Welcome to Our Services Support Page
A guide to our most frequently asked questions
General Support Questions
Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. eastern time (ET). For the fastest response time, send us an email at projectmanager@eliteauthors.com!
If you need a phone call to answer a question, call us at (917) 922-1339, ext 1. If we don’t answer, leave a message! We will call you back within the next business day. Need a longer discussion? Book a meeting via Calendly.
We can answer many of your questions via a quick phone call. However, we also use ZOOM to screen share. That way we can both view the exact same thing together. And don’t worry about fixing your hair; there’s no need to turn your camera on.
While our editing, marketing, and design teams are unfortunately not available by phone, we’re happy to contact them on your behalf.
Elite Authors and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) are separate entities! While many of our authors choose to publish with Amazon/KDP, we are not directly affiliated with the organization.
You may contact Amazon directly for any questions at (866) 321-8851, and you can reach them with any questions here.
Please see this document that explains the change fees and what they include. If you wish to move forward with any changes, let your production coordinator know and they will facilitate them for you.
Author Questionnaire Questions
An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number. They are unique to every book and are required in order to publish. Every ISBN can either be a 10- or 13-digit number. If you decide to use the free KDP ISBN, KDP owns the number, but not the rights to your work.
If you decide to buy one through Bowker, you will own the ISBN number and can then publish with that number wherever you’d like and register your book under any publisher name. The link to purchase an ISBN through Bowker can be found here.
If you purchase through Bowker, you will own the ISBN and can publish wherever you’d like. However, if you are chosen by a traditional publisher, you’ll need to change it to their ISBN.
Your imprint is “who” you’re publishing through. If you obtain a free ISBN from KDP, your imprint will be “independently published.” If you purchase your ISBN through Bowker, you’ll need to log in to their website. Then, click on your account, then your profile, and it will display the organization name. This is your imprint name.
Editing Questions
Traditionally published manuscripts have been edited a minimum of four to six times before publication.
We offer various discounted editing packages and options to meet your manuscript’s needs! Please reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to discuss options with you.
Yes, you need Microsoft Word. Our editors work exclusively with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature, so you’ll need to have Microsoft Word (or compatible software) to incorporate our team’s suggested edits.
We highly encourage our authors to individually review the suggestions as you, the author, know your own voice best.
We match the right editor to each manuscript. We make sure that the editor has experience in that genre and style, and if subject matter expertise is necessary based on the topic, we look for an editor who is a match there too.
While we don’t share the editor’s personal information, we want to reassure you that we have a team of editors who have been tested and are in the 99th percentile of those tested. Each editor must be rigorously tested and trained to work here and, on average, they have 10+ years of experience.
Marketing Copy Questions
Please contact us if you’re interested in learning more about our marketing services, such as book trailer creation, Amazon positioning and review services, and social media content creation.
For additional resources, here is a link to our blog on marketing your Kindle book, and here is a link to our blog on marketing a book in general.
The OAL is your optimized Amazon listing, which is utilized in the uploading process on Amazon. It lists your BISAC categories and suggested keywords to improve the marketability of your book. It helps the greatest number of people find your book while browsing through Amazon.
Q: How do I use the taglines in my marketing copy?Taglines can be used on your book’s cover (front or back), on bookmarks, on flyers, on your website, or on any other marketing material you might create. They’re for you to utilize how you wish. They’re designed to evoke an emotional response—rather than tell the full story of your book.
Taglines can be used on your book’s cover (front or back), on bookmarks, on flyers, on your website, or on any other marketing material you might create. They’re for you to utilize how you wish. They’re designed to evoke an emotional response—rather than tell the full story of your book.
Cover Design Questions
Please send us images in JPG, TIFF, or PNG format at 300 DPI or more. If you are sending more than one image, please send them in a zipped folder to help us communicate your vision more efficiently with the design team.
We offer two different custom cover services: simple and complex. Each offers a unique option, so you can pick what’s best for you!
You can download the preferences sheet by clicking this link.
Interior Questions
Industry standard is for each chapter to start on the right-facing page. So if a chapter would start on the left-facing page, an extra blank page is inserted so that the chapter always starts on the right. If you would prefer, we can take the blank pages out and have chapters start wherever they may fall.
EPUB files can only be previewed once uploaded to KDP and through their previewer; they cannot be opened on regular PCs or Macs. Please first download the files to your computer; then you can upload them to KDP!
There are fundamental limitations of ebook designs. There’s no way to guarantee that a reflowable digital file will look exactly like the print file, as different e-readers have default settings that will inevitably change the layout.
Some customization is possible, as with the headings and fleurons, but ebook designers must work with a simplified layout to accommodate all e-readers.
Our Simple Interior Template Guide shows you each of our interior template layout options. To help you better select a template, we have created four categories based on overall look and feel. You can download it by clicking this link.
