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Now that the holidays are here again, you have to brainstorm as to what you’re going to get everyone as far as presents go – including your mother. Feeling a little lost as to what to get her? Here are a few of the best books that mothers will love.

1. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

The cover portrays a nearly transparent girl falling from the sky, as the title would suggest. After a young girl becomes the only survivor of her family, she goes to live with her African American grandmother. When she’s immersed in a nearly black community, looking so different with blue eyes and light brown skin, she’s forced to understand how the fate of her parents can lead to a completely different identity for herself.

2. Bond Girl: A Novel

With a single Christian Louboutin shoe as the main picture of the cover, Bond Girl already portrays a layer of mystery that makes you want to read more. Unlike most little girls, it had always been Alex’s dream to be a successful big cat on Wall Street. But as she joins an esteemed brokerage firm, Cromwell Pierce, she finds it’s a lot harder to make it up the bond sale change than she thought. And when disaster hits for the bonds business, she has to make the biggest decision of her career. This is surely a thriller not just for your mom, but for anyone who enjoys reading.

3. Forgotten: A Novel

You’ve heard of the novels where a girl get amnesia and loses all memory of her loved ones, her career, and many other things. But in Forgotten: A Novel, the author brings a whole new twist – instead, everyone that ever loved Tupper thought she died in a tragic accident, and moved on with their lives. When she comes back six months later, she has to get her life back on track – or change, like everyone keeps telling her. A book about true decisions in life, it will leave you reading it all the way until the end.

4. The Imposter Bride

A mystery straight from the start, the Imposter Bride will leave you wondering about the next page until the book is already through. When a mail-order bride who is not the person she says she is leaves behind her new husband and baby daughter, leaving only a diary of the person whose identity she stole and a large uncut diamond, it’s up to her daughter to figure out the truth – no matter what it might be. If you want to get your mother something she’ll read time and again, this book is an excellent choice.

5. Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You

If you’ve got a mother that loves to cook, or is always trying out new recipes, Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You is the perfect book for her. Written by the co-host of ABC’s daily lifestyle series The Chew, who was also a Top Chef All-Stars Fan Favorite, this book has foods that will make your mouth water just thinking about. With over 100 wonderful recipes, you can keep your mother busy with new things to cook for a very long time.

6. Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust

Ina Garten presents tons of recipes that make home cooks look like pro chefs, whether it be with her Jalapeño Cheddar Crackers or her Hot Smoke Salmon. If you’ve got a mom that likes to show off in the kitchen and be the savior of everyone’s stomachs, Barefoot Contessa: Recipes You Can Trust is most definitely the recipe cookbook for her.

7. The Shoemaker’s Wife: A Novel

A beautiful story of love, Enza and Ciro first meet Italian Alps, at the beginning of the 1900’s. But when Ciro is forced into working in America, they lose hope for meeting again. In a turn of events, Enza is forced to emigrate to America as well. When everything seems to go right for these star-crossed lovers, however, Ciro is forced into serving in World War I, while Enza is graciously whisked off to the world of the opera. Will these two find love for each other once again? If your mother has a soft spot for love stories, this is the perfect novel for her.

8. Wife 22: A Novel

When a wife is on the brink of giving up on her almost twenty yearlong marriage, an anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” appears in her inbox. She became the anonymous Wife 22, and has a caseworker – Researcher 101. But when questions that she never even knew needed to be answered come to her attention, she’s forced to come to a decision that could affect her marriage, her family, and her whole life.

9. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

If your mother is the kind that doesn’t let up for anything, whose always on the move, taking care of her family, errands, the house, cooking, and everything else under the sun, then she needs this book. Help her learn how to relax and to give herself sometime through this advice novel.

10. My Mother Was Nuts

The star of this book is Penny Marshall, director of Big and A League of Their Own, likewise the woman who took the stage at The Jackie Gleason Show. You get a detailed look at her backstory, her personal life, and all of the little funny quirks she’s encountered throughout her life’s journey. For The Jackie Gleason Show in 1955 to the present day, get a look at the funny woman who led such an interesting life.

