Photo courtesy of Hubspot

We’ve written a great deal about building your platform and especially about the benefits of blogging and writing articles to demonstrate your expertise to your audience. Still, you’re always looking for more ways to drive traffic back to your online presence, and ultimately to the bookstore to buy your book.  Another excellent way to achieve this is by serving as a guest blogger.

A guest blogger is someone who does a single post for another individual or group’s blog. This can be a one-time deal or a recurring column, but either case allows you to tap into someone else’s audience. There are many great blogs out there for you to choose from. You can locate blogs related to your platform in a number of ways:

1. Go to the top magazines or associations in your topic. Chances are the editors of the magazine or leaders of the association have at least one blog (sometimes they have several—each one for a different beat).
2. Ask for referrals. Find out from your network what other blogs your audience is following.
3. Check out the competition. Other authors and experts in your field already have a line in with your audience. Grease the wheels by offering to swap guest posts.
4. Look at the blogroll of your favorite sites. Most times bloggers feature the blogs they follow on their tool bar. This is a great (and fast) way to locate additional blogs. You can use sites like Technorati (link) and Alexa (link) to evaluate which blogs have the most traffic so you can develop your strategy and start by focusing your time on the blogs with the largest audiences.

Once you’ve identified blogs related to your topic, you will want to craft a pitch. Before you contact the blogger, check to see if they have posted writer’s guidelines. If so, follow them to the letter. If not, send them a short pitch that includes a specific idea for a post topic and identifies exactly why that post would be of interest to their audience. Close with a short paragraph about your qualifications. Here’s an example of a typical pitch letter:

Dear blogger,

The world of publishing is changing fast. Many of your readers are trying to navigate this evolving landscape, but it can be overwhelming. I propose a post that looks at the pros and cons of each book publishing option available to authors, complete with a short checklist readers can use to identify which route is best for them.

I work at an independent publisher and write articles and white papers related to publishing. You can view samples of my work at www.bigbadbookblog.com.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Author

There are a few other things to consider when pitching a guest blog post:

1. Research the outlet beforehand to make sure it’s appropriate. Bloggers don’t want to get pitched by writers who are outside of their subject area and who don’t have anything to offer their readers.
2. Read some of the posts and make sure that you are providing something unique. If they’ve already done a post on the subject, craft a new angle or choose a different topic.
3. Be considerate of the blogger’s brand. They are building their platform and readership too. Don’t try to hone in on their turf.
4. Keep the self-promotion out of your post. Often you are allowed a short bio and a link back to your website or blog, so focus on creating value and leave the promotion out.

Above all, don’t be afraid to ask. Most bloggers work hard to fill their editorial calendar and are happy to have someone fill in (as long as the topic is relevant). Also, don’t be afraid to consider having someone guest post on your blog as well. They will bring their readers with them and will often add you to their own blogroll. In the realm of social media and blogging, paying it forward really does pay off.

In reality, Twitter really is quite simple. This fun video shows you how easy it is to get started and how it works.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We also found this one that explains twitter keywords and hashtags, which are important for targeting your reader.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to utilize twitter, it’s time to focus on what you should actually say or “tweet” about. Like with anything you do to build your author platform, you need to be answering the reader’s question—“What’s in it for me?” Even at 140 characters, readers are still looking for value. You can provide it through:

News: What’s hot and trending in your topic right now.

Links: What resources are available to educate, inform, and entertain your reader.

Tips: Quick tips and insights to help your reader improve or enhance their lives.

Throughout your posts full of news, links, and tips you also want to sprinkle in some self-promotion and engagement with your readers. A good rule of thumb is to keep promotion to about 20% of your content and focus the rest on providing value to and engaging with the reader.

A few quick tips:

• To add links and still keep your posts to 140 characters, use Tiny links or Bity links
• Add keywords designated with hashtags (mentioned in the video above). This will allow you to get your post in front of people outside of your network. If your tweets are interesting and informational, they’ll start following you.
• Don’t worry about mass. It’s not about how many followers you have, it’s about having the right followers who are interested in your topic and view you as a great resource/expert.
• Social media is a two way street. Engage with readers, answer their questions, and share other people’s informative posts.

Here are some popular hashtags related to writing and publishing:

#dearauthor: Notes and tips from industry professionals to authors.

