The Importance of Peer Book Reviews

If you want your book to appeal to the general public, you need to see what your fellow authors think about it before publishing it. Too often a writer’s ego (e.g. “My work is already perfect!”) gets in the way of this common-sense strategy. Don’t be that author! Ask your peers to review your work – whether it’s just sections or an entire manuscript – to ensure you publish your best work possible.

Sure, it can be scary to put your work in front of your peers, but the benefits far outweigh any hesitations you may have: Continue reading

Title Leading Story – Writing Tips from R.L. Stine

Did you know that the national bestselling children’s author R.L. Stine comes up with his story ideas for his books by beginning with the title of the book? Spooky, right? It’s so different, but guess what? It obviously works. He has sold more than 350 million books and writes six books a year in his Goosebumps series!

Video courtesy of the Author Learning Center Continue reading

The Do’s and Don’ts of E-book Cover Design

The Do's and Don'ts of E-book Cover Design

You worked hard to write a book, and now you’re ready to publish. Woo hoo! But, wait. Have you thought about your e-book cover yet? As an e-book author, you face unique challenges when it comes to designing that perfect cover since it will only be seen online. 

E-book design is way more important than most authors realize. If your e-book cover doesn’t grab a reader’s attention, you could potentially lose a sale or even several thousand. Your design must represent the book you’ve created, draw in readers and make your title stand out from the competition.

That might sound overwhelming, so here are a few do’s and don’ts to consider as you create (or hire a pro to create for you) your e-book cover: Continue reading

3 Fresh Ideas to Help You Organize Your Writing Desk

3 Fresh Ideas to Help You Organize Your Writing Desk

It’s the perfect time of year to bust out the cleaning supplies and tackle some serious spring cleaning. What? You’re not excited? You should be! This is a great opportunity to boost your creative flow and write that book you’ve let sit all winter. Hey, I’m not a DIY Martha Stewart type of person either, but these goals are attainable.

You might be surprised how a little organizing can enhance your work ethic and lead to a clear head with new writing ideas. It may seem like an overwhelming task, but just set aside a weekend afternoon to spruce up your writing desk. You’ll see a clean desk in no time.

1.) Clear off everything. That’s right, you heard me – everything. Make sure you have labeled baskets set aside to separate all of your knickknacks, utensils, trash, etc., as each item is pulled off. Once you sort through the items, the hard part is done. Continue reading

7 Ways to Promote Your Book with Booktango

One of the most frequently asked questions we get from authors is “how can I effectively market my e-book?” There is no million dollar answer that works for every single author. It’s kind of like weight loss – don’t fall for quick-fix gimmicks, and if you put in a committed effort into working toward your goal, you’ll eventually see some results.

You already know that Booktango is unique for offering free e-book publishing. We also offer some marketing services and opportunities specifically catered toward our digital-only authors. Let’s look at a few and see why each one might work for your marketing strategy.

1.) Check out BookStubs – one our snazziest and most affordable marketing tools. It’s like a business card for your book that you can easily distribute at author events. Watch this one minute video to get a better idea of how BookStubs could be right for your marketing goals.

2.) Get your book featured in the Booktango bookstore. This increases your book’s visibility and it’s FREE publicity. We even offer a few tips on how to increase your chance of being selected. Continue reading

4 Things to Remember When You Attend a Writing Conference

What can a writing community do for you?

There are so many writing conferences, yet so little time. How can you ensure your experience at each conference is a success? Don’t worry. Here are four tips on how to get the most out of attending these kinds of events.

1.)  Set goals. Before deciding which events to attend, you need to create a list of goals you have for a writing conference. This can be as simple as listing out items like “have fun” and “learn more about mystery writing.” With so many activities going on at conferences, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement and forget your purpose. A list of your goals will help you stay on track. Continue reading

5 Tips on How to Get Featured in the Booktango Bookstore

5 Tips on How to Get Featured in the Booktango Bookstore

I just provided our content team with a list of the April updates for the Booktango bookstore homepage.  Believe it or not, there is not a systematic program that runs to feed this page. Each month I sit down and carefully review our titles to decide which books to feature.

The bookstore has several carousels of books on the homepage including the top ‘featured’ carousel, Books We Love, Noteworthy Titles and the coveted Booktango Feature Title. I thought I’d share a little bit about my process of choosing which books to feature, and give you five tips to help your book get picked in upcoming months!

1.) Make sure your keywords are updated.  The very first step in my process is to look for books that are relevant to events of the month or related to the season. For the April featured books I searched for the following keywords: April, Spring, Flower, Gardening, Vacation, Bloom, Autism, Earth, Health, Poetry, Baseball, and Mathematics (and a few more).  All of those words have some relevance to April or events going on around this time making them relevant books to feature for the month. Continue reading

Fact vs. Fiction: Booktango Reviews, Complaints and Scams

Fact vs. Fiction: Booktango Reviews, Complaints and Scams“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I can’t tell you how many times my mother uttered those words growing up, and most of the time she was right. We often get some skeptics who check out Booktango and ask the questions: “If it’s free, 100% royalties, and non-exclusive rights, what’s the catch? How do you make money?”

These are legitimate questions from a consumer who is shopping around for a DIY publishing platform. But, there is no catch! Booktango was created from a group of forward thinkers who wanted to provide tools for any author to publish themselves. We wanted a platform that empowered authors to invest as much (or as little) into getting their book available on major online retailers.

I want to take a minute to debunk three of the most popular Booktango myths floating the interwebs and give you honest and direct answers.

Myth #1: If I publish with Booktango, I have to give up the rights to my book. False! Our terms and conditions state we have non-exclusive rights to your book, which means you can publish with us and another publisher at the same time. You can also publish with us and have full rights to cancel your book and take it elsewhere if you receive a traditional publishing contract or other offers for rights to your book. In fact, we would be thrilled if one of our authors got their name and story out there and was subsequently picked up traditionally! Continue reading

10 Writing Prompts to get Your Creative Juices Flowing

10 Writing Prompts to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

If you’ve hit a snag in your writing and can’t seem to come up with any new ideas, don’t worry — it happens to all of us. There comes a time when we all need a little help to get our creative juices flowing again. Whether you need to rejuvenate your work in progress or want to start a new writing project from scratch, we’ve got a writing prompt for you.

Rejuvenate your work in progress: Here are a few ideas for breathing new life into your current manuscript. Even if you end up writing something that has no place in your actual story, you might still discover something interesting.

1.  Write your character’s obituary.
Looking ahead to a character’s death might help you fill in some holes about his life that you can turn into interesting plot points or meaningful back story. What were his biggest accomplishments? How did he die? Who is he survived by?

2.   Change locations.
Take your characters out of their natural setting, and see what happens. A heated argument between newlyweds might unfold quite differently depending on whether it takes places in their home, a crowded bus or a company Christmas party. How can you use a setting to influence behavior, build tension and change the stakes? Continue reading

5 Ways to Promote your E-book on Goodreads

5 Ways to Promote your E-book on Goodreads

Now that you’re a self-published author with Booktango, it is time to spread the word about your e-book. A great, cost-effective place to start is the Internet, which is home to several free social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

One of the latest social media trends is Goodreads – an online social book catalog where readers can interact with other readers, create virtual bookshelves, rate and review books.  A great way for you as an author to take advantage of Goodreads is to sign up for the Goodreads Author Program. The primary function of this free program is to help authors reach out to passionate readers. The program is a great place for you to promote your e-book.

How to promote your e-book on Goodreads: Continue reading