Cool Tools for Authors brings you a series of articles on the topic. We’ll be focusing on cool tools that can help authors to write, publish, and market their books.

If you’d like to share a cool tool, of interest to authors, scroll down and share your recommendation below. (Please keep this informational and not self-promotional. Comments will be approved manually if they will benefit our author community.)

For some authors this is a real concern. They write books to gain credibility and readership as much or more than they do to make money. Being perceived by others as a “real” author is very important to them, and for good reason. However, the world of “books” has changed dramatically in the last decade. What made you a “real” author just a few short years ago may not represent what can actually make you a legitimate author today.

What is a book?

A book is a unique publication with a beginning, middle and end aimed at a specific target audience. Length can range anywhere from a few dozen pages to over a thousand. Readers can enjoy real books either in physical (print) format, or in electronic format on any of the hundreds-of-millions of ebook readers, iPads, and computers in the world. Real authors publish their work as ebooks and don’t even think twice about it.

What counts as a “published” author?

In the “old” days, a published author had a traditional publishing house and everything that went along with that (including tying up your rights for eternity, doing all your own marketing, and earning a pittance on each sale). NOW, a published author is someone who has their book for sale where people can find it and buy it (online or offline).

Amazon Changed The Game

I got my first taste that the world of publishing had changed in the late 1990’s when I was still selling real estate. I’d written and self-published a book about how to sell your house yourself, and was using it to help build my business. A home seller in the area told me “Selling Your Home Alone” wasn’t a real book, not because I didn’t have a publisher, but because she couldn’t find it for sale on Amazon!

Increasingly, people’s perception of what does and does not actually qualify as “published” is based on whether it’s listed for sale on Amazon or not. In my book, and in many others, listing your book for sale on Amazon means you are a “published” author. End of story. And, in this day and age, it’s a snap to be a “real” author on Amazon – you can do it in a weekend!

Sales VS Royalties

Not too much to say here. A traditional publisher takes about 90% of the profit (leaving you a paltry 10% if you’re lucky). When you sell ebooks, even through Amazon, you keep the majority of the money people spend on your books. That means you can sell fewer books and still make MORE money with ebooks. If being a “real” author means giving up most of the profit, then I don’t want to be real!

Control

Bottom line: traditional publishers WILL control your book and the rights to it. If they do sign you, you’ll give up your rights to just about everything, including derivative works of your book. Let’s see – low pay and oppressive terms? Yep, sounds like I’ll pass on that “traditional” publisher deal if you don’t mind.

Create Space

If you’re just chomping at the bit to see your book in physical print format so you can feel like a real author, but you still want to keep control in your own hands (and profit in your pocket), then check out Create Space.

A division of Amazon, CreatSpace.com is a GREAT way to get your book into print without the hassle of a traditional publisher or the expense of a “vanity” press.

I’ve never had a traditional publisher touch one of my books and I’m doing pretty well with my sales. So, don’t judge whether you’re a “real” author by whether you have a “traditional” publisher. Judge whether you’re a real author by how many people PAY real money to read what you write. In my book, that’s the most “real” sign of an author’s legitimacy you can find!

By the way, I can show you exactly how to be a “real” author with ebooks. I’ve helped THOUSANDS of people to understand their options for writing, publishing and SELLING their books online. Get all the details about how you can do it too right here => www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/ebookin7days

Answer: This is a great question as there is it can be confusing as to how to get the digital version of our books available on multiple platforms. Here are a few key points to address this topic:

Amazon’s Kindle files are in .mobi format and Barnes and Noble’s Nook files are in .ePub format.

You can read Kindle eBooks on the various Kindle eReaders, and the Nook eBooks on the Nook reader which you can purchase from Amazon or various retailers.

You can also read Kindle eBooks on free Kindle apps and Nook eBooks on free Nook apps, that are available for smartphones, iphones, tables, PCs, and Macs.

There is a company called Smashwards that allows you to upload your formatted file, and they will distribute it to a wide variety of book distributors. Here’s the scoop about Smashwords:

Smashwords is a free, eBook self-publishing platform and an online book store. Authors can upload their manuscript as a Microsoft Word, .doc file, and Smashwords instantly converts the manuscript into multiple eBook formats. The ebooks are readable on any eBook reading device.

Smashwords is an independent eBook publishing and distribution platform, available to any author globally with premium distribution to Amazon Kindle, Apple iBookstore, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and other platforms.

The author sets the price of their own book. They determine what percentage of the book is available as a free sample, so that readers can try the book before they buy it. And when the book sells, Smashwords gives 85 percent of the net sales proceeds to the author. And then Smashwords takes fifteen percent.

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers, agents and readers. We offer multi-format, DRM-free eBooks (Digital Rights Management0, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.

As a Smashwords author, you gain access to free, do-it-yourself sales and marketing tools to help you promote your book. You receive 85 percent of the net sales proceeds from your titles (70.5% for affiliate sales), and 60% of the list price for all sales through our major retailers.

Smashwords Highlights:

1. World’s largest indie eBook distributor
2. 100,000+ titles published by 40,000+ authors and publishers
3. 85% net back to the author/publisher/agent
4. Distribution to Apple (31 countries), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor, Diesel, others
5. Consolidated sales reporting
6. Centralized metadata management
7. FREE ISBNs
8. FREE ebook conversion to nine formats
9. FREE unlimited anytime-updates to book and metadata
10. FREE exclusive marketing and selling tools such as our Smashwords Coupon Manager!

Join in the Conversation

Which publishing platform do you prefer? Share your thoughts and questions below.

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D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online. She has also authored and co-authored six other marketing and relationship marketing books.

Her flagship training program is Virtual Book Tours Made Easy. Learn how to take your book on tour, around the globe, without leaving home!
http://bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/academy/course

Unless you’ve been undergoing a digital detox for the past couple of years, you’ve almost certainly noticed that ebooks are big news right now. With ereaders like the Kindle and the Nook well established, and with ebook revenue outstripping hardback revenue for publishers in the US, it’s clear that the e-revolution isn’t ending any time soon.

As an author, you might have mixed feelings about this. You might be keen to take advantage of this new opportunity … but an ebook will never be quite the same as holding a printed book with your name on the cover.

If you’ve only published in print form, or if you have yet to publish your book, I hope you’ll give ebooks a try. Here are five reasons why the ebook form is great for us authors:

#1: You Can Get Your Book Out There (Almost) Instantly

I have to confess that I’m not the most patient of people … and one of the big attractions of ebooks for me is that they’re fast to produce.

