Learn How to Market Your Book Course is Now Free for Everyone

Hi All, just want to make a special announcement that I am releasing my How to Market Your Book course to the world for free. It is now available for anyone who signs up to my How to Publish Your Book School. For the past two years I have sold over 3,600 books each year. Learn my steps, all you have to do just sign up and you can get access to all my secrets for marketing books.

What you get in the Free course

• General book marketing concepts, my main lessons 
• Ideally book marketing begins the day we start writing our books. This video covers stuff to do before you release your book
• Amazon marketing, learn to use the most powerful store in the world to promote your boo
• Preparing for your book launch, getting your fans, platform and the market ready.
• Everyone is trying to get an Amazon category best seller, Video 5 covers how
• When you get right into marketing having a media kit becomes very useful. This video walks you through what you need.
• Your book is launched and on its way but the marketing doesn’t really ever stop. In Video 7 I talk about what you can do on an ongoing basis
• And finally we cover off-line marketing. Not everything is the web, this video covers things you can outside of the web.
• I also cover how to set up an author/book blog/web site. This is key for giving you and your book a home base to focus your marketing on.

I am also offering my two free pdf books, the Action Plan and the Checklist

Book Marketing Checklist, I break it down to steps for each of the different tasks. 
Book Marketing Action Plan, this document gives you an outline for 3 different levels that you can work at for marketing your book. They go from simple and free to a full on book launch.

To access the free course click this link or sign up over on the right in the signup box
http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/how-to-market-your-book

Bruce Jones Interviewed on The Kindle Chronicles

I had a nice interview with Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles. Len is an expert on all things Kindle. We had a great time, we talked about my progress as an author and publisher, my books and where I see publishing going.

To listen to the interview please click here, Interview with Bruce Jones for The Kindle Chronicles

Topic covered included:

• How did you first get interested in design?
• What is it about your work that has kept you motivated for the past three decades?
• What topics have you published books about?
• What is your all-time bestselling book?
• Can you recommend a couple of titles that you have helped publish that my listeners might be interested in checking out?
• Do you sell more print books than Kindle books?
• How much easier is it to make an eBook with Kindle Direct Publishing than it was five years ago?
• What could Amazon do to improve CreateSpace, based on your experience?
• Why are coloring books for adults so popular? Tell us about your Mandala Happiness series of coloring books.
• What do you recommend for crayons or markers for coloring?
• How many hours of course videos have you published?
• What things have you learned the hard way about how to make a watchable online video?
• What have you learned about Smart Passive Income from Pay Flynn and your own work online?
• In a session you did last week for the BackPack Video Journalism Workshop in Ghana, you emphasized the building of community. For a book author, what are some examples of how to do that?
• I learned from your Ghana workshop that there are three kinds of Facebook groups. Can you explain what they are and how they might be used?
• Over the years I have been doing my podcast, I have often become excited about building my platform, and so far—except for Twitter and YouTube--I have always lost interest or not had time to keep up the effort. My GoodReads group and Facebook page are now fairly dormant. What sort of time management methods or social media habits do you rely on to keep your platforms growing while still having enough time to create your own original books and products?
• How are you using Periscope and Blab?
• Given how active you are in video streaming and video content, I’m curious what sort of an Internet connection you have in your home in Norwood, which is about 25 miles south of where I am in Cambridge, Mass.
• What are some projects you have on the horizon for next year?

To learn more about The Kindle Chronicles please visit The Kindle Chronicles

How to Make Easy Journal Books Training Session

Learn How to Make a Journal Book Using PowerPoint

We had a lot fun yesterday with the How to Make Easy Journal Books live training session. I did this webinar in association with Becky Norwood of SpotlightOnYourBusiness.com. We had a great group of students and I took them through the process of making a journal book using PowerPoint. We worked on the interior and cover. Here is a replay of the broadcast.


To buy the course please click this Easy Journal Books.
As a special thank you use the coupon code JournalBooksSpotlight for $50 off the list price.

Included as a bonus for the course I am including free access to my How to Market Your Book course. Once you sign up I will connect you to How to Market

Also included templates for a 6 x 9, 160 page journal book.

Learn How to Make a Journal Book in Easy Journal Book Step-by-Step Course

Join me today on the live broadcast and learn how to make a Blank Journal Book,

December 1, 5:00 EST live workshop clicks here

Learn How to Make a Journal Book in Easy Journal Book Step-by-Step Course
Launching, Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 5:00 Eastern Standard time, 2:00 Pacific time. 

On Tuesday I will be holding a live workshop for my new online course called Easy Journal Book. I will be demonstrating how you can easily make and sell journal books on Amazon. I will be showing how to do this using PowerPoint as our layout program. You can easily produce a book using Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign but sometimes we don't have access to or know how to use those programs. In this hands on workshop I will show how you can make a journal book using software you most likely have in hand on your own computer. So be sure to join us on Tuesday and learn how you to can make a journal book.

To learn more about the Easy Journal Books course please click

 
Sign up for the live Tuesday broadcast on how to make a Blank Journal Book,
December 1, 5:00 EST live workshop clicks here

The course covers:

• We Start With Your Concept: what is your journal about, types of journals, daily, meditation, gratitude, travel, nature, exercise, food, diabetes/medical
• Decide How We Are Going to Publishing Your Journal Book: Where are you selling it, Amazon? CreateSpace? Print-on-Demand, Book Stores
• Work on the Design and Layoudft: picking the size of your book, how you are going to make it, book structure, options
• Show How to Use Master Slides or Template: layout, page numbers, graphics on the page. Includes a pre made page and cover template for a 6x9 book with 160 pages.
• Interior Page Layout: Formatting each page, adding art
• Where Do We Get Images and How Do We Prepare Them: sources, file formats and sizes, conversion, Graphics Factory, Shutterstock, draw them, public domain, Freelance/Fiverr.com
  
• Then Set Up the Cover: Building the template, cover design, layout
  
• Saving the Files for Uploading: File prep for publishing, making your pdf files for the interior and the cover
• Publishing Your Journal: uploading your files to CreateSpace.com/Amazon.com

Special Course Launch price is $47.00, Click here to buy
Use the special price coupon: JournalBooksSpotlight

Learn How to Print, Sell, and Distribute Your Book with IngramSpark, Interview with J. Bruce Jones

This week I had a great interview with Robin Cutler of IngramSpark.com on Learning How to Print, Sell, and Distribute Your Print-on-Demand Book with IngramSpark, We learned all the ins and out of how to bring our books out to the retail and library markets. Ingram is the worlds largest book distributor and and has one of the biggest print on demand operations. Combining both lets you print as you need and distribute anywhere in the world using their 39,000 partners.

