Getting your book reviewed is a crucial step in your book marketing strategy. Positive reviews tell readers that your book is worthy of their time, entice your potential audience with plot descriptions, and give you instant credibility. But there’s more to the book review process than simply sending your book off to a reader and waiting for the result. First, you need to ensure that your book is ready for to be reviewed. Second, it’s important to choose the type of review that will best help you achieve your goals. And finally, you need to learn how to use your reviews to your advantage to sell more books. 

Before your electronic content can be sold, it must first be uploaded into a portal so that it can be processed and then distributed to online retailers. There are a few rules that must be followed to ensure the successful processing of your content with IngramSpark.

A well-designed book isn't just a collection of text and images; it's a work of art. And illustrations aren't just pictures interspersed throughout text, but crucial elements of decoration and style that bind a book’s theme and purpose. In this article, we ask you to take a moment to immerse yourself in the wonderful world where the illustrative magic begins.

You've worked hard to perfect your poems, and now you're ready to turn your collection into a finished book. Exciting, we know, but can you go it alone, or should you hire a book designer? There are several things to consider when turning your manuscript into a work of art—but don't worry. We’ll go over the eight most critical elements on the road to publishing your poems. 

Did you know writing poetry can improve your overall writing skills? Even if you don’t consider yourself a poet, writing poetry challenges your diction; ability to be concise, use of imagery, rhythm and storytelling skills.

When it comes to self–publishing a virtual title, one of the key questions that most authors come across is "how do I price my ebook?" While there's no one right answer to this task, there are a few wrong ones to keep in mind. As silly as it sounds, the goal is to price your ebook like an ebook. What does that mean? Well, for example, $99.99 is probably way more (unless you’re selling a college–textbook) than any potential customer would be willing to pay for an ebook. On the other hand, a virtual price tag of $14.99 will all of sudden widen your customer base and potential sales. Long story short, the best way to succeed with your ebook pricing strategy is to think like a reader.

Remember the days of Harry Potter mania? Practically every chain and indie bookstore in several countries had a release party for the latest J.K Rowling tome. Children, teenagers, and even parents clad in cloaks, crooked plastic glasses, and eyeliner lightning bolts waited for hours to get their hands on a copy of the latest book. I was a fixture in these lines, complete in my Hermione costume. We look back at these midnight literary festivities ten years later as a pop-culture touchstone. However, to people in the publishing industry, this is the perfect example of how pre-orders can make your book a success.

You could sell more of your books if you'd answer two questions honestly. First, how often do people think about your book? Second, how often do people think about their own problems? You will probably agree that people think more about how they can solve their own problems, learn something, improve themselves, or be entertained than they do about your book. However, if you can show them how reading your book helps them achieve these things, you are likely to increase your book sales and revenue, so let's cover how to target your book's audience.

Your book has been written, rewritten, beta read, edited and reedited to within an inch of its life.  Now it is time to design and layout the interior. One of the first decisions you will be asked to make is the height and width of the book. This is called the trim size. So you go to your bookshelf and pull down your favorite four books and notice that they are all 6x9. There! Decision made! But not so fast.

Some indie writers use beta readers and colleagues rather than professional editing and proofreading services, because it can be far less expensive to go without formal edits, and many indies—understandably!—would like to ease the costs of professional edits. While starting with beta readers is a fantastic idea, going without professional book editing altogether is a mistake.

After you've spent the time and money to edit, design, and market your book, the thought of selling it at a discounted price may seem counterintuitive. However, offering a discount is an excellent way to expand your reach in the book distribution channels. Discounting your book can help get it picked up by retailers. Here's how.

Authors and small publishers must have their own mobile-friendly, professional looking website—it is, by far, the most important element of a book marketing strategy. I've developed over 150 author and publisher websites in the last 20 years, and although a lot has changed when it comes to developing websites, some things remain fundamental. This blog is the complete guide to creating an author website—from domain names and costs all the way down to specific content categories. Read more and learn how to create a professional author website today.