Finding a gift for your mom can be extremely difficult. No matter what you decide, however, it’s important to remember that there’s no price on what is right and what’s wrong to get her – an extravagant or expensive gift can give her the same smile as a simple book would. No matter what you decide, remember that she’s your mother, and she’ll love it no matter what it is.

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It’s that busy, holiday time of the year again. But this time, you want to get your mom or dad something meaningful. What’s more lasting and memorable than a book they’ll read again and again? Here are a few books that your dad will love.

1. Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

The cover for this book just screams testosterone. With hatchets, a fire hat, and grenades, you can tell that it’s going to packed with something interesting. In essence, Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity is about a future father’s quest to find his stereotypical manliness. When he finds out he has a boy, he expects to do all of the things that every father is supposed to do with their son: go fishing, watch football, camp, and so on. The only problem is, he doesn’t know how to do any of that; and so begins his quest for a more manly view on life. This book is packed with firefighters, pit bulls, NFL stars and much more – surely a book your father would enjoy reading again and again.

2. Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

Here we see an average man struggling to lift an unknown amount of weights with a bar. When young AJ Jacobs finds himself strapped into a ride at the hospital due to a case of tropical pneumonia, he realizes that it’s time to take his average body to a higher level – and so he begins an extreme diet and exercise routine, powered by an army of experts. Not only that, but this book also inspires you to live a healthier life. Not at all bad for a dad complaining with his weight or size!

3. How to Cook Like a Man: A Memoir of Cookbook Obsession

This comical cover features the stereotypical cooking hat atop a gorilla’s head, portraying the cliché that men don’t know how to cook. But inside lays the story of a new father wanting to contribute to his family. So, like any usual man would do, he opened up a cookbook, and made every recipe inside of it. When he was done, he opened up another cookbook, and just kept going, for eight consecutive years. This is the story of how an average surfer/climber became an inspirational chef, right from home.

4. The Family Corleone

With nothing but a rose on the front cover, this book doesn’t seem like many men would be interested at first glance. But upon closer inspection, the book is about the story of a young man living in the time of the Great Depression, making decisions to follow in his father’s footsteps or not. When his family’s future holds the most importance in his life, he must face a life of tradition, loyalty, betrayal, and violence, in order for them to make it through. Leaving you on the edge of your seat, anyone would love to read this book – especially your dad.

5. Build the Perfect Bug Out Bad: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit

Just like it sounds, this book is all about disaster – or rather, being read for when disaster strikes. Give your dad the guide he needs for any type of situation, and the advice to survive on his own for 72-hours. Whether the book actually comes in handy or he just uses it for a good read, it’s sure to be an exciting adventure.

6. Moneyball

Hard-hitting and award-winning, Moneyball features a team down on their luck, unable to meet the standards of the richer teams they play against. However, their general manager, the star of the novel, finds a way to outsmart the other teams – all on a budget. Enjoyable for anyone, not just baseball fans, this will be a book your father can read time and again.

7. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations

Discover how to be a leader rather than a follower in this epic, informative book. It offers case studies of how leadership works all around the world, provides superb advice as to how to become a leader, and looks at the world today and how you can be on top of the leadership chain. After 25 years, this book is back and better than ever, newly revised and updated. It’s sold over 2 million copies, in over 20 languages – if it’s right for them, it can certainly be right for your dad as well.

8. Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat

Discover the truth that everyone wants to say about their families during the holidays, but just don’t have the hearts to. In this comical novel, it discusses themes like “A Very Special Christmas: Hoarders Style,” “Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies,” and “The White Trash Dollhouse.” The writer, sarcastic and brutally honest, will have you hooked from start to finish.

