Episode 77: On Intriguing Interiors, Choosing Fonts & Back Matter Best Practices with Natalie Keller Reinert (Equestrian Author Spotlight Podcast)

Episode 77: Welcome to the Equestrian Author Spotlight podcast! In each episode, you’ll hear inspirational stories from horse book authors including writing advice and marketing tips to help you write your own horse book. If you are an author, aspire to be an author, or simply love horse books, then you are in the right place!

In this week's episode, Natalie Keller Reinert returns to the show for a special two-part interview series on book production. In the first conversation, we took a deep dive into all things cover design. This week, we discuss interior design best practices. You'll learn ...

• Why it's important for independent authors to educate themselves. The know-how to create a beautifully formatted eBook and print edition of your book doesn’t come overnight.
  
• Advice on formatting the interior of your books from font choice to white space as well as things to consider when creating your back matter.
  
• Why thoughtful series development from plot to book design is so important and why Natalie made the decision to go exclusive vs. wide with her book distribution.
  
• And MUCH more!

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Praise for Part One - It's a Master Class!

"A podcast that's ... basically a self-publishing master class, especially for a niche audience. Equestrian romance author Carly Kade and equestrian women's fiction author and book designer Natalie Keller Reinert talk about writing, what to consider for book covers, back covers of paperbacks, and blurbs." - Rhonda Lane

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Watch Natalie Keller Reinert's Interview on YouTube!

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Or listen to the audio only episode.

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About Natalie Keller Reinert

Natalie has been riding and working with horses since the age of ten, and has worked in upper-level eventing, dressage, racing, and mounted patrol. She started publishing in 2011 following the launch of a very successful blog, Retired Racehorse.

Since then, she has written and published more than a dozen novels written about the equestrian experience. She has been a semi-finalist twice for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, a literary award for horse racing literature, and was a top finalist with her novel about racehorse retirement, Turning For Home. 

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Natalie Keller Reinert Interview Excerpt

Carly: Let's talk about the importance of interior design.

Natalie: Writing your book is half of the effort, then your book cover and your interior design is the other half. If the book cover grabs the reader, then the interior has to keep them. A book that is not formatted to meet a reader's expectations of quality or readability is not going to hang on to the reader. It's not going to grab their attention. It's going to wear out their eyeballs and they're going to move on.

If you are a Kindle Unlimited author and you're depending on page views that's a calamity because you need them to stick with your book from page one to the finish. You have to approach it with a level of professionalism and a know-how to make sure that your book is literally the best book that you can possibly turn out.

Carly: Talk to us a little bit about Scrivener.

Natalie: Scrivener is a multi-purpose writing tool. It has organizational aspects to it. It has different templates or setting up novels, setting up nonfiction books, setting up screen plays and then it has a bunch of output functions. You can create dozens of different files out of one Scrivener project.

​For example, if I have Ambition as a project, I can do an output of a custom ebook or a basic no frills ebook file. I can put out a PDF to do my paperback interior. I can create a word document that I can send to an editor, so they can do track changes or read it, if that's their preference. I can create PDFs with chapters. There's just zillions of different output functions and they're all customizable.

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Carly: Back matter is an important part of interior design. Talk to us about back matter and why it's so important?

Natalie: There's three essential pieces of back matter. It's all the stuff that comes after your story ends, so there's three pieces and there's an order I put them in.

The first piece is your "coming soon" or your "next read" page. For Grabbing Mane, I  have a coming soon page. In the ebook, you want to catch the person before they get to the last page. Make sure there's a link. It can be the next chapter. It can be a free download. It could be a mailing list. Please make sure you're getting their email address. You want to do everything you can on the very next page to get them to keep reading your books.

After that, I put my "acknowledgements" and then my "about the author". My "about the author" has all of my social listings linked. The "about the author" in my books is different than my Amazon bio, so inside my book it's first person and breezy. I want readers to come get to know me on my social profiles.

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Hear More from Natalie Keller Reinert

In this episode with Natalie Keller Reinert. You'll learn ...

• About the growth of Equestrian Fiction as a genre, how it has become more diverse over time, and what it was like being an author of horse books on the forefront of the movement.
• Tips on how she consistently gets her books to the top of the charts in Amazon's Equestrian Fiction category.
• How she embraces the gig economy, encourages the side hustle, enjoys the flexibility it provides, and uses Patreon in her creative life to generate an additional stream of income.
• And more!

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In this episode, Natalie Keller Reinert returns to the show for a special two-part interview series on book production. In this first conversation, we take a deep dive into all things cover design. You'll learn ...

• About common traps authors fall into after they have finished their manuscript and the importance of editing and advanced readers.
• Book cover best practices from the front to the back and things to consider when writing your back of book blurb.
• How to choose book cover imagery and make sure it's licensed properly.
• And MUCH more!

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Connect with Natalie Keller Reinert

Website: nataliekreinert.com
Patreon: patreon.com/nataliekreinert
Facebook: facebook.com/nataliekellerreinert
Twitter: twitter.com/nataliegallops
Linkedin: linkedin/in/nataliekreinert
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/nataliekreinert

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Select Books by Natalie Keller Reinert

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Books Mentioned in the Interview

Please note: This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to buy any books featured, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate purchases help with the upkeep of the podcast. Thanks for your help keeping this site running!

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New Author Interviews Each Week!

Make sure you never miss a show by subscribing on YouTube or Apple Podcasts. This podcast is made possible by listeners like you. I appreciate your support! 

Want a free guide to secrets of horse book authors? Gallop over to https://www.carlykadecreative.com/wisdom.html and join the Equestrian Author Spotlight email list to have the author advice resource delivered instantly to your inbox.

Go to the Episode Directory

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About Host & Author Carly Kade

Carly Kade is an award-winning independent author, horse owner, creativity coach, and the host of the Equestrian Author Spotlight Podcast. She helps fellow writers start, grow, and expand their author careers. Creative writing makes her spurs jingle!

Carly's In the Reins equestrian romance book series was written with horse lovers in mind, no matter which discipline they ride. The horses are as vital to moving the story forward as the human characters are.

These books are perfect for poolside reading, taking to the beach, or settling down with after a day of horseback riding.

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