Topics covered in the interview:
1:44 General into, IngramSpark combines print on demand printer LightingSource and the distribution company Ingram, now the world largest global book distributor

3:20 How a new person starts working with IngramSpark

4:00 setting up your account, uploading files, metadata, formats. Paperback, hardcover, saddle, including books with jackets

6:50 Can't do spiral, perf or horizontal books yet but working on them

8:30 we talk about ISBN numbers, from IngramSpark $85, they can work with Amazon also

12:00 learning about the IngramSparks book catalog iPage, goes out to 39,000 retail and library partners, this is big also, stores can order your book
Standard trade discount is 55% but you can set the discount from 30-50%

15:00 Cost is $49 to set up a book, one time fee, for either print or ebook

17:45 Print & ebook, they also distribute to Kindle, Apple iBook, Nook and Kobe and an additional 60 other ereaders
help with uploading for both ebooks and print, will also convert print to ebook for $.60/page.

22:20 Ingram has a global reach with PDF printing and distribution, also have partners around the world
Print in UK for Europe and Melbourne for Australia

23:00 Global Connect program, now includes China
We talked about putting a store on your site, collect orders and IngramSparks ships. You can also set up bundles of your books, send in the order and they will ship, Publisher Direct Program

27:00 we talked about a question on a magazine distributor who want to distribute their books in Europe and Africa, if this is also you check with the International Sales Team

28:45 Meta Data, introduction to keyword, reviews and google search

31.50 Converting yourself from a writer to a publisher

32:00 Ingram moves books to Amazon, also the importance of fostering the relationship with our book seller, be a customer of the book store and the library

To learn more about IngramSpark visit http://www.ingramspark.com


Be sure to sign-up over on the right for our free Book Marketing Checklist and Actions plans

Building a Journal Book Using PowerPoint as Your Design Platform

Hi all, I spent this weekend doing a sample test blank journal book using PowerPoint. It all worked. What I am doing is getting ready for my December 1 live presentation with Becky Norwood of http://spotlightonyourbusiness.com, we are doing this course jointly, teaching her students and anyone else who is interested. The recording will then be set up as a course.

I wanted to make sure everything works and that I can teach the course. The Step by Step Course for Making Journal Books will cover layout of the interior, the cover, images, where to get them and how to get them to be 300dpi for CreateSpace. For printing we will upload the book files to Amazon/CreateSpace. Everything seems to work just fine. I have figured out how to get my PowerPoint file to print the correct size pdf file. Also I was able to produce the correct size cover spread and get it to be 300dpi for CreateSpace without using Photoshop. That is part of the challenge, producing all the parts correctly. I think I got it

If you are interest in joining us on December 1 be sure to sign up for my mailing list over on the right or at SpotlightOnYourBusiness.com/how-to-create-a-journal. Because we are using Zoom to broadcast the event have a limited number of seats available.

The event happens, December 1, 2015 at 5pm EST and 2pm PST. Be sure to sign up

Test Journal Cover for How to Make a Journal Book Course

Inside test blank journal pages using PowerPoint for design and layout

Beta, How to Make a Journal Book Course for Beginners

I am putting together a new course on how to make a journal book. This is a beginners level course and we will be using software that you probably already have on your computer.

I will be doing the first webinar/webcast Dec 1 and then out to the world after that. This post includes my rough notes and ideas as I put it together. I will be working with Becky Norwood and her site Journey to Authorship

Beta, Course Outline

Your Concept: what is your journal about,
types of journals, daily, meditation, gratitude, travel, nature, exercise, food, diabetes/medical, 

How Are You Publishing Your Book: Where are you selling it, Amazon? Createspace? Print-on-Demand

Design: picking the size of your book, how you are going to make it, book structure, options

Master Slide or Template: layout, page numbers, graphics on the page

Interior Page Layout: Formatting each page, adding art

Cover Layout: building the template, cover design, layout

Images: sources, file formats and sizes, conversion
Graphics Factory, Shutterstock, draw them, public domain, Freelance/Fiverr.com

Output: file prep for publishing, pdf, interior, cover

Publishing: uploading your files, CreateSpace.com/Amazon

Marketing: social media, book launch,

Laying out a journal page, from upcoming course on making journals

Resources
Journey to Authorship, https://www.facebook.com/groups/JourneytoAuthorship/
On this project I am working with SpotlightOnYourBusiness.com
Image Conversion, Online-converter.com http://www.online-convert.com/
GraphicsFactory.com, http://www.graphicsfactory.com/

Learn More
To know more be sure to sign up on our mailing list over on the right for notification for when this course is ready

A Cool Site for Converting JPG to PNG Graphics and Changing Resolution

I am going to be teaching a new course on how to make journals and one of the issues I had is how to convert graphic jpg files from 72dpi to 300dpi if you don't have Photoshop or something equivalent. Many of the students I will be teaching don't have access to the higher end graphics programs. I will be using PowerPoint to build the journals in this course. I think I have found a solution with a site called Online-Convert.com. It looks like you can easily change the resolution of a graphic. They look Great

The site is called Online-Convert.com http://www.online-convert.com/

To get notices about this upcoming course be sure to sign up for our mailing list over on the right

Publishing Secrets Revealed with Bruce Jones, Watch the Replay

Publishing Secrets Revealed Webinar, Replay Below

I will be answering some of the biggest questions people have about publishing their books this Wednesday, October 28, at 2 pm. Come and join me as I answer these and more. I will also be taking questions on any part of the publishing process from writing to design and formatting, setting up your Kindle and CreateSpace accounts, uploading your books, hitting the publish button and marketing.