#dearpublisher: Notes and questions from authors to publishers.

#publishing: News, trends, and information on publishing.

#pubtips: Tips on getting your manuscript picked up by an agent or publisher.

#writing: Information on the craft of writing.

#amwriting: Updates on what you are writing now.

#WIP: Work in progress.

#writegoal: Share your daily writing goal.

#womeninpublishing an #meninpublishing: Focus on the men and women in the industry.

#books: All things related to books.

Title:

Author: Jennifer Beckham

Genre: Christian Life/Women’s Issues

Publisher: Cross Over Press, 2009

Review:

Most women would admit to fantasies of one day becoming a princess. In her book Get Over Yourself!, author and minister Jennifer Beckham shares her personal journey as she achieved the coveted status of a Disney princess, only to find that her dream brought her more misery and heartache. It wasn’t until she learned to “get over herself,” developed her faith, and overcame the negative thoughts and emotions ruling her life that she finally achieved happiness. From her journey emerged “7 Princess Principles,” rules that any woman—but especially women of faith—should follow to achieve balance, happiness, self-worth, and a full spiritual life.

With a personable style that is both no-nonsense and compassionate, Beckham blends Christian principles, anecdotes, expert quotes, and actionable advice with observations and examples from her own life to weave a positive message of ownership over one’s destiny. Though clearly directed to a Christian audience, non-Christian women can also find sound guidance in her advice on how to take ownership over your thoughts, feelings, and actions to achieve the life you want and are meant to have.

Throughout the book, Beckham emphasizes the control each individual has over the many negative messages vying for influence and stresses that each person has the power to silence the negative messages and find strength and solidarity within. She also stresses how important faith is to this journey. Specifically, she talks about true faith being a conscious commitment, not a wavering search for a “feeling” of faith.

Beckham highlights many passages from the Bible, which demonstrate the arguments of faith behind her principles and ground her ideas in Christian wisdom. She also makes her advice applicable to many real-world circumstances, including dieting and relationships, showing readers exactly how to implement her principles and strategies in any situation. Beckham further makes her content actionable by offering up “ABC’s” at the end of every chapter that ask the reader to reflect on the concepts in the chapter, complete an exercise to deepen her understanding of the concept, and to acknowledge the negative thoughts and beliefs that had been holding her back from achieving the life she wants.

Overall, Beckham presents ideas that are both inspirational and actionable and which teach women to overcome their fairytale conceptions of happiness to find real, honest peace and happiness through faith and ownership. Women interested in personal development, inspiration, and Christian literature would enjoy this book.

Interested in having your book reviewed? Learn more here!

But to get there, the book does have to be perfectly executed, which is the first step (or impediment) to success. Based on the submissions we see, I’d like to share my top three considerations for creating a successful children’s book:

Incredible Illustrations

The importance of high-quality, professionally executed illustrations cannot be overemphasized. Characters and storyboards must be conceived and carried out by experienced children’s book illustrators. In this arena “cute” isn’t good enough—illustrations have to be dazzlingly perfect, and creative to boot. A traditional style of illustration, like this, can give a book a classic look, while a more quirky style, like this, can help differentiate your title. I recommend getting a third-party, professional opinion of sample illustrations before committing to an artist. Asking library buyers, literary agents, book publicists, or book distributors for feedback is a good start. It’s always wise to compare the quality of your book to comparable titles that have sold well in bookstores.

A Unique Story

Because of all those kids’ books published every year, you have to have a new message (or a least a new spin on an old message) for children and parents. If you’re thinking about writing a book about a popular topic like friendship, bullying, or nightmares, figure out how to approach it in a new way. You could do this with an unexpected story, funky characters, an innovative rhyme scheme, or unusual illustrations. Sometimes choosing an unaddressed topic and picking a specific niche can give you a built-in fan base. For example, topics like vegetarianism, knitting, meditation, or debt might be places where the market has holes that could be filled.

High-Quality Production

Similar to illustrations, the production of kids’ books has to be exceedingly high quality. To ensure the printing quality, make sure to do your background research on printers you’re thinking of using. Ask printers to send you a sample with specifications similar to your book’s so that you can physically assess paper, ink, and binding quality. Adding interactive parts to a book, like sound, mirrors, pop-ups or puppets, can also help it stand out, though beware of expense when considering these types of technology. If you want your book in retail outlets, it’s best to print your book with an offset printer, as opposed to print on demand—the quality is significantly higher with an offset press, and bookstores require their books to be returnable.

