We had a fun Blab show with Winnie Anderson and The Let's Talk Tech Show talking about publishing today. We talked on images, copyright, finding editors and picking book categories. A great way to follow up the pod cast series.
I Be sure to sign up over on the right for the free handouts that went with my recent podcast series with Winnie.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
20 Lessons I Learned on Book Marketing from Publishing Over 40 Books, Part 2
Over the years of creating and publishing over 40 different books I have learned quite a lot. Below is a list of some of the main lessons. So lets get started with some general concepts and ideas about book marketing. In future posts I will be digging deeper into many of these
This list is an excerpt from my latest book Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included! by J. Bruce Jones Available at Amazon.com
- Your book marketing begins the day you start writing your book. We often don’t even know we are starting a book project, but we need to start building out our author platform as soon as you can. Your author platform are all the ways that your readers and fans are connected to you. We will be talking more about this shortly.
- Amazon doesn’t do your online marketing for you. You have to market your book.
- It is important to build some kind of central web home for your book, this can be a website or a blog. Facebook and Twitter are not homes for your book. You want to have a place online that you can blog from, host content, collect email names, have your bio and your book description and info, and have connections so readers can buy.
- Build a web site around your own content and sponsor your site with your own books.
- 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. Fans need to touch and feel your content.
- Web Traffic Matters, only about 1% of visitors will 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.
- Book marketing is a continual process, do something everyday.
- Publishing on Amazon is important, start here first then branch out.
- Amazon book reviews are important, ask your readers to add a book review to your book.
- Have the best cover you can afford,
- Edit, Copy Edit and Proof Read, pay an editor to clean up your book. It is one of the most important things you can do.
- Good healthy book descriptions are important, use all the space they give you. Books are found by words in Google and Amazon search but only if the words are there to be found.
- Your Table of Contents are your book’s benefits, don’t do Chapter 1, Chapter 2, be descriptive in your list of chapters.
- Try not to end up with a garage full of books, use print-on-demand and e-books. Keep your costs to a minimum. You can always print later.
- If you think you are going to be selling your book in stores be sure to buy your own ISBN number, also look at IngramSpark.com instead of CreateSpace.
- 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 to have a successful book
This list is an excerpt from my latest book Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included! by J. Bruce Jones Available at Amazon.com
General Book Marketing Concepts for Self-Publishers, Part 1
One of the most common questions I get asked by new authors is “What’s Next?” They have pushed the published button and launched their book on Amazon.com and then go what do I do now? Books don’t market themselves just because you are on Amazon. You need to be involved on a regular basis with getting your book out to the world and getting people to buy it. This is true wither you are an indie author or you have a publishing company behind you. Books need to be marketed in order to find customers. This book is about many of the tasks that you will need to do to launch and have a successfully selling book.
Who am I, my name is J. Bruce Jones and I am the author and creator of over 40 of my own books, many of them best sellers at different times and the graphic designer for many more. I am a huge fan of self-publishing, I love it. We live in an amazing moment in time where we can publish, manufacture, distribute and sell our own ideas in book, video or audio form to the world. In this book I will layout and share with you what I have learned from the past number of years from my own book making and marketing efforts. Most of the ideas in this book are directed to indie and self-publishers but they will also work with books published by traditional houses.
I will be talking about books that are published as paperback using the print-on-demand side of Amazon, called CreateSpace.com and also the e-book side using the Kindle platform. There are many ways to publish your book but for success you will need to market and that is what this book is about. This book is set up in a checklist format that you can use to set up your own marketing.
In the follow up post I will list out the main lessons that I have learned from publishing over 40 books
Click here to see the main lessons I have learned: 20 Lessons I Have Learned from Publishing Over 40 Books
This text is an excerpt from my latest book Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included! by J. Bruce Jones Available at Amazon.com
Who am I, my name is J. Bruce Jones and I am the author and creator of over 40 of my own books, many of them best sellers at different times and the graphic designer for many more. I am a huge fan of self-publishing, I love it. We live in an amazing moment in time where we can publish, manufacture, distribute and sell our own ideas in book, video or audio form to the world. In this book I will layout and share with you what I have learned from the past number of years from my own book making and marketing efforts. Most of the ideas in this book are directed to indie and self-publishers but they will also work with books published by traditional houses.
