How Three Publishing Myths Kill the Author

Agents and publishing houses have their best interests at heart, not the author’s. Save yourself from headaches, disappointments, and money down the drain. Become your own independent publisher and produce your book faster and cheaper. All you need is a little help from professionals. Myth: You need an agent or big publishing house to market your book and make big money. Since big publishers don’t look at unknown authors, now is the time to look at what they can do for you. Dan Poynter, self-publishing guru, says that if a publisher can’t sell four times as many books as you can, you’re better off selling it yourself. Self-publish first because it acts as a test market for your book. If it sells well (over 10,000 in a year), publishers may be interested in your book. Traditional publishers and agents accept only 1-2% of authors’ submissions, and even if you are one of the “chosen” you may not make much money after printing, bookstore, distributor, wholesaler and other expenses–probably $2 on a $14 book. Yes, you get an advance, but your sales must meet that and more. And after the initial book tour, the trainee marketing person is onto the next new author. Then, your books disappear from the bookstore shelf unless you, personally, devote a lot of time to marketing them. Book Publishing is a new game today. Think self-publishing where the profits are all yours. Thanks to Dan Poynter of the Self Pulsing Manual for giving us permission to do part of the task ourselves. If you self-publish and decide to print, you need to print only the copies you need (5-500) with the new technology Print on Demand (POD). Even better is Print Quantity Needed (PQN) such as Deharts.com. No more unsold cartons of books in your closets or garage. You print as you go leaving enough cash flow to market your book splendidly. Myth: To be a respected author, you must invest thousands of hours of time on your full-length book. The reality is that people today want concise and useful information. You don’t have to write a 200-page book to be a real author. Remember The One-Minute Manager and the One- Minute Salesperson? Around one hundred pages. People want information fast and convenient. Create short information products that are between 20 and 99 pages you can sell online, even if you don’t have your own Web site. If you choose to print your book with Print Quantity Needed (PQN), your perfect bound books will look as good as any book on the bookstore shelves. Myth: Authors must spend a lot of money to publish themselves. The printing costs for 1500 copies of a 160-page book might cost $3000, about $2 a unit. Small runs cost even more per unit. That’s a lot of cash for anyone to put out all at once, and it’s not worth it to many of us to use our home equity or life savings to finance our book. The answer is a small run with Print on Demand (POD) where you can print from 100 to 500 for around $2.40 for 160 pages. Without the high inventory, you can maintain a comfortable cash flow to spend on promotion, the most important part of your book adventure. You save even more money if you don’t print your book. Book publishing is going Internet. You can write small books in less time, market them easily and inexpensively on the Web and reap profits sooner. Try an e-book. It can be downloaded, it takes no printing costs because your buyer prints or downloads it. You don’t even have to have the whole book finished to sell it. Just include your table of contents at the end of each chapter and present it as an e-serial book. As a book coach, I am an authors’ advocate and want you to make money. Going traditional doesn’t work. Give ePublishing a chance.

Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including “Write your eBook Fast,” and “How to Market your Business on the Internet,” she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says…and Business Tip of the Month at [http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml] and over 140 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com

Author: Judy Cullins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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3 Questions to Ask Before Writing Your Book That Will Influence Your Book Marketing Plan

Many authors leave devising their book marketing plan until after their book is published. This is a grave mistake. How you plan to market your book will affect how you write and even publish it.

Prioritising the development and implementation of your book marketing plan will help to ensure that your book is a best-seller. The alternative is that your book is to left languish on a book store shelf or even returned to the publisher to be turned into confetti.

So here are three questions to ask before you write your book.

1. What will be the title and sub-title?

Your title should normally average at about 1-4 words long. It should be catchy and memorable. While the final title of your book may not be finalised until your book is nearly complete you’ll want to have some possible book titles to work with. Author and expert book marketer, Rick Frishman, recommends having at least 10 potential titles to choose from. And you should register each potential title as a domain name.

Actually, the fact that a title might not be available as a domain name can be a deciding factor as to whether or not to choose that particular title. You want potential buyers to be able to easily find your book online. They will not be able to do so if it is associated with some obscure domain name or worse yet you haven’t got a domain at all and have to refer individuals to the your book’s URL on your publisher’s website.

The sub-title of your book will reveal to a potential reader what they will gain from reading the book. In other words your sub-title should be benefit-rich and designed to persuade a prospect to want to read your book. Many authors omit a sub-title. This is a lost opportunity to promote the message of your book.

2. Will you publish a hardcover version?

There’s no question that authors who publish hard cover versions of their books are seen to be more prestigious. A hardcover version of a book is generally released first and is, of course, more expensive than the later soft cover edition. It is often seen as a collector’s item. Whether or not you print a hardcover version of your book will partially depend upon your target market.

If you’re planning to publish more than one version of your book, then you may want to consider multiple launches. In other words, you want to create buzz around the publishing of each version of your book. So this should be taken into consideration when drawing up your marketing plan.

