Category: Design

Make Your Publishing Journey a Trip Worth Taking

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat… My brain tried to place the unfamiliar sound as my dog and I walked down the street. The sound grew louder and a car came into view, limping along with two flat tires. Tat-tat-tat… mystery solved. A couple of minutes later, the driver gave up the struggle and pulled

Read More »

Playing to Your Strengths

On our recent trip to Turkiye, my husband and I spent quite a bit of time visiting historical sites. Most of that involved wandering among ruins on foot, but we had one day booked to kayak over a sunken city, which sounded really cool. And it was, even though our

Read More »

Want some extra bang on Amazon for zero bucks?

Who doesn’t love something for nothing? How about more Amazon real estate for your books? Yes, please! Here’s a look at three marketing tools available to KDP authors for free! They are, in my opinion, seriously underutilized and fully deserving of your attention, given that they offer decent bang for

Read More »

Before You Publish, Speak Your Story

At last the moment arrives—your manuscript is complete! You’ve read it and re-read it one, two, three times. You’ve made tweaks, fixed typos, run spelling and grammar checks, and read it one more time for good measure. You may think your manuscript is polished to perfection, but before you hand

Read More »

Writing in the Margins

Do those words bring to mind doodling in a notebook during class? I certainly found myself doing that back in the day, especially when the subject matter was less than riveting. More recently, in my work supporting authors through the publishing process, I’ve come to understand “writing in the margins”

Read More »

Publishing Is a Team Sport

“I don’t know why they call this self-publishing. I couldn’t have done this without you.” That’s an actual quote from an author I helped. It’s one of my favorites, but I’m not sharing it to toot my own horn. Rather, I’m highlighting it to acknowledge all the players who contribute

Read More »

Getting Onboard with Professional Book Design

The beginning is a very good place to start, as Julie Andrews’ Maria tunefully taught us in The Sound of Music. But life doesn’t always work out that way. This article focuses on a book that started well north of the beginning, at least in terms of when it hit

Read More »