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Should Authors Do It All?

June 15, 2020 By Mia Walshaw 271 Comments

What’s better? To be a jack of all trades or to specialize in a particular skill? Naturally, there are arguments for either choice depending upon the circumstance. Let’s say you’re an athlete and have suffered torn cartilage in your knee; you’ll want to consult with an orthopedic surgeon. After all, they’re experts at what they do. So why is it as authors, we don’t seek out experts? Should authors do it all?

Assuming that your writing is finalized, let’s examine all of the jobs or tasks that are required to bring a book to market.

Publishing Requires Juggling —

  • Editing/Proofreading
  • Cover Art
  • Digital and Paperback Formatting
  • ISBN Registration
  • Synopsis Writing
  • Keyword and Category Research
  • Distribution / File Uploading
  • Marketing and Public Relations
  • Social Media and SEO Content Writing

Phew…what a list! Considering that today’s reader has an abundance of choices available to them, it makes sense to give your audience what they crave….more books! Many authors have learned that one of the secrets to building a loyal fanbase is to release their books in rapid succession. Some debate the pros and cons of doing this with a series versus a standalone novel.

Regardless of which choice, series or standalone, how do you keep up with your writing if you’re busy with so many tasks? And if you are taking on all of these responsibilities, are you doing each one justice? 

Let’s examine three of these tasks in greater details  — cover art, formatting, and social media — and analyze what makes for a superior job versus one that is somewhat mediocre as a result of not focusing on only that task.

Can you judge a book by its cover?

We’ve all seen them…the book covers that stand out from the rest and not in a good way. Considering that now there are numerous contests for book cover art that can benefit the writer as well as the artist by bringing attention to your book, you don’t want to attempt cover art on your own for the sake of saving money.

Especially considering that many cover artists create what’s known as “pre-made covers” that can provide immense cost savings. These are covers that aren’t created to your specifications but rather, fit a typical genre such as romance or thriller. Writers will see one of these covers (often times as low as $30 and typically not higher than $75) and use their great imagination to actually pen a scene into their novel that suits the cover image, thereby making it appropriate to their book.

Functional Formatting is Key for Reader Enjoyment —

Many new authors do not realize that proper book formatting requires knowledge of specific softwares that can generate a file format that is accepted by the ebook retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and more. Furthermore, Amazon won’t accept the same format as the rest. They want what is known in the industry as a “mobi” file whereas the other ebook retailers will accept an “epub” file. As you can see, simply uploading a Word document from your computer won’t cut it, even if you think it’s beautiful with fancy fonts littered throughout your text.

Professional formatting will save the author time because you won’t receive error messages from the ebook store sites. Imagine if you did receive an error message. Would you know where in your entire book to find the problem? And, if you did find it, would you know how to correct it? For this reason, as well as the aesthetic quality that a professionally formatted book can bring to the reader, it’s important to choose a professional book formatter.

In my opinion, professional book formatting should serve three functions: saving the author time, bringing aesthetics and beauty to your words, and providing a level of technical functionality. Clever book formatting will include numerous benefits to the reader experience. Here’s just a few things that can be added to your ebook with formatting:

  • Hyperlinks within the text to outbound URLs
  • Author social media links
  • Link to Amazon’s listing of the book whereby a reader can leave a review

Social Media…Fun and Games or Serious Business?

Let’s face it, social media can be fun. Why wouldn’t you want to spend time on Facebook chatting to readers, tweeting messages on Twitter to other authors, or posting pictures of your adorable pets on Instagram? Because quite simply, social media is a time sucker and if you’re serious about your writing, you need to limit your time online. However, there’s no denying that if you want to sell your books, you need to be visible and have a proven author platform.

How do you do both? As authors, how do we find the time to write our books and use social media? In a word: balance! I write extensively about how to live a creative and balanced life. It’s a subject I feel strongly about because we all wear many hats.

In no particular order, I’m an author, a wife, a mother, a book packager, and a ghostwriter. Trust me, I understand busy. But I also have learned when to back off and ask for help.

In terms of social media, I think it’s a great idea to learn a few key lessons from social media strategists and then experiment with how much of this task you can do yourself and still maintain a regular writing schedule and your sanity.

