Tag Archives: E-book Covers

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

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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 →

Self-publishing with Google Docs and Booktango, a first-hand Experience

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Self-publishing with Google Docs and Booktango, a First-hand Experiences

This in-depth blog post about a Booktango author’s first-hand experience was originally posted on William L. Weaver’s blog, Choice Management.

The Booktango Service

In March of 2012, I came across Booktango, a service of Author Solutions in Bloomington, Indiana which is now owned by Penguin Books, that in turn is owned by Pearson, PLC. The cool thing about Booktango is that it is a freemium service that provides individuals an online website to assemble their eBook, scan it for formatting errors, register and assign an ISBN, produce PDF, MOBI, and EPUB files, and have them listed for sale at Booktango, Amazon, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Scribd, and Sony.

All of the above services are 100% free, and there is an additional menu of packages you can purchase that currently range from $49 – $359. The add-on services for a fee include things that employ creative humans who assist in your project including editing, interior images, U.S. Copyright filing, consultation on social media promotion, custom cover design, and marketing assistance. Continue reading →

How to Write Romance Novels without Crossing the Line

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How to Write Romance Novels without Crossing the Line

We’re not judging you if you enjoyed reading Fifty Shades of Grey, but if you want to write a bit more…ahem…tasteful romance novels, here are a few tips.

1.)    Focus on the emotional rather the physical. If writing detailed love scenes makes you blush, skip the gritty details and focus on how excited your couple feels in the moment. Romance novels aren’t all about shock and awe. Stay away from X-rated details, and focus more on the flirty side of things, such as the rush one feels when a new love interest holds their hand. Continue reading →

Announcing New E-book Publishing Packages: Socializer & Eye Catcher

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Since starting this blog back in April, we’ve discussed a wide variety of issues on the topic of e-book publishing. But we keep coming back to two key aspects that seem intrinsically important to publishing in the digital space: online marketing and e-book design.

As we’ve come to fully realize the importance of these topics, we’ve developed innovative enhancements to our online cover design platform, and we’ve added some unique e-book marketing services to help our authors create better-looking e-books and share them more efficiently with the world. Now, we’ve taken things a step further and created two new publishing packages that are designed to help authors meet their e-book publishing goals in these areas.

Introducing the Socializer package

Social media offers one of the most exciting opportunities for online book marketers; but it can also be one of the most daunting. There’s a lot to know and learn about the Continue reading →

7 Traits of a Great E-book Design

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You already know Booktango makes it easy for you to publish your e-book. But, not all e-readers are created equal, so it’s always nice to have little reminders of what universally works before you upload your manuscript. Make sure to follow these seven traits of a great e-book design, which came straight from our e-book design experts:

  1. High resolution cover. Professional-looking covers need to be high-resolution – at least 200 ppi (pixels per inch)
  2. Consistent style. Make sure your style flows throughout the book. You don’t want your readers to feel like they’re in a different book with each flip of a page that has a new layout, random pictures or different font type. Continue reading →

And the Survey says … Design Your Book Cover with Confidence

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Feature Release: Side-by-Side Book Cover Compare and Social Media Sharing

A few months ago I wrote a post about three valuable elements of great book cover design. Those elements included:

  1. Create a title that evokes curiosity
  2. Create a compelling visual
  3. Design with the reduced visibility of your cover in mind

Sometimes as authors we can get so close to crafting our book that we forget we’re not the audience for our book. For example, we might design our book cover based on the colors and visual elements we like instead of thinking about what our audience might like. In a former life as an ad executive for JWT, I found we often needed to remind our clients, “It’s not about you; it’s about your customers.” In your case, as an author, sometimes you need to remember, “It’s not about you; it’s about the people who will read your book and tell their friends about it.”

There are times when you know in your gut what your audience wants in a book cover. There are other times when it would be ideal if you could solicit feedback from prospective readers and allow their feedback to guide your design.  Continue reading →

Three Predictions for the Future of E-book Publishing

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Perhaps you’ve heard: At Booktango, you make the most money from your e-books. Period. Our online editor has made it easier than ever for authors like you to identify errors and make corrections, which makes it the most efficient platform to get your book published. Writing and publishing an e-book is about finesse, creativity and flexibility — among other things. Since announcing Booktango, not only have we made creating an e-book easier, but we’ve also given you access to tools like the DIY Cover Designer, which allows you to create elegant book covers with drag-and-drop ease. Earlier this week, we announced our new sales and royalty reporting, which gives you insights to help you more effectively market your books.

So, what are e-books going to bring in the future?

It all starts with authors like you — courageous writers willing to share their stories and build an audience of readers. Our sense is that the elements of great storytelling will remain the same, but authors like you will have more opportunities to increase the quality of the books you are producing. Continue reading →

3 Valuable Elements to E-Book Cover Design

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3 Valuable Elements to E-book Cover Design

Think about the last thing you bought. What convinced you to buy it? Were you satisfied with it?

In my own purchasing experience, I’ve found that my satisfaction with a product, e-book or service depends on whether my perceived value of the item exceeds the price that I paid.

I’m usually happy with my purchase if the following conditional statement applies:

If Price Paid < Chris’ Perceived Value of the Product Purchased, then Chris is a satisfied customer and will likely recommend the product

There are many ways that we derive value from e-books, including: the cover, the book’s content, friends’ opinions of the e-book, the price, and the enjoyment or learning potential. As an author you want to increase a reader’s perceived value from the first moment they see it.

Continue reading →