Competition is heating up in Amazon Ads for authors. With the introduction of published author gaining access to the platform, we can expect self-published authors to spend more on their marketing budgets when implementing this tool into their marketing mix. 

A 2019 study shows just that. 80% of authors marketing on the site plan to increase their allotted budget for promoting their ads. You’ll need to step up your efforts with your campaings to keep pace. While increasing your marketing budget is one way to go about getting better results, there’s another option of succeeding without spending more money.

Understanding the optimal strategy to creating a campaign gives you a chance of competing with the big spenders, without increasing your budget. 

Advanced Tip #1 – Understanding and Leveraging the Flywheel effect

If you’ve never heard of the Flywheel Effect, it’s the concept of utilizing your paid advertising strategy to generate earned media, thereby driving growth in your ad campaigns. Paid and earned media comprise detail page views, reviews, and product content are your owned media. 

The paid ads you’re using drive qualified traffic to your book listings, boosting its position in organic search. Higher traffic flows and optimal positioning in organic search means your book has a better chance of receiving the coveted Amazon’s Choice label.

If your books receive the Amazons Choice designation, they get more attention from users browsing the platform for books in your specific genre. You’ll notice a boost to your traffic and higher conversion rates from this moniker. 

This effect creates a positive feedback loop, known as the flywheel Effect, where it builds momentum continuously, pushing your listing to the top of organic search results. 

Advanced Tip #2 – Create an Advertising Cost of Sale Goal

As with any other marketing strategy for business models, understanding your metrics assists with unpacking the components and tactics that increase revenues. While it’s important to avoid focusing on one metric independently of others,  combining them yields effective results for your analyzing your marketing strategy. 

For instance, it’s a common mistake to use the ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) as a benchmark for assessing the efficacy of your Amazon Ads campaign. However, it skews results, and ACoS isn’t as effective a tool as you think. 

Combining it with other metrics such as gross profit, total revenues, and TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale) yields better results for understanding the impact of your ads campaign. TACoS measures how your ad spend affects your overall revenues and your organic reach.

To assess the impact of combining ACoS with TACoS, we look for a low ACoS rating, combined with a low ACoS rating. ACoS defines the ratio of ad spend to revenue generated through your campaign. With automatic campaigns, ACoS is at a group level, but in manual campaigns, ACoS features on a product level. 

Your aim is to lower advertising costs for books already generating revenue, they don’t need the additional push from ad spend since they benefit from the flywheel effect.

Advanced Tip #3 – Reduce Ad Spend with Negative Keywords

Like Google Ads, negative keywords in Amazon Ads campaigns consist of keywords excluded from broader keyword searches. The role of negative keywords is to prevent your ad from ranking for the wrong search terms.

When defining your negative keywords, look for those keywords receiving large traffic volumes but low conversion rates. These keywords give you plenty of clicks, but few sales, costing you money while frustrating users. 

Avoid using generalized keywords, prospects look for something more specific in their searches, using long-tail keyword searches such as “1980s American police thriller.” This strategy helps narrow your search reach, bringing you more qualified traffic to your book listings than using “thriller” or “police thriller” as your set keywords. 

Without defining your keyword sets, there’s no way to ensure prospective readers will pull the buying trigger when landing on your listing, they might be looking for something totally different. By implementing this strategy, to reduce waste in your ad budget while improving conversion. 

Leveraging negative keywords in your Amazon Ads campaigns eliminates a lot of wasteful spending by preventing your ads from appearing in the wrong search results. The benefit is that the Amazon algorithm promotes your books effectively, and begins to induce the flywheel effect due to better prospect engagement. 

Advanced Tip #4 – Adjust Your Bids

Newcomers to Amazon Advertising often feel their lack of confidence with understanding the platform pushes them away from drilling down in their campaign design. Set-it-and-forget-it campaigns don’t produce the same results as those optimized for success. 

The keyword bidding process is a great example of this phenomenon. Using ad group default bidding reduces the efficacy of your ad campaign because it’s not successful for all keywords. Rather set your bid at the keyword level using what you can accommodate in your budget for each click.

