Tag Archives: authorship

Apr 8 2013

Fighting Word’s Picture Compression

Microsoft Word has a tendency to compress pictures down to as little as 96 dots per inch (DPI), even when the box is checked telling Word not to do this. That’s great when there is a priority on saving memory, but not desirable when printing for quality.

The first step is to disable automatic picture compression, while realizing that this step – all by itself – is not sufficient. In Word 2010, for example, click the File tab, scroll down below Help to find Options (at first hidden toward the bottom of the list), select Advanced, scroll down to Image Size and Quality, and check the box that says, “Do not compress images in file.” Do this before inserting any images into the file.

Don’t copy and paste pictures into the Word document. Instead, click Insert and then Picture.

Don’t resize or otherwise manipulate the pictures in Word. Instead, edit the images with photo-editing software that doesn’t compress them prior to inserting them into the Word document.

Don’t use Save As to convert the Word document to PDF. Instead, print the file to PDF using a Word-to-PDF converter. For self-publishing, find a PDF converter that allows fonts to be embedded in the file and transparency to be flattened.

Also, check the DPI of the pictures at the source – i.e. the software (e.g. PhotoShop) or device (e.g. camera or scanner) that created the pictures. Using 300 DPI or more produces sufficient print quality images for most applications.

F8

As long as we’re talking about pictures, I may as well include one with a tesseract and a half-dozen planes intersecting in four-dimensional space. If anything else, it may help to make Word’s picture compression seem somewhat less complicated. 🙂

Authors of eBooks have the opposite problem. With eBooks, what counts is the number of pixels along the width and height. In this case, there is a premium on compressing the images in order to minimize the file size of the eBook. To compress the pictures in Word 2010, right-click a picture, go to the Format tab (that appears when a picture is selected), click Compress Pictures, choose 96 DPI (KDP’s recommendation for most eBooks), and uncheck the box that says, “Only to this picture.”

For eBooks, after inserting an image into Word, right-click the image, choose Size and Position, go to the Size tab (in the pop-up window), and set both the width and height to 100% scaling (Word automatically scales images down to a lower percentage when they would otherwise exceed the margin width).

May your pictures come out picture-perfect! 🙂

Copyright (c) Chris McMullen, Author of the Improve Your Math Fluency series of workbooks and self-publishing guides

Apr 7 2013

An Effective Blurb: The Challenge of Writing Just a Few Words

Authors love to write. If you love to jog, running a marathon is easy. If you love to sew, knitting a blanket is fun. If you love to write, completing a novel is a breeze.

Typing tens of thousands of words comes very naturally to writers.

Writing very many words is easy. Writing just a few words is the real challenge.

That is, if you want a small number of words to be effective.

The greatest condensation challenge comes when the self-published author completes the book and must prepare the blurb. Most writers incorrectly view this as having to summarize tens of thousands of words with just a hundred words or so.

But the blurb shouldn’t be a synopsis. The function of the blurb is to entice readers to read the book.

The blurb has the best chance of persuading readers to look inside when it accomplishes the following:

  • Immediately captures the interest of the reader; it has to have a great start.
  • Engages the interest of the reader throughout; every sentence – phrase even – must intrigue the reader.
  • Sends the same message about the genre and content as the title and cover. Buyers want to know exactly what they’re getting; when they see mixed messages, they search for a different book. A target audience mismatch is a related problem: If the title and cover sound like adult romance, but the blurb sounds like teen romance, for example, the readers who are attracted to the book probably won’t buy it.
  • Arouses the reader’s curiosity. Don’t give too much information away; leave questions (implied or explicit) that require the reader to buy the book in order to find the answers.
  • Is well-written. If a hundred words or so have spelling, punctuation, grammar, and other writing mistakes, it doesn’t bode well for tens of thousands of words being well-written. Any mistakes in this short writing sample are deal-breakers.
  • Presents the information concisely. Longer blurbs are less likely to hold the reader’s interest. Bored readers don’t buy books. The longer the reader has to decide about the book, the more likely the reader will find a reason not to look inside. This is especially true in fiction. In nonfiction, there may be some books that have valuable content or features where a longer blurb may help sell the book. However, even in nonfiction, the general rule is that a shorter blurb is better.
  • Provides a clear description. Confused shoppers don’t buy books. Too many characters appearing out of the blue, information that seems ambiguous, words or phrases that don’t make sense to the readers, or anything that isn’t crystal clear to the vast majority of the target audience – these things are likely to blow the sale.
  • Creates an accurate expectation. Readers who are successfully enticed to make the purchase will return the book or provide a bad review if the book fails to live up to unrealistic expectations.
  • Looks appealing. Use block style with linespaces between paragraphs. Nonfiction blurbs that have multiple points to make can use bullets. Such formatting can be done through AuthorCentral.