If you sell your ebook as a .pdf file through your own website, it’ll be available for readers to buy pretty much instantly. Even if you go through Amazon or Smashwords, it’ll take (usually) under a day for your book to appear on the virtual shelves.

Compare this to print publishing – where you have to wait for a proof copy to be produced, approve the proof, and so on – and you can see why it suits impatient authors well!

#2: You Can Easily Correct Mistakes

Of course, in an ideal world, your book will be perfect down to the last comma before you publish it. But unless you can afford a professional proof-reader, there’s a good chance that a few tiny errors remain.

If you have a thousand copies of your book printed and you find several glaring typos on page one and a major factual error in chapter five, you’re going to face the difficult decision of whether to pulp the lot, or put the book out there anyway, with an errata slip.

With an ebook, you can simply make adjustments to your manuscript, re-create your file, and upload it again.

#3: Your Book Will Be Available Worldwide

When you publish your book online, you have global distribution – instantly. (Although this is possible with print books, it can take time and effort to get them into Amazon and other stores.)

Unless your book is of purely local interest, you’ll almost certainly want to take advantage of a global marketplace … and the ebook format lets you do that in a hassle-free way.

#4: You Can Set Your Price at Whatever You Like

Print books need to be priced to at least cover costs – and to meet with customer expectations. Depending on how you get your book printed, you’re probably looking at a minimum cover price of $5 or so, just to break even.

With ebooks, you can charge $0.99 or even nothing at all – and you won’t make a loss. On the flip side, if you sell your ebook in .pdf form through your own site, you may be able to charge more than you could for a print book. (My Blogger’s Guide ebooks sell at $29 each, to an audience hungry for specialised, up-to-date information.)

#5: You Don’t Need to Keep Any Stock

The most cost-effective way to produce print books is to have a print run of at least 500 copies. (You can certainly use print-on-demand services, but these will cost you more per book.) That means finding space to store all those books until you sell them.

Ebooks don’t take up any space at all … and online stores will never run out of stock. This removes a huge potential hassle from your life as an author – as well as the potential expense of paying for storage space.  If you’re thinking that an ebook might be a great move for you, then you’ll want to know how to get from final draft to published ebook.

The first step is to get a great cover design: this is the one thing I’d recommend paying for. Although your ebook won’t have a physical cover, it will need a virtual cover to entice potential customers. If you have no image at all, or something that looks like it’s been thrown together in five minutes in paint, this isn’t going to create a good first impression on browsing readers. Once you’ve got your cover, you need to convert your manuscript into an ebook file.

There are three key ways to do this:

#1: By Creating a PDF File

This is the simplest, fastest way to create an ebook. If you have your manuscript in Word 2007 or later, you can covert it straight into a .pdf file – which can be read on almost any computer or tablet device. (Note: with Word 2007, you may need to install this Microsoft Add-In. Word 2010 comes with this feature built-in.)

Your .pdf file should look exactly the same as your Word document, with all images, headers, tables, etc, preserved. This makes the .pdf format an ideal one for non-fiction ebooks that contain lots of graphics. You can’t sell a .pdf file through Amazon or other ebook stores – you’ll need to sell it through your own website. I use the shopping cart site e-junkie to help me do this with my Blogger’s Guides.

#2: With Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)

Amazon is the biggest bookstore in the world. If you’ve written a novel, or a non-fiction book aimed at the mass market, you’ll almost certainly want it to appear on Amazon.

Some other ebook stores have quite fiddly processes for getting your book onto their shelves, but Amazon has a straightforward system called KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). You can upload your manuscript as a Word document, or (ideally) as a .mobi file, which you can create using the free software Calibre.

Optionally, you can choose to make your ebook exclusive to Amazon for 90 days, with their KDP Select program. This means you can’t sell it through any other sites (including your own website) during that time. However, your book will be available for Amazon Prime users to borrow (you get paid a variable fee for this) and you can also choose to make it free for up to five days – potentially boosting your visibility hugely.

#3: Through Smashwords

Smashwords sells ebooks, but for most authors, its main attraction is that it will convert your Word document into the appropriate formats and send it to major online stores like Barnes & Noble, the Kobo store, and the Apple iBookstore.

There’s nothing stopping you using both Amazon and Smashwords – unless you enrol in Amazon’s KDP Select program. At present, Smashwords doesn’t distribute to Amazon, so you’ll need to go through KDP separately if you want your ebook to be on Amazon – and most authors do!

You can list your ebook for free through Smashwords (without making it exclusive to them), if you’re looking to build up an audience. The Smashwords Style Guide gives you simple step-by-step instructions for getting your Word document ready for their conversion process.

(Of course, if the technical side of things is giving you a headache, there are plenty of companies like BookBaby that will take your manuscript and sort out getting it into Amazon and other stores for you.)

Ebooks are the future … and the sooner you can get on board, the sooner you can take advantage of the huge e-marketplace. I hope to see your book on the virtual shelves very soon!

If you have any questions about ebooks, or if you’ve got a great tip or recommendation to share, just pop a comment below!

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Ali Luke is author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies, a no-nonsense guide that helps you write, publish and market your ebook. Published in September 2012, it’s available through all major online stores, and high street bookstores. Click here for more information and purchasing options.

Here’s a question that eventually plagues any serious ebook author:

“Do I need someone to edit my book professionally, and where can I find that person?”

I’ve come across countless ebook authors over the years that spent thousands of dollars on editing services. Their results vary from ecstatically happy and “worth every penny” to completely irate and “ready to sue!”

I think the variance comes from that fact that authors actually have a wide opinion about what the term “editor” actually means. To some, it’s a person who will go through their ebook and render an opinion on the content as “good” or “bad.” To others, an editor will go through and look for grammar and spelling errors and make comments about any major “structural” problems they see. Still others see an editor as someone who will actually re-write parts of the ebook and “fix everything.”

Since the definition of “editor” can mean so much, it’s no wonder people get upset! So, instead of talking about finding an “editor,” let’s talk about a few services you, as an author, might want done for your book. Then, we can talk about where to find those services as a reasonable rate.

(One caveat here: I’m assuming you write your own content and this is not ghost-written on a subject about which you have no knowledge.)

