How to Assure Getting a Book Cover That Sells

 

Book Cover Tips Your Publish Might Not Know

 

How to Partner with Your Cover Designer

 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Award-winning writer of fiction and poetry and
author of the multi award-winning 
#HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

 

 If you have a traditional publisher, or a publisher who does your book cover for you, do you really need to read this article on what makes a great book cover and the booboos too many authors and publishers make with their covers? All I can tell you is, I wish I had seen it before my first book was released!

 

And you should know that the wonderful graphic designer who did all my #HowToDoItFrugally books before I found my much-loved publisher for the series, was also one of the “sharingest” friends one could ask for. He was creative and knew his book cover business. But he had another talent more seldom seen among his ilk—he knew marketing. More specifically, he knew book marketing.

 

So you needed to know that though I learned many of these great book cover tips after falling into a few big puddles on my own (failure is the best of teachers!), many of them came straight from him. I’m so glad he was in my life. But for a short time. Last year he died too young so this “sharing” celebrates him and his best of qualities. I have included a link to one of his covers in this article. Even the font is his, inspired by Times New Roman but combined with some others—some even more ancient--to subliminally appeal to an even broader audience of readers and writers.

 

So, these are “our” basic tenets, Charles DeSimone and mine, for a book cover that sells:

 

1. Use a subtitle. It is your second chance to publicize your book right up front. Even books of fiction can benefit from a subtitle.

2. Use another subtitle on the back—not the same one as on the front. How many times in life do you get a third chance? This one helps sell your book to browsers who turn it over in bookstores to read the endorsements. But if it is filled with keywords it also works miracles with those mysterious beasts known as algorithms.

3. Use enticing blurbs on the back, with lots of space between and around them. Use bold typeface, a frame or some other graphic trick to make them stand out.

4. Don't use borders on the books covers. Sometimes the spine doesn't align well in production and it will look like Mondrian painting gone awry.

5. Having said that, use a bright color or one dark enough for your cover to stand out online. White gets lost or looks ghostly on an all-white B&N.com or Amazon sales page.

6. Use big letters on the spine. Make them read up and down if the title isn't too long. 

When it is displayed on a shelf at the bookstore or on a TV host’s bookshelf, the reader won’t have to twist his/her head to see read the words.

7. Author bios needn't go on the back cover of your book. They do equally well in in the backmatter and you'll have more space to convince readers of your expertise or credibility as a writer with those endorsements.

8. An author's picture that tells more of a story than just a head shot is desirable. (If you would like to see an example of this, my picture is with my Great Dane, e-mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com and I'll send it to you. She is spotted and looks like an overgrown Dalmation so she catches everyone's eye!) Your photo should be taken by a professional. There are little things about shadows and the position of your head that an amateur photographer won't get right.

9. On the front cover, make the title and your name BIG. Look at the covers in bookstores. The real standouts are the ones that aren' t squeamish about shouting out these most important marketing tools. The title is at the top. The authors' name at bottom. Nora Roberts wouldn't put up with puny lettering, so why should you? (This is probably the single most important rule and it is most violated by amateur artists and professionals alike.)

10. Discourage your publisher from using a template. Some subsidy-, partner, or independent publishers make their covers as similar as seeds from a thistle.

11. If you are independently published, consider using a real pro for your cover, not your uncle who happens to be a graphic designer but knows nothing about book covers per se. (You might notice that Chaz broke his own white-background rule. Rules are made to be broken for a very good reason. The reason we used it that made his glorious original type face stand out.You know, the one meant to evoke memories for writers.

 

Unfortunately, Chaz’ website no longer exists but you can get an idea of his work by going to Amazon’s buy page for the second edition of my the flagship book in my HowToDoItFrugally series. The Frugal Book Promoter. It’s at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo. Don’t buy it there, though! Use the Amazon widget located under the title to take you to the more complete and updated third edition designed by Doug West after Charles’ demise.

PS: I bet you want to know the biggest secret to get a great cover design.  Hire a great graphic/artist with book marketing chops, of course, but insist on being part of the process. Feel free to reprint this credited to Chaz and me with this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T.