3. Will you make your book available in digital format?

There are numerous advantages of having your book available in digital format but there are some disadvantages as well. Whether or not you want to offer prospects a digital version of your book is a deciding factor in the type of publisher you work with. There are some traditional publishers who will not allow you to make do this.

If your book can be accessed in digital format then it will be more readily available for individuals to review. With the growing popularity of digital book readers such as the Kindle and Sony Reader you would be exposing yourself to another revenue stream regarding your book sales.

You can also create special promotions using the digital version of your book that will help to increase the sales of your physical book. One possible disadvantage is that people might share your book without your permission. You can prevent this by choosing a digital format for your book that allows you to control who can actually and by using tools such as Product Padlock to prevent digital piracy.

Alternatively, you could see the viral marketing of your book as a good thing as it reflects that people thought your book not only worth reading but also worth sharing. Within your digital book there should be, at the very least, be directions for readers to link to your website. In this way you’ll indirectly gain sales even through unofficial viral marketing of your book.

How would you like to get your next book to the elusive #1 position on Amazon? For a tested and proven, step-by-step marketing plan that will help you sell loads more books while becoming an Amazon Best-Selling Author visit #1: Amazon Best-Seller.

Author: Nickolove Lovemore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Writing How to eBooks – The Difference Between Writing Books & Writing eBooks

In the last few weeks, I’ve run into an issue three times. Now writing isn’t a big subject, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was. You see writing also isn’t a subject that evokes passion in people — especially professionals. Or maybe I should say excessive emotions rather than passion. You see writers tend to put their emotions onto the paper, not into their real lives. Maybe that’s one reason writers are such a laid back bunch — we expend the noisy emotions on paper and keep the quiet ones for real life.

In any case, two of these cases involved people claiming that eBooks weren’t real books. And that only printed books were worthy of serious consideration. I must be honest; one of them admitted that digital books — meaning real printed books copied to a digital format — were still valid.

At the same time, I was predicting the effect of the arrival of traditional publishers on the eBook scene.

This got me to thinking since I write both types of books. What is the difference between writing an eBook and writing a traditional book?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to determine what I meant by a book and an eBook. You see eBooks have developed a bad reputation. One that’s deserved. That of being poor quality and being typically a tempest in a teapot. A very tiny teapot.

So I had to put some limits around the terms.

Far too often eBooks are actually just reports with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. They’re really just white papers and extended report length pieces. They’re far too short to be honestly considered as a book or eBook. At most they might fit the definition of monograph. An essay or thesis to be more precise.

And second they are often poorly written and poorly edited. But that’s not a factor of the medium. That’s a factor of the expense and recognition of quality.

But both of these are a vanishing breed. They may last for a short time but the market is going to kill them soon.

On the other hand I also looked at books. And realized that books ran from novelty and executive length all the way up to tomes. So comparing writing different length books was going to be a problem.

The only way to be fair was to compare the same fruit of the writing tree… equal length books of the same type.

So what’s the difference between writing a very long eBook of a hundred pages and an executive length book of a hundred pages?

Does an eBook take less time? Nope.

Does an eBook take less effort? Nope.

Does an eBook take fewer steps? Nope.

Does an eBook take different steps? Not for the writing parts.

So what is the difference?

The publishing step. When writing an eBook you need to format the book in the form it will be sold in. When publishing using a traditional process the publisher does that.

But arguably that’s a publisher’s problem not the writer. And it’s really a function of the use of traditional publishers versus self publishing.

So the answer is… there is no difference. Writing an eBook is exactly the same as writing a traditional book.

Do you want to learn how to write a book in 24 hours? Take my brand new free course here: http://www.learningcreators.com

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

Author: Glen Ford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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6 Benefits of Online Book Marketing

Printed materials serve as a visual clue for people who see them. Some of them are Bookmarks, Business cards, postcards and promoting your book. Hence, book marketing is essential to build legitimacy, increase the books credibility and is a stepping-stone for potential sales. Below are some of the most common tactics used for book marketing techniques:

How To Start Book Marketing?

Postcards

They are cost effective and inexpensive. Give postcards to your close friends and ask them to send to their friends. Form a chain so that many people get these postcards.

1. Send a business card stating useful information about your book.

2. Form a group, go to event places, and distribute various copies of brochures.

3. Frame a postcard with all the information about your book listed on it.

4. Get large copies of autographed books.

Printed Bookmarks

1. Give them to people at social events and book signing sessions.

2. People will have a look at them for future book events.

3. Make a note of your next book signing campaign date and time, publish it and give it out as a
reminder.

4. Tell your friends to give these bookmarks to their friends.

Business cards

Build a network and pass on a business card with information about you and your book. This will help agents, publishers, reporters, and readers to remember you and your book.

1. It doubles as a bookmark for readers.

2. Give them out at book signing campaigns and speech sessions so that people can pass it onto others.

Posters

Put a poster in view of advance of your book marketing campaign.

