Over the past couple of weeks, we have been refocusing on the services that we offer the authors we work with, as we’ve been in the publishing industry for many years now, we have seen some changes in how self-publishing works and what is important to an indie author.

Self-publishing is an exciting place to be, more and more authors are taking the step in bringing their work to an audience, which is great for those of us who love reading, but for the author, they face more competition than ever before.

There are of course more places to publish your book through, and each of these POD services offer more options than just a couple of trade paperback sizes, KDP now offer hardbacks, have gone with just ePub for their books on Kindle and offer their Vella option where books are broken down into chapter installments.  The other big players like IngramSpark, B&N, Blurb, Smashwords and Lulu have also made their process to publish so much easier, and more accessible, prompting more people to publish their first book.

However, as mentioned earlier, this does mean that the number of books being published is increasing and will continue to do so, this also means that authors and publishers will have to be very dedicated when it comes to getting their book ready for launch and promoting it once it’s for sale.

So, if you think that you can just upload your manuscript, sit back, and watch the $$$ come rolling in, think again.

Those authors who are successful have worked extremely hard to get there, once the first draft manuscript is complete, they will fully edit, proofread, edit again and polish until it is as perfect as is possible. The editing process is one that all professional authors take seriously, if you upload a book with lots of errors and/or a storyline which lacks continuity or flow, the reviewers on Amazon will be very quick to point this out, and that can have a massive impact on sales.
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There is a reason why successful authors and publishers use professional designs for their covers and the advertising materials they use to grab reader’s attention. They use them because they know it works, it’s the same with all advertising, you are projecting an image of your book/product in a way which is appealing, and that reassures the buyer/reader that your book is worth not only their money but their time too.

So, what designs should an author use? Well, the first and most important one will of course be their book cover, this is the ‘face’ of their work and should represent it professionally (remember, once your book is on Amazon, you’ll be competing with the likes of Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and other well-known names within your own specific genre).

But once you have your book cover created you will still need to be active in self-promotion, promoting your title on social media and online (especially during these days of facemasks and where not everyone wants to go to a book fair or signing event). So, focusing your promotional activities to mainly online still makes more sense presently.
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The other elements that many authors use and get results from are things like 3D mockups, banners for their author website and for social media posts, GIFs (which are smaller animated banners which can really grab the eye of your reader), promotional images for use with Instagram and designs for use with online book promotional websites such as BookBaby etc.

There are lots of different ways to get creative with the media you use to promote your book, and if you look at most social media channels now, they are greatly focused on short videos, apps like TikTok have really pushed this forward (and it’s not just 12-year-olds using it), Facebook have Reels, which is very similar, and every other social media app will allow you some form of video upload.  If you want to reach a larger audience, use them.
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It is an exciting time to be in the publishing world, will it change? Yes of course it will! Will you be able to find info to keep ahead of those changes? Most definitely! The main thing is to be open to those new opportunities and embrace what you need to, if you want people to read your book you will.

At this time of year many of us will be thinking of setting goals for 2022, taking time to come up with lists of what we would like to achieve during the next 12 months to become better versions of ourselves. However, what follows is a list of massive unsustainable targets which we keep for the first month and then gradually drop as we slip back into our old (and easier) habits.

Just look at gym membership, early in the new year attendance levels spike dramatically and then fall off after a couple of months, people have great intentions but no long-term dedication or forward planning, so they start off by dedicating more time/effort than they can sustain and once the novelty wears off, they quit, ending up disappointed in themselves for not following through with their goals.

Now I am not personally a massive believer in New Year’s resolutions, if you want to make a change in your life, make it, don’t wait until the New Year! However, for many the symbolism of a fresh new year and a new start is great motivation, so if you’re planning to make a change, good for you! But, getting the foundation of your resolutions right and planning it so that you’ll follow through on them, is critical (unless you want to quit by February of course).​

One – Be Specific

Saying that in 2022 you want to lose weight sounds good, but if you reached the end of the year and you were down just one pound would you be happy? You’ve hit your goal of losing weight, right?