 

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG’s CONTRIBUTOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson tries to share something she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative) with the subscribers and visitors to Karen Cioffi’s Writers on the Move blog each month.

She is the author of the multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally. Series of books for writers including the third edition of its flagship book The Frugal Book Promoter and, more recently, the third edition of The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press. Find both (among her others in that series) on the new Amazon Series page. The new edition of The Frugal Editor book was recently updated including a new chapter on how backmatter can be extended to help readers and nudge book sales.

You, Your Reviews and Your Lifelong Marketing

You, Your Reviews and Your Lifelong Marketing

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the winningest book in her 
#HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for Writers, The Frugal Editor

Generally speaking, your two most important parts of a writing career is your byline and credit line. You will find an example of the byline in its most helpful form above, and an example of the credit line below this article as a mini bio. (The lease effective credit line—and shortest—I have ever seen was in the LA Times when only a moniker for Twitter (X) given. I mean, there wasn’t even an introduction saying what it was for! Nevertheless, even that was helpful to readers.

But in today’s #WritersontheMove, I want to celebrate (or mourn) the end of the release period of my The Frugal Editor, (about a year after the copyright or any book), I want to share with you important intricacies of reviews which is also the number one most effective marketing techniques for any book release no matter where it first appears—print, TV, radio, and online media, the cover of your book, or sometimes even handwritten reviews from the salespeople at your favorite hometown bookstore..

One of the reasons reviews and the excerpts that can be drawn from them (also called blurbs, testimonials, endorsements) are my favorite is they are likely to be the most active marketing period of a book—both pre- and post-release. Another is that they are so lasting I call them forever marketing techniques. And I want you to know one of the most important ways to keep them working for as long as you decide the life of your book should be—right up to its becoming a classic. As important as general reviews are (and I have written a tome-sized book on about every aspect of reviews called How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically) the big secret is in those excepts/blurbs. Below you will find a short example of a review that is ripe with possible excepts (many are!), but in Hollywood one great word like “fabulous!” is a poster-worthy excerpt that they call might call a “logline” in addition to all the other monikers I listed above. So, you can play this game as well as they. Ta da! 

Example of Full Review: Oh, how writers wish someone could take them by the hand and lead them directly to publishers, helping every step of the way? Look no further as all the answers are in this book, Third Edition of The Frugal Editor. Previous editions were excellent. Nothing could be better . . . except this book which has an additional 50% new content. The publishing world changes quickly, and this text allows writers to keep up with the ever-changing world of editors, publicists, finicky agents, trends, cultural expectations, queries, and media kits. Carolyn Howard-Johnson wastes no time clearly and succinctly explaining the how and why, sharing little known secrets and exploding grammar myths. Information about possible scams and misinformation is important to understand. Save yourself time and money by learning from the best, Howard-Johnson.” ~ Carolyn Wilhelm, BA, MA, MS and author of environmental content is a veteran educator

Excerpted for Passion: “Oh, how writers wish someone could take them by the hand and lead them directly to publishers, helping every step of the way? Look no further as all the answers are in this book, Third Edition of The Frugal Editor. Previous editions were excellent. Nothing could be better . . . except this book which has an additional 50% new content.” ~ Carolyn Wilhelm, BA, MA, MS, veteran educator, and author of environmental content  

NOTE: This could be three excerpts, depending on submission standards and other preferences and a little rearranging carefully using ellipses and parentheses advised for editing direct quotes.

Excerpted to Impart Specific Information: “The publishing world changes quickly, and [the 3^rd Edition of The Frugal Editor] allows writers to keep up with the ever-changing world of editors, publicists, finicky agents, trends, cultural expectations, queries, and media kits.” ~ Carolyn Wilhelm, BA, MA, MS and author of environmental content is a veteran educator

Note the use of parentheses.

Excerpted for Brevity: 1. “Save yourself time and money by learning from the best, Howard-Johnson.” ~ Carolyn Wilhelm, BA, MA, MS and author of environmental content is a veteran educator

There are a couple of extras where the clarifying changes might require the permission of the reviewer; that is generally not a problem when you explain the quotation will include their credentials and/or the name of the media in which it first appeared. Occasionally, that source-name is all that is needed.

