Anyone who has published one book knows how hard it is to build an audience. Everyone starts here. For those that persevere, a second book is a way to leverage all that hard work of audience building. It gives your fans something else to buy from you. At the same time, launching a second book always attracts new readers. Some may buy that new book. Some may decide to start with book 1. Either way, one of the best investments you can make is to ensure the two books cross-market each other. As … [Read more...]
How to Manage a 99designs Book Cover Contest
I consider book cover design to be one of the most challenging steps in the process of producing a finished book: It is critical to the marketing of a book. Everyone you ask for input seems to have a different opinion. Good covers are often a big investment. (Big might be a relative term.) You might have an idea but communicating that vision is another story (for most of us). If you are self-publishing, you may be the wrong person to judge the ideal design. Take your pick, it … [Read more...]
Re-Publishing an Out-of-Print Book After a Rights Reversion
If the publishing rights to your book recently reverted back to you, you might be considering the indie publishing route for your title rather than trying to find a new publisher, or simply allowing your book to be out-of-print. Without trying to interpret contract clauses or how to negotiate the “reversion rights” of your publishing agreement, I thought it would be helpful to talk about the key considerations should you choose to self-publish. Generally we can divide the issues into two … [Read more...]
Book Barcode Basics When Using CreateSpace or IngramSpark POD
If you are planning to use a POD printer you probably do not need to buy a barcode. I say that because most new indie or self-publishers use print-on-demand printers like CreateSpace and IngramSpark (or sister Lightening Source) and these printers provide the ISBN barcode free. The book cover you submit to these POD printers will have a blank (white) rectangle on the back—this is where their printing presses place the barcode for your specific book at the time it is printed. Said another way, … [Read more...]
Publishing an eBook Series: Design and SEO Considerations
Publishing a book series is a popular strategy these days and few would question the value of using SEO techniques to help readers find them. The challenge in my experience has more to do with the planning required and having enough “product” to make the effort pay off. I don’t yet have enough data to speak to the ROI but I can share a case study from a recently completed client project for the San Diego Reader. I’ve been managing their book publishing initiative for the past year and we just … [Read more...]
Does a print book make an eBook publisher legitimate?
I want to share one finding I neglected to include in our 2013 eBook Self-Publisher Survey: In what format/formats have you published your books? My assumption was that most of the people taking the survey would answer “eBook only.” Looking at the graph it seems the opposite is true. Why might having a printed book make a self-publisher "legitimate"? Because it is harder and usually more expensive to publish a print book, even if you do use a print-on-demand (POD) service like CreateSpace. … [Read more...]
Using the New Amazon Cover Creator-3 Easy Steps to an Attractive and Free eBook Cover Design
Amazon's new Kindle Cover Creator is ideal for indie authors looking to save money on eBook cover design. It is another example of how automation tools can be used to reduce the costs and steps between author and reader. Currently in beta release, the tool is easy enough for anyone to use. In fact I think it makes a great brainstorming platform as well. Authors unsure of what they are looking for can use it to create combinations of images, fonts and colors that can then be handed to a … [Read more...]
How Color Tablets Are Impacting Publishing-3 Things Publishers Should Know
Popular opinion prior to the release of the Kindle Fire was that the iPad, Smartphones, and Android tablets were not ideal reading devices. Serious readers chose dedicated eReaders—E-Ink (black & white) devices like Kindle, Nook and Kobo. Color didn't/doesn't matter for these applications, or so we thought. We always knew that some books were better viewed on a color device—children's books and travel books come to mind—but surveys are now reporting that color tablets are taking market … [Read more...]
Cover Design Resources-Make the Investment
There is simply no excuse for publishing an eBook without a decent cover. You might have gotten away with it early on but now that the market is being flooded with eBooks you will look cheap and "self-published" if you don't make the effort. If you care anything at all about your writing, invest in a cover. So what do you do if you don't already know a designer, or you want to get some education before you hire one? Here is an eclectic collection of resources to get you started. Begin with … [Read more...]
Which is more important? A good book cover, or good metadata?
I just did a search for “ebook cover design” and found 143,000 results mentioning this exact phrase. Then I searched for “ebook metadata” and Google found 11,800 results. Clearly there is a lot more discussion about ebook covers than ebook metadata. First let’s clarify what I mean by metadata. I like to use the simple phrase “information about information”. For books that means titles, descriptions, keywords, categories and all the other descriptive information that travels “with” the … [Read more...]