The same goes if you’re writing a new book, setting a goal of just ‘I want to write a book’ needs more specificity, what is your target word count, how many chapters will it have, do you want it published by the end of the year, have you already planned out the story and characters, what research will you need to do?

Being vague with your goal will lead to you missing it, as the target is completely undefined, if you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it.

Be specific in your goal, have a clear target and know what success will look like.

Two – Can you measure it?

The key to hitting a goal is in understanding how you are performing towards it during the year and understanding this on a regular basis. So, if your goal is to write a book with an 80,000 word count, this breaks down to 1540 words per week and 308 words per day (if writing five times a week), roughly speaking your target is one page per day, five days a week. From this you can set weekly, monthly and quarterly targets, clear goals you either hit or miss.
 
Three – When can you do this?

Most of us think that we don’t have much free time, the truth is that we have just as much time as the most successful people on our planet, we all get the same 24hrs every day, how we choose to spend them is what makes the difference. But please don’t get me wrong, I do understand that if you have kids (especially young ones) and/or other dependents, the amount of time you can commit to achieving a goal will be smaller than someone without those commitments. But do remember, there are still those who have achieved success with the same time constraints as you, the key is to not use it as an excuse to give up on a goal.

So, when can you work on your goal? A very useful exercise is to look at an average week for you, on each day what do you do with your time? How long do you work, sleep, eat, look after others etc. There are always going to be non-negotiable tasks that you will have to complete every day, but then there are hours sat in front of your TV or cell phone, scrolling through social media, how much time each day can you reinvest back into something productive for YOU?

It may be as little as one hour per day, this is still five hours a week, twenty hours per month and 240 hours per year, it’s the equivalent of having six weeks at 40 hours per week to work on yourself every year. 

Four – How realistic is your goal?

Getting back to the common goal of wanting to write a book, if you set a target of writing 6,000 words per day seven days a week, unless you’re a full-time writer, most people will not be able to realistically sustain this. Yes, you must have goals that stretch and push you, but you also have to be realistic with your actual free time.

If you look at tip number three, you should have a good idea of how much time you can commit to each day/week, so if it is an hour a day, five days a week, work your goal around this time, could you write 300 words in that hour? If you can, then by the end of the year you will have written 240-250 pages (now you have a target).
 
Five – Be held accountable

Most of us don’t want to look like failures in front of our friends and family, now that you have a goal for the year, tell people and tell them that you’ll be posting monthly updates.

If you really want further motivation, tell a friend that if you don’t post monthly updates on how you’re doing and if you miss your goal by the end of the year, you’ll give them $1000 (or another amount that would be painful for you to give away).

Knowing that others are watching is great motivation to keep going, use it to your advantage.
 
Six – Reward yourself

Set up rewards throughout the next twelve months, but only if you stay on target and achieve your goal at the end of the year, it could be using the money you were going to give away if you failed on yourself instead. Having something to look forward to when you hit your target is a great motivator, it shouldn’t just be a massive chore without any reward along the way.

Seven – Inspire others

When working hard towards your own goals you have no idea that you are inspiring others along the way, you set an example to your kids, spouse, family and friends, remember this as you go, your story may be the inspiration someone else needs to make a positive change to their own life.

Be the example that inspires someone you love.

Before you can think about publishing your book, you should consider having the manuscript professionally edited, this stage is such an important one in the publishing process and shouldn’t be overlooked.
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Having a professional editor look at your work prior to printing not only ensures that mistakes in grammar and spelling don’t get through, but it also helps with the flow of the book and it’s impact to the reader, it can take a good book and make it brilliant.

One – Bookbaby

Bookbaby are a self-publishing company that offer a host of services for authors, from publishing to printing and editing, they have a lot that an author could need. Their editing services are for three different options, the first is purely proofreading which includes checking grammar, spelling and punctuation along with a character-by-character review of each page. They next offer copy editing as a mechanical edit which is in depth and includes proofreading, then they offer a stylistic editing service, again, very in depth and includes a proofread along with intensive structural edit of your book. Prices of their services start from $3 per page and work up depending upon how intensive you want to be.
 