Adjust your bid rate in accordance with the feedback you receive when monitoring your campaign performance. If your conversion rate drops and you fail to adjust your bid you’ll lose out on conversions and revenue declines. 

You can’t know the perfect bid unless you sit on the data, but no author has the time for that. So, optimizer the bidding process using the Automated Bidding feature and leverage Amazons algorithm to keep your bids relevant. 

Advanced Tip #5 – Explore with Auto Campaigns and Exploit with Manual Campaigns

Set-it-and-forget-it campaigns seems appealing to new users because of the lack of involvement required in setting up the campaign. The fear of the unknown often prevents newbies from diving into the details to optimize their campaigns and improve their results. 

Automated campaigns aren’t always the best choice for your strategy. They limit your control and you can’t set bids based on individual search queries. While automated campaigns are fine for setting your bid, they might slow progress.

However, using automation for sourcing your keywords is beneficial to your campaign success. The Auto Campaigns function discovers high-conversion search terms adding those terms as keywords to manual ad campaigns.

Look for ways to automate your campaigns wherever possible, including defining negative keywords. Blend these automated processes with manual search term migration for your campaigns and you’ll see better results. 

There are people who can spot mistakes, and then there are professional proofreaders. If your blog, dissertation, story, website, or other content needs to be reviewed, then you should consider hiring a professional to help. Finding a proofreader to review your content is not as difficult as you may expect. With so many qualified proofreaders to choose from, you are sure to find a perfect match. If you are ready to take your content to the next level, keep on reading.

Mistake-Proof Your Content

Creating binge-worthy content for your website or writing an epic adventure for your readers is only one part of the creative journey. Completing a manuscript, populating a blog, or even finalizing a white paper is only a small part of what it takes to generate publishable content. Before you send your work over to an editor, you need to have a proofreader take a pass at it first. You might be surprised at how many people jump from content creation and cover design straight to editing and publishing. The result is a finished product that has avoidable errors, misused words, and even formatting errors that can turn a fan into a disgruntled opponent.

Don’t Let Small Mistakes Ruin Your Reputation

Hiring a proofreader is one of the most crucial stages of content creation, manuscript finalization, and book publishing. In fact, you should never publish anything on the internet or send it to print unless it has undergone at least two passes with a skilled proofreading expert. Working with an experienced proofreader will ensure that your writing is free from errors, typos, and inconsistencies in grammar. To the average person, or even to a new writer, fundamental mistakes may seem insignificant. However, these minor mistakes can represent the difference between a polished piece and a publication that reeks of unprofessionalism. Even the smallest mistakes allowed to go to print can damage your reputation as a writer, which is why hiring a skilled proofreader is essential.

Who Should Hire A Proofreader?

Professional proofreaders are not only accessible to those looking to publish a book. Just about anyone who writes for any reason can hire a proofreader to review their content for errors. Many writers who are creating content in something other than their native language often will hire help. Academics, authors, bloggers, and even college students may even hire a proofreader to help them create a polished piece. Publishers and ghostwriters are well known to hire several proofreaders to review all manner of content to ensure everything is perfect before it goes to print.

Why Should You Hire a Proofreader?

Have you ever picked up a newspaper or book looking for important information only to get distracted by typos? Perhaps you settled down to read a fascinating story but were met with misspellings, out-of-place words, or worse, bad formatting. Well, as much as you may have disliked the experience, chances are your target reader will dislike them even more. Proofreading is also essential for brand copy, website content, and anything else that contains more than a few sentences. Hiring an expert proofreader will give you peace of mind in knowing that your content, book, or copy is error-free.

What to Look For in a Proofreader

Finding the right proofreader for your project may take some time, but when you find a worthy one, hold onto them. There is a diverse selection of proofreading professionals to choose from online, so you are sure to find one that fits your budget. Before you take the plunge and hire a proofreader, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Following these tips will help make your selection process more efficient and it will in addition give your project the best chance of being successful.