Watch the Replay

Thank you to everyone who joined today me today on my Publishing Secrets Revealed Google Hangout webcast. I covered copyright, ISBN numbers, how to make an Amazon best seller, CreateSpace Covers, Images, and many more topics. Here is the replay, start watching at 12:10



J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 35 books in 5 different categories with many different titles as best sellers. Bruce also teaches many students how to create and publish their books.

To check out the 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book online course talked about in today show please click here, the special course discount coupon is PubSecrets

7 Steps to Publishing Your Book Video Course

#selfpublish #publishing #books  

Updated Book Marketing Action Plan, 2nd Edition Now Releasing

Hi all. For the next couple of days I am going to give away the new Book Marketing Action Plan 2nd Edition from my "How to Market Your Book" course to everyone in the Facebook Group How to Publish Your Book Group as a thank you for being members. I just rewrote the action plan that comes with the course and set it up in a very different new way.

The new format has tasks at Before Releasing, Releasing/Launch and then After Releasing your book. Each step gives you marketing tips at three different levels of engagement. I have already updated the course for everyone who is a member so they will automatically get the updated version. Love comments. I think it is way better book than the first version and very proud of it.

You can also get a free copy by signing up over on the right side of this site.

If you aren't already member of How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group, come on over and join the over 700 members who are getting their questions asked and publishing their books.

My book is complete, however I don't know where to go from here? Pliz, some advice

"My book is complete, however I don't know where to go from here? Pliz, some advice"

This is one of the most common questions I get asked. Someone has finished writing and then they ask me "Now What?" "What do I do next to get my book published."

This will begin a series of posts on "what do I do to get my book published?"

Interview with Mariana Llanos On the Release of A Superpower For Me

I had a fun and filled with great information interview with children's book author Mariana Llanos. We talked about her new book A Superpower For Me, how she wrote it, published and marketed it. It was especially cool to learn about Skype for Classroom and how she uses it for marketing.

Her book is available at Amazon.com
A Superpower For Me

Mariana Llanos is a Peruvian born writer who has written stories since she was young. Her first book, Tristan Wolf, was published in 2013. "I first started writing poems and then moved on to short stories. When I was at school I liked to adapt classic plays like Hamlet or Faust and make them into comedy skits. Then, my friends and I had a great time performing them at school functions. I love art in all its forms. I not only write for children. I write for whoever wants to hear a story with a heart.

Now that I have a family, I write stories that I know my children will read. I put a lil' bit of them in my characters and a lil' bit about myself but mostly, my characters come from deep inside my imagination. I sometimes think that I have little people living inside my head and, from time to time, they take over and command me to tell their story.

My hope is that children and grown-ups will be inspired and entertained by my writing. If I put a smile on your face today, then my job is done."

To learn more about Mariana, visit:
http://www.marianallanos.com

How to Market Your Book Live Google Hangout Webinar with J. Bruce Jones

It has been an exciting day today. I did my first real product launch with a webinar, launching my How to Market Your Book online course. It went great, exhausting but exciting. Lots more to learn, but the broadcast went pretty smooth, I talked for an hour about book marketing and the product.

Here is a replay of the broadcast




For more info, or to buy the product please click here, How to Market Your Book

How to Market Your Book Online Course is Now Live

Click This Link to Buy the Course
https://gumroad.com/l/howtomarketyourbook#

You have just published your first book? Are you asking “now what?” How do I market it? How do I get people to find it? Is this you?

Join me today in a live Google Hangout on How to Market Your Book

I will be giving away some of my best marketing ideas and tips on book marketing in this
live web broadcast supporting the course launch

Click here to see a replay of the broadcast

I am here to help. In this course I teach you everything I have learned about marketing and promoting my own books. I will teach you the concepts and tools to successfully market and sell your book.

I am J. Bruce Jones and I am the author of over 35 books, selling over 3,600 books a year on Amazon.com in 5 of different categories.



In this online course we will cover:

• General book marketing concepts, my main lessons
• Ideally book marketing begins the day we start writing our books. This video covers stuff to do before you release your book
• Amazon marketing, learn to use the most powerful store in the world to promote your book
• Preparing for your book launch, getting your fans, platform and the market ready.
• Everyone is trying to get an Amazon category best seller, Video 5 covers how.
• When you get right into marketing having a media kit becomes very useful. This video walks you through what you need.
• Your book is launched and on its way but the marketing doesn’t really ever stop. In Video 7 I talk about what you can do on an ongoing basis.
• And finally we cover off line marketing. Not everything is the web, this video covers things you can outside of the web.

Bonus Videos
A big part of my book marketing is building a home on the web where everything can be directed. A place where your fans can learn more about you, Google can find you, your connections to Amazon and your social media. A great way to do this is build an author/book blog or website. In these two bonus video I show you how to build a book blog of your own

Bonuses
• Book Marketing Checklist. I break it down to steps for each of the different tasks.
• Book Marketing Action Plan, this document gives you an outline for 3 different levels that you can work at for marketing your book. They go from simple and free to a full on book launch.

Course Is Live Click Here to Buy
https://gumroad.com/l/howtomarketyourbook#

Special Launch Offer, 50% off, offer expires October 14, 2015

Use Offer Code: Bookmarketing




Special Offer for 6 Authors,
How to Market Your Book Strategy 3 Pack
Get your Questions Answered by Bruce, 3 Strategy Sessions 

I am offering to just 6 authors a How to Market Your Book Strategy 3 Pack. The Strategy 3 Pack offers you the opportunity to have me work with you on any aspect of your book. The Strategy 3 Pack is designed for me to answer your questions and give you strategies and coaching on your book. The 3 Pack is not intended for design services.

