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Publishing

A Kid’s Guide to Birding

A Kid’s Guide to Birding

You’re never too young to discover the amazing diversity of birds. The many different ways birds look, fly, sing, hunt, and nest are among the most fascinating wonders of the natural world. Discover birding and you’ll discover a lot about nature and life—and often you don’t have to look farther than your own backyard.

A Kid’s Guide to Birding explains

  • the basics of birding for kids,
  • tips on what makes a good birder,
  • how to recognize and identify birds,
  • ways to attract birds to your own yard,
  • steps for starting your own birding “life list,”
  • places to find new birds,
  • and much more!

With over 300 colorful photographs and more than 175 kinds of birds from a multitude of habitats and different seasons of the year, A Kid’s Guide to Birding is a great visual introduction to birds for kids.

Published by Nextfolio
ISBN: 978-0-9816771-5-6
Paperback with gatefold cover, 8.5 x 8.5
Full color
Price: USD $16.95

Praise for A Kid’s Guide to Birding

“More exciting and more informative than a field guide, this is an excellent introduction. Highly recommended for all libraries.”
—Connie Pottle, Youth Services Manager, Delaware County District Library


“A Kid’s Guide to Birding . . . expertly works in an underlying theme of conservation.”    
—Rob Gendron, Former Park Ranger, Naturalist, and Avid Birdwatcher


“. . . packed with wonderful bird photography and a wealth of kid-friendly information.”
—Aaron Baggenstos, Award-winning Professional Wildlife Photographer/Videographer, Author, and Owner of Aaron’s Photo Tours


“. . . a book that will inspire many to become birders.”
—Jacque Verrall, NBCT Full Day Kindergarten Teacher, Edmonds, Washington


“Wow! What a terrific book. . . . Lorenzo’s photographs are amazing … sure to kindle enthusiasm for birding in children and parents alike!”
—Dana Rozier, Author of An Inquisitive Kid’s Guide: Natural Hawai‘i


“… a wonderful book! The photography is fabulous and the information is clear, well-written, accurate and comprehensive.”
—Cathy Williams, Children’s Librarian, Columbus Metropolitan Library

lorenzo rohani wildlife photographer

A Kid’s Guide to Birding was created by father and son birding enthusiasts, Michael and Lorenzo Rohani. Together they have visited many wildlife refuges, park lands, and birding hot spots to discover new birds and, at home, they made their own yard into a bird-friendly habitat. During this time, Lorenzo documented the many birds he observed. A Kid’s Guide to Birding brings together some of Lorenzo’s best photographs from three years (2009–2012) of his wildlife photography.

A kid's guide to birding full cover image

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Publishing

A Book for Fitness and Inspiration

Scenic Fit San Francisco is one of the most interesting and fun recent book design and production projects to come through the office of Design For Books. If you are contemplating creating a “how-to” or self-help book on any topic, this book is an excellent example of how it is done. Scenic Fit San Francisco is the vision of Tracy Hicks, a super-fit trail runner, mountain biker, and above all, an expert personal instructor with over a decade of experience instructing outdoor workouts for groups.

Scenic Fit book cover
Scenic Fit book cover. This is a full-color offset-printed paperback book.
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Print strategies Print-on-demand Publishing Publishing & Entrepreneurs Publishing best practices Publishing for businesses Publishing Success Stories self-publishing

Self-Publishing Success Stories: 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You

One of the great things about my job is that I get to work with decision-makers and experts in a variety of fields, people who make a positive difference in the lives of others or who are on their way to becoming influential. Jackie Brewton is one of those accomplished people—she is the go-to person for people and institutions who need a motivational speaker and teen relationship expert.

If you’re a teen or a parent of teens like me, her book, 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You: A Teen Girl’s Guide on Love, Sex, and Relationships has obvious value.

Book display
Copies of 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You at the book launch.

When I got the call from Jackie, she had already worked with a designer on the cover, but the production values were lacking. This seems to be happening to a lot of authors. In the last two years, I have seen an increase in calls from people who have hired designers who, it turns out, could not complete the project in a satisfactory way or who have simply gone missing before the job was finished.