Common Mistakes

On the flipside, here are a few common mistakes we see on a regular basis:

Too Much Text per Page

We see a lot of kids’ submissions that have far too much text per page. For a children’s picture book, which are usually targeted at ages 4–8, text can be as minimal as you want it to be, but it’s generally a bad idea to exceed more than 70–80 words per two-page spread. Shooting for 0–30 words per page is ideal—when it comes to the amount of text per page, less is always more.

Unclear Age Group

It is sometimes unclear what age group an author is aiming for, and as a result, the book doesn’t really fit in any category. Oftentimes, books take an approach to their topic that is too complex for 4–8 year-olds, hurting its chances for retail. Similarly, we also see picture books with between 60 and 70 pages, which is too long for younger children. A 32-page picture book is generally meant for ages 4–8, so it’s important that your topic and diction are age-appropriate.

Too-High Price

As we’ve mentioned before on the Big Bad Book Blog, the retail price range for a book is very limited and determined by the retail buyers. Charging $1 more for your book than other authors are charging could have a severely negative impact on sales. Most hardcover children’s books are between $9.95 and $16.95, with $14.95 being ideal in most situations. Board books are typically $4.95 to $6.95.

A note about money: it is important to consider profit margins before starting production on a children’s book since the printing price per unit is significantly higher than other books because of the color interior, and the price point is very low due to the competitive landscape. You want to make sure you’ve considered all costs before getting started so that you have a plan to recoup them.

Content

Though certain elements vary between fiction and nonfiction, any book, no matter what the genre, must be compelling, marketable, and memorable.

Compelling: It must be a topic that people are interested in.

Marketable: There must be a significant number of people interested in the topic.

Memorable: The writing should be good and should stick with the reader.

Market

Publishing is a business. In order for publishers (and authors) to make money, they need to sell books. So, when publishers look at a project they ask themselves: What is the market for this book? Who would be interested in this topic? How many people constitute that segment of the population? How often do they buy books and for what reasons? You need to be able to answer those questions before you even start writing.

Competitive Titles

The next thing publishers consider is your competition. This is key for many reasons. First of all, it shows them who your market is and the size of your market’s demand. If books on your topic are doing well, they are more likely to consider your work. Second, publishers look at how your book differs from the competition. If you provide enhanced content, an innovative approach, new research, or a more user-friendly voice, then they will be more likely to consider looking at and possibly acquiring your book. However, if your book is too similar to an existing one (especially one that has done well), or if your content is weak or poorly executed in comparison, then a publisher will be less willing to consider your project.

Platform

We discussed this in great detail before, and we can’t stress enough how important it is when evaluating your potential success as an author. Publishers need to know that you have identified your audience, that you are speaking to the needs and wants of your audience, and that you are continually and actively engaged with them even before you have a book.

Understanding how your book measures up in terms of content, market, competitive titles, and platform is essential to your publishing efforts. Weakness in any area can be improved upon, but too many issues in one or more categories can seriously hinder your chances of being published.

1. Complete your profile. Fill in your work history, your experience, any awards and recognition related to your book or expertise, and a short bio. Include as much information as possible about who you are as an author, and make sure the information you include will interest the target audience for your book. Also make sure you a have a current, professionally taken photo.
2. Update your status. LinkedIn is all about professional updates, so only share links, events, or media coverage that pertain to your message an author and expert. Keep info about your cat or your last meal for private conversations.
3. Make your profile public. This way people can easily find you, both within LinkedIn and on the web.
4. Add links. You can add up to three links to your profile, including links to your blog and website. Be sure to add at least one link with information about your book (which is usually your website).
5. Make connections. Go through your Outlook address book, Rolodex, or BlackBerry to find potential connections from your existing contacts. LinkedIn’s quick connect feature lets you connect with people already in your Yahoo or Gmail email accounts.
6. Join groups. Find groups that cater to your audience. Make individual connections with members in the group and participate in events and discussions.
7. Get recommendations. Have people who have read your book or whom you have worked with in some way write recommendations for you. Be willing to do the same in return should the occasion call for it.
8. Set up your company profile. If you have a company or your own small press associated with your book or expertise, set up a company profile. If you have employees, you can invite them to update their profiles with their company affiliation.

