Three Keys to New Author Success

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When I retired in 2013, having practiced medicine for nearly forty years, I wasn’t ready to entirely leave medicine. So I searched for a new way to help people improve their health. The result was a self-help program called Serenity and Health that I introduced at my church in 2014. Three years later, I launched my website and blog of the same name. This year I published my first book, Pilgrimage: A Doctor’s Healing Journey, about these experiences and my life. In all of this, my message is that there are small steps we can take to help us find our path to better physical and emotional health and closeness to God. There are three keys to new author success that enabled me to translate this message into a self-help program, a blog and, finally, a book. These are passion, people, and technological enhancements.

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How to Create an Audiobook: What Authors Need to Know

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Two Words Publishing often find authors and publishers to have one of two positions on audiobooks: either they don’t know why it’s necessary or even desirable to have their book(s) in audio form, or they want to make every book in their catalog into an audiobook, no matter the length, genre, format, or cost. In this blog post, we would like to help authors in the first camp consider learning how to create an audiobook, and add it to their portfolio of Christian book titles, and those in the second camp to determine what type of book is a good fit for the audiobook format and when they can reasonably hope to be successful in it.

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Understanding the Book Manufacturing Process as an Author

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The real estate industry is all about location, location, location but in book manufacturing, we focus on communication, communication, communication. Every book is unique: page count, bind style, cover treatment, paper stock, etc. Since each project is different, the most important feature in your relationship with your book manufacturer is communication. As a self-published author, you should be able to connect with your manufacturer’s representative and customer service department via phone and email. It is the manufacturers’ job to bring your project from files to a physical product and in order to do so; we need to understand exactly what you desire. Each and every element must be communicated properly to ensure a successful result. We want to understand your vision. The more detail you can provide, the better. Photos, samples, and files are very helpful.

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The 13 Most Common Self-Publishing Mistakes to Avoid

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How many times have you picked up a book and immediately knew it was self-published? You may not be sure how you knew. It might have been the design. Maybe you spotted glaring errors. Or possibly there was just an unprofessional look to it. Don’t let that happen to your book. There is absolutely no reason indie authors and publishers shouldn’t produce books that look as sharp and professional as the books produced by major publishing houses. It just takes effort, attention to detail, and a commitment to avoid the errors self-publishers often make. Let’s look at the most common self-publishing mistakes and how to avoid them.

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Christian Books Embody Eternal Purposes

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I designed my first published book cover while still in college and began a freelance career doing so a few years later, in 1993. Through my company, TLC Book Design, I’ve coached hundreds of independent authors through the book creation process, teaching them about the importance of producing a well-edited, professionally designed and produced book. We’ve won hundreds of awards for our work. It was always about creating a beautiful, salable book that wouldn’t be noticed as a self-published book.

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