That’s a tall order! A blurb, which must be short to be effective, has so much to accomplish. It’s quite a challenge to make a small number of words achieve so much.

Yet writing an effective blurb is very important. It can make the difference between very few or very many prospective customers looking inside.

There are three more challenges that fiction authors face when writing the blurb:

  • They tend to write summaries instead of blurbs.
  • They know the story, but often have trouble reading their description from the perspective of a reader who hasn’t read the book.
  • They are often partial to some information in the book which really doesn’t belong in the blurb (for a similar reason, there is often an extra out-of-place object on the cover).

Authors should place their focus elsewhere:

  • What are the main aspects of the book that make it very interesting? Stuff that doesn’t make it sound interesting shouldn’t be in the blurb.
  • What do members of the target audience who haven’t read the book think of the blurb? Feedback is very important. The most effective blurbs often undergo several major revisions.

Look back at the top of this blog article and you’ll see that it started with a few short paragraphs with space between them. When you first see the article, you only see the beginning of it, which – like a blurb – must catch and hold your attention. Evidently, it worked for you, since you reached the end. 🙂

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

Apr 6 2013

Self-Publishing Success?

A few self-published authors have been highly successful, which shows that indie success is possible. But the odds are very long, as the vast majority of self-published books don’t even sell a copy per day on average.

What have the top indie authors done differently? Is it just dumb luck?

No!

Self-publishing isn’t like buying a lottery ticket where the odds are incredible. With the lottery, every ticket has the same odds. But all self-published books are not all equal.

Not every book has a chance of winning the self-publishing lottery.

The top selling indie authors have some things in common:

(1) They followed good business models. Some authors, like Amanda Hocking, actually researched business strategies in their traditional publishing pursuits.

Most self-published authors do one or both of the following:

  • They get an idea, carry it out, and publish it. Business-minded authors won’t write and publish any idea; they will develop the idea as an integral part of the business strategy.
  • They want to do something significantly different than what is traditional. This is great for authors who want to write as artists and aren’t concerned about lack of success. The problem from a business perspective is that the existing readership has well-defined expectations in each genre and the vast majority of books that they purchase meet those expectations. More of these readers will explore something significantly different if the author first publishes a couple of traditional books and then attempts something new after building an audience.

Some authors genuinely prefer to write as artists, knowing full well that sales might be considerably less than what they may be if they approach writing from a business perspective. There is much to be said for the writing artist. It’s just very challenging to get noticed this way and to establish a large readership.

I’m not saying that you should write for money and not write as an artist. Rather, since highly successful self-published authors follow good business models, let’s follow the logic behind business-minded book development and see where it leads. In the end, I will explain how an author might write as an artist – not for money – and yet benefit from some of the same logic.

