Month: February 2012 | Deborah H Bateman - Author

Writing and Self Publishing For Profit

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

Many authors will tell you that to write a book takes years and to get it published takes even longer.

But with today’s technology it’s possible to write and self publish as many books as you want. You can even turn self publishing books into your own online home business, because you can write books and self publish them all from home without the need for large print runs – or any print runs at all.

Today it’s possible to automate the whole publishing process so that all you have to do is write your next book while all the selling, printing and shipping is done for you. And you can also self publish your books as an eBook or audio download to open your books to a wider market and make even more money.

But first you need to write a really good book in order for it to be successful. So you need an original idea – something that makes your book stand out from all the rest.

So begin with an outline. Decide how many chapters you’re going to write (20 to 30 is a good starting point) and make a list of 10 points to cover in each chapter. Each of these points needs to be written up into one page length.

A good starting place for your book outline is the TOC (Table Of Contents). Most readers choose there books by the TOC so make sure it looks intriguing. You can use a sub-heading for each chapter in the TOC to further entice your readers to want to know more.

Then for each chapter list 10 topics that you want to cover. Each topic will be written into a whole page of content, so if your book is 20 chapters long with 10 topics in each chapter, this means you book will be 200 pages long.

Armed with your TOC and list of topics, begin writing. Just spend about 5 minutes writing for each topic. This will give you enough time to write quickly and productively without time to edit or correct your writing, and this is the best way to work.

If you want to write fiction, you need to create at least one cause and effect for each chapter. Every chapter has to have its own situation – something is caused and it creates an effect – that moves the story along. Make sure the ending of each chapter has a ‘cliff hanger’ to ensure that the reader wants to turn the page and find out more.

You also need to include developments in the plot and the characters. Use the situations to show your characters’ flaws. Try and create sub plots within the main plot to keep the readers intrigued.

Working this way by outline and planning your chapters and writing each page in a 5-minute burst, means that you’ll be able to finish writing your book in less than a month. It also means that once you’ve finished writing, you’ll have little or no need to edit your work.

You’ll write better when you write quickly and without editing as you go along.

To make sure you write even faster, turn off your spell/grammar checker when you’re writing. Just run it over your work when you’ve finished.

Then comes the time to self publish which is now quick and easy. You can self publish a book and have it available for sale worldwide in as little as 2 weeks.

Just imagine how many published books you can produce every year!

And best of all, you get to keep all the profit.

Ruth Barringham is succesful writer, author and publisher and runs two web sites for writers. Writeaholics.net is a web site for freelance writers and Self-Publish Worldwide is a website full of information on all areas of self publishing. So if your interested in writing or publishing, or both, visit these two web sites. You can also sign up for the free monthly newsletter at Writeaholics.net and receive the free eBook ‘Become a Freelance Writing Success’ when you subscribe, or download a free self publishing report at Self-Publish Worldwide. Or why not do both? After all – they’re free!

Author: Ruth Barringham
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self Publish Your Book and the Profits Are Infinite

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

For many writers, becoming a published author can be a confusing and overwhelming decision, especially when it comes to the question of whether to self-publish or not. And with today’s technology, it’s never been easier to self-publish a book.

But self-publishing is the same as any other business, in that the harder you work at it, the more profitable it can be. So to earn a living as an author, you need to be able to write books quickly and make your time as productive as possible. But first you need to decide whether to publish your books the traditional way through a publishing company or to publish your book yourself.

There are three things to consider when deciding on the best and most profitable way to publish your book.

The first consideration is time. if you decided to use a traditional publishing house, first you have to convince them that your book is worthy of publication more than anyone else’s, and this in itself can take several years and dozens of rejections before you find the right publisher.

Also traditional publishing houses will publish your book according to their own timeline. Books are scheduled to be published far in advance so it could be three years after signing a publishing contract before your book hits the market.

When you self-publish a book, the only time restriction on publication is your own. So you can either take your time and publish it one or two years later, or fast-track the whole process and have your book out on the market within a month or two.