For many years, the discussion around ebooks has been tied to print: which is better, more efficient, more reliable—as if the two options were pit head-to-head on a vs. match. But let's be realistic, both formats are on the same team. Skewed rhetoric has made it seem as if the two compete with each other when in reality, both could be working in tandem to bring your book more exposure. When it comes down to it, authors want their books to be seen by as many potential customers as possible. Offering a print AND ebook version of your books is one way to do that and with IngramSpark's newest updates to ebook distribution, your ebook format is even more visible than ever.

Book metadata and keywords might seem scary, but they’re really only the words and phrases that you use to describe yourself and your book. Your book metadata will consist of basic things such as your title, author name, author bio, book description, publication date, etc. Keywords are one or more words used to indicate the content of your book. Simply put, metadata and keywords are what make your book appear when a reader goes looking for a specific thing online, whether that thing is a book or not.

Congratulations! You’ve lined up an interview with a media outlet. Now you’ll get to share information about you and your brand, connect with new potential readers, broaden your network, and deepen your knowledge of promoting a book. 

These days, there’s a good chance you won’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home to do that. But before you get too comfortable, there are a few key things to keep in mind before, during, and after your interview that will ensure a smooth and successful experience.

With so many book marketing strategies available to promote your book, it's easy to get overwhelmed and have difficulty determining what to do and when to do it to give your book the best chance. Marketing a book is a complex part of the overall publishing process and takes proper planning. This book marketing timeline for indie authors is designed for the author who is just about to begin writing, however since all these strategies are important, you can begin to address each one no matter where you are in your publishing process.

You’ve just spent what seems like a huge chunk of your life writing your book, and now, at last, it’s time to hit that publish button . . . but not so fast! Is it really time to publish your book? Just because a book is finished doesn’t mean the timing is right. Your publication date is important. There are certain months that would be perfect for your book and make your pitch to retailers and media outlets easier, and some months you should avoid altogether. Below are some tips to help make sure your book doesn’t launch with bad timing.

Ringing in the New Year feels quite different this year. There seems to be this underlying expectation that come 12:01am on January 1, 2021, the flick of a “magic wand” will wrap up one of the most challenging years in history and put us all back on track toward normalcy once again. 

Want to instantly capture readers? No matter who you are or what genre your book falls into—nothing beats getting engrossed in a book description that leaves a reader wanting more. Short and long book descriptions both serve a purpose—to make you and your book look good. Before you start writing, here are a few things you need to know.

Authors can self-publish a book in many ways, from print publishing to digital publishing. No matter the format you choose, providing an ISBN is an important component to publishing your book. Let's talk about all things ISBN! 

At IngramSpark, our mission is to support you through your indie publishing journey. Nothing is more inspiring than writers like you sharing your stories—the reason behind your book, your "why." In May 2020, we asked the writing community to share their #WhyIPublish stories, and the response was overwhelming. In today's post, we're sharing some inspiring stories and a breakdown of the data from our #WhyIPublish survey.

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with readers. But, where do you start? In this post, I'll share tips for branding on social media, choosing what social media platforms to use, and following the social media "rule of thirds."

Prepping for your book launch is often shrouded in mystery. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of information out there about how best to do this. I know it’s tempting to give yourself some time to relax after all of your efforts to get the book ready for publication, but when the book is done, the planning starts. Launching your book without a plan is a plan to fail.

Pinterest was once a relatively niche social media platform with only a small marketing and ad presence. That has changed dramatically over the past few years as the platform has grown exponentially and attracted more and more brands for advertising purposes.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I am humbled and elated to be IngramSpark’s new director. Like many of you, my year has had ups and downs, but the height of my year has been joining the IngramSpark team and community. It’s clear to me that our indie authors and publishers empower each other and our team to make the world a more creative place. Hoping to be a catalyst for audacious innovation within the publishing industry, there is no better community to join than ours.

When it comes to getting the word out about your book, many authors immediately think of alerting the masses with a press release. A press release—typically a one or two page document offering a summary and highlighting the main themes of your book—is indeed an important element of marketing your book. However, there’s another piece to the promotion puzzle that may be even more important: the book pitch.

