I noticed something interesting in the book store last night. I’m pretty familiar with YA books, because that’s my genre and I stalk them on Amazon. So I know which ones have hundreds of 5 star reviews and which ones have under 100 reviews and a four star average. I’d been assuming that most people buy their books online, which …

This is the cleverest book cover / marketing / design I’ve seen in a long time. Somehow it’s a moving video/gif of the book cover, with two moving balls in the maze. How amazing would it be to have the scene of your book cover be a “movie” that actually moves, where pictures could dance or swim, faces could smile. …

I talk a lot about book cover design, but when you start out with that blank canvas and your eager imagination, you’re bound to get lost in the possibilities of what to put on your book cover. So let me simplify things for you, a lot. First you can write down all the stuff you dream about putting on the …

Indie publishers are slowly coming to realize the importance of an amazing book cover. Since many self-publishing authors are starting out on a very small budget however, homemade, DIY book covers are still a popular choice. But be forewarned: although book cover designs come in a wide variety, publishers consistently use reliable, time-tested techniques and guidelines to catch your attention …

For years authors have been hoping for something that makes book formatting easier. Vellum is a great solution for Mac users but there’s never been anything comparable to it for PC users, who have to rely on buggy formatting with MS Word, a steeper learning curve with InDesign, or some functional but limited online book formatting tools like those from …

This is a guest post on how to use a great cover in marketing materials. Writer friends, you may have noticed how the world of design plays a big role in book launches, from covers to ads. If you’ve ever wondered how a career marketer approaches design, read on to see how I aimed for impact in my exterior and …

Recently in my Guerrilla Publishing Facebook group a new member posted this: I have just finished the rough draft of my first book. Now what? I’m in the process of putting it in the computer and fixing spelling and sentence structure. I’ve been thinking about cover design but don’t know where to go or how to go about it. Also …

Yesterday I had a long Facebook conversation with an author who had previously done a strong physical book launch (hard book copies to influencers at events). After the launch, the sales dried up, because: 1. You can’t count on humans to do things 2. Physical book launches at events are expensive 3. No long-term, ONLINE platform for organic visibility 4. …

Self-publishing is a BILLION dollar industry but most of that money is flowing away from authors and into the hands of service provides, predatory author services and vanity presses.  Amazon recently ran ads boasting “thousands of authors make over 50K a year publishing with us” – but there are 5 million books on their platform, which means 99% of those …

The short version: Grammarly finds more typos and actual mistakes. In a full manuscript, it found 7 while ProWritingAid only caught 1. However, ProWritingAid sometimes catches things that Grammarly misses, and has very useful more advanced features that can help improve your writing by flagging slow passages, complex paragraphs, or repetition. I recommend using both before publishing. Grammarly | ProWritingAid Editing …