As far as tools for PC go, I have used Affinity Publisher for three books now and I'm very pleased with the result. It's a powerful tool so there is a learning curve, but it works well, including doing things like ligatures and kerning automatically, which would address that kerning issue on your cover. I used it for both the interior and the cover. There's a lot of good info on line and an active and responsive community so I never got stuck on how to do something.
As always, very informative! Thank you, Simon. I’m going to be using Atticus for my formatting. Hopefully it works out. Congratulations on the upcoming release!!
Love this approach to sharing info vs marketing the book. However, respectfully disagree on the genre/Amazon category. I personally dislike YA, like it’s not my thing. So if I bought a book thinking it was adult and then started reading and it feels like YA... I’m prob gonna leave a review to that effect and DNf it, feel perhaps betrayed...
Imo, if your true BEST audience is 14-18, I’d change the category to that age group. Then adult readers who like YA will still buy it, but other readers won’t feel misled.
Genre and classification is such a tricky thing. Although NAA was written to be approachable by a YA audience, it isn't explicitly 'YA'. As with most of my books, it straddles multiple genres in a slightly awkward way when it comes to promotion.
Like I say, it's 'loosely' YA in that I think a YA audience would enjoy it. I think people who don't read YA would ALSO enjoy it. I think kids would like it, and I think adults would like it. Which I know is a bit non-committal, but it's hard to pitch it any other way. I guess I'll find out when the book comes out!
Haha love it. This reminds me of that very popular book—The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse That was really good. It straddled all these genres also, though it was heavily illustrated. Wishing your book much success!
Your description of promotion and process is perfectly balanced and even motivated me to pre-order the eBook. Alas! I’m in the US and apparently cannot send an eBook from the UK to my kindle? Any workarounds?
Something else I've discovered is how Amazon is a bit silly in the way their links work. You'd think they'd be able to provide a single product page link that automatically sends people to their regional shop. But no!
Here is the book on US Amazon, which hopefully will do the trick: https://a.co/d/18JrnbW
Let me know if it doesn't behave! And thank you. :)
Amazon doesn't, but BookLinker does. https://booklinker.com/ You paste in a link from any Amazon store and they spit you back a link that will resolve to the local amazon store in every market.
Nice piece Simon. I can relate. Funnily enough, in the image of the two ADULTS, the bottom one looked a little crooked, as if imperfect (kidlike?)!! Of course it's just an illusion! I think your pricing is fair!!
And congrats on the book! Self publishing is no easy feat! And editing isn’t easy either. Bravo.
Thanks, Charlotte!
As far as tools for PC go, I have used Affinity Publisher for three books now and I'm very pleased with the result. It's a powerful tool so there is a learning curve, but it works well, including doing things like ligatures and kerning automatically, which would address that kerning issue on your cover. I used it for both the interior and the cover. There's a lot of good info on line and an active and responsive community so I never got stuck on how to do something.
Thanks, Mark, I'll definitely give that a look. I hadn't heard of it but it sounds very interesting!
Yeah, have been taking a closer look. Seems like an excellent suite!
Congrats!
Thanks!
Congratulations sir
Thank you!
As always, very informative! Thank you, Simon. I’m going to be using Atticus for my formatting. Hopefully it works out. Congratulations on the upcoming release!!
Love this approach to sharing info vs marketing the book. However, respectfully disagree on the genre/Amazon category. I personally dislike YA, like it’s not my thing. So if I bought a book thinking it was adult and then started reading and it feels like YA... I’m prob gonna leave a review to that effect and DNf it, feel perhaps betrayed...
Imo, if your true BEST audience is 14-18, I’d change the category to that age group. Then adult readers who like YA will still buy it, but other readers won’t feel misled.
Genre and classification is such a tricky thing. Although NAA was written to be approachable by a YA audience, it isn't explicitly 'YA'. As with most of my books, it straddles multiple genres in a slightly awkward way when it comes to promotion.
Like I say, it's 'loosely' YA in that I think a YA audience would enjoy it. I think people who don't read YA would ALSO enjoy it. I think kids would like it, and I think adults would like it. Which I know is a bit non-committal, but it's hard to pitch it any other way. I guess I'll find out when the book comes out!
Haha love it. This reminds me of that very popular book—The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse That was really good. It straddled all these genres also, though it was heavily illustrated. Wishing your book much success!
Thanks, Charlotte!
Your description of promotion and process is perfectly balanced and even motivated me to pre-order the eBook. Alas! I’m in the US and apparently cannot send an eBook from the UK to my kindle? Any workarounds?
Something else I've discovered is how Amazon is a bit silly in the way their links work. You'd think they'd be able to provide a single product page link that automatically sends people to their regional shop. But no!
Here is the book on US Amazon, which hopefully will do the trick: https://a.co/d/18JrnbW
Let me know if it doesn't behave! And thank you. :)
Amazon doesn't, but BookLinker does. https://booklinker.com/ You paste in a link from any Amazon store and they spit you back a link that will resolve to the local amazon store in every market.
Oh, amazing! Thanks Mark, I'll definitely give that a go and update the post accordingly.
Nice piece Simon. I can relate. Funnily enough, in the image of the two ADULTS, the bottom one looked a little crooked, as if imperfect (kidlike?)!! Of course it's just an illusion! I think your pricing is fair!!
Ha, I think that's more to do with more wonky photograph. Thanks, Minter.