Formatting Your Book Interior
In previous posts, we went over all your book design options: using a free online template, going the DIY route with Microsoft Word, or hiring a professional book designer. But no matter how you design your book interior, here are some guidelines. What is … Read more »
Hiring a Book Designer
While hiring a book designer makes the book design process much easier, it also presents its own set of challenges. Here are some pros and cons, as well as the basics of a book interior. Professional designers make a better-looking product The upside to hiring … Read more »
Book Layout and Design
Once you have your manuscript edited and ready to publish, the next step is to to create the interior book pages, sometimes referred to as a “book block,” or a PDF file which you will upload for printing. Here are a few different approaches to … Read more »
Suggestions for Self-Editing
If hiring an editor is absolutely out of the question and you cannot trade for editorial services, or bribe a friend, here are a few tips for self-editing that you might find useful. Even if the thought of checking for commas puts you in a … Read more »
How to Hire an Editor
Good copy editors are not ordinary people. Their brains are wired to see anomalies, deviations, and inconsistencies in the text. We are lucky to have them in our midst. A good copy editor will make sure that your book meets professional standards and will keep … Read more »
What Does a Book Editor Do?
Hiring an editor is a step that most writers balk at. We like to believe that our beta readers, our writing group, or our friends who are English teachers are going to catch any errors, especially with multiple readings. In fact, just the opposite is … Read more »
Six Reasons to Choose Indie Publishing (and One BIG Reason Not To)
Thinking about indie publishing? You’re not alone. According to Bowker’s Books in Print, more than 1 million books were self published in 2017– a 38 percent increase over the previous year. Faster and potentially more lucrative than traditional publishing, indie authors are stepping up to … Read more »
Case Study: How One Author Grew Sales and Business
By Diane Dennis of Inspired Media Communications The role of the author during the writing process is defined by isolation, research, seclusion, and dedication. It is a labor of intensity and love. Upon completion, the book makes its debut to the world through the … Read more »
Six Essential Elements of Children’s Picture Books
Picture books offer a great opportunity to create timeless and fun stories for children. Here are six elements that are sometimes overlooked, but are important if you want to successfully self-publish a children’s book. Story and Language Is the story simple enough to be told … Read more »
Ten Questions for Better Reader Feedback
During your writing process, you’ll probably get to a point where you’ll ask a friend or relative to read your work, hoping for helpful feedback. I’ve been there, and it’s rough. When I was new to writing, I would ask a friend to read some … Read more »
Createspace Drops Author Services
Createspace announced recently that it has stopped providing author services. The platform offered editing, formatting and cover design, but they have discontinued these services, and while they still offer plenty of free resources, you can no longer submit your manuscript and use their editing and … Read more »
Publish an Ebook
If you are making a print book, it’s relatively easy to make an ebook. Ebooks offer an additional sales avenue to readers, and allow a great deal of flexibility in terms of pricing and distribution. They are a great tool to use in marketing, and … Read more »
Letters to Home
I spent a week in July with my family, cleaning out the house I grew up in before it went on the market. To say my parents were hoarders is not exactly correct, but my father, a professor by trade and a tinkerer extraordinaire, never … Read more »
Write attention-grabbing back cover text
Back cover text should be written in a way that advertises the book to a potential reader, so in that sense, it’s more like marketing writing than prose writing. While the details of your characters origin story might be compelling and imperative for the reader … Read more »
Tips for Selling More Books
Last weekend, I went to the Historical Novel Conference in Portland. I enjoyed hearing writers talk about breathing life into the past through lively characters, accurate historic details and inventive plots, but those who were successfully self-publishing intrigued me. It seems that, as with most … Read more »