7 TIPS TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH YOUR ROMANCE BOOK

Romance is one of the most extensive literary genres in the Western world – significantly larger than poets – and is read and loved by millions of readers worldwide. More and more self-publishers are writing in this genre.

Nowadays, “romance” is often associated with love, but literary-historical romance can be about any emotion, not just love. However, it is typical that it contains a lot of emotions and a poetic language. Romance has varied in popularity and trend, but it has continued to exist in various art forms ever since it broke through. Today, fiction (in books and film) has an essential place in our lives. So romance becomes very relevant in our day.

A forbidden love, intense belonging, complicated obstacles, heartache, sparkling eroticism, emotions that go up and down as in a roller coaster that ends in great love and happiness, are typical features of a love novel. Romance is often about special people with particular destinies and love adventures. The characters are often mysterious. A successful romantic text should get the reader to escape from everyday life, escape from the present, and let other cultures inspire.

Many love novels are reminiscent of each other so being unique is extra important. Only the writer who develops his strategy and gives a personal touch to his love story will achieve success.

7 WRITING TIPS FOR YOUR LOVE STORY

1-Find the main theme of your love novel:

Whether it is realistic, fantastic, erotic or sad, this genre includes many subcategories or sub-genres. What kind of story is that? There must be a story. What should your story be about? Choose the environment your romance should play out in. The time can be present, historical or future. If you write a historical love novel, it will take a little research, if the events and the environment should correspond to the chosen time. So while it is a love novel, the subcategory is a historical story.

2-Define your target audience:

Before you start writing, think about which target audience you want to reach with your love novel. This is important because your writing style and events in the story should be tailored to your target audience. The more your readers get into your story, the more you will be able to catch and convince them.

Therefore, you must think about what language style you should use, what age you are targeting or what experiences they can recognize and understand. If your love novel contains a lot of eroticisms, the text should be age-appropriate.

3-Sketch the most essential aspects of your plot:

Plot contains conflicts and turning points in a dramatic curve until the end. It is up to you how detailed you want to write, but it is used as a basis during your story’s writing process and will help you develop the flow of story. Then think about where your story will take place, what romantic cities will come into play, and any potential obstacles your characters must overcome to finally reach a, possibly, happy ending.

4-Find the right environment when writing:

Each author has their habits and individual needs as they write. While some writers are very structured and spend their time writing their manuscript for a certain amount of time each day while continuing your everyday life as usual, others retreat to their realm over a long period to concentrate exclusively on writing. Many romance writers love to write in a romantic, relaxing and quiet environment. Discover for yourself what environment you feel most comfortable in and where you can best focus on writing.

5-Bring your characters to life:

To create a realistic character, it takes more than one name, specific look or age – the subtleties give life to your characters and awaken the emotions of your readers. Develop your own, individual life story and personal characteristics for each of your characters. The more authentic your characters are, the more your readers can sympathize with them. Don’t hesitate to take inspiration from your environment!

6-Expressive adjectives for every emotion:

A good love novel stimulates the imagination, speaks to the senses and awakens the reader’s emotions, but how to achieve it? Using expressive adjectives and rich vocabulary, you can express feelings and descriptions in words. Find suitable adjectives for what you want to express. Before you start writing your novel, write down your various adjectives as detailed on paper that expresses the emotions and give the idea of ​​your characters or situation you want to create.

7-Decorate your words with beautiful book design:

Our final tip is less related to your love story’s actual writing and more related to the book’s design and appearance. An appealing book design begins with a beautiful cover and continues with the book’s setting of the insert. Decorate your love story with an attractive design. Choose your font carefully so that it matches the impression you want to give your readers.

Also, do not forget to plan the font size, line spacing, chapter headings etc. All this together creates the individual reading experience and the atmosphere that you want to give your readers.

Best, Melissa Mayer…

WRITING FANTASY BOOK

Fantasy is a genre that is growing stronger in popularity in the literature, both among adults and children. Many want to immersed with a world that does not exist in everyday life.

Maybe you are one of those who devour the Lord of the Ring trilogy or the Game of Thrones books. You write and fantasize away among the essence of folk beliefs, sayings, invented worlds and mystery. No matter what genre you write, there is a lot of work behind the writing and it takes time, but writing fantasy is a lot of fun, because you can find stories that are far from reality.