 “Content” Editor

If you want someone to read your ebook and render an opinion, you really don’t need to hire someone for that. Unless you want a professional fact checker or something along those lines, I’d suggest having a few trusted friends, colleagues, customers, or experts in your market read you ebook. Content comes down to personal style and “meat” of the material. Your personal style is your style – it makes you unique, so don’t worry about that! Your style will improve and adapt with time and practice. As far as the content or “meat” of the book, who better to judge than members of your market?

Bottom line: No editor can rate the content of your ebook better than people IN your market. If customers like it, great — sell it! If customers suggest changes, cite omissions, or question you about things, PAY ATTENTION! Their opinion matters and you can adjust from there.

“Spelling / Grammar / Structure” Editor (Proof reading)

From personal experience, I can tell you that spelling, grammar, and poor structure are the fastest and biggest turnoffs for readers in any niche. In their minds, poor spelling and grammar means you don’t care enough to correct your mistakes as an author, and causes them to wonder “what else did you screw up in the book?” Poor structure simply causes readers to get frustrated with the actual act of reading your ebook, which is never a good thing!

So, how do you find someone to help you with this? Again, your first resort should be to go with your sphere of influence. Who do you know who’s really good at spelling and grammar? Who do you know that would be honest with you about the organization and structure of your ebook? Tap them first and tell them it won’t hurt your feelings for them to give you their brutally honest input. Offer to pay them if you think it will get them to finish the job more quickly.

If you don’t know anyone, then I’d suggest you ask for referrals from other authors or on social media for an editor who specializes in spelling, grammar, and structure. You can also check Guru.com, which I’ve found pretty good for finding people for this kind of assignment. Do a search on the site for “edit grammar spelling” and you’ll make a great start!

“Fix Everything” Editor

In the popular vernacular “That ain’t gonna happen!” – at least not without considerable expense, pain, and frustration (especially if you want the ebook to still “sound like you.”). What you want in this situation is a “ghost-writer” and that rarely works out (I’m sure I’ll ruffle some feathers in the professional ghost writing world, but I can handle the heat).

I’ve honestly never seen this option work out well in the end.

The Bottom Line Truth About Editing

In the end, editing your ebook comes down to two things: spelling and content. If you offer great content and keep the spelling errors to a minimum, your audience will love you and that’s what matters. Sure, you’ll have the occasional “purist” who’ll take a jab at you over some niggling little point, but they’re usually just the kind of unhappy knucklehead you can ignore. No worries!

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Jim Edwards
Selling online since 1997, Jim is an Internet Marketing Expert, Author, Elite Mentor and Coach

He specializes in helping individual entrepreneurs, small business owners and authors to understand how to use technology to build your online business.

Jim is the author of dozens of ebooks, hundreds of webinars, over 1,000 blog posts and articles.

His flagship ebook “How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook… in as little as 7 Days” – newly revised and updated with V2.0 – has been helping book and ebook authors create their own best-selling ebooks since 2001!

Get more information about Jim and how he can help you get more readers, make more sales, and skyrocket your credibility here => www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/ebookin7days

“May I include a quote from your book Writing Articles About the World Around You in the handout for my writing course?”

This request came from a client who apparently owns all my books, including the one she cited, which has been out of print for almost 10 years. While I was weighing her request, I looked up the book’s Amazon listing to see if used copies of it are still circulating. Its Amazon sales rank indicated that it’s selling rather briskly for such an old book, and it had eleven 4- or 5-star reviews.

“Duh!” said that voice in my head that announces an idea that should have been obvious to me long ago. As you may know, when a book goes out of print, the rights generally revert to the author. Used copies don’t bring the author any income, but a Kindle edition would. If I brought the book back digitally, I could get in on the income stream from continued interest in that title.

Very little in the book was out of date, I quickly determined. Within a week I had reformatted my manuscript file for Kindle and already sold the first digital copy. A quick search of Audible.com determined that there’s little competition on the topic among audiobooks, so I’ll be reissuing it soon in that format, too.

This wasn’t the first time I’d witnessed the dormant potential of timeless nonfiction material. During the dot-com boom, entrepreneur Stephen Brill scooped up countless dissertations gathering dust in libraries (including mine) and planned to sell them online. Initially I was upset to find my doctoral work for sale in a setting I had not knowingly authorized. I vaguely remembered having signed some kind of required permission form, prior to the Internet era. Contentville soon went bust, so I let go of my determination to find out whether or not Brill truly had the right to sell my academic work.

More recently, while doing a Google search on what had been posted during the previous seven days using my name, I discovered that Sounds True, to whom I’d licensed an audiotape on productive writing back before audio CDs were popular, was now selling my audio program as an mp3 download. According to my records, they hadn’t paid me royalties since 2002. When I contacted them to give them my current address, they said technological changes had made it feasible to begin selling my program again, and they’d begin sending me semi-annual royalty checks again soon.

None of this would be happening with content that was up-to-the-minute when it was published. Although it wasn’t a calculated move or strategic decision on my part, I’m glad that I’ve spent most of my 30-year writing career on content that was not the mental equivalent of typewriters, energy-hogging air conditioners or “Nixon’s the One!” buttons.

With minor changes and additions, nonfiction books I’ve written have come out in new editions and new publishing formats. Newsletters and articles that are as relevant now as when I wrote them are seeing new life in ebook form. For all I know, a new technology or network is about to burst onto the scene that would open up new markets for dozens of audio programs I’ve created in the last ten years.

Based on these experiences, here is my advice for authors:

1. When considering topics to write about, give preference to timeless topics. Trendy books may have more glamour and publicity value when they’re released, but evergreen stuff has much more value for your lifetime (and beyond).

2. Examine your closets, file cabinets, computer files and career history for works you can bring back with today’s publishing technology. What was uneconomical in the days of offset printing and audiotapes may be quite profitable with digital sales.

3. Periodically search online for revived or refurbished works of yours that you might not have authorized.

Want proof of the wisdom of that last point? While writing this article I searched for my dissertation online, and yes, it is being sold – by a company that might or might not be the one for whom I signed a permission form in 1978.

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Marcia Yudkin’s 16 paperbacks include a Book of the Month Club selection from HarperCollins and two self-help titles that were featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Her short stories have appeared in both literary and high-circulation magazines, and she has delivered commentaries on National Public Radio. She teaches a course for nonfiction writers who want to join the ebook revolution while living up to traditional publishing standards: http://www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/marcia-kindle

By Sandra Beckwith

A virtual book tour (also known as an author blog tour) involves providing information about your book or its topic to blogs read by the people in your book’s target audience. This tactic works well for just about every book genre and nearly every topic – no matter how niche it is.