Books are definitely judged by their covers. Those with more compelling and impactful covers, quite simply, have a better chance of being purchased and read. Book cover design trends are constantly evolving, and they tend to affect the industry as a whole—but there are some tried and true examples of book cover ideas that can guide authors through the book design process. Let's take a look at some of the top book cover ideas and examples.

There’s been a lot to distract us this year! If you haven’t started planning your holiday book sales, you’re probably not alone. While there will still be a holiday buying season this year, the 2020 version will look a bit different than those of years past.

Do you think people actually read all the information in your literature, in your press releases, or on your website? Think again. Most people do not read your marketing copy word for word, but quickly scan the page looking for information that is helpful and important to them.

Social media writer's block. It's a thing! You have no problem hammering away at an 80,000-word novel, but when it comes to a 280 character tweet? Forget about it! You end up posting about what you had for dinner or what you did during the day, and nobody seems to be listening... or following. If that sounds like you, then these 13 social media marketing tips are just what you need.

For some writers, building a strong author platform comes naturally, but for others, essential book marketing steps might feel uncomfortable. Here are some tips that will make it easier.

Alright, you did it. The hard part is over. You wrote your book and have it in your hands. You've spent months, possible even years, writing this book. But... have you thought about publishing the audiobook version of it? 

Writing a book is hard work, but it’s only half the battle. Once your book is finished, you’ll need to promote it through marketing and publicity—and we’re not just talking about book signings and social media! Article writing is a great way to grow your audience and build a community.

If a book’s dedication is the opportunity to blow someone a kiss, a book’s acknowledgment feels more like the sort of welcoming hug one might give someone they care about after a long journey. There’s a distinction between the two. It comes down to breadth.  Let's break down how to write book acknowledgments. 

It's been over two years since we launched IngramSpark's self-publishing podcast, Go Publish Yourself, and we've been blown away by the positive response from indie publishers! With nearly 200,000 listens in more than 70 countries, the people have spoken—and we look forward to sharing more episodes with you in Season 5. Keep reading as we revisit some of the podcast's most popular episodes and share exciting news about what's to come!

This immortal anthem written in 1964 by Bob Dylan at the height of the civil rights movement in the U.S. has been dancing around in my head of late. When I looked up the lyrics, I had forgotten that the second verse specifically calls on writers to not miss this chance. Dylan himself later said, “This is definitely a song with a purpose…I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to.” Even though our current time is more than a half century later, I think Dylan’s call to writers to lift, inspire, and to tell the human story is even more important today.

Marketing. It’s a scary, dark hole that awaits published authors. The process of promoting one’s work can be intimidating and extremely overwhelming. The positive side of marketing is that there are endless ways to market with seemingly infinite possibilities. The dark hole – the challenging part – is not knowing where to begin while trying to figure out which path will be most beneficial for your book.

What I have learned is that there is only one way to know which of the many paths will work for you and which don’t, and that is by jumping in head-first. Before you sign up and pursue every path out there while also potentially emptying your pockets, read further for some helpful advice.

No matter the industry, the tech you use everyday requires regular maintenance. You take your car in every few thousand miles, the office copier gets monthly visits from the service tech, and the software you're using to write your next book gets regular updates from its developer.

But what about your website? 

Are you considering publishing your book in hardcover? Or converting your existing hardcover to IngramSpark’s new jacketed case laminate option?

Read on!

You can write the absolute best book in the world, have top-of-the-line book distribution and quality, but another essential part to being a successful publisher is taking the time to invest in expanding your publishing knowledge and expertise, because, at the end of the day, your book’s success needs your input.

Ah, research. For some authors, it is the bane of their existence, and for others, their bread and butter. Whether or not one takes any particular pleasure in it, research is integral to any writing process.

You’ve officially started the process of publishing your book! Congratulations; you have put in a significant amount of time and effort, and now the next step is beginning the process of marketing and publicizing to help let others know about the project you worked so long and hard on. This can seem like an overwhelming task, but you can learn to think like a publicist and incorporate media outreach into your marketing strategy. 

