Monthly Archives: September 2012

Who Needs a Traditional Publisher When You Can Self-Publish for Free?

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With the success of such self-published authors as E.L. James author of “Shades of Grey” and Amanda Hocking, author of numerous best-selling e-books, including “Hollomen,” there is no question that e-books are here to stay. How is it that some self-published authors are able to sell more e-books than authors published by major publishers?

One could argue that there are two reasons why this is happening.

The first reason being is price. Some self-published authors are selling their e-books for as little as $.99 where the standard price of an e-book published by a traditional publisher is $9.99. That is ten times what the indie author is charging, and that alone can play a significant role in why some indie authors are selling more e-books.

Being an avid reader myself, I have to say that there have many instances where I purchased a book of interest, simply because of the low price. I tend to believe that there are millions of other authors who share my philosophy as well. What boggles my mind is that many times, the e-book version of books published by the majors are very similar in price to the paperback version. If I have a choice between a paperback book for $10.99 verses the e-book version for $9.99, I’ll take the paperback for $10.99.

Jessica Park, author of “Flat-Out Love” was quoted as saying that one of the reasons she fears a book deal with a traditional publisher is that she knows that the e-book versions will be severely overpriced.

The second reason for the major success of the indie author over the traditional published author is that some, not all, but some traditional published authors are relying too much on the publisher to make their books a success, whereas, an indie author knows from the very start that if their book is to be a success, they will have to become aggressive marketers.

There may come a day, if that day has not come already where an author from anywhere in the world will no longer even need a traditional publisher to believe in her book, especially with the launching of Createspace, a company that will publish your paperback and e-book at no costs to you.

For the ambitious author, with a dynamite marketing plan and the skills and commitment to pull it off, there will no longer be a need or want for the traditional publisher.

Sarah Box is the author of “The First and the First Lady, the True Story of What Never Really Happened!” You can find her on Facebook.com. http://www.facebook.com/sarah.box.547

Author: Sarah Box
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

Save Money by Publishing Your Own EBook and Selling it on the Internet From the Comfort of Your Home

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In this digital world we live in, the increasing popularity of eBooks is not that surprising. Its accessibility is what attracts readers to opt for eBooks instead of the traditionally published books. As an entrepreneur, you can take advantage of this trend and save money by publishing your own eBook.

It is easy and inexpensive to produce your own eBook. Think about the traditional printing materials that will require a huge financial investment. You can save money by publishing your own eBook, instead. In addition, there will be no need to pay for agents or publishers. All you need is a good idea and a computer equipped with the applicable software.

Producing your work in a digital format is less time consuming. There is no manuscript submission and approval process to think about. With this in mind, this will help you save money by publishing your own eBook.

Distribution of eBooks is usually done online. The speed and ease involved with online transaction will save you a lot of money, too. You can reach a global audience from the comforts of your own home. You can continuously update your work even during distribution, thus, saving you reprinting costs.

You can use eBooks in a lot of way, depending on the line of business you’re with. You can use it as a promotional item that may eventually lead to sale or as an after-sale promo to keep your customers interested with what you offer. Or it could be your main source of livelihood. Whatever your reason is, publishing your own eBook is a cost-effective business venture.

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Visit the write ebook blog.

Author: Robert Boyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Your Book Marketing Plan

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Writing is an art, one that brings joy to its creator. There is a certain yearning to get the words on paper and lastly have it printed on a book. For those looking to have their books published by a big publishing house there is much more required before they offer anyone a publishing contract; book proposal. The book proposal is for the publisher, a book marketing plan for you. It is a roadmap for your book marketing efforts. Both plans are integral for your book success.

