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How to Come Up with the Perfect Book Title

I’m sharing another of my posts that ran last year on The Self Publisher blog. 

Struggling with coming up with the perfect title for your book? You’re not alone. In few words, you have to catch the interest of potential readers and, hopefully, get them excited to read your book.

It’s not easy! But there are obvious and practical considerations that will help you in this endeavor.

We’ve all heard the saying “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” But, truth is, people do judge a book by its cover. Authors well know that a cover can make or break a book release.

A badly designed or unappealing cover will influence a potential reader’s decision to even glance at a book, never mind buy it. This is especially true when an author doesn’t have star name recognition.

Another saying comes to my mind: “A picture speaks a thousand words.” Covers that are evocative, portray symbolic or beautiful imagery, are aesthetically appealing in their design draw readers in for a closer look. If self-published authors have learned anything about success in the competitive book marketplace, it’s how crucial a great book cover is.

Continue Reading…

Using KDSPY to Optimize Your Book Marketing

kdsI’ve written about KDSPY on occasion and have used it to great success (as have many writer friends). This post ran on The Self Publisher, drawn from my Targeting Genre online video course.

There’s no worse scenario for an author than launching a new book out into the world and watching, waiting, and hoping for sales, week after week, and … nothing.

Knowing how much competition there is for book sales, writers need every edge in getting their books discovered, and acquiring real-time data on what books sell well, what keywords are actually generating sales, and which subgenres are “hot” will give you that edge.

Finding a Genre That Sells Well

There are a number of ways you can research which genres sell well, but that’s not the only criteria for finding a genre you can sell big in.

In fact, big-selling genres are flooded with books, so it’s not an easy task writing a book that will rise above the thousands of others.

Even looking at subgenres shows a lot of competition.

But here’s the key point: Certain genres are big sellers because there are a lot of people reading those genres.

There may be huge supply, but there is also huge demand.

You could very successfully choose a specialized subgenre that doesn’t have the high numbers of romance or thrillers have.

But, if there is enough demand, and the top books in that subgenre are making good money, there is room for you to make good money too.

Meaning: sell a lot of books. Continue Reading…

Everything You Need to Know about Your Author Website

This post originally ran on my publishing site The Self Publisher. Check to see if your author website rocks!

You know you need one. Or maybe you already have one.

But is your author website everything it needs to be?

What is the point of having an author website, and what does it need to accomplish?

The answer seems obvious: your website is the place readers discover you and your books and, one hopes, compels readers to buy those books.

But it’s not as simple as posting great book descriptions and sharing a few photos of yourself, your cat, and your awesome book covers. So much more goes into creating an effective author website. It’s all part of your larger marketing strategy.

There is often a correlation between your website and book sales.

Numerous authors who previously sold barely a handful of books have gone on to make a fortune in sales after revamping ineffective websites, so it behooves any serious author to invest some time and money in crafting one. Continue Reading…

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