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Self-Publishing Tip – Cover sizes

Cover Sizes - Which Comes First?

I chose to write this blog post for new authors who struggle, like I did, when it comes to getting things together right before self-publishing your own books.  I managed to flip upside down when it came time to uploading and publishing.

One reason I went upside down was because I was nervous about doing something I wasn't familiar with.  The second reason was that I had done so much research that I was overwhelmed with information and I had the information in different places.  Sheer confusion.

WHAT DO YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO UPLOAD AN EBOOK COVER AND A PAPERBACK COVER ON KDP.AMAZON.COM?

The ebook cover needs to be 2560px (height) x 1600 px (width).  The instructions say the ebook only has to be 76 dpi, but I always make sure mine are 300dpi.  It's just more high quality.  Amazon has a way of compressing them and they always look good online, so I would suggest you do the same.

It's all about the size.

76dpi, 150dpi and 300dpi - What's the difference?

The difference is size in dots per inch.  Without getting too technical, which isn't necessary, 76dpi is the most common size to use online, on websites, anywhere that you want your pictures to load fast.

150dpi is a bigger size, and that is seen sometimes online.  But that would usually be used for someone publishing actual artwork or photography.

300dpi is what a printer would need to print a color copy of anything.

72 dpi is referred to as "low resolution" and 300dpi is considered high resolution.

IMPORTANT LINKS TO KEEP HANDY:

Amazon offers a Cover Creator, but the covers are template based and it's best to learn how to use Gimp or some other free graphics program in order to make a cover.  They aren't hard to do.  Stay tuned for videos on how to easily make a cover.

The information about formatting in general begins at this link.

The paperback calculator is at this link.

 



WRITERS DIARY – Did I Send Draft Manuscript to the Editor Too Early?

FOLLOWING MY SYSTEM OF FIVE TO SIX REVIEWS BEFORE SENDING:

I am a diligent plotter and planner when I write.  Starting in Scrivener, I construct the story and go over it from six or seven different angles before I even compile it to be worked on, massaged and proofread in Microsoft Word.

So after this process, the book never feels rushed to me.  The last ten to twenty tweaks give me the feeling that I have finished.

IT FELT DONE - BUT WAS IT?

During the writing of my last book, Murder at the Car Wash, I had the same feeling -- that the book was done and ready to go to the editor.

I had checked it constantly to make sure there was enough background information for the book to be read alone, even though it was written as part of the Jack Nolan Detective Series.  I went over the plotline, the sub-plotlines, the balance of the story -- everything, like I always do.

BUT MY MIND IS STILL PERCOLATING

However, once the book was gone to the editor, within a few days, I seemed to have a second wind of creative energy and had more ideas of deepening the intrigue or mystery 'popping' into my head.

I know when the book comes back that I will be adding to it with these ideas that have come to me over the month the book is being edited.

Looking back, I remember the same thing happened with my first few novels.  I didn't notice it like I did this time.  Luckily, with self-publishing, you can fix something or even add something and then re-upload it!  These are the gifts of self-publishing.

WAITING 2 TO 3 WEEKS TO GIVE IT TO THE EDITOR NEXT TIME!

Thinking about this in terms of the future, I will add this 2 to 3 weeks period of allowing the book to rest unattended to see what else pops up when my mind turns to other things.  I write fast enough where this will not create a problem.

I have a list of things I check in the novels to make sure I cover everything.  I will add this "process" of waiting a few weeks to let my mind get busy with other things and then see what else my creative mind throws up as it is still percolating with the storyline.

Although this is my 1th book, I still consider myself a new author and am still learning my way through all this.

Has this ever happened to you?

 



Writers Tip – Writers Tools – New Book Folder Hierarchy

I'm in the process of writing my 10th novel!  I can't believe it myself.  It took me over a year to come up with one plotline to begin my first book!