The next consideration is control. Once you sign a publishing contract you’re signing away your copyright to your work, so your book then effectively becomes the publisher’s book. This means that as the author you will now have little or no say when it comes to your book title, design or cover. Yet marketing and promoting the book will till be your responsibility.

When you self-publish a book you become the publisher as well as the author so you maintain all control of the way your book is published, how it will look and who will distribute it.

The last consideration is profit. With traditional publishing houses, the authors have no up-front costs as far as publishing goes and instead are paid a royalty for every book sold.

Some royalty payments can be as low as 5% of the selling price and most are no higher than 10%.

Some authors are paid an advance payment of royalties as soon as their book is published, but they then have to wait several years before the number of sales grows over and above the amount of advance.

This is why profit is one of the biggest arguments in favour of self-publishing. All profits from a self-published book belong 100% to the author. So the more you market and promote your book, the more you reap the profits from the sales.

Let’s say you self-publish a novel and you sell 1,000 copies in a year. Of course with the right marketing, your book could sell ten-times that amount every year – or more. But just as an example, we’ll use a low figure of 1,000 copies.

So if you’re making a profit of say, $5 per book, the 1,000 sales will give you an income of $5,000 in a year. But of course the longer your book remains on the market, the more copies you can sell every year. Your name as an author will become known and if people buy one book from you and enjoy it, they’ll probably seek out more books from you.

So if you published a book every year and sold an extra thousand copies of each book every year, in five years time you could have a six-figure income every year. And the numbers I’m quoting are very low. The profit from your sales could be double or treble that quite easily.

And if your book was picked up by a book club that wanted to sell your book to its members, that could mean a single sale of 20,000 copies or more. You can imagine how much that would sky-rocket your income.

Or what about libraries? The sales achievable to libraries are phenomenal. For instance, there are over 114,000 libraries in America. What if you could sell just one copy of your book to even half of them!

And then there’s also the possibility of your book being chosen to go into a collection of condensed books, or Braille books, audio books, media interviews, movie deals…the list goes on.

Writing non-fiction books can be even more profitable. Whatever business you’re in, with a published book to your list of credentials, you’ll be seen as an expert in your field.

And there’s no limit to the number of non-fiction books you can write. The internet makes it possible for you to research and collect articles on any subject and then you can write it all up as your own book (as long as you write it yourself and don’t plagiarise).

You could then set up a web site and also sell essays, articles, reports, newsletters, eBooks and more.

You could also write articles for magazines using the information in your books, or allow them to print excerpts from your books, which would not only bring in extra income, but it is also great publicity for your books.

So you see, when you self-publish, the profits can be infinite.

About this Author

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Author: Ruth Barringham
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Simple Book Marketing Tips That Will Make Your Self Published Books Sell Fast

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Authors, self publishers and book publishers can be very unhappy when they see boxes of books delivered from the printer, loaded onto pallets in their garage and not have any idea on how they’re going to sell them; don’t let this happen to you — be prepared. Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book. This article will provide you with easy, free, and cheap book marketing, promotion and publicity tips to get you headed in the right direction fast.

Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media. Mail a press release to at least 1000 print and broadcast contacts just prior to publishing your title and again and again after you publish; you can never send too many. Make sure your press release spells out the ‘who, what, where, when, and why.’

Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly. Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories.

Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book’s website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Send out the same press release to the editor of your local daily newspaper every week until you are called for an interview or are written up.

Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book’s topic to drive customers to your website. Print and online publications provide longevity to your marketing campaign in terms of having something tangible for people to reference ongoing. Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment.

Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers. Local radio shows and television appearances are good but are often forgotten within hours of the broadcast; make sure to make or get a copy of any television broadcast for future promotions. If your book fits a specialty market, find a store that fits the genre and offer to leave books on consignment; many publishers have sold thousands of books this way.

Make sure your sales letter or flier is first class; this is your formal presentation of your title to the prospective buyer. Place free ads periodically for your book’s website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website. I’ve not found that book signings sell many books for publishers and are often a waste of time; better to spend it elsewhere.

Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline. Women buy more books then men; see how you can fit your book into the womens’ market. Your sales letter or flier should include an eye-grabbing headline, the benefits to the buyer, the book features, book sales information and testimonials. Market your book to your number one market first, and then go after the secondary markets. Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don’t assume it’s already listed.

I’ve seen publishers lose a lot of money paying for expensive display ads, so beware if you do this; I don’t advise it in the beginning — get your feet wet first so you know what you’re doing. Create an online contest and list it in online contest directories to drive traffic to your website.

I hope this article has provided you with helpful tips to accelerate your book marketing and book promotion efforts. Yes you can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget, just be careful about your marketing dollars. Don’t delay another day if you’ve fallen by the wayside; make sure to focus on promoting, selling and marketing your book each and every day.

About this Author

For more information on book marketing tips and selling more books go to http://www.TwinPeaksPress.com founded in 1982, specializing in help for authors, self publishers, ebook and book publishers with tips, advice and resources, including information on media, library and other mailing lists, and press releases online, wire service and offline distribution

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Author: Helen Hecker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Why Self-Published eBooks are Winners

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Myths abound about print books being the right kind of book and eBooks are on their last leg. These ideas spring from traditional publishing.

Hopeful authors have read it many times–that a true book, one that will bring you reverent kudos, must be in print and must be long. And it must have a top agent and publisher. Maybe true five-ten years ago. Like you, I believed it at first and went down that rocky road to get an agent, then publisher. Way too hard and took way too long.

My first rule. Write a short book first. Notice famous authors such as Ken Blanchard did. Second rule. Write a non-fiction, self-help book first, then a novel. You’ll experience more success with a non-fiction. Then, you can use the profits to stay the long haul for your fiction.

Follow my lead. First, I wrote print booklets or journals and sold them at the back of the room in seminars of the same name. This led to thousands of income each month. Then I read self-publishing books such as Dan Poynter’s. Right track. But, then I realized one can write a print and an eBook at the same time. And, you can sell either from your own Web site. Or, you can take a 50% or less royalty and sell from someone elses’s site.

Remember one great benefit of eBooks. The author gets by with little cost. You can send the books via email if you don’t have a Web site yet, and you can offer them as downloads at your site.

One great benefit of short eBooks. Your audience loves them. They don’t want to spend a lot of time reading. They want quick solutions in an easy to read format. They don’t want long books over 130 pages with too much extraneous information. Give them answers to their questions and you’ll have a fan for life.

The sad truth that no emerging authors wants to believe–that they can get the publisher to publicize, promote and market their book. Not true. It’s amazing how many bookcoaching clients really want to turn it all over to someone else. The problem is it’s way too expensive, and no one knows nor has more passion for a book than the author. It’s not money that rules, but a creative approach to sharing your wealth.

Another rule. If you can write a book, you can also write ad copy for the book’s introduction, the short “tell and sell,” the back cover, or the Web or email sales letter. You just need some coaching from a pro. Start a promotion savings account and spend a little to get the best words that will attract and give your audience enough information to make it easy to buy.

Join a telegroup that writes each week and exchanges files with each other. Of course make sure the bookcoach is savvy and knows how a saleable book is put together, knows short cuts to write fast, and clear, and gives you useful feedback to help your book grow and get born.

What’s your intention? To think it takes too much time, too much money and you aren’t much of a writer? If you can get by your resistances, you can learn how to write –well. If you put a little daily attention on your book project, you can finish it.

Take some small action today and feel powerful, because authors are a special breed-and the club is awaiting your good news.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Author of Write Your eBook or Other Short Book Fast and 10 others, she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The Book Coach Says. . .,” and “Business Tip of the Month.” at http://www.bookcoaching.com. Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743

Author: Judy Cullins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self-Publishing Vs Small Presses: Can Your Publisher Do More for You Than You Can Do for Yourself?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

I recently attended an author event where numerous authors were included. One of the authors made a point of commenting upon what is wrong with self-publishing and that “legitimate” writers do not self-publish but seek to improve their writing by having it reviewed by a press with an editorial board. I tried to point out a couple of the advantages of self-publishing to this author, but she had formed her opinion and would not listen to me. When I brought up the fact that many authors make more money self-publishing than being traditionally published, she replied, “If it’s about the money to you, there’s no point in our talking about it. A real writer enjoys going through the agony of working with an editor to make the book better.” I pointed out that many self-published books are edited, but there was no changing this woman’s mind.