Recognize the difference between a proofreader and an editor before making a hire. It is also critical to know which content professional you need at each stage of your project. A proofreader will seek misspelled words, poor grammar, and punctuation errors among other things. They will also help spot words that are used incorrectly, such as using “two” instead of “too.”However, they are not going to note or correct syntax errors, comprehension flaws, or even issues with the subject of your writing. An editor is one that would ensure your content is precise, factual, and concise.

For those who have long batches of text that need proofreading, consider sending over a small sample for evaluation. Always send the same sample to each proofreader prospect so that you can get a clear picture of their work ability and correction style. While you are at it, ask for their relevant qualifications, experience, and how long they have been in the industry. Being able to spot mistakes is part of the job, but a professional proofreader will have completed very specific specialized training. Always ask which style guide they used when proofreading content to ensure the guide is one that matches your writing style. For example, if you looking to have news-style content proofread, someone who used The Chicago Manual of Style may not be the best fit.

Cost and Turnaround For Professional Proofreading Services

Like with any professional service, proofreaders have a general rate that is determined by a few factors. The amount of experience and training a proofreader has will play a big role in their rate. The type and length of the document they will review will also play a part in the final cost. Though proofreaders can charge by the hour, most will ask for a fixed amount based on the content type and length. Hourly rates can range from $15 an hour for simple content to $150 an hour for research-based publications. On average a qualified proofreader will charge between $0.015 and $0.020 per word for their services. The more complex a topic is, the higher the per-word rate will be. However, don’t let the price deter you from ensuring your content is mistake-free. 

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, no one could precisely estimate how much it would affect people. As it turns out now, though, rising living costs are one of the pandemic’s undeniable effects. Hence, many people now need a side hustle to better their economic statuses. Besides, one boss is enough stress, and no one wants a second boss. 

This article shares five side hustles you could do within your schedule without quitting your main course. For example, robbing your precious family time or being under a second boss. Instead, you will be your own boss and do something of your own liking while earning a few bucks.

1.  Transcribe with transcription companies.

Although you might be very busy with your main course, there are definitely times of the week or the day when you are free. You can take advantage of these and get gigs with which to supplement your family income. Working as a transcriber for transcription companies is one of such side hustles that will fit nicely into your schedule. What’s more, many companies, including Scribbie, GoTranscript, Rev.com, and TranscribeMe, specialize in transcription, and you will not lack something.

Furthermore, you will be in for some good deals while transcribing audio files. For instance, GoTranscript pays up to $5 for a ten-minute audio file that you could handle in 20minutes, while Rev.com pays up to $7 for the same file. So, however busy you might be, it would not be much trouble to create an hour to do something you enjoy and supplement your main course. Moreover, as you gain more experience, you can qualify to work as an editor, which will require you to edit the transcribed files and get better pay. 

2. Become a freelancer.

When many people hear about freelancing, they often associate it with youngsters, especially college and university students. However, while they may be the majority of people who earn through this gig, such jobs do not necessarily belong to them. You can comfortably try freelancing jobs as your side hustles fit nicely into your schedule. In fact, following the Covid-19 pandemic break out, the number of freelancers has crazily increased.

If you choose to freelance, there are many options out there for you. For instance, some people run small businesses within your locality and wish that someone would help them design a web page for their gig. However, large firms charge crazy prices they cannot afford. And you could be their savior by setting relatively and putting something into your pocket. In fact, for better results, walk from one business premise to the other and market yourself and also ensure an online presence. 

3. Start a YouTube channel or blogging.

The other side hustle that can fit nicely into your schedule is blogging or starting a YouTube channel. Are you passionate about something, say makeup, health, or finance? You could turn this into a lucrative gig by blogging about them. First, however, you need to ensure that your content is relevant to your audience to keep them blogging. Then, as the page grows, you also earn through affiliate links, commissions, and advertisements.

Starting a YouTube channel is another good side hustle that can fit your schedule. And bring you income because YouTube is the fastest-growing media platform in the 21st century. In addition, there are multiple ways of creating YouTube videos even without appearing in them. For example, why not try making music lyrics and the ‘how to’ videos? They will help you earn even if you are camera shy, without necessarily showing your face. All you need to do is keep your content relevant to your target audience.

