David Neth's Blog, page 8

Matching Your Cover to Your Genre

Covers are important. They need to be eye-catching. They need to look good as thumbnails. But they also need to match your genre. The reader should know what they’re getting into when they see your cover. They should suspect the type of story they’re about to read.

While I certainly knew covers were important, I didn’t quite know to what extent until last Christmas. I ran out of print books to read so I found free short stories on my iPad to hold me over until Christmas. I had downloaded a bunch of free books and forgot what they were about when I went to read them. I judged by the cover whether it was a story I was in the mood for or not. One surprise in particular stands out to me.

It was one of the books that had been on my iPad for a couple years that I’d been meaning to get to. Since I had about a week before Christmas to read something Christmassy, I thought I’d give this book a try. From the cover and the title, I assumed it was a sweet Christmas romance, not usually my typical reading, but I make the exception at Christmas time.

Yeah, well, I was wrong.

So wrong.

So very, very wrong…

About ten pages in the characters started having sex. In depth, fully-explained erotica sex.

I was done with the book.

So it’s very important to make sure your cover matches your story. Otherwise, you could hook a reader who has no interest in your genre and that would be bad all around.

The reader could possibly leave a bad review because of it.

The reader might like some of your other books, but felt fooled by the cover so has sworn off the rest of your books.

You could gain the reputation of being unprofessional.

It might take some extra effort (i.e. not necessarily buying the cheapest premade cover that looks pretty) or time, but it’s important. Remember, this is the face of your book.

The Full Moon is now available. Pick up your copy on Amazon!

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

Get “Snow After Christmas” for FREE Today Only!

Get all of your holidays mixed up! In honor of Easter today, you can download the Kindle edition of Snow After Christmas for FREE today only!

A chance moment. A snow storm. And the gift of a new beginning.

Tristan is ready to party and ring in the New Year by kissing his soon-to-be girlfriend, Julie. The only bad note in his rocking night is the growing snow storm. Outside his apartment, he’s almost hit by Grace, the most beautiful woman with haunting green eyes. She’s on her own mission to get home to her grandfather.

In a selfless act reminiscent of the age of knights and chivalry, Tristan vows to get her home…never realizing they are both on a date with destiny and their lives will be forever changed by the SNOW AFTER CHRISTMAS…

The Anatomy of a Book

There are a lot of things that need to be done when publishing a book. Beyond the scope of the story, you need to write your back cover blurb, promotional materials, design your cover, format your book, and write your front and back matter. Self-publishing is great because it gives you the power to do what you want with your book, but that also means it’s your responsibility to make it look good.

I found this chart online that is very helpful in determining what goes where when you’re putting together your book.

Courtesy Tiny Tutorials’ Adobe Classroom

Everything is negotiable with your front and back matter. But no matter what you include, make sure you do it right. Take a look at your favorite traditionally published books and mimic the style they’re done in. The font size for the copyright page is usually smaller than the rest of the book. The title page usually matches the same font as the cover, but not always.

I’ve always seen the acknowledgements put in the back of the book, so that’s where I put mine. I don’t see the need to include a table of contents with a fiction book, but I know a lot of authors do.

If you’re having your book formatted by a professional formatter, you don’t necessarily have to worry about any of this. However, the more information and advice you give them the better. Just like with cover design, formatting and layout can be an art and will either add to the reader’s experience or take away from it, no matter how strong the writing is.

The back matter is where things get murky. As it says in the image, basically everything is optional. Indie authors use this space to plug their next book and their mailing lists (with links included in the ebook). I usually call this section “Keep Reading,” because that’s what I’m asking my readers to do. I give a short little reason why people will like the next book and, if I have it, I include the next book’s description.

After that I plug my mailing list and encourage people to connect with me on social media. Then comes the “About the Author” and the “Acknowledgements” and the book is over.

Some authors argue that nobody reads the back matter, which is likely true with ebooks, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Some authors are getting creative and including links to their mailing list or the next book on the same page as “The End.”

Since I’m a traditionalist, I don’t really want to go that route, but I can see the appeal to grab eyeballs. My theory is that if someone really enjoys your book, they’re going to flip through the back matter pages. Your job as the author is to hook them.

As with the front matter, though, you want to make sure the copy and the look of the back matter is appealing and fits the tone of the rest of the book. You can’t always mimic traditionally published books with the back matter, but you can mimic your front matter. Make sure it matches.

Again, a good formatter won’t let you look bad.

Speaking of formatting, keep me in mind for your next project! Under the DN Publishing tab, select “Formatting” to view my rates and samples!

 

Author Interview: C.L. Roman

Fantasy author C.L. Roman’s new book, Fire Candidate, will be available tomorrow on Kindle. In support of the release, I’m hosting a spot on her blog tour. Scroll down to read an interview with the author and an excerpt from the book. At the bottom of the page, enter to win a $20 restaurant gift card or one of three digital copies of Fire Candidate!