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Two – Kirkus Reviews

Most authors will have heard of Kirkus for their review services, and they have been going for a long time too, originally started back in the 30’s, they have gone from strength to strength, becoming the trusted service used by countless authors today. They currently offer three packages starting from 3 cents per word and going up to 6.5 cents per word for their top package. They boast editors who have worked in the top publishing houses in the US and offer two editors per project.
 
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Three – The Literary Consultancy

Started back in 1996, this company have many years’ experience within the editing field and have worked with thousands of authors in editing their books. Prices for their services start for small books at 15,000 words from around $300, manuscripts up to 60,000 words from around $600 and then above 60,000 words $8 for every additional 1000 words. They also offer consulting with an editor via zoom, proofreading services, and even a mentoring service so you can develop your skills under the guidance of a successful published author.
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Four – NY Book Editors

NY Book Editors are a well known and trusted editing service with 35 editors working for them, giving the author countless years of experience for their book. They offer a comprehensive editing package which gives an in-depth line edit for your manuscript, covering the pace, clarity and flow. It is a very in-depth service aimed a polishing the book to a high standard.
 

Five – The Writership

The Writership is an editing services which can analyze your manuscript to see what works and what doesn’t. They offer two 1hr phone consultations to answer questions and see where the manuscript is and should be going. You’ll get recommendations of what you should adjust to make the manuscript better along with a lot of resources to help.


Six - Elite Authors

Founded by Jennifer Rotner back in 2008, Elite Authors has gone on to help thousands of authors with their books. They offer line editing, developmental editing and proofreading (along with a host of other services an author may need). Line editing starts from 0.028 cents per word, there other services are given as quotes based on the manuscript and your needs.

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Seven – Scribendi

This service has been around since 1997 and offers a hand-picked editorial team which have thousands of authors from all over the world, this has enabled them to give high quality editing and proofreading for each writer they work with. They offer an extensive editing service for every type of author and manuscript along with book critiques, proofreading and even separate services for eBooks. 

If you’re reading this blog then there is a strong possibility that you are either an author or someone who just simply loves to read, either way, you still enjoy books and as such have a lot to thank the wonderful authors who pour their hearts and knowledge into each page of our chosen paperbacks, eBooks, or hardbacks.

If you get as much joy out of reading as I do, then I’m sure that you would also like to show some appreciation to those great authors who you have read or may even know. Now, when I’m referring to authors here, I am referring to those indie authors who don’t have the massive publishing houses behind them, those authors and writers who have worked hard to get their masterpieces in front of an audience and really appreciate the support of their readers.
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This is where we can all help, supporting your favorite indie author (and not just at Christmas) encourages further creativity and an increase in titles from those you enjoy reading, it’s a real win-win, you get more great things to read, and an author gets the opportunity to bring their manuscripts to life.

So, what can we all do to help support? Here are our top ideas on how to get behind indie authors:

ONE) Buy their books! This may be a bit of an obvious one, however, if you have a friend, relative or colleague who is trying to self-publish a book, buy copies, buy one for yourself and give them out as gifts for others (so many people love to receive books as presents, it’s a much more thoughtful gift).

TWO) When you do buy a copy of their book, find out where they are selling it and buy it from where they get the best return, in many cases this will be from their own website. Normally, most authors will direct their readers to where they would prefer you to buy the book from, you’ll be able to see this from their website or social media channels.

THREE) Don’t write-off Amazon however, when you do buy a book from Amazon, it really helps for the ranking of the author’s book, the more that are sold, the higher up the search results and the more sales the author will get.

FOUR) Pre-order their next book, this really helps with booksellers ordering in more stock in anticipation of strong sales for the title, what’s also worth remembering is that in most cases preorders count towards the sales of that book for the first week, so they have a great chance of going into a best seller list and as a result, they sell more books.

FIVE) ​Rate and review online, if you liked the book, one of the best gifts you can give back to the author is a five-star rating along with a great review, make sure you take a couple of minutes writing a short review (try not to give any spoilers away) and if you can, place it in several online bookstores (obviously Amazon should be your first).

SIX) Get in touch with your favorite author and tell them that you enjoyed their book. Writing can be a very lonely task and often the only feedback received is incredibly critical, so getting some positive feedback telling the author how much you enjoyed their work can be very motivating.

