I’m lucky enough to be spending a couple of days on Rottnest Island, on a writing retreat with fellow authors and illustrators. This morning I went for a long walk exploring the island – and Sage Cookson came with me.
Five Minute Promo: Day 20
Phew. This is my twentieth post for the month about quick promotional tasks you can complete to get word of your book out to the wider world. If you’ve just joined me, feel free to scroll back through the other nineteen posts (and extra posts in between).
Not THAT kind of layout.
What possessed me to undertake a month of daily posts about promotion? My new book, Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape, which came out on July 1, leading me to wonder what things I could do to promote the book that weren’t so time-consuming that I didn’t have time to work on the fourth book in the series (which has now winged its way off to the publisher), work on my Doctoral project, travel to two conferences, and myriad other things.
So, over to today’s task.
Five Minute Promo #20
Write a blog post about design and layout. What you focus on will depend on your particular book and your unique knowledge. I’ve chosen, for example, to focus on the cover design and, more broadly, on the role other people played in my finished book. You might talk about how illustrations and text are placed, or which font was used, or why the index is in a different font than the rest of your book, or anything else you can think of.
Remember, it’s a quick post – though of course you can take as long as you like. Clock’s ticking, so off you go, and I’ll see back here tomorrow. In the meantime, leave me a comment, if you have time, and let me know how you’re getting on with all this promo.
All About the Cover
Have a look at this cover:
Believe it or not, this beautiful front cover wasn’t the original planned cover for Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. In fact, you can even find the original cover online, through a Google search. However, to save you heading off to look for it, here is the original cover:
Which do you prefer? Hopefully, like me, you prefer the final cover. I love the colours, the brightness, and the appearance of Sage, the hero of the series. Every time I look at this cover I smile.
But, I must confess, that when I saw the other cover, which was the first I saw, I was also happy. And if the new cover hadn’t been decided on at the publishing house, I would have not only been content, but also not known that something else had been considered.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. An author is rarely (if ever) the best qualified person to make decisions on every aspect of the final book. Few people have the complete skill set to write, illustrate, design, typeset, edit, copyedit, proofread, market, distribute and hand sell a book.
In my case, because Sweet Escape (and, of course, the whole Sage Cookson series) is traditionally published, my chief role is to write the book. Of course I also work with editors and have some input into illustrations and covers, but really once I’ve written the book I have to relinquish a great deal of control to the publisher – not only because they are funding the book’s production, but also because they have, either on their staff, or through the use of freelancers – staff with those varied skill sets. Together we bring the final book to life. If I was self-published I would become the publisher, but I would still need to consider either obtaining those many and varied skills or using other people to help me get the book out there into the world.
Back to the cover. The chief reason for the change was a marketing one, and with Sweet Escape selling well, I think it was a good decision. So I’m glad that my publisher, New Frontier, went with the cover they did.
What do you think?
How to Make Easy-Peasy Chocolate Fondant
In the back of each book in the Sage Cookson series there is a recipe, which you can make at home. The recipe at the back of Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape is for Cheat’s Chocolate Fondant. Today I am super-excited because my publisher has produced a video showing you just how easy this recipe is to make.
Enjoy!
Five Minute Promo : Day 18
Welcome to day 18. On Day 11 I had you share a related item on Facebook, and on day 12 I had you share an unrelated item on Twitter. Today’s task has you sharing something which may be either on another social media platform – and this is one I’m looking forward to.
5 Min Promo #18
Take a photo of something yummy and share it on Instagram. If your book focuses on or features any particular foods, you might create an instagram post featuring that food. But, if not, feel free to take a photo of anything yummy- a sweet treat, a steaming bowl of soup, even some fresh fruit. People love pictures of food and, when they engage with that picture, they may head over to read your profile which, in turn, promotes your book.
Here are a couple of simple examples I have used before. This is a photo of the first, perfect, cherry tomato I picked last year. Later, I also used it as the subject for a Poetry Friday post.
And here’s a more recent one, featuring chocolate, Sweet Escape and my Sage doll.
So, clock’s ticking, off you go and snap a photo. If it takes less than five minutes, use the rest of your time to check your other social media accounts. See you tomorrow.
Five Minute Promo: Day 16
Welcome to day 16. I’m having a lot of fun writing this series of posts and also carrying out each five minute task myself as I promote my new book Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. I know people are reading them because I’m getting new followers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. But it would also be lovely to get more comments and questions here on the blog, just so I know who’s listening and what you are finding does or doesn’t work for you.
Anyway, over to today’s task.
5 Minute promo #16
Head over to Twitter and tweet about someone else’s book. That’s it. Write a tweet about a book that you love – could be a new release could be an old favourite. Add a link, or a photo or whatever you like.
Here’s a book I’ve recommended on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. It’s a good one.
Why? Because your Twitter followers love to hear about things other than YOUR book. And because, as an author yourself, you know how great it feels to hear that someone else likes your book. It’s called spreading the love – or paying it forward.
This task is so quick that it may not take five minutes. So, use the rest of your five minutes to update your other social media. Or take a four minute breather 🙂
See you tomorrow.
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