How to Make Your Book Cover Attractive and Attention Grabbing

Your book cover is the first thing a potential buyer sees, whether online or in the book store. So it is critical that you make it attractive. Here are five tips to help you sell more books.

1. Consider your target market.

There is a huge difference in the look of a book for one target market versus another. So you need to look in a bookstore to see what appeals to buyers like the ones who will buy your book.

For example, you may find that books for entrepreneurs are generally paperbacks, in the 5.5 x 8.5 size, with read and yellow as predominant colors and an average of 150 pages.

On the other hand, books for corporate executives are hard bound, in full 6 x 9 size, with blue and gray paper covers and an average of 200 pages or more.

2. Your front cover is the first impression.

When browsing online, the first thing that people see is the front cover. So you want to make it jump out at them, either with a large title or an attractive photograph. Ideally you want both.

Your title should grab their attention and your subtitle should give them more details. So while your title doesn't necessarily need to have the key concept of the book, it does need to appear in either the title or subtitle. That means you can give it a catchy, memorable title that raises curiosity. But then you need to explain it further in the subtitle.

Whether or not you choose to put your photograph on the book cover is determined by your purpose and your fame. If you are well-known in your field and people recognize your face, then put your photo on it. Likewise, if you are using the book to build your fame, then your photograph is a good way to reinforce your image.

On the other hand, it is not uncommon to use an abstract image or design or a photograph of something associated with the book. For example, a book for architects may have a blueprint on it.

3. Your back cover sells.

Your back cover needs to have a headline, followed by a short synopsis of the book with no more than 200 words.

Follow that with testimonials and endorsements for the book. When you use a variety of sources that your target market recognizes or identifies with, you will sell more books.

Your bio paragraph and photo at the bottom of the back cover is optional. If you are building your reputation with the book, then include it. If you feel you will sell more copies based on showing more endorsements, use those instead.

Reserve the bottom right corner of the back cover for the bar codes that are required. Those will need to be included in the final design as well.

4. Remember the spine.

While we generally consider that people will pick up your book in a bookstore based on the cover, "face out" display is normally reserved for the top-selling books. Everything else is on the shelf, spine out.

So be sure the print on your spine is clear and easily read from a distance. While you want to have your last name on the spine for proper shelving, it's better to sacrifice your first name, if need be, to allow more space for the title.

5. Test your cover.

Create a mock-up of your book cover and have it printed at your local print shop. Trim it to fit. Then wrap it around a book of the same size as your book will be.

Hold it. Turn it around. Show it to friends. Even take it to your local bookstore and put it on the shelf where it will appear once it's published. Does the spine show up easily?
When you pick it up do you want to turn it over and read more about it? Does the cover make you want to buy it?

If you answer no to any of these questions, go back to the drawing board and refine the cover.

When you take the time to go through each of these steps, you will create a book cover that is attractive and attention grabbing - and sells your book.

A Guide to Publishing an Ebook on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords

In this post I'm going to try and demystify the ebook publishing process. I've been through it and lived to tell the tale. So here goes. Stand by for a fun ride. It'll be worth the trials and tribulations along the way!

Ingredients:

• Book (preferably in.doc format) - see detailed formatting guidelines below
• Cover picture (in JPG format, max 1200 pixels high)
• Short book description (400 characters max)
• Proper book description (up to about 2,500 characters)
• About the Author summary
• Book categories (i.e. Young Adult, Fantasy, etc.)
• Decision on selling price of book

Method:

