This Week in the Blogs, April 14 – 20, 2013

POSTED ON Apr 21, 2013

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Self-Publishing, Social Media > This Week in the Blogs, April 14 – 20, 2013

It’s been an exciting and unusual week here in the U.S., but now that the weekend is here and in full swing, the big news seems to be spring. Warm weather, sun dresses and shorts, and outdoor pursuits seem to be on lots of people’s agendas here in northern California. It doesn’t matter where you are, when you’ve got great articles like these from bloggers this week. Dig in.

David Biddle on Talking Writing
Why Bookstores Aren’t Helping Indie Authors—Yet
“Old fantasies die hard, of course, and my sentimental attachment to bookstores leaves me with a quandary. How hard should I push to get my work into local shops?”

Big Al on Indies Unlimited
Give It Away
“Now there is a website called Rafflecoptor.com that makes giveaways much easier to run by eliminating much of the work. It is not only a way to give your book added visibility, but can have the added benefit of picking up additional followers on social media.”

Jane Friedman on Jane Friedman
3 Ways to Improve Your Author Website Today
“Knowing what people click on gives you in-depth insight into what interests your readers and at what points they’re inclined to make a purchase.”

Nate Hoffelder on The Digital Reader
Amazon Releases a New Tool for the Indie Graphic Novelist – Kindle Comics Creator
“This tool lets authors import artwork, arrange the layout, and even create a guided reading experience with Kindle Panel Views.”

Rachel Thompson on Book Promotion.com
How NOT To Sell Your Book On Twitter!
“Social media is for building relationships and connections, that yes, could lead to sales. It’s a great marketing platform, but it’s not an ‘advertising’ platform, if you will (though they do have paid advertising). I’m not saying NEVER to promote on Twitter — I’m saying do it with balance.”

Sandra Beckwith on Build Book Buzz
9 things you wish you knew before your first TV interview
“There are few moments more exciting for an author than when you schedule that first television interview with a local talk show. After you stop grinning and sharing the good news with your social media networks, you realize that you’ve never been interviewed on camera before . . . and panic sets in.”

Sale Going Strong on Book Templates for Microsoft Word

We’ve flung open the doors at our new site, BookDesignTemplates.com, and invited everyone in to celebrate part 2 of our Grand Opening.

Right now, we’ve got 9 different designs for book interiors, some better for fiction, others that are optimized for nonfiction. These include pre-formatted elements like:

  • Contents, copyright, chapter open, Bibliography, About the author pages and more
  • Styles for chapter numbers and heads, A- and B-level subheads, pull quotes, extracts, footnotes and more
  • Fonts that will make each design sing

And to help you get started quickly, you can download our step-by-step Formatting Guide that will walk you through the simple process of pouring your text into our template to produce a beautiful, industry standard book interior in record time.

And while the sale is going on (ends April 30), use this coupon code to get 41% off anything in the store: book41. Just enter it in the box in the shopping cart when you’re ready to check out.

I’ve talked at length to Tracy about this, and we’ve mutually decided we won’t be holding any more store-wide sales at this deep a discount again. So if you’re planning doing a book in Microsoft Word, click the banner below and check these out.

Book Design Templates

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

Book Cover Design Checklist

Set your book up to SELL with our FREE Book Cover Design Checklist to boost the quality of your book to its very best!
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