier to spot if you do this last one. Save a copy of your book manuscript and change it to a monospaced font like Courier. You can use 10 point or 11 point and set your line spacing to 1.5 lines or double spacing and print it out or make a PDF. Then proofread that one, you’ll be amazed at the things that pop out that you completely missed when you read it in Garamond or Times New Roman.

Here are 2 reasons to spend some time prepping your files:

  • To help keep your book on schedule
  • To avoid errors that can migrate into your final print or e-book files

Following this list is going to make your file prep tasks that much easier. Are there any special things you do when getting a manuscript ready for publication?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

How Much Does Self-Publishing Cost?

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For real-life stories from indie authors on how much they spent to self-publish their work, check out our discussion: How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

Stepping into Wal-Mart is kind of like falling into a black hole (only without the stretching/exploding).

Seriously, though, think about it. You walk in, ready to purchase your few needed items and walk out. Hours later, you emerge into the garish sunlight, staring at your recipt and thinking, “how did I spend $100 on socks and Pop-Tarts?!”

For first-time indie authors, the process is much the same. You start out intending only to purchase editing and a cover but end up spending WAY more than anticipated.

As any money-saving guru will tell you, the way to avoid this black hole syndrome is by going in with a plan, a specific list of items to purchase and blinders to costs not essential to your task.

While I can’t help you turn a blind eye to those tempting purchases, I can lay out the possible costs associated with self-publishing so you can create that all-important shopping list!

NOTE: The below is simply a list of *possible* costs. Don’t let your eyes glaze over as you try to figure out how to raid your child’s college fund to raise enough money! Every author’s needs and goals are different — what’s essential to you may not be essential to your fellow author. Self-Publishing can cost tens of thousands or nothing at all, depending on the route you take. 

The Costs of Writing

Organizational Materials: $25

You know, all those idea notebooks, sticky notes, calendars, and smartphone apps to capture your thoughts and keep you on track.

Coaching: $250+

If you need a bit of a kick in the butt to keep your fingers to the keys (or would benefit from a consistent sounding board as you write), professional writing coaches will do their best to help you finish your book — at a price. Writing coaching packages start at around $250, but I’ve seen them go for $1000+!

Books and Courses: $25+

Be your *own* writing coach! Books like Roz Morris’ Nail Your Novel and courses like Kristen Lamb’s We Are Not Alone teach you the skills to finish your novel. PS: Shannon created a great ecourse, How NOT to Write a Novel, exclusively for our Indie Ninjas!

Software: FREE-$125

Follow the free route and choose something like OpenOffice or Storybook  to write your novel or go a bit fancier with Microsoft Office or Scrivener.

The Costs of Editing/Revision

Beta Readers: FREE+

The easiest way to recruit beta readers is from your already crazy-dedicated fanbase. Ask your tribe nicely and you’re bound to get a few volunteers! To show your gratitude, however, consider throwing in a $5-10 Amazon or iTunes gift card.

Proofreader: $250+

Proofreaders check for typos and are generally more thorough than beta readers, but much less so than professional editing service. Be sure to check out proofreaders in our Self-Publishing Resource Directory.

Professional Editor: $500+

Hiring a professional editor is one of the true *musts* for any indie author. Don’t skimp here! For a list of editors who work with indie authors, check out our Resource Directory.

The Costs of Professional Design/Layout

Cover Design: $250+

If you’re going to go pro in one design arena, your cover is the place to spend the bucks. Be sure to visit our Self-Publishing Resource Directory for designers who work with self-publishing authors.

Layout Design: FREE – $150+

Many indies stick to Word for the interior layout of their book, but (especially for your paperback) we highly recommend going pro. Again, check out the Self-Publishing Resource Directory for self-pub approved layout designers!

The Costs of DIY Design/Layout

Software: FREE-$1000+

Design your book cover for free using included templates with publishers like CreateSpace or go the true DIY route with something free like GIMP or (for the true pro) Adobe Photoshop. As for the layout, you can stick with your word processing program (covered in the Costs of Writing section above) or use Adobe InDesign like the pros.

Stock Images/Photography: FREE-$20+

Free stock images can be found on sites like sxc.hu, but Fotolia or iStock offer a bigger selection of quality high-resolution images, which will run you $20 or more.

