In Mint Condition: 2013

[Jimimck]

Sounds good pal.

[TwistedNadine]

Yep, the print ad will run in magazines, websites, and newspapers for right now. Once the book is released, the print ad will say "NOW AVAILABLE" instead of "COMING SOON" and it will run alongside the reviews.

Hmm Sure hope you reconsider that ad design before running it

[Shannon]

I appreciate everyone's honest feedback, thank you.

The ad is staying the way it is. I like it. My question to you guys is ... what would you put in its place? If you don't like the artwork itself, what would you change? Thanks!

[ELazansky]

The art doesn't look like it has anything to do with being In Mint Condition. When I hear that phrase, I think of baseball cards or comic books in perfect shape. Not that either of those should be in the ad for a book of short stories, but the art should relate to the title somehow.

[Roseannebarr]

I liked the art work, but it does not pull me into buying the book. It looks more like a graphic novel or way to hip for my taste. great for the younger folks though! I already bought the book, so the ad will not get me to buy another one! I am not a big fan of artist editions, artwork in general, but i like the looks of it!.

Glen

[TwistedNadine]

Im not a designer. All I can tell you is that ad doesnt make me want to buy the book, doesnt generate any interest in the book at all in fact, and doesnt (in my opinion) represent something in Mint Condition nor of something "pristine", "perfect" or "fine" (which is what I think of when someone says Mint Condition). I would even say that ad design screams the opposite. This is just my opinion as a professional BUYER of books. I dont sell them, I dont design them, I dont have to advertise them and I am not an artist, either. Wish I could offer more design suggestions.

[Brice]

I like the artwork...though I do understand to some extent what some here mean by the artwork not selling the book. Truth be told though one picture isn't going to sell me on a book anyhow though. I'm more concerned with the book itself If I'm going to buy an anthology with no knowledge of the author's inside I'm going either with a book a friend irl or online suggests or I'm just randomly grabbing something new (This I've done a lot). Personally if I were going to have considered anything different I'd have chosen to use the Boehmke cover with the artist/author banner at top and any additional info I wanted in a banner at the bottom. I totally understand wanting something different here though and am pretty sure this has already been etched on stone slabs and handed down to an old dude on a mountain.

Edit: *looks up* It seems I was right and I do like the image.

[Scoogs]

I'm trying to look at the ad as someone who has never heard of you before.

1. What is In Mint Condition 2013? The only hint I get is the tiny url and publisher in the bottom corner. That implies book to those of us here, but we already knew what it was. "Edited by" could be a magazine, a DVD or a book.

Put your self in the mind of a total newb seeing your ad in a newspaper. It needs something to clue them in, even if it's as simple as changing the line at the bottom to say "A new fiction anthology edited by Shannon John."
You are not yet an established publishing or editing name, so don't bank on that too much at this stage. In a couple of years, sure, but for now you may need to spell it out for potential customers.

1.5 What's it about/where does the name mean? Is there a general theme holding the anthology together? You don't have to spell this out in a paragraph, but it should somehow be communicated. At minimum you need to make the viewer curious enough to jump on your website to find out more.

2. Are the names at the top the authors or the artists? Will your audience even know any of them by last name only? Probably not. I'd recommend full names so potential readers can at least try to google them.

You should also give them a lead in like "stories and illustrations by..." or change that line at the bottom again to "An illustrated anthology of new fiction edited by Shannon John." Sell the fact that it's also illustrated.

3. Why not celebrate the fact that this is the premiere book from you as a publisher? Use it as a selling point to invite customers in from the start. Be the high school kid telling all the guys he just lost his virginity.

4. Make the title a little bigger and give it a little better contrast from the background. In newspaper printing in particular you are going to get a lot of dot gain which will make the image even darker. You don't want everything blacking out on press.

5. Typesetting issues: Fix the justification settings on the names at the top. See how the letters in BOEHMKE and ARMATA are mashed together but others like READMAN and WOOD are more loosely spaced? That's inconsistent type setting and looks sloppy.

Also make sure those are actual dashes and not hyphens between the names. There is a difference.

You have an extra space before Newsom and another before Wells.

[Merlin1958]

FWIW I would have gone with the "Typewriter" logo you used early on. That, to me, generated both "interest" and "class/substance (?)"

[Lauterer]

I'm trying to look at the ad as someone who has never heard of you before.

1. What is In Mint Condition 2013? The only hint I get is the tiny url and publisher in the bottom corner. That implies book to those of us here, but we already knew what it was. "Edited by" could be a magazine, a DVD or a book.

Put your self in the mind of a total newb seeing your ad in a newspaper. It needs something to clue them in, even if it's as simple as changing the line at the bottom to say "A new fiction anthology edited by Shannon John."
You are not yet an established publishing or editing name, so don't bank on that too much at this stage. In a couple of years, sure, but for now you may need to spell it out for potential customers.

