Category books

Jun 2 2013

Does Your Book Wear Boxers or Briefs?

Boxers Briefs Pic

Answer these questions to define your reading profile. Don’t worry: There isn’t any answer key, so you won’t really be “profiled.” It’s just for your own self-assessment and entertainment.

You must select one or the other, even when you like both. Find a way to break the tie.

(1) Do you prefer softcover or hardcover?

(2) Do you read fiction or nonfiction?

(3) Do you like printed pages or digital books?

(4) Would you rather read fantasy or science fiction?

(5) Would you prefer romance or erotica?

(6) Would you rather read a single book or a series?

(7) Are you in favor of traditional publishing or self-publishing?

(8) Have you ever met a popular author after reading one of their books?

(9) Do you discuss books with others or keep it all to yourself?

(10) Do you prefer to see one space or two spaces after a period and before the next sentence?

(11) Do you review books frequently or just once in a while?

(12) Do you write books or just read them?

(13) Do you thoroughly enjoy the read or do you criticize the story as you read it?

(14) While reading, do you take the time to look up words that aren’t in your vocabulary?

(15) Do you read in silence or do you prefer to listen to (or make) sounds while you read?

Grading: If you answered all of the questions, you passed the test. Congratulations! (No cheating!)

If you thought of other similar questions, please feel free to share them in a comment. Thank you. 🙂

May 19 2013

Is Amazon Our Friend?

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked this question by an author on the KDP community forum.

Many people are quick to criticize Amazon, and there may be some room for improvement, but I wholeheartedly believe that Amazon is highly beneficial to shoppers, writers, and small businesses.

I’ve been a customer at Amazon from the very beginning. I appreciate the convenience, selection, savings, and free shipping on qualified orders. I also have Amazon Prime.

You can even find out what other customers have to say. The customer review system isn’t perfect, but some input beats no input.

I’ve written and published several books. If not for CreateSpace and KDP, writing would just be a hobby for me.

Amazon opened the door for any and all authors to make their writing available for millions of potential customers around the world. Anyone can publish a book and share with others this way. Amazon similarly opened the door for small businesses to sell online at a very popular website.

Amazon represents freedom and opportunity. Amazon gives the small guy a fighting chance. Amazon regularly features success stories on their homepage of indie authors and small business owners. Self-published books and small business products are available beside traditionally published books and bestselling products by big businesses.

Where would we, the small guys, be without Amazon?

Let’s take a look at some of the criticism:

The book is not visible in search results.

  • There are 20 million books on Amazon. They can’t all be first in search results. Does it benefit customers to have new books by new authors show up before books that have established successful sales?
  • Amazon provides the opportunity. Diligent, motivated authors can take advantage of this through effective premarketing and packaging (relevant and attractive cover design, blurb, and Look Inside), and quality books that earn good reviews and word-of-mouth sales.
  • Amazon’s system tends to reward authors who scrupulously help themselves. Authors who work hard to generate sales through marketing can gain exposure through a better sales rank, early reviews, Customers Also Bought lists, and top 100 lists.
  • It’s not easy to produce a great book cover to cover. The books that best attract and fit an established target audience are more likely to be successful. Only the top couple hundred thousand books, out of millions, sell one or more copies per day on average.

Amazon removes 4- and 5-star reviews, but not 1- and 2-star reviews.

  • Unfortunately, a significant number of authors and small publishers had been taking advantage of customer reviews by leaving 4- and 5-star reviews written by the author, publisher, editor, family members, paid reviewers, and other parties who had a financial interest in the book’s success. There were several books with dozens to hundreds of fake reviews, sometimes for lousy books. Customer complaints and high profile articles led Amazon to block and remove 4- and 5-star reviews that they suspect of being fake.
  • There are some 1- and 2-star reviews from competing authors and publishers, people who loathe or are jealous of the author, and people who are otherwise upset. Some of these reviews are very spiteful, some spoil the ending, and some outright lie. But the fact is that most of the 1- and 2-star reviews out there are legitimate reviews from customers who simply didn’t like the book. No book can please everyone. There are many such reviews on bestselling books by popular authors, so it’s unreasonable not to expect this on all books by all authors.
  • Fake 4- and 5-star reviews had been more numerous and posed a much greater problem for Amazon than fake 1- and 2-star reviews. It’s also easier for Amazon to block and remove potential fake 4- and 5-star reviews than it is to catch fake 1- and 2-star reviews. The Amazon bot can cross-reference information in the 4- and 5-star case, but it’s really difficult to distinguish between disgruntled customers and fake 1- and 2-star reviews. As much as authors and product owners don’t like them, the 1- and 2-star reviews do help to provide balance. Customers are often suspicious of books or products that only have good reviews.