Sometimes learning to trust yourself is the hardest lesson of all…

Most girls don’t set their birthday party on fire, no matter how rebellious they feel. But Lila Stuart isn’t most girls, and she never has been. Now her brand of strange is attracting a very bad crowd. She and her family must relocate, leaving everything she knows behind. 

Tracked to her new home by a predatory demi-god, Lila is sold to a human trafficking cartel that specializes in people like her, first generation angel-human hybrids with powers that could make them heroes or deadly villains.

When the cartel threatens her family, Lila must choose: serve as an assassin or live as a slave. Will she find a way out, or is the cost of fighting back just too high?

The second installment in The Witch of Forsythe High series is a fast paced fire-storm about the choices life requires of us and the consequences they bring in their wake.

– I know authors hate this question, but I have to ask, where did the idea for Fire Candidate come from?

Not at all. In this case it’s kind of fun to answer that one. The idea came out of The Rephaim, a fantasy series that I started three or four years ago that is still in process. In the second book in that series, Sacrifice, the couple deals with infertility. So, I started thinking about, you know, what if these characters did have children? And what happens with the descendants in each successive generation? The next logical step was The Witch of Forsythe High: First Candidate and then, well, you know the rest.

– I know it’s not always in the author’s control as to what ends up being their cover. For Indie author’s that’s really changing, and there’s a wide variety of options out there now. What has been your favorite book cover from any author?

I really have a hard time with the notion of favorites!

Inspiration for Character Names

Jay Gatsby.

Katniss Everdeen.

Victor Frankenstein.

Huckleberry Finn.

Ebenezer Scrooge.

Harry Potter.

Each of these names are iconic and draw up the story they’re associated with. You don’t even have to mention Charles Dickens to understand the reference, “You’re being a Scrooge!” Nor do you even need to ask what time of year it is when they utter his signature phrase, “Humbug!”

A character’s name helps give them depth. If you have a cardboard name like John Smith, no matter how hard you try, on some level your character will always be cardboard themselves. You need to create an image with their name. Although I read character descriptions within books, I usually form an image of the character through their actions and their name (since I’m reading it over and over again as opposed to TV where I’m seeing the character without necessarily knowing their name).

But where do you come up with memorable and succinct names like Jane Eyre or Atticus Finch?

Like ideas for stories, I draw from my own life and the people I meet or come into contact with. That doesn’t mean name your characters off of your friends or family. That’s a dangerous road. No matter how different your character and the friend they’re named after are, your friend will probably compare themselves to your character. Or worse, you will start writing your character to match the behaviors of your friend.

I’ve used Random Name Generators before, but some of the names they spew out are either too bland or too weird. It’s hard to find a happy medium. I know of some authors using their phone books to search for names. I renamed the brothers’ last name in my Under the Moon series from Lewis (boring!) to Harper (not too strange, but still unique). The name change came while I was deep in edits of The Blood Moon and I was transitioning it from a teenager’s manuscript to a completed novel. The name change had a more significant impact than I would’ve thought.

So where did I find Harper? Funny thing was, I was at my second job at the pet store and someone had just given a donation and filled out a little paw print with their name on it (maybe it was the name of their pet?) and the name stuck. I thought about how well the names Josh Harper and Chris Harper sounded.

When I first started writing, character names would often hold me up when the story was brewing over. Now, I collect names. Whenever I hear a name I like, I write it down. Whether it’s a first name or a last name, if I like the ring, I add it to my list. Then, when I’m developing a story, I draw from the list. Usually I can at least get a first or a last name from the list and come up with the other later. That has helped me tremendously.

What do you do to find inspiration for character names?

 

The Full Moon is available for preorder and will be released February 6, 2016.

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

Book Review: Let’s Get Visible

The second book in David Gaughran‘s Let’s Get Publishing series (still waiting on book 3…) is focused solely on marketing and how to use Amazon to get your book more visibility and, in turn, more sales.

The back of the book totes the tome as an “advanced guide” intended for authors with more books to play with. While I think it’s certainly important to have a catalog of books greater than one to fully appreciate the ideas proposed in this book, it isn’t a requirement. Even before my second book was published, I found myself putting the book down to immediately tweak the metadata for my books and where they would show up on various lists.

The highlights:

Categories are explained fully. Prior to reading Let’s Get Visible , my books were ranked somewhere in between 2,000-20,000 for the sub-categories. Now, even when they’re not selling every day, they’re sitting anywhere from 100-900 in the sub-categories.
Understanding Amazon. The site is very secretive, but with meticulous studies that is explained in this book, authors can better understand how Amazon works with the various algorithms. With that knowledge, you can use Amazon to help you.
The power of series. If you hadn’t heard it yet, the power of series are explained here again.