Fonts: FREE-$200

You can choose to use free fonts (already hanging out on your computer) such as Times New Roman or Garamond for your interior layout. If you want your book to look like others in your local Barnes and Noble, however, use a true professional font such as Minion Pro (which comes with Adobe Creative Suite) or Caslon.

When it comes to your cover, you can get a bit more creative with fonts — check out the selection at DaFont or MyFont.

The Costs of Publishing

ISBN: $125+ (total control) or $10+ (certain restrictions)

Purchasing a single ISBN from Bowker will run you $125. If you’re planning to write more than one book or are publishing your book in multiple formats (print, eBook, etc), you’ll save a ton by purchasing a block of 10 for $250.

Some publishers (like CreateSpace or Smashwords) provide much cheaper ISBN options if you’re willing to meet certain requirements, such as listing them as your publisher.

Setup Fees: $75

Certain POD publishers, such as Lightning Source, charge you a certain amount to setup your files for printing. LSI charges $37.50 for cover setup and $37.50 for interior setup for a total of $75.

Distribution: $12+

Lightning Source charges $12 a year to be distributed through Ingram, the largest book wholesaler. The fee also includes distribution through Baker & Taylor (who you could register with separately for $300 — ouch).

Proof: $30

When printing through Lightning Source, a proof copy of your book costs $30, including expedited shipping. This is an essential step because there are many issues you don’t notice until you actually hold your printed book (side note: it also feels *really* awesome).

Review Copies: FREE-$5+

After approving your proof, consider personally ordering copies to give away for review. You’ll pay the wholesale price, usually around $5 for a 300-page book.

Alternately, you could provide electronic review copies of your book by converting your interior file into a PDF.

The Costs of Promotion/Marketing

Author Website

  • Design: FREE – $350+
    If you choose custom design for your website, make sure you will easily be able to make updates as your career progresses. Just getting started? Consider a free website hosted on wordpress.com to get your feet wet! Note: we offer quality custom WordPress designs for our indie friends :-)  
  • Domain Name: FREE – $15/yr
    This is sometimes included in your hosting package (see below), but if you want to register multiple domains through a provider such as GoDaddy, they generally run around $15 apiece.
  • Hosting: FREE-$5/mo+
    A place for your website to live. Personally, we use InMotion Hosting (awesome, so far)!
  • Theme: FREE-$20+
    If you can’t afford a custom design but want something a little more spiffy than the default WordPress theme, purchase a premium theme from WooThemes  or ElegantThemes.
  • Mailing List: FREE-$20+
    A mailing list is the best way for you to keep in touch with readers you know are crazy-dedicated to you and your work. We use MailChimp, but have heard amazing things about AWeber. Most are priced by the number of subscribers you have (and MailChimp also offers an awesome ‘Forever Free‘ plan, perfect for getting started).

Book Trailer: FREE-$799+

To DIY your book trailer, check out Shannon’s post ’4 Steps to Making Your Own Book Trailer.’ If you’d rather leave it to the pros, a 90-second trailer goes for $500+.

The Biggest Self-Publishing Cost

As any indie author will attest, the biggest cost of self-publishing is your own time. Unless you have a hefty sum saved up to outsource everything, you’ll spend at least 50-100 hours on this endeavor!

Put Away That Calculator!

Again, remember, the above are simply the possible self-publishing costs. Some authors have spent thousands and others invested nothing but time. The route you choose is up to you!

Did I leave any costs out? Let me know in the comments!

 

This is a reprint from the Duolit blog.

The Book Buyer’s Decision-Making Process: A Guide For Self-Publishers

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As a self-publisher you must understand how a potential customer will determine if your book is worth buying. Let’s assume the buyer has already found your book on Amazon because they were looking for information about a subject that your book covers. They are getting ready to buy a book that they believe will help them learn something new and is worth their time and money. What must your book do to convince this person to ignore the other books and buy your book? I have outlined some crucial questions that you must deal with as a self-publisher if you want the buyer to choose your book over another. By dealing with these questions you will help the buyer become more confident in their decision to choose your book over the many other books.

