Book Marketing – Read First Chapter.com

The Ever Expanding Marketing Calendar

WHAT IS AN EVER EXPANDING MARKETING CALENDAR?

I do all of my own book marketing and have created an excel sheet that continually repurposes social media posts, and repeats them twice a year. At the same time, it is easy for me to add a new social post every time I make one. This way, even if I have a holiday week where I'm not working on my books or new marketing, I have 3 to sometimes 10 social media posts that I can use on any given day.

The picture above will show you that I keep everything together for the post, so that it can be an easy copy and paste. I even record the name of the social media post itself. This way, I don't have to shuffle around to find anything.

When I started self-publishing book, I knew I would have to do my own marketing. Even younger authors who are working for the publishing houses, I believe they are expected to maintain and keep up a presence on social media, so book marketing now goes hand-in-hand with writing. Most writers I know don't particularly care for marketing, but I believe the type of marketing I am showing you will work for those who don't particularly care for it. It puts your marketing on autopilot.

HOW DOES THE EVER-EXPANDING CALENDAR WORK?

I hired an excel coder to create an excel calendar with the coding inside of it that can be created with the click of a button. To the right you can see three boxes. The first one is the start date. You will change to 01/01/2025 or whatever year it is.

The second box is for how many posts you want to have the same date. In other words, I started with three which means I had three 01/01/ dates, and three 01/02/ dates. You don't use the year in the dates on this calendar because it works seamlessly from year to year.

Once you fill in the three posts per day, then you can insert a row and put in a fourth one, which is easy enough.

REPURPOSING AND RECYCLING YOUR POSTS:

I make posts for my books, for my blog articles, YouTube videos, free-downloads -- and anything else I think would interest my reader and author followers on social media. I have examples from my marketing calendar posted above.

DOUBLE AND TRIPLE DUTY:

Every Post does at least double duty. If I make a post for 06/01/25, then I copy and paste it to appear again six months later on 12/01/25. This way, no one will know it's being repurposed a second time. And after a year or two, I then begin to change the pictures for the posts, and this gives me triple duty for every post.

It only took about four months for me to fill up a year's worth of posts. Now, I was working on it as a main project, so I was devoting time to it, but my point is that it doesn't take a full year to fill up the calendar.

I have a form below to fill out if you are interested in downloading the ever expanding marketing calendar for yourself.

How to Create a 3D Book Series Book Cover

This blog post is done to accompany the video that is posted below. This will give you the instructions that may be helpful to keep open as you create your own 3D Book Series Bundle Cover like the one on the left.

These instructions will allow you to make any size bundle cover, going in any direction.

At the end of the video, I will also give you instructions to make the thumb cut or the finger pull that is popular on book series as well.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

A high resolution front cover copy of your book, or whatever other copy you want to represent the book series
Gimp photo editing program which is free, or photoshop. If you use Canva, I will assume you can translate all the steps in that program.
A high resolution picture of whatever you want to be the background behind your books spines.
Any emblem or other branding graphics that you may want to put on the covers. In the cover that I make in the video, I use a police badge graphic to brand the series as a police procedural.
You will need a large rectangle image with a transparent background in order to work. Make sure you are also working in 300dpi or 300ppi, whatever the resolution is referred to in your program.

LET'S MAKE THE 3D BORDER DIAGRAM:

In gimp, the first thing we will do is open a document that is 2500 pixels wide and 1,000 pixels high. This will make sure you have lots of room to work.

The next step is to bring in a 3D bundle model cover that you found on Amazon, like the picture on the above left.

Next, draw lines around the cover so that you create this shape. Our final cover will be transformed into this final shape by using the perspective tool. The example of this is above right.

LET'S CREATE THE COVER AND THE BOOK SPINES:

Open a new document that is 2082 x 1000 pixels and 300 dpi. This will turn out to be too large, but better too large than to run out of room. This will give me a good platform to make the book series mockup.

Bring in your ebook cover and place on the right side of the space. Leave a space between all the books spines and the cover. Add the titles and the author name.

My best tip is to start with the book title that is the longest. This way, you will choose the right size font to use. You will also need a picture to put on the background of the book spines. You can either add a color wash layer or fiddle with the opacity to make sure you can read the book titles.

Once this is done, you will then want to add a 5 pixel line between the books and then on that same layer, add a filter, gaussian blur and blur it out until it looks like a slight bend between books.

The final step is to choose a light color and dark color from your front cover. The create a gradient in the space between the front and back. Anyone with digital graphics skills will be able to put this together with just these few instructions and pictures. However, if you are new to graphic design, just watch the video below where I demonstrate how to make it using gimp, which is a free program.

The video below will be available when it is posted:

Another Reason to Build an Author Website

Most of you will be familiar with Derek Murphy as a self-published author as well as an influencer within the self-publishing community. If you click on the graphic I made for his website above, you can visit one of his websites. He also organizes writing seminars all over the world, some of which are in old castles. So if any newbies are interested in that, he would be a great mentor to write with.

