Promotion: Put Your Best Book Forward

There is always something to be said about putting your best book (or product) forward. It lets people know you are serious, that you’re in it for the long haul, and that you know you have a good product. The cliché ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ should be true, but is rarely taken seriously. How often do you overlook something that doesn’t appeal to you? As I said before, things in flashy packages always look more appetizing. But you can’t let it stop there! Let’s go over some of the most important points to putting your best book forward.

COVER - You can’t deny that a cover created by a professional cover artist gets more hits and creates more noise in the industry than one created in Microsoft Paint all by your onesies. You can get professional cover art from anyplace starting at $400, all the way up to $3500+! While everyone thinks that the cover should be what costs the most since it is your first line of defense, it is only one part in a team… and there is no I in TEAM, right? (Yes, I know, but there is an M and an E.)

The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is true. While we may have crafted the greatest thousand words ever written, we still have to get the readers to notice us. To me, the cover has to be every bit as good as the writing inside. It has to convey the story and capture the reader’s imagination right away. They say to never judge a book by its cover… I would disagree.
– Paul Byers, author of Arctic Fire and Catalyst.

EDITING - Just as important as a cover, paying for editing (or if you know someone personally who is excellent and may be willing to work for peanuts, that’s always nice too) is an absolute must. Mistakes happen, things get missed, we all understand that, but it should be few and far between. Not only do you not want a complete embarrassment of a book getting out there, but if people buy your book and can’t finish it, that doesn’t translate into more sales from them purchasing your next title.

Key point: I remember I traveled for a friend’s wedding. I entered the hotel and waited for the check-in clerk to come to the front desk and noticed a letter in a stand to the guests staying at the establishment. Upon reading the few hundred words they typed up and "rushed out the door", I noticed a hefty handful of errors that just reflected so poorly upon that establishment. Your mind begins to wonder, if they don’t proof their first impressions, what is the rest going to look like? Thankfully the room was nice, the place was quiet, and overall everything else was good. I told the woman who took my info about the failed attempt and professionalism, but have to wonder if she ever passed it on to her boss... and at that, how many times had that been seen and said - or if it was ever changed?

Seriously: whether you are in publishing or not, edit your stuff.

Another point to keep in mind, if you feel you don’t have the money to pay for editing, go to or contact your local college and see if anyone there would be interested in proofing your work. Set something up with the English program chair and see if this is already in place in the event you aren’t the first to inquire.

LAYOUT - Once again, you want something that is visually pleasing to the eye. Trying to smush 150k words into a 300 page trade paperback will just look bad. If you are going to do it yourself, find a book that you thought looked the best, read easy and wasn’t too much black-to-white on a page, and mimic it. Adding images to chapter headers is a nice touch - it lets the left and right brain work together in unison. Once again, more pleasing… but don’t let that pict distract the eye from the words, there needs to be balance.


While most publishers already do these things and this is more geared toward self-published folks, it is something to make sure you are on top of and have a knowledge of for your own benefit. If you are doing this on your own, think about the cost and the benefit:

Cover = $500
Editing = $400
Layout = $350
____________
$1250

Avg profit on book = $5

1250/5 = 250 books

While these are minimum prices you might find out there, they are available, I’ve seen them from folks over the past few years. If you don’t think you can sell 250-300 books, you unfortunately are going about this all the wrong way. Perhaps that sounds blunt, but if you just wanted to get your written word out there you could blog - a free source for you to write and for people to read your work. When you start charging for something bound, you obviously are looking to make a profit, because well, there is no overhead to cover for words rolling around in your head. Of course, as you spend more, you have to opportunity of getting better quality - within reason. There are some places out there that charge way too much for what they offer. Be sure to get samples of their work if they aren't already posted on their website. That said, with the promotions I’ve been sharing, you should be able to sell thousands, if you are diligent. Of course, more over time as you put out more titles and get a bigger footprint.

The benefit: They’ve all been stated previously. Professionalism. Appealing. Sales. Return customers. Success.