Think about your book as a product, and that’s exactly what it is. As any other product that you might consider to market to make a profit you must think of :

  • Its value compared to similar products and how yours is better.
  • You should also know who your customers would be and where to find them.
  • Avenues to advertise and promote your book off and online.
  • Possible sponsors for your book.
  • Stores, organizations or business who can offer your book in a gift with purchase offer
  • Where to get reviews to include on your book, your website and any other promotional material. Try to get reviews from people who are experts in your book topic; your readers will know them and their review will heavily influence their buying decision.
  • Analyze the content of your book and devise a way to develop a talk, workshop, or community based on one or more of the topics discussed in it.
  • Write a few articles related to your book to use as a traffic building tool to your website, web log or forum. There are many places where you can submit articles free for others to use in their websites or electronic magazines as long as they keep it intact with all your information and links.
  • Think about other type of media you can include with the book like CD version, calendars, software, workbook, etc.
  • Develop a special report to be downloaded from your website as a thank you for their purchase. You can print the information within your book. If you have them register at your site before downloading the report you will be building your own fan mailing list.

There is so much you can do with a book if you only take time to think it over and plan for the marketing strategy before you write the first word.

According to a survey performed by Guerrilla Marketers’ Cafe with over a hundred book lovers, one of the most important parts of a book who influenced their decision to buy was the back cover. Dan Poynter explains it in detail in his book The Self-Publishing Guide and Is There a Book Inside You? On it he explains step-by-step how to divide the back cover section and what items to include in it to make it more attractive and to impress the reader with your book’s value. The book cover in general is a very important to the book, it’s what the readers see first and it should attract them in just a few seconds. And excellent written book with a poor cover won’t reach its audience. Go to the book store and look at books in your genre and see what attracts you enough to pick up, notice its layout, colors, typeset graphics, etc. Make notes of the elements and then take that information to develop your own book cover design. When it comes to cover design a professional is your best choice, but if you can’t afford one think about college students which you can hire for half the price or interest a graphic art class to take on your book cover as a project. You can contact college professors and propose the project for one of their classes. You can also request to have them make posters, cards, business cards or any other promotional material from it. Banners and logos will come in handy for when you develop your website or web log. There is a lot of software available you can also use to customize your own promotional material and then take it to your nearest printer or upload it online.

I hope you understand the importance of building a marketing plan for your book before you write your book. It is the key to make it a success and to be considered in the future for future ones. It doesn’t matter if you submit your book to a publisher or self-publish your book, the process should be the same and you should have a clear vision of how the book will find its way into the readers’ hands.

Clary Lopez is the CEO/Founder of Guerrilla Marketers Café, Free Book Promotion site. She is an author, moderator and publicist. You can contact her at guerrilla@clarylopez.com

or join her on her sites www.guerrilla.clarylopez.com, www.lulu.com/guerrilla and her official author site www.clarylopez.com

Author: Clary Lopez
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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E-Publishing 101: Marketing Tips for New Ebook Authors

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Congratulations, you’ve published your first ebook. You’ve uploaded it to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple, and other online booksellers. The problem? Only Mom and Grandma know it exists (and Grandma doesn’t know how to work an eBook reader so she doesn’t count).

It’s time to start marketing!

The biggest obstacle we face as indie authors (yes, I’m one too) is obscurity. We’re competing with traditionally published authors and lots of other indies jumping on the e-publishing bandwagon.

Today we’re going to look at three ways to help readers find you: guest blogging, advertising, and giving away a free eBook (this can be a short story).

Guest Blogging for Book Promotion

You’ve heard of blogging, and may even have a blog, but have you ever blogged for other people? Guest posting is when you write an article for someone else’s site, someone’s site that is ideally more popular than yours and that caters to your target audience (i.e. the types of readers who might buy your ebook).

For example, if you’re a science fiction author, you might try to find a science fiction and fantasy review blog and see if the owner is open to publishing guest posts or reviews. The post shouldn’t be self-promotional; it should be informative and useful to the blogger’s audience. But, in exchange for submitting this free content, the owner should be willing to let you attach a bio. This can include information about you, and it should definitely include a link to your website and your sales links (i.e. your author or eBook page at Amazon).