A business-minded writer doesn’t just write a book, but develops the book idea as part of a business strategy:

  • Start out considering possible subjects and genres. Of those genres which are a best fit for your writing, which are most popular? What experience or expertise do you have? What needs are there on the market?
  • Research each of these possible book ideas. What books already on the market are most similar to each of these book ideas? Look at their sales ranks. What are the best books like these that don’t have a big-name author or publisher? The business-minded author chooses a book idea with the best potential in a genre or subject that he/she is most qualified to write.
  • Research the top books in the genre similar to the book in mind. Can you compete with the writing in these books? Read these books to learn the unspoken rules of the genre. For example, the business-minded author won’t allow the protagonist to act in a way that will upset much of the potential readership and will create an ending that will please the target audience. The business-minded author develops an idea and writes a book geared toward the largest possible target audience that he/she is likely to attract with his/her writing skills.
  • The business-minded author is thinking about marketing throughout the writing process. This author is seeking input on the cover, title, and blurb for two reasons: to help generate “buzz” about the upcoming book and to see what features please or upset the target audience. (In contrast, too many indie authors disregard important criticism that they receive and focus mostly on feedback that coincides with what they wanted to hear.) They develop a great cover – often hiring a great cover designer – knowing how important this is to marketing. They wrote their blurbs and first chapters to be captivating, knowing how strongly this affects sales.
  • Pinpoint the target audience and discover where to find them and how to reach them. The business-minded author is thinking long and hard what marketing strategies will be most effective for them. Those who have a knack for business tend to be the most diligent, motivated marketers. They also know how to use price, discounts, giveaways, and series to their advantage. Everything from the cover to writing to marketing is part of an overall business strategy.

We’ll return to writing artists at the end.

(2) Most tried diligently to get traditionally published, but didn’t succeed in this until after becoming successful as indies.

Although they didn’t get traditionally published (before they broke through), they were doing all the right things toward achieving this, which helped them develop the skills that they ultimately used to thrive on their own.

  • They tried to improve their writing to get traditionally published.
  • They spent much time studying readerships in an effort to identify their target audience, since publishers are very interested in this.
  • They researched business plans to develop book ideas and write proposals that would help them get traditionally published.
  • They learned about marketing in order to convince publishers that their books would succeed.
  • They attempted to meet people who might help them with their writing careers.

These are all valuable skills that any authors can benefit from, self-published or not. In the last point, they also developed handy contacts.

(3) They were highly motivated to become successful writers. You have to be highly motivated to learn about business strategies when your initial goal is becoming an author. All those rejection letters from traditional publishers fueled their motivation. The best place for those letters is a bedroom ceiling or bathroom wall that you’ll see every morning.

Never give up. Constantly strive to improve.

***

Back to my earlier point: You don’t necessarily have to write for money to be successful.

You can be a writing artist and succeed.

The pure businessman who develops the perfect business strategy to write and market a book is highly motivated to do the marketing, but must find the passion to put into the writing and learn to write well.

The pure writer who writes for art’s sake naturally writes well and puts the passion into the writing, but must find the passion to do the marketing in order to be successful.

There is a limitation from the pure business perspective – i.e. how well can you write, how well can you tell a story?

The limitation for the writing artist is that not all book ideas are good ideas, not all stories have a potential readership.

Almost nobody is a pure business person or pure writing artist.

Determine which side you’re on – those are your strengths. The more you’re willing to improve your weaknesses, the more balanced you’ll become as a self-publisher, which will increase your chances of success.

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

Apr 4 2013

Grammar Style (Short ‘n’ Fun)

End a sentence with a preposition if you want to.

Commas, use them, frequently, if you like.

Don’t be afraid to use a semicolon; write without fear.

Occasionally, use an -ly adverb when carefully constructing sentences, even though you’re generally supposed to avoid using them unnecessarily.

Is it a hospital or an hospital? a R.S.V.P. or an R.S.V.P.? a @ sign or an @ sign?

I left him lying next to her pronoun because it was you that expected us to confuse them this way.

The object of this sentence is the subject, but that’s okay because the verb “to be” doesn’t take an object.

It is I, not me. Now use me, not I.

Tom looked at Bob. He winked. Tom wasn’t sure if Tom or Bob was supposed to wink. They went to the screenwriter for clarification.

Fragments. Useful. Sometimes.

This sentence was becoming very interesting until (a parenthetical remark appeared out of nowhere).

Hy-phen-ate – add a dash.

Punctuate (your) sentences “most ‘properly’”: Otherwise, your readership will complain; or worse – they might…

Mind your %$&# language!

