Book Editor and Writing Coach

September 15, 2025

Author Brand Cheat Sheet

If you’re lagging in social media followers and personal brand style, then you’ll want to read these cheat sheet tips for author brand strategy. While others specialise in marketing books, I prefer to focus on helping authors market themselves first. But why? This focus puts the author in the best place to then sell books, with simple tactics like emails to their list or a series of content posts. The trouble I had with launching earlier books was I had no platform. First steps were a simple blog site and a Twitter account (this was in 2009). Author Branding First Steps—Shoot First! As a relatively high-quality image of your good self will give you instant credibility, it’s wise to put aside modesty and get pro photos taken. There are many uses for these. Head Shot – studio ‘Doing’ shot –…

Why Choose Kindle Select?

I have only one title able to enrol in Kindle Select, as with my own books I thought it best to go wide since Aussies love their iOS devices (iBooks), however, most new authors who have no platform to sell from yet are inclined to go for the narrower Kindle Select distribution option. Let’s look into why. About Kindle Select (from Amazon KDP) When you choose to enrol your book in KDP Select, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity (90 days), you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, iBooks, Google Play, etc. It is important that you heed the notices and act if you want to OPT OUT of the program after 90 days. If you don’t want to renew, simply go…

Book Design Knockdown: MS Word vs Adobe InDesign

Lately, a few talented writers have contacted me with their pre-press production problems. Now, most new authors want to typeset their non-fiction book in Word, but Word is designed for word processing and not so much for book design. However, some authors want to be able to access the file again — and if they are not worried about the colours (inside) not being controlled, then there are workarounds. But Adobe InDesign is the industry standard for book design, so let’s discuss MS Word vs Adobe Indesign. Remember, the interior of any book is completely separate to the cover. To dispel another myth, you can print bleed images right to the edge of your file (when setting up for IngramSpark or CreateSpace) and no, you don’t need to have a border. Bleed means going beyond the page (e.g. 3mm beyond). What you need…