Virtual book tour opportunities include book reviews, guest blog posts, author Q&As, webinars, and video or audio chats. At each tour “stop,” you have the opportunity to meet and interact with more targeted book buyers than you can during conventional, in-person book tours. And you can do it all without leaving the comfort of your home!

If you can write an e-mail message and keep track of correspondence and commitments, you can execute your own virtual book tour. And yet, so many people outsource the task. I understand why – there are only so many hours in a day – but here are some reasons to think twice before giving your credit card number to a virtual book tour service.

1. It’s not always about quantity. Sometimes, it’s about quality. Your goal is always to get your book title in front of the people who are most likely to buy it. You will do a better job of reaching those specific people when you spend time finding bloggers who reach the people who will be the most interested in your book. (These are, by the way, bloggers you should know already, but I’ll talk about that during my teleseminar at the Digital Publishing Virtual Summit.) You’re better at researching and handpicking the best blogs for your book than any service can be.
   
2. You want to be targeted. What will be better for your book: Getting a review on a blog that reviews any book that a service sends, or getting a Q&A, review, video or audio interview, or guest column on blogs read by the people you wrote the book for?
   
3. Mass marketing is not always the best approach. Services send information about your book to as many blogs as they can in the most time and cost-effective way possible. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it’s not as effective as a personal message sent to a blogger you hand selected because you know that the information you can provide on your tour will resonate with her readers. Imagine you’re a blogger on the receiving end of a pitch about a book. Are you more likely to give consideration to an author who sends you a note telling you exactly why a conversation about his book is perfect for your blog, or would you respond more favorably to a mass e-mailed message that went to countless other bloggers, too?

What are your options?

Consider these questions as you weigh your choices about how to execute your virtual book tour.

Can you afford to hire a service? One reputable organization charges a reasonable fee to get your book exposure on 20 appropriate blogs. The fee includes other services that a time-pressed author might be willing to outsource. But if you’ve been building your social networks and establishing relationships with the right bloggers for your target audience all along, you should be able to line up at least 20 relevant blogs without spending a dime.

Can you get support from a low-cost intern or unemployed friend? If you’re starting from scratch (meaning, you haven’t even started creating a list of bloggers to approach), you can outsource some of the research to an affordable college student or a friend who has internet skills and is between jobs.

Do you have more time than money? Planning your own virtual book tour isn’t hard to do, so if you’ve got the time, you probably have the skills, too. You just need a system to track responses, commitments, and next steps.

Do you enjoy getting to know other bloggers in your genre or field? If you like personal contact with influential bloggers who can use their power to help you sell more books, then you’ll want to consider the do-it-yourself approach.

For some, hiring a service makes the most sense. For others, the do-it-yourself approach is an excellent option. Learn more about what’s involved in my Digital Publishing Virtual Summit presentation, “No Need to Pack for a Virtual Tour” on June 4th at 4:00 pm Eastern. I’ll explain more about virtual book tours and how to plan and execute them. I hope you can join us!

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Sandra Beckwith is a former national award-winning publicist who now teaches authors how to be their own book publicists. Get free tips and subscribe to her complimentary “Build Book Buzz” e-zine at BuildBookBuzz.com.

by Dana Lynn Smith

I write most of the posts on my blog, but once a week I invite a guest to share his or her expertise with my readers. Guest posts are win-win for everyone. Readers get valuable tips and insight from a variety of experts, guest posters build their expert status and get links back to their websites, and bloggers get additional content for their sites. Guest posts are often used in ezines as well.

Guest posts can take the form of how-to articles or interviews, and you can even post audio or video clips from the guest. Fiction authors can interview other authors in their genre.

Where can you find experts or authors to contribute to your blog or ezine? Seek out others in your field or genre through your social networks and your own contact list. Send guest post invitations to the owners and guest posters of the blogs, ezines and print newsletters that you enjoy reading. Use search engines to find other blogs and ezines in your field.

When sending a guest post invitation, describe your blog or ezine, suggest topics of interest (or request permission to reprint a specific article from their site), note whether you accept previously published content, specify a word count range for the article and a limit on the length of the resource box, and request a photo.  Here’s an example:

“I enjoy reading your blog and I would love for you to do a guest post on The Savvy Book Marketer blog about how to write effective press releases. My audience is primarily authors and independent publishers. About 400-600 words would be ideal, with a 50-word resource box. Previously published content is fine. Please send me a photo as well.”

Some bloggers request that all guest posts be original content (articles not already posted elsewhere). That’s nice for search engine optimization purposes, but may limit your ability to get guest posts since your experts may not have time to produce an original article for you. If you’re willing to accept articles published elsewhere, you’ll have access to many more articles.

On the day a guest post runs, be sure to write a thank you note to the contributor and include a link to the article. In addition to being good manners, this encourages the author of the article to share the link with their social networks. And don’t forget to link to the article from your own networks.

In many cases, you can reprint articles without asking permission. Look for a “permission to reprint” or “creative commons” notice on blogs and ezines that you read. You can also search article directories such as EzineArticles.com for articles to reprint. It can be a bit time consuming wading through article directories, because many of the articles are of low quality. Still, there are lots of excellent articles available.

When reprinting other people’s articles, be sure to include their resource box with a link back to their website. I always let writers know that I’m using their article, even if it’s not required. It’s courteous and helps build relationships.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides and How to Sell More Books on Amazon.

For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s Savvy Book Marketer blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter.

Social media should be a central part of your Every Day book promotion plan.  Why?

Social Media is priced right,
Social Media gives you a global audience for your book at your fingertips,
Social Media allows you to build connections with potential readers,
Social Media can drive traffic to your site and generate leads,
Social Media helps build your online identity,
Social Media can grow both professional and personal networks.

The problem with social media though is how it seems to suck you in. You can think, “I’ll just check in to see what my followers are up to today and then get on with my day; ten minutes at most”. The next thing you know the morning is gone! This is when a planned strategy can help. In the beginning this will take commitment, discipline and practice but you can turn it into a habit merely by using the KISS (Keep It Simple & Smile) method.

1.   Prioritize Your Day – Who says you have to check-in with your tweeps first thing?

2.   Time Yourself – Decide how much time you’re going to spend on social media and stick to it. Is 15, 20 or 30 minutes all you’re going to allow yourself? Good, you’ve got a busy day ahead of you.