4. Become a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistance is another fast-growing venture you would like to try without dropping your main course. For example, many people are doing research. They need someone to help them with data entry or email management, and you could be the person they need. What’s more, virtual assistance enables you to earn additional skills and experience as you work with people in specialized niches.

Furthermore, to be a virtual assistant, you don’t need any exotic or extraordinary skills. Most of the time, people who need virtual assistance practically need ‘an assistant,’ not someone who will do the entire job. Provided you are available for learning, you will be coached on what to do. In addition, like other side hustles, virtual assistance has many offers, and you just need to select your area of interest. Graphic design, spreadsheet management, and web hosting are some of the best-paying virtual assistant jobs.

5. Create a digital product training program.

Creating a digital program where you train people on a particular product or field is not everyone’s piece of meat. It could just be the right field for you to venture in and earn from a side hustle of your own liking. Like with virtual assistance and freelancing, many people out there wish to learn how to do something. This is where you come in handy and offer the needed help and advice. For instance, you could start a program that teaches people how to host websites and domains, fix web pages, and use statistical packages.

Moreover, you need not teach technical skills only. For instance, are you an experienced plumber? Do you know how to fix leakages, sinks, and holes? You could equally start a program that trains people how to do such tasks. Depending on how relevant your content is and how you present it, you may earn a huge following fast and start making a few bucks from such a side hustle. Besides, this will happen within your schedule since you are your own boss.

The bottom line

The living cost keeps rising every day; hence the need for side hustles keeps growing. If you are good at doing things within your schedule, you could turn your skills into money without interfering with your main course or family time. 

Rose Rosie is a writer for the personal finance website, Joy Wallet, which provides readers with useful information, resources, and tools to help maximize their financial fitness. 

The word illustrate is a combination of two Latin words: illustrat- ‘lit up’, from the verb illustrare, and ‘upon’ + lustrare ‘illuminate’. Thus illustrations are used to illuminate – shedding light to bring clarity,and to enhance the meaning of the written word, in both fiction and nonfiction. In more modern fiction they are used to add appeal and interest.  They help the reader to play out the story in their mind’s eye. Here are some more advantages of illustrations:

Dealmakers
Illustrations enhance the aesthetic appeal of a book beyond the cover. Illustrations attract browsers to the story when they scan books. They help to turn browsers into customers. Younger browsers will focus on the cover first and then the pictures inside. Adults are also attracted by cover art and pictures and sketches. Pictures probably sell more cook books than the recipes. Illustrations make books more competitive.

Less Daunting
For younger readers, illustrations make the prospect of reading less daunting, especially if the illustrations appeal to their imaginations and if there are pictures of characters for them to recognize and then identify with, as they read the story. That is perhaps why young readers love comics.  They can also be used to break the text into reader friendly passages and distinguishable chapters which is also good for children as they can see the start and finish lines, which aids their limited concentration spans. Having clearly defined chapters or passages in a children’s book is also appealing to adults assigned the joy of children’s bedtime story reading. Bedtime reading should leave children wanting more.

Touching heart and mind.
A good novel subconsciously, and even consciously, has the reader living the story and championing a character. A good novel touches the heart and mind of the reader. A well placed illustration can prompt an emotional response in the reader and motivate the reader to continue reading, whether the emotional response is a tear or a laugh. As we know, a picture paints a thousand words.

Teaching aids
In a classroom, a picture from a story can be used to test understanding and recall in children when doing verbal or written comprehension exercises. The pictures can also be used to trigger imaginative discussions and answer “what if?” questions. Pictures don’t all have to be conventional. They can be shadowy and nondescript, and even abstract. As such they can act as a catalyst for though provoking questions about what pictures mean and the artist’s intentions, all of which can stimulate classroom conversation and inspire the readers when in art class. For older children, an illustration can be used to encourage them to write a short story of their own or change the storyline of the book being read in class. A picture could be responsible for inspiring and unearthing the next Shakespeare, Monet or Picasso in time to come.

