Blogging, Writing, and Publishing

The goal is to have all versions of your book listed on all amazon book pages. This may automatically occur when publishing book versions simultaneously through Amazon's Createspace and Kindle Editions. However, what about publishing a print book with Lightning Source? Unless the description details the author / publisher of the book are exactly the same on both accounts (Lightning Source and Kindle setup pages), the books won't necessarily link. In fact, I published Get Rich in a Niche with Kindle first to test the market. When I was satisfied the Kindle book was selling well, I decided to publish with Create Space. Unfortunately the books did not link and I spent too much time not really concerned about it. Then I realized I was loosing a good marketing opportunity.  When books are not linked and each version stands alone, the author / publishers looses sales; period. Each version holds it's own reviews, buyers loose Kindle purchasing options ( for example,...

Wow, New Year’s Eve is just around the corner and many of us have already set goals. It’s traditional to plan events as the calendar rolls over to a new year. It’s great to dream big and visualize these goals, it’s quite another to actually reach them. So let’s talk self-publishing goals, writing and publishing a book in 2015 is a great one to strive for. It’s one thing to dream and another to plan. The difference is what you do from the vision to make it a reality. Here are some deliberate actions you can take to help you become a self-published author in 2015. 1. This of course is possible only if you have a book in mind. It is very possible to write and publish in 2015 by following a deliberate journey. The first step is to identify a book idea, outline it and determine how much writing is necessary to be ready for publishing. See http://redbikepublishing.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-to-write-and-publish-book-in-year.html#.VJHq_ek5B9A for an idea of how to assemble ...

January 1 is less than a month away and so are your resolutions. If you have taken the challenge of writing a book, congratulations. Here is what you can do to ensure success. The following article has been published before, but I'm re-writing it for this resolution purpose. Follow this step by step method t0 keep motivated to publish your book or work through the writing, editing process and self-publishing  process. 1. Outline your book-Begin with a blank page or empty word document. On that page, write the book’s topic anywhere you’d like as long as you know it’s the focal point of the brainstorm. Then, write as many words as you can to support that topic. For example, in Get Rich in a Niche, I started with the topic “write, publish and market to a niche”. Then I plastered all the white space with phrases such as: marketing ideas, how to write, formatting, kindle, CreateSpace, Lightning Source, Amazon, internet marketing, social media, become an expert,...

Submitting a pre-designed cover can be tricky depending on the type of software and computer system you are using. In my present set up, I am using Adobe Acrobat CS4 to design my books and cover. I also use it to format eBooks including Kindle format versions. Though uploading books is not usually a problem, submitting a cover is. Ugh, it's all squished. With CreateSpace, I can submit my manuscript and cover in PDF format. However, for Kindle, it is best to submit the manuscript in mobi or other Kindle recommended format. However, the cover must be submitted as an image and that's where the challenges come in. When designing a book for print, I design a cover with front, back and spine components. For an eBook, all that's needed is the front cover. I used to create this by taking a PDF and saving it as a jpeg or tiff image. Then I would crop out the spine and back cover, then save. I would then upload a perf...

CreateSpace is an excellent self-publishing solution. I primarily use Lightning Source for most of my publishing needs, but there are some advantages of printing with CreateSpace as well. Primarily, books are listed “in stock” at Amazon.com and CreateSpace stores if printed with CreateSpace. My Lightning Source books are available on Amazon.com but usually not listed “in stock”. Thus, I often make my books available for print with both Lightning Source and CreateSpace. If you chose to use one or the other, or both, make sure your title information, ISBN and other book administrative details are accurate and listed the same in both venues. Without that level of detail, your book manuscript and cover submissions may not be approved. Additionally, if you try to link your printed book with an Amazon.com Kindle version, or your paperback with your hardback version, it may prove difficult if title information details vary too greatly. For example, my manuscript is entitled Red Bike Publis...

Cover design by Jeff Bennett If you are publishing in a small niche, you might not have the budget for big time cover design. Costs for cover design can range from a few hundred to thousands. Such costs were not always an option in the early days of Red Bike Publishing. So, how do you get a world class book design? Well, you do it yourself. Here are a few ideas you can use in your book cover design: If you have In-Design or some other software meant for book design, then use my favorite choice. Do research and find out what  everyone else is doing. This means that you go online to Amazon.com and google: "Best-selling books in ____" then name Cover design by Jeff Bennett the genre. Bam, a list of books and cover pics is made available. Now all you have to do is see what catches your eye. This does not mean that you copy the cover pixel by pixel, that would just be wrong. However, it can clue you into what color schemes, fonts, art and placement are most...

Publish Like a Boss-You're in charge, you own a company. You are CEO, COO, Owner, Proprietor, Publisher or whatever you want to call yourself. Isn't that what the biggest rage was in the 70's where people built their empires on publishing companies? With advanced technology, software and distribution, you can too. All you need is creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. "How's your business going?" Selling any books lately?" "So, what are you writing?" This is what you can typically be hit with as your admiring connections begin to realize what you are up to. Now, everyone wants to know more about the niche sensation. Now, the next time you are at a party, someone will inevitably begin with, "I know a guy", or go into their own book idea, hoping you can help them make their book dreams a reality. Publishing like a boss earns new found respect from those who just had no idea of what you've been up to. It'...