I will be talking about books that are published as paperback using the print-on-demand side of Amazon, called CreateSpace.com and also the e-book side using the Kindle platform. There are many ways to publish your book but for success you will need to market and that is what this book is about. This book is set up in a checklist format that you can use to set up your own marketing.
In the follow up post I will list out the main lessons that I have learned from publishing over 40 books
Click here to see the main lessons I have learned: 20 Lessons I Have Learned from Publishing Over 40 Books
This text is an excerpt from my latest book Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included! by J. Bruce Jones Available at Amazon.com
Monday, February 29, 2016
Yes You Can Sell Simple Products Right Off Your Blog
I am getting ready to present on how quickly you can put together simple, straight forward products and sell them from you website, blog and YouTube. Below is a test for selling my new book.
One of the most common questions I get asked by new authors is “What’s Next?” They have pushed the published button and launched their book on Amazon.com and then go what do I do now? Books don’t market themselves just because you are on Amazon. You need to be involved on a regular basis with getting your book out to the world and getting people to buy it. This is true wither you are an indie author or you have a publishing company behind you. Books need to be marketed in order to find customers.
In Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing I take you through many of the tasks that you will need to do to launch and have a successfully selling book. This pdf book contains the lessons I have learned in marketing my own books.
• 3 Simple Things I Would Do to Market My Book
• Part 1, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishers
• Part 2, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included
• Book Marketing Resources
J. Bruce Jones
I am the author and publisher of over 40 books and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands. It is transformative, that is what I do.
Buy Book Marketing Checklist
One of the most common questions I get asked by new authors is “What’s Next?” They have pushed the published button and launched their book on Amazon.com and then go what do I do now? Books don’t market themselves just because you are on Amazon. You need to be involved on a regular basis with getting your book out to the world and getting people to buy it. This is true wither you are an indie author or you have a publishing company behind you. Books need to be marketed in order to find customers.
In Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing I take you through many of the tasks that you will need to do to launch and have a successfully selling book. This pdf book contains the lessons I have learned in marketing my own books.
• 3 Simple Things I Would Do to Market My Book
• Part 1, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishers
• Part 2, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included
• Book Marketing Resources
J. Bruce Jones
I am the author and publisher of over 40 books and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands. It is transformative, that is what I do.
If you want to purchase a pdf copy of this book, please click below.
3 Simple Things I Would Do to Market My Book
1. Build a media kit that you can use for promotion, include in it:
2. I hope you have a blog or web presence, put a page about your book on the blog. Include a cover shot, specs, book and author descriptions, quotes, links to where someone can buy the book.
Google’s Blogger blogs are an excellent place to start for an author website. They are free, easy to set up and change, will handle all kinds of media and are part of the Google network. Google likes their own.
3. Blog your book, page by page or paragraph by paragraph. The entire book, add good titles on each post. Have a description line at the bottom, which includes author name, book title and link to where you can buy it. On the side of the blog or site have a thumbnail cover image with the words Buy at Amazon under it and link to the sales page on Amazon.
Excerpt from my latest book Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included! by J. Bruce Jones Available at Amazon.com
- Cover shots of your book, 6” wide, 4” and 2”, 72 dpi and 300 dpi
- Head shots of you holding the book next to your head, 6”, 4” 2”. Tie your book to you, you are one and the same.
- Book description, 50 words, 150 words and 500 words, include title, author, description, website and where you can get it.
- Author description, 50 word, 150 word, and 500 word, be sure to include your book title, website and where you can buy the book.
2. I hope you have a blog or web presence, put a page about your book on the blog. Include a cover shot, specs, book and author descriptions, quotes, links to where someone can buy the book.
