Category Archives: Publishing Books

General advertising might work for broad scope products. However in a specialized industry the best marketing is free. You can generate a buzz about you and your books or products using the below five steps. These steps help brand you as an expert and increase sales. They won’t cost you anything and are the core ingredients to viral marketing.

1. Develop spinoff products-If you already have a book in any form whether conceptual, unfinished, in production or out of print, you have a platform for spinoff products. These products can be niche related follow-on books, study cards, training slides and much more. Use your existing or future product to create more opportunities.
2. Speak and teach-People are hungry for knowledge. If you’ve become an industry export, hobbyist or some sort of aficionado, you have something to teach. This is especially true when you’ve published. Whether with a traditional, self or indie publisher, you’ve got a book out with an opportunity to teach your subject matter. In fact, you now have enough information not to only teach your niche, but the publishing process as well. Talk to your local college, school, professional organizations and town halls. See what opportunities you can create. Perhaps you can even consult in your niche.
3. Form alliances-Friends, businesses, organizations, and people in similar niches can be business multipliers. Form a partnership, share products, develop affiliate opportunities, give referrals, sell each other’s inventory and etc. Leverage relationships to help spread your product awareness.
4. Join organizations-Professionals tend to flock together. Join with organizations that compliment your business. There are many industries, organizations and groups that meet to socialize. These meetings can be locally or coordinated through social media like LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.
5. Get interviewed-There are a surprising number of small industry based organizations with newsletters, PODcasts, radio programs and other media who are dying for interview subjects. While major media may not cover your area of interest or expertise, there may be a micro group with the reach and influence you need. If one doesn’t exist, create your own opportunity.

You may have heard you need to make money to spend money. In many cases this is true. Authors spend money to create titles as factories spend money to create and offer more products. However never ignore opportunities to create awareness as a niche expert, brand your product and earn a great income using these marketing techniques. Try these five steps and see what they can do for you.

Download the Spin-off idea generator @ http://www.redbikepublishing.com/book/get-rich-in-a-niche-the-insiders-guide-to-self-publishing-in-a-specialized-market/

Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. He is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: “Get Rich in a Niche-Insider’s Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry” and “Commitment-A Novel”.

Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: “Insider’s Guide to Security Clearances” and “DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook”.

See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of:
Army Leadership
The Ranger Handbook
The Army Physical Readiness Manual
Drill and Ceremonies
The ITAR
The NISPOM

Author: Jeffrey Bennett
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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There is only one way to reach the top and that is to take one step at a time. As for achieving success in the online industry, you should be open to take on new marketing strategies to sell and market a product. Today, generating profits in the World Wide Web will require you to appropriately answer the question: What is digital publishing?

Start writing your own eBook. Begin by formulating an enticing working title for your electronic publication. Take down notes and jot down several different titles that suit the information in your eBook. Eventually, you’ll stumble upon a good title that will grow on you.

The title is a critical part of your eBook. It will guide you in foreseeing and countering your readers and followers’ questions and inquiries. While you aim for quality, you should not forget to squeeze some of your creative juices to make the title more appealing, though avoid making it too sweet or endearing. Subsequently, formulate and write your thesis statement. Your thesis is made up of one or two sentences denoting exactly what issues you would like to address and how your eBook will solve your readers’ problems. From this step, you can then establish your book, chapter by chapter.

Learning about what is digital publishing will require you to focus on your thesis statement while you write your eBook. Make sure that all your book’s chapters support the thesis statement. Once the writing is in progress, you should make the appropriate corrections to your work, so you can accommodate all your goals that you aim to achieve. While other authors do not perform editing, you should not be motivated by profit alone, thus you need to seek excellence. You can make this happen by only providing good manuscripts for text conversion of your eBook.

Text conversion is the procedure of transforming what you have written into a specific format for web uploading. This method can be carried out by simply hitting off save on your word processing application, or can be as complicated as deciphering one language to another, and converting a word document into PDF file format. The truth is that all eBooks have been saved and converted from one point to another, this process takes place once the manuscripts are prepared for web uploading.

