Marketing your Book cover, Spine and Information.

Whether you’ve written your book or are just starting out, having an eye catching cover is a must. Did you know that customers may be looking over your book for 10 seconds or less? A good book cover entices the customer to want to read more information and to result in a purchase. To accomplish this, you need to know what catches a customers eyes. A good place to start is your friends and family. Ones that you trust. Ask their opinions. If you’re uncomfortable with asking your inner circle or would like your book’s cover to be a surprise, look to the net. You can post your book’s cover idea and receive feedback. Only post your idea on the net if you trust it won’t be stolen. When deciding to create my book cover for Mysterious Chills and Thrills for Kids, I looked at many other ones in the children’s field. I kept in mind which book covers attracted me and for the ones that didn’t, why it didn’t. Keep in mind that not everyone is going to agree with your taste.

The same applies to your back cover information about your book. If the book is fiction, you’ll need to ensure the customer that their entertainment dollars are worth purchasing your book. If your book is non-fiction, show the customer the benefits of purchasing. Can it help solve a problem? Many customers want to know that they are buying something that in some form can benefit them. You’ll also need to show how your book is better than then next one in it’s category.

Don’t forget the spine and price. If your book is spine out, it’ll need to attract the customer’s eyes. When they pull out your book, the price can turn a purchase away. Look at other books in the field and price accordingly. Much lower prices than your competition may appear to sell more but may give the idea that your work isn’t as good.

Self publishing, Small Press or a Large Publishing company, either way your book is competing against others out there. Make it count!

About The Author

Read more free reprintable articles on writing written by Ms. Laura Hickey in English, Italiano and Espanol. Read book reviews and interviews for her children’s book, Mysterious Chills and Thrills for Kids.

http://www.laurahickey.com

Did you know that upto 95% of your ezine subscribers may not read your ezine – unless it is well formatted?

Email clients or programs are much more variable than web browsers in the way they display messages. So getting your ezine to look great on every one of them is a forbidding task.

Far too many ezine publishers simply neglect this critical issue and put together an ezine that looks alright on their email program. By understanding the pitfalls (and by using the valuable lessons in Ezine Launch – http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ezinelaunch/ ) you can work around most of them.

1. Learn all about elements of ezine formatting

The elements of ezine formatting that pose a challenge to you, the ezine publisher, include:

– Choosing a line length that will not wrap awkwardly

– Making Website URLs and email links clickable

– Limiting file size

– Using special formatting tags

– Applying different fonts

– Creating an aesthetically appealing format

– Publishing in ASCII text as well as HTML or Rich Text formats

2. Create an ezine for the lowest common denominator:

Use a text-only editor like Notepad instead of word processing programs like MS Word or Lotus Notes. Limit line length to 64 characters, and hit the ENTER button at this limit. Don’t exceed a file size of 20 KB. Try and avoid any special formatting tags or using different fonts.

Intelligently use white space and text-decorators as section dividers to design a visually attractive newsletter. HTML and Rich text email are becoming popular and have many advantages over plain vanilla text. However there are still many email programs that do not support HTML mail – so you should check whether your readers can handle it before publishing in HTML.

A very useful tool to format your ezine is Ezine Assistant. By setting the line length limits, you can instantly clean up your draft into a pretty ezine. Visit http://www.ezinemarketingcenter.com/roibot/ to download a copy – it’s free !

3. Check your ezine on multiple email programs.

There isn’t a short-cut to this step. View your ezine on many platforms and on different email clients. The most popular are Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, Netscape Messenger and the web-based email services, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.

4. AOL Woes:

The way AOL handles email gives grey hair to ezine publishers. You need to format links specially for AOL users or send the entire ezine as an email attachment.

5. Publishing in HTML:

Though more appealing and glamorous, creating HTML ezines has many pitfalls and risks. To learn more about creating a HTML ezine, read an article on the subject at http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ezine-articles/ which covers all essential basics on the subject including

– Why you should never publish in HTML alone, always offer a text version

– How HTML ezines can outshine their plain vanilla text cousins

– Finding the pitfalls and dangers of dabbling in rich text

– How to code your ezine so it shows up in HTML capable clients

– Discovering the best software packages to help you publish in HTML

– Saving time and energy by creating cut-and-paste ezine templates

– Special issues related to distributing HTML ezines

– Cutting bloated code to trim down files sizes

– How to ensure maximum compatibility across different programs

– Things to do; and those to avoid like the plague

You can also find more in-depth information about this topic in Ezine Launch at http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ezinelaunch/

About the author:

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian has been building profitable niche
minisites since 1998. He recently launched “INSTANT NICHE
MINISITES” – a Web-based tool you can use to ‘point-and-click’
your way to creating niche marketing websites.
http://www.InstantNicheMinisites.com

www.InstantNicheMinisites.com
ideas@ezinemarketingcenter.com

Some of the first things you’ll spend money on when you decide to get married (besides the ring) are the wedding invitations. While you want your invitations to be classy, unique and of good quality, you’ll probably also want to find ways to save on wedding invitations as well. Here are the top ways to send out invitations that you can affordand that your friends and family will be impressed with.

Keep your guest list small.

The more people you invite to your wedding, the more invitations you’re going to have to send out, so take a little time to create a guest list that you and your spouse will be satisfied withand one that will fit your budget. Let your friends and family know when you’ll be getting married as soon as you can, so that they can tell you if they’ll be able to make it. For those who won’t be able to attend, you can send alternate invitations on different paper that may be a little less expensive, so that your loved ones can still keep a reminder of your special day. Now is not the time to be extremely politethis is your day, and you deserve to have the people you love at your ceremony. Just because people know that you’re getting married, doesn’t mean they all have to come to wedding. Remember, the more invitations you send out, the more people that will show up, the more reception dinners you’ll have to pay for…and the list goes on. Keeping your guest list small will help you to save on other wedding costs as well, so choose wisely.

Make your own invitations.

If you’re especially crafty or know exactly how you want your invitations to look (and haven’t seen this look in stores or online) you may want to consider making your invitations yourself. This way, you can save money, and add your own special touches to make an invitation that really is unique to your ceremony and your relationship. Of course, you may still have to ask for help, but if you need friends and family to give you pointers on the invitation design or provide supplies for you to use, you won’t have to pay for labor. You can also be sure that no one will have your invitations, and this will be another way to give guests the impression that your wedding will be an event to remember. You can also look online for wedding invitation templates to follow if you want to keep things a little more traditional, or aren’t quite ready to try your hand at such a crafty task. Here are some sites that may help: www.southworth.com, www.yourinvitationplace.com, and www.theweddingplace.com.

Use less paper.

Your invitation doesn’t have to be two or three pages; you can save the story of how you met for the wedding video or the wedding programs in order to cut costs. A single sheet invitation will usually save you money, and looks very classy and sophisticated. If you want to add photos to your wedding invitations, you may want to use a photo of wedding rings, or a picture of you and your fiancé as a backdrop, and include all the information about the ceremony on the same sheet. Using one ink color and a smaller border can also help to save money. The key is to make your wedding invitations look interesting and tasteful enough for people to want to attend the ceremony, and you can definitely do this without spending a whole lot of money. After all, you want to save for that fabulous dress and great receptionthese are the things that will keep your guests remembering your day for years to come.