SEVEN) If you have read a book that you loved, share it, promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatever other social media channels you like to use, sharing a link to an author’s book is a powerful way to help them, many authors benefit greatly from word-of-mouth sales, so shout about what you love and spread the love.

EIGHT) Awards help authors, and there are plenty of websites and organizations that love to hand them out, however, they need support to ensure great authors win. So, if you see a competition which would suit your favorite author, nominate them, and then tell everyone you know to vote for your author.

NINE) Sign up for newsletters from your fav author’s website, by doing this you’ll know when your author will be releasing their next book, you also tend to get any promotions before anyone else, so in many cases you’ll get free chapters of new books and discounts too. But most importantly, it lets the author know that their readers are interested in their work, this is so powerful for any author and really keeps them going.

TEN) Find new great indie authors, go to websites such as Goodreads, Gnooks and Bookbub, where you can easily browse for new books from authors you may not have heard of before, you can also search for new authors via Twitter and Facebook where many are building their social media presence.

The main thing to remember, this isn’t about promoting work that you didn’t enjoy or was badly written, this about supporting the indie authors that you read and love, these great authors will really appreciate your help in getting their work in front of a larger audience.

So, if you have a spare moment, do something great today and support an author.  

If you are self-publishing, you will have certainly considered using the likes of KDP, IngramSpark or Lulu to print and distribute your book, but have you also considered Draft2Digital as an option for your book?
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D2D are a print on demand company that have been in operation since 2012 and are based out of Oklahoma City, and like many of the other operators they distribute to the major channels you’d expect from a publishing service, channels such as:

Amazon, Apple Books, Barens & Noble, Kobo, Tolino, OverDrive,
Bibliotheca, Scribe, Baker & Taylor, Hoopla, Vivlio and BorrowBox.

The fees for Draft2Digital are taken as a percentage of around 10% from each book you sell with stores taking around 30% so you keep around 60% for each eBook, for printed books they state that each book makes around 45% of the list price minus the base printing cost, but there are no upfront charges for their services, and they only get paid if you sell a book.

They offer free templates to help you format your book ready for print and eBook, here they state that even if you don’t publish your book with them, you can keep the interior files for your manuscript.

A great feature about their operation is their customer service, as many authors know, getting in touch with some of the bigger POD services can be really tough, D2D offer US based customer support phone lines making it easier to talk to a human with any issues.
Like KDP they offer a free ISBN for your book, but this will show D2D as the vendor with the ISBN recording agency, and it also restricts the use of this specific ISBN to just D2D (so you would not be able to publish your book via KDP using their ISBN), however, you can of course use your own ISBN if you choose to purchase them separately and use without this restriction.

​So, what print sizes do they currently offer? Well, they are a little restrictive in that regard and currently only print in perfect bound paperback books, however, the sizes they print books at are for the most common trim sizes: 5x8’, 5.25x8.5’, 5.5x8.5”, 6x9”, 7.5x9.25” and 8.5x11” which will cover most author’s needs.

They also offer a service called Books2Read, this is a website aimed at helping readers find their next great read, it keeps them up to date with what their favorite author is doing, discover new books and where to purchase the book. This along with a universal book link which takes anyone who clicks it to a Books2Read landing page showing you exactly where you can buy copies of that specific book.
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So, although Draft2Digital may not be the biggest print on demand publishing service on the block they do offer some great options for authors, they very much pride themselves in being an indie company which looks after their authors and delivers on customer service. Their choice of print sizes and formats is smaller than others, but without any upfront fees, they are certainly worth consideration.

Smashwords was founded back in 2008 by Mark Coker, after failing to publish his own book, he wanted to create a platform which would give indie authors more control (and freedom) when it came to getting their own work published. Since then Smashwords has grown from just a handful of authors to hundreds of thousands of authors, it’s even had some of its titles go on to become New York Times and USA Today best sellers, not bad.

The main thing you will notice if you consider using Smashwords is that they just publish eBooks, (so if you are looking to publish in print then you will want to look elsewhere), their books can be read using online eReaders or downloaded to you own device such as a Kindle, Nook and iPhone (along with other devices too).

