New small business to help authors self publish

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Diane Krause on May 23, 2012 at 6:14am

Hi Benjamin, 

I took a look at your site, and it looks like you've got a great service. Clearly you've invested a lot of time in setting up your new business -- what an accomplishment. 

I noticed two things you might want to jump on, though, since you're offering an editing service (I'm also an editor):

• One one of your rotating home page banners -- the one with the lady with glasses that lists manuscript editing, proofreading, etc. -- you have grammar misspelled. 
• On your top navigation, under Bookstore, the letter "e" is left out of the word "Barnes" in Barnes & Noble. 

Don't want you to lose any business  over a couple of typos!

Wishing you all the best,

Diane

Permalink Reply by Henry Matlock on May 23, 2012 at 6:46am

Looks like Diane submitted this while I was typing my reply.  So I will just point out the following here:

• In the Cover Design section: "custom designed"
• In the Copyrights section: "electronically"
• In the ISBN section: "gotten"
• In the e-Book Format Publishing section: "popular"

Again, these are on the home page only, so you may want to take another look at the other pages and check for typos there as well.

All the best!

Henry

Permalink Reply by Henry Matlock on May 23, 2012 at 6:20am

Hi Ben,

I only looked at the home page, but I think it is laid out in a format that the visitors can easily see what it is that you do.  And that's a good thing.  I noticed some typos that you will want to address.  I can spell those out (no pun intended) in a direct message once you accept my friend invite.  I think there are many writers/authors who can use your services, so I hope you experience tremendous success.

Keep us posted!

Henry

Permalink Reply by Tim Bishop on May 23, 2012 at 7:27am

Hi Benjamin, and congratulations on this rollout.  You've put a lot of hard work into this and it shows.

Here are some thoughts for your consideration:

1. shorten the "about me" section; when clicking through I thought it was too long to bother reading. You might also considering enlarging the font if you pare down the number of words.  I noticed the small font under book design as well.

2. on your ebook formatting cart page, it wasn't clear to me what the customer receives in exchange for $125.  You used the words "...various e-reader formats such as..." and then "...all of these formats" Is this intended to be an all-in-one solution?  I would spell out specifically what the intent is AND all of the formats or ereader platforms supported.

3. on your manuscript editing cart page, it looks like you are charging 0.025 per page, but 0./05 also appears in before clicking through and on the cart page itself.

4. on your scrolling images, the word "have" is missing from the editing proofreading banner.

5. I'm confused as to why you are offering a bar code.  Aren't all your services for ebooks?

I think the publishing tips page is a good resource for your client base.  It is presented very well--nice and clean.  And I also think your cover pricing is appropriate.

I hope that helps.

Tim

Permalink Reply by Benjamin Bierce on May 23, 2012 at 4:32pm

Thank you all for the feedback. It's kind of funny. I have decent technological skill, but I am completely lost when it comes to the web site. I'm at the mercy of the web designer to get things changed. I appreciate the feedback because I am too close to see some of the errors. This is going to be fun!

Permalink Reply by Roy Simmons on May 24, 2012 at 1:49am

My 2 cents- I would ask the web designer for access to correct spelling, etc.

Great looking site, 

BTW I wonder if you have any ideas for me and my 'tribe' of Artists? Getting books with a high graphic content onto the ipad seems to be a minefield. For an example here is our newsletter, can ebooks like this be converted to epub easily? Love your input and ideas, like you I can see huge potential, but the tec issues are a pain.

Permalink Reply by Karlene Cameron on May 27, 2012 at 12:18pm

Hi, Benjamin,

I like the concept and the fact that you got it up and running!

Speaking as a designer myself, you might want to increase the font size. It's too small. There is no space between the footer and the bottom of the page, as well (in Safari).

I'm also a trained author's assistant, so I am all for self-publishing vs. going to a POD company.

K

Permalink Reply by Camden Ross on May 27, 2012 at 3:07pm

Hi Benjamin,

My opinion of the website is that it is too cluttered, and the formatting/spacing seems to be off. I use the latest version of Firefox when viewing your site. It looks like you are trying to do too much with your homepage and I am quickly overwhelmed with options. Here are a few notes about some specifics relating to the homepage layout parts with some suggestions for improvement: (Note: It appears your designer is using Joomla, which I am not familiar with.)

• Background, header, and top menu all look good. The only comment I would point out is that the crumpled paper look might give the appearance of bringing something out of the trash to include. It is a nice texture, but not necessarily the subtle image you would want to present.
• The product directory list has weird looking bullets and the overlay when you put your cursor over the text does not look good. (I would probably lose the bullets, and have the arrow appear on the mouseover instead of disappear.) It also looks weird to have the text shift when you move the mouse over the items in this section.
• The main slideshow looks good, but I would probably pick a different color than orange to draw attention to it because orange doesn't seem to be a color that matches your website color scheme.
• The three banner ads just below the slideshow and product directory seem to all compete for the readers attention and these elements would probably be better styled into the slideshow and not trying to all compete for attention at once.
• What comes next for my screen is 'below the fold', which is probably intentional.
• The sidebar comments:
  • The login with facebook account looks nice, but it is looks out of place with the style of the rest of the sidebar.
  • I know that with WordPress, and this could be problematic with Joomla too, enabling open signups could result in lots of spam users. Proceed with caution, and have some security in place in case this happens.
  • The custom covers look cool, but to my design eye, I can quickly tell that your designer had 3-5 templates that they just wrapped designs around. Instead of making this obvious by reusing the templates over and over (especially in order), mix it up and simplify the list. You could create a sequence that it moves through the templates completely once, then goes through them all again only with different covers applied. That way, each cover will look unique from the one that is on either side of it in the show.
  • The slideshow doesn't seem to line up with the sidebar window it is in. In other words, some book covers stop nice and centered, while others stop too soon and are cut off.
• Main column comments:
  • What's next for your book? Break this block into two paragraphs. (I personally don't like the dropshadow on the question mark in addition to the actual shadow. I'd simplify the shape by leaving off the drop shadow since none of the rest of your text has it.)
  • Services section: This looks good, however I would pay close attention to tightening up some of the copy. I also would work on cleaning up some misspelled words, especially when talking about people judging a book by its cover. People are judging your website by its cover as well, and typos here are a big red flag that your service is likely to miss errors.
  • E-book Self Publishing section: I would tighten up this section (less text) and increase the font size. You already have a "read more" included, and I feel as though I have already read more.
  • I would increase the font size of the text and decrease the amount of text included on the home page.
  • I would also really scale back the repetition that the home page feels like it has. Your product directory and your services section feels like it is repeating the same content.
  • Your footer is crowding the bottom elements of the body section, and to me this makes this design feel even more unappealing.

Overall, what you look to be creating has a lot of promise and potential, but the design of the site does not inspire me to hire you. I hope these suggestions can help you and your designer simplify your site while keeping the necessary items still accessible.

Hopefully this helps.

~Cam

Permalink Reply by Eric W. Uphouse on June 4, 2012 at 5:09am

Benjamin,

     One aspect of your site I found very appealing is the ease of navigation. The only thing I would like to see is a little more about you (life experiences, testimony, some personal info). I really enjoy seeing the person behind the company and will often use a service where I get to know a little bit about them. Something akin to the author's bio on the back of a book. I believe if you seem more "real" you will attract more customers. Kudos to you on stepping out and starting your own business and having the faith to take the next step!

Eric