Google’s Blogger blogs are an excellent place to start for an author website. They are free, easy to set up and change, will handle all kinds of media and are part of the Google network. Google likes their own.
3. Blog your book, page by page or paragraph by paragraph. The entire book, add good titles on each post. Have a description line at the bottom, which includes author name, book title and link to where you can buy it. On the side of the blog or site have a thumbnail cover image with the words Buy at Amazon under it and link to the sales page on Amazon.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Tips for Formatting Your Book for Kindle with Bruce Jones and Winnie Anderson from The Let's Talk Tech Show
Below is the second show by Winnie Anderson's The Let's Talk Tech Show on Tips for Formatting Your Book for Kindle. In the show I
break down some of my essential tips for building out your Kindle/ebook.
This is the second of three interviews that I did with Winnie Anderson. This session also includes a free handout of tips and suggestions. We got to dig into some of my favorite tips for authors new to formatting their Kindle book, do's and don'ts. Using a screenshare I could show just what I wanted. You can check out the episode below and at YouTube.
To listen to the first show on some general Kindle publishing concepts please check out the post Tips for Successful Self-Publishing with Bruce Jone on The Lets Talk Tech Show with Winnie Anderson.
We also include the pdf notes and resources, and for a limited time a pdf copy of my new book, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing. Click here to download the notes.
To listen to the first show on some general Kindle publishing concepts please check out the post Tips for Successful Self-Publishing with Bruce Jone on The Lets Talk Tech Show with Winnie Anderson.
We also include the pdf notes and resources, and for a limited time a pdf copy of my new book, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing. Click here to download the notes.
Here is the full three part book publishing series with Winnie Anderson
Show One, on general self-publishing and why you should have a book, podcast
http://theletstalktechshow.com/tips-for-successful-self-publishing/
Show Two, marketing your book, tips and strategies, podcast
http://theletstalktechshow.com/marketing-your-self-published-book/
Show Three, Tips on formatting your Kindle book, video
https://youtu.be/B8vxK2JCG3M
Show One, on general self-publishing and why you should have a book, podcast
http://theletstalktechshow.com/tips-for-successful-self-publishing/
Show Two, marketing your book, tips and strategies, podcast
http://theletstalktechshow.com/marketing-your-self-published-book/
Show Three, Tips on formatting your Kindle book, video
https://youtu.be/B8vxK2JCG3M
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Tips for Successful Self-Publishing with Bruce Jones on the Lets Talk Tech Show
I had great time last week being interviewed by Winnie Anderson of the Let's Talk Tech podcast from TheLetsTalkTechShow.com. This is the first of 3 episodes on Kindle book publishing that we recorded. The first show covers Kindle production topics. A big thank you to Winnie for inviting me on her show
Including:
• Common mistakes made creating an e-book
• How you can re-purpose your book for additional products
• Some time and production cost estimates
• And lots of conversations on how to outsource.
You can listen to the full episode over at TheLetsTalkTechShow.com
http://theletstalktechshow.com/tips-for-successful-self-publishing/
We also include the pdf notes and resources, and for a limited time a pdf copy of my new book, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing. Click here to download the notes.
Including:
• Common mistakes made creating an e-book
• How you can re-purpose your book for additional products
• Some time and production cost estimates
• And lots of conversations on how to outsource.
You can listen to the full episode over at TheLetsTalkTechShow.com
http://theletstalktechshow.com/tips-for-successful-self-publishing/
We also include the pdf notes and resources, and for a limited time a pdf copy of my new book, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing. Click here to download the notes.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Where Do I Print My Hardcover Children's Book?
Question: Hi Bruce. I came across you via YouTube. I am an aspiring children's book publisher. I feel strongly about publishing to hard cover. Where do I pursue that?
Answer: Hi and thank you for reaching out. Most of what I do centers around using CreateSpace.com which is the print on demand side of Amazon. They only have paperback and vertical or square
If you want to go with hardcover and use the print on demand world then there are several other options all which use Print on Demand, You can use IngramSpark.com which also opens you up to the bookstore market and world wide distribution along with Amazon.