The above will help you get your profile page up to a par, but LinkedIn has some other fantastic features that you will also want to use to boost your presence.

1. LinkedIn Answers:  Demonstrate your expertise and connect with your audience by answering questions on LinkedIn Answers. You can search open questions by category or date posted to quickly find which questions you have the authority to answer. The key is to be precise and to leave the self-promotion out of your response.
2. Document sharing. Share your articles and presentations with one of the many document-sharing plugins available. Some of the most commonly used include SlideShare, Scribbd, and Box.net. All three allow users to download your materials, are available from LinkedIn free of charge, and help you boost your SEO.
3. Social media plugins. You can add your tweets, blog posts, and Facebook posts to your LinkedIn profile. Just be careful—each platform caters to a different audience, who each want different information. If you are cross-pollinating with repetitive posts, people will turn off.

LinkedIn is always adding more plugins and features. Just check out the application directory on the LinkedIn toolbar for more information. You can also check out LinkedIntelligence, a blog focused on LinkedIn best practices.

Social media is an important facet of your overall marketing strategy. Just as with any social media effort, the key for LinkedIn success is to be consistent and provide value. LinkedIn is more manageable than most platforms, in that the status updates you write should be limited to only those items related directly to your book or profession, so you only need to update once a week or when you add new events, articles, and media coverage. You can set up email alerts to keep you updated on group discussions and LinkedIn Answers as they occur, so you don’t have to constantly check back.

Above all, don’t let LinkedIn or any social media platform consume you. Keep it simple, focused, and constrained to what is realistic for your goals and schedule.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Don’t be afraid to go for the golden egg. Ask a variety of people who are well regarded in your genre—not just authors, but also entrepreneurs, speakers, personalities, and other big names. You’ll be surprised at how many will say yes.
2. Leverage your existing network. There aren’t that many degrees of separation between you and the golden-egg contacts. Speak to people already in your network. Ask whom they know and get recommendations for others you might not have considered.
3. Make it easy for them to say yes. When you send your endorsement letter (sample below), go ahead and include a few sample endorsements that they can choose from should they want to. You can ask your editor or publicist to help you draft a few.
4. Keep them short. Endorsements are generally 1–3 sentences long. To be effective, they must be specific. They can’t simply say, “It’s a great book.”
5. Be professional. If you are requesting an endorsement from someone in your existing network, then an e-mail request is fine. For those whom you’ve never met, a formal letter sent via snail mail is a more professional way to go. Send an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) with any mailed requests, but for an e-mail solicitation, it is enough to offer an ARC and then follow up.

In addition to blurbs, you can also solicit someone to write a Foreword for your book. The process for securing these is the same as with endorsements, but instead of 1–3 sentences, the endorser writes a recommendation letter to the reader. It can be as short as a paragraph or as long as a few pages and gives, in greater detail, the reasons why the industry guru recommends your book. Forewords give the endorser more white space to demonstrate their skills and knowledge and an opportunity to connect with your platform in a deeper way—a great selling point to consider when requesting this service.

Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of the actual endorsement letter. One thing to remember here is that you are not selling your prospect on your book—you need to sell them on their own value as a potential endorser. In other words, don’t start off by saying how great your book is, start by saying why you admire their opinion and why it’s important to you to have it. Also share your reasons for writing the book, the topic, and who the market is so they can readily see that you are marketing to the same audience they serve (this way they can see the advantage in having their name visible to your network).

Here is an example:

Dear Sir or Madam (Use your prospect’s real name—no mass letters here):

I attended your lecture last year and was inspired by your point of view on leadership. Reading your work, it became evident that we are offering new ideas and advice to a similar segment of the business audience. I admire your ideas, so when I knew it was time to start requesting endorsements for my forthcoming book [Title], you were at the top of my list.

Like yours, my book is geared toward upper-level management, but instead of leadership I discuss ways for managers to find a balance between work and life. After spending many years in upper-level management doing things the wrong way, I learned how to find success in my career while still having time for family, friends, and fun. With a weak economy adding more stress to corporate life, it is becoming increasingly important for managers to find that balance. My book includes proven tips and strategies as well as real-life anecdotes to help other managers find that happy balance.