I think all people go through important transitional moments in their lives, and if we’re lucky, during those moments we stumble across tools that help us to find and better understand ourselves. When my mom died just before my final year of art school, I walked head-first into one of those major life-altering periods and my sense of self seemed to have been lost somewhere along the way. But there’s an interesting, and slightly magical, thing that happens when we lose a piece of ourselves — it makes room for new discovery. For me that discovery was poetry, specifically in published, physical form.

I first encountered the term ‘beta reader’ while reading Harry Potter fanfiction online. From the author notes, I surmised that beta readers were the first people to read a story, and that they helped to polish them into finished pieces. I assumed that a beta reader was like an editor, but not paid.

I eventually learned that beta readers are not unpaid editors, but serve a key purpose in the writing process nonetheless. In fact, I’d had beta readers before and didn’t even know it! 

Ask 100 different people who have self-published how difficult it was, and you will probably get 100 different answers. After all, we are writers. Give us an open-ended question and the probability we give you a longer answer than you wanted is high. But the truth is, the journey to self-publishing and the process you take to release day is different for every person. 

Our world needs memoirs.

It needs individuals who are willing to share the honest reality of who they are and the things they’ve experienced. When someone chooses to read a memoir, it means they’re searching for something. They’re searching for understanding, to gain perspective or insight, and they’re hoping to find something within your story that they can resonate with—perhaps something that gives them hope. 

When it comes to authors deciding how to write a book dedication, there’s often a lot of giving thanks. There are funny proclamations, curt pithiness, esoteric wit, or the occasional coy flirt. There are greetings and salutations. Yes, yes, when it comes authors dedicating their books, there runs a whole gamut of affection and charm and innuendo.

Fanfiction is a word that is being bandied about more and more in the publishing industry. But what is it exactly? Fanfiction is basically writing a book in another author’s “world.” You use some of their characters and locations and weave them into your own story. Of course you can’t just write this kind of story and publish it on your own, without the approval and blessing from the original author (you don’t want to be accused of plagiarism or “stealing” another author’s ideas and characters). So how does fanfiction work?

As humans, we are addicted to stories. We spend our days telling our own and hearing the stories of others. We then go to sleep at night and our imagination continues to tell story after story. The magic never stops. However, are you listening to that magic or pushing it aside? This being said, in a world where we crave stories, how are you telling yours?

According to Bowker, the official ISBN issuing agency in the United States, self-published books were up 40% in 2018 over 2017, with an estimated 1.68 million self-published print and ebooks published. Through the boom of self-publishing, long before 2017, book promotion dramatically changed. Publicity campaigns that were once focused solely around a book greatly expanded to make room for the personality behind the content. An established author platform, in many ways, has become more of a necessity than the book itself as it drives much of the reader, reviewer and media engagement. Most authors know you can’t just release a book into the wild to wait for something to happen, and that promotion—whether at the hand of a professional or the author herself—is necessary. There are, however, critical steps to prepare your author platform before diving headfirst into publicizing your book. Taking these early steps, amongst others, will ultimately provide you with channels you’ll later need to leverage your publicity results.

Have you ever read a book that left you in a daze? One of those truly magical reads that leaves you feeling as though you’ve just come back from a walk in the woods at twilight, the scent of pine needles still fresh in your mind.

Whether you are working on your next novel or writing short stories for the sake of writing short stories, there are a number of things that can make the process of writing them a bit easier.

I will start by saying, my virtual book launch was not planned at all. My original book launch party was planned for 4^th April, just before the government stepped up restrictions, banned gatherings, and closed all establishments. I wouldn't let COVID-19 stand in the way of my celebrating—so I decided to throw a virtual book launch and want to help others looking to do the same! 