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Publishing Publishing & Entrepreneurs Publishing for businesses

Benefits of Publishing for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

When you think about profits from publishing, don’t just think about book sales if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur. The profits from the book sales are often just one aspect of a book’s value. In fact, some businesses and entrepreneurs can profit from publishing even if they give away their books. Books are, for example, a good way to increase speaker engagements and that means more opportunities to build your brand and promote your products and services.

Here are a few benefits of publishing:

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Author bio Back Cover Texts Publishing

How to Write the Best Author Bio

To help promote your book, you need an author bio. The purpose of an author bio is to persuade readers to buy your book. Or put another way, an effective author bio is one that has a positive influence on the purchase decision.

Focus on the Purpose of Your Author Bio

This same sales principle that applies to the book cover, the design of your book, retail features on the cover (price, shelving category, barcode, publisher identity), and all the other back cover texts (book description, endorsements), applies to your author bio. All the design work, texts, and retail elements serve one primary purpose which is to generate book sales.

To achieve this goal an author bio must convince your audience that you are authoritative—meaning that you have the experience, talent, qualifications, or credentials to write about whatever topic you have chosen.

Another important purpose of an author bio is to convince book industry professionals and event planners that you are capable and available to market your book by giving book readings, participating at book signings, speaking to audiences, doing workshops or seminars, etc.

Start with an Outline

Compile a list of your achievements, experiences, and credentials. Consider mentioning

  • past publications (articles or books), including blogging experience;
  • relevant experiences and accomplishments;
  • any awards won;
  • workshop and speaker experiences;
  • membership in relevant organizations; and
  • any important professional or volunteer work you’ve done.

If you have given workshops in different cities or countries, list them. If you have relationships with people who are important to your story, mention them. If there are notable cases or projects you have worked on or completed, mention them.

Include certification credentials next to your name if they are relevant and especially doctorate level degrees (MD, PhD, EdD, etc.). If, for example, you are writing about health or nutrition include any appropriate credentials (CNS, CCN, RD, CNC, CN, MD, ND, etc.).

Remember that once you publish it, it will always be out there and you can’t make it disappear—so be truthful and consider how the author bio might be understood in the future. Your author bio is a critical pillar in your personal brand.

Identify and prioritize those features of your author bio that are most likely to persuade readers to buy the book and believe in your abilities. Put the most important details at the start of your author bio. Eliminate details that are unrelated to your qualifications to write about your chosen topic. Avoid, for example, any information about hobbies, travels, interests, household pets, etc., that are unrelated to the book.

If humor is important to your book, a humorous author bio may help persuade readers that you can and will deliver humor in your book.

If the primary purpose of your book is to generate speaking engagements, then shift the focus of your author bio more in that direction by stressing your credentials and experience as a public speaker.

Formulate a Mission Statement

Whether you have a long list of credentials or none at all, formulate a mission statement. A mission statement is a short summary of your aims and values.

Use the mission statement as a lens through which to view all the statements and claims in your author bio. This will help your keyword and phrase choices and the overall focus and unity of your author bio.

Let’s assume you have written your first sci-fi book and there is nothing in your job history or experiences that relate to your new literary aspirations. In this situation, your author bio can consist of a type of mission statement that allows readers to understand your aims and values. Of course, you only want to mention those aims and values that help attract readers to the actual genre and story you are publishing.

Keep it Short

Two to three short paragraphs are sufficient. A good bio does not need to be long. 400 words or less is fine. Once you have completed the author bio, create several edited versions, one that is about three sentences long, and one that is only one sentence. You will need the different lengths for different purposes.

Ways to Use Your Author Bio

You’ll usually need a very short version for the back cover of paperback editions. This back cover bio can be as short as one to three sentences that focus on your credentials.

I’m often asked by authors: “Should I include an ‘About the Author’ page at the end of the book if I already have an author bio on the back cover?” The answer is yes. The back cover bio is usually very short because of limited space. Reader endorsements are more valuable than the author bio. If you have two or three reader endorsements and a short book description, too little space remains for a long author bio. Put a short author bio on the back cover and a longer one at the end of the book. If the back cover bio only includes the most relevant credentials or experiences, then the longer “About the Author” page can mention other accomplishments such as notable speaking engagements you have given or workshops you give.

Use the longer, more complete, author bio for your “About the Author” page, website, and for your press kit. Put a press kit on your website so people can download and print it, or share it as a PDF.