3.   Use RSS Feeds – Deliver fresh content to Twitter, Facebook and more by sharing your blog posts automatically every time you publish. Set this up quickly and easily using Dlvr.it  

4. Preschedule Tweets and Posts – Your name, book and message can appear online automatically sporadically throughout the day when you set up instant posts via Timely.is or HootSuite. This way your identity is kept before your audience, seen by a wider group of people and you don’t have to continually take the time out of your day to initiate the activity.

5.   Comment and Sign It – There are other social platforms besides Twitter and Facebook. Set aside a block of time a day or two each week to visit other blogs, discussion boards and groups. Comment on a post and remember to leave your signature complete with your name, book title and web or blog site address. 

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Lynnette Phillips is an author, writer, book marketer and publicist. She also appears as a frequent guest blogger and podcast interview guest. Lynnette was recently an event speaker for D’vorah Lansky’s Digital Publishing Summit.  Watch the various social media platforms for information about her next appearance and Visit Every Day Book Marketing for more tips and information at http://everdaybookmarketing.com

By Jim Edwards

As an author, here’s the $64,000 (or more) question: With ebooks there’s a lot of rubbish out there -how do you make your ebook stand out from all that?

Writing a best-selling ebook isn’t necessarily everyone’s goal, but standing out from the crowd is what every serious ebook author wants!

Most people who write an ebook want one or a combination of three things: more readers, more sales, or more credibility.

Sure, selling a million copies would be great, but a more realistic goal is to sell a consistent number of ebooks over a long period of time. For example, I published my first ebook, “Selling Your Home Alone,” back in 1997. It still sells consistently to this day. I’d much prefer a 14-year track record of consistent sales than a 2-week flash-in-the-pan.

So, in my book, a “best-seller” is an ebook that sells consistently and pays off over the short and long haul. As an ebook author, if you’d like that too, then these F.A.C.T.S. will serve you well.

F = Focus

Most creative people lose focus before they get any real traction. You must focus on using your time effectively every single day to get your message out.

Also, focus on the topic of your ebook long enough to build your reputation and build momentum with readers in that niche. Authors who publish on one topic this week and then move on to another topic next week never make much headway.

FACT: You’ll get tired of your topic LONG before your readers will. Stay focused and on-topic long enough to get the results and ebook sales you want.

A = Audience

Most ebook authors don’t spend enough time getting to know their audience. They just start writing. Unfortunately, that’s how you end up with poor (or nonexistent) ebook sales.  Whether you write fiction or how-to (or anything else), the needs and desires of your audience come first. Also, you need to know them better than they know themselves and always look for ways to improve your relationship and understanding of them.

The easiest way to do that is with 2-way communication.

FACT: The best ebook authors accomplish this with a combination of “posting” and “polling.” Posting means frequent posts to your blog, articles to your list, and blurbs on Facebook / Twitter. Polling means you actively solicit feedback from the group to keep your pulse on what they want NOW (not 2 years ago!).

C = Consistency

Again, most creative people are not consistent enough to succeed, let alone put out a best-seller. If success is the destination, then consistency is the gas in your tank. Consistent action. Consistent promotion. Whether it’s through review sites, pay-per-click, blog posting, or forums, whatever you do to sell more copies of your book, you must take those actions consistently. FACT: Most people don’t sell enough ebooks because they don’t market or create content consistently.

T = Title

Most ebook titles suck. The title is the most important part of your ebook because it’s actually the first part of your ebook someone actually reads (whether they crack the cover or not).

Think about it. Everyone who reads your title actually reads the first text of your book. Is it interesting? Is it enticing? Or is it some “artsy” thing you came up with on a whim to be cute?

FACT: Your title acts as the headline – the silent salesman – for your ebook.  Make sure your ebook title hits hard and resonates so much with your target audience that they can’t help but stop and take a look. By the way, if your current ebook sales are dismal, think long and hard about changing the title of your book.

S = Speed

Whatever you’re doing to create, sell or promote your ebook – do it FASTER!

FACT: Most people take WAY TOO LONG to do anything (my observation is that people take between 2.5 and 10 times longer than they should to do just about anything).

You can speed things up a couple of ways.

First, look for systems to help you do things faster. That includes software or outsourcing, especially for repetitive tasks.

Second, start operating with a sense of what I call “urgent purpose!” This is not that panic “urgent” people use to whip themselves into a frenzy (or the “urgent” most time-management experts refer to). An “urgent purpose” drives you to take action quickly because you know exactly WHY you’re taking action. “Urgent purpose” creates controlled intensity which naturally leads to speedier action.

So, those are the F.A.C.T.S.  about your own best-selling ebook.  Whatever your definition of “best-selling” is, this framework will definitely help you reach that goal faster than by any other means possible!

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Jim Edwards has been selling online since 1997. He is an Internet Marketing Expert, Author, Elite Mentor and Coach. Jim specializes in helping individual entrepreneurs, small business owners and authors to understand how to use technology to build your online business.

Jim is the author of dozens of ebooks, hundreds of webinars, over 1,000 blog posts and articles. His flagship ebook “How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook… in as little as 7 Days” – newly revised and updated with V2.0 – has been helping book and ebook authors create their own best-selling ebooks since 2001! Get more information about Jim and how he can help you get more readers, make more sales, and skyrocket your credibility here => 7 Day eBook at: http://www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/ebookin7days

The Virtual Book Tour concept, is a relatively new one that is quickly growing in popularity.

With today’s rising gas prices and the need for authors to cut down on travel expenses, having the ability to take one’s book on tour, around the globe, without leaving home is exiting, inspiring, and effective.

 Here’s how a virtual book tour works…

• Instead of traveling from city to city, authors travel from blog to blog across the Internet.
• Authors can share written, audio, and video content.
• Participating in author interviews or interviews with industry experts can raise one’s credibility and brand.
• As part of a virtual book tour, authors can grow their subscriber list and grow relationships with people interested in their topic.
• Participating in a virtual book tour, puts you on the radar of people who are looking for speakers and writers who can provide content of interest to their audience.

Developing Your Online Hub

An essential aspect of a virtual book tour is to have your own blog. This can be a self-hosted blog or a blog that is hosted on a free blog hosting platform such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com, or Squiddo.com.

Having your own blog will make it easier for potential hosts to participate in your tour. Your blog also provides you with a place to invite readers to find out more about you and your work as well as a place where you can share your accomplishments, book reviews, and more.

Take Action: While it is on your mind, why not reach out to a colleague or expert in your field, and ask if you can share a guest blog post on a topic of interest to their readers. This is a great way to get the ball rolling while gaining more exposure and increased credibility!

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Have you conducted a virtual book tour or do you have a question or comment on this topic?

Scroll down and join in the conversation. This is a great way to gain exposure for your book and connect with other authors in our community.

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D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online and the creator of the popular online course: Virtual Book Tours Made Easy. You can receive a collection of virtual book tour tips at: www.VirtualBookToursMadeEasy.com. (Or, you may want to join hundreds of authors and virtual assistants by participating in this exciting and interactive course. Find out more at: http://digitalpublishingcafe.com/vbt-course

One of the first goals of an author is to develop their author platform as a way of growing their audience and generating more sales for their books. The good news is that there are now many digital publishing tools for authors, that can aid in book promotion, as well as book sales.

Strategies and Marketing Ideas for Digitally Published Books

Social Media Marketing

The power of social media can no longer be denied. Even the biggest and most successful companies, are sure to have a page on Facebook and an account on Twitter, where they can reach their customers. In addition to traditional, mainstream social media sites, there are social media sites that showcase authors, as well as their books. Sites such as Goodreads, Shelfari and Library Thing are just a few examples. These sites also provide authors access to potential book buyers.

Apple iBook Author: Animation Book Application

This is one of the most exciting new inventions to come along in awhile. Apple’s iBooks Author allows you to easily create multimedia books that are attractive to readers. Apple iBooks Author is a free app that you can download to your Mac. This will allow you to create gorgeous, interactive books that include: audio, video, quizzes, and PowerPoint or Keynote presentations. These iBooks can then be sold, or given away for free in iTunes.

Your Author Blog

Your Author Blog or Book Blog is the hub of your online world. It is where you share your message, list book signings and conferences that you will be attending, and much more! You can also create written or multimedia blog posts and post links as to where people can order your books. It is easier today, than ever, to set up a WordPress blog yourself, or you can hire someone to set this up for you. Your blog can be your official online hub or headquarters.

Do you have a book blog or author blog you’d like to share? Scroll down and share the details below, or click here to add your book and blog to a rapidly growing list of authors and book blogs by clicking here.

There are many digital publishing tools that you can use to promote your book. The ones listed above will provide you with a foundation and allow you to gain exposure as you share your book and your message with the world!

Do you have a digital publishing story or tool you’d like to share? Scroll down and join in the conversation!

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D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online.

She is also the creator of the comprehensive online course: Virtual Book Tours Made Easy. Interested in learning how to get your book seen by thousands of new readers? Find out about this course and pick up a collection of tips, interviews, and your free guide to Maximizing Your Blog Tour.

Digital publishing includes eBooks and so much more. You can publish digital magazines, as well as audio and video content. Scroll down to share your questions and tips on this exciting topic!

Scroll to the top of the page and click on the Pink Button to add to this list.

By Sandra Beckwith

So many authors are frustrated by the book publicity and promotion process – and who can blame them? It’s not enough to write and publish a top-quality book – we also have to be publicity, promotion, and social media experts, too. And many have to do all of this while working full-time, parenting, or care-giving.

There’s no question that it can be a challenge to do all that seems required – and to do it well enough to get results.

One of those non-negotiable “must dos” we hear about relates to writing and distributing a press release that announces a book. We send this essential tool with review copies, but the versatile book announcement press release can do so much more than help secure reviews. It can boost website traffic, generate news items, prompt media interviews, secure speaking engagements, and, of course, sell books.

Avoid these 4 mistakes

Unfortunately, too many authors aren’t getting results from their book announcement press releases. There are a number of reasons why that might be happening, but usually, it’s because of one of these four mistakes:

1. The press release focuses on the author, not the book. How do you know if you’ve made this mistake? Is your name in the press release headline? Is the author description longer than the book description? If you answer “Yes” to either, you’re guilty. Remember, while you’re the brains behind the words, the book – not the author – is the product.
2. There are too many grammar and spelling mistakes. The most common culprits are words that sound alike but are spelled differently – “there” instead of “they’re” or “your” instead of “you’re.” Check everything for accuracy before you send it out because if your press release has mistakes, many journalists will think that your book has mistakes, too.
3. You’ve sent it as an attachment. Most journalists won’t open attachments. Learn how to send your press release the right way from “How to e-mail a press release to a journalist.”
4. You used only a free press release distribution service. These services don’t actually “distribute” your press release to the media. They post your release on their site and if you’re lucky, journalists who are interested in your topic find it there. The paid services, on the other hand, actually push your information out to journalists at the media outlets that are most likely to be interested in your news. Learn more about the differences between free and paid sites and find a link to a list of the free sites at, “How to use PRWeb for press release distribution.”

You can learn more about common press release problems and discover how to write a press release that gets results in Get Your Book in the News: How to Write a Press Release That Announces Your Book. This short, but very detailed, e-book will save you hours and hours of time, reduce your frustration, and minimize disappointment.

Are you proud of your book announcement press release? Share the link here!

Sandra Beckwith is a former national award-winning publicist who now teaches authors how to be their own book publicists. Subscribe to her free newsletter, Build Book Buzz, for more tips and ideas. Connect with Sandra on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.

If it takes too long to pull up the form, click here to access the list directly.

Scroll to the top of the page and click on the
pink “Add to List” button to add your book to this list.

If it takes too long to pull up the form, click here to access the list directly.

You’ve shared your message using the ease of publishing on Kindle but now you’re thinking you can’t take advantage of promoting a book signing. Well, why not?

Use Kindlegrah.com’s free service to digitally personalize and sign your readers’ eBooks.

Connect with your readers and promote an online book signing where you can provide an inscription and autograph for the Kindle edition. Your readers can purchase their Amazon Kindle copy through Kindlegraph’s site and the author receives a request to provide an inscription and autograph.

When Evan Jacobs, a former programmer at Amazon and creator of Kindlegraph, entered Doc-U-Sign’s HackerThon competition, I wonder if he was thinking about the promotional and marketing boon available to authors. Kindlegraph now offers personalized digital inscriptions for over fifteen thousand books from 3500 authors.