Uploading of your eBook can be performed in variety of ways. You can have it emailed as an attachment to the webmaster, or a publisher. They will in return upload your book on the web. You can also directly upload your eBook to your website or directories for eBooks. Whatever method you’ll use in uploading your electronic reading materials, it is one of the most critical steps to send your eBook to the viewing public.

A process that you may or may not perform in learning about what is digital publishing is marketing your eBook. You can try to make a buzz first prior to the availability date of your eBook, though it’s more purposeful to carry out the marketing when the eBook is ready for download. To earn online profits, you can market your eBook through promotion and advertising, word of mouth, and by conducting teleseminars, focus groups, and interviews.

Ready to learn more information on what is digital publishing? Visit http://www.eBooksCreated.com today!

Author: M Goudelock
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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This is NOT meant to be a comprehensive review of the entire finding-a-publisher process – it’s meant to be a guide for researching a publisher and knowing, in ten minutes or less, if they MIGHT be right for you.

There are thousands of small and independent publishers out there, and new ones pop up every day. If your book isn’t selling to one of the big boys – or if you don’t have an agent submitting your manuscript for you – an Indie publisher may provide the perfect home for your book.

First, a clarification. The definitions of Small Press, Small Publisher, and Indie Publisher vary from person to person, and the lines between them can be blurry (we can discuss this in a later post if you’d like, but I’m not going to get into it here). For the purposes of this post, I’m lumping them all together – we’re talking about any publisher that (a) allows writers to submit their own work for consideration, (b) offers royalties, and (c) does NOT charge fees.

There are a number of things you need to consider before you start looking for a small publisher, but here are the two most important:

– Do you want your book to be available in bookstores, or is having a presence on Amazon and BN.com enough for you?

– How much marketing do you expect your publisher to do for you?

Your answers to these questions will determine the type of small publisher you choose. If you are determined to get your book into bookstores across the country and have a marketing budget to work with, you need to go with an Indie that has a solid reputation and history of exceptional sales. If neither of those things are important – you just want it available online and you’re willing to do all the promotion yourself – a mom-and-pop shop might just be the way to go.

Once you’ve started searching for an Indie publisher, you’ll want to vet your choices very carefully. The quick-and-dirty method below is a great way to thin out the herd.

1. You’re going to start the same way we started our agent research, by running the name of the publisher through Preditors and Editors. Any warning signs? Consider that a big giant red flag – and consider running in the opposite direction.

2. Google. The first thing you’re looking for is anything with the publisher’s name appearing on Absolute write Forums or the Writer Beware Blog. You’re also looking for Amazon links or links to authors’ blogs or websites that mention the publisher – this is a great way to get a feel for the level of work they do and how well they support their authors.

3. Visit the publisher’s website. We’re looking for a number of things here.

First, does the site look professional? Have they invested the time and energy required to present a storefront that doesn’t look shoddy or slapped together? Is the spelling and grammar correct? Poorly written copy on a PUBLISHER’S website is inexcusable. A misplaced period? Sure. It happens (even here!). More than that? Not okay.

The next thing we’re looking for is a submissions policy. Some Indies are more selective than others. As a general rule, the more selective they are with manuscripts, the more likely it is that they can get your book into bookstores. Some Indies will take anyone and everyone. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but lax policies mean they’re likely putting out a great deal of slush along with a few gems, so it’s unlikely their reputation with reviewers or store owners is particularly good (or existent).

While looking over the submission policy, we want to WATCH FOR FEES. If your publisher is charging you a fee for anything up front – editing, pagination, cover design, marketing, etc. – this is not a small publisher – it’s a vanity press. Again – not that there’s anything wrong with that (note to self: stop quoting Seinfeld; it dates you) – but a Vanity Press is a completely different creature. Look for fees on the back end too. If the publisher requires you to buy or “guarantee that you can sell” a certain number of copies, you’re still essentially paying to have your own book published.

