Is Your Author Website Working for You or Against You?

April 5, 2013 by 3 Comments
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By now we all know how important it is to have a website for any business. Your book is your business if you’re an indie author, so chances are you have a website. Websites are tricky animals. They’re a necessary evil. We all need one, but few of us can design one ourselves and even fewer of us know what to do after we’ve had one designed. You know the drill: get a website, make obvious updates in obvious places, and let cyberspace handle it from there. Except that’s not enough. Your website is delicate and needy–like a newborn baby waking you up at three in the morning–it needs you. Your website will never be self-sufficient. It’ll never grow and… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Marketing, Branding, Design Tagged With: , ,

Interview with Book Designer Ryan Scheife of Mayfly Design!

October 19, 2012 by 1 Comment
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This week, we got the chance to hang out with a designer we know and love, Ryan Scheife from Mayfly Design! Ryan, you’ve worked with authors to design their books for over five years now, what’s the number one mistake newbie authors make about design?   I would advise you to let your designer utilize their skills and experience, and let them show you some cover concepts that represent their visions for your book. Coming into the process with your vision for the book’s cover is great, and can only help get things off on the right track. But I would let the designer work through a couple of their concepts as well. More often than not, you will see… [read more]

Filed Under: Author Interview, Design, Pub. Industry, Self-publishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Design 2.0: Crowdsourcing Your Cover Design

August 22, 2012 by 2 Comments
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Our favorite step in the publishing process is the book design phase. Last week a few of the authors we work with received their first cover concepts from their designers and we had a great time pouring over each design. There’s something about seeing your book title paired with cover art. Your book suddenly becomes real. You finally have a visual of what you’ve pictured for so long. Finding the right person who will connect with your book and then design a cover and interior that compliments your content is major. We personally have asked around for recommendations and have found great designers that way. But, if you’re in search for a cover designer only, and you’re interested in working… [read more]

Filed Under: Design, Technology Tagged With: , ,

The Two BIGGEST Mistakes Publishers Make that Screw Over Authors

August 3, 2012 by 2 Comments
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The truth about publishing is this: THE AUTHOR WILL PAY FOR IT…NO MATTER WHAT. If you self-publish, you pay up front  to have control in your process. If you publish traditionally, you pay for it through the royalties on the sales of your book. There’s no way around this investment. And sadly, publishers on both sides of the publishing world make mistakes that waste this huge investment by the author. As you all know, Dara and I (Amy) work for a self publisher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We work with 70+ authors per year, and our job is to help them avoid making mistakes in the publishing process. Unfortunately, we sometimes get authors who have already published the wrong way–and NOT… [read more]

Filed Under: Design, Editing, Indie Publishing, Pub. Industry, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

5 Ways to Save Money in Self-Publishing (and NOT Compromise Quality!)

April 13, 2012 by 5 Comments
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Becoming an indie author is a big investment. We understand—we help indie authors manage their publishing budgets every day. While the general rule of “you get what you pay for” is definitely true when it comes to indie publishing/self publishing, there are some tricks that indie publishers know that can help you save money. 1. Hire a editor to write a critique before a full edit. A seasoned and fastidious editor will be able to spend a few hours to read through your manuscript and write a thorough critique of the strengths and weaknesses. If you effectively use this criticism and apply it to your manuscript throughout, you will have saved many hours (and dollars) in the editor’s job of… [read more]

Filed Under: Book Marketing, Design, eBooks, Editing, Planning, Revising, Self-publishing, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Why Indie Authors MUST Have a Top-Notch Cover (and 5 Steps to Getting There)

March 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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I have to start by showing my indie authors some love! You, you amazing and fabulous indie author, have the chutzpah to do it yourself. Go indie publishing! Still, it would be irresponsible not to acknowledge that there’s some serious quality control for the books going through the traditional route, and this quality control is what gears the book for market. Indie authors would do well for themselves to implement much of the same quality control steps that traditional publishers use. The first step to being a successful indie author is knowing where and when to implement your team of experts. If a book isn’t self-published well, the first tell is usually the cover—the cover, the quintessential marketing material by… [read more]

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: , ,