What Do I Get in the Strategy 3 Pack?

The Strategy 3 Pack includes three 1 hour long sessions that we schedule over Skype, Google Hangout, Zoom or phone where you can ask me any questions on writing, design, layout/formatting, publishing, uploading to Kindle or CreateSpace, marketing or re-purposing your content. any question you want. Time frame is from October 19, 2015 to October 31, 2016.  

Sessions 1 and 2 are for questions and session 3 is for me conducting a Skype or Google Hangout online interview with you about your book that you can use for marketing or however you want. You will receive an mp4 video file. If your book isn't ready to be published we can use the session for additional strategy or coaching.

Book Marketing Tips, Book Video Announcement, Amazon Affiliate Account

Welcome to today's Book Marketing Tips from Bruce Jones, "Bruce The Book Guy" on Periscope.


 Today we covered in the broadcast

 Online Tips for promoting your book
• Conduct a simple book launch, pick a date and email your platform
• Create a book announcement video and post it on YouTube, Facebook and your other social media platforms, including your author blog
 • Use a paid PR service like PRWeb and send out a press release for your book
• Post on your social media accounts, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, be sure to link back to your website or blog
• Publish books on both Kindle and CreateSpace/Amazon
• Set up an Amazon affiliate account and post affiliated links to your website, Facebook and Twitter, really anywhere that you can

 Off Line (Connecting with the community) 
• Connect with local press and media for the local story
• Build out a list of retail locations where you can speak and sell your book
•  Build out a list of potential speaking opportunities; start connecting with these people, organizations and locations.

 You can watch the video over on Katch.me http://ktch.tv/2Hym Bruce is the author and creator of over 35 books.

To learn more tips on marketing your book please sign up and download my Book Marketing Checklist over on the right. Watch for my new course How to Market Your Book releasing Monday, October 7.

Book Marketing Tips from How to Market Your Book, online video course

Lets go a little higher with our book marketing. These steps take a little more effort and might cost a little bit of money but they will give you a much wider exposure. The keys here build out your platform and build connections with your fans and people who can influence the market.

• Register a URL for your name,
• Build an author blog or website
• Create your One Sheet, post on your website
• Build your online media kit for promotion and interviews
• Put a graphic of your book cover on your website and connect it to the book’s Amazon sales page, use an affiliate link.
• Set up with an email marketing service with Aweber, Mail Chimp or similar, start building an email list of fans and buyers
• Add a email sign up box on your blog or website
• Create a lead magnet from your book content and use it as a thank you gift for subscribers to your list, such as a sample chapter, a video series, pdf report, series of email autoresponder lessons
• Give away free pdf copies of your book for fans, reviews and press 
• Work on building your author platform; bring these people into your mailing list
• Build your Top 20 influencers and connect with them where they hang out
• Build up a network of related blogs and websites that you can connect with and then use when it comes to launch time. Relationships need time and energy to build

Bruce is the author and creator of over 35 books. To learn more tips on marketing your book please sign up and download my Book Marketing Checklist over on the right. Watch for my new course How to Market Your Book releasing Monday, October 7.

Releasing October 7, 2015 "How to Market Your Book" Online Video Course

Click This Link to Buy the Course

Learn the steps to marketing your new book in this new online video course from J. Bruce Jones. I am the author or creator of over 35 books and in this course I bring you everything I have learned about marketing and promoting my books.

In this online course we will cover:

• General book marketing concepts, my main lessons
• Ideally book marketing begins the day we start writing our books. This video covers stuff to do before you release your book
• Amazon marketing, learn to use the most powerful store in the world to promote your book
• Preparing for your book launch, getting your fans, platform and the market ready.
• Everyone is trying to get an Amazon category best seller, Video 5 covers how.
• When you get right into marketing having a media kit becomes very useful. This video walks you through what you need.
• Your book is launched and on its way but the marketing doesn’t really ever stop. In Video 7 I talk about what you can do on an ongoing basis.
• And finally we cover off line marketing. Not everything is the web, this video covers things you can outside of the web.

Bonus Videos
A big part of my book marketing is building a home on the web where everything can be directed. A place where your fans can learn more about you, Google can find you, your connections to Amazon and your social media. A great way to do this is build an author/book blog or website. In these two bonus video I show you how to build a book blog of your own

Bonuses
• Book Marketing Checklist. I break it down to steps for each of the different tasks.
• Book Marketing Action Plan, this document gives you an outline for 3 different levels that you can work at for marketing your book. They go from simple and free to a full on book launch.

Course Is Live Click to Buy

Special Launch Offer, 50% off, offer expires October 14, 2015

Use Offer Code: Bookmarketing

Sign up on the right for an early release of the Book Marketing Checklist

Off Line Book Marketing Tips to Promote Your Book from How to Market Your Book

Day two of tips from the Book Marketing Action Plan. These tips are from the first level of the Action Plan, simple suggestions to promote your book

• Good cover design, remember your back cover if you have a print version 
• Be sure you can read your cover at the thumbnail size 
• Don’t fall in love with your title when writing, it might be wrong 
• Be sure your book is edited and has a final proof read 
• Good descriptive table of contents, these are your books benefits 
• Promote your next book in the back of your current books. 
• In the front of your Kindle book add a live http link to your Amazon Central Page 

• Build a basic media kit for promotion and interviews 
• Make up jpg cover images in 3 sizes for marketing and posting, 2", 4" and 6", 300 dpi and 72 dpi. Your cover designer can give your these. 
• Make up a picture of yourself holding your book cover, preferable near your head 
• Prepare 50, 150-200 and 500 word bios and book descriptions with details you can have ready for promotion, interviews, blog posts. 
• Figure out who wants your book and sell it to them 
• Let every company, organization, or association you are part of know about your new book, especially if they have a newsletter 

• Start your marketing the day your start your writing. 