They do distribute to Apple books, their website states that this is to 51 countries, B&N, Kobo, some public libraries (via OverDrive), Scribd, Libri, Gardners, Baker & Taylor and of course their own Smashwords library too.

Smashwords also offers some free services for their authors, things such as ISBNs, an author profile page, eBook conversion from a Word document, unlimited updates to your book and its meta data, sales reporting, and a host of marketing tools.

How much will it cost?

Currently Smashwords is free to use, they pride themselves on having no hidden fees, listing fees, setup or conversion fees (they make their money from a commission from each sale of your book, which is fair enough).

So, how much will you be compensated?

Authors and Publishers earn 85% or more of the net proceeds from the sale of their works through Smashwords.com, authors receive 70.5% for affiliate sales, sales through retailers (such as Apple, B&N etc.) earn 60% of the list price, sales in libraries via OverDrive give 45% and sales via Library Direct (which Smashwords claim is where the majority of their library sales come from) is at 70% of list price.

Your book will be published via Smashwords through a non-exclusive license, this means that you retain all of the ownership rights to your book and are free to publish your book elsewhere if you want to.

How about marketing via Smashwords?

They do offer their authors several marketing tools for free, an Author’s profile page where you can upload details about yourself along with a headshot, there’s Smashwords interviews, where they allow you to tell the story behind your book. Smashwords Alerts, this keeps readers up to date with new releases etc., presales which allow you to run public and private presale events up to 12 months before launch, Audio book production and distribution, with access to Findaway Voices, you can recruit a narrator for your audio book and then distribute via Apple iTunes, Audible, Kobo, OverDrive and more.

Smashwords also has their ‘Smart Author Podcast’ which gives you a step by step guide to publishing and marketing your book, which is well worth a listen (especially if you’re a new author).

Is it worth using Smashwords?

Ultimately this is of course up to you, also, you may want to check the exclusivity of anywhere else that you may be published currently (or want to publish in the future, just because Smashwords is non-exclusive doesn’t mean that other publishers are not).

​However, they are free to use, offer great returns on sales and have grown well over the past few years since 2008, their distribution is good too. So with this in mind, you may want to give strong consideration to Smashwords for your eBook.

Focusing on paperbacks and eBooks has been good for KDP, but they have lagged behind other POD services with regards to hardbacks, for long time most author’s first option would be either IngramSpark, Lulu or a smaller independent printer, and this is fine, but it always felt like KDP were missing a trick not offering the service themselves.

So, if we go back over the past 12-18 months they started a beta service for hardbacks, selected authors were offered the opportunity to print their book via KDP as a case-wrapped edition, numerous authors took them up on the offer and now the service has been rolled out to everyone, at last.

If you want to publish your book via KDP as a hardback, here’s a few things that you should know.

Firstly, the book is a case wrap and does not have a dust jacket, this means that the cover gets printed onto the boards of the book itself, we’re not sure if KDP will eventually bring out a service offering dust jackets, but currently it’s just for case wraps, paperbacks and eBooks.
You will need a new ISBN for your hardback edition (as always, it’s one per edition of your book).

The sizing options for a hardback is a little limited at the moment, currently they are offering the following five trim sizes:

• 5.5 x 8.5 in
• 6 x 9in
• 6.14 x 9.21 in
• 7 x 10 in
• 8.25 x 11 in

There are also some restrictions on page count with the minimum at 75 pages and the maximum at 550 pages, they support 34 languages for hardback and have the capabilities for both left to right and right to left text.
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The book cover for your hardback will differ slightly from that of your paperback edition, technically the artwork gets wrapped around the edges of the boards and so it has to extend out further than that of a paperback. If you look at the diagram below, it shows the specifications for a book to be printed as a hardback.

​You’ll see that the template they offer does have a similar feel to the ones used for their paperbacks.

For distribution, currently they offer their hardbacks via Amzon.com - .co.uk - .de - .es - .fr and .it however, it’s not available via expanded distribution at the moment.