Not all buyers will go through every step. Buying or downloading a book is not usually a complicated and drawn-out decision-making process. But some of the steps to making the decision to buy a particular book will be more important to certain buyers. And some steps will be less important, or not considered at all. But you, as a self-publisher that needs to sell books, must understand what your reader’s decision-making process is going through. The better you understand that thought process, and the better you provide the answers for your buyer’s questions, the more books you will sell.

Here are some of the most obvious and most essential questions that you as the author and publisher of your book must provide answers to. I am sure, that with a little thoughtful effort, you should be able to develop additional questions that the audience for your particular book will need answered before they decide to buy your book.

1. Can the book shopper download a sample of your publication, from Amazon, Scribd, and your own website?

2. Does your book have a website to support your book?

3. Are reviews of your book on Amazon for the buyer to read?

4. Is there any discussion of your publication on social reading websites?

5. Who is the publisher? Does this publisher specialize in your book’s topic?

6. Are you the publisher, but with many years of experience in this book’s exact topic?

7. Do you the author/publisher have other related titles?

8. Does your book have a great foreword by an industry guru/expert/insider/famous author?

9. Does your book’s introduction properly explain what the book is about?

10. Does the design and formatting of your book look professional; and is it easy to follow?

11. Is your book’s cover well designed and look professional?


12. Does your book’s back cover provide all the essential information about your book?

13. Is there an editor referenced on the cover or in the credits?

14. Have you, the author, written other related books? And are they available on Amazon?

15. Besides the ebook edition, is there a print edition?

16. Does your book appear on any best-seller lists, or must-read lists?

17. Does your book’s website answer all of these questions, and many more?

As you can see, most of these questions should be answered when you develop and build your marketing plan around your book. Most of the answers to these questions should be easily and quickly available to the buyer. Much of it should be available to the buyer from within your book’s Amazon page. All of it must be available at your book’s own website. Remember, today’s consumer is very sophisticated and very careful with their money. And with amazing companies like Amazon, their choices are almost limitless.

Therefore, you must put yourself into the shoes of your buyer. Think about what information you, as a consumer, would need in order to be confident that your book is the best one to buy. It is not a difficult process, but it is an essential one, especially if you have any hope of developing a financially successful book.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

Indie Authors Can Succeed: What Terri Did And How You Can Do It, Too – Part 1

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This post, by Novel Publicity President Emlyn Chand and author Terri Giuliano Long, originally appeared on Novel Publicity on 8/24/11.

What does it take to be successful as an author? How can one go from simply dreaming a dream to living its reality? Is there any hope for all of the starving wordsmiths of the world?

Why, yes. There most assuredly is.
 
Terri Giuliano Long: A Case Study

To prove this point to all of the starry-eyed optimists and cynical nay-sayers, allow me to present a case study. It’s no secret that Novel Publicity has been working with literary fiction author Terri Giuliano Long almost since we opened our web portal to business back in March 2011.

Terri published her first novel, In Leah’s Wake, in October 2010. She put in a lot of hard work and hard-earned cash to promote it, and by July 26th, 2011, she had sold her 1,000th copy. A milestone few authors ever reach, indie or not.

1,000 copies—that’s really exciting. But what’s even more exciting is what happened next. It took nine months to sell those 1,000 copies, and only another twenty-nine days to sell 1,000 more. Now Terri’s sales are above 100 per day and show no signs of sinking. Is it fair to say she’s made it?

I think so.

Now that we’ve laid the framework to show that, yes, an indie author can achieve at least a modicum of commercial success, let’s move forward and answer the more pertinent question and get to the real reason you’re reading this blog post anyway: how did she do it?

Perhaps more accurately phrased as: how can you do it?

Let’s explore this question chronologically. Along the way, we’ll discuss what Terri did that was right-on and what she could have done better to give you the chance to learn from both her mistakes and her triumphs.
Write the best book you can.

Not the best book in the entire history of humanity. Just the best one you can possibly write. Give it the time to take root and really grow. Don’t rush to meet a deadline. Don’t try to conform to what’s popular or what somebody else expects. Respect your artistic vision and respect the English language. That’s step one.