To learn more tips on marketing your book please sign up and download my Book Marketing Checklist over on the right.

How to Market My Book, What to Do First, What to Do Second?

This post starts a series on some of the things your can do market and promote your book. Marketing is hard and is one of the most common questions I get asked. Usually in the form of I just published my book, now what? In this series I will break down recommendations to three levels.

Level 1, I don't know much and I don't really want to spend a lot of time or money what can I do.
Level 2 we want to go higher, you want to build a web presence, and are willing to dig a little deeper into the technical stuff. Like setting up an email list and blogging
Level 3 we go to full book launch and trying for an Amazon best seller.
I have broken these levels down into both online and off line.



Level 1. The minimum things I can do to promote my book

Online (Focus on initial exposure)
• Fill out your Amazon Author Central Account
• Link your book to your Author Central Page
• Use the Amazon sales page social media links to post about your book
• Take advantage of what Kindle and CreateSpace.com offers for programs

• Set up your social media accounts, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin,  Instagram, Slideshare, SnapChat, Twitter, etc.
• Announce your book on your social media accounts
• Update all bios on your social media sites with your current book information; include links to Amazon for your book if possible
• Ask for Amazon reviews in your posts

• Write and send out a press release on several of the free or paid PR sites
• Add your book title and link to your email signature line


Be sure to sign up for my new Book Marketing Checklist. Over on the right. Next post will deal with some of the Off Line possibilities for book marketing.

Do Kindle Books Need ISBN Numbers? Reader Question.

Reader Question:  Hi Bruce, I just discovered your How to create a children's book with PowerPoint and was blown away at the simplicity of this process.   I noticed that the Kindle books do not display any ISBN numbers.  Do .mobi NOT need or have an ISBN?  I also noticed that your print books DO.  Just trying to make sense of it. 

Also, is the Print version of your book also produced by the .mobi or some other file format?

I would love to try something like this with a simple project to see how well I could produce a book as well.

I appreciate your public videos.  They are so helpful.  Please advise @ ISBN nums.  Thanks.

Answer: Hi Joyce thank you for watching my videos and for the questions. ISBN numbers are used for tracking book sales. So all physical books, paperback and hardcover, have them. Kindle books aren't tracked by the big tracking agency and are not required to have them. You can add them but Amazon doesn't need them. Physical books are also inventoried so the ISBN numbers are used for that. If you are publishing your book through CreateSpace you can use the free numbers that they will give your your can purchase them yourself and use that one. They cost $125 apiece.

Kindle book are created from html files or once it is processed mobi files. Mobi files and Kindle are really like a simple web page. No ISBN required.

Pretty much all of my print books are published through CreateSpace.com which is the print-on-demand side of Amazon.com. For book production I generally use Adobe InDesign or Illustrator. You can also use MS Word or Apple Pages or even PowerPoint. You might be able to use Scrivener if you can set up a page size at the size needed of your book. Really anything that can produce a higher res pdf file. CreateSpace/Amazon can handle books from 5"x8" up to 8.5" x 11". I will often create a Kindle version of my print books using the Kindle Kid Creator program from the source pdf. If the book is all text then I will format it from MS Word, just like everyone else does.

Resources:
Kindle Kid Creator, Great program for converting pdf book files into Kindle Books
CreateSpace.com
7 Steps to Publishing Your Book on line course
How to Make a Children's Picture Book for Kindle, on line course
Bowker site for purchasing ISBN numbers, MyIdentifiers.com

How to Make a Children's Picture Book Using PowerPoint Video.

How Do I Publish My Picture Book

I received an excellent question the other day on how to publish a picture book.

Publishing Question:

"First allow me to thank you for doing a video on publishing a kindle book in powerpoint, very well done and great help to me.  I wish to publish a hard copy book just like the ones you show at the first part of your video...large full colour, and high quality, I am in the process of putting together a book of antique illustrations which I have amassed in my personal collection, I wondered if you could tell me more about how you got the finished books done, (I'm not interested in Kindle versions)....thank you in advance for your kindness in viewing my request....Bryan"

Answer:
Bryan, thank you very much for your questions. So there are several ways to go with printing physical books. The range from pretty straight forward to really high quality. The prices go from pretty simple to pretty expensive.

Entry Level Book Printing with Great Exposure, Selling on Amazon
CreateSpace/Amazon, CreateSpace is the print on demand side of Amazon. This is primarily the site and company I use for most of my books. They only do paperback and up to 8.5 x 11 in size. But lots of sizes inbetween. Black and White or Color, always color cover. I love working with this site. They are a division of Amazon and all of their books sell on Amazon. Amazon should be part of your publishing mix. They take two pdf files, the interior and the cover, process them and sell your book on Amazon. This is the big gorilla in the room. Excellent company to work with. If you are good with a paperback book then CreateSpace is the way to go and how can you beat selling your book on Amazon, it is all seamless. The quality is excellent but not National Geographic quality. They also have excellent prices if you want copies for yourself for say selling like at a conference or event.
Learn more at http://www.CreateSpace.com

High and Higher Quality Book Printing, But Also Higher Price
If you want to go up in quality along with a hard cover or hard cover with wrap, there are two main companies, Lulu.com and Blurb.com. Both of these companies print high quality photo and image books with Blurb being probably the best. You can produce a really nice, high quality book with Blurb. Both of these companies also have relationships with Amazon for selling along with sales options from their sites. The also have a variety of binding options, especially Lulu.com with spiral, perfect, saddle, cover wraps and more.

My issue with Blurb is that the books are expensive to print, the quality is outstanding, but expensive at around $1 per page. Tough to make much money from these sites. Blub does have some pretty good software for building books on line or you can download and drop a plug in into InDesign. It works great, I just finished a book using it.
Learn more at:
http://www.blurb.com
http://www.lulu.com
http://www.BookBaby.com

I have used all of these companies, except for BookBaby, and have been very happy with all of them. There are others but depending how much you are doing and how much you don't want to be a publishing company these are the main ones to look at. Some questions that you will need to answer also is are you staying just on line, or also looking at bookstores. Are you selling your book from a stage or your website.