Disappointments:

Focuses almost exclusively on Amazon. There is a small section devoted to the other platforms, but compared to the exhaustive coverage of Amazon, the attempt seems halfhearted.
Keywords. Gaughran talks about how keywords are important and to “pick the right keywords,” but he doesn’t really dive too much further into that.
Outside links. The number of outside links in this book were certainly fewer than Let’s Get Digital , but I feel like with the length of this book, he could’ve added more to the book instead of pointing people away from it.

What I Found Most Helpful: The coverage of Amazon. After reading this book, The Full Moon had a better release than The Blood Moon on Amazon. As I complete my series, I can use the tools I learned in this book to determine when a good time to go wide is.

Science Fiction & Fantasy Super Promotion!

I’m participating in another cross-promotional campaign with a slew of other indie authors. This weekend only, you can get over 100 books for free through either Kindle Unlimited or on Kobo! Click through the image to see all the books available or go to pattyjansen.com/promo

Unlike the last promo, you don’t need to enter to win. These books are free to anyone! So load up your Kindles or Kobo readers and you’ll be set with books for a long time.

My book, The Full Moon, will be available for free both days (and it’s in Kindle Unlimited if you’d rather borrow) and my short story, Snow After Christmas, will be free Sunday, March 6th.

Podcast: Facing Your Fears (and Your Fans)

This week I was featured on The Blargh Factory’s podcast about face-to-face marketing.

Writers tend to be introverted, especially with the increased accessibility and anonymity we can have with digital publishing. Most authors tend to ignore print books in favor of digital, but making one print sale in person earns you more money while giving the reader a better experience. They get to meet the author and you’re more likely to make a lifelong customer by establishing a friendly connection with them directly.

Watch the video below for my discussion with The Blargh Factory’s Amy Hopkins. Check out the other videos in this new podcast for more discussions on indie publishing!

My First Goodreads Giveaway

Before I even started publishing, I had so many ideas for ways to market the book. One of them was doing a Goodreads giveaway. The general consensus on KBoards is that Goodreads giveaways are kind of a waste of time. They cost money to print, ship, and don’t necessarily result in reviews.

KBoarders are notorious for being completely focused on ebooks, though. Ebooks are great—and I don’t doubt that they’re a serious moneymaker—but my focus has been shifting more toward print books. That’s where I’ve made the most money so far, so that’s how I’m going to market my books.

I wanted to run the giveaway for the full month of November. So at the end of October, I set up the giveaway. The problem was, your giveaway can’t start immediately. It needs to be at least 8 days out, so my giveaway didn’t start until November 8 and ran until November 30.

Now, a lot of authors claim that to get the best visibility is to run it for only a few days or a week so your book is on the “ending soon” page. That’s certainly when I got the majority of requests, but I don’t think there’s any harm running it longer. I got over 150 requests before my book appeared on the “ending soon” page.

Overall, I got 452 requests for the book and over 200 people added it to the “to read” page. The “to read” page is essentially useless, though. The option to add it to the “to read” page is automatically selected when people request it, so don’t get too excited when all these people suddenly want to read your book. Unfortunately, most of them won’t.

I picked three winners so that people’s chances of winning were higher. I sent the books via media mail and only paid about $6 for shipping, so nothing too bad. The cost of the books were about $20, so $26 total for the whole giveaway. The giveaway didn’t result in any reviews, from what I could tell, but I have a stronger feeling about my newer work.

I would definitely do another one. I wanted to do one for my holiday short story, but time got away from me. In hindsight, I could have spent the same amount of money on a couple of promos for the digital copy of The Blood Moon and make my money back, but I wouldn’t know until I tried. Right now I’m more focused on getting attention for my book, not necessarily sales.

The Full Moon is now available. Pick up your copy on Amazon!

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

Book Review: Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur

Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur by Joanna Penn

Great ideas from a great author! If you’re serious about starting and running a business as an author, read this book. Joanna Penn goes over exploiting your rights, marketing your book, gathering your team, and even the apps and programs she uses to manage her business. The only downside I’d have for this book is it could potentially be overwhelming for people who haven’t even published a book yet. That, and there’s so much information that you’ll need to reread it to get everything out of it. Definitely a must-read.

I was very excited to read this book and I know I’ll probably have to reread it in the future because there’s some great evergreen advice here that I know I didn’t absorb all at once. I’m looking forward to reading her marketing book.

What I Found Most Helpful: Penn offers advice on how to make the most money from your writing. She proves again and again that your opportunity doesn’t end when you put out a single book. You can (and should) expand from digital to print to audio to translations, etc. Another great theme to remember is to treat this as a business, no matter how large or small your author business is.