Not everybody excepts guest posters, but lots of people do (hey, it’s free content for them and gives them a day off of writing). It’s best to comment on the person’s blog a few times, so they’re aware of you, before writing them and asking about a guest gig.

Advertising Your Ebooks

Guest blogging is a way to promote your work for free, but if you have some money to spend, you could try advertising. There are a lot of options, but most of them will end up costing you more than you earn in book sales (I’ve tried quite a few). There are a couple of good options though.

Lots of folks with fairly mainstream ebooks have had luck buying a sponsorship at Kindle Nation Daily (assuming there’s a Kindle-version of your eBook out there). They have a number of options at different price points.

I’ve also had some luck (I’ve made more than I’ve spent) advertising at Goodreads. There you do pay-per-click ads (meaning you only pay if someone clicks the ad) with a title, short blurb, and thumbnail picture of your book. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re selling your eBook for 99 cents (because you have to pay about 25 cents just for a click), but for my novels, which are currently priced at $2.99, the royalty rate is high enough that I can afford a few clicks per sale.

You can check my site (link in my bio below) for a detailed how-to on starting a Goodreads campaign.

Giving Away a Free Ebook

When I released my fantasy novel, The Emperor’s Edge, as an ebook, I’d already written a couple of short stories with the same heroes. I decided to take one of the stories, Ice Cracker II, and release it as a free ebook. I uploaded it to several places online and also to Smashwords, an eBook distributor, and they got it into Barnes & Noble and the Apple Store. (As an indie author, you can’t normally list free ebooks for sale on your own–the minimum price at those stores is 99 cents, so Smashwords acts as a backdoor around that.)

At the end of my free short story, I included an excerpt of my novel as well as links showing folks where they could buy the ebook. While this didn’t turn me into an overnight bestseller, it did help me start selling ebooks at Smashwords and Barnes & Noble (places where I hadn’t had much luck before).

I’ve also read about authors who have a whole series of full-length ebooks (i.e. a six-novel fantasy series) who have giving away their entire first book for free and then gone on to do so well, they quit their day jobs and write full time now (Google “Brian S. Pratt Smashwords Interview” for some inspiration).

While there are lots of ways to market your book, these are three that can bring lasting sales and help get the word out about your work. Good luck!

Lindsay is a blogger by day and an indie fantasy author by night. You can visit her site to find that article on Goodreads Advertising and lots of other posts on e-publishing and ebooks.

Author: L.a. Buroker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Start Your Own Online Publishing Business

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The internet allows entrepreneurs to create and market a digital product to hundreds of thousands of targeted customers. Read three tips to start your own online publishing business.

Create A Needed Product

When creating a digital product to publish and sell on the internet it’s important to create a product that solves an immediate need. Pick a subject you have extensive experience with that has a market with high demand.

Products that have found success on the internet include alternative healing solutions and how-to guides. As the internet and social media evolves there is a growing expectation for digital products to include a video format with your product.

Videos have become best sellers when included with how-to guides.

Market Your Digital Product

Whether you choose to create your own custom website or sell your product through an auction site it’s important to create compelling, but credible copy. It’s common practice to give away several copies of your product in exchange for customer testimonials.

Adding positive testimonials to your website adds a social element to your copy that helps generate more sales.

When marketing your product it’s also important to select the appropriate price point. Compare your product with your competitors and decide if your product is worth more or less than comparable products.

Create An Affiliate Program

When you have a product that generates consistent sales you may want to scale your marketing by utilizing an affiliate program. You allow other marketers to promote your product in exchange for a commission.

Using the leverage of an affiliate program can turn a few sales into hundreds of sales in a very short time.

The tips above are just a small sample of a larger marketing blueprint found at the Maverick Money Makers.

You can visit the following link to learn more about the affiliate marketing club created by Mack Michaels.

Author: Mack M. Michaels
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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