Fast Self-Publishing Online

Powerful Marketing Tool

The next time you visit a book shop pick up a book and you’ll automatically look at the front cover and then you’ll peruse the back cover. Not only the front cover but the back cover is a powerful marketing tool.

The front cover influences your interest. Then within only a few seconds the back cover, if it is intriguing enough, will help you to make a buying decision – to purchase or not purchase the book.

How to create a successful back cover blurb

Creating the back cover blurb is crucial to your marketing strategy and it can be what turns your book into a bestseller.

The back cover entices you to buy the book. It is in effect a sales page highlighting to the reader the benefits of reading the book but at the same time not giving too much away.

Rather than being a synopsis the blurb on the back communicates to the reader what is in it for them. 

Its main purpose is to highlight the reasons someone should be reading your book right now.

Make the back cover part of the overall cover design. Factor in the front cover design as well as that of the spine.

Components of blurb 

The back cover blurb should include

1. the book’s description – approximately 150 words
2. information about you the author, together with a photograph, and
3. if possible, a testimonial about the book if you can get one.

The purpose of the back cover blurb is to create interest and to sell the book. The author’s bio refers to the author’s credibility and demonstrates to the reader that the author is the best person to write this particular book.

Headline

Commence the back cover blurb with an attention-grabbing headline or a statement that grabs the reader’s attention. This could be a quote, a review, a question or a statement.

Nailing it in the opening sentence is crucial otherwise you’ll quickly lose the reader’s interest and attention.

Bullet points

Next, you should list five to seven bullet points which describe and highlight the book’s promises and benefits.

Finally, you may want to conclude your blurb with some kind of call to action. This could be a website address or reassertion that this book is for you, the reader.

Barcode

On the bottom right allow enough space for the ISBN and barcode. This is put there either by Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or IngramSpark depending on which platform you are using.

Your back cover then consists of:

• an attention-grabbing headline with the bullet points
• author bio, and if possible,
• a testimonial, and
• space for a barcode

The words you choose for your back cover make for a powerful marketing tool and this can influence a reader to buy or not to buy your book.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

How To Revise Your Book

In the past, if publishing with a traditional publisher it wasn’t possible to revise your book after it had been published.

With the new, alternative way to publish it is possible to revise your book.

When you self-publish your first book and become a published author it is a very exciting time.

Horror! You cringe! Your book has just been published and you’ve discovered some errors in your new publication!

As a self-published author, you feel embarrassed that people are buying your book with typos and mistakes.

Unfortunately, errors and mistakes may have crept into the manuscript and often this does happen even if the manuscript has been professionally edited.

A new author needs to understand how to rectify these annoying occurrences.

Don’t dismay. Errors are easily fixed.

How to fix mistakes

No matter how good your editor, or how many times you go through the manuscript, there will always be the odd typo or grammatical mistake that you’ll discover. It is unlikely that your publication will ever be perfect.

You may want to update something that you’ve already published. It may make sense to go back to your manuscript and make some changes.

One of the advantages of publishing on Amazon’s platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), is that it is easy to make revisions to your book. And this applies both to eBooks and to print books.

Log in to your KDP dashboard

Log in to your KDP dashboard and go to Bookshelf. Select the title you want to edit. Next to your title click the ellipsis button, that is, the three dots. 

Click edit your eBook or Paperback details. From here you can edit the content of your manuscript and fix any errors.

Once you upload the corrected manuscript file this replaces the old file. 

You then upload the corrected manuscript, then Save and Continue to the end of the Pricing page and click Publish.

Your mistakes are now fixed.

Significant changes

If the changes you make are significant and if the page count changes by more than 10% KDP considers it a new edition. This means it should be published as a new book. 

You would need to create a new title in your KDP Bookshelf and assign a new ISBN to your book.

One of the great benefits of KDP is the simple revision process when it comes to correcting mistakes in your published book.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Drawbacks to Self-Publishing

Are there any drawbacks to self-publishing?

When working with mainstream publishers you write the book and the publisher controls everything: the editing, book design and formatting, ISBN, cover design, and publicity.

These days, though, the author has to be very involved with the marketing. The publisher handles the distribution and gets your book into bookshops and libraries. You wait for your royalties.

Benefits of a mainstream publisher

The benefits of producing a book with a mainstream publisher are:

• the prestige you get
• there is nothing upfront to pay
• publisher takes care of everything
• all being well, your book will be successfully distributed

BUT

• you have to get accepted by a publisher
• the publishing process is time consuming
• there are complicated contracts
• low royalty rates, and
• limited creative control

Control

With self-publishing you are the one in control. You are the publisher.

It’s your responsibility to get your book edited, to get an ISBN, prepare the manuscript for publication, the cover design, the formatting, and the marketing.

Costs

The upfront costs of doing your own publishing are higher.

You will pay for services like editing, cover design and formatting. With traditional publishing these services are done by the publisher but when you self-publish the upfront costs rest with you – the author/publisher.

