The value of a book blurb

Want to guarantee that no one but friends and family will buy your book? It’s easy: just write a crappy book blurb for your back cover.

This post is brought to you by BlueInk Review.

Believe it or not, the back cover blurb for your novel — essentially a synoptic teaser — may be the most important bit of writing of your self-published book.

Some readers might buy a book based on the title and cover art, so your book’s cover design is hugely significant, but the vast majority will read the book’s back-cover blurb (or overview if they’re purchasing online) to see if the storyline sounds interesting.

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Robert J. Morrow is an author/publisher. See all his fiction books at http://www.robertjmorrow.com. For his non-fiction, click here.

Author signing at Children’s Wellness Conference in Burlington

On Sept 27th, the Hamilton Children’s Aid Society will be holding their Childrens Wellness Conference from 9am to 4:30pm. This community event takes place at the ATrium in Burlington, 5420 North Service Rd.  You can meet Stephen Gregory Brown, author of “Mindfulness of a Fly on the Wall” and get an autographed copy of the book. Partial proceeds go to the Childrens Aid Society.

“Children in today’s society are faced with a multitude of issues, both physical and mental,” says Brown. “I am hoping some of my experiences–outlined in the book–and the personal growth that grew from the experiences will help young people in their struggles.”

Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton is a leading advocate of safe family upbringings and educating the public as to the cause and signs of abuse toward children.  Join the society–and Stephen–this Sat, Sept 29th and pick up your copy of “Mindfulness of a Fly on the Wall”

Do I need to have a pre-sale period for my book?

Want to know the best time to promote your book?

Before it’s available to be sold.

Savvy authors know that the “pre-sale” period can make or break a title––that it’s not first to market that counts, but best to market. The most successful authors even start developing a strategy for targeting the market before their book is complete. They’re not thinking weeks in advance, but months.

The pre-sale period is so important, in fact, it should be the centerpiece of your book’s marketing and promotional campaign.

Here’s why.  more

Make a plan to write your book

 

Personally,  I struggled as a “pantser” for several drafts of books until I finally read enough books on outlining to become a full-fledged believer in planning a book before you start writing. Our good friends at Bookbaby have some ideas you might find valuable too:

If you don’t know how to write a book, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. After making a decision — a commitment to share your story — you just need a process and a plan to start writing your book.

Some people are lifelong learners and love the process of going from not knowing anything about a particular subject to being proficient — even an expert. That makes sense. We all want to be the best we can be. But along the way, we have to learn a lot of little things, and that takes time and commitment.

But here’s the deal: I hate the learning curve. I only want to know as much as I need to know to use a tool for my intended purpose. I generally try to find every possible way around studying more than I need to so I can get on to the using stage. Learning frustrates me; knowing satisfies me. But that’s not the way the world works. To know something, I must go through the pain of learning and I have to follow a process. But I can’t even do that if I haven’t first made the decision to try something new and follow through.  more

KIndle Create makes placing images easier

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) recently announced changes to their publishing program. One of them is placing images in documents which has been a challenge in the past. Here’s their announcement:

“We are excited to announce the availability of Early Access features for Kindle Create. With Early Access you can opt-in to try out pre-release features and provide feedback.
The first Kindle Create Early Access features include:

1. Image support: Support for sizing and placement of images in your books. You can now insert, resize and delete images in your book and use alignment options to place them in the way that best suits the theme of your book.
2. Guided View for comics (Windows only): You can now import a PDF Comic book, create panels, specify mask color for Guided view transitions, and preview instantaneously.

You can enable Early Access by following the prompts after you update to Kindle Create 1.7. You can also enable or disable it at any time by going to Settings and once you’ve tried out the feature, you can share your feedback by going to Help->Provide Feedback. Your feedback on Early Access features will help us make improvements before launching these features to all authors.”

A lending library for ebooks

Draft2Digital.com is one of the fastest growing partners in the self-publishing world. Their recent foray into ebook lending is another step in the right direction for authors. In order to participate, just sign up at Draft2Digital.com. Here’s the pitch:

Most public libraries lend ebooks using a practice called One Copy, One User (OCOU). This is just like lending a physical book, in that the library purchases a copy of the ebook, and once a reader checks it out, it has to be returned before another reader can get their hands on it.

That means that unlike a traditional sales channel (such as Kobo or Apple Books), only one reader can discover your book at a time, you only make one sale.

As Draft2Digital expands and improves its library distribution, we’re adding a new option that can help more readers discover your work: Cost Per Checkout (CPC).

CPC allows libraries to have access to the same title for more than one user. Instead of a fixed price, libraries gain access to your books and pay 1/10 of the book’s full purchase price, each time it is loaned out. Unlike OCOU, where only one reader can check your book out at a time and libraries may only purchase a single copy of your book, CPC allows for unlimited checkouts that are paid per use—which can add up quickly!

This allows libraries to take risks on which books to include in their system, increasing the chances of a reader discovering your work, and increasing your revenue opportunities!

You don’t have to worry about turning this on—CPC and OCOU are both enabled by default for library distribution channels, and you are automatically receiving the benefits of both. If you’d prefer to disable CPC, however, you can do so by visiting our new Library Pricing page, or by visiting Advanced User Options on your My Account page.

New book on Retiring Wealthy to be published in July

Our newest author, Christine Zabel, is well-known Toronto finance coach.  She has been licensed as a financial advisor for over twenty years and has seen many situations where families and individuals have made bad choices financially. With the last group of baby boomers heading into retirement, and the upcoming X,Y and Millenial generations looking to do things better, Christine has put together vital information for making decisions today that will have a positive impact on your retirement years.

Sunao Publishing is proud to be involved with Christine’s debut book and while editing and formatting are continuing, a date of late July has been allocated for publication. The above is the working cover in use at the moment but that may change.

If you would like to pre-order a copy of Christine’s book, please email publisher@sunaopublishing.com with “Retire Wealthy” as the subject, and we’ll send you a FREE copy upon publication. 

Draft2Digital announces Author Pages

Draft2Digital is one of our promotion partners, allowing books to be sold in various formats (Kindle, Kobo, Barnes & Nobel, Nook, etc.) They are constantly updating their site to improve their service to authors. Here’s a recent one about Author pages.

http://draft2digital.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=43ec517d68b6edd3015b3edc9a11367b.151&s=8e095708b1e23d8d6cb807d7cc0c18f8

Stephen Gregory Brown launches “Fly” book at OH Canada Eh! Festival

Announcing the official launch of Stephen Gregory Brown’s debut book “Mindfulness of the Fly on the Wall”. Steve and I will be at the Waterdown Oh Canada Day Ribfest from 1-3pm on Sunday, July 1st, in the Nickelbrook VIP tent.
Stephen will be signing books and the first 10 people will receive a FREE Sunao publication from one of our other authors!
If you can’t attend, or would rather own an ebook, you can download “Mindfulness of a Fly on the Wall” for FREE for the next 5 days, beginning at midnight Thursday night to midnight Tuesday, July 2nd. Limited time only.
If you’re a friend of Steve’s or just like to support indie authors, please go to Amazon and download the FREE copy regardless of whether you plan on reading it or not. The first five days of sales will boost Stephen to #1 if enough people download the book. No gimmicks. No follow up, It’s FREE!   https://goo.gl/Lj4t9Q