What Terri did…

I wrote the first draft as my graduate thesis – the entire first draft in three months. It was terrible, of course – awful writing, a lot of summary, lacking story development. I then spent about four years – while teaching and doing other writing- revising. I started from scratch, meaning I didn’t cut and paste; I started from a blank page and retyped the entire manuscript. This is important because it helps you see the novel with new eyes. I replaced summary with scene, created new scenes, developed characters. There is a lot of drug-related information in the novel. To get it right, I had to research. I also researched protocol on runaway teens, and I looked up information on construction practices, economics and so on. I then looked at thematic issues – this is a story about community and connection. Once I realized this, I worked to develop and pull the themes forward. I always read my work aloud, so tend to edit for style (vocabulary, syntax, etc.) as I write; while I did polish, I didn’t feel a need to style-edit the entire novel.

Package the book in a way that will appeal to readers.

This means, for the love of all that is holy, please PLEASE hire a professional editor. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, readers will notice if your formatting or your punctuation is off. You can’t cut corners if you want to be taken seriously. And this goes beyond the editing.

You also need to present an attractive exterior—I’m talking about your book cover. Saying this goes against that cliché moral code of not judging a book by its cover, but people can and will judge your beloved novel in this way. Don’t give anyone the chance to discount your book for such a superficial reason. Cover your bases.

What Terri did…

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes four more strategies, on Novel Publicity. Also see Part 2, on the same site.

How To Self-Publish An Ebook

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This post, by David Carnoy, originally appeared on CNET on 6/1/12.

A while back I wrote a column titled "Self-publishing: 25 things you need to know," which was mostly about how to create and sell your own paper book. After folks asked me to do something similar for e-books, I created this article, which has now been updated a few times.

I begin with one caveat: The whole e-book market is rapidly evolving, and a lot of self-publishing companies are offering e-book deals bundled into their print book publishing packages, which makes them harder to break out and evaluate. It’s all quite complicated, and in an effort to sort through the confusion, I’ve decided to offer a few basic tips and present what I think are some of the best options out there for creating an e-book quickly and easily. As things change — and they will — I’ll do my best to keep this column up to date.

 

Tips

:

 

  • It’s gotta be good: The same rule applies to self-published e-books as it does to print books. You have to start with a good product if you have any hope of selling it.

  • Create an arresting cover: When it comes to e-books, everything starts with the cover image. Creating an eye-catching, professional-looking cover that also looks good small (it has to stand out as a thumbnail image, since it’s being sold online) is easier said than done, but it can really make a difference in terms of sales. Ideally, you should hire a graphic designer who has some experience creating book covers. From a production standpoint, an e-book cover is easier to create than a cover for a print book (you just need a JPEG with decent resolution), but it shouldn’t look out of place among traditionally published e-books. I can’t tell you how many bad self-published covers are out there.

  • Price your e-book cheaply: You should sell your e-book for $5.99 or less. According to research done by Smashwords, an online e-book publishing and distribution platform for authors, publishers, agents, and readers, $2.99 to $5.99 yields the most profit for self-published authors, and although 99 cents will get you more downloads, it’s a poor price point for earning income (see Smashwords’ presentation on pricing here). On the other hand, Lulu, one of the bigger online self-publishing operations, says that authors who price their e-books in the 99-cent to $2.99 range "sell more units and earn more revenue than those in any other price range."

    It’s important to note that Amazon’s 70 percent royalty for authors only applies to Kindle books priced between $2.99 and $9.99; otherwise, the rate kicks down to 35 percent). As for going free, well, Smashword data indicates that free e-books get about 100 times more downloads than priced e-books.

 

Read the rest of the post on CNET.

What Goes Into a Book: Case Study: The Catalyst

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I was talking to a reader on my Facebook page and had mentioned a small part of the process for The Catalyst. Her reply was:

I knew that releasing a book was a complicated process, but ‘Wow’. As a reader it’s interesting to learn everything involved in order to get a book out, so that we can enjoy it. If more people understood everything that it takes to get a book out into the world, there would be alot less bitching about having to spend anything over 99 cents for one.

Since I think this understanding is so important, rather than JUST reply directly to her, I decided to make a blog post about it to take you through what goes into a typical Zoe Winters series book:

 

It’s not just writing a book and throwing it out there. In an indie situation all time and money costs are the author’s. There are promotional costs as well as the costs of putting out a truly professional product that can compete with mainstream published work on quality. On the one hand people expect indie books to be “cheap” but on the other, they complain about lower quality. In order to GET higher quality it takes a level of work (and often monetary costs) that require it to not be “cheap”. For example… if I charged 99 cents (making only 35 cents per copy sold), I would feel highly resentful, given what all goes into this both time and money wise.

