featured authors tutorial

CRC Press l 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW #300 l Boca Raton FL 33487 [email protected] l www.crcpress.com l +1.561.994-0555

CRC PRESS FEATURED AUTHORS PROGRAM

Making you a key element in the promotional

program of your books

HOW TO CREATE YOUR FEATURED AUTHORS PROFILE

JANUARY 2013

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So What is Featured Authors All About?

The CRC Press Featured Authors Program is a strategic initiative by CRC Press to enhance the

integrated promotional process for your book. The goals of this program include:

To support book "discovery" and provide more visibility for CRC Press authors, editors and

contributors to their readers and other interested people in their domain

To enhance the “book buyer” experience by providing highly visual, engaging information

about CRC Press authors, editors and contributors

To allow authors direct access to the information on their public CRC Press profile and its

"look and feel" to ensure it's up to date and reflects their "brand"

To provide an ability for authors, editors and contributors to easily publish news about

themselves or their book and syndicate it to CRC Press channels

To provide ability for authors, editors and contributors to easily share and syndicate

information about events they are participating in or speaking at

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What's In Your Profile?

Your profile is a dedicated section of the crcpress.com site where people can learn more about

you. It is designed to be highly visual and engaging. With this new platform, you can:

Share information about your background, your book(s), your research, expertise and

interests

Share pictures, images and video site links that you think potential book buyers might be

interested in

Integrate your profiles from social network sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Post links to other websites you may have

Share news like reviews, honors and awards

Share events you are sponsoring, speaking at or attending

It is up to you. Your profile can be as simple or robust as you want it to be

Sounds simple right? It is! Let's get started!

http://www.crcperss.com/

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Step 1 - Collect Your Content

The first step in creating your profile will be to collect the information and media you will need.

Most of this was part of your book proposal, but it is always a good idea to review and make

sure it is up to date. If you have created a social network profile or one on Amazon Author

Central, you probably have most of what you need already. Here is what you should collect:

An interesting, high definition photo for your profile background. You can use a traditional

headshot, but something more active is usually more effective. Optimum size for this image

in pixels is 990w x 750h.

A brief statement to introduce yourself (up to 200 characters)

Your current position and affiliation

A longer biography, your educational background, areas of expertise and research and

personal interests

Pictures and images of you or related to your book(s) that you think people might be

interested in. You can also post relevant links to videos on YouTube and links to other

websites.

Access to social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Any recent or upcoming news and events

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Step 2 - Complete Enrollment

Enrollment is very simple. You probably received an invitation to the program from CRC Press

(Make sure to check your junk mail folder if you haven't). If you received one, you have already

been enrolled. You just have to click on the link in the email. You will be taken to a form to set a

password and then signed in to the platform.

If you didn't receive an email or you can't locate it, you can enroll online by going to

http://www.crcpress.com/authors/enrollment. When you click on this link, the page below

will be displayed. You can enroll by entering your name and email or use an existing online

profile. Simple as that!

http://www.crcpress.com/authors/enrollment

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Step 3 - Complete the Checklist

Once you have completed enrollment, the profile "Checklist" will be displayed. It is shown

below. This checklist walks you through all the steps needed to complete and publish your

profile. Each step corresponds to one of the menu items at the top. You just click on the blue

title of the step (Not the checkbox on the left of each yet!) and it will take you to the right tab to

complete that step.

When you finish a step, click on the "Checklist" item in the menu and then "check" that step as

complete. A green check will display. If you did not fill out everything needed, you will be

prompted when you try and mark a step complete. You will notice that some of the steps have

a "Skip" option. These steps will enhance your profile, but they are optional.

Let's do a quick review of each step in the checklist before we move ahead!

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The "Personal Information" Step

This form lets you enter personal information about you and how to contact you. It is private

and is only accessible to CRC Press personnel. While we have much of this information already,

we included it here to make it easier for you to keep us up to date. Just fill in the form and hit

save. A message will be displayed at the top of the form to confirm the information has been

saved. Once you have saved, hit the 'Checklist" item in the main menu to go back and mark this

step complete.