Nonfiction
Whether the nonfiction is an autobiography, a textbook or a cook book, illustrations and pictures are essential. Illustrations make abstract subjects more tangible and can certainly help the reader to understand a written explanation. Diagrams are also useful as they aid information and understanding recall.  Without illustrations and pictures, nonfiction may just as well be fiction to some readers. Need proof? Try to assemble self-assembly items like furniture without the diagrams.

The road to success.

Think of book illustrations as landmarks on a map that the reader can identify and acknowledge as they journey through your story. If illustrations are used to accentuate and emphasize the parts of the story you want the reader to really “get,” guaranteed the reader will be back for more.

Literary agents are all about business. They do not make edits or make suggestions to make the book better. The job of a literary agent is to read the book and see if it will sell. They try to sell the book to publishing companies to gain a contract, so they can make a profit as well. If the literary agent believes the book will not sell, he or she will not do business with the author of the book.

Before a literary agent can gain a publishing contract, he or she must get writers who want publishing. They find writers through submissions from writers. The literary agent will then ask writers to send in their manuscripts to see if it is any good or not. The ones that seem like the literary agent can make a profit from, he or she will represent them. Once the literary agent finds the writers he or she is looking for, writers sign a contract and start working on query letters. Writers will have to put some finishing touches to their manuscript as well. The literary agent wants the finishing product to look good since this represents him.

The literary agent proceeds to send the information to several publishing companies to see if they like what they are reading. In the beginning phase of selecting writers, the literary agent made sure that writers fell into the genre that they represent. For instance, a literary agent in the romance genre could not represent someone in the horror genre. That is why literary agents have to read each manuscript to see if they could work with the writer.

Most literary agents have worked with publishers in the past, so they have a working relationship with them. The literary agent will somewhat likely know if the manuscript is good or not. On the other hand, sometimes more than one editor wants to sign the writer. When this occurs, there is an auction where the highest bidder gets the writer. Negotiations between literary agents and publishers begin. There are contracts and payment. The literary agent has to make sure that the writer is secure.

Someone interested in becoming a literary agent can start by getting a Bachelors in English. Even though, a college degree is good, you can still become a literary agent without one. It is best to have experience when it comes to becoming a literary agent. Some literary agents begin working as editors or editorial assistants before getting into their career. One thing you can do is to get an internship with a publishing company. It is a good idea to start making connections early on in your career, that way the publisher you interned for is your first point of contact once you start getting writers.

Literary agents have a choice of working on their own or for an agency. It’s  difficult in the beginning to work on your own because you have to do a lot of networking. Social media is not the only place where you will need to network.

It takes a lot as a literary agent. You have to become a reader, if you already are not. Start reading books in your genre and see what the best-sellers in your genre and others as well.

Literary agents have to do a lot of communicating. This is a career where you cannot be shy. You have to negotiate for writers to make sure they are getting the best deal for their work. This is a profitable career, but you also get to read different manuscripts before they hit the shelves.

There will come a time where you will need to use a proofreading service, especially when you want to make sure to get a good grade on an essay or to clean up a manuscript. When it comes to finding proofreading services and hiring a proofreading, it will take some time because you want to make sure to pick the right person. Just because someone with proofreading experience does not necessarily mean that he or she is a perfect fit. One thing you can do to make sure you are getting the best proofreader is to hire him or her on a trial basis to see their skills. If they are up to par, then you can hire them, but if not, you will have to look elsewhere.

One place to find proofreading services and hire a proofreader is through bidding sites, such as Guru, Fiverr, and Upwork. On bidding sites, you can search for people who work as proofreaders. It is best to hire someone with high reviews. That more than likely means that they know what they are doing. Their services are inexpensive, but you still want A plus services. You can post on the bidding sites as well to hire a proofreader. Your post has to say what your expectations are. As stated before, you will want to hire someone with positive reviews.

Make use of online proofreading services. There are a number of companies that offer proofreading services. One online service you want to consider is Edit My Paper. They proofread all sorts of documents, such as manuscripts, resumes, and essays, for instance. Their prices are in tiers, which means if you need a manuscript proofread, your price will be in a different tier. Another online proofreading service is GetProofed. They work with students and writers. They can have your document back in 24 hours.