Here’s what goes into the standard Zoe series book:

Rough Draft (usually I try to get this done in a month or less. Most people can’t do more than 2-3 hours of actual writing in a day because it’s pretty draining. Creative work is not digging ditches, but it can still be exhausting.)

Then I do a read through and edit and send it to the beta readers. (while it’s with the betas I’ll generally work on something else. That’s also when I start getting stuff together for the book trailer and the cover art and start the process for that. I consult on cover art but I’m more involved with the book trailer. I pick music, video clips, images, and write the text and give a basic storyboard idea of how I want it to go. But generally I’m also working on another phase of another project while my book is with betas or with the copyeditor. Like when Catalyst goes to the copyeditor I’ll be writing Lifecycle.)

When it gets back from the betas, I do another round of edits, based on feedback. Then I send it to the copyeditor. (while it’s with the copyeditor, I’m doing other things on other projects, or getting the book tour/promo set up and ready to go, or whatever.)

When it gets back from the copyeditor, I input the copyedits, do a final proofread, format for ebook, register copyright, then publish and run my promo and send review copies out to reviewers.

Then I format for print, send it to LSI and wait for my proof copy. When I get my proof copy, I proofread the print, then approve it for distribution. During all this I get things set up with my narrator and audio production people for the audio book. I consult back and forth on things such as the particular voices each main character will have and answer any questions on word pronunciations that aren’t clear.

As recording comes back for the book, I listen to it and note any audio errors that the editor might not have caught. A mispronunciation here… a part that’s hard to understand… etc. I send notes back and re-listen to the fixed parts, then approve for distribution.

As print and audiobook become available, I promote those with a newsletter, blog post, twitter, and facebook.

Things I spend money on… like for the Catalyst:

Cover art, including audiobook cover.
Copyediting
Book Tour (Blog tour)
Book Trailer and elements for the trailer (music, video clips, images)
Kindle Nation Daily ad
Audio narration
Free signed copies as part of previous promos.

Total costs involved for this book come to about $5,000 (a big chunk of that of course is audiobook narration and production, but I think the costs are worth it to be in audio.)

In the end analysis, writing, editing, promoting, and releasing a book takes me hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars of my own personal money. This is why I charge $4.95 for full-length books in the digital format. Digital is my main bread and butter. Audio and print are small sidestreams of income, though Audio will likely grow over time because the market itself is growing.

 

This is a reprint from The Weblog of Zoe Winters.

Help For DIY Cover Designers, From Author Brian Jackson

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Indie author Brian Jackson is all about the DIY, and all about helping out his fellow indies by sharing what he’s learned. In his Creating Book Covers Workshop series of blog posts, he walks readers through installing the free graphics program GIMP, creating a simple book cover, working with layers, and working with fonts and text effects. 

Here are the relevant links:

Creating Book Covers Workshop: 1 Installing and Running the GIMP

Creating Book Covers Workshop: 2 Creating a Simple Book Cover

Creating Book Covers Workshop: 3 Working with Layers and Selections

Creating Book Covers Workshop: 4 Loading Fonts and Using Text Effects

Also see Brian’s related post, Create a Professional Looking Book Cover on Windows 7 for $18.50

The 7 Worst Mistakes Of Indie Authors And How To Fix Them

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To be an independent author means taking your book project seriously. But most of us haven’t been in publishing for our whole careers, so it’s inevitable that we make mistakes along the way.

Mistakes aren’t bad either. They are the human way to improve and learn. But it helps if we can help each other!

I’m not perfect and I continue to learn along the writer’s journey but here are the worst mistakes I have made and seen others doing too. I’d love to hear from you in the comments about your mistakes as by sharing, we can all improve together.

(1) Not spending enough time learning about you, your book and your audience

You need to get to know yourself, as well as understand the goals for your book and the needs and expectations of your audience. If you don’t understand your goals, how will you know what path to follow and whether you are successful or not?

For example,

* Know yourself. If your dream is to have your book in every physical bookstore and airport, then you should be looking at traditional publishing. If you just want to reach readers, go ebook only with a low price or free. If you want to make income, make sure you have other products behind the book.