This definitely isn’t that last thing you should know about this process, but it’s an important one. Copy-and-paste or otherwise preserve both reviews and blurbs whenever and wherever you find them. Put them in a file. Remember, reviews are forever. You might even reuse some of them when you publish your book’s second or tenth edition.

About the Author

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including USA Book News’ winner for The Frugal Book Promoter. An instructor for UCLA Extension's renowned Writers Program for nearly a decade, she believes in entering (and winning!) contests and anthologies as an excellent way to separate our writing from the hundreds of thousands of books that get published each year. Two of her favorite awards are Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment given by members of the California Legislature and “Women Who Make Life Happen,” given by the Pasadena Weekly newspaper. She is also an award-winning poet and novelist, and she loves passing along the tricks of the trade she learned from marketing those so-called hard-to-promote genres. Learn more on her website at https://HowToDoItFrugally.com. Let Amazon notify you when she publishes new books (or new editions!) by following her Amazon profile page at https://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Her The Frugal Editor is now in its third edition from Modern History Press and sorrowfully ending its official release year. Let it help you edit your 2024 work-in-process and happy new year.

Amazon Adds New Marketing Aid for Their KDP Print Books

From Carolyn Howard-Johnson,
Author of The Frugal Book Promoter, 3^rd Edition

This may be the shortest post I’ve ever done for this #WritersontheMove blog. But why wait when there is good news afoot. And why stretch it out? I’ll try to keep it simple, too. 

Amazon just announced the best new feature they have instituted for the benefit of authors in a very long time. It’s for print books only—paper or hardcover. It will help Amazon authors with a pre-release feature that is very nearly as valuable as the preorder campaigns big publishers are using for their books. 

Think Rachel Maddow’s Prequel. I just ordered it. Her hardcover of that title is promised on October 17^th at a bit of a discount. It seems to me that her book has been available for preorder for what seemed an immeasurable chunk of time. If it’s a good enough marketing tool for Maddow, indies, and those published by a publisher smaller than Penguin sure enough should want to use a similar marketing technique for their books. Whether you have your manuscript ready now or plan one for the future. The announcement from Amazon makes it clear that the new plan isn’t quite as broad as it is for Penguin and other biggies, but there are intimations that, too, may be on the horizon. Until then, we will now be able to set our own release dates for print up to 90 days in advance.

Here's what self-published authors (Amazon-published authors) of print books (including hardcover books) can now do and it came straight from Amazon to my mailbox: 

 

“We're excited to announce that starting today (Oct 5, 2023), you have the option to decide when your book’s detail page [I call that page our “buy page”] becomes available to readers on Amazon for your KDP paperback and hardcover books. When creating a new print book, you'll see an option to release your book now or schedule a release date. If you choose to schedule a release date, you'll be able to select a date 5 to 90 days in the future for your book to go live on Amazon. On this date, the book’s detail page will become visible at 12:00 AM GMT for readers to purchase your KDP book on Amazon everywhere you have territory rights.”

 

This will let Amazon-publishing peeps...

1.    Have a big hunk of time to use the Amazon link for their book’s buy page on much or all of their pre-marketing campaign—up to ninety days.

2.    That allows us to spend time focused on engaging readers and marketing our books instead of doing the rushed release so many authors tend to do now.

3.    You can order author copies early so you’ll be covered for your very first launch party or book signing.

4.    You’ll have that comfort level of knowing the copies you order are on their way. 

Reminder: Please note, scheduling a release date is not the same as setting a preorder time for your readers to buy your book—yet. KDP says, “KDP doesn’t offer [that] for print books at this time. To learn more about release date options, supported formats, and requirements, visit our Help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/GZUV7SNV728WT4QE .”

MORE ABOUT TODAY'S CONTRIBUTOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, editor, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books published by Modern History Press include the third editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor which won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and the coveted Irwin award. That series includes books on other topics for writing as varied as writing book proposals and editing tricky homonyms. 

Here's What You May Not Know About Adverbs

Pesky Adverbs or the Means to Making Pure Gold?

 

Here’s What You Seldom Hear About Adverbs

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 
writer of fiction, poetry, and the multi-award winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers

 

We are often warned that adverbs can be overdone. Then writers take the warning too literally; they think they shouldn’t use any at all! 