SCREAM AND SHOUT WITH CAPS!

Squeezeitalltogetherbyremovingthespaces.

mIxInG iT uP: wHaT’s WrOnG wItH tHaT?

Don’t reck’n ’twas s’posed t’nclude s’many ’postrophes ‘n’ c’ntr’ct’ns.

Matter order not does.

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

Apr 4 2013

Karma for Authors Who Self-Publish

In order to be successful, a self-published author must come up with a good book idea, develop a fine story, write well, edit the manuscript, learn how to format both a paperback and an eBook, and become adept at marketing.

That’s a tall order. Why risk all of that hard work with any possible bad karma?

If you don’t believe in karma, then don’t think karma – think branding. The image that you brand as an author can have a significant impact on sales. Don’t risk bad book karma or negative branding – whatever you prefer to call it.

What do you hope for as an author?

  • Many sales.
  • Frequent reviews.
  • Word-of-mouth referrals.
  • A nice review average.
  • Good and fair comments about your work publicly.
  • Necessary criticism privately.

Authors may not all share the exact same wish list, but these items are probably pretty high up on most writers’ lists.

Now assess your book karma:

Part 1 – You as a reader:

  • How often do you read self-published books (that you discovered yourself)?
  • Do you leave good reviews for books (written by complete strangers) that you like?
  • Which books (written by complete strangers) have you referred to friends, family, acquaintances, or colleagues?
  • What have you done that might help an author you don’t know whose book you enjoyed?
  • Have you ever (publicly) said anything bad about any other self-published books?
  • Have you ever (publicly) said anything bad about self-publishing? eBooks? Amazon? Kindle?
  • What do you say when people you know ask you about buying eBooks, whether you like your Kindle, if self-publishing is a good idea, etc.?

Part 2 – You as a writer:

  • Did you take the time to perfect the editing and formatting of your books?
  • How do you react when you receive criticism about your work (privately or publicly)?
  • Do you ever respond negatively to customer reviews?
  • In what ways have you helped other aspiring authors improve their own work?
  • Have you ever abused the customer review system, tags, likes, etc.?
  • How do you behave at online discussion forums and your other online activities?

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

Mar 29 2013

Artists Who Love Marketing – an Oxymoron?

Whether you paint a picture, write a book, or invent a new product, if you did this with the creative passion of an artist, it’s only logical for you to be highly motivated to market your work. Yet most artists express a loathing for marketing.

Why? One reason is that marketing sounds like business and salesmanship. Artists enjoy creating their art, and authors love to write. But business and sales often doesn’t easily arouse their interest.

Let me take a detour and explain that marketing creative products – like paintings and books – isn’t about business and salesmanship. Then I will return to my main point – i.e. why artists should naturally be motivated to market their work.

Marketing a creative product is more about discovery and branding an image, and less about business and salesmanship. Books, for example, aren’t sold by persuasion like used cars. In fact, no salesman is even present – this is obvious for eBooks, but even in the store there is usually just a cashier. What bookstore will thrive with a pushy salesman looking over customers’ shoulders in the middle of the aisle?

Similarly, self-promotion doesn’t tend to attract much interest. “Hey, I just wrote a book and it’s the greatest thing ever so you should check it out,” isn’t the way to sell books.

Instead, when you personally interact with people – in person or online – and people “discover” that you are an artist, author, or inventor, for example, they often want to learn more. People like to buy products that were made by people they know – how often do you get such a chance? – provided that they discover it rather than having it thrust upon them.

“What do you do for a living?” “What have you done recently?” “How’s your new book coming along?” There are so many ways for people to learn more about you and discover your work. They could even click on your online profile.

The more people you personally interact with, the more your work may get discovered. This also helps to create “buzz” when you release a new product, which helps to earn early sales and reviews.

Marketing a single artist’s creative product involves branding. Advertising to say, “This is the best thing since sliced bread,” isn’t going to help, and demanding, “You should go buy this product now,” is a waste.

