Successful sought-after speakers usually have a book to back their brand, expertise and credibility in their chosen fields. A book provides an additional revenue stream, increased publicity, and can be used as a hook for invitations to media events and speaking gigs. In this day and age of Amazon and POD printing, most speakers will self-publish. But if you self-publish, it is crucial to produce a quality product from the inside out, because your image, brand and book sales depend on it. So, how do you design a book cover that sells? Savvy speakers will seek out experts to guide…
I recently received a query from a subscriber who asked me to weigh in on a contraction conundrum. This author wanted to know if it was acceptable to use contractions in a book manuscript. I asked my teammate and award-winning book editor Barbara McNichol for her take on this issue. Here’s the definition of a contraction: Two words that have been contracted (pulled together) into one word. E.g., let’s (let us), he’d (he had), we’re (we are), etc. This author wrote: My latest (4th) book is coming out in September. I just got the edits back from my publisher. I…
As a speaker you have an important message to deliver, and your goal is to reach as many people as possible. One way to do this is by leveraging your content into a self-published book. A book will give you credibility, open doors to new speaking opportunities, and provide another revenue stream—that is, if your book is every bit as professional as you are. As a busy speaker, I know you will appreciate these 10 self-publishing tips. After 25 years in the business of designing book covers and interiors and helping speakers publish their books, I know self-published books can outshine those…
I would like to show you an example of the book cover design process by revealing a series of cover comps (ideas) we did for one of our client’s books. Nature’s Wisdom in the Workplace: Managing Energy in Today’s Health Care Organizations was published by Synergy Press, and authored by Sharon Cox, Jo Manion and Diane Miller. The Design Brief First we spoke with the client to get a list of information regarding the target market and book specifications. The design brief outlines the parameters for the style, colors, imagery and typography our designer needed to incorporate into the book cover design process: 6″ x…
I attended the CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association) meeting last month and their topic was “self-publishing bloopers.” I took some notes, added my own items and compiled a list for you. The number one mistake is not having your book professionally edited. There are different levels of editing: content editing, copy editing and proofreading. In my August 2014 post I describe in detail these three types of editing services. Missing the bar code. If you don’t have a bar code on the back cover of your book you won’t be able to sell your book in bookstores or on Amazon. Bad cover design. Your…
Book marketing guru Brian Jud spoke at the September CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association) meeting about ways to sell books to other markets besides bookstores. He published the book Beyond the Bookstore back in 2009, and has a new updated edition, How to Make Real Money Selling Books. These books show you how to reach unique retail and non-retail market segments, where you can sell mass quantities of self-published books at a time. Many independent publishers have realized the unfortunate impact of returns when working with bookstores. Returns are shipped back to the publisher at the publisher’s expense and often arrived…
Smart self-publishers have their manuscripts edited and proofread by professionals. To meet this need, we offer an assortment of editorial services, from content editing to proofreading. Our award-winning team of editors and proofreaders specializes in a wide range of genres with a variety of skill sets in both fiction and non-fiction. It’s so important to find the right fit for each client, and we feel it is our responsibility to educate our clients about the different types of editing and proofreading services. As a visual person, I like to make analogies with visual images. I think about editing from the…
Our client, Shima Shanti, of Peace Waters Publishing came to us with a collection of illustrations and text to combine and arrange into a children’s book. The picture book design and layout needed something to tie all the pages together and unify the collection of drawings. I came up with the idea of using stock images of abstract watercolors in the backgrounds of all the pages to enhance and support the drawings. My designer, Kerrie Lian looked at the book one spread at a time to coordinate the watercolor backgrounds with the colors, patterns and imagery in the drawings. Shown…
Do you have a vision for a special creative project? Perhaps a desire to publish your own book? Maybe you’ve written your manuscript, but just don’t have the money to pay for professional editing, cover design, interior layout, website design or marketing. These days when it is difficult to obtain a business loan, where can you turn? One viable option is crowdfunding. I learned a lot about crowdfunding from Leigh Lepore at the January CIPA meeting so I thought I would share my notes with you. A Growing Phenomenon Crowdfunding is a rapidly growing phenomenon. This relatively new online industry…