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From Karen Saunders

Your Branding, Marketing & Self-Publishing Coach



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October 31st, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

20 Copyright and Clearance Tips for Self-Publishers

A recent Colorado Independent Publishers Association meeting featured copyright and permissions presentations by John R. Tandler of Ryley, Carlock and Applewhite, and Joyce L. Miller of The Copyright Detective. Here are my notes from this very informative meeting on copyright clearance Not everything can be copyrighted. Only items that can be “fixed in a tangible medium” which then can be reproduced. For example, music that is recorded onto a tape or printed on a sheet, words that are printed on paper, a painting that is on canvas, a photo that is printed on paper or stored digitally all can be copyrighted….

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September 26th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

3 Creative Ways to Sell More eBooks: Matchbook, Kobo, Ganxy

Kindle Matchbook Program Amazon has just unveiled Kindle Matchbook for ebook publishers. This special program encourages their customers to buy two copies of your book; the printed version at the regular price and the ebook version at a discounted price. Publishers receive approximately 50% royalty on the ebook sold and a standard royalty on the printed book sold. What this means for the publisher is increased revenue; they’re selling two books at one time. The book buyer can immediately download the Kindle version while waiting for the printed version to arrive in the mail. Publishers will need to discount the…

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August 28th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

Using the Cloud to Back Up, Synchronize or Transfer Files

Nowadays photos, emails, music, videos, data files and applications reside on your phone, tablet and computers. It is important to find a way to synchronize and backup all your important data and easily transfer large files to other computers. Fortunately it is easy and inexpensive to do. There should be no reason in the world for you to lose important files. Don’t Let This Happen to You! Recently a friend of mine had his computer stolen from his workplace. He lost over 30 years of files. He never backed up his data. His computer was never found, and he was…

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July 30th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

Tips on Creating Eye-Catching Book Covers

Shown below are a few covers our team recently designed for our clients. We strive to create unique eye-catching book covers with attention-grabbing graphics and compelling titles and subtitles. To reach the right target market we need to understand what intrigues and interests those folks. By using carefully chosen keywords and appropriate fonts in the title, selecting symbolic colors and imagery, and using the right style of photos and/or graphics we can create the most effective message for each specific target market. As a result, each book cover appeals to the right audience. The following 2 books are for managers, leaders and directors…

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June 24th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

How to Design Attractive and Compelling Marketing Materials

Have you ever wondered how to make your flyer, poster, ad, or postcard convert more prospects into customers? Do you want to know the secrets to grabbing more attention with compelling marketing materials? It all comes down grabbing attention, creating the right perceptions and using the proper messaging. Recently my design team created direct mail postcards and posters for a biannual Potters’ Guild Pottery Sale that drew in more attendees than ever before. The attractive design and powerful, precise message may have made the difference in the higher number of attendees. Here’s how we did it. Attractively Showcase the Products We…

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May 28th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

How to Use Radio Talk Shows to Publicize your Self-Published Book

Radio talk show producers are always looking for quality guests, and this is the perfect way to publicize your book at no cost. There are 900 radio talk shows that need guests every day. You can do the interviews right from your home phone. Here are the guidelines to securing an interview and maximizing the experience to promote book sales. Contact the Producers Radio talk show producers – not talk show hosts – are responsible for arranging guest interviews. You should send an email to the producer first to schedule a time for your phone “audition” to pitch your topic….

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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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April 25th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

Creating Julia Spencer’s New Brand, Website & Speaker One Sheet

Spotlight on a Client Project: Building a New Brand Last year our team designed Julia Spencer’s award-winning book, Looking Through a Key Hole. The memoir is about her challenges with severe and progressive vision loss. She relies on her Seeing Eye guide dog, Irene, for independence. Since self-publishing her book, Julia’s speaking business has grown so she needed to clarify her brand and update her marketing materials. Julia asked for our help with creating a tag line and updating her website and speaker one sheet. Team lead, Patrice Rhoades-Baum – who is our branding expert – helped Julia nail her brand and created…

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April 1st, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to Help Market Your Self-Published Book

You can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to research and choose productive keywords to use in your book marketing campaigns. This free tool allows you to type in a word or phrase then see the results of your search term and additional keyword ideas. Each word or phrase is ranked by competition and by the number of global monthly searches on Google. You want to select and use keywords and phrases that have low competition and high search volume. Go to this page: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner For this exercise, let’s suppose I’ve published a book on puppy training. I’ve typed in…

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February 26th, 2013 | By: Karen Saunders

Build a Powerful Author Platform to Sell More Books

Publishing industry leaders say successful authors and publishers build their book sales by having a strong author platform. What is an Author Platform? It is a combination of how you share your core message, what exactly is marketing message and who is listening to you. The larger the number and the depth of your personal relationships with your followers, the stronger your platform. This is what’s called “relationship marketing.” It is optimal to have a powerful platform before you launch your book, but it is never too late to begin building your platform. An author’s goal is to develop a funnel of…

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