1. Do not attempt to publish your book without ALL the above ingredients. Delay or disaster could occur
2. Ensure you have full publishing rights to the book you are publishing (I know this sounds odd, but if you have signed a contract with anyone, check and make sure...)
3. Log in to Smashwords.com and create an author account if you don't already have one (trust me, there is method in my seeming madness) - complete your author profile
4. Select 'Publish' on your dashboard and complete the page, copying and inserting the various ingredients from above as requested
5. Press 'publish' and wait while SmashWords processes your book (this could take several hours. SmashWords uses a queue which will update to inform you of its progress)
6. When SmashWords has published your book, go to its page (click on book title) and download it to your PC / iPad / Ebook reader. Look carefully at the results and decide whether anything needs reformatting. If so, reformat and resubmit book to queue. PLEASE NOTE - This step is really important and time spent here will saves hours later)
7. Once book is successfully and satisfactorily published at SmashWords, go to Amazon.com (you will need an account at kdp.amazon.com. You will also need an author account at authorcentral.amazon.com)
8. On your 'bookshelf' page (at kdp.amazon.com), select 'add a new title' and complete the form as requested (similar to SmashWords)
9. Submit the book to Amazon and wait while it converts it. You will then be taken to a page where you can select royalty rate and book price. Finally select publish and then wait
10. It will take 24 hours or longer for your ebook to appear in the Amazon Kindle store. This is why it is advised to publish at SmashWords first (to ensure format looks correct). You cannot view or correct any publishing errors at Amazon until after the book is completely published
11. Once book is published, attach it to your author profile at Amazon
12. While book is publishing at Amazon you can publish it at Barnes & Noble in much the same way. Go to pubit.barnesandnoble.com and set up an author account
13. Select 'add a title' and go through a similar routine as at the other sites. It will take up to 24 hours for the ebook to be available at the Barnes & Noble site
14. Market shamelessly!

Exceptions:

• You may receive emails from Amazon or Barnes & Noble if there are problems with publishing. Do not ignore these emails. The quicker and more fully you respond to them, the quicker your book will publish. Each email will delay the publishing process by at least a day
• If you have previous books published at Amazon that you want linking to your author account you can do that at the authorcentral site
• If there are also physical copies of the books that you are epublishing you will need to email amazon to 'merge their entries'. This can take several days
• Check back regularly for publishing progress (often the books will appear in the bookstore before they are highlighted as 'published'. Try searching for them on Amazon or B&N)

Book Launch Ideas - Use These 5 Tips to Get Readers Interested in Your Masterpiece

Your book is finished. It's about to hit the bookshelves and online stores. Now you're ready to launch.

Hold on! (Sound of screeching brakes) This is not the time to launch your book. That time actually started months ago, when your book was just a glimmer in your eye and a glow in your brain.

So how do you launch your book - before you have a book? And how do you carry that through after you publish your book? Here are 5 tips that will get you started right, regardless of where you are in the process.

1. Start a blog

While you will post articles about the topic of your book on your regular blog, it's never too early to start a blog dedicated to your book. There is where you can post the progress of the book, from concept to completion. You can write about the actual process of writing and publishing the book. This is the place for "all things book-related."

2. Build a tribe

At the same time as you start your blog, you should also start to build your tribe. You want to offer to keep people updated on the topic of your book. Get them interested and keep them informed. When you let them take the journey along with you, they will "buy into" your book and your tribe. It may be through videos where you're talking about the writing process. It may be through photos of you doing the research or interviewing experts who will be in the book. It may be celebrating completion of the first draft.

The more you involve your tribe with polls on their opinions to getting them to spread the word on actual launch day, the more likely they are to want the book and everything else you offer.

3. Get social

We can't ignore it any longer - social media is here to stay. And that means that you have a powerful media tool to use as you launch your book. Create a Facebook Page (formerly fan page) for your book and get all of your tribe to like it and share it with their list of friends. Offer a free sneak peek into the book when it's ready.

As soon as you have the book front cover finished, add it to your page. Then use the power of Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about it. Better yet, run a contest between two or three designs you are considering and let them vote on them. People love to be involved!

4. Involve the media

Send press releases to online outlets at each news-worthy step of the way:

• When you launch the blog for the book
• When you launch the Facebook Page
• When you run a contest for the book cover - and again when you announce the final cover
• When you launch the book

Pay for press release services at the time of your book launch to ensure it hits all of the newswires on the same day. Respond to any and all media requests in your topic area, always mentioning the book.

5. Create an event

Your book launch should be an event. It's big for you. Now make it big for your entire tribe. Consider having a live face-to-face book launch party locally. Invite your followers to attend - and webcast it for others to see, regardless of their location. Pre-schedule tweets and emails to go out throughout the day, reminding everyone that today is THE book launch day and where they can pick up a copy of your book.

The more excited you get about your book launch, the more involvement you will get from your fans and followers. And the more readers you will get for your book!

Your book launch starts long before the book is finished. And it can continue long after the day of the launch, when you use these five tips to get people interested in reading and buying your book.