9. Awkward Family Photos

Given the title, the cover, of course, shows a picture of just one of the many awkward family photos take every day, across the world. The book offers hilarious photos in full color that you can laugh at time and again, along with personal stories about uncomfortable moments with relatives, sibling rivalry, and horrific summer vacations. It will make you feel relieved that at least your family isn’t as bad as these families, even if you sometimes think they are.

10. Darth Vader and Son (Star Wars ‘Chronicle’)

Giving a new twist on the relationship between Darth Vader and his son, Luke Skywalker, this funny, comic-illustrated book will leave you having a different perspective on Star Wars all together. If Darth Vader had taken care of Luke as a child, it shows all the events that could’ve happened, like Bring Your Child to Work Day or light saber batting practice. This is sure to leave a Star Wars dad laughing throughout the entire book.

What are the best and worst presents you’ve ever given your dad for Christmas? What other presents do you have in mind for your father this year? No matter what you decide to get him, remember that words are forever and that it’s the thought that counts – no matter what you get, your dad will love it either way.

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So, you’ve written a book, and you’re ready to get it published. But the number one thing to do that a lot of authors tend to overlook is getting someone to review their book before they send it off to publishing companies. As an author, it’s your job to make sure people outside your friends and family actually like your book – therefore, it’s your job to go find someone that will review your book honestly and critically, so that you can know if you need to fix anything before your manuscript lands in a publisher’s hands. Here are a few tips to getting someone to review your book.

Research The Right Kind Of Reviewer

In order to get the right kind of review for your book, you need to research reviewers in your genre that would actually be interested in the story you’ve written. If you try to get a reviewer experienced with mystery novels, but you’ve written a science fiction novel, they’re either going to give you a bad review or turn it away and tell you that you need to get someone else to review it.

Show Them you Deserve It

If you’ve found a reviewer in your genre that has is actually worth handing your book over to, you’ll need to convince him or her why your book is worth their time over someone else’s books. There are a few options for this. First, you can ask a few acquaintances that you know would be interested in your book to review it, then post those reviews somewhere at the back or front of your book so that your target reviewer can see it’s an interesting book and people actually like it.

Don’t Rush Things

If you send out your manuscript to one reviewer, you can’t expect them to respond immediately, or even within a few days after they’ve received your manuscript. Give them time to read over your book thoroughly in order to give you a nice, detailed review. Rushing your reviewer could also lead to a poorer, less-detail review. In this area, patience is key.

Send It To Multiple Reviewers

Don’t just choose one reviewer and stick with him or her – find all of the reviewers that you think would be interested in your novel and send it out to all of them. Not only does this give you more of a chance for success with getting responses, but getting back multiple positive reviews will only show positive light on your book.

It can be difficult find a book reviewer right for your book. But with the right know-how, a little research and a lot of patience, you can get those raving reviews you see in bestsellers all around the world.

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Authors write books for a lot of different reasons; money issues, creative outlets, and so on. When it comes to writing your book, though, what are you really writing it for? Is it for the money that you could get when copies start selling? The fame that comes with being a bestseller? Or do you just write from the bottom of your heart, in an effort to release all that creative energy?

For Money

If every time you put pen to paper (or fingers to keys), you think about the money you’ll be making once you’ve finally finished that frustrating book, you’re probably just writing for the money. In another scenario, if you’ve written part of your book, gotten an advance from a publisher, and are in the process of hurriedly writing the other part, you’re probably doing it for the money. You may not even realize that you want the money, but if you’re not writing a book solely for the fun of writing, or find it a pain to continue your book, you’re almost assuredly not doing it for fun.

For Fun

If you’ve never considered getting your book published, or never stopped and thought about how popular it might be when copies of it get sold, you’re more than likely just writing for fun. Writing a book just for the fun of it doesn’t happen very often, and it allows those rare authors to take a step back from the real world, in their spare time, and just let their creativity free. If you’re writing just for fun, then only after you’ve finished your book will you might consider getting it published.

