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From Karen Saunders

Your Branding, Marketing & Self-Publishing Coach



Archive for the ‘awards’ Category

September 18th, 2014 | By: Karen Saunders

Our Team Designs Award-Winning ebook

Happy fall everyone! Congratulations to our client Gina Meagher and to Helena Mariposa who is our ebook conversion expert for winning a first place CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association) book award for Gina’s ebook, There Is Something about Gina: Flourishing with Diabetes and Celiac Disease.  Helena did a fabulous job of converting Gina’s print book into ebook format. Our graphic designer Kerrie Lian created the striking cover and interior layout for this award-winning ebook.

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May 23rd, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

5 Self-Publishers win CIPA EVVY Book Awards

Five of our clients won won book awards at the 2013 Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Book Awards banquet held on May 18th. Here are the 5 award-winning books we designed. Noted below are the team members who have participated in the production of each book. John Hall is all smiles with a copy of his book and his award certificate. John’s book Do What You Can! won 3rd place in the “Self-Help” category. Several team members participated in the production of his book: Barbara McNichol edited the book, I came up with the cover concept, Kerrie Lian designed the cover and interior, Helena Mariposa proofread…

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May 29th, 2012 | By: Karen Saunders

Celebrating the 2012 CIPA EVVY Book Awards

Several of our clients and team members won book awards at the 2012 Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Book Awards banquet held on May 17th. Julia Hubbel of Principled Networking won 3 awards. Her first book Wordfood won 1st place in the Business/Career category and 2nd place in the Self -Help category. Julia’s second book, Tackling the Titans won a merit award in the Business/Career career category. Team members Kerrie Lian designed the cover and interior of both books and Barbara Munson edited both books. Shown below are the covers of both books. Our clients Mary Anne Harvey and Randy Chapman, Esq. of The…

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February 26th, 2012 | By: Karen Saunders

Spotlight on a Client Project: Designing a Children’s Book

Designing a children’s book was a treat for my team! As a team leader serving the publishing community, I have the privilege of helping authors publish their books and launch their websites. Every client is so passionate about his or her book, product or service, it’s fun to live vicariously through their work for a few months. Occasionally a client brings a project that seems to leap heads and shoulders above the rest in regard to the intriguing subject matter, quality of content, scope of work, artistic challenge and affect it has on our community. One such project was Alphabet Denver,…

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March 21st, 2011 | By: Karen Saunders

2011 CIPA EVVY Book Awards

My client Mike Gannon took home 3rd Place in the Inspirational and Memoir categories for his book If These Ears Could Sing at the 2011 Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA EVVY Book Awards banquet last night. Melanie Mulhall edited the book, Kerrie Lian designed the interior and I designed the cover. Mike Gannon and Jeri Costa flew in from Reston, Virginia to attend the banquet last night. We had a fabulous time supporting and cheering on Mike as well as Melanie, who took home a 1st Place Editing Tech Award for Called: Women Hear the Voice of the Divine by  Gretchen…

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March 26th, 2010 | By: Karen Saunders

Newsletter Formatting and Page Layout: Part 1

If you’re one of those brave entrepreneurs who’s tried to embrace desktop publishing along with the responsibilities of running your small business, you’ve may have been challenged by the task of creating a page layout for your marketing materials or newsletter. Corporations have an undeniable edge over home-based businesses because they generally have an in-house department filled with skilled marketing experts and graphic designers. In your small business, that task usually falls to you or your administrative assistant, whose training in the graphic arts may be haphazard. A discerning eye can easily spot the difference between a professionally-designed newsletter over an amateur…

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September 29th, 2009 | By: Karen Saunders

10 Questions to Answer Before You Create a Marketing Piece

Are you ready to create a marketing piece, but don’t know where to start? Regardless if you’re doing it yourself or getting professional design and writing help, there are some simple, yet essential steps to follow that will make the whole process go smoothly and prevent costly mistakes. Here are 10 questions to answer before you create a marketing piece: What is the purpose or objective of your piece — to entertain, inform or to persuade? What action do you want your prospects to take — request information, visit your website or call you? Keep your marketing purpose in mind when…

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March 29th, 2009 | By: Karen Saunders

How to Design Award Winning Book Covers

You can design award winning book covers by using appropriate colors, imagery, symbolism, style and typography. Here’s how our team produced 7 award winning book covers at the CIPA EVVY Awards banquet. The Front Cover The front cover of your book should capture the essence of what’s inside. Smart self-publishers include an endorsement or short testimonial from a VIP on the front cover. Quality book cover design attracts potential readers faster than any other element, regardless of who you are or what you’ve written about. Large publishing houses and established authors all know a creative cover beckons to their devoted fans while also attracting new readers. Self-published authors…

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March 30th, 2008 | By: Karen Saunders

2 Visual Branding Keys To Make Your Business Memorable

Have you ever asked yourself why a competitor’s business gets more attention than yours? The answer just may have to do with the elements that go into how memorable the business is. And that has to do with branding. Specifically visual branding keys. But exactly what is branding, anyway? Think of branding as predefining what a company is all about in the minds of its clients. Good branding differentiates your products and services in a positive way that really sticks in the minds of potential customers. Let’s say you are getting ready to run errands on a busy Saturday morning,…

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March 27th, 2007 | By: Karen Saunders

An extraordinary evening at the CIPA EVVY book awards

Friday, March 23, 2007 was the 13th Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA EVVY book awards banquet. After many years of celebrating with my clients with their EVVY award winning books, I had the opportunity as an author and publisher to enter my own book, Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal. I was thrilled to receive first place in the “How To” category. Shown below is the cover of my award-winning book.   This year CIPA introduced the Technical Awards to recognize associate members for their contribution in book production. These awards go to editors, graphic designers, printers and illustrators. I…

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