This Week in the Blogs, July 25 – 31, 2015

Identifying your audience, how to get your book made into a movie or sold in a bookstore, these are just a couple of the great topics covered in the articles I’ve picked out for you this week. Hope you enjoy them.

Kimberley Grabas on Your Writer Platform
The 4-Part System to Define and Attract Your Target Audience (Part 1: IDENTIFY)
“When defining your target audience, the first question you need to ask yourself is this: “Who do you want sitting in the seats?””

Joe Konrath on JA Konrath
Kindle Unlimited Thoughts
“Like everyone else in KDP Select, I’ve been paying attention to my Kindle Unlimited page reads. … When the new accounting began at the beginning of this month, I had 33,000 daily page reads. I had no idea if this was good, or bad. It was what it was.”

Jane Friedman on Jane Friedman
How a Book Becomes a Movie
“In 2008, writer Jeanne Bowerman was working at home in upstate New York when her husband pointed to an article he was reading in the Wall Street Journal and said, “I would see that movie.””

David Bergsland on The Skilled Workman
Readability is the prime virtue of book design
“I decided I needed to beat an old drum. Readability is the focus of book design typography. This was the core of curriculum in my digital publishing degree. It’s the center of my graphic design and book design efforts. Without comfortable, readable content, your book has a severe handicap.”

Tracy Hahn-Burkett on Writer Unboxed
Advice for Authors from a Bookseller’s Perspective
“I’m going to wear a different hat today than I usually do. (You can’t see me, but I’m taking off my writer’s hat—the one with the red-pencil holder and the built-in chocolate and coffee dispensers—and putting on another hat right now.) I’ve just completed a two-year stint as a part-time bookseller at a lovely independent bookstore.”

News from Ingram Spark

Ingram Spark, the newest print on demand publishing portal for self-publishers from the world’s largest book distributor, continues to improve. This month there are a number of new features that will be useful to you in producing and marketing your books.

The addition of pre-orders and more metadata fields are both great new features for Spark publishers.

The information below is directly from the folks at Spark:

• On Sale Date—Our publishers now have the option to select an On Sale Date for their print titles (this functionality already existed on the e-book side). By setting an on sale date prior to the publication date, publishers can market their book and collect pre-orders leading up to the publication date.
• New Metadata field options—These additions will go a long way in making titles more discoverable. Please note: Currently, the additional fields are only available to IngramSpark customers, but will be available to Lightning Source customers soon as well.
  • Short description
  • Keywords
  • Series name & number
  • Edition description
  • About the Contributor
  • Region
  • Audience / age range & grade range
  • Table of Contents
  • Review Quotes
• Free Setup on all new e-book titles through 9/30 when you use the promotion code: FREEEBOOK. (This is not necessarily new, but still a good deal.)

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