1.5 What's it about/where does the name mean? Is there a general theme holding the anthology together? You don't have to spell this out in a paragraph, but it should somehow be communicated. At minimum you need to make the viewer curious enough to jump on your website to find out more.

2. Are the names at the top the authors or the artists? Will your audience even know any of them by last name only? Probably not. I'd recommend full names so potential readers can at least try to google them.

You should also give them a lead in like "stories and illustrations by..." or change that line at the bottom again to "An illustrated anthology of new fiction edited by Shannon John." Sell the fact that it's also illustrated.

3. Why not celebrate the fact that this is the premiere book from you as a publisher? Use it as a selling point to invite customers in from the start. Be the high school kid telling all the guys he just lost his virginity.

4. Make the title a little bigger and give it a little better contrast from the background. In newspaper printing in particular you are going to get a lot of dot gain which will make the image even darker. You don't want everything blacking out on press.

5. Typesetting issues: Fix the justification settings on the names at the top. See how the letters in BOEHMKE and ARMATA are mashed together but others like READMAN and WOOD are more loosely spaced? That's inconsistent type setting and looks sloppy.

Also make sure those are actual dashes and not hyphens between the names. There is a difference.

You have an extra space before Newsom and another before Wells.

Very good posting. Reputation 4 you!!!

[Sir_Boomme]

1

You have an extra space before Newsom and another before Wells.

but I need the extra space.. I'm a big guy....


(pretty sure that extra space is so that the entire text block is squared off...)

[Shannon]

Second ad coming soon.

I said it in my Reputation message, but Scoogs had some great ideas. All of the feedback has been wonderful, and I thank you for that, but Scoogs wins the game, lol.

[Rahfa]

Yep, the print ad will run in magazines, websites, and newspapers for right now. Once the book is released, the print ad will say "NOW AVAILABLE" instead of "COMING SOON" and it will run alongside the reviews.

I would stick to web advertisements. But I wouldn't advertise at all - waste of time.

Turn the book into a PDF, email a request-for-review to horror bloggers, etc., have them read a PDF copy so there's no printing costs to you, then they can write about it on their website, or write an Amazon review if it's available that way.

You should really upload it as a Kindle book to Amazon's e-store for like $2.99 and push the print version within the download.

Advertising is a waste of time for a self-published book, especially print - that's throwing money away...the best way to generate sales is through word-of-mouth by readers, and that means providing the book to legit reviewers.

[Shannon]

We have over 100+ reviewers, including many award winning editors, authors, magazines, publishers, and websites. A lot of known names. They will publish their reviews on their own websites/in their own magazines, etc etc, and many of them will publish them on Amazon and Goodreads, things like that.

A pdf/eBook version will be sent to every customer who purchases either of the editions. We will also be selling the Paperback and eBook through Amazon.

We won't pay for advertising or reviews. If the reviewer would be so gracious as to run one of our advertisements next to their review, then that would be wonderful.

[mattgreenbean]

Will this thread be where the review links will be, or will you start a separate thread for that? Have any come in yet?

[Brice]

Actually, part of the money making plan is to sell the links to reviews to the contributers.

[Tito_Villa]

Shannon, any closer to knowing when the book will be published?

[Ben Staad]

Actually, part of the money making plan is to sell the links to reviews to the contributers.

Bad business plan. Of course all the authors and artists do not read (or care about) reviews because everyones work is AWESOME! Good job folks.

[Shannon]

Will this thread be where the review links will be, or will you start a separate thread for that? Have any come in yet?

Weird. I could swear I responded to you in this thread, but my response seems to have magically disappeared. Oh well. All reviews (besides being posted on websites, blogs, magazines, newspapers, Amazon, Goodreads, etc) will be on ambannonbooks.com. Every now and then I might pop in here to let everyone know the page has been updated with new reviews. No one has read the book besides the contributors and the winner of the Proof Copy. George has read the book and will be our first official reviewer soon.

Shannon, any closer to knowing when the book will be published?

We're getting close, although the printer and I aren't seeing eye to eye. This is the second printer we've worked with, so I hope everything can fix itself soon.

[woodpryan]

What's up, Shannon? Do we have a release date?

[Shannon]

Not yet, but we're getting close.

[Merlin1958]

Not yet, but we're getting close.

Hey!! That's CD's line!!! LOL next thing you'll be saying "We're just waiting for the Slipcase Maker to deliver"!! LOL

Spoiler:

Sorry, Shannon and Brian!! Just couldn't resist!! LOL LOL LOL

[Jimimck]

Hey!! That's CD's line!!! LOL next thing you'll be saying "We're just waiting for the Slipcase Maker to deliver"!! LOL

Speaking of slipcases............?

[Shannon]

Slipcases are expensive. Trust me, already looked into it, lol.

[Tito_Villa]

Any more news on the printer?