Do You Need to Include an Author Photo?

If you are attractive or have an author photo that reinforces your credentials, you should include it. If you are, for example, writing about mountain climbing and you have a photo of yourself on a mountain in appropriate gear, use it. If you are a business professional, dress in appropriate business attire. Try to use a photo that fits your author credentials.

If you use a professional photography studio to get your photo taken, be sure to let them know that you plan to use the photo for “commercial” purposes. Most photography studios have separate fees for personal and commercial use. You’ll need commercial use.

Be sure to read my blog Tips For Writing The Best Back Cover Copy

Categories
Publishing Publishing Math

The Math Publishers Don’t Want Authors to Know! (Part 2)

Let’s assume you are publishing a simple book that is 6″x9″, 250 page, B&W interior, full-color cover. The cover price is $19.99. This is the same example used in part one of The Math Publishers Don’t Want Authors to Know!

When do you start making a profit?

You only have to sell around 270 books to cover all your start up cost. That’s all—even though you’re following publisher best practices by actually hiring a professional editor and designer! Sell just 270 books and then you’re on your way to making a profit.

The initial costs (editing, design, etc), plus the first 300 printed books look like this:

300 x $19.99 = $5,997

 

Editor                                             $1,500

Pre-press                                   $2,280 (Design, page layout, file prep)

Printing and shipping            $1,620 (The POD print unit costs is $5.40. 300 x $5.40 = $1,620)

Total cost                                  $5,400

$5,997 – $5,400 = $597 divided by 19.99 = 30 copies

300 – 30 = 270 copies to break even.

$5400 divided by the cover price $19.99 equals only 270 books sold before you start making a profit. (This assumes the books are ordered and shipped 100 copies at a time. If for example, all 300 books were ordered at once, the print costs drop to $1441.93. This slight savings changes the equation like this: $3780 + $1441.93 = $5221.93 divided by $19.99. Now only 261 books need to be sold before making a profit.)

After selling 270 books, your only remaining costs are printing and shipping more books to your office. The next 300 books (ordered 100 at a time) costs $1620.27. Sold at $19.99 each, the total income is $5,997, leaving a profit of $4,376.73. Remember, when the publisher sold 600 copies, you made only around $420. In fact, with 4000 books sold by the publisher, you only made around $2800. To make the same amount, you only have to sell 463 books, which is 3,537 fewer books than the publisher! If you publish independently and sell 4000 books, you get $54,576.40!

What if you sell more than 4000 books?

Let’s assume the book is a great success and you start selling more than 4,000 copies. Here’s the math based on the model outlined above (initial costs of $3780, plus low-risk print-on-demand method for 100 books ordered at a time costing $540).

Net profit after costs:

4,000 books sold = $54,576.40

10,000 books sold = $145,891

100,000 books sold = $1,458,910

If the book proves too difficult to sell, you can cut your losses early by not ordering more books. However, because you only need to sell around 270 copies to cover your costs, it is unlikely you will lose money.

Let’s now assume that you want better printing. Instead of print-on-demand, you decide to use offset printing to get better overall quality and more special print features, such as a gate-fold cover (French flaps), a metallic ink or gold foil title, embossing, a second color in the interior, etc. Unlike print-on-demand, you need to print more copies, usually more than 1000 copies to make it worthwhile, so you have to invest more money up front, but bear in mind that the total overall investment is less, even though you are getting much higher quality.

You decide to spend $12,000 on printing 4000 copies. With the similar editing, design, and a few additional costs (special effects templates and print management), the total investment is now $16,000 or $4.00 per book. Profit per book is $15.99, almost 15% higher than when using print-on-demand. You now make 15% more and the book is a much better quality product that will be much more likely to make a good impression and sell.

$16,000 divided by $19.99 means 801 books must be sold before profitability.

This leaves 3,199 books in your inventory. 3,199 books sold at $19.99 = $63,948.01 total profit. This is $9371.61 more profit than you made selling the print-on-demand books.

When many people think about profits from publishing, they are only looking at the book sales. For business owners and entrepreneurs, the profits from the book sales are often just the beginning. In fact, some businesses and entrepreneurs can profit from publishing even if they give away the books. Be sure to see read my post Benefits of Publishing for Businesses and Entrepreneurs and The Most Important Thing to Do When Publishing.