1. Put a poster of your book, where verbal speech is not possible. Posters send out a subtle and powerful message.

2. Place posters near you on the writing desk. It will be a great source of inspiration.

3. Display them at all book fairs and other events.

4. Hire people to wear them at large community gatherings.

Benefits Of Online Book Marketing:

1. The cover of your book will feature on the main home page for about a month, which will be a good exposure for tons of book buyers on the Internet. Several online book marketing services also offer Flash slide show to promote books on the Internet.

2. Next, the book will feature in its preferred category page with appraisals and outline of the book, provided by you.

3. To obtain excellent search engine results, the listings of your book will be search engine optimized.

4. Formats and price structure of your book will also be showcased along with awards and other bookish achievements.

5. The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) will introduce your book to RSS users.

6. Finally, your book will get Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Purchase-path Evaluations, and Promotional Powers from some of the best domains.

Start an e-mailing campaign by sending an e-mail to all the people in your e-mail list about the announcement of your new book release. This is also one good alternative book marketing technique.

Book Marketing is very important, it gives readers a chance to know you as an author, and it helps them to understand your interest and the interesting aspects of your book.

Caleb Anderson invites you to visit Find This Online an online resource guide that offers a variety of articles written on different subjects. Offering you relevant information that you are looking for. Browse through plenty of useful articles, information, content and resources on the subject. Visit us at Here for more articles on bookmarketing.

Author: Caleb Anderson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Writer As Publisher – Write And Sell Ebooks And Reports

The Internet may well be more important to writers than Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of printing with movable type in the fourteenth century. Suddenly, writers aren’t dependent on publishers: they can be their own publishers. Instantly. The reason blogs are being created at the astounding rate of 100,000 each day isn’t because they’re online journals: it’s because they’re instant publications.

Self-Publishing Becomes Easy

Canny writers have always self-published, because they know that when they produce and sell their own books, they keep all the profits. Contrast this with what happens if you get a publisher: if you’ve sold a book to a major publisher, you know that while someone’s making money on your book, it’s not you.

But the Internet means that the major obstacle which stands in the way of writers publishing and selling their own work – upfront costs – no longer exists. Today, if you get an idea for an ebook, or a brief report, you can write it, and sell it, at NO cost to you at all. Yes, that’s right: no cost.

You Can Write And Sell Ebooks And Reports And Make Money

The craze for ebooks took off around 2000, and then fizzled. However, now it’s back, and oddly enough, the people making hundreds of thousands of dollars selling ebooks online aren’t writers – they’re marketers. Marketers hire writers to write ebooks on various topics, and then sell the ebooks, at prices ranging from $30 to a couple of hundred dollars.

What’s stopping writers writing and selling ebooks? In brief, it’s a lack of knowledge, and a lack of confidence. Many writers are scared of technology, even though they research online, and use a word processor. They’re also shy when it comes to selling their own work.

These obstacles can be overcome. If you can use a word processor, you can create an ebook or report, and sell it.

Topics For Ebooks And Reports

So, if you wanted to sell an ebook, of around 30 pages (ebooks tend to be shorter than print books), what topic would you select?

Your topic can be any subject that you have specialized knowledge in. I’ve been working as a professional copywriter and author for around 30 years, so I know the writing business. It’s a snap for me to create ebooks and reports which are useful to my fellow writers.

A friend is a health writer. She’s currently selling ebooks on topics like diet, green tea, natural aids for menopause, and natural face lifts. She’s produced ten ebooks to date, and is aiming for 50. She sells her 20 to 30 page ebooks for $29.99 from her Web site. Even taking online advertising costs into account, she’s making a tidy 40 per cent profit. This, as any business person will tell you, is a very healthy profit indeed. She’s given up writing for magazines, she’s making too much money writing and selling her ebooks as a self-publisher.

Another friend is writing reports. She sells these well-researched reports for corporate businesses from her Web site for $295. The reports are case studies. They’re thorough, and packed with information which is worth many times $295, so she sells thousands of copies of each report. She’s stopped writing for business publications completely. As she says, she’s making much more selling her reports than she makes for writing business articles, so why would she bother?

Why Sell And Write Ebooks And Reports?

Why would you write ebooks and reports, and become a self-publisher of your writing? The answer is on-going income. When you create your own material, you can sell it forever. You’ve got a steady stream of income, and that income continues day and night, whether you’re writing or lying on the beach at Tahiti on your vacation. On the other hand, when you’re a writer whose sole income is from her writing, you’ve got to write, or your income stops.

Becoming a self-publisher and selling ebooks and reports isn’t for every writer. There’s a learning curve. However, once you’ve learned, you’re creating a bright and lucrative future for yourself.

Angela Booth is a veteran freelance writer and copywriter. She also teaches writing. Visit her blogs – Angela Booth’s Writing Blog at http://copywriter.typepad.com/ and Fab Freelance Writing at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/ for daily writing inspiration and motivation. Subscribe to the Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at [http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html] to receive “Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report” free. It’s 21 pages packed with information to help you to develop a six-figure writing career.

Author: Angela Booth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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