Writing fantasy is a bit different from other writing genres. You create your world and have complete freedom to decide what happens in it. You create your invented creatures, name them and let them follow your rules and regulations.

The notion of good and evil powers or forces interacting and fighting each other has attracted readers at all times. It is usually the struggle between these two opposites that is the driving force of fantasy.

Fantasy is the modern version of ancient myths and fairy tales with their wizards, dwarves, witches, and protagonists talking animals and fairies. Most often, the protagonist, who is almost always the hero, has a mission or various tasks to perform. The story usually focuses on how the hero reaches his final goal and what he is confronted with on the road. Many fantasy books contain two or more different worlds in which the characters move, interacting with each other somehow. If you are thinking about writing fantasy but have trouble getting started, we will give you some tips.

CREATE YOUR HISTORY

To get inspiration in your writing, we recommend reading about myths, legends, fables and folktales. For example, many of old north European god stories have inspired writers, at all times.

Long walks in the woods and nature can help you evoke and imagine various wild fairy tales. You might even fantasize about meeting and talking to different creatures to create dialogues in your book. Something that is always a good source of inspiration when writing is music. Music brings your imagination to life and for the creation of monsters and evil creatures or maybe elves and heroes.

1-We recommend that you write down all ideas as you come up with them, even though they may not be related to each other right then. It can be supporting words, dialogues or short sentences. These can later be put in order and used to build your story. Ask simple questions to yourself about your ideas or inventive events such as “why?”, “When?” and how?”. So always bring a paper and pen to write down your ideas quickly.

2-Begin to think about which of your ideas are related and which may be in the same chapter. Try to establish a connection between them. If the order does not convince you, move them. How should the story begin? What is the highlight? How will it end? Plan a chronology for your story. At the same time, start editing and creating a table of contents.

3-How many characters should you include in your story? Slowly work on what people you have included in your story and what they look like. Make them alive by assigning them background and why they are who they are. Are they men or women? Has something special happened to them? Does he or she have any fear of something? Where did they get their powers from (if they have any)? What kind of clothes do they wear? Maybe to create obstacles in their lives. What does the protagonist have and why does he or she want to solve it? Make characters exciting to the reader, but don’t tell them all at once. It is better to give some clues now and trigger curiosity.

4-It’s time to start building your fantasy world. We concentrate on the environmental description. How to create a new world? A world that, in the eyes of the reader, should be perceived as so real that we are trapped and live in it. If you are planning to create a world from scratch, start with simple lines and oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains. Then you can add strange factors to your world that is not common in our world. When does your story take place? Are there special rules in your world? Is it forbidden to do or say certain things in your fantasy world? Who lives where? This is a significant and vital part of your story, so take plenty of time to write and think through everything.

5-Pictures say more than a thousand words, they say. Appealing illustrations and pictures illuminate and reinforce messages in texts, make the book visually appealing and enhance the reading experience. If you plan to include images or illustrations in your book, you should start thinking about this. A professional illustrator can always help you create your characters if you can’t do it yourself. You can also use the many different websites available today, where you can buy pictures or download them for free.

6-Now you know about what your story should look like, so now you can concentrate on the writing itself. Start making real chapters in your story. Should you write in the first or third-person perspective? Will you be writing detailed descriptions of your characters and surroundings to make the story more personal to your readers, or rather make brief descriptions? Create “Cliffhangers” at the end of some chapters to give the reader the feeling that he or she cannot stop reading, but wants to continue because it is so exciting.

When you have finished writing your work – let others read it! Receiving feedback and comments is very helpful and it can improve your story. If several people have read your script and have shared opinions, you should take their feedback and advice seriously. It is often the case that you have to rewrite parts of the script to achieve good quality. You must have patience all the way and believe in your history.

All the best, Melissa Mayer.

WRITE A BOOK: THE CLOSING PHASE (4/4)

PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK

When your draft script is finished editing, it’s time to finish the book and make it accessible to others. Of course, it can move over the phases and you can start thinking about this earlier in the process so that you are more prepared. But it is only now that you have a text that has been sufficiently reviewed for publishing.

