Tag: book publishing

Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Networking, Self-Publishing

Determining What Book Readers Want

Your book content – fiction, non-fiction, children’s, religious – naturally presumes a value to readers intending to be entertained or learn something from your work. How do they decide they want to read your book?

They don’t. You do. Sound like an incredible power? It is. It’s name: Marketing

When Thomas Edison turned 16 do you suppose he wanted a Tesla Roadster? Probably not. In order to want something you need to know it exists. One definition of marketing is convincing a a mass of people to want what you have. That puts you, the author of your book, in the cat bird’s seat. Who knows your book better than you, after-all.

How readers know about books has changed a great deal over the past decade, and my guess is that trend will continue. With Amazon, Twitter, Podcasts, Bookfinder, etc. we no longer rely on a single-minded source for telling us about books. A good CEO (the self-published author) knows how to leverage the expertise of others and delegate work. Consider the long-term. Research self-publishers with ongoing marketing support and services. Being published is rarely even enough.

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Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Importance of Book Cover Copy in Self-Publishing

Readers really do judge books by their covers. That is what your cover is designed to do – communicate the value of all of the great material in between. Keep this in mind when developing your back cover copy and make sure it’s professionally drafted by your self-publishing provider – this is marketing writing; artistic writing.

The BACK COVER COPY is restricted by the size of the book’s back cover.   Ideally, the size of the cover should be taken into account when composing the back cover copy to ensure the ultimate balance between font size and aesthetics. You don’t want too much copy so as to require an illegibly small font. You also don’t want too little copy, leaving big empty spaces on the back cover.   There are three main components to the back cover copy: 1) the headline, 2) the synopsis or marketing copy, and 3) the author biography.  There may also be quotes, cover blurbs, or other testimonials about either the book or the author. In some cases, these cover blurbs may justify more exposure than the summary of the book. Ultimately, the entire back copy should be composed with the goal of getting a browser to become a buyer.  Bullet point and numbered lists are good, effective elements of back cover copy for non-fiction books.  Cover copy for fiction books should demonstrate highly effective prose.

Have fun and keep writing.

– Karl Schroeder

Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Networking, Self-Publishing

Self-publishing Goes Higher-Ed at NYU

Has the credibility of self-publishing been in question previously? I have to admit I’ve dealt with my fair share of doubters. At times in fact I’ve felt, as has Tracy Jordan, stuck in Horseville – because I sat surrounded by Neighsayers.
The writing/publishing program chairs at New York University have recently announced the department’s intention to introduce a a course in self-publishing for the Spring semester of 2010. The 6 week course will be taught by self-publishing and book marketing expert, Penny C. Sansevieri.

Notes Sansevieri, “I’m delighted to teach self-publishing for NYU and am thrilled that they’ve asked me to bring this model to their students for the first time. Today’s publishing landscape is changing by the minute. Print-on-Demand or POD is taking hold in a big way. With self-publishing and computer technology, big publishers’ stranglehold on the market is gone. Everyone can publish their story.”

Writers rejoice. Doubters take notice.

– Karl Schroeder


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Book Marketing, Self-Publishing

Self-publishing company named Best of the Best

This post won’t find its place among my direct self-publishing and book marketing tips, but an recognized advancement in the publishing world worthy of mention.

Coming off a recognition as #268 on Inc. Magazine’s top 500 fastest growing privately held US companies, self-publishing option, Outskirts Press, was recently placed among Inc.’s “Best of the Best” as determined by a panel of leading adventure capitalists. Only 5 of the original 500 made the list.

The top five Inc. Magazine “Best of the Best” companies as identified by the panel of venture capitalists were Kiva Systems of Woburn, Massachusetts; SkullCandy of Park City, Utah; Centro of Chicago, Illinois; Outskirts Press of Parker, Colorado; and Enalasys of Calexico, California.

– Karl



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Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Tips on Annotation for the Self-Publishing Author

Last week we discussed the book marketing value of professional cover scribing. Annotation provides an avenue to use that externally to enhance that marketing online.

ANNOTATION is used by Ingram during the distribution process. When the book is listed on Amazon or Barnes & Noble’s website, it’s the annotation that fills the PRODUCT DESCRIPTION/OVERVIEW section.   The ANNOTATION is also restricted in length, although very often can be substantially longer than the Back Cover Copy.  Ideally, the ANNOTATION should be as long and as detailed as possible, perhaps requiring multiple headings to separate elements of the ANNOTATION.  The total character count, including spaces, should be as close to 4000 as possible without exceeding it.   It’s okay to include the author biography again in the ANNOTATION, provided a separate heading (Like “About the Author”) separates the content. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have the capability of understanding basic HTML formatting tags, so judicious use of several tags can help an ANNOTATION really stand out.  Two specific tags that should be used are the <b>BOLD</b> tags and the <em>italics</em> tags, both of which can help draw a reader’s attention to specific words and phrases within the ANNOTATION. Bullet point and numbered lists are good here, too.

Whew. Have fun. Keep writing.

– Karl Schroeder