Thanks for visiting this page which lists tips for

authors to write and market their books successfully.

Following my tips might help you increase your book

sales.

 

General Book Writing Tips

Before you get started writing a new book, outline or

write down notes on what you want to do on a flash card

or something else handy, especially if you have a lot of

material and ideas to organize and you don’t want to omit

anything important.

• Another nifty thing you can do is write

notes in bold type below the regular content for your book,

and delete those notes once you write about something

pertaining to those notes in your book or story.

Finally, it helps a lot to plan ahead how you will begin

your next fiction novel or short story. On your first day

writing this feature, prepare to devote at least ten

minutes to the opening, as it can take lots of time to

figure out exactly what you want to write to make a

strong beginning.

Write your books in Microsoft Word, pay attention to

prompts from the spell check feature and thoroughly

proofread your manuscript and make the necessary

edits before publishing your book if you don’t want to

hire an editor. I recently passed up buying a book

because it had too many errors in the first chapter,

notably words in which the first letter of a word was

separated from the other letters.

For easier reading, use a 12-inch font, double-space

your paragraphs and keep the paragraphs short. Using a

tiny font plus writing too many long paragraphs and

making them single-spaced can cost you sales and in

some cases where you make a sale, it can lead to a

negative review.

I don’t buy books which have too many long,

single-spaced paragraphs and 10-inch font, and thus

provide an unpleasant reader experience; the fact I find

most books like this is the main reason I have only

bought roughly five books online the last two years,

approximately. Remember that readers can preview your

book before buying it in most cases, especially on Amazon.

• Make sure your readers won’t get confused. For

example, you shouldn’t create a scene where there’s a

confrontation and someone is attacked then jump to a

scene where the assailed person is hanging out with a

friend or partner unless you make it clear both of these

people are being held hostage by the person who made

the attack in the previous scene. Any confusion in your

book may lead to a missed sale, or in the event of a sale,

a negative review. If you opt to write a fiction book in

first person, let readers know who the main character

is at the beginning of the first chapter.

Let some of your dreams guide your book creation

decision making. After waking up from a scary or

inspirational dream, consider whether you want to write

a novel or short story on it; if the answer is yes, mentally

go over everything you remember about the dream

immediately then do this again about five minutes later to

permanently lock in what you remember. By following

this step, you’ll always have ideas for your next fiction

books and prevent writer’s block.

Once you begin writing a book, maintain whatever

pace you’re comfortable with over the next several weeks

or so.

Save your work during and after each writing session. I

save my work onto a file in my flash drive then email a

copy of what I have completed to date to my email.

 

Action, art, blurb, research

When you write a fiction novel or mini-novel, it’s

critical to provide action in your first chapter – the closer

to the beginning of that chapter, the better.

Surely you’re familiar with the phrase “Don’t judge a

book by its cover”. Many readers do in fact do this; if any

book you self-publish doesn’t sell well and you think your

cover may have something to do with this, change your

book cover. If you don’t want or can’t afford to pay

someone to design your cover, you can find artwork you

can download for commercial and personal use free of

charge through Pixabay. Make sure the actions of the

characters or objects you choose for your cover match the

title and the story line of your book, particularly if it’s

fiction.

Having a great cover can help get more readers to

notice your book online but they may not be persuaded to

look inside your book, let alone buy it, unless you “sell”

the book to them. Solid book summary copy is just as

important as the cover. Your blurb, or book description,

is the place to encourage people to purchase your book.

Finally, the font for your title should be attractive and

easy to read all the way through.

Make this summary exciting and highlight the

strongest points of your book without giving away too

much information. Paying attention to the back covers

of traditionally published books you read or browse can

help you hone this crucial book copy writing skill; it’s

more critical to have such a powerful blurb for fiction

books than it is for nonfiction, self-help books.

Constantly conduct research to find out how to have

more author success.

 

Promotion

If you don’t do anything to promote your books you

likely won’t get anywhere past a few steps at the most

and will therefore have wasted your time writing the

books. A powerful way to promote your books is through

your own author website. I recommend creating your

site through WordPress.org and paying about $2.59 a

month to host your site through Dream Host. Make sure

to start an email list through your author website and

make sure to offer a free content magnet such as a

helpful self-help book you have written to persuade

visitors to give you their email address and sign up for

your newsletter. If you opt to set aside a page to list

your books, I recommend splitting this page up into

multiple sections, putting each individual book under

the category it belongs to so that your visitors/prospects

have a better idea of what each book you have written is

about and don’t neglect to make a purchase from

you so easily because they’re confused; this can

also help attract more visitors through Google

classifying your works in its search engine rankings

based on the heading/category you post your writings

under.

Other book promotion avenues include using book

promotion websites, promoting your works to friends on

social media and participating in Facebook writers

groups.

 

Where to publish your works

If you wish to self-publish your work, submit each

book you complete to Bookrix or the Amazon DTP

program.

If you wish to traditionally publish your work, please

read “Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book publishers, Editors &

Literary Agents” first.

If you want to have your work turned into a movie,

acquire movie script writing software and buy a copyright

for your completed manuscript through the Library of

Congress before submitting it to film producers.

 

Selling your books in multiple formats

The more avenues you provide readers to buy your

books, the better – this includes e-book, paperback,

hardback and audio book formats.

I sell my books as e-books through Bookrix and as

paperbacks through Amazon DTP – this program

now enables authors to publish hardbacks

containing 75 to 550 pages.

 

Patience

Anytime you self-publish a book, please make sure

there is a book preview or book sampling option

available to readers before linking to your book and

marketing it.

It isn’t smart to risk losing a sale to someone who

can’t preview your book.

 

Avoiding unforgivable errors

• Some readers such as myself can’t let certain

errors slide.

For example, you don’t want to get “their” and

“there” mixed up and use them in the wrong

context.

An instance of this I found while reading a book was

“tears streamed down there faces”. “Their” should

have been used instead.

Use “no more” in the proper way. For example, you

shouldn’t write “I don’t have no more to give you” because

that’s using a double negative, and it’s a pet peeve of mine;

instead, write “I don’t have anything more to give you”.

 

Avoiding profanity in your books

If you use a cuss word, especially the F word, just

once in your books, that may cause some readers to

drop your book.

You may be thinking, “What do I care if a reader stops

reading my book altogether? I got his/her money and

that’s all that counts.” Well, that reader will likely buy

no more of your books and may even write a negative

review.

If I find too many instances of profanity in a book I

buy online, I’ll write a review containing fewer than five

stars.

 

• These are the steps you can take for more author

success. To view my most relevant post on making more

time for yourself as an author, click here

 

How to have more time to write your books