If they have contract terms listed online, read them carefully. Less than scrupulous publishers throw all kinds of weird terms into a contract. If you see anything that doesn’t feel right, check with an agent or other publishing pro. A favorite example I came across early this year (it’s been taken down since then): “The publisher may publish parts of your work online prior to our offering you a publishing contract without prior notice.” Not okay.

The Two Essentials

These two steps don’t quite fit the Quick-and-Dirty description, but they are absolutely essential when working with an Indie press.

(1) If it is a very small publisher with limited info available on the web, call them. Talk to someone there. Make sure the actual people on the other end are available, knowledgeable, and willing to answer all of your questions. If they don’t have a copy of the contract online, ask about the general terms. Ask about marketing efforts and budgets.

(2) Order a book. Don’t sign with an Indie publisher (unless they have a STELLAR reputation in the industry) without ordering one of their books first. I recommend ordering the book either through Amazon or your local bookstore – not their website – so you can get a feel for what your buyers’ experience will be like. Choose something you’d like to read, obviously (no need to waste that $12!), but then take a close look at the actual product. Is the cover design professional? Are there lots of typos and errors in the text? Does the layout look good? What’s the quality of the paper? Make sure you know exactly what your book will look like if you choose this particular publisher for your book.

Lindsay is a freelance editor and publishing consultant specializing in Manuscript Evaluation and Manuscript Critique. Read more on her blog at http://www.murdockediting.blogspot.com or her website, http://www.murdockediting.com.

Author: L Murdock
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Many writers have shifted to a new form of publishing because of the demand of most online users. Unlike before, readers have become more adept in reading text on their computer rather than an actual book. More and more people are reading stuff online rather than the newspaper. This is probably why the proliferation of digital publishing became such a great phenomenon that most writers shifted to writing ebooks rather than print media.

If you wish to be successful in this field, then you would have to have some guideline to get you started. Writing ebooks are much like writing just about any book. You need to lean and do the following in order to achieve success:

1. What are your objectives? You must first determine what your main reasons are for writing your ebook. Is this for business or for promotional purposes? Knowing your exact purpose will help you think about your overall concept and how you will go about this as you begin the writing process. Write these objectives down so that this will be your benchmark for success as you go about writing and selling your ebook.

2. Do your research. Do your homework and read as many ebooks as you can. Read about different topics then read about topics that are similar to the ones you will be writing. Get as many ideas as you can but do not copy them. These findings will only help you get started. This would also let you in on the top secrets of these successful writers.

3. Create an interesting title. Begin with a working title. However as your concept grows and your ideas begin pouring out, you may want to change your title to the most creative it can be. There are so many competitors in the area of digital publishing that you would want to stand out from the crowd and catch the attention of the readers with your catchy title. This title must be able to sum up in a few words what your eBook is about. Make it creative, eye-catching and even funny if you want.

3. Put your ideas in an outline. Start by writing down your main topic followed by subtitles of each idea that you want to write about. Determine how many chapters you wish to write and gather all the supporting ideas about your topic. Most successful eBook writers are very organized with their thoughts that readers are able to get the message immediately when they read their book. Your outline would help you achieve that.

4. Make your eBook marketable. Be creative in presenting your eBook to the public. Know which layouts work and which doesn’t. It helps to put in photos and graphics and use different fonts to make the overall look attractive and pleasing to the eyes. You would also want to create a very interesting and creative cover page because this will help make your book look more attractive and encourage the readers to buy.

Armed with these tips, you may now begin writing your ebook. It is important to have all of these ideas and follow them to the latter so you will achieve success in digital publishing.

Want to get top quality digital publishing written for your niche for a low price? We are English speaking college graduates who KNOW what they are doing when it comes to writing eBooks. Go to http://www.eBooksCreated.com.

Author: M Goudelock
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Smiling shark

The journey to becoming an indie-published author has been rewarding and one I would recommend. It is not for the faint of heart, however.

Art Linkletter once quoted Bette Davis, “old age ain’t no place for sissies. Indie publishing (self-publishing) “ain’t no place for sissies” either. If you take the opportunity to become an independent author-publisher you will face challenges, but the rewards are worth it.

