Book Editor and Writing Coach

May 17, 2024

Make Stunning Visual Designs to Promote Books and Courses

If you’re writing all the time, you probably won’t like this next fact too much. Visual communication/design has become so important, that without integrating the visual aspects and social media, your book publication will likely be fighting a losing battle. The ‘default’ of the average phone scroller is to ignore the boring, the mediocre, and move on. So are you ready to think about your own brand and boost it visually…? YEAH! Something to ponder As an author, you are a brand – so what does this brand represent? How will you represent your message in a visually appealing way? Some people still spend hours and hours making a brochure – meanwhile, the world has moved on. You can make a simple flyer with a pre-made template, add your colours and fonts and download the PDF, all ready to share…

May 17, 2024

Freelance writing, Publicity

Influential Author: A Contributing Articles Guide

In this series, I hope to give you some ideas for contributing articles to magazines and other places like major blogs, newswires or news platforms. When time is short, you must only work on what matters. So, select the magazines and sites that already have a following, one who may be interested in your work. As well, think of your friends in business who may have blogs or Instagram followings, and on top of this, add podcast guesting or local magazine columns. One way to manage this is to have a master spreadsheet. I use Google Sheets for sorting out list of partners for marketing, places to post, and lists of niche bloggers. I know it takes a long time to find these lists of niche blogs and magazine editors, so another idea is joining in with another author or…

Using LinkedIn as an Author with Sue Ellson

May 14, 2025

Publicity

Using LinkedIn as an Author

This article is a guideline and challenge for authors who believe their LinkedIn presence could be better. Let’s call it the “7-Day Challenge to Expand and Capitalise on our LinkedIn Presence”. Preparations for your Profile Sprucing You won’t need a LinkedIn Premium account, but you will need an account. Don’t forget your email and password (cursed passwords that always change when you’re not looking). Squint now at your current photo. Are you not smiling? Do you have a tropical shirt on? Has it got a weird background? Is your honey’s arm cut off? It may be time to pick a new one and send your best photo, preferably smiling, to a photo editor. Here I recommend Mr Wikus, as he can do any type of design work and will spruce up your pic in a jiffy. https://www.fiverr.com/wikus1208 These days you…

November 1, 2023

Book reviews

If Seventy is the New Fifty, When do I get to Retire? – Book Review

Book by Dennis Hall. Reviewed by Jennifer Lancaster. Let’s get this straight. For one thing I am not even close to 70… but that’s good because this book enables me to think ahead — not with dread but with some great ideas for changes. I call this is a retirement or semi-retirement lifestyle planning book. In the early chapters of this book it talks about making the most of your time, as we may well lived quite a while longer than we once expected and during those years, we’re likely to be both bored and near-broke. Meanwhile, the federal government likes to push up the receiving age of the aged pension. For many, it’s about having all this time and needing more income flow. I mean we all hear the phrase “follow your passion”, but not many authors seem to take…

May 17, 2024

Personal Branding

Making a Personal Brand, in Plain English

Of late I have been navel-gazing, I mean, assessing my values and brand. I’ve also been doing a content marketing course, which prompted me to gain further understanding about what information nonfiction authors look for. Then I realised that there is no such thing as a typical author. There are many reasons to write a book and just as many reasons to build a personal brand. This branding and values exercises is valuable. It had me thinking about things like: how does my personal brand portray me? How can someone create an authentic vibe? What puts people off… and what do they really want to know about my background/values? Amy Green recently wrote in SmartCompany that personal branding is: “How you are recognised and remembered. It is the art of bringing together your strengths, skills and your true essence, then…

May 23, 2023

Book Marketing

5 Ways to Use Videos to Promote Your Books

Book promotions can be daunting. It’s an area that new authors generally avoid, mainly because they don’t know how to do it. Some say that writing a book is way easier than promoting it! With video promotions, you can reach more people. Promotional videos are one of the most impactful things you as an author can do to promote your books. Why? Because interesting videos outperform other traditional forms of book marketing. In fact, on social media, videos get 10 times more engagement and reach than sharing images and links. Consumers are watching more video content online than ever, whether that’s book promos, product demonstrations or tool explanations. YouTube has become the biggest search engine for “how to” information. Now, coming to the different ways you can use videos for promoting your book, they are: 1. Book Trailers Just understand…