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How to join in the holiday rush

Published on November 19, 2015June 7, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell9 Comments

I’d love to have a little of that holiday rush head my way.

Now don’t shoot the messenger. I know Thanksgiving comes first and I share your frustration with all the decorations flooding the stores earlier and earlier every year.

snowman holidays

However, thinking about when and how should we market our books take a lot of planning.

A big thank you goes to Nicholas C. Rossis for sending me the link to the article by Taylor at Written Word Media.

If you are wondering when to start, to click on the following link.

Holiday Book Marketing: An Author’s Guide to Black Friday and Beyond

These are great tips on when and how you might want to focus marketing your book.

Are you going to release, or market your book on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

To discount or not to discount?

These are important questions and Taylor gives us the answer.

So what are your plans? Or have you given it much thought?

Share your thoughts in the comments section. Please follow me at @jeancogdell on Twitter and jean.cogdell on Facebook!

And don’t forget, pay it forward with a click and share this post with your Twitter peeps and Facebook fans.

The waiting is over! He’s here!

Published on November 13, 2015November 12, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell16 Comments

Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day for our family, so I’m thrilled to announce Tryouts for Ben is now available at Amazon.com today!

Yes, Ben made it even with all my jumbling, fumbling and amateurish attempts to bring him into this world.

Whew! It feels as though I’ve just birthed a baby elephant instead of a book.

For some, writing and self-publishing a book, of any size, in paper and e-format is easy. They share instructions on how to self-publish in 3 easy steps or maybe 10. I read article after article, followed steps 1 through infinity and more times than not, ended up with a scrambled mess.

But I eventually got to the end. Even if I traveled terrain as rough as the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Seems as if I go about every project the hard way.

However, today is not for whiners. It’s a day of celebration!!

Small though Ben may be, he’s my first and I’m one proud mama.

Please hop over to Amazon and check out my little man.

To get your copy, click on this image….

Now that I’ve conquered Amazon and Createspace I’m off to try my hand at Ingram-Spark.

A big thank you to everyone who helped me achieve this goal.

And a giant thanks for all the encouragement from my blogging community.

Without all of you, I don’t know if I would’ve preserved.

I hope some of you will read about Ben and share it with the young readers in your family.

After you read Tryouts for Ben, please leave a review on Amazon. (Hopefully a kind review.) Book reviews are so important and much appreciated.

Next, a big book! LOL

Leave me a comment and look for me @jeancogdell on Twitter and jean.cogdell on Facebook!

And don’t forget, pay it forward with a click and share this post with your Twitter peeps and Facebook fans.

Are you almost ready?

Published on September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell19 Comments

To publish that book!

Where to go, what to do and how!

The questions are many, but hopefully these two experienced writers can help us all figure out the maze of self-publishing.

I’m playing with Createspace and trying to familiarize myself with the process. It can be intimidating, at least for this newbie.

However, after reading the step by step instructions provided by by Bryan Hutchinson over at Postive Writer, I feel a lot better. Bryan was kind with a quick response to my question too.

How to Publish a Paperback Book for FREE Using Createspace by Bryan Hutchinson

I wanted to know if I should use Ingram Spark in addition to Createspace. He suggested I publish everywhere, including Ingram Spark and even Nook Press.

From all I’ve read Ingram Spark is a must to get into stores. Still a bit confused, I was thrilled to open the following post by Jen Lang. She wrote a follow-up piece to article on How to Use CreateSpace and IngramSpark Together by Karen Myers.

Book Production: More Tips on Using CreateSpace and Ingram Spark Together by Jen Lang

Not that’s what I call Kismit.

Maybe you’re not ready yet to pull this trigger, but I think it’s important to be ready for that big day. So curl up on this long weekend and read these amazing articles. You’ll be glad you did.

After all luck is when preparation meets opportunity. (Something like that.)

Hope you learn as much as I did from the two articles and soon we all will say, “Published.”

You’ve made it this far so let me know what you think, and then give me just two more seconds. Hit Facebook and Twitter and share.
Thank you!
If you’re not already, I’d be much obliged if you would follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

Navigating Kindle Direct Publishing

Published on June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell1 Comment

Find out how to publish your book on Kindle Direct.

This is must have info for anyone interested in publishing a book on Kindle Direct Publishing. A big thanks goes out to Chris the Story Reading Ape’s Blog for sharing a post written by Lisa Morrow on her official site. I’m sure y’all will be as thrilled as I was to read her tips.

Anyone else out there have tips to make the process easier please let us know!

I love comments, tell me what’s happening with you and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

Lisa Morrow Official Author Page

Learning to use Kindle Direct Publishing to publish my novel To Kill a Wizard wasn’t nearly as hard as learning to properly format my book for Kindle readers. Both, however, had their challenges, which I’ll share here, as well as, some tips on how I formatted my novel.

Things I learned:

First, I uploaded my book and made sure there were no basic issues.
After that, I looked at how my book actually appeared on my Kindle Previewer. I found I needed to adjust my spacing, indents, and font size, depending on what I thought looked best.
- In “page setup,” I changed the page size to be six-by-nine.
- Then, I had to select a “custom margin” based on the size of my book. I believe I went with the “top,” “bottom,” and “outside” being .5, the “inside” being 0, and the “gutter” being .75.
- I selected “mirror margins” and applied…

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