According to an April 19, 2020 CNBC news report, “there was a whopping 777% increase in book purchases” in the first half of April as compared to the first half of March. It’s clear that quarantined readers are devouring books in record numbers, but there have also been important changes in reader preferences and habits amid this boom. These shifts present opportunities for resourceful indie authors who know where to look. So let’s dive into three top trends we’ve identified at Bublish.

We're excited to unveil the new home dashboard and title setup process in your IngramSpark account!

Working with an editor is one of the most important decisions you'll make when it comes to publishing a book. So how do you know when you're ready to send your draft to an editor? How do you choose the right editor? And when do you trust your own writing style over your editor's suggested revisions? Find out all the answers you need to understand the editing process.

The fantasy genre in literature, especially that of the Young Adult (YA) age group, is a constantly changing and maneuvering beast of new ideas, expanding themes, widening horizons, and tedious design—not only inside but outside of the book. 

Twitter is for politicians, musicians, comedians, but authors? Authors are best at writing novels, not 280-character tweets. Still, hundreds of writers have used Twitter successfully master social media marketing: Augusten Burroughs has over 40K followers on Twitter; Jackie Collins over 170K; Joyce Carol Oates has over 200K; George R.R. Martin has over 1 million; Stephen King has over 5 million; Paulo Coelho has over 15 million. These writers aren’t just popular on social media because they have popular books—they’re popular because they’re actually saying things on Twitter that people are responding to. Here are seven tips to help break down Twitter for authors and make sure you are tweeting like a bestselling author!

Quarantine days are a bit quieter, and there's never been a better time to step into a creative mindset and write. The IngramSpark community is hyper-engaged right now, and WE 👏 SEE 👏 YOU! 👏 To keep the creative juices flowing, we've rounded up some of our top writing and publishing resources to keep you stimulated and sane while you're at home!

There is no question that the Young Adult (YA) genre has taken the book world by storm. Gone are the days when the only titles that fit into this genre were dystopian fantasies, or when the only readers were teenagers. The YA genre has evolved—and continues to evolve—along with its readers and their tastes and now includes more realism, romance, diversity, and inclusivity than ever. As a result, the number of YA books published and sold each year has exploded.

Making a habit of marketing your books is important for all authors and publishers. Some habits are good, leading to long-term success. Others are not so good and can keep you from reaching your goals.

Let’s skip to the point. You’ve already decided on a few things: you like stories (mainly of the suspense-thriller variety), want to write your own, and want to publish something for a wider audience. The only hang up is you’re not quite sure how to go about it all, right?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often seen as a complex and confusing term. And for authors, it can often be another rabbit hole of information, one that seems endless and complex. But it doesn’t have to be. Getting found online is really about doing stuff that Google likes. Google’s number one goal is matching websites to consumer search—and that’s it. So, the key really is not in understanding the various changes in Google’s algorithm, but understanding how search impacts your website—and how to turn this to your advantage.

A challenge is something that requires special effort. It takes special effort on your part to sell your books. Therefore, selling books is challenging. With more than two million books published every year, the book selling climate is fiercely competitive. Every author must meet and overcome three challenges to sell books: attention, time, and declining readership. Let's talk about how.

Succeeding as an author isn’t just about writing strong books. Sure, that may be the most important factor, but the rise of self-publishing has resulted in authors facing more competition than ever. If you want to stand out in the crowd, you need to make sure that you also write strong marketing copy.

As you know, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting the book industry including cancelled events, limited employee travel, and workforce and supply shortages. We are closely tracking the manufacturing, distribution, and shipping challenges you may be facing in your own business. 

Suspense is holding your breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Take a second to picture that moment. Notice how your body tenses; you may clench your teeth or curl your toes up. Make a note for later.

Suspense is about heightened emotions. Do you want to have your reader breathless, stressed, intrigued, wondering what’s happening and what’s going to happen next? If you do, then you need to understand and utilize suspense.

“Kids don’t read books anymore.”

How many times have you heard someone say those words in the last ten years? With phones, tablets, TVs, smartwatches, VR headsets, and Siri chatting away in the background, it can seem like an impossible task to entice a child to sit down and read a book for a few hours or even a few minutes.

