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October 23, 2012 By 2QT Publishing Leave a Comment

Top Tips for Success in Book Promotion – Frank English

Frank English at Book Signing Event

Frank English was one of our first authors and has since published four titles through 2QT over the last 2 years.  We have been keeping an eye on Frank’s success in attaining book signings – particularly with Waterstones – and so I asked him if he could share some of his experiences and top tips which have helped him to create a solid relationship with Waterstones that now sees him regularly undertaking signings at various branches throughout the UK.

This is his story…..

So you’d like to be a successful author, eh?

You’ve just published the book you’ve been slaving over for the last umpteen months. You are now basking in that comforting after-glow of your success, particularly when you see the book on your home bookshelf. Got that starry tingle at the back of your mind that comes with the promise of literary success? So what do you have to do turn your baby in to sales?

Just five words tell you what happens from here on in.

NOW THE HARD WORK BEGINS

What you need to keep in mind is that people in the world at large don’t know you or your work, unless you tell them – and keep on telling them! No-one knows your work better than you, so you are the one who ultimately decides whether or not your work’s potential translates to a higher profile. There is no such thing as overnight success. It takes an enormous amount of determination, continuous hard work, perseverance, persistence, and sometimes bloody-mindedness to take your work to its audience – and to keep it there.

Advice? Yes, lots.

  • Take every opportunity to promote your work. Always be prepared to take whatever comes your way. It might mean taking samples with you (books, flyers, brochures etc which you need to produce in profusion beforehand) to hand out to appropriate people.
  • ‘No’ is a word you should never take for an answer. There is always another way.
  • Keep persevering, even in the face of what might seem to be insurmountable odds, with huge barriers and obstructions. Be creative in finding other ways.
  • Never give up if you want to see your work put in front of a wider audience. You will be surprised how your reputation will grow if you persevere. Tenacity and confidence in the quality of your work in this business are undoubted assets.
  • Always keep your options open. Even if certain pathways don’t seem to fit your concept of the best way forward, compromises will often present themselves. Lateral thinking sometimes is the key.
  • Always, always, always take even the smallest chance offered. You can always build with whatever you’ve got if you have a will to do it.
  • Create your own opportunities. Be creative in approach. Above all else, be consistent, reliable, dependable, and ready to take anything your hosts (bookshops, outlets etc) might ask of you. Although it may not be quite as attractive as you might have wanted initially, with time you will achieve close to what you want.
  • Be prepared to do whatever it takes, and remember, if you are not prepared to undertake what is necessary to promote your work, no-one else will. Your work will only be as successful as the amount you are prepared to invest in its development, in financial, physical, and philosophical terms.

You need to develop an absolute confidence in what you are doing.

Don’t forget that the staff members in bookshops such as Waterstones assess your effectiveness in both dealing with the buying public and in how you approach both them and their staff in the stores. The easier you make it for them, the easier they will find it to ask you back. It’s always up to you. You don’t have to be an extrovert, but you do need the passion and belief in your book.

If you would like to discuss any of the things I have undertaken over the last couple of years or so to promote my books, please email me via the 2QT Contact Page.

 

-o-

 

Filed Under: Featured Articles and Posts, News and Updates, Resources

April 19, 2012 By Catherine Cousins 1 Comment

Cut your editing costs with these ten top tips!

How to submit your book – and cut your editing costs!

Copy-editing is a key stage of any book’s development – this is when we make sure that the language flows and the spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct. It can be a long, painstaking process – and consequently an expensive one. Here we suggest ten simple ways to prepare your manuscript for submission, help cut the copy-editing time and thus reduce your costs.

 

1. Submit your manuscript as a Word document. PDFs have to be reformatted before we can work on them – and that takes time.

2. Use either Arial or Times New Roman font – it’s easier for us to work with.

3. Manuscripts should be double line spaced.

4. Don’t add an extra line space between paragraphs.

5. Use single spacing between words and after full stops.

6. Start every chapter on a new page.

7. The first line of a chapter or after a section break should not be indented. All other paragraphs should start with an indent.

8. Use single quote marks for speech – ‘…..’ – that’s the standard format for UK publishers.

9. Check your spelling for consistency. If you use –ize spellings (e.g. realize) make sure you stick with that throughout.

10. Spelling, grammar and punctuation are a bugbear for many writers – and when you’re busy telling your story, they can easily go wrong. Put your manuscript away for a few days when you finish writing, then go back and proofread it – you’ll be surprised how many changes you need to make! If you’re not confident about your own language skills, see if you can find a friend who’ll help out.

Above all, enjoy your writing!

Images supplied by © Raya | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Filed Under: News and Updates, Resources Tagged With: editing, editing tips, editing your book, how to edit, submitting your manuscript

January 27, 2012 By Catherine Cousins 2 Comments

Top Tips for writing fiction

Top Tips from our Editor Karen


 

 

 

1.  Work out your plot before you start writing. Some authors maintain that their books have a life of their own and they don’t have to plot in advance. For the rest of us mere mortals, it’s a big help to know what’s going to happen before we start writing. If we don’t, we run the risk of stalling half way through because we’ve written ourselves into a corner.

 

2.  Remember that your readers only know what you tell them – they are not psychic. Give them clues and teasers about what’s going to happen but don’t make these so obscure that your audience will miss them. When you reread your work, try to see it from the point of view of someone who has never met your characters before. Is your meaning clear? The fastest way to put a reader off is to confuse them!

