Create a Publishing Imprint

A publishing imprint is the name that goes on your spine. The “publisher.” Even as a self-publisher who decides to go the easy route of CreateSpace, you still want to develop an imprint of your own so that book systems don’t register your title as published by “CreateSpace.” You want this to be professional, not cheesy. So start by registering a fictitious name with your local government.

Register Your Business

Once you have your fictitious name registered and ready to use (Winslet Press, for example), then register this name as a Doing Business As or Sole Proprietorship with your local government.

Purchase an ISBN

Go to Bowker.com and purchase an ISBN for your title(s).

Get an LCCN Number

You will need a LCCN number. You can fill out the application to get started here.

Make Sure You’re Copyrighted

Go straight to the government and get your work copyrighted.

Choose a Printer

You can choose a traditional printer, which will cost more upfront. Or, you can go with a Print-On-Demand service like CreateSpace, which only requires the upfront cost of one proof copy. Although with CreateSpace we recommend the Pro Plan, which is under $100 to join, but increases your profit per book.

Cover Design

Get a good cover designed! This is important. A lot of services offer “create your own” book covers, but they end up looking as cheesy as can be. Spend the extra money to get a good cover designed. It’s worth it.

If You Choose A Traditional Printer….

You will need to set-up an Amazon Advantage account to sell your books on Amazon. You will also need to send your books to Barnes and Noble for review. If they accept your book, you will need a distributor (they will send you a list to choose from). You are then required to send your book to distributors for review. When they accept you, they will fulfill Barnes and Noble’s order for your book.

Setting Up E-Books

You want to make sure you have e-book versions of your book. Digital books are so popular right now. You don’t want to miss this opportunity. We offer e-book conversion services, and many other people do as well. Once your book is converted, sign up for an Amazon DTP account here and a Barnes and Noble PubIt account here, so that you can sell your books online.

Publish Your Book!

Once you have reached this point and have your cover design and interior layout ready to go, you can publish your book! You will add it to the above accounts, and for Advantage you will need to send them copies of your book. For CreateSpace and other POD programs, you simply enter all of your info, overview your proof, then PUBLISH!

It really is a lot easier than it seems. If this still seems confusing to you ask us about our self-publishing life-saver packages!

Design Details

Gina Holmes’ Inspire a Fire website is built from a WordPress template. I includes a custom hand-drawn header, content additions, and a footer design. We also changed the navigation design. This site was built from an Elegant Themes template.

Design Details

Designed to express femininity and beauty, this cover has many layers and soft tones. We designed it for an audience of young women. The light in the images was accentuated to make it bright and radiant. We really love this cover. It’s soft, bright, and inviting.

Excited to read some of your reflections! You can also email them to us!

The first tip for today is how to add your own custom domain to Blogger. We recommend buying one through a web host like 1and1.

1.) Once you buy your domain, login to your Blogger account and go to “Settings.”

2.) Then click the “Publishing” tab at the top. Click “Switch to Custom Domain.”

3.) Type in your domain name and hit “Save Settings.”

Automatically Post to Twitter and Facebook

Instead of manually going to your Twitter and Facebook account to post your new blog posts, you can have them automatically post every time you write a new post.

1.) Sign up for an account at Twitter Feed.

2.) Enter the following information:
Feed Name
RSS Feed URL, you can find this by going to “Settings” in Blogger, then “Site Feed.”

3.) Next, authenticate your accounts in Twitter and Facebook. Click on “Facebook,” on the next page, click “Connect with Facebook.”

4.) Enter your Facebook e-mail and password and click “Connect.”

5.) Then click “Allow Access” and click “Create Service.”

Add Your Signature to Posts

Instead of manually going to your Twitter and Facebook account to post your new blog posts, you can have them automatically post every time you write a new post.

1.) Go to My Live Signature and type in your name.

2.) Upload your image to TinyPic or Photobucket.

3.) They will provide you with a link. Add your link to this code:

<br /><img src=”YOUR_LINK” />

4.) Replace “YOUR_LINK” with the link of your image.

5.) In your Blogger account go to “Settings,” then click on “Formatting.” Scroll down to “Post Template” and add in your code.