* Know your book and your genre. If you are writing historical romance, you should be reading that type of book and understanding what the audience look for and then making sure your book fits the niche – or look for another niche

* Know yourself. Are you in this for the long haul or is this one book everything to you?

There are lots more questions to ask yourself. The key is to spend time reflecting and writing around these topics which will really help shape your publishing decisions.

(2) Not getting a professional editor

The #1 criticism of self-published books is that they are not professional enough and I believe quality is in direct proportion to the amount of editing you have. Seriously.

I really think that every writer needs an editor.

If you get a pro editor, and take their advice, your book will improve beyond anything you could imagine. I’ll go further and say you need 2 editors – a developmental one for the structure of the book, and a copy-editor for the line detail and cleanup. Pentecost went through 3 editors in the end and I have just engaged a fourth to help me improve my writing further.

More on editors here.

(3) Not getting professional design

As above, we want our books to stand alongside traditionally published books and have the same level of quality. Unless you are already a designer specializing in books, then I recommend you hire someone. Check out Joel at The Book Designer or Derek Murphy’s CreativIndie book covers here.

If you really want to DIY, then read everything on TheBookDesigner.com including the Ebook Cover Design Awards so you can understand what works. You can also check out Ant Puttee at BookCoverCafe.com.

After evaluating my sales numbers and deciding that I don’t want an amateur product, I have decided to pursue ebook only for my books going forward. Your book publishing choice is up to you, but just make sure it is professional.

(4) Doing a print run without having a distribution deal

This was one of my big mistakes and I still hear of people doing it. Consider carefully whether you really want to publish a print book. If you do, brilliant. For the best result, hire a book designer and go with print on demand as the first option. You can order a few copies at cost to give to people.

<— Me in 2008 with way too many print books

 

But do you need to do a print run locally and have thousands of books delivered to your door?

This is important as you will have to pay in advance for the printing. You’ll also have to store them and ship them if you sell from your website.

Yes, it works out cheaper per book if you sell them all but are you going to sell them all? Do you have a distribution channel in place? e.g. a speaking platform or a guaranteed bookstore?

See the picture on the right? That’s me in 2008 with way too many books that I didn’t sell, before I discovered print on demand. They mostly ended up the landfill. Don’t make this mistake.

Also, check out this infographic for some great comparisons of offset vs print on demand.

(5) Paying way too much for services you can do yourself with a little education

I still get emails from people who have paid $10,000 for an author services package and received 100 books as well as losing the rights. Or people who have paid $5000 for their author website without knowing how to update it themselves.

I know most authors aren’t that interested in technology, but it is worth a little short term pain to empower yourself with some knowledge and save yourself a lot of money in the process. For example, if you just have a plain text novel, pay $49 for Scrivener and do it yourself. Then you can change the files whenever you like.

It’s fine to pay professionals for a service but make sure you know:
a) why you need it
b) how things will work in the future e.g. changing things, which is 100% likely to happen
c) what your alternatives are

(Obviously I don’t mean you should scrimp on editing or cover design but shop around and get the best deal for you and the right person for the job!)

(6) Doing no marketing at all, or getting shiny object syndrome

When I launched my first book, I only knew about offline marketing and mainstream media. I made it onto Australian national TV and radio and still sold no books. That’s when I decided to learn about online marketing. Life has been a lot better since!

Many authors think marketing involves bookmarks or book signings but these are probably the least effective forms of marketing.

Other people get into blogging, then Twitter, then Pinterest, Facebook, podcasting, video etc all in the same week and then burn out with exhaustion and decide that marketing doesn’t work. This is shiny object syndrome – jumping onto the newest, latest thing without giving the last thing a chance to work.

My advice here is to give something a try for 6 months of concerted effort before you expand. I started with a year of blogging, then moved into Twitter and podcasting, later I went with Facebook and video. These are my core marketing and platform building activities but they all took time to build.

Find what you enjoy and stick at it.

 

Me at Channel 9, Australia———————————->

 

(7) Focusing everything into one book

This is something I have only learned recently, and perhaps we can’t learn this except through our own experience.