 

Of course, we wouldn't have adverbs if they didn't serve a purpose. But when we examine them—carefully (very carefully!) we often find that they duplicate a quality that the verb itself (or another adverb) has already achieved for us. That makes them redundant. 

 

Adverbs are often awkward. Or they slow down the forward movement of a sentence. Or both.

 

Authors often worry when an editor removes their adverbs. They think those edits will change their voices. Though an author can (and should) reject edits that he/she thinks aren't appropriate, these edits of adverbs rarely change a voice. Certainly voice isn't achieved by using adverbs or most other edits. It is achieved by much subtler elements of writing. Point of view. Use of colloquialism or slang. Choice of detail. 

 

For the most part, I think most writers worry way too much on having their voice changed and not enough about improving their writing skills.

 

Having said that, I worry more about editors who don’t really have the training to be editors. Would an editor really remove all of a writer’s adverbs? And how would a new author know if an editor is overstepping if he/she doesn’t have lots of information on editing under his or her own little writer’s belt?

 

I hope those of you who have been relying on an outside editor—someone you hired or a friend—will read The Frugal Editor in its 3^rd edition and now published by Modern History Press. It includes lots of do-it-yourself stuff. I know most authors—you?—don’t hire an editor for all the daily stuff they do like writing query letters, media releases, etc.) but this book also includes how to partner with an editor, how to save money hiring an editor, and how to hire one that is compatible with your personality and the kind of writing you do. Many good editors like Barbara McNichol (www.barbaramcnichol.com) specialize in specific genres, nonfiction vs. fiction, etc. Larry Brooks (www.storyfix.com) helps writers of fiction with structure. Good editors know that it is hard to be an expert at everything.

 

Editing is a two-way street. There's gotta be some trust and also some confidence. The more an author knows about editing, the better equipped she or he is to discard or keep edits. That’s comforting. But it’s essential to know things like agents’ pet peeves. They rarely have anything to do with the grammar we learned in the fourth grade.

 

Essential? Yes, because those are the documents you send to the people who have something to say about the future of your book including newspaper and magazine feature editors, movie producers, and the millions of folks who read what you put out there on the web. So, yep. Examine every adverby "ly" word. And then use each one to your advantage. Know the adverbs we usually don’t think of when we hear the term adverbs (like “even” and “just”). There is a list in The Frugal Editor (see Amazon’s new series page for it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTXQL27T .) Make a list of the ones you tend to overuse. Either discard each one or use one of the methods in The Frugal Editor to turn them into more visual writing. Their best quality? Adverbs can turn you into a magician—that is help you turn them into image-producing gold—similes, or better, metaphors.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults, and speaks on issues of publishing. Learn more about her other authors' aids at https://www.howtodoitfrugally.com. She blogs on editing at https://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com and all things publishing (not just editing!) at https://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com. She tweets writers' resources at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo .

 

 

                                                                         LINKEDIN

Celebrating the 3rd Edition of The Frugal Editor with a List of Resources

Recommended Reading, Listening,
 And Help from The Frugal Editor

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

 

   I am celebrating the release of the third edition of the second book in my HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for Writers with peek at the Appendics for visitors to Karen Cioffi’s #WritersontheMove blog. It’s a list of recommended reading for authors, some of them oldies but goodies, some new. It is a way to express gratitude and underscore my belief that reading one book on any how-to topic for the publishing industry is never enough because there is no more frugal way for a newbie to learn more about a new career. A great book with notes in the margins is much, much less expensive that classes from respected writers’ schools. And there is no better way than to learn more about publishing than from experts who have been there, done that, and care enough to have taken time from that trajectory to share with other authors.

 

In the Appendix of The Frugal Editor, you'll also find lists of the agents who contributed to the chapters on writing picture-perfect query letters, a short list of common errors, sample query letters, sample cover letters and even writing aids. Here are some recommended books, books I have read and found something new and important for my work in progress (WIP) or surviving the expectations of the traditional world of publishing. The editing process can be so much fun it become as addictive as chewing gum. Like chewing gum, there are some great benefits.

