AG Line Blog

You've written your book... now, how to get it into the (paying) hands of people besides your friends and family? With the availability of online and social media tools, anyone can promote their books without spending a lot of cold, hard cash.  Your time, well, you can expect to spend quite a bit of that.  However, if you're willing to...

Facebook marketing for authors is an excellent tool for self-published authors. Follow these steps to help you use Facebook to raise awareness and increase your book sales. Create a Fan Page:  When you create the website for your book (read more about creating a website for your book here), you should also create a Fan Page or a Facebook Author...

Self-publishing by the numbers––getting your own ISBN As you go through the different phases of the self-publishing process, you will come upon the step that calls for how to get an ISBN number. At this point, you’re likely to ask––What’s are ISBN numbers for self-publishing? ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number, which is a thirteen-digit number assigned to individual...

See how Alta Graphics finishes the covers of our digitally printed books using crease scores to provide spine and hinge scores together with UV coating to create a professional paper back book.  

Self-Publishing––Is it for you? You’ve written, halfway written or are considering writing a book or some other type of manuscript. In this day and age of DIY, many authors are giving more thought to the idea of publishing their own writing.  Many feel that since they wrote the book, they should also publish it and have greater control over content...

After you’ve finished the mechanical and substantive edits of your manuscript, it’s time for the book page layout. The book layout design phase of the self-publishing process prepares the guts of your book for its final ‘look.’  Margins Many who are new to self publishing often forget to provide enough space for margins. You will want to have white space all...

You've made it.  You've written and edited your book, designed the cover and had it printed into beautiful volumes that smell wonderful and are just waiting to be sold.  Then you realize that writing and publishing the book is only half the battle.  If you want people other than your friends and family to take pity on you and buy...

Editing Your Manuscript Before you move on to the page layout step of your book, you will want to finalize the editing process to keep your costs lower. It is possible to make modifications after the editing phase, but it will cost you, because you will have subsequently entered the phase where your manuscript is in page layout software. At...

If you are going to self-publish your book, it is critical that your book's cover attracts attention, fits within your book's genre and looks good no matter what size it is (due to online marketing and sites like Amazon).  Here are some tips to help you create a book cover that grabs attention: First of all, research other books in...

In this era of social media and online networking and online search, you may not see quite as many brochures and leaflets being handed out on a regular basis.  The business card, however,  is still widely used at business networking events and in face-to-face meetings, and they can speak volumes about you and your company. The following are some tips...