Derek has another website called CreativindieCovers.com for any of you who are struggling with book cover ideas. He has a lot of free resources and even templates.

When I was new, I watched hundreds of his videos and learned so much, not only as a writer, but also as a self-publishing marketer. He has great advice on early marketing techniques for new self-publishers and also other ideas about running Amazon ads and even using the free online book websites. Be sure to visit his websites and subscribe to his YouTube Channel.

I happened to catch a YouTube Short he posted today-- which I have posted below -- and it was great advice for those of us who have built up a reader list of about 3,000, and have created a website and are starting to get some reliable traffic. He has suggested a way to get book influencers to feature your books, and what he says is great advice. I will post his video and let you hear him state it himself.

As a quick review for the newbies: The first order of business in promoting your books is to build a reader list, also known as a newsletter. That should be the first step of any new self-published author. Put all of your energies there.

Once you have built the reader list up to a couple or few thousand, then you will be able to swap book features and mentions with other authors who belong to the same promotion websites and have a sizeable reader list as well.

The third level of marketing is about building an Author Website. With a website, you can brand yourself along with your books. In the video above, Derek is targeting those authors who are already a little further on from their first day as a self-publisher. But it's important information to keep in the back of your mind. It will give you a goal to shoot for.

It's important to know any author can build their book brand and author brand by following the steps that have worked for those who came before them. Derek has been a great leader in the entire self-publishing field. I hope you enjoy the video!

How to Create a Hi-res Paperback Cover from a low-res eBook Cover

HOW TO CREATE A PAPERBACK COVER FROM AN EBOOK COVER

I just finished a how-to create a paperback book manuscript from an eBook manuscript so I thought I would make a sister video showing how to make a full high resolution paperback book cover from a low-resolution eBook cover.

The focus of the video is on the creation of the book cover, so I won't be going into too much detail on how Gimp works. However, I pepper the tutorial with some of the keyboard shortcuts or the names of the tools I am using. This should make it easy for Gimp beginners or others who like to work in Canva.

However, I do have a playlist on my YouTube channel teaching new writers ow to use Gimp, which is a free photo manipulation tool and you can use it to create book covers and other book marketing graphics.

WHAT IF I ONLY HAVE A LOW-RESOLUTION?

If you only have a low resolution, you can upscale it for free at the this website: Upscale.media

This will make sure you have a high resolution image before you begin.

YOU WILL ALSO NEED A PROPERLY-SIZED TEMPLATE:

Each paperback cover will need it's own customized book cover template. The reason for this is because the number of pages of the book determines the spine width and that controls how wide the paperback cover needs to be.

KDP has a paperback calculator on it's website, and if you've never used it before, I do demonstrate it in the video on this subject below.

NEXT – YOU WILL NEED A PROPER PAGE COUNT:

Here is a picture of the last page of my Betrayal Paperback from my last video. It shows two different page counts. The top one is what will be printed on the last page of the book. However, this leaves out the front-pages that use roman numerals and it also includes all of the skipped pages in the document. This is not the correct page number for a book cover.

Below on the left hand side, you can see another page count that is shown at the bottom of the actual Microsoft Word manuscript. This is how many actual pages are in this document. This is the page count you will need to run the Paperback calculator and get a proper sized paperback template.

Write down the proper page number before you go to the KDP calculator and run the template. You will need to click through the questions and choose your answers, including the size of paperback you will use. I use a 5.06 x 7.81 and demonstrate this choice in the video below if you want to see it done. Otherwise, you can go straight to the KDP calculator here.

NEWBIE TIP ON BRANDING BOOKS IN GENERAL:

Above is a graphic panel showing you four back-cover examples that I pulled form Amazon this morning by searching for paperbacks in the vampire genre. I also pulled two other back covers just for comparison. You may want to think about what type and style of back cover you want to create before starting. You will follow the same procedure I've demonstrated in the video below, but you may choose another style for your book.

The book featured in my video is Betrayal and this is my 14^th published book and it's the 6^th book in my Newport Vampire Stories Series. So the branding for this series is already established. While I create my Paperback cover from the eBook cover, I will show you how to follow a style template as I work.

Once you choose a style for the back cover of your own, you can bring in that photograph and use it in the same way I use my series book template.

Because my style is already established, I have a list of everything that I will need from the cover, including the layout, all the color numbers, the font names and sizes, and even the size of the font I will use in the spine of the book.

QUICK SUJMMARY OF THE VIDEO:

If you are not a newbie and have no need to see it done, I will just summarize what I do in the video:

I bring in the series paperback template as a 'style template' and add guidelines to the downloaded KDP calculator paperback template.

I pull in and align the ebook cover between the guidelines.

I then pull in the back cover picture and align it accordingly.

Then one by one, I start at the top and create each text layer after another, using the series style template along with the customized margins from the paperback template.