 

Editing

Lapsing Into a Coma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--And How to Avoid Them, by Bill Walsh.

 

Editors

Barbara McNichol, editor and writer, was introduced earlier in this book. Learn more about her at www.barbaramcnichol.com.

 

Dr. Bob Rich, an Aussie who can bring a worldwide sensibility for the English language to titles that would benefit from that expertise. Find him on Twitter @bobswriting.

 

Grammar and Style

AP Stylebook by Associated Press. This is the better of two major stylebooks for those who write for newspapers and other print and online media.

 

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right, by Bill Bryson.

 

Chicago Manual of Style by the University of Chicago Press Staff. It’s the go-to source for authors of books as opposed to online or print media.

 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss. For the author who doesn’t mind following strict grammar rules assiduously.

 

Far From the Madding Gerund, by Geoffrey K. Pullum et al. Those of you who are thinking what the heck is a gerund? are the ones who should be reading this.

 

Garner's Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner, is complete and excellent for Americans. Choose the more formal style choices this book offers to avoid riling the ire of gatekeepers like agents and publishers. 

Grammar Snobs Are Big Meanies: Guide to Language for Fun & Spite, by June Casagrande. Use this book when you want to argue with an editor, not when you want to impress one. A more formal tome for that purpose is The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (Fowler and Burchfield). It isn't nearly as entertaining, however. And authors (as compared to freelance writers) probably won’t learn as much from it.

 

The American Heritage Book of the English Language is available only in hardcover and is expensive, but you’ll find features in it you love.

 

Perrin and Smith Handbook of Current English has been around so long you might find it in a used bookstore. When you’ve read it, you’ll know the difference between temerity and timidity—or at least know to look them up. “Half knowing a word may be more dangerous than not knowing it at all” is the kind of truth you’ll find within its pages.

 

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. A classic.

 

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by William Strunk Jr. , E. B. White, Roger Angell. Do not read this until you fully understand the difference between a style book and a book of grammar basics.

 

The Describer's Dictionary: A Treasury of Terms & Literary Quotation, by David Grambs. Keep this one forever and add your own notes when you visit museums and other places where you might encounter words you don’t know.

 

Craft of Writing

Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella is a must-read because poor dialogue technique is a glaring tip-off to editors and publishers that a manuscript is written by a beginner who has not taken the time to learn our craft. Mini review from me: This book has everything you’ll ever need to know about writing dialogue.

 

Writing for Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End, by Karl Iglesias. Authors of books can learn a lot from great screenplays. 

 

Custom Dictionaries

Many professional organizations will share their print conventions with authors—from medical terms to lists of shady trees. Just ask. 

 

You’ll find my recommendations for frugal learning for other aspects of publishing in all the books in my HowToDoItFrugally Series. Today we’re celebrating the release of The Frugal Editor’s third edition and, because blog posts must be more limited that books, it is only a taste of the resources you will find in it.) Nevertheless, a good place to start is to subscribe to this blog so you get their articles directly to your email box and when they arrive do a search using each contributors names. Most of them have at least one how-to book for you to consider.

~~

MORE ABOUT THE FRUGAL EDITOR

Carolyn and her husband Lance edit
his how-to book for immigrants.

          That would be me, as well as the name of the book I am celebrating today. In its first edition The Frugal Editor (the book) was subtitled Put Your Best Foot Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. I wrote it because I needed a text for the class on editing I would soon be teaching for UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program. At that time (2007), available books on editing didn’t cover what all writers needed including self-publishers. It turned out to be the winningest book in my series of books for writers. 

I also write fiction and poetry and I think my favorite award for them was an honorable mention from Writer’s Digest for my first full book of poetry, ImperfectEchoes. I love #sharingwithwriters as a presenter and with visitors who frequent blogs like this one. So this bio comes with huge thanks to Karen Cioffi, owner of this Writers on the Move and many others who are celebrating with me.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson Gives Writers Nine Reasons To Love Amazon

Nine Big Reasons To Learn To Love Amazon

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 
author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugallySeries of books for writers

 

Remember the little greeting card girl who looked like Pipi Longstockings? She put her hands on her hips, stamped her little foot, glowered out of the card at her audience and said “Get Over It!” That’s a little like I feel when I hear an author complain about Amazon. Not that I don’t understand their complaints, even sometimes agree with them. What worries me is that sometimes these authors resort to boycotting Amazon which leads to their selling their books out of their garages…or worse. Though what you might have heard about Amazon may be true, but we authors still need to take the advice of Pipi’s look-alike and “get over it.” For the good of our books. If you are one of those authors, here’s why Amazon is good for your book and by extension, good for your peace of mind, and, yes, good for your book sales: 

 

1.     Amazon sells far and away more books than any other online 
bookstore. And far and away more books than all traditional bookstores in the US combined.