Team of professionals

When self-publishing you may need to create your own team of professionals to handle those aspects of publishing that you find hard, too difficult, or that you don’t want to do.

If your market is bookshops and libraries you will need to choose a platform like IngramSpark to get your book into libraries and bookstores. IngramSpark is set up to provide trade discounts and to work in with bookshops and libraries.  This is not so easy with Amazon.

The choice is yours. If you go with a mainstream publisher – congratulations!

The drawback to self-publishing is that you have to do all the work of publishing yourself. If you don’t want to do it all yourself you will need to pay to get a team of people to help you do it.

On the one hand this could be seen as a drawback or a disadvantage. On the other hand, you may like the challenge of having your own publishing house. The benefits are:

• enjoying the freedom of creative control, 
• staying away from complicated contracts, 
• outsourcing the tasks you cannot do yourself 
• building up your own team of professionals, and 
• having the potential to make more money.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Book Cover Design Elements

Book cover design is a book’s ultimate marketing tool. It’s like a billboard, its sole purpose being to attract the right readers to your creative masterpiece.

Indie authors are advised over and over again that they should get a professional to design their book covers. And I agree.

Sales tool

Book covers do help readers to make a buying decision because readers do in fact judge a book by its cover.  Readers very often buy a book because of how a cover looks so it’s quite obvious that the cover can make or break your book.

The cover is the first thing a reader sees.

A good cover is a marketing and sales tool because it helps capture a reader’s attention in a crowded marketplace and this can result in getting organic sales.

Attributes of good book cover design

Covers need to:

• tempt the reader
• arouse their curiosity
• capture attention
• be interesting
• engaging
• create an overall ‘feeling’
• set the tone of a book so that your target audience takes notice.

Not only should a book cover design attract readers it needs to make an impact in small thumbnail size, as well.

5 key elements of book cover design

1.  Layout  

Book covers convey two key pieces of information — the book title (including the sub-title) and the author’s name. These core elements – the title and author’s name – together with imagery are organised in various ways on the cover. This is called layout.

The layout could simply involve the topography for the title and author name and can be the main imagery for the cover itself.  A photograph or some other illustrative material can be added to convey the theme or mood of the book.

The way that these core elements are combined, grouped and sized on the page comprises the layout.

2. Genre 

The genre has to be taken into account with book cover design. The design must be appropriate for the style of the genre.

Whatever genre you are in examine the best selling books in that genre and analyse how the covers have been done.

3. Image 

To help a prospective customer get a good idea and feeling for the book go for a strong focused image.

Create a simple, straightforward image. Avoid anything too fancy or complicated and opt for something that is more minimalist in style.

It’s important that the reader understands the message that is being communicated.

If there are too many elements in a book cover design, readers are not going to know what to focus on. And if they don’t know what to focus on, they are just going to skim over that book and move on to the next one.

When choosing an image for the book’s cover be mindful of copyright. You don’t want to fall into the trap of infringing copyright.

There are free images that you can use from sites like Pixabay, Flickr and Canva but still always check the licencing for any image that you use. Do not take images from Pinterest or Google and be aware that you might need to pay for an image.

4. Colour

Do not use too many colours in a book cover design. Just use two or three colours and colours that complement.

The best and most attractive covers usually only use a maximum of three different colours including black, white, or grey.

5. Font

Fonts can be design elements in themselves. The fonts you choose can be powerful elements that make your book stand out and look the best it can.

So key elements in book cover design are the layout of the core elements, genre suitability, image selection, colour, and font (or typography).

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

FREE CONSULTATION

If a free consultation on becoming a self-published author is of interest to you then consider these five signs. You will qualify for a consultation if any of these relate to you.

If any of them do then you need to talk with me.

1. Are you feeling overwhelmed at the thought of becoming an indie author? 
2. Are you feeling lost, and would like help getting started?
3. Perhaps you are worried about your ability to go it alone and you are frightened and scared that you will mess up?
4. Maybe you’d like personal guidance so that you can actually achieve your goal of publishing your own book?
5. Are you worried about the expense of publishing your own book?

Challenges

Challenges in any of these 5 areas can reduce your determination and drive to become a self-published author.

If you want to:

• enjoy the elation of having your first book published
• learn about the possibilities of generating an income from writing books
• be empowered as a result of being a successful indie author
• be intoxicated with excitement when making that first sale
• unlock your true potential as an author and self-publisher and make a dent in the world

If any of this resonates with you then my suggestion is that you book a free consultation with me. I’m offering a free consultation – a discovery call – for just 3 people.

I usually charge for a Zoom consultation. But today I’m making this special offer.

How do you go about booking a session with me?

Make a booking

STEP 1

Go to my booking link

https://marjihill.com/st1

This will take you to the special offer page for a 45-minute Discovery Call.

You will then select a date and time

STEP 2 

You will answer some questions so that I can understand a little bit more about you, what your goals and needs are so that I can then work out how best to help you

How will the consultation be conducted?