When Pentecost came out, I was entirely focused on marketing it and making my new fiction career work. I heard the pros say you need more than one book but I was sure I could make it successful. It has now sold over 30,000 copies which is a modest success but more importantly, the sales figures have increased again with the launch of Prophecy. I can expect the same pattern on the release of future books too as new readers find me through the increased “shelf space”.

I am also understanding the long haul career of a pro-writer involves always working on the next book. Celebrating the last, but getting on with the next. This is our passion, but also our job. Obsessing over one book isn’t as important as getting on with the next.

I’d love to hear your comments. Do you agree with these mistakes and what else can you add?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

22 Top Book Designer Tasks for Getting Your Self-Published Book Into Print

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I frequently get asked what exactly a book designer does. Just the other day I spoke with a client whose book is in copyediting. I’ll be getting ready to start work on his interior next week.

“Well, do you need to do anything,” he asked. “I mean, there’s just a couple of formats, right?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess we must be doing our job pretty well,” I replied, “if you can’t even tell the difference from one book to the next.”

But I got to thinking about it later. We talk frequently about the need to hire publishing professionals, to get your book properly edited and designed to compete in the marketplace, or, if you’re going to do it yourself, to make sure you understand the conventions and best practices of book production.

 

When a Designer Is Not Just a Designer

But there are book designers and book designers. Many cover designers do only covers, that’s their specialty. Some designers do only interiors. There are designers that do covers, websites and marketing collateral. Then there are designers who provide a complete resource for self-publishing authors.

When I meet with prospective clients the first time, it’s really the beginning of a relationship. In this relationship we share responsibility for the embodiment of their manuscript in the form of a consumer product. By the time the books roll off the press, I may have been involved in many aspects of the book’s development.

Recently I sat down and made a list of 22 tasks that fall to the book designer in the course of a project:

  1. Determine whether the prospective self-publisher can articulate a clear goal for her book and, if not, to help her achieve that.
  2. Help the client determine the category, niche, or target market for the book.
  3. Assist client in obtaining ISBN, LCCN, SAN and publisher listings if needed.
  4. Decide the best printing process to meet the goal and help client select provider.
  5. Analyze the formats that will be needed in the finished book.
  6. Arrange for copyediting, if the author has not done so already.
  7. Set up a production schedule.
  8. Hire an illustrator if needed.
  9. Clean up text files submitted by author.
  10. Create sample interior designs, using a representative chapter and most if not all of the formats needed for the final book.
  11. Create sample cover designs demonstrating the different ways the book can be positioned within its category.
  12. Work with client to adjust designs to fit their needs and aesthetics.
  13. Layout all the pages of the book, correct formatting where needed and adjust the length to the right number of pages.
  14. Remind client to finish the copy for the copyright page.
  15. Obtain a spine width calculation, cover template and technical specs from client’s book printer.
  16. Layout and proof complete flat cover including barcode.
  17. Scan photographs if necessary, and adjust photographs for selected printing method, if any are used.
  18. Prepare Advance Review Copies (ARC) for marketing and review purposes.
  19. Arrange for proofreading and indexing if needed.
  20. Advise publisher about her packing, shipping and storage options for offset books.
  21. Create reproduction files conforming to printer’s specifications, and coordinate proofing and production with printer.
  22. Celebrate every milestone as one step closer to the client’s goal.

If It’s a Real Production, Doesn’t That Make Me a Producer?

When I looked at this list, I realized why my favorite term for what I do is Book Producer. However, no one has ever called me up saying, “I need a book producer,” so I don’t use it. But that’s what it is, gathering the resources and talent needed to produce the book at hand, and making sure the project runs smoothly, and on budget, to a satisfying conclusion.

Keep in mind that nothing in the list of 22 Tasks above describes the biggest part of the designer’s work: creating the typographic container for the author’s work, and doing the actual fitting, pushing, nudging, aligning, sizing and organizing of the content into something that looks the way a “book” should look, that actually enhances the experience of reading.

And that, in the end, is really the most satisfying part of what I do. Most of the books we create, even if they are influenced by the fashion of the day, will be around far longer than we will. As a designer sometimes I feel as if I stand between the 500-year traditions of bookmaking on one hand, and the potential hundreds of years some of these books may last on the other.

Not a bad place to be at all.

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.