Publishing options:

Should you publish the book yourself or send it to a publisher? Today there are many simple publishing options; everyone can publish their book. You do not need to pass a publisher’s approval, print more than a few copies or invest large sums. You often need to do the work yourself anyway and invest some financially. There are now many smaller players in publisher market that offer you cooperation and sharing the costs.

Self-publishing on online stores is also great option. Read our blog posts for more detailed information on best practices. You can also download our Indie Authors Checklist that can give great insights.

Marketing and launch:

Marketing begins long before your book is published, sooner you star your book marketing is better. Think about your target audience and where they are. Marketing on Snapchat to a young audience is rarely worthwhile; they are available on other social platforms. Create an author page on Facebook and start a blog, those are very easy and cost effective but can be very helpful in promoting your book.

Remember to start with the platforms you can dedicate your time. Social channels require effort, you need to create content, upload and engage with your audience. Launch and release parties are of course, important marketing and sales activity. Plan carefully, invite relevant guests, sign books and celebrate your incredible journey!

Sales:

Books have different lifetimes. When the book is new, it is the hottest. Start selling already before launch. Don’t be afraid to talk about your book and have a YouTube video that you talk about your book. Your imagination is the limit on how you can promote your book.

Emptiness:

The last phase of a project often enters a period of emptiness. You’ve spent a lot of time with your script, your characters and now you have to release it. It can give a feeling of emptiness, sadness and fear. Fear of what people will think and it will fail.

There is no magic trick here to overcome those common feelings you just have to keep moving. You continue to sell and market. You can now start to look ahead too, time to write the next book?

All the best, S. Kohen

WRITING A BOOK: THE EDITING PHASE (3/4)

EDIT SCRIPT DRAFT FOR A READABLE BOOK

When your draft script is ready, it is probably not ready to send to a publisher or self-publish. Regardless of how you worked in the two previous phases of the writing process (part 1 & part 2), you have some editing work left to do before your script is complete.

How much work you have left depends. If you have worked a lot with your characters, you may notice that the design of characters and dialogues feels natural, interesting, readable. Therefore, in the editing phase, it is time to check that the text has everything to be published as a finished book. There is a lot to think about; here are some steps that contribute to the quality in your script.

Read your script:

Now it’s time to read your script from beginning to end. Read it as if it were a finished book. Note where you find gaps, where you want to add and remove text. Prepare that you will get to hang out with quite a few friends during this phase to make them read too. You may want to go through it digitally at first, but also print out scripts on paper and read with the pen in hand. Each time you change your way of reading, new things become visible to you. It can be from digital to paper or change fonts for example.

Check out the draft:

Once you have read through the script and changed the most obvious, there are some important things to check out. Check out drama, scenes, design, environments, characters and their developmental curves. Check if all threads are followed up or if there are loose ones and gaps. It is difficult to keep track of a larger body of text and many parameters at the same time. It makes it easier to stay focused on one thing at a time, such as choosing a perspective or dialogue for a review.

Take help:

No matter how much you try to read your text objectively, you will become blind to your text. One tip for creating objective reading is to leave the script lying and resting between the readings. However, it will take a long time for you to let it rest months between each editing session. Therefore, seek help from the eyes of others.

Experienced readers can read your script and give you feedback on the text. You can find test readers among reading friends, groups on Facebook, Twitter and also on various website who authors and readers review other’s work. Take the help from a professional reader too. Usually, you do not have as many friends who have the knowledge to read scripts professionally. Hire a professional who can read your script and provide feedback on how the script can be improved.

Spending too much effort with linguistic changes, grammar and spelling is a waste of time before you know what exactly should be left or not. Besides, when you give priority to what really matters it is easy to feel productive because you have done things, but if you do not benefit from them, productivity is an illusion.

All the best, S. Kohen

WRITING A BOOK: THE CREATIVE STAGE (PART 2/4)

WRITING A DRAFT

Once you’ve completed the preparation phase, it’s time to start writing your draft script. If you have done your homework well, you know where to start; otherwise, you can start by reading the first part about preparing for writing a book.