6.) Click “Save Settings.”

Brands, voices, platforms, marketing … it overwhelmed me, but I figured I could handle it, right?

Not so much. Thankfully I am married to a talented and artistic designer who understands marketing and design from a creative standpoint, who just so happens to own Author Lab and Tekeme Studios. Yes, that’s us.

Anyway, George and I discussed my “voice,” asking questions like:

1.) What kind of topics do I write about?

2.) What kind of prose do I have? (Poetic, literary, technical, simple, etc.)

3.) What is the main theme behind everything I write?

4.) Who am I and what do I represent as a unique author?

Then, we took the answers and developed the first part of my brand. The ONE WORD that describes my writing in the shell of a nut. Hope. For me, the ONE WORD is hope.

After we had ONE WORD, we developed a tagline that summed up my answers to the above questions and elaborated on the ONE WORD. The tagline is beauty after rain.

So, hope turned into beauty after rain. Meaning, I write about difficult things and the beauty that comes after the storms in life. This became my brand. Beauty After Rain. And after that, we developed a website. The theme of the website was beauty after rain, with hand-drawn creative elements. You can see a snapshot of the site here. (FYI – I am showing this site for informative purposes, but I have taken it down because it no longer represents who I am and the way I want to present myself to the world, which is why it’s not in our portfolio.)

In essence, developing your brand is easy, but not easy all at the same time. And you’ll need this brand to carry you through your writing career and all of your marketing material. You can’t steal this from someone else, no matter how much you love their presentation. This is YOU. And the only way you can have an effective brand is by knowing yourself, your voice, your writing, your career goals and direction, and what makes you unique.

The basic things to ponder when developing your brand are:

1. As I search myself and my writing, what is the ONE WORD that sums it all up?
2. Turn your ONE WORD into a tagline.
3. Turn your tagline into a concept that can seep into your web presence, print presence, and real life (speaking) presence
4. Develop a web presence on a blog or website (with a good logo that utilizes your brand).
5. Write, maintain a web presence, seek out speaking engagements, and develop strong connections with your readers

Comment your ONE WORD on this blog post and we will enter you in a contest to win a free logo design!

In fact, we don’t always recommend self-publishing at all. For most people, traditional publishing is the way to go and developing a relationship with a knowledgeable agent is something we definitely recommend, even for writers who decide to self-publish.

But why? People ask. Why on earth would I pay someone a percentage of my money in order to help me do things I can figure out on my own?

1.) Agents know way more than typical writers. They get paid for a reason. There are some writers who spark the interest of a publisher before acquiring an agent, and they ask themselves, “Hmm … is an agent really worth it?” Yes. An agent really is worth it. They not only help you discern contracts and negotiate better deals, but they have already developed good working relationships with publishers. They know people you don’t know. They know how to talk to publishers, whereas you may be timid and accept the first deal that lands on your lap.

2.) Agents help you manage and reach long-term goals. It’s not just about one contract. Agents help you maintain your career by getting to know you and your goals. They understand you, they understand the industry, and they want you to succeed. A good agent isn’t all about the money. A good agent is your friend. And they truly care about your success. Not because your success puts more money in their pocket… because they love good books and they enjoy helping writers share their voices with the world.

3.) The biggest and most important reason an agent is important and worth it, even for self-publishing authors, is because they know what they are doing and you need more time to write. You not only need more time to write, but you probably want more time to write too. Who has time to negotiate contracts and figure out how to be a literary agent while also trying to write books?

But, some may say, I’m self-publishing. Do I really need an agent?

No, you don’t really need an agent if you self-publish. However, it can still be beneficial to work with an agent while you self-publish your books. Like we said before, agents know the industry inside-and-out. They can help you manage a self-publishing career too. It just comes down to your own personal desires. Do you want more time to write? Or do you have the time and energy (and desire) to learn about the industry in order to self-publish effectively?

Alas, our general rule of thumb is … if you have a real desire to write for publication and you want to stay in the industry for many years … at least develop your craft enough to catch the eyes of a few agents, talk it over with them, and see if it’s something you want to pursue. There are many benefits, and the percentage they take from your earnings is so little compared to the amount of love and work they put into making your dreams come true.