Online writing forums are another place to find and hire a proofreader. Look for the proofreading section to see if there are any proofreaders available. You can post as well, letting proofreaders know that you have an interest in their services. When hiring on forums, you may want to hire them in the beginning, especially if you want a manuscript proofread. Ask each proofreader for a résumé and cover letter. You may even want to get them to do a sample test of their proofreading skills. The test will tell you a lot on how good or bad they are.

Find an English teacher with proofreading skills to proofread your work. You may want to seek proofreading services from a college professor. Since they have years of experience, they are a perfect fit for you. When it comes to essays and theses, you want a college professor who is not one that you take a class with. Schedule a time with the college professor where you both can discuss and go over your work. If the college professor has manuscript experience, he or she can go over it with you.

Locate proofreading services in your town. Look in the yellow pages or search online in your area for proofreading services. Contact the proofreading service and ask as many questions as you need to. You do not have to settle on the first proofreading service in your town. There will more than likely be more than one in your town. Ask if they offer trial sessions, so that you can see if the proofreader is right for you.

Finding proofreading and hiring proofreaders is a difficult task since you will be handing your work to someone you do not know. You expect them to do the work correctly.

You’ve written your manuscript. It’s gone through countless tweaks and edits, you’re thrilled with the title, and the cover design absolutely rocks. Your ebook is just about ready to be published! Yay! You’re bound to feel like you’re on the tail end of a journey that’s quite possibly been exhausting — but you’re nowhere near ready to put your feet up yet. 

Unless you’re Elon Musk, or something, the readers aren’t simply going to pour in once you get your ebook up on Kindle Direct Publishing or on your website. To make sure that others have the chance to share in your awesome work, you also have to learn how to market your ebook. Sadly, being a skilled and inspiring writer within your genre doesn’t automatically make you a master marketer — and if you’re the kind of person who feels terrible about blowing your own trumpet, marketing your ebook can be really tricky. 

Even if you are lucky enough to have a solid marketing budget, it’s crucial to stay involved after you have finished writing your ebook — the better you can connect with your target audience, the more likely they’ll be to read your book. 

So, what concrete steps can you personally take to market your ebook, even if you don’t have the luxury of pouring too much money into the process? 

1. Authentically connect on social media

Even before your ebook’s release date, you can begin raving about it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and, if you’re already there, YouTube. You don’t need to make a classic — and classically off-putting — sales pitch to reach your audience and get them excited about your ebook! You can share snippets of genuine excitement to give folks a little sneak peak that artfully just avoids spoilers if your ebook is a novel or short story. If you’re writing non-fiction, you can choose a small sub-topic to tell your readers more about, so that you can hook them when your ebook comes out. 

If you’re comfortable with it, you can even share small details of your daily life, and talk about why you decided to publish an ebook as opposed to traditional publishing. 

Don’t just monologue, though! Engage with your audience by reposting awesome comments, replying to questions, and thanking your followers for their support.

2. Reach out to influencers

Use your existing connections and make new ones for your virtual book tour. Non-fiction ebooks can bloom when they’re promoted by fellow subject-matter experts, while novels, short stories, works of poetry, and other fiction ebooks catch new eyes much more easily if a BookTuber or friendly author gives you a shout out. Guests posts, tweets, newsletter links, podcast mentions, and YouTube reviews are all great ways to make this happen. Even if you’re dealing with some serious stage fright, you believe in your ebook, right? Keep that squarely in your mind as you reach out to big names. Remember to send advance copies to the people who will help you market your ebook so that they’re ready to start raving when the publishing date rolls around.

3. Offer giveaways and discounts

You can create some real buzz on your platform by doing interesting giveaways — like, for instance, offering a tiny blurb from your ebook in which your protagonist is facing a dilemma, and inviting your followers to share how they’d act in that situation. Pick the most creative comments as winners. Using Kindle Unlimited, you can also entice readers with free promos. If you have other ebooks out already, you can realistically expect a sales boost. 

