Resources

Best Free Book Marketing Sites

Most know that BookBub is very expensive, as well as very difficult to get into. SPR’s own BookBub alternative (starting at $199) has no barrier to entry, but it’s also expensive if your budget is…zero. There are a number of BookBub-style newsletter services that allow for free submissions. These submissions aren’t guaranteed, and many offer a paid option to guarantee inclusion, but it’s still helpful if you really have no budget for book marketing, or you want to pad out your paid efforts with some other services.

As with pay sites, it’s best to spread out these listings over 3 […]

Lysa Grant2022-09-11T15:55:06+02:00July 19th, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Newsletter Campaign|

15 Places for Authors to Write a Guest Post

Blogging is an essential part of book marketing. It’s always a bit mystifying to hear authors say, “I don’t know what to blog.” You’re a writer! It’s part of the job. If readers like the way you put together a post, they’ll be more likely to check out your book.

However, blogging can also feel like writing into the wilderness, especially if your site gets scant traffic, which is usually the case for new writer’s sites. If your blog (or book) is hurting for viewers, a good practice is to post on a blog with a built-in audience.

CreativIndie has […]

Lysa Grant2018-05-10T06:45:25+02:00June 30th, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Author Blogging, Book Marketing, Book Promotion|

How To Get The Best Paperback Cover You Can With CreateSpace

Many authors have bemoaned their CreateSpace paperback quality, i.e. print cover results in forums. But there are certain tricks of the trade that are right in front of your nose that would have given you a perfect result. Here’s a quick rundown of some easy to grasp techniques when choosing your print options with CreateSpace.

Do your interior first

Remember that you need your page count before you do your cover, because you need to know how wide your spine is! When you download your template, you will need to input the exact number of pages. Remember the interior is […]

Cate Baum2020-02-21T05:43:40+02:00June 22nd, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Amazon, Book Cover Design|

Seven Steps To Maximum Exposure For Your Self-Published Book

It’s a very competitive market out there. Here are some more direct tips from SPR’s marketing team to get your book sold and seen.

Good cover design

The one greatest tool for your book marketing is a professional book cover. Without it, you will fail online, you will fail on a book stand. People do judge a book by its cover. A professional cover won’t break the bank, but it will cost a few hundred dollars. It’s essential you budget for this expense in your marketing costs. This expense, plus editing, should be the absolute essentials when self-publishing. Frankly, people

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Cate Baum2020-02-21T05:53:07+02:00June 13th, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Amazon, Book Marketing|

35+ Alternatives to BookBub – UPDATED

This post was first published in February 2016. Because Amazon clamped down on affiliate-linked services using free or discounted books to garner affiliate fees from Amazon in May 2016, we have added a new column below that shows which services use an affiliate tag to profit from the book’s sale and could affect your book’s campaign. Note this is probably only affecting free books, as then Amazon was paying out on a loophole into the negative, but we advise to proceed with caution with any service that uses an affiliate tag system.

So let’s move on to the information.

As […]

Lysa Grant2020-02-21T04:34:55+02:00June 23rd, 2016|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Promotion, Newsletter Campaign|

Writing Characters: How To Use a “Hinterland” To Develop Backstory (With Free Resources)

You may have heard of the word “hinterland” to suggest something mysterious or hidden. In German, it literally means “land behind.” However, many writing schools teach potential novelists to use a “hinterland” to develop characters off the page before writing the words that will end up in your book.

Using a hinterland will give readers the sense they have just stepped into your novel at a point in time before the events unfold. It enriches your characters in terms of speech, foibles, and reactions because you the writer are in possession of these facts.

However, not everything you write down […]

Cate Baum2018-05-31T12:30:44+02:00April 29th, 2016|Categories: Features, Resources|

How To Fix Your Ingram Spark PDF – With Free PDF Fix Download

For many reasons, some authors decide to forgo the most popular path of publishing with Amazon’s Createspace and use the popular service at Ingram Spark/Lightning Source. However, guidelines given do not fully prepare an author for troubleshooting, and state that each time an author has to re-upload the file because it’s not correct, they will be charged $25. So it’s really important to get this right first time.

Update 2020 – LS/IS provide a full guide to preparing your PDF here.

There is in fact nothing wrong with the way that Ingram Spark needs you to present your file. The […]

Cate Baum2020-10-19T03:10:24+02:00March 3rd, 2016|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: Book Formatting, Ingram Spark|

Best WordPress Portfolio Themes for Authors & Creatives

Earlier, we posted the complete list of free and premium WordPress themes for books. Another option, and perhaps less commercial-looking, is a portfolio template. Normally, portfolios are used for designers and photographers, but they can double just as easily for writers. These themes look very sleek and modern, and are generally easy to configure.

I’ve selected only portfolio templates that easily allow users to upload a tall rectangular (i.e. book cover-shaped) image for the homepage. There are a lot of portfolio sites with other image sizes (example here), and these can potentially be hacked to change the […]

Henry Baum2015-11-13T11:17:52+02:00November 13th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|