I went home and did a little research on this author and her book. She had claimed that her book had been her publisher’s bestselling book for something like thirty weeks. Had she said she’d been on the New York Times Bestseller list for thirty weeks, or an Amazon bestseller for thirty weeks, I might have been impressed, but being your publisher’s bestselling book doesn’t mean a lot. I did find the publisher online. They’ve published twelve books. Being the best out of twelve books just didn’t seem that impressive to me.

A male author at the event agreed with this other author. I Googled his book and could not find a website for him. All he had was a page at his university’s website under faculty information that mentioned he had written a book. I tried to Google his publisher, also a small press, and it did not come up as even having a website.

I looked up both authors’ books on Amazon. Both were there, which was a good thing. I looked them up at Barnes & Noble. Only the female author’s book was there. I went back to Amazon and read the reviews. There were a few, some good, some bad for both books. I decided I would see whether these books were really worth reading, but neither book had a “look inside” feature for the Amazon listing. And guess what? Neither book was available in Kindle or any other ebook format.

Curious to see just how good these books were, I went to the local bookstore. The male author was from out of state so I wasn’t surprised the bookstore didn’t have his book. But the bookstore didn’t carry the female author’s book either, even though she lived nearby. When I asked the manager why the store didn’t carry her book, he informed me, “The publisher refuses to work with our company. The only way we can carry it is if the author buys her own copies from the publisher and sells it on consignment to us and she says that’s too much trouble for her to do.”

Interesting, I thought. Here was a traditionally published book, published by a small press I’d never heard of that wasn’t even willing to work with the bookstore in this author’s hometown to sell that author’s book. The press did not produce an ebook version for the author, it did not have a separate author page for the author at its website, and in the case of the other author, there was no website. In short, I was not impressed by either of the authors’ publishers or their efforts to market their books. And I especially wasn’t impressed by the female author who thought she was so ahead of the game because she had a book published by a small press. Perhaps she truly didn’t care about the money part of selling books, but I had a hard time thinking her book was selling well at all, even if it were the bestselling out of twelve titles. Who’s to say any of those other books even sold a hundred copies each? I looked up a few of them on Amazon and their sales ranks were very low-in the millions, and even her supposed “bestseller” had a sales rank around 400,000. That’s actually not such a bad number, but it’s not all that impressive either.

So what makes this author think her book is somehow superior to the self-published books? Simply because a publisher chose to publish it for her, no matter how small that publisher is or how bad at marketing. This author said it’s not about the money, and I have to come to the conclusion it’s not about book sales either for her, or she’s deluded into thinking her book sales are truly impressive. I wonder whether it’s even about good writing. I think, ultimately, it’s about the “prestige” of being traditionally published, and she was ready to rub the self-published authors’ noises in her achievement, even if her publisher is some small press hardly anyone ever heard of.

I wouldn’t have given her the satisfaction of buying her book from her at the event, but I did decide to order the book off Amazon and I read it, and I found it to be a fairly well-written book stylistically, though lacking on plot and rather depressing. It wasn’t my kind of book, but I couldn’t fault it for its writing. Still, the cover was not that well done-I would have thought it was self-published upon first sight if I had not been told otherwise, and honestly, I’ve read plenty of self-published books as good as or better than her book.

Part of this author’s argument was the value of working with an editor. I always recommend authors find good editors to work with them, and plenty of self-published authors do (the ones who don’t are usually the ones who give self-publishing a bad name). That said, I’ve read plenty of traditionally published books that have mistakes in them, and not just by small presses, but very large well-known publishers as well. When a big name publisher like Oxford University Press can make a statement that it no longer feels it is necessary to correct split infinitives in its books (see http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartipsplitinfinitive ), you have to wonder whether the quality of the editors at large presses is any better than many of the editors you can hire who do freelance. Oxford University Press has an academic argument for why split infinitives are a fallacy, but even so, they still sound awkward to me. Furthermore, many editors who work for large publishers do freelance editing on the side for self-published authors. I know a couple of such editors myself. So I don’t see why hiring a qualified freelance editor will make any difference.