Two other sites are Lulu.com and Blurb.com both of which have hardcover and have relationships with Amazon. What I like about CreateSpace.com is that it is Amazon and it is free to use. IngramSpark is $49 plus the $85 for the ISBN. You could also use this ISBN number with CreateSpace. With Ingram you are acting like a publisher. which is good but a little more work.
Lulu and Blurb are free to use, all fees get charged when the books sell but nothing is out of your pocket. Of these two I would pick Lulu, mostly because of the selling price of the book, Blurb gets a little pricy. Lulu also has a horizontal format.
You could also just go out and just print the book and then deal with distribution on your own. That can be a pain.
If you want hardcover my recommendation would be to do both CreateSpace and IngramSpark but with your own ISBN number which you would buy from Ingram so that you are in their world.
Resources
http://www.CreateSpace.com
http://www.IngramSpark.com
http://www.Lulu.com
http://www.Blurb.com
Join our Facebook Publishing Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Answer: Hi and thank you for reaching out. Most of what I do centers around using CreateSpace.com which is the print on demand side of Amazon. They only have paperback and vertical or square
If you want to go with hardcover and use the print on demand world then there are several other options all which use Print on Demand, You can use IngramSpark.com which also opens you up to the bookstore market and world wide distribution along with Amazon.
Two other sites are Lulu.com and Blurb.com both of which have hardcover and have relationships with Amazon. What I like about CreateSpace.com is that it is Amazon and it is free to use. IngramSpark is $49 plus the $85 for the ISBN. You could also use this ISBN number with CreateSpace. With Ingram you are acting like a publisher. which is good but a little more work.
Lulu and Blurb are free to use, all fees get charged when the books sell but nothing is out of your pocket. Of these two I would pick Lulu, mostly because of the selling price of the book, Blurb gets a little pricy. Lulu also has a horizontal format.
You could also just go out and just print the book and then deal with distribution on your own. That can be a pain.
If you want hardcover my recommendation would be to do both CreateSpace and IngramSpark but with your own ISBN number which you would buy from Ingram so that you are in their world.
Resources
http://www.CreateSpace.com
http://www.IngramSpark.com
http://www.Lulu.com
http://www.Blurb.com
Join our Facebook Publishing Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Working with Photo for Your Journal Books Hangout training
I am doing a Google Hangout today Thursday Feb 4th at 3:00pm EST on working with photos for your Journal Books. I will be showing some design techniques for photos, answering questions. You can watch the video below
You can also watch by clicking on this link https://plus.google.com/events/cgc0chttkp49ufud64i5u8qfshc?hl=en
Topics included in this live video training by J. Bruce Jones from the Easy Journal Books online video course. I cover a series of question that we get asked about using and customizing photos in your journal books. For this training I work in PowerPoint but most of the tips will also work with InDesign.
Remember that CreateSpace needs a ½” margin around the outside of the page.
We talked about where to put photos on the page. Do you put them on inside, outside, to the blue line that comes with the template or the outside of the images.
How you bring photo onto the page, Using the Insert photo command or Dragging the photos onto the page
Dealing with different sizes, showing how, using a box as a template you can even everything up
How to crop images in PowerPoint
How to make photo Black and White in PowerPoint, this was cool I had forgetten all about this. You can also use Photoshop to change the color.
Label your photos so you can easily find the correct ones. We talked about file maintance and organization. Important for keeping organized.
Adding Captions, Yes people love captions on their images. Often reading the captions first.
Where do you put the photos inside of the page or on the outside, where do the photos go? Most people put them on the outside edge of the journal pages. But it is up to you, I talk about it
Adding page numbers? Usually with journal books you don’t have page numbers, but depending on what you are doing it can work.
