BookBaby newsletters

Here are the latest BookBaby newsletters for my followers to peruse:

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Saturday, January 26, 2019 Good morning, I try my best to avoid rushing to judgment on most things. The exception? Book covers. Just last week, I met some author friends in my local coffee shop, and one of them pulled out his recently self-published book—a novel set in the old west. He dropped the hardcover book on the table in front of me and asked, "What do you think?" I had the answer in a split second: NO THANKS. Thankfully, I didn’t utter that opinion out loud and managed a polite enough response. But, yikes! I’m far from a professional book designer, and even I knew that the colors, the fonts, the grainy main image…it was all wrong. With more than 75 percent of book sales happening online, your book cover is a tipping point in a one-click decision. My message this morning is something I’ll repeat from the paragraph above: I’m no book designer. And at the risk of alienating you, I’m going to assume you aren’t either. Neither is your sister-in-law who just graduated from the Academy of Art. Your cover is your best and, and in many cases, your one chance to appeal to a new reader. You could have written the great American novel of the 21st century, but no one will discover it if your cover is a turn-off. In my recent BookBaby Blog post “You Can’t Skip Hiring A Cover Designer”, I share some ideas about how to go about finding a professional designer who can provide that attention-getting first impression for your would-be readers. There’s only one thing better than finding a great designer: Winning a complete book design project for free! BookBaby is running a Book Design Sweepstakes, awarding $1,700 worth of professional design and formatting from our BookBaby Design Studio to six lucky indie authors. Enter today!

All the best, Steven Spatz President, BookBaby

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Featured Article: Writing Lessons From TV: Rick and Morty Revisited Some of the boldest, most adventurous writing is happening on TV. In this ongoing series, we deliver writing lessons gleaned from our favorite shows airing in the golden age of television. Read more. Storytelling Tip: Engineer Your “Hook” Map A “hook” is a passage or bit of information that changes the stakes, pulls the reader along, and builds the trajectory of your narrative. Constructing a hook map can help ensure yours are serving your story. Read more. Writing A Best-Selling Book [Infographic] There’s no formula for writing a best-selling book, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile to dissect best sellers and look for trends, patterns, and clues to better understand what these books have in common. Read more.

Top Stories: Trends in Publishing Cut and Cut (and Cut Again)—The Self-Edit Credo A Million Jelly Beans and No Bowl (Facts and Narrative) Amazon’s CreateSpace Announces It Will Stop Offering Author Services Things I Wish I Had Known Before Self-Publishing My Book How To Read, Edit, and Evaluate Your Writing With Fresh Eyes
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Saturday, January 12, 2019 Good morning, This is the time of year we look forward—and backward too. This week, our BookBaby marketing team reviewed which blog articles our readers most enjoyed in 2018. It’s always interesting to know which topics clicked with you. The BookBaby Blog post winner in 2018? Drumroll and trumpet fanfare, if you please. That musical accompaniment is appropriate because it turns out the most read article was, “How to legally quote song lyrics in your book.” …and its very matter-of-fact companion article, “Lyrics In Books: Your Questions Answered.” Here’s my favorite excerpt from the posts: Q: How do I legally quote song lyrics in my book? A: Don’t do it. There’s a lot of detailed and useful info in both posts, and I invite you to read them to see why our authors enjoyed these and many other articles we published last year. I’ll end this note with another musical connection: Lin-Manuel Miranda and three of his “Hamilton” collaborators have teamed up to preserve the Drama Book Shop, a historic New York City bookstore featuring theater scripts, sheet music, and other stage-related reading material.

All the best, Steven Spatz President, BookBaby

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TOP 10 STORIES OF 2018 We published a lot of articles this past year, providing independent authors with free tips on how to write, publish, and market their books successfully. Below you’ll find a list—as selected by you, the reader—of the year’s most consumed content on the BookBaby Blog.

Amazon’s CreateSpace Announces It Will Stop Offering Author Services Working directly with self-published authors IS the core strength of BookBaby. We level the playing field with a robust suite of author services. Read more. Things I Wish I Had Known Before Self-Publishing My Book The first time I self-published, I was new to the process and endured many failures before I finally held my book in my hand. Here are nine things I wish I had known about self-publishing before starting the process. Read more. How To Read, Edit, and Evaluate Your Writing With Fresh Eyes Reviewing your own writing from an editor’s perspective can be a challenge, even for experienced writers. Here are strategies that can help you bring fresh eyes to your own written work. Read more. Five Things You Need As You Begin A Career As A Self-Published Author If you want a career as a self-published author, you have to learn the business of writing and market yourself in a way that puts you on the same playing field as mainstream authors with big publishing houses behind them. Read more. The Five Emotional Stages of Publishing A Book You’ve finished writing your book! Well, hold on tight because you’re on a wild roller coaster, and while that ride takes you to remarkable highs, it plummets to lows you never imagined. Welcome to the emotional stages of publishing a book. Read more. My Five Favorite Books On Writing You should read about writing if you endeavor to be an author. Not sure where to start? Here are my five favorite books on writing. At least at the moment… Read more. How An Editing App Can Increase Writing Productivity Using an editing app can reduce your editing time significantly. You also improve writing productivity when you use an editing tool because you learn as you go along. Read more. How To Improve Your Author Website Your author website is a reflection of you as a writer and of your book as a work of art. It pays to make sure it is as enticing as the story you’ve spent months (or years) laboring over. Here are six ways to improve your author website. Read more. The Importance of Setting In Your Story Setting is the context in which a story or scene occurs and includes the time, place, and social environment. It is important to establish a setting in your story, so your readers can visualize and experience it. Read more. Words That Carry Maximum Weight: Tropes In Storytelling Tropes — cultural references or recurrent themes imbued with shared meaning — can be a staple of storytelling (and a potential path to cliché). Read more.

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Featured Article: 10 Tips for creating your first children’s picture book A children’s picture book may seem simple, but creating a brilliant one is no easy task. How do you make yours smart, engaging, and fun — rather than clichéd, saccharine, and didactic? Read more. How to legally quote song lyrics in your book Authors have been quoting song lyrics in their books for eons, but if you plan to quote lyrics written after 1923, be prepared to do some research — and get out your checkbook — long before releasing your book. Read more. Nine manuscript editing software programs you should consider While a good, professional (human) editor is invaluable to your book, the purchase of manuscript editing software can be another prudent investment. Read more. My 20-step plan to writing a book: Part 1 (Steps 1-10) Writing a book is hard work — it’s easier to quit than finish. When you become overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the task, you might be tempted to give up. The key is to follow a proven, straightforward plan. Read more. How to write a great author bio that will connect with readers You need to create a brief and compelling author bio for use on your website, book jacket, press releases, and more. We take a closer look at the key elements of an interesting bio — and what should be omitted. Read more.

Top Stories: Avoid the cliché “strong female character” Transcription software can be a huge time-saver Self-publishing is not a back-up publishing plan Filling the holes in your story 10 Gift ideas for writers and creative people Writing phone conversations to forward your plot and draw your characters

SPECIAL OFFERS  |  FREE GUIDES  |  BLOG  |  HELP  |  1-877-961-6878 © BookBaby 7905 N. Crescent Blvd., Pennsauken, NJ 08110 info@bookbaby.com   |   Become an affiliate This email promotion was mailed to subscriber kl.naylor@btinternet.com. We communicate by email when it comes to your orders, but if you’d rather not get letters, specials, or other promotional emails (like this one) just click here to UNSUBSCRIBE.