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The "BIO" Step

This form lets you enter the information that will show on your public profile. Some of it is the

same as the "personal Information" form (e.g. name, position etc), but we provided alternative

fields here, so you can make the public information look exactly like you want.

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The tool that lets you set the profile background image is at the bottom of the form. You can

upload a picture from your desktop or copy a picture that is already on the web by entering the

pictures URL.

You can load any image, but it should be a high definition photo to look good. The optimum size

in pixels is 990w x 750h. You can upload an image as large as 5mb, but this may take a little

while. Please be patient!

Once you upload, you can set the image to center, repeat or scale. You also have the ability to

"crop" the image to display the exact area you want (This just sets the display area. It does not

change the image you uploaded.)

Make sure to hit save once you have filled out the form and set your background picture.

After you have saved, you can click on the "View Profile" item in the main menu to see how

your profile looks so far. Your picture and summary information will be displayed. You will see a

series of buttons in the middle that will show additional details. The “Bio” button displays the

information from the Bio form.

You can then go back to the BIO tab and adjust it, save again and preview it again. Once you are

happy with your Bio, hit the 'Checklist" item in the main menu to go back and mark this step

complete!

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The "Books" Step

This tool links books in the CRC Press catalogue to your profile. To link to your books, just press

the "+Add" button. That will bring up a form to find your book. Enter the ISBN and hit search.

It will bring back the title and cover image of your book. Select your correct role (Author,

Editor, Contributor or Series Editor) and hit the "Add" button. The book will be added to your

book list.

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The "Photos" Step

This tool lets you add additional photos or other relevant images to your profile. To add one,

just press the "+Add" button. It works just like the background image tool on the Bio step. You

can upload an image or copy an existing image from the web. The image can be any size up to

5mb. You can crop them. You can also change the order they are displayed.

The "Video" Step

This tool lets you add videos to your profile. The videos must already be stored on a public

video site. We currently support YouTube and will be adding others in the future. To add one,

just press the "+Add" button. Just enter the URL from the video site, add a name and

description and save it to your profile. It will display in line even though it is still stored on the

video site.

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The "Connections" Step

This tool has two parts. The top part lets you display the latest updates from your social

network profiles on your Featured Authors profile. Just press the connect command next to the

network you want to add. This will take you to that network and ask you to authorize the

connection. Once you connect, an icon for that network will display on your profile and people

will be able to see your latest updates by displaying it.

The bottom part lets you post links to relevant external sites. It also lets you authorize people

to send you messages through the platform. This will be a "blind" message. They will not see

your email address. After you enter one or more sites or authorize people to send you

messages, remember to "Save".

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The "Events" Step

This tool lets you add events you are participating in. These may be an event you are

sponsoring, speaking at or attending. Every event is added to the master events list and other

authors can also indicate they are participating in that event. Before you add an event you

should search the "All Events" list to see if the event has already been posted. If not, you can

add it by clicking on the "+Add" button.

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The "News" Step

This tool lets you add news items. If you have used a blogging tool, it will be very familiar. Just

put a good headline, keyword rich summary and the content. You can insert images into the

news item and attach a thumbnail that will display in the news list. When you add a news item,

it is in draft status. To publish it, you set it to public. You can set the date you want it

published.

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Step 4 - Publish Your Profile

While you are updating your profile, you can use the View Profile tool on the main menu to see

how it will look. Once you have checked all the steps in the Checklist, you will be prompted to

publish your profile. You can do this from the Checklist or from the View Profile tool.

Just press the button and your profile will be published!

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Remember - Freshness Counts!

Once your profile is published, you can come back at any time to update it or to add news items

or events. When you sign in – http://www.crcpress.com/authors/signin , a "Dashboard" will be

displayed which shows your current profile, your next event and the last news item you

published. If you do an update, a new "draft" is created. When you are ready, you can publish

it from the Dashboard or the View Profile tool.

If You Have Questions or Feedback

We appreciate your participation in this important new program. We believe it will improve

awareness and discovery. If you have any issues using the application, please send an email to

our helpdesk at [email protected]. If you have any feedback or suggestions, you can

send it directly to the program team at [email protected].

http://www.crcpress.com/authors/signin

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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