Do KDP and CreateSpace cheat authors on their royalties?

  • Amazon is a huge business. Almost everything is automated at Amazon – even grabbing products in the warehouse. It’s only logical for the sales and royalty reports to be automated, too. There is the possibility of an occasional glitch, but it’s highly improbable.
  • There are many authors and publishers who sell thousands (or more) books everyday. They check their sales reports, Nielsen Bookscan data, and royalty reports carefully, closely corroborating the results. Amazon has millions of dollars at stake. They can’t afford to cheat authors, publishers, and businesses. All large businesses, like Amazon, also have audits.
  • The royalty doesn’t show instantly, and this is probably what creates concern among self-published authors who only sell a few books. The royalty often appears within a few days, but sometimes it can be delayed for a couple of months. Paperback returns may be resold, and in this case the royalty doesn’t show at all on the CreateSpace report because it was already paid once before. Amazon may have books preprinted to stock in their warehouse, in which case they pay the royalty in advance, not when the book sells. Occasionally, Amazon sources a sale through a third party seller, and CreateSpace then reports it correctly as a full royalty, but not for a couple of months, when expanded distribution royalties show up. Because of this, an author may be aware of an occasional sale, but not see the royalty show up.
  • CreateSpace customer service is willing to track data regarding royalty questions. Authors can report the sales information to CreateSpace, and they will track the sale to help the author understand why the royalty didn’t show up immediately. It’s obviously in Amazon’s best interest to correctly report sales and royalty information to authors.
  • An occasional complaint about royalty payments shows up on the CreateSpace or KDP community forum. Most authors monitor their sales rank and royalties closely. If there were significant issues with this, complaints would be much louder and more numerous.
  • There are also complaints about royalty payments from traditional publishers. Small publishers are more likely to have manual rather than automated systems, they have less to lose than Amazon by cheating authors, and some of the stories involve much greater discrepancies than any complaints about Amazon’s royalty payments. Unless you own your own publishing company and print your own books, you simply have to trust someone. I haven’t observed any discrepancies in my reports, and over the years I’ve come to trust Amazon both as a customer and as a writer.

It’s easy to demand more and better. Amazon gives us an opportunity, and the opportunity is free. What we get for free is pretty awesome. We can’t expect Amazon to do all of the work for us (with 20 million books to manage, it’s not reasonable to expect Amazon to do much work for free). Preparing an excellent product, packaging it for the right audience, and marketing it are all up to us. The harder we work and the better job we do, the better Amazon helps us.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

May 5 2013

Author Power

Mighty Author Pic

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in Richilieu, Or the Conspiracy)

Authors have power through their writing.

Writers are creators. They can create new worlds, new people, new creatures, new ideas. Some aspire to create better worlds. Diversions from reality.

Authors share experiences. Readers can imagine traveling anywhere in the world (universe, even) without ever stepping out of their homes.

Writers can convey powerful emotions. Simply through words.

Wordsmiths make the letters themselves dance on a sheet of paper. Flow gracefully through action. Or. Stop. Suddenly. The reader enjoys the text without any idea as to how much care was put into the selection of each and every word.

Authors express themselves. And they express others. And others who don’t even exist, except in print and in the minds of those who have read their writing.

Writers disguise books that help people rebel against totalitarianism. Writers instigate revolutions. Writers spread fear through propaganda. Writers market freedom.

Poets sing. It may be beautiful, but very often it’s not. Very often, they sing suffering. And they sing it loud and clear. Yet it helps.

Authors plant seeds. Little ideas. Revolutionary ideas. Ideas that get people thinking. People with young and agile minds. People who may challenge the status quo. Rebels seeking a cause. Ideas that may grow with nutrients, time, water, and nurture.

The power of writers can be dangerous. Writers have much freedom to exercise, and coming with it is a great responsibility.

We may be weak in life, yet powerful in print.

It’s not the size of the pen that matters, nor the length of the words, nor how many words are written. It’s how the pen is wielded that really matters.

“Does he really think big emotions come from big words?” (Ernest Hemingway, in response to William Faulkner’s criticism, “He has never been known to use a word that might send his reader to the dictionary.”)

