Should My Book Include a Foreword?

Before finalizing a book manuscript, an author must decide if they will include a foreword. A foreword is a brief message inserted as part of the front matter of a book. It provides information about the author or subject matter. A foreword is usually written by a friend or colleague—someone who is familiar with the author or is considered a subject matter expert. Some publishers require authors to include a…

The First Step to Marketing Your Book

One of the most frequent questions I receive from new authors is: “How do I market my book?” Sadly,  the question is usually asked two or three years later than it ought to be. The time to begin marketing your book is at least a year (ideally two or three years) before it’s published. The first step in marketing your book is creating a personal website or blog. As an author, your…

How an Author Should Respond to Criticism

Most writers will slowly gain a following over time. As your sphere of influence grows, so grows your exposure to people who are not familiar with you or in agreement with your message. Every writer wants to be heard, but with a larger audience comes negative feedback via comments on social media posts, articles, e-mails, and book reviews. Your initial response may be to block people who leave negative comments…

20 Tips on Writing and Self-Editing

If you happen to be a blogger or a published author, and especially if you have aspirations of writing your first book, I have a message just for you. I’ve come up with a list of 20 things to consider as you write your next viral blog post or best-seller. Editing is a touchy subject. There are differences of opinion on how to best convey ideas in writing. There are,…

Step-by-Step Advice on Starting a Blog

When we start out to create a blog, we should ask a few questions. The answers will point us to the tools we’ll need. The first question might be, “Why do I want to create a blog?” Is it for business, school, ministry, or as a hobby? What types of things do I want to have on my blog? Will I post written messages, videos, or photos? What type of…

Writing a Description for Your Book

In this message, we’ll show you a step-by-step method for writing a description that will get your Kindle book in the hands of readers. (We strongly recommend that you read our article on selecting keywords first as this subject will be discussed in this message.) Your book’s description is not merely an introduction of your book to potential readers – it is also a field of data used by search engines…

Writing a Book – Where to Begin

My advice to anyone wanting to write their first book is to start a blog. If you’re new to writing, the early stages of getting your material written can be frustrating. Developing a regular habit of writing is the most common obstacle. Blogging can make the process less painful. If you can get yourself in the habit of posting regular messages on a blog for a year, you will accomplish…

Is Self-Publishing for You?

This message will introduce you to the world of self-publishing and help you decide if self-publishing is for you. We did a lot of research before we decided to self-publish our first book. We investigated and compared all the different routes of publishing—the cost breakdown, terms of contracts, the quality of printing, customer service, etc. We weighed all the things we had learned and decided that self-publishing was the way…

Selecting Your Book’s Keywords

In this message, we’ll show you a simple method to determine the keywords that are most likely to get your Kindle book into the hands of readers. Kindle allows up to seven keywords for your book. We suggest using all of them and we advise spending a little time determining which keywords are best for your book. When a buyer searches for a book on Amazon, the website’s search engine will…