All anyone has to do to have the Kindle edition of your book autographed and personalized is sign on to Kindlegraph.com using their Twitter account, look up their favorite book’s page, select the eBook of choice and click ‘Request Kindlegraph’. A box will appear where a message can be written to the author stating how they’d like their eBook personalized and with the click of a button the autograph request is rocketed off to the author’s inbox.

Host A Digital Book Signing

Link your online book signing to a Twitterview [an interview via Twitter] and gain even greater benefit:

• Create high-quality content,
• Attract friends and followers,
• Increase  search engine rankings,
• Generate leads,
• Drive traffic.

Instead of traveling to a bookstore or other venue to chat with a few readers about your book take advantage of a global audience online. You may even want to link your book signing to a virtual book tour.

Remember to build the excitement of your online book signing by issuing a press release and using your social media platforms.

Cash in on this Every Day promotional opportunity to build your readership; the only investment is your time!

Scroll down to share your thoughts, ideas, and questions on this exciting topic!

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Lynnette Phillips is an author, writer, book marketer and publicist. She also appears as a frequent guest blogger and podcast interview guest all across the web. In fact, Lynnette was recently an event speaker for D’vorah Lansky’s Digital Publishing Summit.  Watch the various social media platforms for information about her next appearance and visit Every Day Book Marketing for more tips and information.

Looking for more info about Twitterviews? Check out  http://everydaybookmarketing.com/book-marketing/twitterviews/

by Michelle Vandepas

Amazon is virtually the largest online marketplace in the world. This is where thousands of authors and publishers sell their books, whether physical or digital, to millions of readers all over the world. This is a great place for unknown authors to get exposure and even land book deals, …But with so many authors competing for the attention and money of Amazon consumers, it can be really challenging for a self-published author to become a successful Amazon author.  There are however, several key things you can do to help your ranking and show up on searches – Tagging, Keywords, Likes, Reviews and Author Central.

In my Kindle book, Amazon Author Tips, Optimize Amazon, Move up the Ranking and Sell more Books (Author Marketing Guides- Sell More Books),  I share  the steps to Amazon success .

• Creating your  profile  on Amazon Central and Amazon Author

• Using keywords to tag your book(s)
• Finding the right  category for your book
• Getting likes and reviews for your book
• Using Listmania and Amazon Guides to gain more exposure for your books
• Planning a book launch and book campaign.

I used this same process to take my  foster parenting book and jumped from a ranking of over #500,0000 on Kindle,  to consistently under the #30,000 mark. Inside my category of adoption, I’m usually in the top 20 and often in the top 10, and staying there.  Many authors can get to #1 but the trick is to not drop back down into oblivion!

Here’s the number 1 strategy to help you move up and stay up on Amazon

Tagging, Reviews, Author central and the profile are all important, but before you do any of those things you’ve got to start by understanding your specific keywords – for me it might be ‘sell more books’  or  ‘amazon ranking’.  If you’ve written a book to help children sleep your keywords might be:  ‘help children sleep’ or ‘why my baby won’t sleep’. You’ll notice when I say keywords, I’m really talking about key-phrases, a string of words that people will use to search for relevant books.  Once you’ve got your phrases you’ll use them to tag, write reviews, and put them in your description on

Author Central with Amazon. Using keywords and phrases appropriately can move your ranking up from nowhere to the top 100 books in your category within a day. Use these same words to write about your book, for your author platform, and any blogging, reviewing and other writing you do. Eventually your book will be linked to those words and show up on searches not just on Amazon, but elsewhere on the web.

If you don’t know how to find keywords and phrases that might be linked with your book, you can use the Google keyword tool , but I like to use common sense. What would YOU type into Amazon or a search engine when looking for your topic?  Most of us type in a sentence, or a question, or a string of words together that will give us specific results. It’s not working if people are finding you and it’s not a match for what they need.

A good example of keywords needing to be a match for your subject  is that I once wrote a compelling article of an experience I had when sitting in our local YMCA sauna. I wrote the article and posted it on my blog about being on purpose in your life.  By the next day I’d gotten 100’s of hits, when when I looked at my stats closely, I realized people had been searching for words and phrases that had NAKED and SAUNA in them – not a match for my intended audience looking for purpose.

Since that time I’ve really understood the importance of being in alignment with your audience, your message and making sure there is a match – don’t just go for the most popular words and phrases, but carefully choose who you’d like to connect with. Using your carefully chosen  key-phrases over and over again is one trick that will help keep you at the top of the searches, helping others to find your book, resulting in more sales, and staying on top of the ranking system.

Tip:  Did you know you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books? You can read them right on your computer by clicking READ ON THE CLOUD option!  So, if you’d like to read my Amazon book you can find the rest of the tips about  Amazon by clicking here.

Michelle Vandepas is a purpose-driven entrepreneur, speaker, coach and mentor. As owner of Michelle has helped dozens of authors to market and promote their books both offline and online.  Her site, Talking BooksTV , has become a platform for authors to  gain exposure for their books as well as their personal brand.

by D’vorah Lansky

Yamina, please tell us what your book  is about

It’s a short story collection called The Blueberry Miller Files. I had a blast writing these stories, and these multi-ethnic characters, in all their humor, tragedy in awkwardness. I think I’m fascinated by humanities fallen condition. I’m fascinated by our sin, and how it affects us and those around us.

For example, I have a story set in the pre-civil war south with a belle called “Safe”, about a southern belle who assumes that as long as she is in charge of her personal slave, that slave will always be safe. In my mind, no one who is ever someone else’s slave is truly safe. That’s the irony.  I’m a fan of Gone with Wind, a HUGE fan. I keep re-reading the book over and over again. And, of course, I’m in love with Rhett Butler’s character. But I’ve always had issues, for example, with how kind the slave holders were presented. It’s always irked me that it was this great romance, and people fawned over it, even while this horrible thing called slavery was actually being defended in the book by the main characters!

It also irked me to note that the slaves had the worst dialect in the world, yet the slave holders had the most perfect English. I realized, whoever is telling the story gets to decide how good one group looks over another. So I decided to do just a little twist on that theme. It wasn’t about revenge.  It was about playing with a tried and true subject and shaking it up just slightly. It’s the last slave story I will ever write though. I want to move onto other subjects with black characters. But again, my book has black, white and hispanic characters in it. I don’t like to stick to just one group of people.

Are all the stories tragic?

No! Some of the stories are funny, too. Well, one of the stories is very, very funny. The others are tragic, with these awkward, funny moments thrown in.