The Bookstore Route for Selling Books
If you are going to the book store market along with Amazon then I would also take a look at IngramSpark.com https://www.ingramspark.com/ IngramSpark is a print on demand printer tied into the book distribution world.

I also recommend that when you have finished your book and have sent it off to be published to take the pdf file and run it through Kindle Kid Creator and make a kindle book. It takes maybe 10 minutes to make a Kindle ready book file from your pdf. Just gives you another platform

How I Make my Books
Along with where to publish is the decision of how you are going to make your book. Most of my books are made in Adobe Indesign or Adobe Illustrator, but you can also use several other programs like Apple Pages or MS Word. At its simplest, physical books are usually produced using one of the Adobe products. Using them to layout out your book, you create two hi res pdf files, one for the interior and one for the cover. These are then uploaded to one of the print-on-demand sites like CreateSpace and they move the final book over to Amazon.com for selling. It is pretty amazing. If you have images the big key is to be sure their resolution is 300 dpi. I generally use one of the two Adobe products to design and layout my books. I go into all of the details in my 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book online video course.

As part of my course I produced a video for Module 3 on Where to Publish Your Book, which covers this same topic. I thought I would include it here.



If you aren't publishing but just wanted to make photo books of your illustrations then I might look at PhotoBookGirl.com for some recommendations. Also look at the templates in iPhoto on the Mac, they are excellent and the quality is pretty good.

The beauty of print-on-demand publishing is that there is no inventory and no cost. No garage full of books. All of these sites are free, they take a percentage when someone buys. After your book is done there is no further expense. When someone buys your book Amazon or one of the other companies prints and ships the book to the customer. You do nothing. Your job is make books and do the marketing. It is an amazing process.

Be sure to download my free Book Marketing Checklist over on the right side. 14 pages of steps and tips for promoting your book.

How Do I Market My Self Published Book? What Are The First Steps?

The basic advice is start your marketing the day your start writing your book. I know that sounds like way to much work but you can start slow and gradually build out an online web and off line presence as you begin the book. You may not even know you are writing your book but it is important to start thinking in this direction. Below are some steps to get started on how to market your book, and most of these are free.

• Work on building your author platform

• Begin building an author website or blog
• Begin building your email list of interested fans
• Register an author URL for your website, NameNameAuthor.com will work if you can’t get your name
• Set up your social media sites, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube and any others that you think your fans will be at

• Research bloggers and people who have influence in your market and connect with these people using social media, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, their YouTube Channel, Pinterest, etc.

• Subscribe to the influencers blogs, Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin groups and email lists

• Start commenting and engaging with them on their blogs and social media sites. Try to get on these people’s radar, start building a relationship. This will become much more important when we come to launching your book.

• Build an Open Facebook group around your topic, you can also do a Fan page

• Build social media locations for you or your book, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Linkedin, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Pick a couple to get started.

• Connect now for the future with local bookstores, coffee shops, and other outlets where you can sell your books. Depending on what your topic is there are many non-traditional places to sell also.

• Build a list of local media, TV, radio, and print that you can connect with. Connect with their social media sites, start to get on their radar.

• As you get close to publishing your book pull together your Book Media Kit. Write your author bio and book descriptions, collect cover images, bio images, videos, everything we will use to launch your book with.

• Start building out your author/book website with all of this content. Have it ready to go for when you publish your book, collect email names.

• You should be putting up regular posts related to the book as you work on the writing. These can be story lines, sample sections, describing the writing and publishing process, images and related content. These posts will be used to build interest, Google search traffic, and for building up your mailing list. Be sure to follow the Kindle Select rules on duplicate content if you are going to use this Amazon program.

J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 35 books. Bruce also consults and teaches authors how to publish their books. If you want to learn more about how to market your book check out my new Book Marketing Checklist which is available for free. Head over to the right to download.

My Best Book Marketing Secrets, by J. Bruce Jones

Congratulations you have finished your book and it will be published shortly. Now what? Well that is the question we all ask, how do I get people to buy my book? Marketing, marketing, marketing, it is an ongoing process. I have been creating and publishing books for quite a few years and through that journey I have learned a few key secrets and tips. In this posts I layout some of my best marketing tips. In future posts I will deeper into many of these. 

• Your book marketing begins the day you start writing your book
• Amazon doesn’t do your online marketing for you, you have to do it.
• It is important to build some kind of central web home for your book, this can be a website or a blog. Facebook is not a home for your book. You want some place that you can blog, host content, collect email names and have connections so readers can buy
• Build your author platform!
• Build out your marketing wheel. Have a central home where all your social media and other properties can point to. From this home have a clear path for buying your book.
• Give Away to Get. Give away sample chapters, maybe even full books, related content, and information. Deliver however your reader wants.
• Traffic Matters, only about 1% buy but you need to bring in the other 99% to get those one. Be out there, be public and bring in readers.
• Build a mixture of online and off-line marketing.
• It is a continual process, do something everyday
• Publishing on Amazon is important, start here first then branch out
• Amazon book reviews are important
• Have the best cover you can afford,
• Edit, Copy Edit and Proof Read, pay an editor to clean up your book.
• Good healthy book descriptions are important, use all the space they give you.
• Your Table of Contents are your book’s benefits, don’t do Chapter 1, 
Chapter 2, be descriptive
• Try not to end up with a garage full of books, use print on demand and ebooks. Keep your costs to a minimum. You can always print later
• Create an event around the release of your book. Build some buzz about it using all of the tools available.
• You don’t need to advertise in traditional media.
• Build a web site around your own content and sponsor your site with your own books.

J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 35 books on many different topics. The book marketing secrets are from my new Book Marketing Checklist which is available for free. Head over to the right to download.