4. Get your ebook on all the popular platforms

Goodreads and Amazon will allow you to manage your own author pages, enabling you to decide what actual and potential readers learn about you and your work first. If you haven’t done this already, definitely put that on your to-do list. The many popular ebook listing websites will welcome your submission, usually for free, to draw bored and eager bookworms who are looking for the next great thing in. 

Expertise, influence, time, enthusiasm, and money are the foundations of successful ebook marketing — and the good news is that you won’t need all of them to meet and exceed your goals. If you’ve got three out of five, you’ll have an excellent shot at getting your ebook noticed. 

Behind every story, the good ones and the bad ones, the only thing hidden is an immense passion, love and admiration for the original work. The decision to devote many hours of effort to fanfiction and the courage to dare to share the end result is only paid for in most cases with the recognition of a few amateurs and the laughter or misunderstanding of others. Many fanfiction pieces share deep and dark desires. Often times a piece of the author shows up within the fan work.

The message of the importance of this art form has spread. Last year’s edition of WonderCon had to cancel a panel scheduled with the intention of making humor at the expense of the fanfic after many fans on Twitter were outraged at the idea. However, the best example of the change of perspective regarding fanfiction is the fact that publishers are now the ones who remain alert to any work that begins to go viral. Many publishers are on the hunt for great short stories that can be easily adapted after the market has already proven its demand and interest to the readers.

The success of stories like as Fifty Shades or After (2013-2015) showed that what sticks on the Internet – after undergoing the necessary changes so that they don’t become an object of lawsuit for copyright reasons – can work just as well or even better outside it. However, there are many vocal groups within the fandom that consider that making money from the fanfic goes against what it stands for: stories by and for fans that must be shared with respect for the author.

This is why many fanfiction authors reject projects like the one proposed by Kindle Worlds. Other reasons include what they consider a censorship of themes and the impossibility of practicing many of the styles that are fashionable between fandom, such as writing stories imitating conversations on WhatsApp or other social networks -what is known as chatnoir-, gender swap (which consists of changing the genre of characters) or the practice of Imagina, which tries to write scenes fantasizing about what would happen between the reader, who is usually the protagonist, and some fictional character, to face the craziest situations.

Under the conditions of the Amazon platform, it would also be impossible to share stories in which the characters were inspired by real people. With Wattpad’s popular page highlighting stories with Justin Bieber, ElRubius or Zayn Malik as the protagonists, it seems evident that a large part of the fans will continue, at least for a while, to seek their readings in more traditional pages. The little guys also get less support. Outside of fandoms like Harry Potter fanfiction authors, there are so many smaller works that have avid fan communities that tend to get overlooked by opportunities like that. Fandoms like Death at a Funeral or Matlock.

The latest exercise in claiming the genre wants us to consider what fanfiction is and where is the boundary between fan literature and the use by an author of what he considers references.

The blurred line between fanfiction and reference

It seems obvious that a story in which Sherlock Holmes is dedicated to solving cases, if not written by Conan Doyle, is a fanfiction, isn’t it? That’s not always the case. The television series Sherlock (2010-) uses pre-existing characters to create a universe that now seems original and the same can be said of other fictions such as Once Upon a Time (2011-) or Open Until Dawn (2014-).

One of Stephen King’s first books, The Mystery of Salem Lot is a reimagination of Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker, a novel that has also inspired Joe Hill who, in Sons of Abraham -one of his stories compiled in Ghosts (2008)- imagines what would have become of Van Helsing’s descendants many years after the events of the original novel. Nor should we forget the fashion that, a few years ago, tried to rewrite classic stories with the addition of certain fantastic elements such as zombies or alien invasions. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies (2009), for example, got its own film adaptation in which Jane Austen shared credits with her fan, Seth Grahame-Smith.

In the face of this, what is fanfiction, where does the line stand between “fan work” and “original material”? Is money then what gives legitimacy to a work? Is it the use of professional self-publishing tools or services from places like Ingram, Squibler or Reedsy? If so, Amazon and its Kindle Worlds may be the perfect solution to the problems of the genre, but first you must win over the fans by relaxing their conditions of use a little. We, as readers, can only observe.