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volumes 1 and 2)

May 3 2013

Bookstores Versus the Internet

First contestant: brick & mortar bookstores

Do you remember the joy of standing in a bookstore aisle, staring at hundreds of books, trying to find some good books to read?

  • Most of the books were turned sideways such that all you could see was the spine. You weren’t choosing the prettiest covers.
  • There wasn’t a number attached to the book to tell you how well or poorly it had been selling.
  • The only reviews of the book were great quotes about how awesome the book was on the back cover, dust jacket, or first pages. You didn’t see an average star rating right beside the title. There wasn’t anything bad written about any book in the store.
  • If you wanted to find a possibly neutral book review, you had to read a newspaper or magazine article. Not just anybody could express a written opinion about the book in a highly visible place.
  • Books definitely didn’t come with any reviews that spoiled the endings.
  • When you picked a book up, it didn’t come with a list of books that other customers had bought. When you brought a book to the front counter, the cashier didn’t set several other books next to it and say, “Other customers who read that also purchased these.”
  • After you read the book, the bookstore didn’t contact you and ask you to review the book. The bookstore also didn’t contact you to let you know when those authors released new books.
  • There weren’t customers standing around in the aisle trying to sell you their used books for less (or even more!) than the list price (plus shipping!).
  • Most of the books were presented side-by-side without any special treatment. We didn’t see the books stacked in some order determined by the bookstore. We didn’t need to scroll through several pages to find the least popular books.
  • We never bought books with dog-ears, cover wrinkles, ripped pages, or any other visible imperfections without realizing it prior to the purchase.
  • There weren’t twenty million books to choose from. There weren’t nearly as many books in any particular genre.
  • The chance of the bookstore freezing or crashing was fairly remote, and if you picked up a virus, it usually went away after a few days and a little medicine. Even if the system was down, you could still pay cash.
  • When the book was in stock, you didn’t have to wait several days for it to arrive in the mail.
  • Every book in the store met some minimum standards. There was a limit to poor writing, the number of typos, poor formatting, storyline issues, etc.
  • The free sample was 100%, not 10%. Just imagine if all of the books on the shelves only had 10% of the pages, and you only got the rest after you checked out.
  • When you approached the register, you found an assortment of fashionable bookmarks. Sure, you can still buy bookmarks if you search for them, but you don’t see them when you check out. You also don’t need one for your e-reader.
  • If you had a question, or when you checked out, you interacted face-to-face with a person.
  • You probably didn’t have family members, friends, and acquaintances begging you to read and review their books.
  • There was a slim chance of meeting a cute someone in the bookstore (a plus if you preferred to date people who actually read books).
  • Many bookstores allowed you to take a break and drink coffee. The next time you order a book online, see if they will deliver some coffee to you while you’re browsing.

(Why was this written in the past tense? Brick and mortar bookstores haven’t completely died out yet…)

Second contestant: online booksellers

Let us not forget the wonders of technology:

  • In the old days, you wouldn’t buy a book wearing just your underwear or pajamas (or less). If you did, maybe reading would have been much more popular…
  • You don’t need to go to the bookstore on your lunch break. Traffic won’t cause you to get there after the store closes. You can buy books at two o’clock in the morning, if you please.
  • You can have the book delivered right to your doorstep. There is no need to leave the house.
  • If you have an e-reader, you can even purchase an e-book at two o’clock in the morning in your underwear without leaving the house and start reading the e-book right then and there.
  • People who are addicted to cell phones or who love using laptops and PC’s can browse for books on their favorite devices, and even read them that way as e-books.
  • You don’t have to find a dictionary if you read an e-book. It’s right there on the device. (Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone will take a moment to find out what the word means…)
  • Millions of books are in stock or will be available in just a few days. There are now print-on-demand books that are always available.
  • With twenty million books on the market, there is a much improved chance that the book you’re really looking for actually exists. If it doesn’t exist, nothing at all prevents you from becoming the author to write and publish it.
  • Through self-publishing, authors have much more freedom in what to write and how to write it, which provides greater selection to the reader.
  • You may be able to buy the book for less used. Some books sell for just a penny plus shipping and handling.
  • You can resell your used book after you read it to recover some of the cost.
  • All e-books mark themselves; you don’t need a bookmark. The e-readers will even let you highlight text.
  • It’s very easy to find the top-selling books, and to see how well or poorly a book has been selling, in case you wish to judge how popular a book is.
  • Read customer reviews to see what other customers had to say about the book. Some opinions may contradict one another, some may be helpful and others not, some might not even be pleasant, and it might be entertaining. You can even vote on how helpful the review is (or you can ignore the wording and just vote on whether or not you like what was said).
  • It’s very easy to ship a book anywhere in the world; e-books can be gifted.
  • You don’t need to find your receipt to return the book.
  • Adults books can be read with greater discretion as e-books.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volumes 1 and 2)

Apr 28 2013

Inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/hitchcock/

Last night, I watched the recent movie, Hitchcock. Don’t worry: I won’t spoil the plot for you.

In this movie, I saw many parallels with the art and business of self-publishing:

  • The name Alfred Hitchcock was very well branded. The movie, while it may have a little more Hollywood style and a little less reality, provided some insight into his character as a movie maker. You can guess how his distinctive personality and specific talents helped with his branding.
  • The silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock was also very well branded. It wasn’t just a logo. Remember how he used to walk into the position where the silhouette would form? This technique really helped brand his image.
  • The movie revealed a few marketing tactics. He was not only renowned for creating suspense, but he was even effective at utilizing suspense in his marketing tactics.
  • At a stage where he may have been expected to retire, he dared to take a new direction with his filmmaking. He didn’t have the backing of the film industry (i.e. the big money) – at least, not to exercise his creativity and pursue this new direction his own way. So he was very much like an indie filmmaker. Of course, he had financial resources of his own, but he took a huge risk.
  • He abandoned the rules of what works and pursued his own ideals. Authors have long had traditional publishers telling us what works, not wishing to deviate more than about 10% from this established path. We now have the opportunity to pursue something different on our own. There is a great risk, as very often these new paths don’t succeed. But the door is now open.
  • Back in his day, censorship was fairly heavy. We have a great deal of freedom to write as we please these days, but a few authors still push the boundaries further. There will always be critics and lawmakers strongly involved in this.
  • Hitchcock didn’t just film a movie. You could get a sense for how much editing and formatting was involved afterward, and how important this was for the movie’s success. Similarly, there is much more to selling books than just writing them. The importance of editing and formatting cannot be overlooked.
  • In making a movie, there is a large production team involved with many people working on different tasks. These days, there are many indie authors trying to do the writing, editing, formatting, cover design, marketing, and public relations all on their own. At least, collaborating with others to share skills or ideas would help a little with teamwork.
  • It wasn’t just the movie idea that led to its success. You could see how the marketing ingenuity and seemingly little things like sound effects could play a very significant role. People skills and developing contacts are important, too. The same is true with publishing books.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Apr 26 2013

A Humble Little Book

Part 1

She worked from 9 to 5. It was a boring job, but it paid the bills.

From 6 to 10, she sat at her computer, typing a book. This was very fun, but just a hobby.

Several months later, her book was finished, but not yet complete. She spent a few more months reading, revising, proofreading, editing, perfecting.

Then it was time to share her work. She viewed her writing as a hobby, not as a profession. So she opted to self-publish.

Specifications. Formatting. Googling computer skills. Researching. PDF conversion. Formatting problems. Asking for help. Reformatting. Not the fun part of her hobby, but at the same time, she was growing anxious. So thrilling and nervous at the same time!

She thought about hiring an editor to help revise and format her book. She considered hiring a cover designer. But as this was just a hobby, should would settle for a humble little book. However, she did proofread it carefully again, and even sought help from friends.

The description was the hardest part to write. All in all, she wrote a dozen descriptions, and the last didn’t remotely resemble the first. It wasn’t a killer blurb, but she researched descriptions of similar books and sought advice from friends. It would suffice.

The biography was a stumper, too. Qualifications? Experience? Skills? Background? Then she realized that she wasn’t writing a resume. Writing was her hobby, not her profession. Readers might be interested in her life experience, not her writing career.

Author photo… (she was a little shy). But her writing was very personal, and she was sharing that. So she would share her photo, too. Not glamorous, but much better than the DMV.

Approve Proof. Click! Ta-da! Celebration coming on!

There it is on Amazon. Check that out. She showed her friends and family. Some pats on the back. A show of support. A little unexpected criticism.

Way down the search results. No reviews. Occasional sales. Well, she wasn’t a bestselling author; not bad for a hobby. Wrote and published a book: Quite an accomplishment!

Part 2

He saw the thumbnail. Not a Picasso. Not eye-popping. But there was something about it. So he clicked the link.

Didn’t sound like the popular books. But it was intriguing. So he looked inside.

Wasn’t fancy. But it was nice enough. And the story caught his interest. So he bought it.

Wasn’t flawless. A few typos. An occasional formatting mistake. But not enough to detract from the story. So he read it.

Wasn’t a nail-biter. Not a page-turner. Yet he enjoyed the story. So he finished it.

He even left a review and told a few friends.

Part 3

It wasn’t a bestseller. But it sold occasionally.

She didn’t market avidly. Yet many (to her) people read her book and truly enjoyed the story. She touched their minds. They shared experiences and emotions that she created. And they appreciated this.

She continued her hobby.

It was a humble little book. Yet it was a success.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Apr 25 2013

Common Blurb Mistakes

For online bookstores, the cover, title, blurb, and sample are the book’s only salesmen at the point-of-sale. A great blurb can help motivate purchases, whereas a lousy blurb tends to deter them.

(1) Summarizing the book.

The blurb’s number one priority is to create interest in the book, not to summarize it. Summaries often don’t sound interesting and provide too much information.

(2) Giving too much information away.

An effective blurb arouses the reader’s curiosity. Rather than answering all of the reader’s questions about the book, ask some questions – either explicitly or implicitly. A customer who wants to know something about the story has to read it to find out, unless the blurb answers the question.

However, nonfiction books should make the content clear.

(3) Building suspense.

Customers tend to be impatient. If the blurb (or sample) starts out slow, some customers will walk away without reaching the main part of the blurb. Start out by creating interest to capture the reader’s attention.

(4) Sending mixed messages.

The title, cover, blurb, and sample should send a unified message regarding the genre and content. The message should be clear in each component. Confused buyers look for other products that aren’t confusing. If the cover looks like fantasy, but the blurb sounds like science fiction, for example, then the audience that is drawn to the book won’t buy the book.

(5) Spelling and grammar mistakes.

If the hundred or so words in the blurb have any spelling or grammar mistakes, the tens of thousands of words in the book itself must be plagued with editing problems. At least, this is what potential customers will expect.

(6) Too long.

Buyers tend to have short attention spans. If a buyer becomes bored while reading the blurb, the buyer will check out a different book. The longer the blurb, the more difficult it is to hold the buyer’s attention throughout.

A long blurb also looks intimidating to some readers. There are customers who immediately return to the previous page when a blurb looks too long. This depends in part on the target audience, and is a bigger concern for fiction than for nonfiction.

(7) Overselling.

If the blurb makes the book sound far better than it actually is, the blurb will backfire as soon as customer reviews reflect this disparity. Also, when a book sounds too good, many customers will be skeptical.

(8) Bragging.

Boasting tends to deter sales. Avoid comments like, “This Book is much better than That Book.” However, stating that a book is similar to a well-known book or movie – without making it sound better – can help potential buyers understand what to expect. Compare this comment with the previous one: “This Book is similar to That Book,” or, “This Book is a cross between Book A and Book B.”

(9) Telling readers what to think.

If a book is funny, for example, there is no reason to come right out and say this. Let customers form their own opinions. Most people don’t like to be told what to think. Saying that the book is a comedy may be helpful, whereas saying, “You will laugh your pants off,” tells readers what they will do.

(10) Poor formatting.

Insert a linespace to separate paragraphs. Break large paragraphs into smaller ones. Don’t use returns to force text onto a new line in mid-sentence. Don’t format each sentence on a separate line (unless using bullets). Boldface, italics, linebreaks, and bullets are available through AuthorCentral for Amazon book descriptions.

(11) Not giving readers a good idea of what to expect.

While it’s important not to reveal too much information, it’s also necessary to provide a general idea of what type of book to expect. Nonfiction should also make the content clear. The blurb should attract the right target audience for the book. Otherwise, customers are likely to express negative feedback in customer reviews.

(12) Lack of feedback.

Share the blurb with several people from the book’s intended target audience prior to publishing. Discover how they react to the blurb – especially, what they do and don’t like about it.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Mar 16 2013

What’s the Deal with Mannequin Covers?

A growing number of indie covers are featuring mannequins. Is this good or bad?