Writing, Marketing and Promotion

Is it your true wish to not finish your novel? Well, then why are you making it so difficult to complete it? When I talk with authors and writers, the real passion comes to them in the form of sitting down and writing the words. Writing makes their heart sing and soul feel alive. But then they say, "but I have to also worry about the marketing and promotion of my book too."

You may think I would say, "Oh, I understand it can be hard (which it can be) but it is important to know you can get help with the marketing and promotion so you can continue the writing. The marketing and promotion is crucial while you are writing your book because it gives your readers' time to get to know you as the author and more about the message of your book.

Don't allow yourself to think that you can wait to market and promote your book after is it released. This type of thinking can really put your potential to gain more readers with lack luster results. Why do I feel you need someone to help you with your book promotion anyway?

1) Want - Do you want to be doing all the marketing for your book yourself? No, of course you don't. You want to be working on those things that make you happy and those things that bring you joy to help others.

2) Knowledge - Do you have the connections and know how to find those who will put you and your book in front of your readers. Now, don't get me wrong, here. You could gain the knowledge and know how, but then this goes back to the "want" part of the equation.

3) Time - You want to focus your time and efforts on those things in your business that you love to do. If marketing and promotion is not something you want or have the know how to do, why take the time to concentrate on it when you can have someone who is passionate about helping you succeed in this area of your writing.

When you are writing your book, which part of the business do you feel you should be focusing on? You know that having a marketing and promotion plan for your book is important but you do not want to spend your time having to do all of this work yourself while you really want to be bring your passion to helping others to the forefront.

You can let an online book promotion manager handle the marketing efforts of getting you in front of your readers because they have the want, the knowledge and time to devote to spreading the message of your book. An online book promotion manager will be there for you because it is their passion to help you. Accept the help so you can concentrate on your passion to help others in your business.

Writing A Book: You're Making It Too Hard

One of the most common issues people have in writing a book is the writing. People who can send out 100 Tweets, write 20 emails, and post to Facebook 15 times suddenly find it hard to write.

It's not that it's hard to write. It's that you have it in your head that when you "write a book" it must be all proper and perfect. Let's dispel that myth right now - you don't need to be perfect just because you're writing a book.

So how do you make it easy to write a book? Here are five tips for making it easier to write.

1. Set realistic expectations

Too often we enter the "writing a book" mindset thinking that our first book is going to be a best-seller and we'll suddenly be rich and famous. It could happen.

But it's much more likely that you will publish your book. It will help a lot of people. You'll gain credibility and more fame, doing what you already know how to do. And you'll write your next book.

So now that the pressure of writing the next Best Seller is off, you can relax and just be you - imperfect as you are.

2. Write like you talk

Again you may be thinking that a book needs to be in formal, academic-type language. It's just not so! You need to write like you talk. After all, if you were speaking the information to someone (your buyer for example) you wouldn't suddenly become stilted and formal. Just be you.

3. Talk it onto paper

One of the most effective techniques many people use is to literally talk aloud as they type. If you don't type fast, then just record your "writing" and have someone transcribe it. It's the easiest way to be sure your writing both sounds like you and is readable.

4. Separate writing from editing

One of the biggest slow-downs that many authors experience is confusing the editing process with the writing process. Writing is just that - writing. Don't worry about spelling, grammar or formatting. Just write.

If you have a hard time turning off your internal editor, then use a text processor that doesn't allow you to identify spelling or grammar errors. Likewise you cannot boldface, use italics or use bullet points. You just write.

5. Keep writing

It's tempting. You hit a blank spot in your thinking and just take a minute to check your email. But your email won't help you finish your book.

Then you need to do some online research - and while you're there take just a second to check Facebook. But Facebook won't help you finish your book.

When you are writing, keep writing. Even if you hit a wall and don't feel like you know what to write next, go ahead and keep writing. Write about the road block to your thinking and how it's holding you up. Write about how much you want to get this book finished.

Regardless of what you write, keep writing. You can always go back and delete it from the book file later. But for now, keep writing. Over time you will write yourself right out of your slump.