In the creative phase, we write our story; we cover our synopsis in words, paragraphs, chapters and scenes. There are many tips on how to do this. My main advice is to find the best way for you. You can still be open to adjustments that can help you even more. You need always to look further and try new things. No tips fit everyone, so test yourself until you find what works for you.

Do not strive for perfection:

Writing without friction is about letting go of all thoughts about requirements and performance. Just write down what should be written down to get to the story with the words that are available to you right now. Write as if no one should read. The advantage of this is that you have time to write down the story before you forget something and it also has a tendency to skip performance requirements, which favors creativity. In the editing phase, you can always change and add everything that is needed to make your book script more readable.

Book time in the calendar:

You don’t have time to write is the most common excuse I hear for not writing – even though you want to. You perceive time as a scarcity. It is not. You have time. It’s about how you choose to prioritize and use it. Sometimes it may be worthwhile use some small tricks to get yourself into writing habits, such as adding meetings with yourself in your calendar. It is usually much easier to do what is on the schedule than otherwise.

Keep in touch with your plan always:

The plan you made for your script during the preparation phase is your best friend on the process. See it as a living document, a creative process. It is your handrail that you can navigate and you can update it as your script takes new paths. Because it will likely take new routes during the process – the path to a finished script draft is rarely fixed.

Trust and endurance:

You need a good deal of confidence and persistence when writing a book script. You will experience different emotions and all are not pleasant. Sometimes you doubt yourself and you think you will never finish it. Calm down, it happens to all of us. You cannot navigate in creative processes without all these emotions and stages. Let them take the time it takes, think it will settle if you just keep going.

All the best, S. Kohen

WRITING A BOOK: PREPARATION (PART 1/4)

GET STARTED WITH THE WRITING PROJECT

The first thing you need to do before writing a book is obviously about clarifying what to write about. This is quite clear for some but for another, it can be quite blurry. There is a desire to write, but you are not quite clear what to tell and then it often becomes a barrier to get started. In this phase, it is also about doing the necessary research and planning.

Make sure your idea is fun and attractive to yourself

Your idea is within you. What you are passionate about, know a lot about, love to read is what you should write about. This ensures that you will not only give enough dedication but you will have fun.

Do your research

Find out what you really need to know before start writing. It is easy to get caught up in research about what you think is fun but then you also risk that the book will never be written. Find out what you need now. You can always go back and find out more as you need.

Make a clear plan

It is easy to get lost if you do not have a plan, everybody knows that. Make an overview of how you intend your story to run through the script. It may be a table of contents with your chapters as headings and a few sentences describing the content. Or a mind-map showing how you think.

Set aside time for writing and stick to it

You need to set aside time to write. This is the most critical point of all. Decide how often and for how long to write. This is the most basic item in the list but also a stage where majority fails.

All the best, S. Kohen

NEW INSPIRATION FOR YOUR BOOK

Sometimes we get stuck in our writing. Maybe you already have your story ready, but need to fill it out with details. But you are in writer’s block.

Do you belong to those who are just waiting for inspiration? Or are you constantly exercising with ideas? No matter what kind of person you are, everyone can get stuck time to time.

The flashing cursor on the screen makes you nervous. The keyboard is about to become your enemy. You know about what is going to happen in your story, but do not yet know how to plan or in what order the events will come. The days are passing and it becomes more and more challenging.

There are so many distractions in everyday life that steals both time and attention. You may need inspiration and motivation to come up with new ideas. Planning and discipline is needed to get going with your book.

6 TIPS TO MAKE THE BALL ROLLING WITH YOUR BOOK

Reading aloud to yourself and others

Have you read your manuscript aloud, both for yourself and others? When you read a text, you become much more aware of small errors and the reading flow. You notice if something is missing from the text or if the listener does not keep up. Encourage the listener to question the content so that you can more easily understand what needs to be improved in the text. For you, as an author, the text is probably crystal clear, but the listener may lose the thread because of a sentence where something is missing or a sentence that is too long and complicated.

Listening to music

Is it always silent when you write or is there a noisy child around you? Often different emotions are brought to life with music and thus also inspiration. Try listening to different styles of music and see what ideas and feelings are emerging within you. Write them down.