It’s a challenge to design a great cover. Indie authors don’t have the luxury of a cover design team or much money to invest in professional help, yet covers can be very important for the success of a book. Thus, many authors who are inexperienced artists are suddenly faced with the task of putting a great image together for the thumbnail and front cover.

This is no easy task, and the cover art critics are fierce:

  • Anything hand-drawn is deemed fit for a refrigerator, but not for a book.
  • Any photo in the foreground of a nice background is deemed a photobomber.
  • Highly detailed artwork is said to make the cover too busy.
  • Deformities in fingers, hands, limbs, or faces are ridiculed.
  • When the aspect ratio is tweaked slightly to fit the cover, it’s cursed for distortion.
  • If a person happens to strike an odd pose, even this is pointed out.
  • The photos must be cleaned up and professional, else the technique will be criticized.
  • Indie authors are supposed to know to use just three colors in a ratio of 60-30-10.
  • Colors must work well together, with the title large and easy to read.
  • You also need to watch out for the font police, who can be very picky.
  • But if the images don’t relate to the content, that’s a serious violation.

Drawings pose an instant problem. Taking your own photos requires professional skill. There are many stock photos available, but not always in the pose or colors that you want. To top this off, you must find images that signify the genre and relate to the content.

So what’s the solution? Maybe this is why more indies are featuring mannequins on their covers. It’s much easier to manipulate a mannequin with a graphic arts program. They are easy to adjust, clothe, maneuver, touch up, and preserve proper shape and size. Some of these mannequin covers are very well done, so much so that I didn’t realize that they were mannequins at first.

But now I see the cover art critics blasting indie covers that feature mannequins. For example, are there mannequins on the cover because it’s a romance between mannequins?

I actually hired an illustrator to design a cover for an upcoming fictional book, for which I was completely stumped on the cover. The result looks great, but the main image does look a little like a mannequin. I’m going to keep it, for better or for worse.

What’s your opinion? I’d love to hear your take on these mannequin covers. Is it good, is it bad? If you made it to the end of this post, please feel free to take a minute to express your opinion. Your opinion is welcome (encouraged even), and won’t likely offend me or the mannequins. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Mar 11 2013

Editing/Formatting Checklist

Here is a list of what to look for when editing and formatting a book.

Formatting checklist for a paperback book:

  • Same style and size of headers, footers, and page numbers throughout.
  • Chapter headers on even-numbered pages match the actual chapter headings.
  • Pages are numbered correctly and the style is consistent throughout the book (except for switching from Roman numerals to Arabic numbers).
  • Look for strange page breaks, line breaks, changes in alignment, changes in font style or size, inconsistent indents, and inconsistent vertical spacing.
  • Check the page references in the contents and index.
  • Match the contents entries with the chapter headings.
  • Consistent heading and subheading styles.
  • Check that all references to pages, figures, tables, equations, etc. are correct.
  • Consistent bullet formatting.
  • Examine page borders, figures, equations, tables, captions, and textboxes.
  • Quickly thumb through the book to verify the vertical justification.
  • Manually deal with hyphens, widows, orphans, and rivers when editing is complete.

Editing checklist for a paperback book:

  • Inspect the title page carefully.
  • Match the title and contributors on the cover, spine, title page, and copyright page with published information.
  • Check copyright page and front matter carefully.
  • Spelling and grammatical mistakes, and word confusion (like homophones).
  • Repeated words like the the (can also search on the word processor).
  • Punctuation, like proper use of -, –, and —.
  • Storyline, plot, character development, chronology, etc.
  • Quotes face the right way.
  • Inappropriate changes in tense and person.
  • Passive writing that may function better as active writing.
  • Too many –ly adverbs.
  • Too much use of to be (is, was, been, etc.).
  • Useless words and redundancies.
  • Overused words.
  • Long paragraphs, good variation in sentence length and structure, readily flowing text.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Mar 2 2013

Indie Cover Mistakes

The book cover is the only part of an indie author’s marketing campaign that every potential buyer has to see before purchasing the book. No wonder cover design is critical toward having a highly successful book.

“Hey there!” Just like that, the cover aims to grab attention, but in a positive way. Once it claims attention, it must be appealing, look professional, be clear, reveal the book’s content, and ultimately persuade the potential buyer to “pick me.”