Though the days of women selecting masculine pen names for fear of being unable to publish are predominantly past, authors still frequently write under names that are not their own. Why is this?

Sooner or later, every book will get a negative review. Authors can be hit hard by those reviews; you may want to wade in and defend your book, or hide under your blanket and swear you’ll never write again. But negative reviews can hold a lot of value for you, so before you give up or pick a fight, take a deep breath and read on.

With stiff competition for indies to get a place in the programme of one of the big commercial literature festivals, it’s worth thinking laterally and going about it another way: by starting your own. Whereas the high profile litfests depend on famous name, trade-published authors to sell the tickets that fund their year-round operation, there’s plenty of public appetite for small, friendly indie litfests offering a different menu of speakers and the chance to meet their next favourite author that they’ve never heard of!

“What’s the secret sauce?”

“How did you know where to begin?”

“How did you know you would be successful?”

These are all questions I was asked after I wrote my book, and they all come back to the following: How do you embark on a personal venture to change a part of the world, no matter how big or how small it is, through your writing?

When we need guidance on how to write, there is nothing quite like a book from an author we admire. Which other format could be more appropriate for sharing wisdom about our beloved craft?

What’s the big deal about editing? You add some periods, delete a few commas, run spellcheck and voila, you’ve just edited a book—well done! Nope. It takes years of dedication to the craft before editors develop the necessary skills to help authors say precisely what they want to say in the most effective, affecting way possible.

Sometimes “questionable” or even “deceptive” content gets uploaded into online platforms and creates confusion in the marketplace. Part of the deception we’ve seen at IngramSpark includes blank books, books masquerading as non-book products, and summaries representing popular books that pretend to be the original, which is why we're taking steps to protect our catalog integrity.

As one of the world’s largest book wholesalers, Ingram maintains a digital catalog of millions of books that are made available to thousands of bookstore and library partners around the world. When authors and publishers upload a title into the IngramSpark platform and then enable that title for book distribution, they are making their book available to order by online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target, as well as thousands of independent bookstores and libraries. To maintain the high level of catalog integrity and reputation Ingram holds within the book industry, it’s important that our bookstore and library partners are purchasing content that is accurately represented, and these guidelines are to ensure that they are.

When I was nine years old, my fourth grade teacher read a story to our class about a boy and his two hunting dogs in the Ozark Mountains. Where the Red Fern Grows did more than make me teary-eyed; it filled my young mind with wonder, imagination, and inspiration. 

Emotionally driven love scenes can be a powerful part of any story in any genre. And in a romance novel, they are even more key, because the love scenes can and should inform the arcs of both the characters and their relationship, letting readers understand more deeply both what is pulling these characters close… and also what is keeping them apart. So how do you accomplish that?

With the growth of other visual social media sites like Instagram, it seems like the buzz for Pinterest has really died down, but nothing could be further from the truth. Pinterest continues to grow. In 2019 Pinterest became a publicly traded company and in Q2 of 2019, it reporter higher than expected earnings, 62% higher in fact than the previous year. 

I’m sitting here in my kitchen window on a January snowy day in New Mexico thinking about all the possibilities ahead in 2020. With this new year just dawning, it’s a perfect time to take inventory of what's happening in the world of self-publishing. Here’s a review of self-publishing trends in 2019 and what I see happening in 2020.

IngramSpark has been hard at work to expand book options for indie authors. Over the last few months, we've launched three exciting new product offerings: groundwood paper, Digital Cloth™, and Jacketed Case Laminate! Learn more about the new product options.

The whole “introverted writer” thing is so cliché. But hey, some clichés are true—and this is one of them. Many writers are introverts, preferring to keep to themselves, only entertaining the ideas and characters roaming in their brains. So the thought of broadcasting videos of yourself on social media may seem like a threat on your sanity—but it doesn't need to be.

As we look back on 2019, we want to take a moment and celebrate some of the best and brightest ideas on the blog. The verdict is in—here are your top ten most viewed self-publishing blogs from IngramSpark in 2019! 