 

3.  Develop a time line. Put events in chronological order so that you know when they happen – then draw up a chart that shows how these events fit together and pin it up in front of your desk. This is particularly useful if your novel moves backwards and forwards in time, or if it involves a lot of characters. The way that you sequence events for your readers is up to you – maybe you have action in different places happening at the same time, maybe your central character has flashbacks – but you need to make sure that the sequence is clear and your audience don’t lose the plot.

 

4.   Create character files. You need to know your main characters as well as you know your own family if they’re going to become real people on the page. What do they look like? What are their likes/dislikes? What is their history? What do they read/eat/do in their spare time? Start by listing factual information about each character. Add to your dossier by ‘interviewing’ them and noting down what other characters in your book think about them. Include pictures of real people they resemble and places they frequent. (Note to self: not all heroes look like George Clooney however much I might want to have his pictures plastered all over my office wall.) Try to get as much information as you can together before you start your novel and keep referring back to the files.

 

5.  Write every day. Even when you’re busy, even when the self-doubt monkey is sitting on your shoulder telling you that you should take up knitting rather than spend any more time on this writing business, put a few words down on the page. All writers have good days and bad days; the professionals know that however grim you feel, you have to persevere.

 

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: how to write a book, tips for story writing, tips for writing fiction, writing books, writing fiction, writing tips

January 10, 2012 By Catherine Cousins 1 Comment

Introducing 2QT’s ‘Social Media Marketing Package’

As you probably know, blogging and Social Media have become very significant ways to spread the word about new publications, upcoming writing projects, latest innovations in audio and ebooks and other related issues.  At 2QT we are always looking for ways to support our authors in all aspects of publication and now we can harness the power of the internet in our new Social Media Marketing package (SMMP). 

Facebook-Twitter

We will be able to market authors work, book signings, promotions and special offers via Twitter @2QTLtd and Face Book 2QT Publishing  We will promote to a wide audience, ensuring exposure to potential readers and the buying market.  Also included in this package is a 2QT Author Interview to be posted on our blog, giving writers the chance to tell the audience more about their book and themselves.

Zoe at 2QT Book Fair

We’re delighted to announce that Zoë Dawes will be managing the SMMP via Twitter, Face Book and interviews.  You may have already come across Zoë via her popular travel blog The Quirky Traveller or the TQT Travel Notes Journal which we published in April 2011.  She works for 2QT as a specialist editor and is helping to organise 2QT workshops and events in 2012.  One of the things she is most looking forward to is, “Telling the world about the great publications that our authors have written and to shout about the exciting works we will be publishing in the coming year.”   You can follow her on Twitter @quirkytraveller and Face Book where she seems to spend a lot of time!

So, to find out more about how we can help you to market your work in a simple, cost-effective way using the latest Social Media technology, contact us here.

Filed Under: News and Updates, Resources Tagged With: face book, social media, twitter

August 6, 2010 By Catherine Cousins Leave a Comment

eBooks & Audiobooks with 2QT Publishing

eBooks

We have had a number of enquiries about eBooks so we did some homework and looked at the marketplace for a good distributor who was willing to work with us. As many of you will already know there is an array of software packages to convert your book as well as companies who offer this service – some very good, some not. We wanted to be able to offer an alternative option for those with a limited budget as well as those authors who have a physical title but want to increase their routes to market. Most important of all we wanted to maintain the quality that we strive for with all our products and services.

As we have discovered, getting your eBook to as wide an audience as possible is proving to be quite a hot topic for debate between the retailers, publishers and Nielsen’s (who issue ISBNs).  So what we have decided is to sign up with an experienced distributor who specialise in digital production and distribution to work with us. The service will include all our publishing services for our physical titles but instead of printing we will convert of your book to a number of different digital formats to accommodate the variety of platforms currently available, including Kindle and iTunes Apps

Our distributors have access to all the major retailers of eBooks and of course with Amazon’s new Kindle Store we will be on there too!

For as little as £250 you could have your book converted to a eBook – and it could be up and out there for sale in weeks rather than months.

Coming soon… An interview about eBooks where we hope it will dis-spell some of the myths and mis-information that’s out there.

If you are interested in finding how your book can be converted to an eBook then please do get in touch for an informal chat (that means no hard sell on the end of the phone!)

AudioBooks

2QT now have three Audiobooks – and more on the way.  We take a lot of pride in the production of our Audiobooks and we know that you will hear the difference.  Working with a producer who shares our approach and is as passionate about audio as we are about books! We will manage the reader, scripting, recording, production and editing, artwork and publication aspects for you.

Along with our Distributor we now have a greater ability to increase our routes to market and are looking forward to developing this service for authors and writers.

See our Q&A Article on AudioBooks

*Note: If you are using our eBook service please be aware that unlike our other services there is a contractual agreement between us and the Distributor that you will need to sign up to. Only eBooks published through 2QT will be eligible to use this service.
Royalties apply.
AudioBook products will have the option to sign up for Distribution service.
Please do not be put off by this – we would be happy to answer any queries and clarify any concerns. For more details please contact us.

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Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: 2QT, Audio Book & MP3 Download, audiobook, Audiobook production, digital formats, eBook conversion, Ebooks, iTunes Apps, Kindle, mp3 download, Publications, Voice over

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