For Fame

If you’re three favorite people are JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer, solely for the reason that they’ve made huge names for themselves in the writing world, then you might be writing your book just for the potential fame. This might be the most ill-conceived plan in writing a book, as the urge to reach fame only drives you so far into a novel. Without the creative juices or the inspiration, your book probably won’t make it very far in the writing process.

There are other reasons to write. Maybe you’re writing solely to dedicate your finished work to someone important to you. Maybe you’ve worked slowly over time with thoughts and finally put them together in a book. No matter what it may be, figuring out why you write is a step towards discovering what you’re going to do once you complete your book.

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A lot of authors, once they’ve finished their initial book writing process, come across a task that could be considered even more difficult – making a book cover. Whether they make it themselves or get it done at a professional book cover designing company, it’s an important factor to how popular the book is going to be and therefore a big thing that authors stress about.

Here’s the thing: your book cover has about three seconds to catch someone’s eye before they decide whether or not to buy it.

So when is it appropriate to put a picture of yourself on your book cover? Should you even do it at all? The answers below will help authors in need of book cover advice further decide what to put and what not to put on their future award-winning book cover.

If It’s An Autobiography Or Your Bill Gates

If you’ve written a book about yourself, or you’re someone well known and a lot of people will recognize your face, then by all means put your face on your book cover. If anything, this will give you an advantage. However, if you’re not famous or well known, or you’re not writing a book about yourself, then hopefully you have other reasons for even wanting your face on a book cover.

If It’s Fiction Or Nonfiction But Not Relating To You

If you’ve written a book that has nothing to do with yourself – especially if it’s fiction – then your face has no business being on your book cover. Unless you’re trying to market yourself as an author, then your best bet is to find something appealing that will catch the eye quickly to put on your book cover instead. And unless you’re a show stopping model, you’re face probably won’t catch people’s eyes immediately.

If Not On The Front Cover, Then Where Can I Put My Face?

If you’re dead set on having a picture of you somewhere on or in your book, then there are a few other options you might consider. The first option is have your picture on the back cover, where it describes a little bit about yourself, just below the summary of your book. That way, people will still see your face but it won’t be the first thing they look at. Instead, they’ll see the front cover first and be interested enough to actually turn it over and read the back cover.

Another option is putting it on the last page of your book, or on the inside of the cover. This is what a lot of well-known authors do. It allows you to get your picture out there and still look professional.

No matter where you decide to put your picture on or in your book – or if you decide to not put a picture of yourself at all – now you’ve made one more decision on how your book cover is going to look. As you brainstorm and consider other options, your book cover will look beautiful and elegant in no time.

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So, you’ve travelled to a certain amount of places, and you want to make a travel guidebook so that the rest of the world can shape their experiences around yours. But where do you start? How do you even write a travel guidebook? Follow the steps below to begin the journey of writing your very own travel guidebook.

Figure Out What Kind of Guidebook You Want To Write

There are tons of different types of guidebooks. There are specialized ones, such as a guidebook for a specific kind of person; there are regional guidebooks, destination guidebooks, and so on. It’s up to you; based on your interests and what you want to write, of how you’re going to go about choosing which type of guidebook you want.

Pick Specific Locations

Whether you want to do a travel guidebook on the entire west coast of North America or just California, you need to know your location in and out. Create an outlined map for each location you choose and lay it out in detail. Keep in mind that any part you leave out could mean the reader missing out on something that might be important to them.

Gather Way Too Much Information

More is definitely better with a travel guidebook. Make sure to gather as many pictures as you can of the locations you’ll be writing about, and find out interesting facts, history, and details that the reader might want to know. If you have an easy way for the reader to get out of traffic in a certain area, the best place to eat in a certain spot, or even the best hotel to stay at, make sure you mention it within your book at some point.