Then using the text tool along with the rotate tool, I create the spine text and align in the center of the guidelines.

I save the finished paperback as an .xcf file so that it saves it as a gimp file with all of the layers in tact.

Then I export the same image as a .jpg file.

I then pull in that .jpg from the recent list and save the .jpg as a pdf. Gimp had a glitch at one time going from an .xcf file straight to a .pdf. So I just save the jpg first, which I will need anyway, and then I save the .pdf file.

That's everything in a nutshell. I'll post the video below for anyone who wants to watch the cover being created in real time.

Book Branding – Inside & Out

LEARN HOW TO COBBLE TOGETHER YOUR OWN STYLE TO BRAND YOUR BOOKS.

Below are two videos about branding the inside of your books, as well as creating an ebook template that contains this styling -- which is part 1.

The second video talks about how to research and cobble together your own custom branding for your book covers. Whether your write stand-alone books or book series, your books will look more professional with consistent branding.

Even if you self-publish, you will be working towards your own recognition as a professional and serious author. I hope you enjoy the videos. If you have any questions or other tips, be sure to post them under the videos. I do read the comments.

5 Mistakes I Made in Publishing My Vampire Book Series

LET ME SET THE STAGE:

This post will be about 5 Beginner Mistakes I made in Self-Publishing one of my book series and what I did about it -- which was pretty much nothing. I'll also go into what I am going to do about it now that I learned a lot more about what went wrong.

Most of these mistakes were ones that were not even on my radar at the time they were made.

Let me give you a bit of context: As I came close to retirement, I decided to write a novel or two. I chose to self-publish for many reasons that I've gone over in other videos and I won't go over now. And to this day, in spite of the mistakes I've made, I still consider self-publishing a good fit for me. (Just me)

When I first got the idea of writing a novel, I did research for about a year. I read several how to books on every subject under the title of writing a novel and self-publishing. (Cat on book shelf)

I also watched hundreds of videos on the subject. Like most people, all the information I came upon, especially in video format was great advice, but none of it was curricularized. When you self-study online, you take in just a steady stream of random information and then we're all left to sort it out ourselves. That's how free education works on the internet. (Text Panel 2: Information wasn't curricularized

So above is a list of the chronology I pieced together as being the proper chronological list of how to write and publish a book:

MISTAKE NUMBER ONE:

In this big cloud of random information I took in, I got ARC Readers and Beta Readers kind of mixed up or thought they were too closely related. But they are two different animals.

Beta Readers often times read books very early in the process -- before the book is even finished to give early feedback. This is a great idea if you're not sure about your characters or if the plot is good enough, etc. Let's face it, in the beginning it's hard to think you're book is a masterpiece when it's your first one -- at least it was for me. There is a definite high-level purpose in having Beta Readers. They are worth their weight in gold.

However, here is where I made the terrible mistake and found out the hard way about this particular landmine: I offered my Vampire book Darius - A Vampire Story as a beta book but it had not been finalized, professionally edited or proofread. Now, in the ad copy for the link to download, I clearly posted it as a beta copy that had not been edited, etc. However, once a book is downloaded to an eReader, no one will remember this book is only a beta copy. And the second mistake I made here was that I didn't put anything in the book itself.

I didn't put any explanation paragraph before the First Chapter. I didn't add a watermark. I assumed my explanation about the Beta copy that invited the download was enough.

Well, when I finalized the book and released it, I got slaughtered in early reviews. I assumed as a new author that maybe it wasn't that good. However, several of the reviews referenced typos and/or grammar mistakes. When I went to the finalized copy to of course correct them -- they didn't exist.

The first time this happened, I just thought the reader was a bit crazy. But after this happened several times, it was only then that I realized that I had released hundreds of beta copies that now lived on people's eReaders. And for some reason, there are a lot of readers who take typos or grammar errors personally. It seems to trigger them and their reviews are more like rants.

So poor Darius got all beat up in the early review.

MISTAKE NUMBER 2

Mistake Number 2 was what I did about this problem -- which was pretty much nothing.

I wish I could say that I recognized the gravity of the mistake right away, but I didn't. I just thought that some people had read an earlier copy and that's a shame, but what can I do about it now? I didn't realize that there were probably hundreds of these copies out there. I had no list of who I sent these early copies to.

Now, I also didn't realize that this series was going to go on for 5 books. So, in hindsight, what I should have done was pull the first three books and re-release them as a second edition. This is what I plan to do in January of 2025 because that's when I'll be releasing the fifth book in the series. So doing nothing about this was the second mistake.

Now I have a hard and fast rule: I never give Beta copies in download format. I now only pay for beta copies and send them in Microsoft Word format. I also include verbiage that it is a beta copy and hasn't been edited or proofread.

