So last night, I attended a very awesome Kindle publishing workshop with Stephen Lewis. His parting advice was very sage: do not, under any circumstance, start a flame war with a reviewer who doesn’t like your book. Eeek. On that note, for those of you who’ve read my book, please leave a review!
Finding Jamilah is up, and now I need to market it. It won’t sell itself, as much as I’d like to think! Stephen made a good point. If I don’t talk about my book, who will?
And now, my dilemma. My Author Central photo! Le sigh.
I’ve been doing some research, and it looks like most of the male authors have very serious photographs. I suppose it fits into the genre they write in (crime, thrillers etc). Look at John Grisham, for example. Grim! But very fitting. Compare his photograph to Nicholas Sparks. Do you prefer head-shots, or upper body ones? Aha, I like Robert Jordan’s photograph. That photo has character!
Female author photographs are very different! I’ve scanned through a few, and most of them are smiling. Some of them are leaning against trees or have some kind of greenery in the background. I like the ones with bookshelves in the backdrop. Hmm…
In my case, after I find a nice bookshelf to stand/sit/pirouette in front of, it all boils down to:
1) Which hijab do I wear?
2) Do I strike a pose?
3) Which cat do I pose with?
Decisions, decisions…
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Published by Raidah Shah Idil
Raidah Shah Idil is a student counsellor, poet, writer, and creative instructor with a passion for YA (young adult), fantasy, sci-fi and detective fiction. She was born in Singapore and moved to Australia at the age of 12. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales in 2005.
After working as a marketing copywriter and studying the Islamic Sciences in Amman, Jordan for nearly two years, she returned to Sydney, got married, then moved to Malaysia. While working as a part-time tutor at Axiom Learning, she works as an online counsellor for Seekershub Global. She has completed her Diploma of Counselling through the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Her full-time job is raising her baby daughter. Everything else is squeezed in between. Literally. Her writing has been published in The Feminist Wire, SISTERS magazine, Daily Life, Lip Mag and Venture Beat. Raidah’s poetry was recently published in the ‘Armed With Only Our Souls’ online DDFS chapbook by New York poet Caits Meissner. Her debut double-featured novel, “Finding Jamilah and the Story of Yusuf” was published by MyLegacy publications in early 2014.
In her spare time (ha), she reads, listens to audiobooks, goes on walks, and is always on the lookout for tasty noodle soup. She currently lives in a green, leafy suburb in Kuala Lumpur with her husband, three small children and mother-in-law.
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Raidah Shah Idil 
lol ‘which cat do i pose with’ dilema indeed hehe. btw amazon wont let me buy ur book, i’ve tried 4 or 5 times but something goes wrong each time. dont worry i’ll keep trying untill i get it!
Aw no Samia! Wonder why Amazon won’t let you buy it? Email me and tell me what’s up!
Hi Raidah,
Thank you so much for describing me as “sage” 🙂
I’ll be putting your headshot question in the Sunday Self-Publishing Round-up to see what views it elicits!
Hi Stephen!
No problem 🙂 Excellent! Looking forward to seeing the responses to my headshot question. Thank you!
choice of cat isn’t a dilemma – just choose the most photogenic one. 😉
another idea would be to include things like “Click here for more of Raidah Shah Idil’s work” and link it to your online profile on Amazon or something (like in your first article). so even if you’re writing articles your book is still being pushed out there.
Ah I know why i can’t buy it – i think. It’s not available to purchase from ‘my’ country. when i try to purchase it, it says sorry we could not complete your purchase. For kindle titles available to purchase from your country click here. Can you only purchase it from Oz?
I vote for Upper body shot. I don’t know about which hijab but I’m sure about the colour, don’t disappoint. I also go for the greenery pic, something outdoors.
Salaams Raidah,
Lots of great posts so far! Thanks for sharing those things you are learning out in the literary world 🙂
Yep, I’ve pondered the photo issue myself. Do you really need to have one or not? I guess readers would like to know what the writer looks like, but then maybe it better to keep as much anonymity as possible. Don’t know really. Some tough decisions indeed – you’ve got me thinking now. If I were to go with a photo, I think I’d like the idea of the bookshelf in the background. And to make it a bit different, maybe you could pose with all four cats. Something to think about 🙂