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From Karen Saunders

Your Branding, Marketing & Self-Publishing Coach



Archive for the ‘Book Publishing’ Category

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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March 23rd, 2012 | By: Karen Saunders

Self-Published Book Printing Options

So you’ve finished writing your manuscript. You’ve hired an editor to edit your book and a designer to create the cover and lay out your interior. Great. Now you’re ready to print your book, so you want to compare self-published book printing options. There are two ways to have your book printed. Your choices are to have it printed conventionally or print on demand (POD). I’ll explain the differences and provide a price chart for two hypothetical books. But, before you can make your printing choice, you need to decide if you want someone to handle the printing process for you,…

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October 25th, 2011 | By: Karen Saunders

Common Acronyms Used in Self-Publishing, Printing and Design

Are you stumped by new acronyms that have suddenly popped up and become part of the current lexicon in the publishing, marketing or advertising arenas? I’ve notice new acronyms are born whenever there is a new leap in technology, such as the emerging field of ebook publishing. Here are definitions of some and newly coined and common acronyms used in self-publishing, printing and graphic design. AI — Adobe Illustrator A vector-based graphic file format developed by Adobe. BMP — Bitmap A raster-based file format. CMYK— Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black A four-ink color system used by printers to print full color images. This is…

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July 27th, 2011 | By: Karen Saunders

Convert a Printed Book into an eBook and Upload Files to Amazon DPT

As an author and independent publisher I’m always looking for ways to leverage my work and the material in my printed book, Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal. Turning my intellectual property into various products is a pretty obvious solution. The emerging popularity of Kindle, iPad and Nook ereaders convinced me now was the time to convert a printed book into an ebook. Many Ways to Sell and Distribute eBooks I discovered there are several routes I could take to sell and distribute my ebooks, depending on how much time and effort I wanted to put into the distribution process. I…

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May 31st, 2011 | By: Karen Saunders

Transform a Book into an ebook: What to Watch Out For

Hi readers, this article is written by Helena Mariposa who is a member of my production team. She offers some nice insights into converting manuscripts and book layouts into ebook formats. Many of my authors have asked me to transform their books into a ebooks now due to the popularity of the Kindle, ipad and Nook. Helena is my go-to gal for this service. Here is her advice: Authors and self-publishers are proud of the work they have done to make their books read and look as well as they do. Now they have heard there is another way to make their book readily accessible to…

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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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January 1st, 2011 | By: Karen Saunders

The Yellow Brick Road Map to the Book Production Process

Are you publishing your first book? Congratulations! Would you like a road map to show you the book production process and outline each step to go from manuscript to a professional, printed book or ebook listed on Amazon? Over the years of designing books for independent publishers I’ve recognized first-time publishers could use a quick reference guide on time frames, tasks they are responsible for, and how to work with contractors such as editors, designers and printers. I created an easy-to-follow 10-page guide with checklists of action items, standard time frames, an overview of the design process, and where to obtain important items (such as ISBN…

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August 31st, 2010 | By: Karen Saunders

Self-Publishers: How to Get Your ISBN and LCCN Numbers

In my daily business I’ve made a couple of observations about my prospects and clients. When an author embarks on the self-publishing path he or she usually has never heard of ISBN or LCCN numbers. Secondly, most first-time self-publishers forget to include the copyright page in their manuscript. This is the most important page in your book. It contains language that protects your intellectual property, has the copyright date, publishing company name, contact information, and has the ISBN and LCCN numbers imprinted on it. Here’s what those acronyms mean and instructions on how complete these essential tasks. How to Get Your ISBN Number The first item on your book production checklist is to order your ISBN number (International Standard Book…

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December 30th, 2009 | By: Karen Saunders

Self-Publishers: What to Consider Before Designing Interior Pages

Once you’ve done all the hard work of writing your book manuscript, you’ll need expert assistance to create a stunning cover and for designing interior pages. You want to make sure the book’s interior marries well with the book’s cover, target market and purpose. I am a book lover in my heart and I have been since I was just learning how to read. I love to go into a book store. I am continuously delighted with the cleverness used in book design, an area where you might think there’s not a lot of room for innovation. In this post, I am going…

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October 31st, 2009 | By: Karen Saunders

Case Study: Improving a Self-Published Book Cover

Are you writing a book? Are you designing your own book cover? Here’s a case study to improving a self-published book cover. If you are a consultant, speaker or coach, you may find that publishing a book may boost your credibility, open doors to more opportunities and help you land more gigs or clients. With the Internet at your fingertips and easy access to expert cover designers, editors, illustrators and page layout artists, it is much easier to self-publish a book than it was twenty years ago. You can take the role as general contractor and hire consultants to help assemble all…

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