Self publishing: WARNING NSFW link

This is an excellent article about the mistakes authors continue to make in self-publishing. Just one note the writer uses a lot (and I do mean a lot) of swear words to make his point. Close your mind to the bad language and pay attention to his points. They’re worth noting.

Among his points are: Ensure your work is edited properly, lay out your pages properly, get a good cover, have interesting and accurate back matter, and work on your craft. Making the book the best it can be is up to the author. Authors need to take every step of the process seriously.

Here is the full article:
http://johnhartness.com/2015/05/21/why-your-self-published-book-looks-like-a-pile-of-ass-and-wont-ever-make-you-any-money/


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Why (and why not) to change a book’s cover

One of the definite advantages of self publishing is that you have to provide your own cover for your book. The good news is, if you get it wrong, it’s not too hard to change it.

Marketing for writers lists six reasons to change your book’s cover. These include to make it more relevant to the book’s theme or genre, to get rid of a bad cover, to update the book if it was looking tired and dated, and to link it to other books in a series.

They also advise against changing the cover too often or readers might get confused and possibly annoyed.

As with every part of preparing your book for sale, work hard to produce (or commission) the most appropriate cover for you book. But don’t panic. If it turns out you made a mistake, it’s not the end of the world.

The full article is here:
http://www.marketing4writers.net/home/6-good-marketing-reasons-for-changing-your-book-cover-and-2-reasons-not-to

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

An excellent article re self promotion

Over and over and over again all the studies show that the absolutely best promo for an author is to write another good book. Yet the vast majority of authors still spend many precious writing hours on every social media site known to mankind, trying to build a platform, struggling to make their brand stand out, and their name lodge in the minds of readers.

Facebook has many staff whose job it is to keep rearranging their algorithms so the way your fans see your messages is via paid posts, or only if they are among the 10% allowed see any given post. Amazon has much the same way of managing things so its own books always come up at the top of a search.

Blog hits, tweets, pins and so on don’t necessarily sell books. Oh a reader here or there might be excited by what she reads and buy something or download a free book, but they’re the exception. Not the rule. How many pairs of RayBan sunglasses have you purchased because that ad keeps turning up in your Facebook feed?

Social media is meant to be just that. Social. Talking to people, getting to know their pets, their gardens, their families, and also what book they’re writing. Building relationships takes time. Hours, weeks, months even.

Delilah Dawson has written two excellent articles about author self-promotion.
“There is no road map to success here. Most of the authors seeing the results I would like have either been writing for 20 years, have publishers dead-set on a bestseller and paying mad bank to help it happen, or wrote a book better than what I believe I'm capable of writing, and all I can do is keep trying to level up.… Let's write better books. Quietly.”

Read the articles here: http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work
http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/14/wait-keep-talking-author-self-promo-that-actually-works

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Just Don't

I’ve just read an amazing article on the power of the word Just.

Just think for a moment about how you use that little word. Just four letters, but it’s such a powerful word. However, so often it’s putting the user down, making the speaker/writer seem insecure, excusing themselves for their own thoughts and actions. It almost always puts the user in the subservient position.

If you don’t believe me pick out the word in my few previous sentences. I’ve tried to use it in as many different ways as possible to illustrate the article I’ll give you the link for in a moment.

“just read”: I’m entreating you to pay attention because this is all new.

“just think”: I’m begging you, not telling you. “Think” alone would tell you what to do.

“just four”: again I’m downplaying it. “Four” conveys all the needed information by itself.

Okay, here’s the article. It’s well worth reading.
http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/real-life/the-four-letter-word-thats-holding-you-back-20150609-ghjwes.html


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

Libraries list the most popular books borrowed

Library and Information Week has just ended in Australia and the Australian Library and Information Association has published its annual list of the most borrowed books.
Remember, this is an Australian list, but I’m sure readers will recognize many of the titles.

ADULT FICTION TITLES
1. Never Go Back by Lee Child
2. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
3. The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connolly
4. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
5. Eyrie by Tim Winton
6. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
7. Inferno by Dan Brown
8. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
10. A Wanted Man by Lee Child


CHILDREN'S BOOKS
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
2. 13-Storey, 26 Storey and 39-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
3. Geronimo and Thea Stilton series by Elisabetta Dami
4. Spot series by Eric Hill
5. The Wrong Book by Nick Bland
6. Just! series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
7. Once by Morris Gleitzman
8. Peck Peck Peck by Lucy Cousins
9. Selby series by Duncan Ball
10. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne


Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.