To learn more about Easy Journal Book, Step-by-Step Course for Making and Selling Journal Books
http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/easy-journal-books/
Join our Facebook How to Publish Your Book Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Be sure to sign up and download our free Book Marketing Checklist and Launch Action Plan for Authors over on the right
You can also watch by clicking on this link https://plus.google.com/events/cgc0chttkp49ufud64i5u8qfshc?hl=en
Topics included in this live video training by J. Bruce Jones from the Easy Journal Books online video course. I cover a series of question that we get asked about using and customizing photos in your journal books. For this training I work in PowerPoint but most of the tips will also work with InDesign.
Remember that CreateSpace needs a ½” margin around the outside of the page.
We talked about where to put photos on the page. Do you put them on inside, outside, to the blue line that comes with the template or the outside of the images.
How you bring photo onto the page, Using the Insert photo command or Dragging the photos onto the page
Dealing with different sizes, showing how, using a box as a template you can even everything up
How to crop images in PowerPoint
How to make photo Black and White in PowerPoint, this was cool I had forgetten all about this. You can also use Photoshop to change the color.
Label your photos so you can easily find the correct ones. We talked about file maintance and organization. Important for keeping organized.
Adding Captions, Yes people love captions on their images. Often reading the captions first.
Where do you put the photos inside of the page or on the outside, where do the photos go? Most people put them on the outside edge of the journal pages. But it is up to you, I talk about it
Adding page numbers? Usually with journal books you don’t have page numbers, but depending on what you are doing it can work.
To learn more about Easy Journal Book, Step-by-Step Course for Making and Selling Journal Books
http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/easy-journal-books/
Join our Facebook How to Publish Your Book Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Be sure to sign up and download our free Book Marketing Checklist and Launch Action Plan for Authors over on the right
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
I Want to Start Writing Books, What Do I Do?
Hi Bruce,
So I have a [question]. I am interested in finding a publisher for two books. Tell me a little more about your services and whether that is within your scope. Given that nonprofit work does not provide funding on its own and I am a debt laden student, writing might be a viable way of generating income.
Answer, Hi, thank you for reaching out. Great question. Basically what I do is that I am a graphic designer and in that world I often am working on clients books. I also write and create a lot of books for myself and sell them on Amazon using Createspace and Kindle. Createspace for print and Kindle for ebooks. I now have over 41 of my own titles.
I also teach people how to make their own books. I have a active Facebook group called How to Publish Your Book where we have a community, come on over an join
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
I also have courses on book publishing and am building a Book Publishing School, http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/
I would encourage you to write and create books and then you can put them up on CreateSpace. it is free to publish there and with some promotion you can sell books. I now sell 450+ books a month. You can do most of what you need right out of MS Word and then hire someone or use CreateSpace templates to make a cover. If you do the work it can all be free.
One of my courses on Book marketing is free and shows you the marketing stuff http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/how-to-market-your-book
As I said in encourage you to start writing and putting together your books, let me know if you have questions
bruce
Check out two of my sites that will get you started on writing your books
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Book Publishing School, http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/
So I have a [question]. I am interested in finding a publisher for two books. Tell me a little more about your services and whether that is within your scope. Given that nonprofit work does not provide funding on its own and I am a debt laden student, writing might be a viable way of generating income.
Answer, Hi, thank you for reaching out. Great question. Basically what I do is that I am a graphic designer and in that world I often am working on clients books. I also write and create a lot of books for myself and sell them on Amazon using Createspace and Kindle. Createspace for print and Kindle for ebooks. I now have over 41 of my own titles.
I also teach people how to make their own books. I have a active Facebook group called How to Publish Your Book where we have a community, come on over an join
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
I also have courses on book publishing and am building a Book Publishing School, http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/
I would encourage you to write and create books and then you can put them up on CreateSpace. it is free to publish there and with some promotion you can sell books. I now sell 450+ books a month. You can do most of what you need right out of MS Word and then hire someone or use CreateSpace templates to make a cover. If you do the work it can all be free.
One of my courses on Book marketing is free and shows you the marketing stuff http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/how-to-market-your-book
As I said in encourage you to start writing and putting together your books, let me know if you have questions
bruce
Check out two of my sites that will get you started on writing your books
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/
Book Publishing School, http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/
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