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Using Tech for Book Marketing

Kate Gingold from Sprocket WebsitesKate has been building websites with her husband Don since 1996 for all sorts of clients, including authors.

Kate regularly writes about online marketing for Sprocket Websites and provides tips and techniques for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Since being an author today is not really different from being an entrepreneur with a small business, most of those tips are just as useful to authors.

Kate is an author herself. She writes books on local history, including the award-winning "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of the true story of Great Lake pioneering to the shores of Chicago and beyond to found Naperville, Illinois. 

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Ruth By Lake and Prairie

Author Tips and Tales

Considering Word- and Page-Count of Your Book
Kate Gingold Host
/ Categories: Author Tips

Considering Word- and Page-Count of Your Book

In the not-so-long-ago days of publishing, I used to provide a worksheet to authors we coached for calculating the approximate number of pages their book would be. You can still find calculators online and formulas for using word count to figure out approximately how many book pages your manuscript will become. 

Word- and page-count are important numbers to know. The number of words in you manuscript defines whether it is a novel or a novella. The number of words may also indicate that you need to beef up your story or do a whole lot of editing. And, of course, how much it costs to produce your book directly influences how you will need to price it.  

But word-count is only a small part of the calculation for page-count. Some of the other factors you need to consider are:

Trim Size
Trim size is final width and height of your book’s pages. Research what size other books like yours are at your local bookstore to get an idea of what you want yours to look like.

Margin Width
The white space between the text block and the edge of the page can vary. See what other books do and decide how you want yours to look.

Font Style and Size
Some font styles take up more space than others and a twelve-point font takes more space than an eleven-point font. Keep in mind, however, that larger fonts are easier to read. 

Paragraph Spacing 
Two common paragraph styles are to insert a space between every paragraph or to indent each new paragraph and have no extra space in between. There are also variations of these two. Take a look at other books during your research trip to decide the style you like best.  

Additional Pages
Book pages that might not be part of your current manuscript include the title page, copyright page, table contents, appendix, index, graphic images and other add-ons. Also, if you are using chapter titles and starting chapters on the right side of a double page spread, your book will have more blank space

If you are publishing with Amazon’s KDP, these book design decisions are yours to make and they offer a series of videos to help you format your manuscript for publication. Since they base this tutorial on users of Microsoft Word, you could technically set up your manuscript margins, type size, etc. while you are still writing and see how your manuscript will look as a book even before it’s finished. 

Since the number of pages in your book helps determine the cost to produce it, it might be worth your while to play around with the layout and design to reduce the page number. But keep in mind the overall experience you want your reader to have. Appearances are important to setting the stage for a great read!

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Full disclosure:  Writing for Sprocket Websites is my day job, so if you have questions about digital marketing, I'm happy to help!

 

Marketing Author Interview

Following a presentation for In Print Professional Writers Group, Kate's husband (and publisher!) Don was interviewed by author Louise Brass for WBOM Radio. During the conversation, Don shared many of the marketing tips from his presentation. You can listen to it online here.

The Sprocket Report

The Sprocket Report is published every other week with Internet marketing tips, tools and techniques. The archive features articles from 2011 up to the present. You are welcome to read how business owners are using technology to market themselves and apply those tips to your author business.


 

 

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Kate will be happy to send you her brief Book Signing Checklist. Treat your book promotion like a business - because it is!

AND, since much of your efforts will be online, she'll also enroll you in her Sprocket Report, an email newsletter sent every other Tuesday, that includes 2 Internet Marketing tips and a post from a guest blogger on related business.

No worries! She won't use your email address for anything else, and you can unsubscribe from the newsletter anytime, but the checklist is yours to keep.

Any questions of Kate? Leave them in the message field and she'll get back to you ASAP.

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