Our Custom Interior Style Guide shows you twelve custom layout options for your book. You can download it by clicking this link.
Please watch this two-minute video to learn how to use the Elite Authors interior changes form.
You can download the form by clicking this link.
Uploading Questions
Your files should work fine across all platforms! We do not currently have upload instructions for publishers other than KDP, but the files are identical to what you should need.
As a note, Ingram has different cover-size requirements, so please inform us if you’d like to publish on Ingram.
If you have enrolled in Amazon KDP’s Expanded Distribution channels, then your book will also be listed with Barnes & Noble online. It will take approximately six weeks to appear on their site.
- First, please confirm that you are using the most current files to upload.
- Then, confirm your settings as outlined in your “Read This First” letter.
- If you are still having issues, please reach out to our team for assistance!
There are a number of factors to consider when pricing your book: genre, length of your book, color versus black and white, paperback versus hardcover, etc. And do you already have an established audience that you know will be buying your book no matter what?
To figure out how to price your book, we recommend reviewing similar books on Amazon KDP to get a sense of what the genre prices tend to be.
Prices on KDP are editable, so you can always go back and increase or decrease the price depending on how your book is selling.
KDP has a great printing cost calculator that will let you play with cost to see your project’s royalties. Typically, authors on KDP make around $3–$5 per book.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Questions
KDP needs to know some basic tax and financial information so that they can send your royalty checks to you. To input your banking information, log in to KDP and click the “Your Account” tab on the top right-hand corner. From there, you can input your banking information to receive your royalties!
Make sure you fill out your tax information as well! If you do not fill out your tax info, you will not be able to collect your royalties. For more information about your payments, visit this link.
Please see this link for more information about purchasing ads on Amazon.
Amazon Reviews Questions
The review service typically takes about 2.5–3 weeks. During this time, the reviewers read your book, write, and post reviews. There may be additional time for the reviews to be verified and published.
Yes, all reviews will be verified purchases. We ensure that all reviewers purchase the book directly. In the case that Amazon KDP does not verify a purchase, we have a process to dispute the review to ensure it is verified.
Absolutely! After all reviews have been written and posted, we’ll send a summary of the reviews for your convenience. This summary will include a link to your reviews on Amazon and the body of each individual review.
As long as your books are linked, each review will be viewable on each version of your book. You will know that your books are linked if you can easily toggle between them on your product listing on Amazon.
Social Media for Authors Questions
Successful authors use social media to connect not just with current and potential readers but also with other writers and industry professionals. You can share snippets of a work in progress, promote the work of other authors, reach out when you’re doing research, keep in touch with what readers are interested in, and so much more.
The most successful social media mavens have one thing in common—they post regularly. There’s always something fresh and new to find. It can be a full-time job, and if you’re a writer, you already have one of those (or possibly more than one)! Elite’s social media experts create a series of posts that are ready to go—all you have to do is make sure they’ve got your voice and vibe.
Different platforms tend to appeal to different demographics, so the trick is figuring out where your energies will be best spent. Some of that depends on whether you’re trying to connect to a wider community of writers or appealing to a particular group of readers, but no matter what your goals, Elite has got a plan to suit. Our social media experts can help you decide whether you want to be tweeting, Instagramming, or updating your Facebook.
Your social media should absolutely sound like you, which is why we work so hard to get a feel for your voice and style. Our onboarding process is thorough and comprehensive. We want to know what kinds of things you like to write, who else you follow or admire, what kinds of posts appeal to you, and whether you love a meme or prefer a more serious style. And you always get final say. Nothing gets posted without your approval.
Reviews Service Questions
There are a few ways to get book reviews. For example, you can ask family and friends to read your book and write reviews, you can put a call out on social media, and you can even include a request in the book itself for happy readers to share their opinions with others. However, these methods can be unpredictable, and you don’t want to leave your book sales to chance. Engaging a quality review service such as ours takes the guesswork (as well as the legwork!) out of the equation.
The one-word answer is yes. Reviews sell books. You probably know this yourself. If you’re intrigued by the cover or a premise of a new book, especially if the author is unknown to you, you start skimming reviews to see what other readers think. You’re not alone in this. According to some estimates, 97 percent of readers use reviews as a deciding factor when considering which book to buy.
Reviews—their quantity as well as their quality—tell bookselling algorithms that people are not just reading your book but pausing to share their opinion with other readers. That alone suggests that your book is one to be taken seriously, and that is reflected in your search rankings. The more reviews your book gets, the happier the algorithm will be.
Yes... and yes! We don’t tell our reviewers what to write, though we do, of course, ask that they write informative reviews that go way beyond “I liked it.” Our reviewers must read your book thoroughly before they begin, because we ask that they include concrete details and examples of what they found intriguing or appealing.
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