To help with your decision, I have enclosed an Advance Reader’s Copy and sample endorsements for you to review. I thank you very much for your time and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Author

We receive so many submissions that, despite having great content, have one part of the packaging off, which makes it hard for us, or any distributor, to effectively sell the title. Interior layout is one facet of packaging that can be easily overlooked but remains essential to the professional presentation and readability of a book. I spoke with managing designer Sheila Parr, who’s won numerous awards for her book designs, about common layout errors, and she offered some simple advice to anyone looking to produce a book on their own.

Font and Typography

For fiction and general nonfiction, serif fonts are easier to read on the printed page than sans serif fonts. Size depends on font, but in general text should be somewhere between 10 and 12 points. Stay away from bold type, underlined type, all-caps type, and exclamation points to emphasize a point—this can come across as unprofessional.

SP: When picking a serif font, don’t use Times New Roman. Times has become a sort of default font,and it can have an unfinished look about it when printed. For a more polished, professional look, try something like Caslon or Garamond. To emphasize a point, italics can be a better solution than bold or underlined text.

Margins

In general, margins are about .75 inches on the bottom and sides, and about 1 inch at the top of the page, though the .75-inch margin can be as small as .5 or as large as 1 inch. For longer books, the margin along the spine, known as the gutter, may be larger. Leading, the space between lines of text, should be several points larger than the text itself.

SP: Margins and leading are usually determined by factors like genre and page count. For example, a dense business book may have a looser layout with wide margins and leading to help the reader better absorb the material, while a novel typically has a tighter layout that keeps the reader moving and engaged.

Words per Page

Too much or to little text per page makes a book difficult to read. Like margins, the number of words per page varies based on genre and page count, but there are usually about 35 lines of text.

SP: In general there should be about 350 to 440 words per composed page. Nonfiction and books with illustrations and graphs are on the lower end of that scale, and novels are on the higher end.

Chapter Headings and Running Heads

Chapter headings and page breaks should match the book’s genre and style and should be appropriate for the target audience. A business book, for example, should have fairly simple chapter headings as opposed to the headings of a fantasy novel, which may have more elaborate fonts or design. When there are other headings within the chapter, create a hierarchy by using varying sizes.

Running heads are the text at the top of every numbered page of a book. They often consist of a combination of the author’s name, the chapter title, or the book title. The important issue here is to be consistent—if you decide to use author name on the left and title on the right, stick with it throughout.

Graphs and Illustrations

If you are using graphs or illustrations, make sure they are high resolution and easy to understand. Try to keep visually presented information simple and relevant to the text around it.

SP: There are whole college courses based on information design—illustrating complex information in a way that is easily understood. My advice: hire an experienced professional to design your charts, graphs, and illustrations.

Front Matter

All of the information that comes before the first chapter of your book (e.g., your foreword, preface, or introduction) is called front matter. There are varying styles of organization depending on the genre or publisher. This content is frequently paginated with lower-case Roman numerals, while the pages that begin your first chapter—the content of your book—are where the Arabic numerals begin, though introductions frequently get page 1, not Roman numerals.

Thanks to Sheila Parr and our production and design teams for all of the great information.

To develop a database of articles, start by making a list of topics you can speak on, such as “10 Things Every Leader Should Know” or “5 Ways to Improve Your Health While on the Road.” Don’t worry if you can only think of a few. This list will grow as your career continues and as you research more outlets for your ideas.

Next, identify publications that cater to your audience and that submit freelance articles. Look on the publication’s website for the submission guidelines; it is important that you follow these to the letter. Ignoring guidelines is usually grounds for an automatic rejection and does not present you in a professional light.

Here are a few more tips for developing and submitting articles:

1. Make your articles concise and actionable.
2. Use startling statistics or third-party facts to support your ideas.
3. Tailor your article to the publication’s tone and audience. This may mean switching out certain terms. For example, you can substitute the term “customer” with “patient” if you are submitting an article on marketing to a medical publication.
4. Leave out the self-promotion—that’s what your bio is for.

Above all, provide value. If your articles don’t have substance, not only will no one want to read them, but media professionals will not want to print them either.

