Submit your book

I completely agree with Joni's offer to critique books. What if you have never sent your book to us, though, but you would like us to critique the book? Go to our website (www.inktreemarketing.com) and mail us a copy with a request to have it critiqued on this blog. It will be fun. Before my book was published, a local publishing support group analyzed the draft and the results were not pretty. I thought, "How dare they say that my book doesn't look well designed and that the title is awful?" Once my common sense returned, it became apparent to me that maybe, just maybe, they were right. That's when my research began. After many hours in book stores and libraries, the light bulbs began to pop in my head. Oh, so that's how a beautiful cook book looks. It should not look like something produced by the church committee on a home computer - it should look like a professional publishing house produced it. Right - now the search for a graphic designer began. Wow!! I could not believe the transformation. I sold over 250,000 copies of "Fit to Cook - Why 'Waist' Time in the Kitchen?" It's a guarantee that the book would not have sold 250 copies in its original format. So, send us your book and let us help you turn the ugly duckling into a swan. :-)

Denise

Back to Work...

Well, we're now well into September, my first-born just started Preschool (sniffle) and my baby is now 14 months old and walking and talking up a storm. Time flies. As much as I love the flexibility I have with my businesses so that I am able to stay home with my kids, the time has come for me to get a bit of work done without sticky peanut butter fingers clawing at my legs and little munchkins sitting in my lap. So, thanks to "Nana", I am able to work ON MY OWN at the office now 2 days each week! The biggest upside to owning your own businesses is actually being excited about going to work.

I'd like to try something a bit different with the blog for the next little while... We receive zillions (seriously, zillions) of books from aspiring self publishers who want us to sell zillions of copies for them. One of the most difficult parts of this business is not breaking the hopeful heart of every wannabe bestselling author out there by telling them "I'm sorry, but your book is crap". Unfortunately, MOST of the books we see are just that. So, rather than just trash everyone and ruin any shred of remaining hope, let's try to turn the critique of the "crap" into something a bit more constructive, shall we? I'm going to pull random books off of our shelves and give you my two bits. What do you think? We'll pull out a book and talk about what was done properly and what wasn't, as well as what can be done to sell the book now. We'll start on Thursday...