Commercials don’t work because the majority of people do as they’re told or listen to whatever the television tells them. They work because of branding. When people are standing in the grocery store, deciding which product to buy, they don’t remember what the television said was better and they’re not there because the television told them to go shopping – more often than not, they simply recognize a product that they’ve heard before. That is, they remember the brand. People tend to buy products they’ve heard of, and for which they like what the brand symbolizes.

Fortunately, a single artist doesn’t need to pay advertising fees to brand an image. Branding can be done for free. Getting your product, name, and image in front of your target audience helps to establish your brand as an artist or author. The more they see this, the more they are likely to recognize your product, then one day when they are buying a similar product, they may buy yours.

One way to get your target audience to see your brand is to post valuable content online. Posting advertisements about your product, posting content about yourself, and posting links to your other sites won’t likely attract much interest. But posting valuable content for your target audience may attract new customers. If they appreciate the content that you offer, they might click on your profile to learn more about you – and, lo and behold, “discover” your work.

Every time they visit one of your sites, they see your name, your photo, and an image of your product. Someday, when they are buying a similar product, if they recognize and buy your product, the branding was successful.

Where persuasion fails, discovery often works. Where overt (and even paid) advertising is ineffective, free branding is a great help. So don’t think of marketing as business and salesmanship. Think of it as interacting with others on a personal level so that your work can be discovered, and branding an image so that you and your work may be recognized.

Now for my main point: Artists should naturally be motivated to interact with others personally so that their work can be discovered, and should naturally be motivated to attract the attention of their target audience so that they can brand their image (for which, posting valuable content online is just one of many examples).

So why should artists naturally be motivated to market their work?

It’s simple, really: If you have passion for your artwork or book, you should also have the passion to share this work with others. And how do you share your work with others? Marketing! Use your passion for your work to motivate yourself to work diligently to share your work with others through marketing.

Furthermore, when others see the passion that you have for your work firsthand, they are more likely to get interested in your work. (But be careful to show passion and sound confident, but not to be boastful or overconfident.)

Would you rather buy a painting that was made by an artist that was passionate about his/her work, or just kind of threw something together because he/she was bored?

If you meet two artists, and one sounds kind of bored talking about his sculpture, while the other is clearly passionate about his/her work, which sculpture will interest you more?

If you’re passionate about your work and you strongly believe in it, then you should also be passionate about sharing your work with others (not just “getting it out there” – art doesn’t tend to sell itself). If you’re not passionate about marketing your own work, it suggests that you weren’t all that into it or that you feel like something may be wrong with it.

You don’t have to be a salesman to sell your artwork or book. You just have to be passionate about sharing it with others. Marketing through discovery and branding is a natural fit for the artist. It’s just a matter of perspective.

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

Mar 23 2013

Marketing Isn’t an Afterthought

Unfortunately, most new self-published authors don’t consider marketing until after they have published their books. When sales are dismal, then they see firsthand the importance or marketing. Or they ask other authors on a community forum, “Why isn’t my book selling?” One of the answers will be marketing.

It sure would be nice if we could just throw our books out there and watch them sell like hot cakes. Everyone hopes for this.

But there’s a major problem with this approach: When the book doesn’t sell all by itself, the best marketing opportunities have already passed by. Now it’s too late. So most authors settle for better-late-than-never.

The problem is that after you publish, if you haven’t yet marketed, you’ve lost your chance to create buzz for your book and your lack of sales history will be a challenge to overcome. When you effectively market early sales and build a healthy sales history, this gives you much more exposure on Amazon – e.g. through Customers Also Bought lists and 100 bestseller lists (if you really succeed).

