As I write this I am sitting in a car looking out on Cook
Strait. On a good day you can see the South Island. Today I just see an empty
expanse of white coming down on the rolling sea about 500 meters away.
Visibility limited.
Somewhere out in the white are big inter–island ferries
coming through the strait, along with smaller fishing boats and huge cargo
ships. Modern boats have radar so there won’t be collisions.
Book visibility seems to be a theme running through my
roundup today. Somewhere in the white noise of Amazon your book is floundering
around. How can you make the book visible so it has less chance of sinking without
a trace.
Book Radar
Your Cover.
The Book Designer (AKA Joel Friedlander) has a
good post on what a cover should have. Alan Rinzler also has talked to one of
the best cover artists in the business about what is iconic and important.
Metadata.
This is how your book is described on any digital
platform. Penny Sansevieri describes in detail how to do this for Amazon. You
will learn things about search that will blow your mind.
Getting Endorsements and Reviews.
All book marketing comes down to word of mouth in the end.
Either the book is being hand sold in the bookstore, Indie bookstores do this
amazingly well, or you found a great book because someone told you about it.
Writer platform goes into fine detail about how to target and get reviews. Training Authors has an interesting post on getting endorsements. These are cover pull quotes.
Joanna Penn talks about little tweaks that increase your email subscriber list which increases your reader reach and your visibility.
Small publishers are just as keen on visibility. BAP books is shaking things up with a pay what you want publishing model for a poetry book. They have had great success. It is daring... innovative... would it work
for any book? Not sure... but I’m talking about it on my blog at the bottom of
the Southern Hemisphere so it’s definitely visible.
In The Craft Section,
Writing to gaming music. (This is really interesting.)
How do you know if your concept is right? Larry Brooks with two video tutorials on nailing your concept. (Bookmark)
In The Marketing Section,
Marketing your series- Lindsay Buroker (bookmark)
Website of the Week
Actually it is a roundup of websites… on self publishing some of which will
be familiar. But you may find a new one to try out.
To Finish,
Ryan Holiday has an interesting article on Growth Hacking for Creatives... This is thinking outside the box for visibility.