Learn How to Make a Book Cover for Your CreateSpace PaperBack Book Friday Aug 14, 2:00pm

In this weeks How to Publish Your Book Show I will show how to layout a book cover for the print-on-demand site CreateSpace/Amazon. I will build the front, spine and back cover for the Amazon best selling book the Goddess Guide.

Be sure  to sign up over on the right for our new Book Marketing Checklist, filled with tips and tricks and information for marketing your book.

Learn my layout tips and techniques in this hands on episode, Friday, August 14th at 2:00pm EST, 11:00 Pacific.

Click here to join me for the broadcast on Friday  https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c8mh56alumqr5us4q12q48ijqq4

Where Do I Self-Publish My E-books and Print Books, from How to Publish Your Book Show #4

Where Do I Self-Publish My E-books and Print Books, from How to Publish Your Book Show  with Bruce Jones

This weeks show will focus on "Where to Self-Publish your E-book and Print Book." I will be covering the major players for both e-books and print on demand books, along with publishing questions and a resource. Please drop a question in if you have it and I will try to cover  it. use the hash tag  #AskBruce

Today's show we will be talking about Where to Publish Your ebook and print book

Be sure to check out my new book publishing course 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book online course, writing, editing, design, formatting, interiors, covers, uploading and publishing to Kindle and CreateSpace, marketing

This weeks questions: 
• Can I take pictures in public and use them in my books? also royalty free, public domain, Creative Commons 0 images
• Second quesiton, how many words should be in a title?

Show topic:
Where to Publish Your ebook and print book, we cover the major players in ebook, print on demand books and pdf books

Ebooks
Mobi format
• Kindle free Amazon, kdp.direct.com

Epub format, which is all other sites other than Amazon
• iBooks, from Apple iTunes free, uses iBook Author
• Nook, Barns & Noble
• Kobo, big in Canada and Japan

Major Book Aggregators
• Bookbaby.com paid, print & ebooks
• Smashwords.com free, supplies books to Apple iBook

Print and Print-on-Demand Books
• Createspace.com, Amazon, print on demand, design your books in MS Word, Adobe InDesign, PowerPoint, pdf file format
• Blurb.com, great for picture books Bookwrite software and InDesign
• Lulu.com pdf
• BookBaby.com print and ebooks

Want to sell books in book stores
• Ingramsparks available in all markets except Amazon.com, print on demand, sell in bookstores

• Pressbooks, print & ebooks, book writing software, ebooks and print-on-demand

Digital Publishing Platforms, pdf files
• Scribd.com
• Issuu.com, think magazines online, style, fashion, all kinds
Sell your books on your own site, use Gumroad.com or ejunkie.com for hosting

Royalty Free Photo, Copyright Free Public Domain Photos and Creative Commons 0 Photos

Public Domain Image Bowling Alley Red Ball White P:ins Lane form the Public Domain Archive

Getting photos for your book and marketing efforts is always an effort. Do you hire a photographer, go to stock houses, look for free on the internet or do it yourself. Getting the right image, getting good quality and something you have the rights are all important goals.

Below are some links to some resources to check out in your search

Trying to save money, there are 3 paths to look at, Public Domain, Royalty Free and Creative Commons 0. This article from Inc magazine breaks there areas down and gives you 20 great places to look.
20 Sites With Free Images for Your Blog or Social Media Posts. Some of the leading site that people use are Pixabay, 1 Million Free Pictures and Flickr: Creative Commons, and one they don't mention is the Library of Congress. Be aware of all your rights and that your image is free and clear.

13 Sources for Free Public Domain and CC0-Licensed Images from wptavern.com also has some great sites, some of them overlap.

You can always go with stock images and there are tons of sites to look at. Advantages are that you know your license will be fine. A number of the stock houses like ShutterStock.com have changed their license a lot and now allow for using their images in ebooks and print on demand. They have also gotten much more competitive with pricing, so images are much more affordable. Check out the list in our Resource area

Image above from the Public Domain Archive with 100% Free Stock Photos, Every. Single Week

What Images Resolution Should My Pictures Be for My Kindle Book

What image resolution should my pictures be for my children's Kindle picture book, especially if I am using the Kindle Kids Book Creator?

Excellent question from Carlos S. and thank you for asking.

Hi, Bruce, Last year when I convert my 9 comic books into digital format, Your YouTube instructions using Kindle's Comic Creator (using Abobe Illustrator) was extremely helpful!! Now, 10 months later, I ready to publish my 10th comic book, I see you are using PowerPoint and Kindle's Kids Book Creator. Having seen all you YouTube videos, I've used Illustrator and 300dpi for my images. I couldn't find where you suggest image resolution to use for PowerPoint. For your experience... 

Questions: What in you opinion, is the minimal resolution on a line-art drawing to paste in PowerPoint and will look good on a mobile device? Should anti-alias be used?

Answer: Thank you very much for the question Carlos. If you are staying with just the Kindle and the Kindle Kids Creator, which by the way is an amazing tool, then I would work in 72 or 96 dpi. If you are working with just black/white line drawings I would experiment with keeping the drawings in gray scale instead of going to bit map. If you think you will also be producing that book in paperback with CreateSpace then I would probably go up to 300dpi. PowerPoint will pull in the entire jpg file and the PowerPoint file can get pretty big. 

PowerPoint doesn't have the different resolutions for making a pdf like Illustrator or InDesign does. 

If you are unfamiliar with the Kindle Kid or Comic Book Creator, they are amazing tools for converting pdf files into Kindle books. If you can make a pdf file you can make a Kindle book. It is just about that simple.  Getting graphics into a Kindle book is a pain until this set of free tools came along.

Here is the link to download this free app from Amazon that will convert your pdf file.  




Video on making a children's book using PowerPoint and Kindle Comic Creator

Where Do I Self-Publish my E-Book or Paperback Book? This Week's Show on Google Hangout

Where do I publish my book? I get asked this question all the time. This week on the How to Publish Your Book Show I will cover the major players. Plus questions and resources.