The call will be conducted via Zoom.  

I’ll then tell you how I can best help you and what the next steps are.

It’s that simple!

To remind you about the link…

It’s

https://marjihill.com/st1

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Learn To Self-Publish

If you want to learn to self-publish pay $ZERO for the first month of online lessons and then pay $47 a month for the next six months. This total amount of $282 gives you:

• 28 weekly online lessons that educate, motivate and inspire
• Ongoing monthly Q&A group sessions on Zoom that give you the support and friendship of like-minded people and access to me, your personal self-publishing coach
• 12 months support in a private, members-only Facebook Mastermind group  

Be mentored and get community support as you are taken step-by-step through the self-publishing process.

• If you are feeling lost and have no idea of how to get started with self-publishing 
• If you lack the knowledge, or 
• have a lack of faith in your ability to go it alone, or 
• you feel that you just don’t have the backbone to start the self-publishing process, and
• are fearful, scared and frightened that you will mess up

then jump onto this before it’s too late.

Learn to self-publish

LEARN, APPLY and potentially EARN with these 28 weeks of lessons and when it’s over continue to access the monthly Q&A Zoom sessions.

The small investment of $282 that you make today is leverage for your dreams

1. having your first book published is a dream come true
2. realise the potential gateway to future income opportunities
3. be empowered as a successful self-published author
4. experience the most incredible feeling of euphoria when you make that first sale
5. unlock your true potential as an author and self-publisher and make your dent in the world

• Take joy in the ease of self-publishing, and you (not the traditional publisher) have control of your book and its revenue
• Have the satisfaction of making sales, receiving royalties, and growing another income stream
• Master the fundamentals of self-publishing on Amazon and
• Experiencing the high self-esteem of being a successful author

And then, rinse and repeat – launch more titles on Amazon with even greater opportunities for earning a higher income

Love the excitement of marketing your book throughout the world

But you need to take action today

Who wants to self-publish?

It is for the first-time author who wants to :

• complete the first draft of their book
• self-publish their book
• go it alone but who wants help and guidance along the way
• self-publish cost-effectively
• breakthrough the self-limiting beliefs that hold you back

It’s for the person

• who has the passion to write and self-publish their book
• who is committed to investing in their education so that they can advance their knowledge
• who wants to learn the fundamentals of publishing on Amazon so that readers will discover and buy their book
• who has a positive mindset
• who is prepared to take full responsibility for their outcome

How To Become a Self-Published Author

This home study program helps you to make it happen and gives you step-by-step guidance along the way.

Click the link today and get started.

ACCESS NOW

Remember, by joining today you get that first month for free.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online

Strategies For Making Money With Self-Publishing

If writing books is your passion then here are twelve strategies for making money with self-publishing.

A frequent question I get is whether you can generate an income from writing books and self-publishing?

Like any industry there are the winners and the losers. There are those who make millions and then there are those who just make a little pocket money or even no money at all.

Multiple streams of income can be made from self-publishing, marketing, and selling your books. However, if you just publish your book and neglect to promote and market it then you will struggle to generate any income.

12 Strategies

Here are just 12 strategies for earning income streams.

With Amazon, you can earn up to 70 per cent in royalties. This is a really decent return for almost any business venture!

But just because your book is on Amazon or the IngramSpark platform doesn’t mean it will automatically sell.

You have to get the word out about your book. You need to let people know that you have a book for sale, how the book will benefit your market, and where they can get it.

As I talk about my most recent publication I am asked all the time – “Where can I get it?”

Because you have written a book you can earn from making regular book sales, and you can earn selling a related business product or service.

Income streams

1. Market your book on Amazon in Australia and enjoy having the royalties (35-70%)paid directly into your bank account
2. Market you book in other Amazon market places like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico – wherever Amazon has a marketplace
3. Earn an income on Amazon for lending your book
4. To maximise your income satisfy the market by publishing your books in different formats – Kindle eBooks, paperbacks, hardcopies, audiobooks
5. As well as Amazon put your book on the IngramSpark platform and have it distributed  through 40,000 channels throughout the world
6. Australian book stores buy via IngramSpark so watch your sales on your IngramSpark dashboard
7. Australian libraries buy via their library suppliers who in turn buy from IngramSpark
8. Once your books are in public and educational libraries you may be eligible for Public lending Right(PLR) and Educational Lending Right(ELR) so you can get paid once a year by the Australian government. The more books you have in the libraries the more you get paid
9. Publishing a book helps your credibility and reputation so it’s possible to become a speaker and be paid to speak at conferences and conventions
10. Develop and sell an online course that relates to your book
11. Set up an eCommerce website with a shopping cart and sell books directly from your website
12. Keep a stock of books on hand and be ready to sell them directly to people in your network

There you are – 12 strategies for earning income from self-publishing your books.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a rewarding, safe and profitable 2022.

Marji Hill

Author and Coach

Join Facebook Group: Fast Self-Publishing Online