Ok. So it’s a short story collection. But why write a short stories? Do short stories collections even sell?

First of all, let me say this: the indie writer no longer has to worry about sales.  Don’t get me wrong. I know authors want to make a living just as much as the next person; and if you’re an indie author who is being published by a small press other than the one you yourself created, well, ok, that could prove to be a an issue.

But, for the indie and self-pubbed author who is truly their own boss, you’re no longer in danger of being “dropped” just because your groovy little story collection only sold 50 copies.

Secondly, I believe that this decade will see a rebirth of the short story genre. There is no doubt in my mind that there’s an audience for shorter works. Remember when F. Scott Fitzgerald was making the majority of his income off stories he sold to the Saturday Evening Post in the 1920s? Why can’t that happen again?

Yes, it’s true that we live in post-MTV, twitter generation. And, yes, people have short attention spans. But I say, well a good, short read should be just up their alley!

You have all of these fallen characters in these ugly situations, yet none of them curse! Why not?

I don’t curse in my books, or in real life. As a Christian, I don’t think you stop being a Christian just while you’re writing your book. Honestly, I don’t think God gives us commands without a way for us to follow them. So I have to find ways for people to say nasty things without crossing that line. Or if there’s a sex scene, somehow I have to let the audience know it’s happening with describing it or titillating people. It’s kind of an exercise in creativity. It can be a tough call to make, but I think it’s doable. And it’s challenging, too! But, hey, life was meant for challenges! God stretches us when we’re challenged.

Any Favorite Characters in the Collection?

I love this character named Madam Adams. She is a loony little doll; an African-American Anglophile with a Shakespeare complex. Her parents raised her in Harlem, but she tells people she was raised in England by a group of thespians. She is a loveable nutcase with a fondness for bad writing, wine, and crumpets.

Who are some of your all-time favorite short story authors?

Edgar Allan Poe, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Henry James and Washington Irving. Not that all these people wrote only short stories. And, in fact, Henry James was known for the nouvelle rather than the typical short story, but…you get the point. These guys were masters. And I love the classics. That’s what I grew up on.

What advise can you share with our audience?

If you’re an indie author, treat your book with some respect. Give it the same treatment you would want a publishing house to give it. Hire an editor, get your book cover done professionally. Write and re-write and then re-write some more. You want to compete with the big boys, don’t you? Well act like it! Don’t think sloppy editing and generic book covers will cut it when there are literally hundreds of thousands of books out there vying for the public’s attention.

Secondly, know that your e-book in particular has a very long shelf-life, so the money you invest in now has the potential to reap rewards years and years down the line.

Yamina, what is the best way for our readers to find out more about you and your book?

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They can reach me via my popular literary blog Yaminatoday.com. And they can find The Blueberry Miller Files on Amazon.

Promote your book, it’s about human connections. Capture the concept & establish presence. Movie trailers pull us in with drama, comedy, fear, and get us longing to go to the theatre. Film producers have long understood the promotional value of “previews” or “trailers” to entice the public to a particular movie. As a promotional medium the trailer has always proved a winning formula.

Having read close to a dozen books on the topic, as well as having taken three courses on Kindle Publishing, I would like to share with you my very favorite book on the topic. Kindle Publishing Made Easy by Val Waldeck

I actually spent time with the author, Val Waldeck, to field test the book. I am quite impressed with both the book and the author! Have you ever purchased a Kindle book, only to find that the text was all scrunched up and the formatting almost non-existent? In Kindle Publishing Made Easy, Val Waldeck makes kindle formatting and publishing tips accessible to the “average mortal” Using Val’s step-by-step formatting tips, I was able to get a book up on Kindle in a matter of hours.

Take a peek at Kindle Publishing Made Easy. You and your readers will be glad you did!

Branding in your book sets you and your book apart from all the others. That makes selling books easy. Notice famous authors such as Trump, whose name is bigger than his title. Besides your book title, you can also brand parts of your book such as your chapter titles, headings within the chapter, tips, facts, case studies, or quotes.

For a book titled, “Passion at Any Age” the author rewrote each chapter title to mention a form of the word, “passion,” thus branding with “passion” to set her passion coaching business apart from others.

In her annotated table of contents Instead of a chapter title like “Expand Fulfillment,” she renamed Chapter 1 “Attracting Passion,” to again brand her as her book title of “Passion at Any Age” did.

After the title in the table of contents, she included such benefits as “Expand fulfillment, Overcome resistance, Communicate clearly, and Come from the heart,” so readers would know the benefits of each chapter-a great motivation!

Within each chapter she branded her tips as “Passion Hot Line Tips” and her PASSION FACTS as well as “Passion Quotes.” All to support the book’s title, and brand her.

One UK client coached with me on a yoga book, filled with yoga postures and tips to make a working woman’s life easier and less stressful. In each session, we brainstormed the branded chapter titles and the branded headings.

Her working title, “Yoga for Stress Management-A Practical Guide for Working Women” was also her thesis.

Here’s a sample heading from one chapter: Top Three Ways Yoga Releases Anxiety And Boosts Your Energy

Another heading: Five Gentle Yoga –in–Bed Stretches To Ease You Into Your Day

Here’s a sample tip: Stress-free Yoga Tip: Learning to recognize stress and anxiety in your life helps you feel more in control and on-top of things.

Her book brands her as the go to person for great stress relief through yoga and meditation practices.

You can brand your business with your book like one business client of mine. He changed his book title many times, but finally he used “The Smiling Owner-How to Build a Great Small Business.” He added a visual every businessperson can connect to. He worked the “Smiling Owner” metaphor into his how to’s and tips throughout his chapters.

Think about your book title. What key words and thesis does it contain? Take that key word or phrase and then think about each chapter title. Incorporate the key word into each chapter title.

In each chapter, develop format parts that are in each chapter. That may be tips, headings, client problems, stories, quotes, charts, or a side bar of facts. Your readers love these kinds of things in the middle part of your chapter. They look for relief from reading long copy.

Preplanning your book chapters by expanding the thesis makes your book memorable and easy to read too.

Like all the famous authors, your book brands you, and your business, and its branded parts make you look like the expert—and this brings you multiplied contacts, contracts, and book sales.

Want more details on branding in a book? See Judy’s most popular best selling book, ”Write your eBook or Other Short Book– Fast!” Or, if you aren’t sure, check out Judy’s fresh writing and marketing blog posts at http://www.bookcoaching.com