Check out the show Wednesday, August 5, at 4:30, link below
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c5t0on7dsoa37ts8hoc8hd40q3c

Let me know of any questions and I will try to answer, Use the hash tag #AskBruce

Setting Up Your Book Media Page on Your Web Site is an Essential Part of the Marketing

Setting Up a Media Page for Your Book
Setting up a media page for your book is an essential part of your book marketing. Every book should have one on your book blog or website. This is the central place for everything about your book. This is where you send people to learn about or to help promote or to have all the info for doing an article about your and your book.

Contained here should be:
• Author name, about the author and description
• Book name and description, different lengths, short, medium and long
• Who this book is for
• Include a sample chapter in pdf and word-.doc format
• Pull out some key facts from your book or good opening paragraph from the book
• Images of the book that people can download, include captions, author etc. with each image
• Videos about the book that people can embed
• Press Release
• Press mentions
• Quotes and testimonials about the book
• All the contact info for the author and where to buy the book

To see a great example check out the media page that Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner did for his book launch http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/launch/media.html

Learn How to Pick or Tweek Your Book Title Using Google and Amazon Search

This week in How to Publish Your Book Show I cover how to pick or tweek your book title using the crowd sourcing power of Google, Amazon and YouTube search. I show you how to type your title in and watch how the search engine using the power of all the world's searches reacts to your selection. Knowing what is working and not working you can adjust and have a title that matches what the world is looking for.

We also cover a couple of great questions on how thick does your book need to be before you can put words on your book spine? And a question on book prices and how to react when you paperback book is being over powered by your Kindle book. These plus my resource tip of the week.



Resource of the Week

One of my favorite books on setting up your book funnel and thinking about your book as a business is Johnny Truant and Sean Platt's book Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success) I highly recommend it for anyone thinking of building a book publishing business with their books. These guys talk about what they do and how to move readers from one to the next book. Excellent, Click below to check it out

Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success) (The Smarter Artist Book 1)

Webinar Expert Interview with Bruce Jones on Wednesday July 22 at 5pm EST

I will be in a live Webinar Expert Interview this coming Wednesday, July 22 at 5:00pn EST with webinar expert Melodie Rush talking about how I use live video and webinars to promote and market my books. Video is such a powerful tool and it is now available almost anywhere. We will be talking about these changes and book marketing in general. Hope you can join us.

Click Here to sign up for this Free webinar event.

Learn How to Build a Kindle Book Cover with Canva from How to Publish Your Book Show

In today's show I show you how to build a Kindle book cover using Canva.com and all the great templates. Canva is a great site for making all kinds of artwork for social media, blogs, and now books.


 

Resources http://www.canva.com
 

Learn How to Create a Book Cover for Your Kindle Book with Canva.com

This week's How to Publish Your Book Show will be focusing on making a Kindle book cover using the site Canva.com. This is an amazing tool for making artwork. The show is on Wednesday July 15 at 4:30 over Google Hangout. Link is below. Please be sure to post any questions either here on at the Show Event page you might have so I can answer.

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Time: 4:30pm Eastern Standard Time
Where: Google Hangout

Click Here to Watch the Show on Google Hangout 
 https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/co4usl8da5c0s0ufkh3rcs6duls

Resources:
Canva.com 




#canva #bookcover #self-publishing

How to Link Videos From Inside Your Book, Today on the How to Publish Your Book Show

How to Publish Your Book Show with Bruce Jones debuted today over Google Hangout and Youtube. The show answers questions and showcases training on how to publish your book. We had a couple of excellent questions.
1. How to linking videos and website to your books using live weblinks in your Kindle book, pdf books and paperback books
2. My best tip for new authors. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing



I love questions so drop in a comment or connect with me on the How to Publish Your Book Facebook page.

How to Make a Book Announcement Video

Video is such a powerful way of communicating these days and needs to be a big part of your book marketing. In this video I show you how I made a quick book trailer video for one of my new Mandala Happiness Adult Coloring Books using an Apple iPad. You can do everything with just your smart phone or tablet. If you have access to iMovie on the Mac or Movie Maker on the PC then you can dress it up a little. But there is no reason not to be making videos about your new book.



To learn more about my mandala coloring books please check out MandalaHappiness.com

Welcome to the Companion Site for 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book

It has never been easier to create your own book. Working with CreateSpace.com or Kindle, both part of Amazon, a word processing program and you will have your book up and selling to the world. In this course I take you through all the steps and knowledge I have from creating over 40 books and teaching many, many authors.

How to Publish Your Book in 7 Steps Course

1. Your Best 10 Tips, How to pull together the outline for your book, your subject. Includes Idea Starters and Beginning Your Platform.

2. Writing and Editing, expanding out your subject matter. Includes templates and worksheets.

3. Design, Layout and Formatting the Interior of your book based on where you are publishing it, Kindle, paperback/CreateSpace/Amazon, local quick print or pdf. I also answer the question of where do I publish my book? We then move into how to set up a Kindle book, a paperback book and a pdf book. Opening videos, and Kindle text and image guidelines.

4. Design, Layout and Formatting of the Cover for one of those 4 formats. Includes templates and worksheets. We now have a special Case Study with author Ed Morneau on making the cover for his newest book Teacher on Rye. I take you through beginning to end the building of the cover. Cover case study with Ed Morneau

5. Publishing Your Book, File prep and getting your book ready for uploading, setting up your publishing accounts

6. Uploading your Book Files, step-by-step for Kindle and CreateSpace

7. Marketing your Book, basic tips anyone can do. Including how to build a book/author blog for your book. I include my mini course on How to Build a Author/Book Blog

Bonus Course Included. How to Market Your Book, along with techniques on how to re-purpose your book content and create more products.

The entire course for $47.00 Click below to learn more.

To buy the course please click here http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/p/7-steps-to-publishing-your-book