Questions to Ask Your Book Cover Designer

If you are hiring a book cover designer to create your book cover, then there are certain questions that you definitely want to ask. These questions will help you weed out book designers that are going to make a poor quality cover for you. If you are self-publishing, then you definitely want the best book cover possible, and there are lots of graphic artists out there that may be talented in other areas but know nothing about book cover designs. This will help you to actually hire a book cover designer that will get you to the top of the bestseller lists.

How Many Book Covers Have You Designed?

The first question you have to ask your book cover designer is how many covers they’ve actually designed you want someone has experience with the cover designs because they are different than other graphic designs. Someone may be very good at designing business logos, but that does not mean that they are good at designing the perfect book cover. If you want to be able to sell your book, then you’re going to have to have a great cover design.

Have You Read My Book?

You also want to know whether or not they have read your book. If they have not read your book or lease know what it is about, then they are not going to have very good success at design e-book cover design that fits your book. You want readers to be able to look at your cover and choose to buy, but when they are finished reading it they should also understand how the book cover design fits in with the book.

What Are Your Ideas for My Book Cover Design?

Ask your designer what sort of ideas they have for your book cover design. If you can get some of the ideas from them, then you will know what sort of designs they are planning and can veto any ideas that do not fit your own idea of what your cover should be. While you should give your cover designers some leeway, they should still be designing something you want.

Where Do You Get Your Stock Photos?

Something else that you should be asking them is where they get their stock photos. A good book cover designer will get their stock photos from a legitimate stock photo site and have permission to use them. If they are getting their stock photos from somewhere that they do not have permission to use, then your book cover design is useless because someone could easily sue you for your cover design and take all of the money you’ve made from your book.

Do You Offer Any Guarantees?

Finally, you should ask your cover designer if they offer any guarantees. Your book cover designer should be able to offer some sort of guarantee you will like the design that they choose or they will fix it for you. If not, then you may want to move on to a different designer.

If you’re ever looking to hire a book cover designer, check out Reedsy

The Book Proposal Outline

When it comes to writing a book proposal, there is a certain outline that you should follow. Not every successful book proposal follows this exact outline, but a pretty big percentage of them do. More importantly, most of the rejected book proposals have outlines that are very different from this one. If you want your book proposal to be successful, then you may want to look at this outline and consider using it for your own proposal. Your goal is to get published, and this proposal outline can definitely help you get there.

The Overview

The first thing you need is an overview of your book. In a small paragraph, let a publisher or agent know why they should consider your book for publication. An overview usually consists of 3-4 sentences and includes only the most important information.

Target Audience

Next, you need to think about who your target audience is. Make sure that you know who your book is most likely to be read by and that you are familiar with the demographics of that target audience. If you can show your publisher that you know who to target, they will have a much easier time approving your book for publication.

About the Author

You also want to make sure that you include information about yourself – especially if you have already published books in the same genre or if you have expertise that specifically lends itself to book marketing. For example, if you are a doctor with expertise in health care, then that would be relevant information to include if you have written a book on health care. However, it would not be relevant if you have written a mystery novel (unless it is a medical mystery).

Marketing Plan

You should also come up with a marketing plan that demonstrates what ideas you have for marketing the book and shows publishers just how far you are willing to go to make your book sell. Remember, they are looking to make a profit, so if your book is good, and you are willing to promote it, they will be more willing to publish it.

Competitive Titles

You will also need to include other books that you think could compete with yours – but even more importantly, you should include reasons why your book totally blows them out of the water. Make sure that your publishers know that even if your book has competition; that you are able to present the ideas better than other books.

Chapter Outline

A chapter outline will give your publisher a chance to see the finished book (even if it isn’t fully complete yet). You simply list your chapters, and then you list a short summary of each one. This allows your publishers to see exactly what your book is about in an easy-to-read overview.

Sample Chapter(s)

Finally, make sure that you are including at least one sample chapter. Some agents and publishers may actually let you know how many sample chapters to send.

For more information on how to do a book proposal, check out Reedsy