Simple Inexpensive Ways to Market Your E Book

A trend among writers and business owners is to compose e books about the product that they are selling, or to sell the e book on a particular subject. The part that stumps most, is what to do next. What technology do they need? How much does it cost? And how do they get traffic to it in order to sell it? I will take you through some simple steps in an easy to follow order here.

The fact is, that it is far easier than it looks when you are actually purchasing an e book. Normally,you would go through a bunch of busy pages with lengthy explanations about the e book content and the benefits of having it.

The first step is to create a Thesis statement. I know, bad college flashbacks here. The thesis statement is a fantastic way to bring your focus into view nice and clear about what problem you are going to solve for your reading public. This is important because most people who buy e books, buy them because they want instant information to solve an issue they have with something. This could be anything from a self - help relationship issue or a technical computer issue.

Next, we focus on the reading public. Who is your audience? What are there needs?

How do you find this out? Easy, go to a search engine that has (SEO) search engine optimization like, Google AdWords. Look up the key words that represent what you are writing about and look to see how popular that search is. If it is not searched much, then look at what keywords people are actually using that have a high rating, and write in that particular genre.

For example, if you want to write a self- help on relationships, you would look to see what key - words about relationships people tend to use more. The reason is two - fold; first, your book's title should be searched more this way hence making it easier to find; second, if you use those words in the body of the book enough, it will take your search rating higher the longer the book is online.

A word on keywords. Make sure that your keywords are at a good percentage but not too much. There has been much argument about what is deemed good keyword density. It is good just to keep in mind that what you write should sound natural.

After the book has been written:

Now you have to get the e book on a webpage. Look at other people in the genre that you are writing in and see if they are selling them on a website or just a page. The most popular is one good landing page. The page content would be as follows.

• The book title
• What the features and benefits of the book are
• Any engaging content in keeping with the story.

Keep the attention of the buyer and make sure that what you are advertising is honest. Your reputation is important. Have faith in your writing and do not feel you need to pad the truth. You do not want to burn bridges for your future e book sales.

Next step; you must have a secure way to sell the book and have buyers download the book without allowing piracy. It's very daunting to find this information. The programs that are out there cost around $150.00 but are well worth the investment. What the programs allow you to do is to send an e mail automatically after the buyer has paid and give them a code to type into a box to download the book and will even limit the amount of time they have to download it.

4 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Book

Using Social Media to Promote Your Book

In this age of technology nothing is more important for promotion that utilizing the internet. There are countless social networking sites that can be your best friend as you grow your following and get noticed.

Twitter:
Twitter can be a useful tool to share links to your books and blogs with your followers. However, one of the hardest things to do is gain followers. One method is to search for specific keywords in the search bar. If you're a sci fi writer, search for sci fi geeks and avid readers. Be sure your profile description says that you are a science fiction writer and even mention the title of your book/s. Twitter only lets you follow 2,000 people so be careful who you choose to follow. Eventually, people will follow you back. Check your followers regularly and re-follow anyone who might be a potential reader. One final thing, your tweets should never be used only for promotion. No one wants to follow a spammer. Put some personality in your posts and you will go far.

Facebook:
Create a facebook page for you as an author. You can even make a page or group for each individual book if you have a lot of extra time on your hands.

Blogging:
Create a blog! This is the best way to gain readership. Write blogs about your writing process, daily life, themes from your books, whatever, just keep them coming regularly. Reading an example of your writing can be the difference that gets you a sale. Blogger and WordPress are two of the more popular blogging platforms, both of which are quite easy to use. To get more traffic to your blog, contact other bloggers to Blog Roll with them or join a Blog Carnival! There are other articles written specifically for those two blogging tools.

Goodreads:
Goodreads is a site where you can add which books you have read, write reviews, and share them with friends. It might be a good idea to make some friends on this site and recommend your book to your "friends."

LinkedIn:
While Conan O'Brien makes fun of LinkedIn as a lame Facebook, it can be useful at times. It is a professional network that can help you meet industry professionals, from editors to publicists. I use it, though it's not as essential as the other options.

There are many more options besides these four, but these are the ones I've found the most helpful in generating sales and gaining notice. It can take months before you see any dramatic change in sales so don't give up! Add friends daily to Facebook and Twitter, comment on other blogs, and ask other bloggers to review your books. There are tons of options out there to promote, this is just the start.