As to answer my initial question, should authors do it all? I think it’s wise to educate yourself. Know how much a cover will cost. Research the different formatting fees. Spend time on social media and see if your tactics are converting to sales. Once you educate yourself, it’s easier to hire an expert because you understand what their job is and you’ve developed realistic expectations.

If you have questions about anything publishing related, I’d love to chat.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: #bookmarketing, #bookpublishing, #digitalformatting, book synopsis, cover art, social media for authors

Best Practices with Keywords

June 8, 2020 By Mia Walshaw 244 Comments

When you publish on Amazon, you choose keywords — seven to be exact — to help consumers find your book. Did you know that the manner in which you combine those keywords has a dramatic effect on your book’s discoverability? I recently wrote about how keywords can make your book sales soar. Here are more best practices with keywords to try out immediately.

Be Logical —

Let’s assume you’ve written a science fiction novel about military intelligence. What will consumers interested in this subject be most likely to type into their Amazon or Google search engine? First, consider the genre of your book. Then, the individual plot points or character traits. For instance, in this example, customers are most likely to search “science fiction military” but not “fiction science military.”

Some authors cleverly include keywords within the title of their book using a parenthetical addition. For example, the book “A Lesson in Love” by Kate Adele Rowe lists “Inspirational Christian Romance” on both the cover and as part of the title listing in Amazon. Because titles come up in search engine results, the author doesn’t need to list “inspirational” or “Christian” among the book’s keywords. This means she doesn’t need to use up precious keywords because those listed parenthetically will automatically be discovered within the title subhead.

More About Those 7 Words —

You know that you can choose seven keywords, but did you know that those seven spaces in the Amazon dashboard will also allow for seven phrases? That’s right…phrases. This means that you don’t have to use two valuable spaces for keywords such as romance and contemporary. Nope. Instead, you can combine those two words: contemporary romance. The only thing you have to be aware of is the text limit in the field.

You should take into consideration elements of your story beyond its genre when dreaming up keywords. For instance, look at this example below:

Industrial Revolution, single mother, divorcee, strong female lead, drama, feel-good, forgiveness

If you count up the words in this list, there are certainly more than seven, but these clever phrasings are accepted by Amazon in accordance with their “only seven words” mandate. This example takes into consideration setting (Industrial Revolution), character types (single mother, divorcee), character roles (strong female lead), plot themes (drama), and story tone (feel-good).

Search and Discover —

Visit Amazon and simply type “books” into the search engine. Next, look at the genres on the left-hand side of the page. You might next choose “fiction.” Then, narrow your choices by selecting a more specific genre, such as “romance.” See what comes up first in this general search. Next, narrow the search and visit the books that are most like yours. Take note of the categories they appear in and consider using those categories and keywords for your own book.

Finally, put yourself in the mindset of your customer. Let’s assume you write contemporary romance. What would you search for? Do you want a contemporary romance with a strong woman at the center of the story? Are you interested in reading a feel-good romance? Think about what your customer would search for and try to plug in applicable terms for your own book.

For my book, “Released” (a paranormal romance) (written under my pen name Mia Fox), I started to think about the storyline as well as setting to determine keywords. Here are some examples of what I chose: genies (selected for plot), steampunk (selected for the setting), new adult (selected for audience), action adventure (selected for secondary genre), and time travel (selected for secondary plot points).

Combined with advertising and social media promotions, the keywords I’ve chosen consistently results in this book receiving regular downloads.

Got any other book marketing questions? Drop me a line; I’d love to help.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: #algorithm, #amazon, #bookpublishing, #categories, #keywords, #MondayBlogs

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My Inspiration

Some lesser known facts about me. When not writing or working with writers, I’m most likely practicing yoga. I love to spend time with my family, cook (badly), and read. If I had to choose only two books for my library they would be “Girl on a Train” and “Special Topics in Calamity Physics.” I could eat avocados for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’m a dog person first, but there’s nothing cooler than an aloof cat.

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Writing, editing, cover art, digital formatting, marketing. There’s a lot to consider before your book goes public. By writing as Mia Fox, I test out trends in fiction so you don’t make mistakes.

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