Crowdfunding has become a major source of funding for creative projects since online funding platforms such as Kickstarter began launching around a decade ago. Kickstarter has helped more than 16,000 publishing projects raise over 150 million dollars in the last ten years.

We all have tasks that we enjoy doing, some we don’t mind doing, and some we dread. Many of us put off doing those tasks that we dread. In fact, almost everyone procrastinates sometimes. Up to 95% of people report that they occasionally procrastinate. However, studies reveal that 20% of people are chronic procrastinators.

Learning a new language is like learning to see the world in a new color: you suddenly notice shades of sounds in rolled r’s and guttural consonants, and potential friendships tucked behind an “hola” or “salut.” That’s why it’s so special when a child has the opportunity to learn another language, especially through a book you write! As language learners embark on this journey, bilingual books can be an incredibly helpful resource for them.

As the holiday season winds down, there’s a new sense of excitement in the air. This is the year that you’re going to publish a book. You’ve thought about it for months, maybe even created goals around writing, networking, and creating a fan-base; but you still haven’t published a book. We get it—life happens, and maybe writing isn’t your full-time job. Now is the time to take a leap and go for it. For all of you aspiring authors ready to take the plunge, we’ve put together a list of New Year’s Resolutions for writers that will make your dream to publish a book in 2020 a reality.

2019 was another fantastic year for IngramSpark authors. We have so much to look back fondly on in 2019, including a successful IngramSpark Day and a brand new look for www.ingramspark.com. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to launch wholeheartedly into the new year! 

There was a time when becoming an author was a far-fetched dream, and writing a paper was the closest anyone in my community had come to sharing a message. The journey to becoming an author has not been a straightforward one. It has been one of mental challenges, imposter syndrome, and lack of knowledge around the phenomenon that is indie publishing—but it's been so worth it.

Finally seeing the nonfiction manuscript you spent months — or years — writing turn into a published book can feel like crossing the finish line of a long and exhausting marathon. But while you have just achieved an incredibly rewarding milestone, the race is not quite over yet. Because now you’ve got to let the big, wide world know that your book actually exists. In other words, it’s time to learn how to market your book.

For most of us, barrelling into the end of the year means getting ready for the holiday season in a flurry of last-minute projects and parties. For many writers, though, November brings an added challenge—National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.

As of the second quarter of 2019, Facebook boasts approximately 2.41 billion active monthly users. That’s a key reason it’s among the most popular digital marketing platforms. Facebook ads simply have the potential to reach a very large audience, and this remains true today, despite greater competition among advertisers.

Have you ever met an author who doesn’t want to sell more books? Even the authors who claim they don’t care much about book sales secretly wish they were selling more books. Most authors aim to get as many readers as possible to buy their books—which can prove to be more challenging than writing the book in the first place.

Whether stereotypical fact or fiction, many writers prefer the intimate, one-on-one relationship with their keyboard over marketing or promoting their book. Whether that describes you is beside the point. Your success as an author is in your own hands and marketing your books is no different. Having a solid book marketing strategy is key.

Believe it or not, there is a science behind choosing the best fonts for books. Think about all the places you see type today. Whether it’s a phone, a computer screen, a book, an ad, a magazine or a menu, almost every minute of the day is spent reading something. And—other than the menu at your favorite restaurant perhaps—much thought has gone into which font to use.

There are many ways you can leverage your book to bring in more business and ultimately help more people. In this article, I will share one avenue where you can use your book as your golden ticket to receive more exposure for you and your business. I’ve used this method with my own book and have helped my clients do the same. And what is that avenue? Leveraging public speaking to bring a face to the words of your book and generate business from that.

Are you thinking about publishing a cookbook? In the digital age, the opportunities to market a cookbook can seem endless. In this article, I'll share nine steps to help you build a following, three keys to planning a successful book launch, and eight different ideas to add to your marketing plan.

‘Tis the season to be jolly... and productive. With the hustle and bustle of the approaching holiday season, it can be easy to push aside your writing productivity as you focus on all the festivities.