The costs for printing is of course more expensive than that of a paperback, so you will need to factor in a higher market price for your hardback edition, if you check out KDP’s cost calculator you can see the cost for your exact book, based on page count, interior paper and format, this is incredibly helpful to ensure you price your book correctly.

Now that this service is live, it’s a very similar process to setting up a paperback within the KDP author’s portal, you should see the option within your bookshelf and be able to add a new title, choosing hardback as the format.

It's worth taking a look at, and if you have a well established book already you should certainly consider publishing it in hardback too.

​If you’re a self-publishing author, or about to become one, you will have no doubt looked at the big players in print on demand publishing, and one of these is Lulu. 

So, who are they? Well, founded by Bob Young in 2002, Lulu is an online print-on-demand, distribution and self-publishing service, currently based in North Carolina. They have published millions of titles and offer authors a wide range of formats for their books.
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Lulu offer several services to authors:

Lulu.com

This is for print on demand self-publishing and is free to use, there are no minimum orders, you sell your book via Lulu’s own bookstore and their global distribution channels (which include Amazon, Ingram and Barnes & Noble), you also retain 80% of your book’s gross profit.
Currently this service offers a free ISBN (for projects with global distribution, sold through Lulu.com, Direct and print API), Lulu.com also works if you just want to publish as an eBook only.
 
Lulu Direct

This is for those who are selling their own book themselves, Lulu have created an app which will work with your Shopify website, so you can make order fulfillment a great deal easier.
The service is free to use, customer data will still be retained by you, you can have your own labeling and there’s no inventory management to worry about. It’s great if you are starting your own publishing imprint and want to sell your book (or series of books) away from just Amazon via your own Shopify website.
 
Lulu API

Aimed at publishers or businesses that want to sell their own books via their own websites, this service is free to use (and like Lulu Direct) you retain your customer details, don’t have to deal with inventory and keep 100% of the profits.
 
One thing about Lulu is that they offer some great options for formats of printed books/products, from standard paperbacks to hardcovers (casewrap and/or dust jacket) to photo books, comic books, magazines, year books and of course eBooks.

They also offer a decent range of trim sizes, starting at 4.25in x 6.875in (Pocket Book) and going up to 11in x8.5in (Calendar), along with the sizes, you’ll have options for perfect bound, coil bound and saddle stitch (format dependent of course).

The interiors give you the options you would expect, standard B&W and premium B&W, the same goes with their color interiors, the premium versions being better suited for books with higher res and larger images within them. They offer paper stocks of 60# cream, 60# white, 80# white and 100# white, again, these are format dependent.​

Distribution with Lulu

Lulu’s distribution connects your book for print to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram, your eBook is distributed to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Scribd, Google, and Libri. As you can see, Lulu seems to connect you with the major outlets where you would expect to see your title.

Lulu does have stipulations as to what books can be part of their global distribution, so it is well worth taking a look at their guide to ensure your book will be fine.
 
Bulk buying with Lulu

If you want to order lots of copies of your book, Lulu does currently offer discounts for bulk buying, if you’re purchasing between 100 to 499 copies you’ll get 5% off, from 500 to 999 copies 10% off and over 1000 copies you’ll receive 15% off of the price.

Promoting your book can seem a little daunting, where do you start? Who do you use to plug your book? And how much will it cost? The good news is that there are plenty of options available and a wide range of price points to suit most author’s needs.

Over the past few years many websites have sprung up which offer platforms to advertise your book to an audience, this is great for both the reader and of course the author who wants to put their book in front of them.
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Here we have a list of some of these sites that you should consider, some are free and others charge, it’s also worth considering using multiple sites and staggering your promotions so that you always have something out there promoting your work.

One – BookBub

This is one of the more well-known book promotional websites and is very popular with countless authors. It works by sending out daily emails to its subscribers where it promotes books to them, they send featured deals in this email which you can pay to have your book be within (the featured deals however are expensive, many authors paying thousands of dollars to use, but, it will put your book in front of a massive audience too, and lots of authors have had great results using this).

They also run ads within their website and within the email, these are a lot more reasonable and are very popular with the majority of authors, you can also schedule when the ads will run and set budgets.
 