Ask for Other People’s Opinions

When you’re finished, reread your book and add in any detail you could’ve left out. Ask a friend or relative to read it and get them to critique it as honestly as they can. Ask them if you left anything out that they wondered about, or if they have any questions that you didn’t answer in the book. Every detail counts.

No matter what kind of travel guidebook you write, make sure that it’s the best travel guidebook for that specific area or type of person. Compare your book with others that have to do with the same area or person and see if yours can compete with it. Thanks to these tips, along with a little creativity and a good memory, you can make an excellent travel guidebook.

To help you get some inspiration, here are some travel guidebooks we recommend:

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First impression is everything. Though people say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, a majority of readers do just that. In order to get your book more than just picked up off the shelf and then set right back down, it needs to have that certain spark that draws the eye and carries the attention span for longer than a few seconds; you need an excellent book cover. Here are a few tips on how to get your book cover noticed on Amazon.

Have an Interesting Font

But not too interesting; meaning, don’t have a font that people find difficult to read. Though the squiggly and wild fonts may be cute at the moment to you, in the long run you’ll realize how much your readers despise it. Pick a font that’s different from the norm while still appeasing to the readers eyes.

Pick an Excellent Color

If you’re using a background color instead of a design, choose one that’s easy on the eyes, just like the font. Examples of bad choices would be neon colors. Also using colors that don’t match your font color will make the reader not even want to pick up your book. Alternatively, choose a color that accentuates your font choice and color. If your font color is black, use a white background; or vice versa. No matter what you choose, just make sure it blends well.

Be Creative and Assure Quality

Designing a book cover can be difficult and even the slightest flaw can mess up the reader’s perspective of it. You want a clean, organized cover that portrays the inside of your book to a tee. Make sure that you don’t get caught up in looking at the “pretty” aspect of your book cover; instead, focus on the important details. For instance, make a book cover that symbolizes you, your work, your struggles, or anything you found important along the way to the book’s final creation and publication.

With the tips above, a little intuition, and the same creativity it took for you to write that wonderful book of yours, your book cover will get noticed on Amazon in no time.

Just Get Book Cover Ideas to Do It

Not much of a book cover designer, even after a few attempts? We can fix everything just for you. We not only help you increase readers by allowing for a better cover design, we ultimately bring you more sales. Do for your book what it’s really worth and order one of our design packages today!

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As any good author knows, a big reason as to why any novel becomes successful is the amount and quality of marketing it has behind it. By marketing your book, you get more people interested and talking about it. What most people underestimate when it comes to marketing, however, is the power that social media marketing can have over your book. Here are a few ways to utilize social media to promote your book.

Build A Social Media Presence

The first thing to do is to set up multiple social media sites strictly for your business or book. This could mean any number of them: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and so on. Once you’ve set them up, make sure they’re linked to any other social media sites you might have, so that all of your friends can see them. Otherwise, invite as many people as you can to the site; get the word out, and get people talking about your book.

Connect with People

An important part of using social media to promote your book is to update statuses, keep up with any comments and messages, and ultimately use your social networking sites regularly. If you’re taking a tour for book signing, or coming out with the first edition of your paperback, or whatever it may be, make sure you address it in your social media websites.

Offer Something Valuable

An excellent form of marketing as far as social media goes is offering deals, coupons, or other savings just for the people that go to your social media sites. This could be performed in a number of ways. You could reward people for inviting their friends to your pages, give them deals just for coming to your page, and so on. The possibilities are endless, and people love free or reduced price things; such as that handy book you just wrote that you’re trying to promote through your social media sites!

Here’s a video from Vanessa with some useful tips on how to use Twitter to promote a book.

Social media doesn’t have to just be used for promoting your book; it can be used to promote everything and anything, so long as you follow the steps given above. Promoting your book through social media can make it a lot more successful than you’d originally planned, if utilized correctly with the right amount of luck. As long as you have the right skill as a writer and portray it by promoting your well-written book, people will respond in the positive manner that you want them to.

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