The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book

By Jo Michaels

Indie author? Banging your head on your desk? You need The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book. Not just for e-books. This guide contains helpful tips and tricks to make your book look like it came from a major publisher. Guided sections walk you through how to format your book for all platforms, how to create a dynamite cover, how to brand yourself as an author, and how to build a perfect book for printing. Indie authors, let's give the big houses a real run for their money!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jo Michaels
• Release date: Oct 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301432851

Jo Michaels

Jo Michaels loves writing novels that make readers gasp in horror, surprise, and disbelief. While her browser search history has probably landed her on a list somewhere, she still dives into every plot with gusto, hoping "the man" will realize she's a writer and not a psychopath about to go on a rampage. Her favorite pastimes are reading, watching Investigation Discovery, and helping other authors realize their true potential through mentoring. She's penned the award-winning Pen Pals and Serial Killers series and the best-selling educational book for children, Writing Prompts for Kids, which has rocketed the kids that use it into several awards of their own.Most of Jo's books feature the places she's lived: Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. That's given her a special amount of insight to what makes those locations tick. Her works are immersive and twisty, and she wouldn't want it any other way.

Book preview

Section One – Branding Yourself

I can’t stress this point enough. You must brand yourself if you’re an author – Indie or otherwise. Think about those big companies out there.

What do they all have in common? Branding.

McDonalds has those golden arches, Coca ~ Cola has that red can and special font, and AT&T has the globe.

This section will explain how to brand yourself with books, blogs, and everything digital. You need to do it. Yes, it’s a PITA. But so worth it! If you want to be successful, you’ll read on and put this advice into action.

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Choosing an Identity

What is an identity? Easy answer: it’s what identifies you and sets you apart from every other author out there. Slightly more difficult answer: it’s a set of rules you use anytime you publish, post, mail, or blast anything. It’s the font, color scheme, layout, and possibly logo. It’s your constant. Click here (http://jomichaels.blogspot.com/p/identity-packages.html) for examples of identities I have designed.

When someone sees one of your books on the shelf, your blog post, your e-mails, your letterhead, or your business card, they should think: I know that author!

You don’t have a business card? Oh my. We’ll touch on that now.

As an author, consider using something other than a standard business card. See if you can find a designer that will make you amazing bookmarks that can be cut (or that tear) to standard business card size. After all, you want to be able to fit into that rolodex. Believe it or not, a ton of people still use a rolodex. Oversized business cards are an interesting idea, but they can’t be punched and inserted. Those cute little seed packet business cards are great if you want your card planted and forgotten about. Avoid kitschy. If you’re giving your card to a reader, what better way to let them find your new books than by giving them a bookmark they can keep and use (and look at)