Find out what classical music, pop, rock, blues, jazz, beats or folk music do with your senses. Memories may be brought to life, which you can then use and transform into text for your next chapter. Music is good for the soul and is an important source of inspiration. Maybe with the help of ballads, you finally get that romantic chapter or important parting that was missing from the book?

Going out in nature on walks

How often do you take time for lovely walks in the woods? The forest, the mountains and the fresh air inspire! It cracks in the branches as you walk, the bird’s chirp, mystery hides behind the trees, something comes to life in the silence.

All this is experienced when you are alone in nature. The imagination kicks in and help boost motivation. Climbing in the mountains to reach the top where a fantastic and breathtaking view awaits, is something that takes the breath out of most of us, write down your thoughts.

Change the place you write

Do you always sit in the same place when writing? If we do not experience change, it is easy for everything to become a routine. We don’t think about it as much and get lazy because we love our comfort zones. When we do not get new triggers that bring thoughts to life, we often lose inspiration, motivation and get no good ideas.

To seek inspiration, some writers rent a small cozy cottage in the country for a few weeks. Others may rent themselves into an office room. Not everyone can afford to pay to change places and it may not always be the best option. Have you been thinking about borrowing your friend’s empty room a few hours a week, going to the library, sitting in the park or at a cafe? Coming from home and getting new experiences gives inspiration and new thoughts.

Travelling

When did you make your last trip? Changing the environment has inspired writers for centuries. It gives you a taste for other cultures, traditions, environments, thoughts, actions and different food. You are surrounded by new experiences and surroundings that give you a great boost in your writing.

Many authors seek new knowledge in a particular area to complete certain chapters or move on with the book. It can be a historical story where you need to research to make it credible. You do not need to go far or long away each time, but it is good to dare to try things that you do not know.

This arouses feelings that you may need to keep going motivated. We also often relax more easily when all the “must” feels far away. Plan your next trip to a warmer country where you will enjoy beautiful views or book a weekend in the nearest big city. No matter where you go, the experience gives you new thoughts and ideas that you can use in your writing.

Read a lot

How open are you to other people’s stories? Sometimes we focus so much on our text and become blind to others. Many good books and movies can give you new ideas. Of course, you should not copy, but it can get you in second thoughts and make you think in different perspectives.

It does not have to be a thick book of 500 pages, but it can be magazines, short stories, fact or history books. You should be open to others’ stories, even though they may not always be within the scope of your major interests. New literature opens new doors. They can be your source of inspiration. You can also share other people’s stories through movies and series.

MAKE YOUR BOOK DREAM COME TRUE!

The most important thing is not to give up and to have fun while writing. Inspiration, motivation and ideas are everywhere, but you have to find what suits you best to move on.

Sometimes it can be as easy as taking a break from writing and eating something, taking a short walk, going to the gym and then sitting down again with new energy. Keep in mind that everyone has, at some point, been a beginner or stuck in their writing.

Best regards, Sandy

TIPS ON A SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR WEBSITE – PART2

In the second part of the series on creating your website you will learn more about usability, bookstores and social media features, search engine optimization and online marketing.

4. USABILITY

The goal is to convince the visitor within seconds that your website has what she is looking for. Therefore, tell at once what the visitor can find on your site (eg by mentioning your genre) and show where the information is located. You do this through simple and clear page navigation. All information on your website should be accessible by just a few clicks.

If possible, add so-called Call to action elements such as newsletter sign-up forms or links that lead to the contact form or review request.

5. SELLING YOUR BOOKS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Use images that are unique, relevant attract the interest. The shopping basket should be visible on the page at all times, e.g. in the upper part.

Show Reviews! Positive feedback from other readers arouses interest and boosts confidence. You can share your reviews in several places.

Keep the order form as short as possible and ask the customer to fill in just what is needed. Consider which information in the form is mandatory. In principle, a name and an e-mail address are sufficient, the rest you can ask for by e-mail. It may be time-consuming but possibly increases sales, as the customer can order quickly without filling out complicated forms! Give the buyer as many payment options as you can. 

