Yearly Archives: 2012

Your Two-Sentence Summary

So you are at a book signing. You are sitting at or standing by a table with your books on display and what’s this? Someone is looking over? What? She’s heading this way! She’s in front of the table! She asks, “What’s your book about?”

Now what? While you have put years into developing the book and you can go on for hours about the characters, the story, and the setting. Don’t. Just stay calm and give them your two sentence summary.

Two sentences? What? That does not even begin to describe the book! Yes, two sentences, quick and concise. This is also referred to as the “elevator pitch.” Continue reading →

What you need to do before you publish your book

Whether you are going the traditional publishing route or are self-publishing there are a number of things you need to do before the book makes it to market.

First, you need to create an awareness of your book. Let people know what it is, when it is coming out, and why they will be interested. Social media has become an excellent vehicle for getting the word out about your forthcoming book. Most of it is free except for the time you put into it. If you are a writer, you should be able to write something about it. Are you excited about the book? Let people know why it’s going to be the best thing they will read this year. Continue reading →

Using your book to drive customers to your website

A quote attributed to Herbie Hancock goes, “One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.”

A lot of what I see offered in website driven marketing involves revamping the website whether it be a new design, SEO, key words and so on. Not so much different today than what was recommended yesterday. What’s needed is something that is truly different, that piques the curiosity, that generates interest. Rather than depending on being at the top of search results, which is important, what if they came looking for you? Continue reading →

Questions to ask your book printer

We can get into all kinds of other issues about preferred file format, setup and costs, corrections, and shipping options. For now I want to just consider the issues involved in the production of the physical copies.

When you are looking to have your books produced by a book printer there are a number of things to consider. A few, but not all, of the important questions are: 1) What range of copies are they set up for? 2) How it is going to be printed? 3) Interior paper selection? 4) Cover stock selection? 5) What is recommended for a protective coating?

Each is important in how a book is produced to guarantee quality, durability, consistency, and presentation as well as cost. If you have selected POD for your book production, your selection of materials may be limited, and the consistency and quality control are pretty much up to whoever is running the machine that day. Continue reading →

Have you tried postcards for promoting your book?

One really effective way we have managed to promote awareness of books is using a simple postcard. While it does not replace the need to use websites, blogs, and social media, it is a very cost-effective way to help promote the book.

As a small regional publisher and book production provider, we have tried a number of methods to engage the public when not in a computer driven social media setting. The two most common things used are bookmarks and business cards. But a while back we started experimenting with postcards and palm cards with great results. Continue reading →