Marketing is something that should begin before the book is published – when the book is still being written:

  • Generate “buzz” for your upcoming book. You want people talking about your book in person and via social media before it’s released. You don’t have to spend money on advertising to achieve this.
  • Let people discover that you’re working on a book. “What have you been up to lately?” People tend not to like advertisements and salesmen, but they like to feel that they’ve discovered new things.
  • When you meet people, let them discover that you’re a writer. People like to buy books from authors they’ve personally interacted with.
  • Show your passion for your work. When others see your passion, it makes them more interested in your work.
  • Get feedback on your cover design. First, you get valuable suggestions and find what puts people off and turns people on. It also helps to create a little buzz.
  • You can also solicit feedback on your title and blurb. Do this in person and online.
  • Carefully let people know on occasion something that’s special about your project – e.g. if you spend an abnormal amount of time writing or doing research, or if you’ve had a few edits from a professional editor.
  • Don’t overdo it. If you talk about your book every time you interact with friends, family, and acquaintances, you’ll get tuned out. Let them inquire about how your project is coming along.
  • Publish a paperback with CreateSpace and use Amazon Advantage to enable preorders. Customers can then order your book before it’s even published.
  • Preorders give your book a headstart in sales rank and help to quickly develop Customers Also Bought associations. A tremendous jumpstart can give you mega-exposure on 100 bestseller lists.
  • Send out advance review copies. Goodreads can help with this. This gives you a chance to earn a few early reviews.
  • Realize that your cover is a valuable marketing tool. A striking image attracts attention, relevant imagery signifies the genre. A memorable cover with one main image makes your book easier to recognize and describe to others.
  • Perfect your blurb and Look Inside before you publish because these can have a profound influence on sales.
  • Perfect your editing, formatting, and storyline before you publish. If people love your book and the writing, they are far more likely to leave good reviews and recommend your book to others by word-of-mouth.
  • Start a blog before you publish your book. This may only help you create a small following, but that’s not the point. The point is when your About the Author section directs readers to your blog, you don’t want them to show up and find an empty blog with one post, two followers, and three likes. Have some content available and gathering started before you publish.
  • Don’t just blog about yourself unless you’re already a celebrity. Try to develop useful content that relates to your book and genre that will attract not only fans, but perhaps others from your intended audience, too.
  • Develop your author websites before you publish so that you can include the links in your books.
  • Get your social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) started before you publish. This can help you create buzz for your book and get early sales and reviews. Get your pages setup and have active content before you direct traffic there.
  • Setup fan, book, author, and/or imprint pages at Facebook.
  • However, be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. If you have a blog, Twitter, Facebook, separate accounts for author, book, publisher, fan club, etc., you want to be able to manage everything and keep content up-to-date. Some pages may not need updating (like a simple page for the publisher), but some do – like your blog and Twitter.
  • Choose one author photo that you can use everywhere. This recognition helps you create your brand/image as an author.
  • Develop a logo before you publish so that you can use it on all of your books and websites.
  • Choose an imprint before you publish and develop a website (free, perhaps) to help lend it some credibility.
  • Setup your AuthorCentral Author Page at Amazon. Setup your Goodreads author account.
  • Use your own passion for your book to motivate yourself to market diligently. Believe in your book enough to want to share it with others, to want to market actively so that others will learn about it.

The longer a book sits on Amazon and doesn’t sell well, the greater the history of no sales counts against you. If you suddenly market some new sales, your sales rank still skyrockets quickly because of that lack of history. Market effectively out of the box to build a strong early sales rank. Get your book started off on the right foot.

Publishing Resources

I started this blog to provide free help with writing, publishing, and marketing. You can find many free articles on publishing and marketing by clicking one of the following links:

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

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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 15 2013

Marketing: The 4 R’s of Branding

Repetition, Recognition, Referral, Reliance

These four R’s affect most of us every week when we buy products and services. As authors, we can apply the same branding philosophy in the marketing of our books.

(1) Repetition. Every brand of soda, detergent, television, car, and so on is constantly trying to get us to notice their name, logo, slogan, and image. We see it on television, on billboards, in magazines, and even on hats and t-shirts. The more we see it, the more we’re likely to remember it. This way, we remember brand names for products that we’ve never even tried.