My own learning curve taught me to think in what I call my rule of threes. I believe that following them will help me to avoid the three deadly sins of self-publishing in the future.

The Three Rules

The first rule demands that authors write a good story, well told. Plot bunnies look like cute little creatures until they get hungry. They nibble around our brains and are the ideas for a story demanding to be told. All writers know how difficult it is to steer them in an organized direction, some say harder even than herding cats. Whether you plot your novel or write by the seat of the pants, you owe it to the reader to give them a well-written story. If you do you will hear the rave reviews. That brings us to editing. Editing and rewriting is a tedious and thankless job. Going through a 100,000 word manuscript line-by-line and page-by-page is slow going. It is something that has to be done before putting your story in the hands of a competent editor. Most of us are not married to a professional copy editor nor have one as a friend, so why rely on family and friends? It costs money, a precious commodity for most of us indie publishers, but I can’t imagine not doing it. I service my automobile to avoid complications later. I think the service of a good editor is similar.

The second rule in the rule of threes calls for putting a good face to our work. For the same reason I wouldn’t skip the hard work of rule number one, or the service of a good editor, I need a cover designer that knows how to match the cover with the story. The cover is your invitation to a reader and it has to promise what the reader will find between the covers.

The third rule is to have a plan for marketing. This is where you have to ask yourself the question of what you will do after you have sold books to friends and family. I have heard many indie authors say they were blindsided by the need to market their books. To break through the noise and draw attention to your book means having a plan to get the most from a tight budget. Your plan can include a lot of things you can do with sweat equity.

Three Deadly Sins

That brings us to the three deadly sins of self-publishing.

The first deadly sin is sloppy or poor writing. When a story is poorly organized, meanders when it shouldn’t, and in other ways does not deliver on its promise to a reader, you risk publishing a story that gives indie publishing a bad reputation. If you fall into the trap of hurried writing or producing a cluttered story you will suffer the pain of a poor review. Isn’t it the worst fear of a writer to have a reader stop reading by not turning to the next page? Sometimes cost is ‘the’ issue. If that is the case you need to do serious self-editing. Readers spot typos and misspelled words, along with grammatical dust balls. They not only do spot them, they love to point them out. It was embarrassing when chapter thirteen in one of my novels will be forever be chapter “thirteer” in print. I turned that into a marketing gimmick by initialing that page at book signings. After all, it will be a collector’s item someday. But I dearly wish that mistake isn’t staring at me every time I open that page.

The second deadly sin I committed was going with template covers to avoid expense. My first two books are good examples of how not to choose a cover, especially when compared to those same to books with covers created by a competent designer. My designer understood my stories and matched them with great covers.

The third deadly sin is to bury one’s head in the sand when it comes to marketing. Few of us are born marketers. But a garage full of books gathering dust is not a marketing plan.

Is there help?

In a word, yes. There are local writing groups that are sources for information. Meet other indie authors who have self-published. Join associations like the Association of Independent Authors and take advantage of the tips available. Contact other indie authors by email. You will find most of us quite willing to share. There are resources at the library and online. Grab what you can for free.

What’s the Reward?

Not only will you experience the feel-good reward from a well done self-published book, you will not have to share the credit, you can hold up your head and smile. And, by the way, you will also share more of the revenue. That may be the best part of all.

Chuck is an independent author with three published novels:

Tears in the Dust

Remington & the Mysterious Fedora

Served Cold

His fourth novel, The Lion’s Head Deception, is currently in rewrite with an expected launch in mid-summer 2012.

As an independent author and publisher, I have learned some valuable lessons through trial and error. If you are considering self-publishing I hope you find the encouragement you need to take control of your publishing destiny. Welcome to the Indie Book Rebellion.

In addition to my own writing I am proud to be a partner at a new service for independent authors, a place where you can expect editorial, cover design, and support in developing your marketing strategy. Visit http://www.canamauthorservices.com

You are invited to visit my website at http://www.writebyme.ca or send an email to chuck@writebyme.ca

Chuck Waldron,
Kitchener, Ontario

Author: Chuck Waldron
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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