2.     Amazon provides easily accessed associate sites from Japan to the UK that let you sell your books overseas—even if you haven’t sold foreign rights to your book.

3.     Amazon provides a search engine arguably second only to Google’s—especially if you view this statistic from the standpoint of an author or publisher. Your prospective reader can find you by typing your name, title, or important key words like your genre into the search window.

4.     Promotion packages like Amazon’s Vine Program are available for getting reviewed by their top reviewers. Some are free, some are costly, but they all work.

5.     Amazon offers an author profile. You can even feed your blog and Twitter stream to it and so your readers know more about you instantly. If you don’t have a profile page, go to AuthorCentral.com and explore how you can add all your books to it and a knock-out biography, too.

 

Tip: I include a shortened URL in my e-mail signature that takes my contacts directly to my Amazon author profile.

 

6.     Amazon offers all kinds of ways to promote your book on a dedicated buy page where your readers get to buy your book, often with one click. That page includes:

o    Add-on features that let you highlight your credentials by choosing the best categories and subcategories for Amazon’s logarithms to find and rate your sales numbers against other similar books. (To make the most of these, the author must promote bestselling ratings when they achieve them—perhaps on Twitter.)

o    A new feature is available on your Kindle buy page. It is called “Amazon Plus.” Either the author of a book or its publisher may add five enticing quotations from your book and illustrate each with an arresting image of your choice for entry. Find the A+ entries my publisher (Modern History Press) added for the Kindle version of The Frugal Editor or any of the other books in my HowToDoItFrugally series to get ideas for your own book(s). (It works equally well for books of fiction.)

o    There is a place on your buy page to install an author- or book- related video.

o    The “What other customers buy after they’ve reviewed this item…” feature may feel uncomfortably competitive, but it connects your book to other top sellers on Amazon as well as others’ books to yours.

 

7.   7.  Amazon’s Kindle Select marketing program is free if you can see your way to committing your book as an Amazon exclusive for ninety days. After that period is up, you can publish at Smashwords or anywhere else you want to and you can make marketing hay with the Select program when your book is released.

8.    8. Amazon offers an annual contest for e-books in partnership with some of the biggest names in publishing.

9.   9.  When you publish new editions, Amazon offers a widget (gadget) for your backlist book’s buy page that directs readers to your new editions. See how one leads you from the second edition of my The Frugal Editorto the new third edition at my buy page. (Find it a little below the title of the book at the top of the page.

 

Tip: You may enter some typical “back of the book” features on your buy page yourself. That includes the more about the author, your favorite review, and more. Do watch this important page for changes. Amazon adds features to it and also taketh away. (It’s also the place that lists your book sales ratings. 

 

Don’t Forget: When your book becomes a bestseller in the ratings (or highly rated in its genre!) that news can become highly convincing marketing material for your book. You’ll find a screen shot of one of the ratings Modern History Press recently made for me during the release of the third edition of The Frugal Editor at the top of this blog page.

###

About the Guest Blogger

 

Cover image supplied by Amazon on their new Series Page

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a frequent contributor to this #WritersontheMove blog. Her The Frugal Editorwas just released in its third edition from Modern History Press. It is the second multi award-winning book in her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. Find it on Amazon in paper, hard cover, or as an e-book at the new Amazon page especially for series . (That’s a new Amazon feature, too!) This new edition has been fully updated including a chapter on how backmatter can be extended to both help readers and jumpstart book sales.

If you liked this post, you’ll find more on marketing books in the third edition of Carolyn’s The Frugal Book Promoter, the flagship book in her how-to series for writers.