This blog post about File Naming suggestions is aimed at those new authors writing their first book or maybe their second book.  When I started out, between the first draft, the arc copies, the Bookfunnel copies, and more, I very soon lost track of where my last manuscript was filed or even what I named it!

The photo above is a List of the Folders I use inside any new book file.   I'll describe below what are kept in each of the folders.  This is something I wish I had found seen several years ago when I was new!

BOOK FOLDER NAMES:

I write book series, usually 4 books per series, so my folder for a new book will be called Series 1 - Book 1 - Name of Book.  By putting "series 1" first in the name, followed by the book number, the folders will line up alphabetically and they will be kept in order.  Each series will be in order as well as all the books as well.   This helps when scanning to find a particular book manuscript or book cover, etc.



BOOK COVERS:

Book-cover-yellow-mockupI keep my book covers in a separate folder.  Inside the Book Cover folder are sub-folders named Ebook-Covers and Paperback-Covers folders.  This seems like a lot more work, but believe me, you may have four copies of one cover before you finish making all tweaks or corrections.

You also want to have a high resolution picture (300 dpi) as well as a web versions (72dpi) as you will be uploading to many different places and you want your web picture to be easily downloaded.

Keeping them separate and clearly marked also makes it easy to find the right cover when you are uploading to online book sellers like Amazon or Draft2Digital, etc.  For example, I will name one cover "Darius-eBook-Cover-72dpi" and the other one "Darius-ebook-Cover-300dpi" so I know which is high res and which is low res.

BOOK IMAGES:

I like to find pictures of actors or other people who represent the characters when I begin a new series.  I also like to find pictures of sets for the scenes to take place in.  I may also buy several royalty free photos that I may use on the book covers.  I keep these photos and any other general photos or graphics about the book in this folder.

I found this helpful to not clutter up the actual book cover folders.

PLOTLINES:

Using a Notebook document, I begin each new book with about four potential plotlines.  Then I pick one and begin to outline.  So I keep this document in it's own file.

FIRST DRAFTS:

This is where I keep the scrivener folder and where I do the majority of my creative writing.  If the storyline has a calendar that I'm following, I also keep that in this folder.  Any research that's done and any reminders to myself also go into this file.

For my first two or three books, I did work with Mindmaps in my plotting.  I no longer use them as they are too cumbersome and too hard to change.  I now just use a Notebook document and that serves me well.  But if you are using a mindmap, it's best to keep it in your First Drafts folder.



MANUSCRIPT PRE-PUBLICATION:

In the PrePublications folder, I have sub-folders.  One is "Copy to Editor" because often I choose to rewrite the beginning and end of the book a few times while the editor is working.  So I want to have an exact copy of the document passed off to the editor when it comes back with corrections, etc.

Whatever rewrites I do, I clearly mark:  "Rewrite of Chapter 1" and keep it separate.

While the editor is working, I find a few beta readers or advance feedback readers.  I keep the copies sent to them separate.  Lately, I have offered a coffee mug with the cover of the book as a small token of appreciation for the readers to answer a questionnaire.  The copy is only offered for feedback, not for a review.  One ARC/BETA copy I have been adding a link to the questionnaire for the reader to fill out.  This is a short-lived offer as once I make the corrections when the book returns from the editor, I remove this offer.

The other ARC/Beta copy is without the link to the gift and questionnaire as I participate on the BookSquirrel and other ARC copy websites.  So I don't want that offer in those copies.

At some point after editing, the book will be uploaded for giveaway to my newsletter list and uploaded to Bookfunnel and SiteOrigin for a month or so as I arrange to have a PreOrder campaign with Amazon.  So I keep those copies separate also.

MANUSCRIPT-PUBLISHED:

File-folder-manuscript-publishedAt some point, the book actually gets published!  The Final Manuscript copies are kept in this folder and they are the only documents in this folder.  I cannot tell you how many times between the editor and corrections and ARC changes, etc., that I lost sight of what my actual final copy was named and where it was!  Keeping the final manuscript in a clearly-marked separate folder eliminates this problem.

TOBEDeleted:

As you go from first draft to second draft, to editors copy, to arc copies, to any rewrites, you will wind up with copy after copy after copy.  I'm a bit paranoid about just deleting the copies I don't need anymore until the end of the project and the book is safely uploaded.  So as I save corrected copies, I put the old ones in the TOBEDeleted folder.  Then when the book is safely published on Amazon and wherever else I'm uploading, that's when I open this folder and delete everything.

INFO-BOOK NAME - BLURBS

This is a notebook sheet that I begin with the start of any new book.  First I keep any working title, or I call it Book 10, etc.  I keep a list of all of the character names, even if they are mentioned only once.  This is helpful in writing a series because you may need one police office to pass off something in Book 2 and I don't know about you, but I would never remember his name.  So by having a list of all characters named in the book, I have easy reference to every character name at all times.  I have this information sheet on every book.

Example-Info-Sheet-on-Distrust

I also keep any technical research I know I will be entering into the story.  This also makes it easy when writing your first draft.  It eliminates having to stop and try to remember where you put the research.

As you move through the process, you will gather links for your free uploads, and ASIN numbers and ISBN numbers, etc.  I add them to this document and keep them neatly arranged on this Info sheet. I also add all links to the books.  So when I'm uploading or doing any other kind of marketing, I have everything I need on this one sheet.  This saves all of that scrambling around for these little bits of info.  (I'm talking from experience!)

As you can see from the Info sheet on my last book Distrust, I have every bit of info I need, including the links, word counts, page counts, etc.

This is only the top 20% of the document.  Below are all the character names, as well as the book descriptions and blurbs.

When you begin to upload either as a giveaway or a book sale, you will also need various blurbs.  Some will requires a limitation of about 250 words.  Another website may want a short 35 work blurb, and Amazon ads require about a 12 word blurb.  So as I write and rewrite different length blurbs, I keep them on this Info sheet.  This way, I have a blurb in various lengths for any uploading or marketing that I come upon.  You won't have to reinvent the wheel every time you want to upload your book somewhere.  It also help you keep your descriptions and blurbs consistent.

I would love to know how other authors organize their books.  If you would like to have a blog post done of your filing system and tips, I would love to write it for you!



Writer’s Diary – Book Review – The Case at Barton Manor

Book-Review-The-Case-Barton-ManorThis is not so much a book review of the story written by Emily Queen, but more about what I, as an author, learned from reading it.  To me, this fits more into a reader's diary, but I'm calling it a book review more to categorize it for my blog readers.  The name of the book is The Case at Barton Manor , a 1920s Murder Mystery by Emily Queen.

This was a historical mystery, which is not my favorite genre, but I was sold by the cover, which pulled me in right away.  I love this art form and the book just appealed to me.  Although I'm not a historical fiction fan, I do love the fashions of the 1920s and I thought this would be a fun read.

As an author, it's also a confirmation of what every how-to-sell-books video has said:  The book sales depend greatly on the covers and the story descriptions.

READABILITY:

I found the book a little harder to read because it was a historical mystery.  It was harder than a  contemporary mystery romance.  I believe it is because the language was a bit more formal, which is an accurate reflection of the historical timeframe.  I give the author A+ because the language was a good reflection of how much more formal people spoke back in the 1920s.  I just noted, as a reader, that it did make it harder to read and took me longer to finish.  I found myself having to reread certain parts to make sure I understood what was going on.

The only criticism I have about the book is that by around the 60% mark, I had to go back and make a written list of who everyone was and what role they played in the story.  I'm not certain this was even about how the book was written.  This may be just a reflection that my mind was wandering too much as I read this story.  But I came away noting that maybe as an author, I need to mention the character's name and reference their job or something relevant about them and refer to this once or twice more, especially if they fall to the background during certain parts of the story.

This is not the first time that somewhere in the middle of the book I've had to go back and make a list of who everyone in the story is.  I'm not easily discouraged as a reader, but many readers can be.  When I read another author's book, I look for things that would stop a reader from reading and I believe getting mixed up as to who everyone is could be a reason to say 'forget it' and move onto the next book.

What I learned as I went back through the book to make my list is that the characters were mentioned by name and usually something about them that was noteworthy in the overall story.  So there was no fault for that.  But the characters would fall to the back of the story, so to speak, and then when they were mentioned again, I really had forgotten who they were.  That's why by 60% through the story, I had about three characters I had completely forgotten who they were.

So my author's note is:  When there are more than 3 or 4 characters, I would find a way to reference not only their names a second and third time, but reference something about them as a refresher to how they fit in the story.  This sounds easy, right?  But this is a fine line to walk as readers who have no trouble keeping track of multiple characters would find this technique repetitive.  As I read other books, I will now notice how the authors handle characters who are introduced early on and then make a re-appearance later in the story.  I know for sure that one quick mention of a character's name is not enough to implant it into the reader's mind.   I'm sure this lesson will be helpful in my own work.



THE STORY ITSELF:

The Case at Barton Manor is classic who-done-it murder mystery.  It made me think of Agatha Christie as I read it.  So if you are a fan of that style of who-done-it, you will love this book.

The mystery and suspense of who committed the murder kept me reading all the way to the end when the real culprit is revealed.  The story, as well as the prose, held my interest as a reader all the way through.  The story never lagged or veered off into too much history or too much commentary.  The history was peppered throughout the story perfectly.  The story moved from beginning to end.

Historical mysteries always have a bit of history running though them, and Emily Queen doesn't disappoint.  So fans of historical mysteries will love this one.

BRITISH ENGLISH TERMS:

Kudos to Ms. Queen for including a list of British-to-English translation on common words and terms that are different between the English dialects.  For example, a drugstore is referred to as a Chemist.  The word 'daft' means a bit stupid or silly.  A yard is referred to as a garden.  A jumper is a sweater in American English.  This was very helpful and it was listed in the Table of Contents.

turn-of-phrases-bar

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

  • "We cannot arrive too early, dear," her mother said as if she coined the term 'fashionably late.'
  • Often accused of callousness, Vera followed her mother's example and let the opinions of most roll off her back like inconsequential raindrops.
  • . . . let her shrug off some of the mantle of sadness constantly draped over her shoulders.
  • . . . though there was a tightness around her eyes to attest she still had a lot on her mind.
  • . . . plus an air of unattainability that many women seemed to want to challenge.
  • Every eye in the room seemed trained on Mrs. Blackburn; most of the men's wide with appreciation, while many of the women's narrowed to slits of envy.
  • Mrs. Barton said, her back ramrod straight in her chair, while she wrung her fingers nervously.
  • . . . there is another side to that simpering excuse for a man.

The above lines of prose are only about 25% of the ones I had saved to read again.  Great lines all throughout the book.

There are six books in this series and I have the next one on my "next up" list.



Writer’s Diary – Book Review – Dead for Good

dead-for-good-coverWHAT I LEARNED READING Dead for Good by Stacy Claflin with Nolon King:

I left a five star review as the book was well worth the read.  It was well written, the prose was good and easy to read.  This book held my interest and the action started on Page 1.

I would classify this book as a psychological thriller.  What I found most clever about the book is that all of the suspense was inside the family home, with a little help from some outside neighbors.  The plotline was very believable and it worked throughout the story.

The author/authors created characters who had a lot to do during the story but also had a lot of depth to them as well.

The only criticism I have is that the ending was not so much a twist as more of a 'out of nowhere' kind of resolution.  There was no real foreshadowing of the dual side to the culprit.  I will keep it very vague in case anyone reading this would want to read the book, which I would highly recommend.

I'm no expert on plot twists, but most of the YouTube Teachers suggest that a surprise ending needs to be foreshadowed somewhere in the story, so the reader says, ah, yes, I should have seen that.  That is the one thing I didn't really feel in this read.  I felt the true culprit kind of just popped up in the end to surprise the reader but wasn't foreshadowed in any way.

That was my only criticism.  I still gave this book a 5 star on Amazon because I believe my criticism only came from me being an author and looking for these things.  My guess from the reviews on this book is that normal readers didn't even catch the lack of foreshadowing I'm referring to here.  The character was written into the beginning of the story, and that was enough for the normal readers.

This was also a great psychological thriller without having a psychiatrist or psychologist in the plot.  The whole thing worked well within the one family.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

~ We're in this together.  Always and forever.

~ People tended to only focus on the good in the deceased as if death automatically diluted the truth.

SUMMARY:

I highly recommend Dead for Good.  It gets high marks for great plot, great characters and readability.  This book's action started literally on Page 1 and kept up until the very end.  It didn't sag once.



Self-Publishing Tip – How to Add Chapter Header Graphics

START WITH A SIMPLE WORD FORMAT

I've been struggling with trying to do this for about three years!  I finally figured it out, thanks to some other YouTubers, one of which was Derek Murphy -- who knows all things when it comes to self-publishing!

I write in Scrivener and when it's time to proofread, I compile into Word and do the proofreading and editing there.  So I start with simple formatting.  This simple formatting will make adding the chapter graphics easier.  You need to trust me on this.  You will want to embed your fonts in Word also.

We will be going from DOCX to an ePub file.  So as a reminder, make sure you do your Table of Contents using the Heading 1 links.  I only have 3 pictures that I use in my books.  One is a small publishing icon, one is a small scroll I use on the Note to Readers page, and the last one is the Chapter Graphic itself.

IMPORTANT:  One more reminder to do your Table of Contents in Word using the links and Heading 1.  If you forget this, you will have to redo the entire process I'm showing you!  (Speaking from experience)

IMPORTANT:  See above.  Leave one blank before your Heading 1/ Chapter Titles.  You will thank me for this later!

 

Chapter-graphic-example

IMPORTANT:  Only add one chapter header picture right before Chapter 1.  Make sure it is wrapped “top and bottom” and also aligned to center.  See above picture.

Save the document as a .DOCX file.



CONVERT TO A ePUB

I use a service called convertio.ca.  (https://convertio.co/) I believe you can use this once for free, but I pay for it as I use it all the time.  If you search for 'free ebook converter', you may find another free ebook converter.  I  used to use a Chrome extension that was similarly named, convertio or something, but it stopped working for me.  You can see if they have another one in the app store if you don’t want to pay to convert.

Go to https://convertio.co/ and upload the manuscript.docx file and choose to convert into an ebook and then choose ePub.  Then click on the convert button.  It may take a few minutes to throw up a download button.

NOTE:  During this process, your ePub will pull in all of your pictures and separate your chapters into separate files.  That’s why you only want to add the one chapter picture.  You can use the same one over and over in your document and keep the transfer cost down.

Once this is done, click on the download button.  It will most likely save to your download folder.  If you want to download it into your manuscript folder, you will need to choose that folder.   In any event, it will be downloaded onto your hard drive.



DOWNLOAD SIGIL PROGRAM - THEN OPEN IT:

ONCE IT IS DOWNLOADED, open your Sigil program.  If you don't have it yet, it's a free download.  Go to https://sigil-ebook.com/sigil/download/ and download your version.

Once it's downloaded, open the program up.  When it opens up, it will be sort of blank, like above.  This is what a blank ePub document looks like.  We won't be using the blank document.

Click on File => Open => Choose your recently-downloaded manuscript.ePub file.  It will open it up in the Sigil program.

sigil open program

Once you open your manuscript epub file, it will pull in all of your chapters as individual html files.

Then there is a Styles folder.  We will be making changes to the individual html files, the Title pages, and the stylesheet.css.  Be sure to use the style sheet I have highlighted to the right.

Your images from your eBook will be pulled into the Images folder by the convertio process.  You will be using the one chapter header graphic over and over.  You have everything you need to begin to format the chapter titles.



LET'S ADD THE CUSTOM STYLES:

Sigil-css-styling

You will have to type out these codes.  Each digit and space is important.  If you forget one semi-colon or bracket, the codes won't work.  So double check your work before you copy and paste into the Styles document.

DIRECTIONS:  Go to the File Listings on the left side.  Find the Styles folder and double-click on the stylesheet.css file.  When it opens, scroll all the way to the bottom of the file.

Copy and paste the above coding into the page and save.  There is a save icon on the top menu of the Sigil program.  Or you can use Control S to save.

** See below for further coding explanation

FIX THE TITLE PAGES:

Nowt that we have saved the new css codes, it's time to change the files to pull in the new coding.

Looking at the diagram above, double click on the first file, marked index_split_000.html.  This is the first page, which is my Book Title page.  Now, even though I have coded this in Word to align to the center of the page, the ePub converter ignores this and throws my title onto the top of the page.

So I will change the class name from whatever it is (this will be auto-generated by your ePub converter) to "book_title".  (Note:  Be sure to use an underscore, not a dash)  This will then move the title down 20% from the top of the page.  I use 20% because when someone reads on a tablet in landscape, I don't want the title to disappear from the page.  By moving it only 20% down, it is still 'above the fold'.  If you don't understand this, don't sweat it.

I do the same thing on the second Title Page in my manuscript.  Make the same change to "book_title".   Changing the class name to "book_title" is the only change you need to make.

NOW WE WANT TO ADD THE CHAPTER GRAPHICS:

Sigil-book-image-coding

Double click on the first chapter page in the document above.  There will be auto-generated html coding referencing the picture.   If you look below, I have changed the coding to reference the class of "image_centered".  That's the only part of your coding that needs to change.

Once you have made this change, copy this to your clipboard.  (Control C).

Sigil-html-before-picture

One by one, you want to double-click each chapter to open it, and copy and paste this coding right above the CHAPTER 2, CHAPTER 3, CHAPTER 4, etc, in each file.  It will be a little time consuming, but believe me, it is MUCH EASIER than hoping and praying that you can get a converter to get the spacing and alignment right.

Once you have finished each one, you can then save your work, and email it to your Kindle account and check it on your ereader and on your cellphone.  I have had a perfect conversion using this method.

I hope I have helped you save all the frustration and hair-pulling I did in searching for a way to do this!

** FURTHER EXPLANATION:

The css codes added some alignment codes, to make sure they are centered.  The max-widths of 25% are to make sure my publisher icon is not too big, and the max width of 60% is to make sure the chapter header graphic does not come up too big.  The rest you don't really need to know, but if you are curious, you can go to W3School CSS to learn more.

These codes are used to style my chapter graphics, the book titles and the small publisher icon and another small graphic I use.  So if you are only adding the chapter headers, you will only need to add those codes.

Sign up below to get a download of a checklist on everything covered in this blog article.  Learn how to use Sigil and create an eBook.

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Writer’s Diary – Book Review – A Perfect Alibi

This is not so much a book review of the story written by Anne Baines, but more about what I, as an author, learned from reading it.  To me, that fits more into a Writer's Diary.  The name of the book is A Perfect Alibi, and it is Book 1 of the Sam Arbichaut Mysteries.

First of all, I enjoyed the book immensely.  Since I began to write mysteries, I no longer just read mysteries for entertainment.  My author's mind is always looking for what I can learn and use in my own writing.

I found this book to be easy to read, which I think is crucial in today's world where people are too busy to spend two pages reading a description of the trees in the field.  So the action in the book moves at a pace that keeps the reader engaged and trying to think of how the mystery will unfold.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR WRITING TIPS:

I also learned a few things in the book about PI techniques.  For example, PIs keep the cars running so the sound of an engine catching won't make anyone look up or draw any attention to themselves.  Pulling out after someone would make them suspicious, but a car that was already in motion wouldn't strike anyone as a potential tail.

In spite of all the scenes in movies and on TV, the identifying of a body is done today with photos.

MY FAVORITE TURN OF PHRASES:

  • plasticky smiles
  • Death was brutal and messy.  A small, contained scene like this was outside the natural order of things.
  • the sort of sleazy people who thought the worst of others because they were so lowbrow themselves
  • He knew the sorts of things they said behind their hands
  • Now he was in his late forties, he was terrified of the half-century marker he saw approaching, and he wanted to grasp at the youth that had slipped away.
  • Clint didn't have the look in his eye of someone savoring gossip.
  • Fredricks was quiet now, almost introspective.
  • It sounded like she was the sort of person who was never satisfied because she's never bothered to figure out what she really wanted in life.  It was like she was following all the rules because she thought the world owed her happiness if she did.

There were so many more great phrases used by Anne Baines.  I would recommend this book to any author focused on improving their own prose as well as any authors who want to learn about private investigator techniques.  The prose was fantastic and I have the other books in this series on my "next up" list.



Kickstarting Your Writing Career by Jessica Brody

How to Kick-start Your Writing Career After Graduation

Freelance writing is a viable career, and there are no hard-and-fast rules when getting started. You get to experiment to find out what works for you and what doesn’t. Read this helpful guide if you want to write for a living after graduation.

Mindset First

Fear is one thing that stops aspiring freelance writers from growing their businesses. First, you’ll have to build confidence and just start taking action. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake or become upset if you get rejected by a client as that’s part of the growth process.

The next step is to identify your writing niche. After all, clients don’t usually look for generic solutions for specific problems. If clients want content for real estate or finance, they most likely will hire a real estate writer or a finance writer. Focus on at least three niches to help you find good clients.

Lastly, commit to your writing goals. Do you want to be a six-figure writer this year? Reach out to clients and create an online presence. Most importantly, find ways to improve your writing skills by enrolling in online courses and reading books on writing.

Choose a Business Structure

An LLC, or limited liability company, offers personal liability protection for your writing business, more flexibility, less paperwork, and tax advantages. Each state has different regulations on forming an LLC, so check the rules first before moving forward. When establishing your LLC, avoid huge lawyer fees by using a formation service or handling the process yourself.

Set Up a Process for Invoicing

Next, set up invoicing for clients, so you receive payment promptly. An invoice helps your clients understand the breakdown of the services they’re paying for, how much is due, and when they’re expected to pay. Use an invoice generator to quickly create and download customized invoices for your clients. You can also include your business logo, text, and photos in your invoice.

Launch a Writer Website

A good website lets you show off your writing portfolio, generate leads, grow your network, and stand out from the competition. Show off your personality and leverage your experience to help you land clients. If you want your website to rank better, optimize with the right keywords. Most importantly, start a blog and promote it on social media.

How to Land Writing Gigs

Before sending out applications, ensure you have a well-written writing sample. Consider applying to content writing agencies or pitching to magazines and businesses. Some writers do cold calling and cold emailing to get clients. LinkedIn is also a good place to find prospects, but ensure your profile is highly optimized and you have good writing samples to show clients.

The secret to a successful writing business is consistency. You can attract and retain more clients if you deliver high-quality work every time.  If you can afford it, consider getting an editor to help you better polish your writing before submission. Additionally, ensure you meet client deadlines so that you’re more likely to get repeat work.

Freelance Writing Is Real

You can start your freelance writing business and earn a decent income when you follow the guide above. Choose a business structure, set up your invoicing process, design your own website, and start landing jobs. Stay consistent, confident, and committed to your goals to ensure freelance success. For writing tips and helpful resources, visit Read First Chapter.