There are many ingredients to a great cover, and just one flaw can turn a potentially great cover into a lousy one. Here are some common mistakes that indie authors make:

  • Text is hard to read. It seems intuitive to look for a fancy font, but the purpose of the text is to send a clear message. Rather than struggle to make out what the title or other text says, the prospective reader is more likely to look for a different cover that makes this task easy. Some text, like Comic Sans, even tends to evoke negative reactions from readers. Research which fonts are appropriate for cover design and for your genre. Wikipedia even provides statistics for how readers react to various fonts.
  • Poor image quality. Blurry, jagged, and pixelated images are quite common. So are tiny stray marks around text and images. Find sharp, focused images and clean up any quality issues to make the best impression. Photos should be touched up (e.g. no red-eye), well-lit, and precisely cropped. Use images with sufficient resolution (300 DPI for printed covers). Don’t distort the aspect ratio by changing the shape of an image (models with stretched out faces, for example, don’t sell books). If the cover image or text is poor, people will wonder if the content also has quality issues. Customers looking for professional content prefer professional-looking covers.
  • Emphasizing the wrong words in a title. It should seem logical to emphasize – through larger text or some text effects – a few key words in the title, which relate to the text. Yet it’s a common mistake to make short, meaningless words (like “the”) larger and long, meaningful words smaller – simply because the longer words had to be smaller in order to fit on the cover. But the most important words need to be the largest. The title must be larger than the subtitle. The author should be smaller than the title or subtitle – it’s just a minor ingredient to the cover (except for celebrities and popular authors). If there are several words in the title (bestsellers often have three or fewer), emphasize a few key words over the other words in the title.
  • The cover is too busy. It’s intuitive for indie authors and illustrators alike to feel the need to fill every void on a piece of paper. Especially, artists who have a gift for artistic detail want to show this talent off. But a great cover isn’t about the art itself. It’s about grabbing attention and conveying an idea – this book is about that. One image and a few words can convey this image effectively. Extra images distract the reader from the central concept, and require the customer to invest more time and effort to determine what your book is about. Look, there are thousands of books to choose from and customers are browsing through hundreds – they are likely to pass on those that don’t send a clear, quick signal.
  • Poor color choices. A great cover often utilizes three main colors. A primary color (60%) will create good contrast with a secondary color (30%), and include an accent color (10%) which complements either the primary or secondary. The two main colors shouldn’t clash; all three colors should coordinate well together. The text color and main image should stand out very well against the background.
  • Something looks unnatural or out of place. It’s a common mistake to place an extra image in a cover that just doesn’t seem to belong there. The indie author is trying to add an additional image that relates to the content, without realizing that the distraction isn’t worth this. An image in the foreground that ruins an otherwise nice cover is said to be photobombing the cover. Look out for potential photobombs. Use of a transparent foreground image can also result in a distracting background object. For example, if a small image in the background happens to be inside the head of a model in the foreground, this will ruin the cover.
  • Text arranged in a way that is difficult to read. It’s not easy to read text that is arranged vertically – either one word above another or, even worse, one letter above another. At the very least, don’t create special effects like this for every word in the title. When customers are browsing through hundreds of covers, they tend to skip the ones that don’t send quick, clear messages.
  • Hand drawings that aren’t expertly done. Crayon and colored pencils create a poor impression. Even handmade art that is fairly well done has a tough time competing against the amazing possibilities of graphic arts. It’s a much greater challenge to make a cover appear professional when images are made by hand. Let the customers see any slight fault in the cover and you’ve given them a reason to pass on the book.
  • Title and cover don’t relate to the content or genre. If the cover attracts the wrong audience, nobody will purchase the book. The cover and title both need to signify the precise audience (e.g. adult romance should not be confused with erotica or young adult romance), and should relate to the content of the book. Research the covers of top-selling books in your genre to see what those readers are accustomed to seeing. Which cover designs, color schemes, and font styles tend to work well in this genre?

I’m a self-published author myself and I enjoy designing my own covers. But I didn’t write this article with my own design skills in mind. Rather, I’m also an avid reader, and I know which covers tend to attract my attention, what mistakes I have seen when browsing through books, and what aspects of cover design tend to work for me or turn me off when I’m shopping for a book. I’ve also done some research to learn more about cover design. I’ve come across some very professional indie covers out there, and seen some amazing designs from graphic artists. I do enjoy designing my own covers, and have experienced many of these challenges firsthand (and also experienced a few of these mistakes, such as making a cover that’s too busy). If you’re an indie author, may you learn from and avoid some mistakes that others have made. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers