HOW TO BRAND YOUR BOOKS:
LET'S START WITH BRANDING BOOK COVERS:
Whether your book or books are stand-alone books or a series, it is important to take a little time and decide on how you want to brand your books. After a while, your readers will get used to your brand where they will be able to spot a new book with just one glance.
Branding your books also makes the books appear more professional. This process that I will cover in this blog post is easier than you think. It takes about an hour or so of research.
There is a video below where I go into a bit more detail about how to surf around Amazon.com and pick and choose elements to add to your own signature brand.
Below is one example of how Author Lori Roberts Herbst brands her books with the same dog and cat, similar colors, on the front of the book.
Below is an example of how the fonts alone and a "sweet couple" on the cover can create a signature look. This would be an easy one for anyone who is self-publishing and on a tight budget.
And here is one last example for the blog post. Author BJ Bourg uses not only the same author and title font, but also each book begins with "But not . . ." Great example of marrying a series together.
ADDITIONAL BRANDING IDEAS:
Shared background picture- Shared background color
- Shared tonal color
- Fonts & Title Placing on Covers
- Motifs and/or graphic designs
- Glow behind cover figures
In the video below, I go over several examples showing you the different ways that authors brand their books. You can pick and choose which elements you like and come up with your own unique look.
Go to Amazon.com, look up your genre, and then begin searching around. In no time, you will come up with a way to create a signature look you really love.
IF YOU SELF PUBLISH YOU CAN REDESINE A COVER AT ANY TIME
If you have published a book or two -- or maybe three, and you're just learning about branding, you may choose to do a cover redesign. Just be sure you have a little extra time on your hands because you will need to change up the books on all the websites including Amazon, Bookfunnel, etc.
You may also need to redo or create anew marketing pictures. But a cover redesign is a good way to create a new buzz about a book that's losing attention. A new cover can suddenly get you some 'new kid on the block attention'.
NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT BRANDING THE INSIDE OF THE BOOK:
CHOSING FONTS:
Different fonts connote different moods. Look up romantic comedy books and notice that the fonts used are very whimsical or comical in some way. They go with the theme of the book. Vampire books have several fonts that are used over and over again as they have a very 'wicked or scary' look to them.
One hour of research online and you will find the best choice for a cover font. Remember, you want to fit into your category and genre but make the font your own.
STYLIZING YOUR EBOOK MANUSCRIPT:
eBooks all need to be formatted for what Amazon is calling "easy flow". The reason for this is because eBooks are read on eReaders, Amazon eReaders, Tablets and even online. The Kindle app allows readers to change the fonts, choose a theme, change the size of the font, and even change the background of the page color.
So when you upload a book onto KDP, especially as a Word document, it is uploading one paragraph and one headline at a time. Then when it delivers the books, it is like pouring the book onto an eReader like a glass of iced tea. Most of the font choices will be ignored in this upload. EVEN IF YOU EMBED THE FONTS!
DROP CAPS VS. FOUR WORDS CAPITALIZED:
Because of the easy flow, I've tested the drop caps several times using my phone and tablet and it didn't get it right from every size. So I would caution anyone, especially newbies, from attempting to use even Drop Caps on the first paragraph. If you have having the book professionally formatted, that's fine. But if you are doing it yourself, an easier way to give the first paragraph a bit of personality is to capitalize the first three or four words. It gives the same stylish flair to the first paragraph without the worry of what the easy flow will do to it.
UPLOAD AS AN EPUB FOR MORE CONTROL IN EBOOKS:
However, if you really want to have control over the chapter title font and use a fancy normal font, number one, you need to have the license for it. If you choose a Microsoft font, you won't need any licensing. But any other font that you get off the internet, you will need a license. A good place to look where they have fonts you can use anywhere is dafont.com.
Secondly, you will need to convert the word document into an ePub so that the different fonts are added to the style sheet. There is a program called Sigil that helps with this conversion. If this sounds like Greek to you, it's because it has to do with computer coding. I also have a video on my channel about using Sigil to create chapter headers.
I uploaded the sample above using Word and all the different fonts. None of them worked even though I had embedded the fonts in the options section. The Ebook converted them all into a default font. However, when I converted the same manuscript sample into an ePub then the book did show the different fonts.
FORMATTING PAPERBACKS & HARDCOVERS:
Now, you will upload pdf files for the paperback and hardcover manuscripts, so you can use whatever font you want. You will need to embed the fonts in the document (which is done from the options section) but however your book looks in the pdf, it should be okay.
The only part that gives anyone trouble is in the odd page vs. even pages. If you don't get that right, even the PDF will throw in empty pages. So be sure to see my formatting video on that.
A FEW LAST TIPS ON BRANDING:
- First line - Initial caps vs. drop caps (See above)
- Indents & line spacings - be consistent - give the reader some breathing room.
- Chapter headings and subheadings - If you want anything fancy, you will need to convert to an ePub.
- Scene endings - Be consistent, always use the same markings.
- ~ Meanwhile ~ Chapter indicators - Be consistent
- Chapter title spacings - Be consistent
- Offer 10% of next book in the current book.
- Include a link to join your newsletter
- Include a link to leave a review
CONCLUSION:
It's really that easy to brand your books. It just requires a little bit of forethought and an hour or two of research. Below is a video where I cover the research a little more in depth.
BRANDING COVERS:
https://youtu.be/4tyRNjT5F7o
What makes it possible to use a 6" x 9" ebook template for the eBook is the easy flow settings that are needed so that eBooks can fit on any size eReader, tablet, or phone.
HOW THE HISTORICAL TIME AND PLACE ARE ESTABLISHED:
As soon as the movie starts, an information panel with the date is posted giving the viewer an exact time frame. It also gives you the name of Dr. Knox and tells you he's a scientist. The viewer is immediately anchored in the late 1800s when the story starts. Aside from this, the scene further anchors you in the 19th century by the fashion, the kerosene lights, the cobblestones, the scientific props and the dialogue.
What I love about the old movies in particular is that most of them were moral tales of one type of another. The scriptwriter and director had a point in presenting the story and it was almost always a moral point. Today, there are thousands of these 'a slice of a meaningless life with one glorified sin' movies that I abhor mainly because they are empty and pointless. So the fact that this story had a dual moral tale made it all the more enjoyable.
The characters are very "Charles Dickens like" almost to the point of being comical. An author can learn a lot about creating characters, especially ones who fit into a Charles Dickens type of story. The bad guy and bad girl characters were a little over the top -- but not too much. Just enough to make them colorful, enjoyable and watchable.
It's so helpful to also see how the set director arranged the backdrop of the scenes to add in historical elements, all of which enrich the story. For example, the cobblestones, the street gas lights, occasional hand-held torches, the mob with torches, even the archaic scientific lab. These all kept the story anchored in the time frame.
They present the movies on their channel and they begin with a short introduction and quick discussion about the movie and who plays what parts.
The story for anyone that doesn't know it is that an artist paints a picture of Dorian Gray while he is in his youth. He wonders out loud that wouldn't it be great if the picture could age and he could stay young, instead of the other way around. Well, that's what happens.
These movies that are shot almost like plays are very helpful in setting a scene for a book. Nothing is ethereal or being described with shooting camera angles or other MTV style movie effects.
Dark Shadows Reddit Group
I tried so many times to understand Google Analytics but I never go much further than creating an Analytics property, putting the code onto my website and being able to pull up some information in Google Analytics. Sounds good, right? No, it wasn't.
I do still use Google Analytics, but after isolating the specific links I need, I no longer use the menu along the left side of google analytics. Just the sight of it is enough to give me a headache. I simply click on the links that I set up so I can get a few bits of specific data information as described below:
TIME OUT FOR A SECOND: Before I go into any details, be aware that I shortened all of these google analytics by copying the address bar, going to tinyurl.com, using an alias of RTC which stands for Read First Chapter, and creating a shortened link.
Traffic Acquisition: This page shows me which social media website is sending me the most traffic. This helps a lot because I don't do that well on social media. In other words, I have very few followers and the quest to get more leaves me cold. I don't particularly like social media, I think aside from posting business ads, it's kind of a waste of time -- with a few exceptions.
I will use this system to take a snapshot, a five to ten minute look at the end of each week to see what is going on and to make sure that all of my bases are covered. This sounds easier than it is because a self publishing business is like a one man band. You're responsible for everything surrounding the production, marketing and sales of the books.