I’d like readers to know that we are very fortunate this week to not have to furlough any of the designers, writers, marketers, virtual assistants, or technologists here at the blog, and all departments are open and ready to help you create even better books. This week, from a collection of 222 blog posts, I’ve selected these five to provide you with some kick-back-time reading over the weekend. Enjoy!

Jason Matthews on How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks
7 Tips for Amazon Keywords and Best Selling Books
“Here are 7 tips to help you select the best words and phrases plus a tutorial video at YouTube and the bottom of this post to follow along if you want.”

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Kris Writes
The Business Rusch: Pen Names
“I’m going to use this blog to explore the various reasons to have or not to have pen names. Then you folks can decide what’s best for you. Because these days, it’s a personal decision that’s between you and your readers—literally.”

Michael Hyatt on MichaelHyatt.com
How to Become More Consistent in Your Daily Journaling
“Like most people, I struggled with consistency. I wanted to journal. I was convinced of the benefits. But I found myself blowing it off with increasing frequency. Sound familiar? Several months ago I stumbled onto something that solved the problem. Not one hundred percent of the time, but most of the time.”

Amy/Dara on Wise Ink Blog
3 Tips to a Book Spine that Sells
“The spine and book cover are used together in packaging your book. You want your cover and spine to be cohesive in design and image. The design of the spine should be interesting, and you should be able to hint at the genre of a book. You want your spine to stand out among the other books in its genre, and there are a few ways to do this.”

K.S. Brooks on Indies Unlimited
Creating a Book’s Sell Sheet
“A book sell sheet (or book one-sheet, as some people call it) is designed to provide the necessary information to people who would buy your book. This is not for consumers, however, it targets buyers at book stores, libraries, other retailers, and wholesalers. These people want quick facts about your book, without schmaltz.”

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