You want people to remember your book and the name of the author – even if they haven’t read it yet. The more often people see your cover, read the title, hear your strapline, and see your author photo, the more likely they are to remember it. You can’t afford to invest millions of dollars in advertisements and commercials, but you can afford free. Your blog, your website, social media, articles that you write, local newspapers and television, every place your book is available for sale, every edition of your book (paperback, eBook, etc.), every book review, every person you interact with and mention your book or writing hobby – anything you do online that includes your cover, title, strapline, and/or author photo (including every little Like and Follow), improves your visibility. The more often people see and read these things, they more likely they will remember them.

Strapline – a single, short sentence used to create interest in your book (kind of like a slogan).

Your title and strapline should be short and easy to remember. Bestselling books often have three words or less for this very reason. Coke. Pepsi. Sony. Levis. The Shining. Wool. The Scarlet Letter. Short, easy to remember, easy to spell. Ideally, the author name should also be short and easy to remember and spell. Your cover and author imagery should also be easy to remember. A very busy cover, or one that doesn’t have one central image, or one that doesn’t use three main colors, or one where the title doesn’t stand out, or one that doesn’t present a unifying theme and signify the genre – such a cover isn’t as easy to remember. The title, author name, and cover are actually important marketing tools.

(2) Recognition. When we shop for a printer, golf club, or laundry detergent, we often prefer a brand that we recognize to one that we’ve never heard of – even if we’ve never used any of the products before. We may recognize the brand name, the logo, or even a catchy slogan.

The same principle applies to books. People often buy a book that they remember seeing, hearing about, or reading about, or has an author they recognize. This is why visibility of the brand of both the book and author is so important – people recognize what they remember.

Don’t change the title, cover, author name, or author image. If you use a much different cover for the paperback and eBook edition, or use a different photo for your FaceBook author page and AuthorCentral, for example, this inhibits recognition. Let all of your online activities reinforce one another with a unified approach.

Create “buzz” for your book prior to and during its release. Get people talking about your book – in person and online – and this will help them recognize it when it becomes available. In the months prior to publication, ask people for input on your cover, title, and blurb – in person and online. Spread the word about your upcoming book. Highlight positive things that will create interest in your book – like spending a year doing research or working on your third revision with an editor. Don’t be a salesman, just naturally get this into conversations. “So, what have you been up to recently?”

Interact with people personally. People recognize authors they’ve actually met. They just need to naturally discover that you’re an author, then remember your face and name plus the title and strapline for your book. Short and easy to remember and spell.

(3) Referral. If a friend or acquaintance recommends a product or service, we’re much more likely to try it. The product or service must be pretty good for it to be recommended by someone who doesn’t have a financial interest in the sales.

This applies to books, too. Word-of-mouth referrals can have a major impact on sales. For this, the book has to be very good. An amazing plot, a memorable character. Great storyline and characterization helps. It also needs to meet standards for editing and formatting; people won’t recommend a product that has obvious problems.

They’re much more apt to refer your book correctly if the title is short, easy to remember, and easy to spell; or the author if the name is easy to remember and spell; or to describe a book that has a simple, memorable cover.

(4) Reliance. People believe that Sony makes great televisions. Sony has established credibility and trust, and because of this, many people prefer to buy Sony electronics.

Readers are similarly more likely to buy products from authors who establish credibility and trust. Part of this comes from creating a highly professional cover, blurb, Look Inside, and author page. Behave professionally online; misbehaving certainly loses credibility. Your author photo, biography, and behavior should give the appearance of a knowledgeable, competent, trustworthy, and credible author. Do you look and sound like someone who would write a book in this genre?

Write content for your blog, website, newspapers, or magazines (in print or online) that demonstrates your expertise. Useful information may even attract newcomers, in addition to helping build your credibility.

======================

At the bottom of your blog (and many other online activities), you can include your name and the title of one to three books. If your titles are very short, you can squeeze three into this space. As you can see below, sadly, I broke my own rule with a very long title. If you have expertise, just imagine how it would look to have your name and title show up at the bottom of an article in a high-traffic area in a magazine, newspaper, or online. Prepare an article relevant for your book and strive to get it published. You may be able to publish it locally or at a lesser traffic site, at least. It won’t go to waste because in the worst-case scenario, you can always add it to your blog.

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