Vince Lombardi, recognized by many as having been the greatest football coach ever, always insisted his players be brilliant on the basics. If basic things are not done well and intentionally, they will sabotage your success. But, if they are done well, they will become the bedrock of your success.
Therefore, it is important that we know, learn and be intent in the five basic book listings: high quality content; eye-catching cover; optimized title; captivating blurbs; and SEO. Let’s look at these one-by-one.
High Quality Content
To have high quality content your book needs not only to be well written, but it also needs to be professionally edited. Editing cannot be stressed enough. Editing isn’t something we are always excited about, but we should be as it can beautifully hone your writing craft into an award-winning program. Embrace editing. You won’t be sorry.
After publishing, it is wise to do a once-over at least once a year where you rewrite your book, correcting any errors that were overlooked and bringing it current. For instance, if you’ve written a romance novel that you want to stand the eras of time, then it needs to keep up with the times. It may be necessary for you to update clothing or social events, or types of transportation. Whatever is relevant to keep your book read worthy for the current audience. If it is a period book, then you may have learned something new about that period and add it to your book or make a change.
Eye-Catching Cover
An eye-catching cover is a phenomenal necessity. We like to say we don’t buy a book by the cover, but it is the cover that usually attracts us to the book to begin with. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in this case, it may well be in the eye of the book purchaser. You want an attractive book cover that draws the eye to it and makes it stay there.