6. BUILD A READER CIRCLE WITH THE WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Many writers think that their e-mail list is the most essential marketing tool. All your faithful and relevant fans are listed there and they will be much more likely to buy your new book than the ones you reach through social media. It is thus essential to build an e-mail list as early as possible. Use your website for that. Implement an application form that is visible all the time, e.g. at the bottom of the page.

Convince website visitors that it worth to be part of your e-mail list. List all the benefits they will get from it. Members in your e-mail list can include receiving exclusive information, promotional prices, participate in competitions, free copies, participate in the cover design, etc.

You can also embed your social media profiles on your website. However, this is only recommended if you are active those platforms and regularly update. When the visitor clicks on a link he will be redirected from your website and if you cannot engage him with your social profile, it is likely that he will not return to your website but continue browsing the platform.

In any case, you should add social share buttons to your website so that visitors can share your content on social media – even if you weren’t active there.

7. HOW TO FIND READERS: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex area to learn, so we list just a few essential tips.

Find your most important keywords (each keyword can consist of several words). Test the keyword for relevance. You can, for example, use Google Keyword Planing tool. In the tool, you can see in what format your keyword has the most relevance and customize the keyword as well (eg rephrase, add or replace words, etc.). The rule of thumb: a high number of searches with as little competition as possible. Find additional keywords for subpages and place them as described above. Your keyword should be used on your website in the following places:

  • Header
  • Content Description
  • Heading (H1)
  • In the first text section
  • As alternative text in an image

We can help you with developing your SEO strategy, just contact us.

8. INTERNET MARKETING

With internet marketing, you can reach a large number of possible readers with a small budget. That’s what many successful authors, bestseller use today. You cannot afford to miss this opportunity.

Again digital marketing is a complex specialty and we can help building your Google and social media marketing strategy, just contact us.

Kind regards-Sandy Kohen

TIPS ON A SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR WEBSITE- PART1

Your website is an essential tool for book marketing. We’ve gathered some tips you can take advantage of.

1. BASIC INFORMATION

The clearer the design and structure of your website, the more likely the visitor will stay on your site and be interested in its content. Guide the visitors to sections where the important information located, good navigation is key.

For example, if you want to build an audience list, you can place the registration form for your mailing list in a visible place on the home page. Do you want to sell your books through your online bookstore? Then it should be clear that this is possible on your website, eg. through a shopping cart.

The rule of thumb: Make everything available with as few clicks as possible. Remember to formulate brief and informative sentences and texts. There are various Content Management systems, which makes your life much easier and offers many much-needed functions.

Some are easy to use; others require a longer learning period. In order for you as an author to concentrate on the most important thing we can help you to create a professional author website, just contact us.

Before you start building your author’s website, you should consider your goals. Think about what you want to present and what you want to focus on, eg. the sale of your book, build a community, get reviews, etc. The layout of the website depends on your goal, but the tips we give you below apply to all kinds of websites.

2. THE CONTENT

HOME

Present yourself and your books briefly on the homepage. Preferably with a good and compelling picture of yourself. Tell the readers in what genre you are writing to let them know at once what the page is about. It is good to add information about the entire content, e.g. with excerpts that link to further sub-pages.

ABOUT ME

Write about who you are – be creative, surprise, tell a story. And be sure to use high quality photo of yourself. If you do not have a good photo, you can leave it. More about it under point “3. Design” in the Pictures section.

BOOKS

Present the books that you have published so far and link to the subpages that contain more information. If you sell the books through your website, you can add the opportunity to buy the book here. Present your book with a big picture on the cover, a title and an interesting description. For many readers, it is interesting to know if the book is hardcover or a softcover, how many pages the book contains and what it costs. If you sell the book through the website, it is wise to add some reviews, if they already exist.

PRESS

Here you can add images and information about you and the book such as journalists can download for reviews.

CONTACT

You should give your readers the opportunity to contact you. 

GENERAL INFORMATION

On some page layouts, there is a menu in the right or left column, in others there is a footer at the bottom of the page. Here you can place social media links, registration link for your mailing list, a button for contact etc.

