How to Market Your Book with a Free Tool You Already Own
Authors spend a lot of time building audiences on social media. They post on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and whatever new platform appears next. These tools can be valuable, but they all have one thing in common: someone else owns them. Algorithms change. Platforms rise and fall. Accounts can be restricted, hacked, or lose visibility overnight. An email list is different. When someone subscribes to your newsletter, they are permitting you to contact them directly. No algorithm decides whether your message will be shown to them. No social media company controls the relationship. That’s why so many successful authors [...]
How to Get Useful Feedback Choosing a Book Cover Design
One of the advantages of self-publishing is that authors have the freedom to test ideas and gather feedback before their books go to print. Many writers share draft covers with friends, family members, and online communities to see how people react. Feedback can be incredibly valuable—but the most useful feedback isn’t necessarily about which cover people like best. A book cover has one primary job: attract the right reader. When people respond to a cover poll, they are usually expressing a personal preference. They may prefer blue over red. They may like a particular illustration style. They may simply be [...]
How to Get Your Book Into Libraries
by Cathi Stevenson—When independent authors think about marketing their books, they usually focus on Amazon, bookstores, advertising, podcasts, newsletters, and social media. Libraries rarely make the list. That’s a mistake. Getting your book into libraries probably won’t make you an overnight bestseller, but it can do something equally valuable: put your work in front of readers who may never have discovered it otherwise. Unlike a bookstore sale, where one copy usually reaches one reader, a single library copy can circulate for years. It may be borrowed dozens—or even hundreds—of times. Every checkout is another opportunity for someone to recommend [...]
How to Find the Best Free Fonts for Your Self-Published Book
This is a carefully curated list of Google Fonts that work well for typesetting both print and digital books. After this list, you’ll find more on what makes certain fonts better than others, what to look for when choosing fonts, and a list of those used by major publishers like Random House.The traditional choice for typesetting books has always been a serif font. (insert picture). However, John T. T. Richardson’s paper The Legibility of Serif and Sans-serif Typefaces: Reading from Paper and Reading from Screens (2022) found “there’s no difference in the legibility of serif and sans-serif typefaces either when [...]
How to Find and Hire a Book Cover Designer Part 3
Check out part 1 | don't skip part 2What should you Ask a Book Cover Designer?Before committing, ask questions to ensure you're on the same page:What's your design process like?Do you have a contract I can read before making a deposit?Will you provide links so you can license fonts and stock images in my name so I can control everything?How many revisions are included?Do you provide the source files?Will the cover be unique and not based on a template?Do you also create ebook and print versions?If you're providing original artwork (illustrations and photos), what are the terms for using those?Finding [...]
How to Find and Hire a Book Cover Designer Part 2 of 3
Check out part 1 | don't miss part 3There are plenty of ways to track down talented designers, but a few tried-and-true methods include.Freelance Marketplaces: We don't recommend these for several reasons. I would avoid using these sites because the person doing the work is not getting all the money. Sometimes, they're getting very little of the money. And, there's no real accountability, which could leave a self-publishing author in a precarious legal position regarding copyrights both for the project and for any images and fonts the designer used. Since you're working through a platform, you cannot directly contact the [...]