Two – Book Bongo

This service is from free up to $199.99, their free offer is dependent upon them liking your deal and is essentially them posting it upon their website and social media. Their top package however includes a video to promote your book, this you can then download to use yourself, it gets uploaded to their social media channels, YouTube page and is featured in their weekly mailout.
 

Three – TCK Publishing

You can apply to have your book included within their own book deals newsletter which goes out to over 20,000 readers, they do have stipulations about the quality of the books which they promote (4 star reviews and be on promotion at $0.99 for the days requested to promote.
 

Four – Many Books

They have three packages which are $29, $39 and $79, you can choose to promote your book on their website, newsletter and/or blog, they state that their newsletter has 175,000 active subscribers, they have 500,000+ monthly website views and guarantee 500 downloads from their middle package.
 

Five – Free Booksy

Great if you are promoting your book for free, this service covers a broad range of genres and sub-genres too. They feature the books on their homepage, their daily email and promoted upon their Facebook page (which they quote as having 300,000+ fans). Pricing starts from $30 and varies dependent upon your genre.


Six – Book Goodies

They have a free option where your book will be posted to their website for six months and also posted upon their social media channels, however, the free option won’t get your book included within their newsletter.

Their chargeable advertising currently starts from $49 and goes up to $399, this can get you a feature for up to eight weeks on their home page along with inclusion to their email letter and of course social media.


Seven – Book Gorilla

Pricing here starts from $40 and varies based upon your book’s genre, it’s also just for Kindle, having a reach of 350,000 followers on a range of platforms which includes their email and social media, they also give a great breakdown of reach by % (which is very helpful).


Eight – Author Ad Network

With this service your book will be featured over several book promotion websites for a limited time, your book will also be posted upon their social media channels too (namely Twitter & Facebook), pricing starts from $129.


Nine – Digital Book Today

This is where you can add your free Kindle eBook to their list of ‘the top 100’, updated weekly a regular listing is free (but your book will gradually slide down the page), they also have options from $30 to featured and stay in the top section of their site for a limited time.


Ten – Book Lemur

Pricing starts from $25 and is based around genre, there’s also additional fees if your book is not free to your readers (they want to offer free and discounted books to their own subscribers). Currently they have 16,000+ active subscribers and over 8,700 Facebook followers.

Most people acknowledge that advertising works, if it didn’t, we wouldn’t see companies spending millions of dollars on commercials and branding every year, but there are still some who also think that branding/advertising for their own book isn’t worth investing in.

They repeat the mantra, ‘not everyone judges a book by its cover’, however, most consumers do.

When we are faced with the almost infinite choice of books available (and if you don’t believe me, just take a quick scroll through Amazon), we become very quick at accepting or dismissing a product based on the amount of review stars and how it looks at first glance. If the book cover looks amateurish or badly made, we are going to quickly assume that the contents of the book are just as amateurish.

So, you must ​then ask a deeper question about your journey as a self-publishing author, why are you publishing your book?

Some authors publish simply for family and friends, if they sell other copies along the way, great, but their goal was just to share a book with those close to them, however, for most, they write and then publish their books because they want more than just a handful of people to read their work.

Who are you writing for?

As a storyteller you want to share your work with as many people as possible, right? Or if you have information which would benefit the world, you’d want the world to find it? But to reach a larger audience, you need to take your book’s advertising seriously, and this starts with the book cover.

The book cover becomes the face of your manuscript, it tells the reader straight away the type of author you are and if that reader should invest their time and money in your book, again, if a book looks amateurish, why would anyone consider investing several days of their lives reading it?

I’m not saying you have to spend thousands of dollars on a book cover, but anywhere you cut corners on your work is a mistake, it is possible to get a great looking design for a reasonable price finishing with a professional looking book which attracts readers.

Why spend weeks, months or years writing your book only to rush the book cover?

This is why you should invest in yourself and your book, publishers make sure that the books they promote look professional, they do this because they know it works, their covers look great and they catch the eye of the reader (and in a good way). They say that success leaves clues, so if you're still unsure, look at those big publishing houses and see what they do with their covers, go into your local book store or look online and be inspired. 

Your work deserves a great book cover, make sure you give it one.
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