Create a custom color concept for your theme. A good tool is e.g. Adobe Color. You should not mix competing colors (for example, two very bright tones). Red on blue flickers – so it’s not a good combination. Use complementary colors, preferably two different ones, one of which is “dirty” and the other “fresh”. Everything else can be created in black and white. If you are not sure which colors match, you can choose a basic color and work with contrasts.

3. DESIGN

A stylish design is nice to look at; it also ensures that visitors stay on your site without quickly bouncing. It arouses interest and confidence in you and your books.

TEXT AND TYPOGRAPHY

Readability is the most important thing. Remember to use clear and simple fonts – concentrate on fonts without serifs and do not use display fonts. Never use more than two fonts! If you use two different ones, preferably use one with and one without serifs. The serifless font, for eg. headings, the one with serifs for the text.

Choose a font that is slightly too large, since there are also users who read your page on your mobile. A suitable line spacing is also important, preferably 140% or 150%.

Also, consider the contrast between the elements. A big headline should really be big and bold text bold – strong contrasts make the page interesting and at the same time they offer a good overview of the content.

For structuring the website use headings H1 to H3 – on subpages; however, you should use heading H1 only once.

IMAGES

Images should, above all, awaken emotions. Therefore, they should be of high quality. There is probably nothing worse on a website than poor quality images, which does not inspire the reader. Remember that your website should reflect your brand. Use a photographer for your author portrait and product images; it pays off.

Best, S. Kohen

8 TIPS FOR YOUR BLURB / BOOK DESCRIPTION

The book description is of great importance for the book’s success, as it significantly impacts the reader’s purchase decision. Follow our 8 tips for a better chance to convince the reader to buy your book.

Whether the book description is printed on the back of the book or is part of the bookstore’s metadata or online bookstore, the book description is incredibly important, as it informs the reader about the content and the book or e-book genre. It is a vital factor in the reader’s purchase decision. It is not just about getting an idea of ​​the content; it is also a promotional text with a clear purpose. It should attract a potential reader’s interest in a matter of seconds.

The book description is also used to grab interest of publishers and reviewers. It is visible in book directories, registers and is searchable on the Internet. Given how many use the same book description text can have, it is worth working with the text to make sure it works optimally.

1-Introduction: The introduction is crucial. The first sentence has to invoke reader’s interest and curiosity without revealing too much about the content.

2-Arouse Curiosity: The reader will immediately receive an initial impression of the main characters, personalities, likes, and relationships with each other. You can eve use incomplete sentences that ends with three points to trigger curiosity.

3-Narrative perspective: Regardless of the actual narrator’s perspective in the book, the book description is usually written in third person and present. This perspective gives the book description objectivity and increases credibility.

4-Read-friendly book description: Just as important as the content of the book description is readability. Depending on the font, book format and layout, it is usually recommended to use a font size between 8 and 12 pt. Also, remember to have sufficient line spacing and possibly add a new line or middle heading to make the text clearer and easier to read.

5-Mention several titles and reviews as a sales argument: Just add other titles you have published on the back cover for marketing purposes. Another effective selling point is adding reviews from readers and the media. Try to collect book reviews before the book is released to add them to the book description. Reviews increase the reader’s confidence and interest.

6-Stick to the Truth: The purpose of the book description is to convince the reader to buy, but under no circumstances should it create false hopes. You must stick to the truth because you win in the long run by having satisfied readers. We recommend that you test your book description on readers who are unfamiliar with the book or document. This way, you can find out what expectations the reader gets from the book.

7-The shorter the better: Typically, the book description should be around 400-750 characters (about 150 words). An overly long book description on the back can irritate the reader at the beginning stage – a short book description without hard-to-read sentences entices the reader to want to read more. It isn’t suggested to repeat the book’s title in this area.

8-Is everything proofread in advance? A professional language review and proofreading is an important element for successful book description. We recommend that you ask an outsider to read your text before publishing. Of course, this also applies to your entire manuscript.

TIP: How do other writers convince their readers with their book description and how do they differ? How do they make their book look unique and what can you learn from them? Read other cover book description on books in the same genre to give you an idea of ​​the wordings and styles that work best for readers. You will find the good examples among the best sellers with many reviews.

Melissa Mayer