So what is the real difference? As far as I’m concerned, if an author is self-published and produces a professional looking book with an attractive cover, has the book edited and proofread, and has enough business savvy to know how to promote the book, then he is a step ahead of the game, regardless of whether some big name or small, largely unheard of press, did not publish his book.

Basic Math-It May Not Be About the Money, But….

I know for that author, it wasn’t about the money, but when did a little extra money ever hurt? Traditional publishers pay royalties to their authors. Self-published authors receive complete profit on book sales. The standard royalty runs around 10 percent. Let’s crunch a few numbers to see how many books a traditionally published author needs to sell to equal what a self-published author needs to sell.

An author who self-publishes his book can get the book printed at $7 each with a print run of 500 copies. That’s $3,500. The book’s cover price is $20. He works with local bookstores to sell the book at 40 percent consignment, meaning he receives 60 percent of the sales price or $12 a book; that’s a profit of $5 per book for every book sold in the bookstore and $13 for every book he sells himself. Let’s say he sells half his books at bookstores and half directly to his customers. That’s 250 books x $13, and 250 books x $5. The total is $3,250 + $1,250 = $4,500 in profit after he pays the initial $3,500 to print the books. That’s equivalent to almost 129 percent in profit.

By comparison, if the same book is traditionally published and sells for the same $20, and the cost is still $7 and the publisher is providing 10 percent royalties, the author makes $2 a copy. The publisher is keeping the other $11 in profit (getting rich at the author’s expense, perhaps, especially if he’s not using any of that profit on significant marketing efforts). To reach the profit of $4,500, the author will need to sell 2,250 copies as opposed to the 500 if he had self-published.

Now I know it’s not all about the money. True authors write because they love to write, but what’s the point of selling your words for less than they are worth? If your publisher has the marketing and distribution capabilities to sell those 2,250 books and faster than you can sell your 500, then by all means go with that publisher. But if you have a feeling that the publisher’s ability to sell 4.5 times as many books as you can sell on your own is unlikely, you may be better off self-publishing your book. Sure, you want more copies sold, but do you want them sold so you can make your publisher rich while you get only a small percent of the income?

Many great small presses are out there that have been around for years, and they are keeping up with the changes in publishing and are truly business savvy when it comes to marketing. But there are other presses run by book lovers who have little business sense. They may not be in a position or have the “know how” or the stamina and enthusiasm to make truly significant marketing efforts. So make sure you know how experienced and how business savvy your publisher is before you sign that contract. Here are some questions to ask your potential publisher-and don’t forget to get the answers included in the contract:

Questions to ask the Small Press/Publisher:

What is your marketing plan for my book?
Will my book be listed at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other websites?
What kind of distribution do you have?
Will you work with my local bookstore(s) to sell my book, even if they only do consignment or want a buy back policy if the books don’t sell?
How many copies will you print?
What is the likelihood of the book being reprinted vs. going out of print?
If the book goes out of print, when can I buy back the rights and publish it myself?
Will you offer ebook versions of my book?
Do you have a website where people can purchase the book?
What can I do to help?
Can I buy and sell copies of my own book?
Do you have any budget to help me with my personal marketing efforts?
Will you build a website for me or help me promote mine, link to mine?
What else can you do for me that I can’t do for myself?

If you don’t have or don’t want to spend the money to self-publish your book, finding a traditional publisher may be the best route for you. If the publisher can do things for you that you can’t do yourself or can do them better, it may also be the best option, but most of these things you can do for yourself or find people you can pay to do them for you, still resulting in you making a larger profit. Nor do you want the publisher to prevent you from selling books because it doesn’t care to produce an ebook or spend time building a website to promote your book. I urge you to do your research and make the best business decision possible. It may not be all about the money, but after all the time, research, and energy you put into writing your book, you deserve to get adequate compensation for it.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Author: Irene Watson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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