MISTAKE NUMBER 3:

GoodReads is probably the largest single pool of avid readers and book lovers out there. But goodreads can be a tough crowd for new writers. This is where Darius's bullying started. If I had to do things over again, I would not have focused on Goodreads as a first place to release my books -- even after they were fully edited and proofread. Unfortunately, many of the videos I watched during that first year, talked about how great goodreads was helpful to find beta readers and arc readers and launch a book.

To be honest, I never found any true beta readers or arc readers there. I found mostly people who like to download free books. So I would just caution newbies that GoodReads is not the only game in town and you may need some boxing experience before you enter that ring. That's all I'm going to say about that.

A SIDE NOTE ABOUT GIVEAWAYS:

Goodreads has been purchased by Amazon, I believe, and they did offer a giveaway for $119. At least that's what it was at the time I used that service as a giveaway for edited books. However, I found the reviews very harsh or even snotty at times. I had much better experience giving the books away with Freebooksy and even Fussy Librarian for less than $119. I also got better reviews using Bookfunnel and Storyorigin free book giveaways. As long as you don't put your books into Kindle Select, you can still give them away on these websites.

MISTAKE NUMBER 4:

I didn't realize that the categories on Amazon have a hierarchy to them. It may have been because we were originally allowed to put each book into 10 categories. I had watched a video by Author Chris Fox about writing to market and he was explaining about drilling down in the categories and writing to a specific sub-category. Now, he writes sci-fi and in particular, military sci-fi.

At the time he said this, I thought writing to a specific market just to make marketing easier would be awful. It would be like pulling an assignment out of a hat and having to produce a book about it. I'm just not that type of writer. So I let that concept float away in the wind and just picked ten categories that seemed like they would be a the best fit for my books and the rest of the concept of writing to market was lost on me, at least at that time. I moved onto other things.

Over time, pretty recently, I did figure out that the categories are hierarchical and Chris Fox' advice came back to me. What he was saying was that new authors can focus on subcategories in order to dominate in those smaller categories in their to number 1 on the best seller list. In other words, you can rise to number one in a sub-sub category way faster than rising to the top ten in Romance, which is a top tier in the hierarchy.

In the video below, I do go live at Amazon and demonstrate how the categories are hierarchical and how to dig down and see which ones are available for you.

So the time to think about the categories is before you even plot out or write the book. Once you have a plot idea, that's the time to look at the categories and think about where the book would fit, and what you can tweak about the storyline to fit into a sub category or a less competitive category? Can you make the story happen in the west to be a Western Romance? Can you put the story into olden times to make it a historical novel, ore even better, put it in a specific time period? The time to think about categories is right after you have know you have a workable plotline.

In looking back, I could have tweaked a few of my books to fit them very easily into sub-sub categories without changing the storyline much.

MISTAKE NUMBER 5:

Mistake Number five requires a little explanation. My inspiration for my vampire series was the old Dark Shadows Soap Opera from the late '60s and early '70s. I never watched it as a kid but everyone I knew did. I didn't watch it because I had to walk too far to get home from school in time. This vampire series, like most soap operas at that time, was melodramatic and being a gothic and supernatural story, the storylines were completely crazy. But I loved the show anyway.

What I didn't realize at the time I watched it was that these crazy storylines came from real books. They just seemed crazy to me as they played out in this soap opera. In fairness to the writers of Dark Shadows, they had to produce 5 shows every week without fail.

So, with limited knowledge of the whole vampire genre, I went on to write a vampire book series. My vampire owns and operates a funeral home and keeps a bevy of 3 women to supply the blood he needs. He normally picks up runaways from the train and bus stations, but he winds up falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy, influential family in Newport Rhode Island. There is also a monastery of monks that live on the opposite side of the cemetery that Darius also owns.

No one in the area has any idea they are living next to a vampire and there are some supernatural events that start happening around the Balmont Funeral home, one of which is a mobster from New York looking for his daughter who was last seen with Darius. That's all I'll say about the plotlines.

Now, my series does follow the classic rules on vampirism with a tweak or two. However, there is also a little subtle tongue in cheek narrative in the story, which was more prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s vampire movies.

So how does all this fit into mistake number 5? Well, there's no category for tongue-in-cheek vampire stories. Also, fifty years have passed since this show ended and a lot has happened to the vampire genre in that time. First there was Anne Rice and her books and subsequent movies which are all dead serious and there's no tongue in cheek humor of any kind. I only read the first book and it was steeped in darkness and despair. Because I read for enjoyment, the level of despair was too much for me so I never read the other books.

Then there were the Twilight movies, the TV shows of True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, which were targeted to much younger people. Some of the backdrops were high school or college. And there was the rise of the vampire hunters. My book is a vampire book for adults or young adults who are not interested in high school or college anymore. But there's no amazon category for vampire books for adult. And my books also have no vampire hunters.

None of these were on my radar when I wrote the book. I thought books were judged on how well they were written and if people liked them. I didn't know reader expectations was even a thing!

Then I came upon two videos on a channel called Tristan and the Classics that changed that. It changed my whole trajectory and sent me on a new journey where I learned so much information that is not only helpful but I consider it crucial for newbies.

So as I realized that my books were not really fitting well in any of the vampire categories, I went on to create my own Teach Yourself Gothic Literature course based on Tristan's suggestions. This journey helped me to understand more about writing to market, and about reader expectations in particular, both are which I now feel are critical in self-publishing.

I actually took Tristan's suggestions about the self-study program one step further which I'll go into in the next blog post and video.

Book Plates – How to Make a Customized Book Plate

SUPPLIES AND COMPONENTS NEEDED:

Printable Shipping Labels - 6 per page, approximately 3.5 x 4 inches
Graphic Frame of some kind (DepositPhotos or search "Fancy Square Frame" on Pixabay
Author logo or some other icon, if desired
Microsoft Word (or Google Docs)

NOTE: Any postal labels that are approximately 3.50" x 4" will do. Avery has them on Amazon or you can use the Office Depot brand. Most of them come in the color white which works well.

LET'S DESIGN THE LABEL IN GIMP:

There is a video below where I demonstrate how to pull together the design of my bookplate, but I will describe it here for those of you who like to have written instructions. I start out with an image size 4 inches x 4 inches with a white background.

I started with a frame I purchased from DepositPhotos.com. This is a paid service, but I always wait to get their 100 pictures for $100 package so each photo I use only costs one dollar. However, I went to Pixabay.com and found this frame by searching the keywords "Fancy square frames". There were several other similar ones that came up as well.

I insert the frame, then type in the text elements onto the label. If you have a website, you may want to add this onto your book plate, as well as the name of a series if your book is part of a series.

After I add the text, I decide how I want to decorate the book plate with a logo or icon or some other background wall paper.

On the bookplate above, I used handcuffs because this is for a Police Procedural book series. In the video below, I create a new one using a police badge.

Above are my three book plates as of the date of the writing of this blog post. The first one has fanged teeth at the top for my vampire books, the second one has a hint of private detective holding a camera for my private investigator series and the last one with the handcuffs is for my police procedural series. You can add whatever emblem or icon fits your brand or book genre.

CAN I USE CANVA?

I know many people use Canva these days and I do believe you can use Canva. Especially if you are advanced enough with Canva to make an image or template from scratch, I don't see why you can't do the same thing in Canva. I don't use Canva myself except for inspiration at times, but I believe it can do amazing things.

SAVE AND EXPORT YOUR IMAGE DESIGN.

If you are using Gimp, I would suggest you save your image as an .xcf file. This is a gimp file but it will save your book plate in layers. So when it's time to make another book plate for another book, you can open this file in Gimp and quickly make a second book plate.

Then you want to export the image as a .jpg or .png file. Since the background of the labels will be white, you can save as either. Next, I will explain how to create the book plates for printing.

NEXT STEP IS WORD OR GOOGLE DOCUMENTS:

GOOGLE DOCS:

Unfortunately, I don't know how to use google docs as I have always used Microsoft Word. However, I believe people who use google docs are familiar with how to translate instructions from Word into Google docs, so I will assume that here.

MICROSOFT WORD:

1. Open a blank document in Microsoft word.
2. Click on the Tab entitled Mailings. Then choose Labels.

3. Now my system defaults to a return address and your Word may default to something else, but we need to choose a setting to print the 6 postage labels. So first choose the Options button, which is at the bottom on the right hand side. The big red circle shows the small label that my system defaults to and I'm just pointing out the "New document" button for later.

4. Once you click on Options, another dialogue box will come up which should look similar to the picture below:

This is where you will choose the label,. First choose Avery US Letter from that top drop-down list.

Then you will find another drop-down list of at least a hundred labels to choose from. Labels 15664 will give you the 6 labels per page. But if your system doesn't have this number, look for one that has the same measurements as are posted on the right hand side: 3.33" x 4". That will give you the 6 postage labels per page.

5. Then go back to Gimp and make sure nothing is selected (Select >none).
Then right click on the finished design and choose copy visible
Go back to the labels, click inside the label and hit control v to paste the artwork into the first label spot. Choose the image alignment of "through" as this will give you the most flexibility. Then center the image into the center of the postal label template.

6. Then click off of that label and then click back onto it. Click Control C to copy the label in this new size, and paste into each of the other 5 template spots on the postage sheet.

7. Once they are all there, save this as your book plate file. You can print onto the postage labels and also save it so you can print again when you run out and need more labels.

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION BELOW:

I did a video on the whole process if you want to watch as I pull together the design in Gimp and then set up the postage labels for printing.

Marketing Analytics Without Pulling Your Hair Out

I FINALLY WAVED THE WHITE FLAG WITH GOOGLE ANALYTICS

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.

As a self-publisher, I don't need to know which of my one million customers (I wish) were coming from where and what their other interests are. I want to know how my self-publishing business is doing and if I'm covering all my bases.

What it took me too long to figure out was that this is not a job for Google Analytics, but of a customized analytics setup to look at everything in my self-publishing business to see if my marketing is paying off and how my books are doing.

HOW CAN I KEEP TRACK OF EVERYTHING BY CLICKING FROM INFOMATION PAGE TO INFORMATION PAGE?

I did a video about this and demonstrated how I use one private page on my website to set up links so I can open each of the sections with one click to get the specific information I want. I will explain what information these sections give you and how you can use each link as a gauge regarding how your book publishing business is going.

If you click open this image of a Word document above with two columns of links, you can see that I have organized my links into sections. Each section has a link that takes me to one specific page where I can gather one data point that I need to give me an overview of my books. By adding up all the data points, it creates an overall picture of how the entire business is doing.

I'll explain two examples below:

MARKETING DATA POINTS EXAMPLE ONE:

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MY BOOKS? In order to know how my books are doing, I have four targeted links. One link shows me the actual sales/downloads. Another link goes directly to the page to tell me how many pages are being read according to KDP. This answers the questions: How are my books selling? Are my readers reading through my series or stopping at Book 1? And it also gives me an idea of how much they are reading and when.

Another link in this section goes to my KDP Dashboard so I can keep track of my Ranking (where I am in the pecking order at Amazon.com), my Ratings (how many five star, four star, etc. ratings I'm getting), and the last link goes directly to the page that shows me the last reviews that are posted about my books.

By reviewing these few links, I can get a idea in less than five minutes about how my books are doing and even some future marketing ideas.

MARKETING DATA POINTS EXAMPLE TWO:

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:

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.

If you go to tinylink.com, it's free and you can get shortened links for any of the long links with the crazy question marks or percentage signs, etc.

BACK TO THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMING:

By looking at the page entitled Engagement Overview, I can see what pages are being viewed by website visitors and which pages and subject matters are the most popular. I can even see what cities and countries are getting traffic.

The second link, Demographics, give me the names of other countries that I may want to add to my marketing budget as I go along. If you're a new author or publisher, you will want to spend most of your budget in the USA.

Pages and Screens: This page allows me to see the top 50 pages and which pages are the most popular and what kind of action and/or engagement they are getting. This answers the questions: Where am I putting my marketing efforts? Where am I putting my marketing dollars? Are my efforts working? What topics do my viewers especially like?

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.

However, I have been posting about 4 to 6 social media posts (ads) for my books and writing information for over a year now and I do get quite a bit of organic traffic for someone with not that many followers. Organic traffic is free traffic which is the best kind. I don't get a huge amount of traffic, but I've only been at this extensive marketing for going on two years. So I'm happy that I am progressing, going in the right direction. Keeping track of these numbers allows keeps my confidence up because it's easy to feel you're wasting your time when you have so few followers. It's slow but I'm heading up the chart.

MAKE YOUR OWN CHEAT SHEET:

Using the Word doc above, make your own cheat sheet with links taking into account all of the same areas. This way, you can keep track of all of these areas and you can be assured that you're keeping an eye on everything on a weekly basis and extracting all the information that will be helpful in keeping you on track.

Be sure to make your links open to a blank page. WordPress allows you to click on the gear icon and choose open in a new window. But if you are using google sheets or some other document, be aware that the code for opening to a blank page is to add target="_blank" to the end of any link. Be careful with the quotes, spaces and underlines, because if there's even one typo, it won't work.

A normal link to W3Schools.com looks like this:
<a href="https://www.w3cschools.com"> This means, however, when you click on the link, you will automatically abandon the page you are on and go right to W3Schools.

But if you use add the "target="_blank"> code after the link, it will hold open your page on the tab you are on, and open the new page in a new tab. That's what you want. I have created a picture of the link in case WordPress does something crazy with these codes I've just typed out.

A TEN MINUTE OVERVIEW OR AN HOUR ANALYSIS:

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.

From the latest I've heard from inside professional publishing gossip channels, even authors who sign with big publishing houses -- unless you are one of their already-established big guns -- you will be expected to do your own marketing too. So hopefully, this will be helpful even to this group of authors.

How to Create an Author Page on Amazon Author Central

SELF-PUBLISHERS NEED AN AUTHOR PAGE ON AMAZON.COM

All book authors want readers! Many readers are curious -- either before reading your book or after -- about who wrote the book. Many of them only want to see what you look like or where you live.

An Author Page on AuthorCentral.amazon.com is the equivalent of a mini website right inside the Amazon bookstore. Think of it as a corner display in the section of genre you write in. You want it to be as professional and interesting as possible.

It's easy enough to put one together and I'll go into what snippets of information and other items you will need to put together a professional author page.

WRITING A NEW AUTHOR BIO:

You will need a bio with a picture. The picture will be reduced to an icon or avatar size, so be sure to have one that is crisp and clear and mainly of your face and shoulders. Otherwise, it won't look professional.

Besides your name and avatar, feel free to add a bit about what you write, why you write or anything else that might be of interest to the readers. Besides the basics, they like to know if you were a life-long teacher or an ex-cop or ex-lawyer; things like this. Or if you have an interesting hobby or two.

If you are not a famous author, I would suggest keeping the bio short, maybe two to three short paragraphs -- or thereabouts. Once the reader has seen you and knows a little about you, you're no longer a stranger to them. You are officially an author that they know and would recognize. Feel free to ask them to follow you.

Let's look next at the actual Amazon Author Central Page setup.

THE POWER OF AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL:

If you only have one or two books and aren't ready to build a full website, think of the Amazon Central Author page as a website. Besides adding your avatar picture, Amazon will pull in all of your books onto the one page. Each viewer is given an opportunity to click on the FOLLOW button. So if they really like your work, they can sign up to follow you and then will get notice of any new books released by you. So there is this little bit of marketing built into the Author Central page.

BOOK MARKETING 101:

If you are self-publishing a book, setting up an Author Central page is first and foremost. This is the first step in building your own personal readership and brand. Establishing a presence at Amazon and using the Author Central page as a mini website is the best marketing you can do until you're ready to put up a dedicated website and really start marketing.

AMAZON CENTRAL AUTHOR HOME PAGE:

An Amazon Central Author page is created automatically behind the scenes when you upload a book. To find your actual page and the link to it, after uploading the book at KDP, go to authorcentral.amazon.com. You may be asked to log in or you may go to the page automatically. Record the link in the address bar because this will be the same as a website link if you're a new author.

I have a video posted below where I go into this in a little more detail, but if you are the type that wants to see the steps written out, this section is for you:

When you log into the page, it will show you the books that are getting the most action. These will change from time to time, especially if you do Kindle Countdowns or give them away for free a few times.

The screen shot above is what the page looks like when you open it. This is the left side of the page . It has the books that are doing the best and there are three links to the left of the best sellers. The top link is to see all of your books.

VIEW SALES RANK:

The View Sales Rank link brings you to a section where you can track the ranking of your books at Amazon. These numbers can be very discouraging at first, so don't take them to heart when you are brand new. It takes time to get soaked up by the algorithms and start climbing the ranks at Amazon. These numbers don't really tell you anything that can be easily tracked. In another blog post, I will show you how to keep track of your reviews, if you want to do that.

If you click into the rankings page, you can at least see if your book is trending up or down. They all tend to go up and down so don't take anything to heart as a beginner. Your books will begin to go up when you start marketing them, promoting them or giving them away.

VIEW CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

The customer reviews link goes to your written reviews. That means if someone takes the time to go to Amazon and write a full review, it will appear here. However, many people read on tablets or eReaders and Amazon doesn't make it easy for them to leave reviews, so you may just get 5-Stars but no words. That is considered a rating but not a review. That's why it's important to know a different way to keep track of actual ratings and reviews. That will be for the next blog post.

AUTOMATIC UPDATE AT AMAZON:

As state above, the Author Central page is created automatically by uploading a book. The page is associated with the author or pen name who uploaded the book. This page has three links to follow your Sales Rank and Reviews. It shows you what your most popular book is. It also presents visitors with all of your books, with links to purchase.

TO CHANGE YOUR AUTHOR PAGE NAME:

In case you choose to write under a pen name or want to update your page name in any way, here is a link with information on how to do that: https://author.amazon.com/help/GRGZ458YRBZBYBDH

Below is the video where I go into all of this information and a little more. I hope you enjoy it.

How to Research & Prepare to Order a Book Cover from Fiverr

IT'S EASY BUT REQUIRES PREPARATION:

In this blog post and video, which I will post below, I'm going to go over all the steps you should take in preparing to contact an artist at Fiverr to purchase an eBook cover. These tips will be helpful to both those who have money to publish but no time and also those on a shoestring budget.

It's all about organizing your thoughts, your examples, and asking for exactly what you want. That's what this blog and video will be all about.

FIRST STEP IS TO FIND A SIMILAR BOOK TO YOURS AND/OR ONE AMAZON CATEGORY.

I'll use my own book entitled Darius - A Vampire Story as a reference. Although the story in Darius is a modern-day contemporary story and differs greatly from the classic Dracula story, the 'low fantasy elements' like the vampire powers and magic rules are about the same. My book also has references to sex but nothing happens on the page. That is true of Dracula as well. So that's why I have chosen Dracula as my 'guiding light' book.

I go over more in the video what a 'guiding light' book is, but it almost speaks for itself. It's at least one book you are sure would fit with your book. In other words, the same readership that likes your guiding light book, those readers would most likely like your book too.

The first goal is to find the three best categories at Amazon.com. It sounds easier than it is because there are now dozens and dozens of subcategories and new genres everyday. So a little research is needed to make sure you choose the best three categories for your book and this choice will also dictate what your book cover should look like.

GENRES AND SUBGENRES:

All Fantasy books contain make believe and magical powers but the subgenres differ from one another in many ways. I have an infographic that notes what the subgenres have in common and what the names of the most popular subgenres are and how they are different from each other. If you want a copy of this, you can download it here.

If you can pick out your fantasy genre from this list, you can start there. If your book is other than a fantasy book, continue reading as I will show you how to use AI to find your categories.

HOW TO USE AI TO FIND CATEGORIES:

ONE TECHNIQUE:

You can start with a guiding light book, or a solid category. I use gemini.google.com as my go-to ai tool. I've used it several times regarding best sellers and also book categories and it's surprisingly quick and knowledgeable. Go to gemini.google.com and type right into the prompt box and then enter. I'll post three example prompts below:

Can you create a list of the top ten low fantasy vampire books like Dracula?
Can you create a list of the top ten cozy fantasy books? Please include all classics in the list.
Amazon has a book category called Occult Fiction. How is this different from Low Fantasy and Cozy Fantasy?

SECOND TECHNIQUE:

It's possible to also write up a short but concise outline description of your book and ask Gemini to suggest the top 3 categories at Amazon for your book. This may be easier for you.

Either technique will work.

Another tip I can pass on is that if you choose a classic as a guiding light book, or a popular book that has been professionally published, by analyzing those books and seeing where they are positioned, in a way you are getting the advantage of the marketing department that is behind this bestseller. The publishing companies have a marketing department and they work all day positioning books. By watching those bestsellers, you can profit, so to speak, from all of their education and know-how.

THE PROCEDURE:

STEP ONE: Start researching the books you find using AI or using the keywords for your category. Open each book and scroll down to see what categories the book is listed in. You will see categories you have never heard of and didn't know existed. If you think the category would be a good fit for you book, click on the link and it will open an Amazon Best Seller's List in that sub-category.

This Bestseller list will give you a scrolling view of what kinds of books are positioned in this category. It will also give you a lot of information about what kind of book covers are popular in that subcategory. Pay particular attention to the colors used, are there more popular colors than others? For example, in Gothic Fiction, black and red are dominant colors as are gothic fonts. Make note of these.

As a new writer, it is tempting to want to have a "scene" on the front of the book that will represent the story, but this can be a newbie trap. It's better to have a book cover that fits the category than one that is in your favorite colors with too much action going on. You will see what I mean when you do this research.

STEP TWO: Keep notes on the names of books you find that are similar to yours. Keep notes on any categories you feel are a good fit for your book. Remember, in this process you are looking for best categories and you are also finding 3 or 4 book cover designs that you want to use as examples for the Fiverr artist.

Just a word of caution about not taking notes. You will not be able to use your memory only. By the time you open several books and categories, you will not be able to keep them all straight, so take notes!

GATHER EVERYTHING TOGETHER:

Try to put all the pictures of the books on one page. You can do this in Word. If this seems like too much work, you can save the inspirational covers and keep them all in a folder so you can upload them to your fiverr Request.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT FONTS:

I go into details in the video below about why it's important to know which font you want to use. If you hire a Fiverr person today to make a book cover for you for $50, when you go back for a change in two months, or you have another book in the series, his or her prices could have skyrocketed. They only start out at $5.00. This happened to me and I always make it a rule to choose my own font.

Here are three websites that have free fonts:

fonts.google.com - they are all free.
dafont.com - These are more advanced fonts, at least in the gothic style, but only some are 100% free. You need to check the small print.
elements.envato.com - This website is one that I subscribe to, but I believe you can make one-time purchases from them. They have very fancy fonts.

THE FIVER APPROACH:

Here's what you should have:

One sheet of pictures of books you like and what you like about them. For example: The top 3 I like the format, the layout. Numbers 4 and 5, I like the atmosphere, the mood of the artwork. Number 6 and 7, I like the shadows in this book cover. And the last one has a font that I love.
Then give them a short synopsis of the book so they are on the same page as you.
Give them the exact three categories the books will be in and tell them it's important that your book fit within these three categories.
Give them the name of the font you want to use and where to get it. If it costs money, then you can purchase it and upload the zip file that you will get upon purchase.
Give the artist plenty of time so you don't get a rushed order.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: I want an eBook image that is 1600 pixels by 2560 pixels in 300 dpi delivered in a svg file with 3 revisions. I want it to be similar to the pictures submitted and according to my written specifications.

Be aware that an artist can create any artwork in 300 dpi with as much ease as in 72 dpi. It's only the change of the settings when they start. So don't allow them to intimidate you or tell you that will cost more money. I've never had this happen, mind you, but I just throw it out there as a protection. I have had nothing but good results working with artists and technicians at Fiverr.

HERE'S A VIDEO THAT COVERS A LITTLE MORE INFORMATION THAN THE BLOG POST: