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Vervante • February 8, 2022

(Part 2 of our "How to Create a Product From Start to Finish 5-part series) How to Create a Product with Vervante: Part 2 In the second installment of this special series of articles, we will guide you through the next steps once you’ve defined the product you want to create. How to get printing cost quotes Once you've defined exactly what you want to create, you can reach out to our team to find out what it will cost to print it. We provide free quotes, all you need to know when requesting a quote are general specifications. Here are a few examples: Books: Size of book, number of pages, cover type, binding method Card decks or greeting cards: Size of cards, number of cards, packaging Planners or journals: Number of pages, page size, tabs, covers, binding, etc. To request a quote, go to the Vervante website and click on “Get a Quote” in the top right-hand corner. Fill out the required information and you will receive an email response with the quote information. Create a Vervante author account To upload files and order products, you need to create a Vervante author account. It’s free, quick, and easy. Just go to our website and click on Sign Up. Once you’re set up, you can access your Author Dashboard, which is where you can upload files for printing, place orders, and access everything from sales reports to invoice details and everything else you need to manage your account. Writing and creating content No matter what kind of product you are creating - books, planners, card decks, children's books, coloring books, etc. - it's guaranteed that you will need some amount of written content for that product. Content is just as important as design when it comes to creating a product that is both attractive and functional. Here are a few of our tips to give you a head start as you create content for your product: Writing productivity tips: Facing a blank page can be hard, but we've put together a few articles that can help you get into the zone, including: "How to overcome writing obstacles," a fun guide to zombie-proofing your book or product, and our National Novel Writing Month writing productivity guide. The importance of copy editing: Nothing can be more damaging to your products and your reputation than publishing a book or other written product that is filled with typos, errors, and incorrect information. A few mistakes here and there aren't that big of a deal, but consistent misspellings, grammar errors, and incorrect information will distract your reader and leave them with a negative perception of you, your expertise, and the message or information you share. Check out this article to learn more about the different types of editing and how important it is for the success of your product: "The Importance of Copy Editing." Understanding legal issues: Understanding how to protect your unique work and the rules you need to follow is an essential part of being an author and entrepreneur. We've published several resources and multiple blog articles about the most common issues, answering many FAQs that our customers send our way. We've included links below to articles and free guides you can access that will give you a good working knowledge of the do's and don'ts as you create your new product. What to put on your book copyright page: The copyright page is found at the front of the book, usually right after the title page. The format can be varied as there is no single accepted template for copyright pages. Generally, they will contain things like: copyright notice, ISBN, publisher information, contact information, rights and permissions, country book is printed in, author website, credits and disclaimers. Follow the link to this story, "What to Put on Your Copyright Page," and you'll see lots of examples you can use for inspiration.   FREE RESOURCES Our Help Page offers a variety of free resources including product videos and guides on everything from design tips to copyrighting.  Below are links to just a few of the many guides available: How to Use ISBN, LCCN, and Copyright "Can I Use That Quote?" What Authors Need to Know About Fair Use & Permissions Copyright Permissions and Fair Use How to Write a Children's Book Word Count Conversion Chart Custom-Designed Card Decks How to Create Your Own Coloring Books 7 Steps to Create the Perfect Planner In this section of our special 5-part series, we hope we shared information that has inspired and motivated you to move forward with your idea for a book or special product. Next week, we will cover what you need to know about designing your product, with insider tips to help you through the process. Links to Full Series Article #1: Getting Started Article #2: Creating Your New Product (this article) Article #3: Design and Print Files Article #4: Publishing & Printing Article #5: How to Share & Sell

Vervante • September 14, 2021

Every author  needs a website. Especially self-published authors. Social media is great. But when it comes down to it, an author website that you control is the best way to promote your books, boost your sales, and create a loyal following that will support your future endeavors too. As a self-published author you should have a website, at least one social media account, and an Amazon Author Page that works together in harmony to connect and promote. But the mistake that many authors made is building them – then forgetting about them. An active website can do wonders for sales and engagement. An outdated or stagnant one will do the opposite. Luckily, it’s easy to improve your author website so that you can make sure it’s supporting your goals. If you’re thinking to yourself “Gee, it’s been a while since I’ve checked in to my own site,” we’ve rounded up a few tips for making your author website all it can be. 5 Things You Need for An Author Website First, let’s cover the basics. You should have the following 5 things on your author website. Author Bio Your Books and Products Mailing List Sign Up Contact Info Blog or Calendar Tips for improving your author website TIP #1: AUTHOR BIO: Make sure your bio is up-to-date, and that it includes a clear call-to-action at the end. If a reader feels connect to you, give them a way to stay in touch. This can include pointing them to your email/newsletter sign-up (see Tip #3), buying a book, or even just following you on an active social media account. TIP #2: BOOKS & PRODUCTS: All of the books and products you currently have available for sale should be listed and have easy-to-find links for purchasing. If you have multiple products or lines, make sure this page is well-organized and easy to read. Many readers will go to your website to find your books, and if you make it easy for them to click and buy, you’ll make them very happy (and get more sales!) We encourage you to sell directly from your site using any shopping cart, then let us print and ship the product to your customer.  Selling direct allows you to collect the customer data, specifically their email address, and build your subscriber list. You can then sell your products on Amazon as a secondary distribution channel. TIP #3: MAILING LIST SIGN UP: Start collecting email addresses even if you don’t have a newsletter yet. Building a database of interested followers and loyal fans is a very powerful way to boost future sales, connect with your readers, and create a community that will support you for the long term. (You can read more here about how a contact list can support your next book or product launch.) TIP #4: CONTACT INFO: Don’t leave them hanging. You don’t have to share your personal email or phone number, but be sure that readers have a way to stay in touch including an email/newsletter sign-up, social media, or even how to follow you on your Amazon Author Page. TIP #5: BLOG or CALENDAR PAGE: A blog is a great way to let people know more about you, share your world, announce new books, launch campaigns, and give them a place to connect in a deeper way with you. A calendar is also a great method of announcing events such as book signing, online live streams, holiday promotions, etc. TIP #6: MAKE IT SPECIAL: Offering incentives can go a long way toward creating a loyal and enthusiastic following. Lead Magnets Pre-Sale / Pre-Launch Offers Discounts Bonuses VIP Status Free Content Swag (Stickers are fun -- Custom card decks too!) If you’re gearing up for a book or product launch for the holidays, now is the perfect time to update your author page. Having one more support system updated and ready to go will streamline your launch and help with smooth sales throughout the year ahead.

Vervante • March 30, 2021

We get this question a lot: “What’s better, print-on-demand or bulk orders?” The right answer depends on a number of things – your business model, your budget, the type of product, and your customers to name a few. Here’s how each one works and the benefits they offer. Print-on-demand (POD) To put it simply, printing-on-demand is when we print only the amount ordered, at the time we receive the order. You pay only the cost of printing plus postage for shipping. While other publishing companies often require costly minimum orders in large numbers, here at Vervante we offer POD print-on-demand services for any size order, printing only when you need it, to meet your budget and demand. How print-on-demand works An order is placed for a book or other product. We print the exact amount ordered. The order is then shipped to the person who ordered it (either you or your customer). Benefits of print-on-demand Get only the amount you want, when you want it. You sell the product from your site, your Etsy store, or we can list it for you on Amazon. When we receive an order, we’ll print and ship it to the buyer.  Print-on-demand products NOTE:  Products with softcovers, poly paper covers, plastic spiral binding, metal spiral binding, perfect binding, and saddle-stitch binding are all available on demand. Here is a quick list of products we can print on demand:  Paperback books Spiral bound books Coloring books Children’s books Saddle-stitched books Planners Journals Workbooks Binders Notepads Calendars Card decks Greeting cards Posters Post cards Certificates Newsletters Bookmarks Bulk printing Placing orders for large amounts of books or products to be printed at once can be a benefit for businesses that anticipate large amounts of orders - as well as lowering your printing costs. We can print in bulk and send to you, or we can store them in our warehouse to use for future orders from your account. How to get bulk pricing quotes When you request a quote for printing costs, we always provide a print-on-demand price, but you can also request bulk costs as well. The more you print, the lower the price per product.  How to use bulk printing Once you’ve received your quotes and are ready to proceed, please email [email protected] to let us know you would like to place an order. Contact our customer service team to make the order and they will set it up so a discount will apply when you place the order. You can choose to have your order stored in our warehouse for free, or shipped directly to you. You can then send us individual orders for fulfillment.  We’ll pull your product from your stored inventory in our warehouse and drop-ship it directly to your customer. Storing bulk orders in our warehouse Even if you don’t anticipate all of your printed books selling right away, you can still take advantage of the lower pricing by placing a bulk order and storing it in our warehouse. Bulk orders can be printed and stored in our secure warehouse, ready to be pulled and drop-shipped when you need them.  Tracking your inventory When a bulk order is placed, if you choose to store your order in our warehouse, you will see a category on your Vervante Author Account Home Page that says “Inventory Report.” This is where you can find an accounting of how many products remain in inventory. You will need to track your inventory and let us know when and if you would like another bulk order printed. We hope this helps clarify the differences and benefits for both POD and bulk printing when it comes to books and many other products. If you have any questions about using POD or bulk printing for your current products, or new ones, we’re here to help. Just email us at [email protected].

Vervante • October 6, 2020

Mark your calendars and get ready, Amazon Prime Days (October 13-14, 2020) are just around the corner! This is a great opportunity for everyone – whether you sell on Amazon, on your own website, or anywhere else. If you haven’t started planning yet, it’s not too late, especially if you use these Prime Day-inspired ideas to add some sizzle to your sales. #1 Offer a special "prime" deal for your audience Nobody promotes quite as well as Amazon. Shoppers are excited and anticipating epic deals as Prime Day gets closer, so why not take advantage of the excitement and offer your own “Prime” deals for products you sell on your website, too? The best way to do this is to reach out directly to your loyal customers and fans. This means sending emails to your list and posting updates to your social media. Offer special "prime day" packages where for a limited time several products are bundled for one low price. If your clients love packages, take it a step further by creating a subscription service and launch it on Prime Day with free extras or a special reduced rate that will catch people's attention. Record a special audio podcast or video tutorial as an extra for one of your books or products and offer it as a special bonus on Prime Day. Offer a special personal coaching session or limited-time memberships to your masterminds or coaching groups, with any Prime Day purchase. #2 Debut new daily planners If you love the idea of selling a daily planner, but aren’t sure how to get started or worried it’s too late in the game, we can help! Use the already-designed and formatted 2021 daily planner we recently released and sell it as your own! All you need to do is download the InDesign files for our daily planner, make any changes you want, then use it as your own to sell or share. In just a matter of days you can start marketing and sales for your very own daily planner. (Learn more about our 2021 Daily Planners including full access to images, files, etc by clicking HERE.) #3 Prime Days “free-plus-shipping” specials "Free-plus-shipping" offers are great for Prime Day. It’s the process of offering your book or product for free for a limited time, and the customer only needs to pay for shipping. (This is a very powerful way to build your email list, too!) (Learn more about how Vervante can support your free-plus-shipping offer by clicking HERE.) #4 Build anticipation with sneak peeks Here's one more tip to give your Prime Day deals some extra oomph: Be sure to share "sneak peeks" of the specials you'll be offering in your newsletters, social media and emails. It's a great way to spread the word, build anticipation and join in all of the Prime Day fun everyone is having. The key here is to be creative - and add value. You don't need to reduce your prices, just give in a way that will excite your customers and make them feel like they got the best prime deal out there!

Vervante • September 3, 2020

Want to know the best time to promote your new product? Before it's officially available! Preselling is a powerful marketing strategy that everyone can benefit from. The presale period is so important, in fact, it should be the centerpiece of your marketing and promotional campaign. What is a presale? It's that period of time when you're in the final stretch, polishing up your new product and preparing for the big launch, but not quite ready to print and ship. Presales offer several big benefits #1: Takes the guesswork out of knowing how many books, etc to print ahead of time if you want to use bulk printing #2: Helps offset the cost of printing, marketing, etc. by collecting payment for the product before you officially launch it. #3: Generates good "buzz" to support stronger sales How to generate interest in preorders Preorders work wonders for building buzz and building excitement about your upcoming launch. They can lead to more sales initially and lead to sustained sales over time as well. But how can you convince readers to buy a product when it isn’t available to read yet? Offer free swag: This is a popular strategy, and it works! Give readers an extra incentive to preorder and something that offers instant gratification to hold them over until official launch day. Send a digital gift pack: If you're on a budget, this is a more economical version of swag. Send them downloads, recordings, exclusive short stories, extras they can print and add to the planner, etc. Form a fan squad: If you have a group of friends and fans who are excited about your upcoming launch, harness that power by asking them to be your official launch team. Send them early copies so they can leave reviews and recommendations. Let them share details about the new book on their own social media and give them special links to let their followers pre-order. Use your social media: Give your social media images an update by adding information or images about your upcoming launch. Have a strategy that takes readers on a journey to get them invested and excited such as cover reveals, printing snapshots, excerpts and more. Send an email to subscribers: If you have a mailing list, (every author should), then you already have a group of people who are interested in what you are doing. Send them updates, build the excitement, and give them exclusive offers to support your presale offer. How to set up your products for presales It's easy to offer presales, here's what to do: Set up a landing page and allow customers to pay you for the product ahead of time. Be sure to communicate clearly when customers should expect to receive their purchase. At the close of the presale window, let Vervante know how many you need printed. Send us an export from your shopping cart of all presale orders and we'll ship your planner or product to each of your customers. Each person's situation might be different, so if you are planning on offering presales, it's always a good idea to consult with our publishing team so we can make sure you're optimizing each step. Just reach out at [email protected] or schedule a 1-on-1 call using our online scheduler.