If you’re a nonfiction or business author, it’s easy to repurpose some your book content into an article. Simply pull out a page or a few paragraphs that focus on a central topic or concept and add an appropriate introduction or summary.

There are also many options for submitting articles for content syndication on the Internet. Content syndication can benefit your website’s search-engine ranking and enhance your web presence. Here are a few syndication resources:

Free Resources:

http://e-articles.info/ This free article directory provides useful free articles, tutorials, and information resources about various life issues. Subjects include Arts & Entertainment, Finance, Dating & Relationships, Business, Technology, Health & Fitness, Home & Garden, News & Society, Sports, and more.

http://www.articlealley.com/ This site helps authors promote and syndicate their content on a large scale. Web content managers from thousands of partner sites use Article Alley to source free content they can include on their own websites.

http://www.articlesbase.com/submit-articles.php Similar to e-articles.info and Article Alley, Articles Base allows authors to submit articles to a comprehensive database. Articles Base is unique in that it includes an author bio box where you can promote your own webpage and personal brand.

Paid Resources:

http://www.isnare.com A $2-per-article submission charge makes syndication available to 1000+ websites.

http://www.rcplinks.com/Article_Submission.htm $25 for 100 links to your article.

Rules when submitting articles to content syndication services:

#1: No links allowed within the body of the article.

#2: No promotion of your company or book within the article itself.

#3: Links promoting your Amazon page or book website should live in the bio or “about the author” section.  Use links sparingly in this section as an article will often be rejected if there are more than three.

]]> http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/2010/08/10/how-to-write-and-pitch-articles/feed/ 0 http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/2010/08/05/put-your-best-face-forward-how-to-take-a-great-headshot/ http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/2010/08/05/put-your-best-face-forward-how-to-take-a-great-headshot/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:06:08 +0000 Natalie Navar http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/?p=2314 The author headshot is an imperative part of your career as an author. Not only will it be featured onyour book jacket, but your publicist will also want to make use of the photo for press releases and other marketing events.  You’ve spent months (or years!) on the content in the book; now it’s time to package it up.

There is a plethora of different headshot styles floating around the shelves at Barnes & Noble. From seriously bohemian black and white shots to overly made-up portraits, it can definitely be daunting to decide which direction to go with your own headshots. That being said, the easiest rule to follow is: keep it simple.

No matter your genre, a clean, professionally done headshot is the perfect addition to your book cover or marketing package. Look up local photographers online, browse their portfolios, and pick one with obvious experience in headshot photography. Even if you are unsure of how to approach the session, an experienced photographer will be able to steer you in the right direction as far as posing and expressions go. The photographer will also be able to recommend a makeup artist who can ensure that your makeup looks natural and perfectly applied on camera. I’m talking to you, too, men; a shiny forehead or age-spotted nose can be easily fixed with some expertly applied concealer and powder. That being said, remember again to keep it simple. You want to look like you in your photo (you on your best day, of course). Bright lipstick can photograph as garish, and even a slight over-application of eye shadow will come across as raccoon eyes. Err on the side of “less is more”; if you need any touch-ups, the photographer can easily do that to your final prints.

As far as clothing goes, plain colors (rather than prints) in a business casual style are the way to go, but beware of anything too bright. If you’re thinking hot pink, choose a cool raspberry instead; you want your face, not your blouse, to be the center of attention. Take at least three changes of clothing; you’ll be surprised how different a color can look in a photograph. Women, feel free to add a little jewelry, just stick with smaller pieces that won’t look dated in five years. Also, make sure that you are against a plain, neutral background. Grays and taupes make for soothing, unobtrusive backdrops that go easily with any color (including black) that you may be wearing, and that’s why they remain the most commonly used backdrops by photographers.

The most important thing to remember is that this photograph is about you. Not your makeup, clothes, or accessories. Relax and be yourself at the session, and don’t be afraid to ask the photographer for advice! There will be hundreds of photos to choose from, so you are guaranteed to find a few that you love. Feel free to send over your favorites to your publicist for help in making the final decision, too, as he or she can give you an informed decision as to which photo is best suited to your needs.

So there you have it! Be yourself, keep it simple, and don’t be afraid to ask the professionals for advice. Investing in your headshot is an investment in your career as an author, and having a photo that reflects you and your professionalism speaks volumes for your credibility.