Self-Publishing | Deborah H Bateman - Author

Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Adventure in 10 Steps

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

These ten steps will help you painlessly jump-start your new adventure. Although most of these steps are very easy to accomplish, I believe that they will help you quickly lay the foundation for a successful first book.

1. Realize that this is a business
Self-publishing is a business. It can be your side-business, main business, or even be your hobby. But you still must run it like a business. That means you will need to learn the basics of management, marketing, sales, public relations, accounting, negotiation, etc.

2. Start your due-diligence
You must research what will be involved in self-publishing. Buy several of the most popular books about self-publishing, such as those by Dan Pointer. Visit the popular self-publishing blogs, such as TheBookDesigner.com. Visit the biggest websites that can sell your book, such as SmashWords, and Scribd.

3. Keep your current job
This will ensure that you will have a regular paycheck. It is also very important to keep building your resume. A good resume will help build your credentials and be your proof of your accomplishments. This will give you more credibility with your readers.

4. Discover your niche
In today’s terms, this means “micro-niche”. As a self-publisher you will most likely find the biggest success by narrowly defining your market niche. It is much easier to become an expert in a very specific market where it is much less crowded with big well-established writers and publishers.

5. Start with an ebook
This is the smartest way to get started. It is fast and inexpensive. It is the perfect way to dip your toes into the water and see how comfortable it is. Starting with an ebook allows you to feel out your market. It also allows you to make any changes or corrections well before sending your book to a print-on-demand printer and distributor.

6. Set-up your blog
Once you figure out what your niche is, start your free WordPress blog right away. This will get your creative juices flowing. It will also establish an internet home for you where you will show the world your expertise in your niche.

7. Get your spouse/partner on board
It is important to keep your family involved with a decision like this. Keeping your family informed and involved will help keep all of you happy.

8. Join professional groups
This will help keep you informed of what is going on inside your market niche. These same people might also become the market for your book. Professional affiliations also give you more credibility with your readers.

9. Advocate for your target market/audience
Nowadays, especially because of the internet, you can immediately start to show the world that you are an expert. Start writing for industry publications and websites.

10. Start your next book
Now that you have accomplished the previous steps, keep the momentum that you have built-up going. Keep improving your business model. Never stop learning about marketing and promotion. Keep enhancing your blog. Keep improving your first book. Start your next book.

Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. is an author, publisher, educator, business manager, and entrepreneur. Life-long love affair with books and reading. Very excited about being part of the new media movement. Known for casual, easy-to-read writing style and ability to explain complex topics in an understandable way. “If you are serious about your work you should self-publish. Retain creative control. Retain the profits. Enjoy the satisfaction and status that comes with being published.” Visit Kunz’s website about all aspects of self-publishing at http://www.KunzOnPublishing.com/, for an insider’s guide to becoming a financially successful and happy self-publisher, and sign-up for his free newsletter.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The 10 Reasons That Convinced Me To Become A Self-Publisher

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Here I share my favorite reasons for becoming a self-publisher. Some reasons are much more important to me than they might be to you. But I am certain that on this list you will find a reason that is important or intriguing to you. I hope that you find one that gets your internal capitalist into gear, and gets you onto a new path too.

1. Retain Ownership: As a self-publisher you retain complete control and ownership of the book – forever. I’m sure that for all of you reading this article, this is a very important reason – as it was for me.

2. Instant Credibility: The book will instantly give you credibility – and help boost your career or business. We all want this. The more professional your book is, the more credibility you will have with your audience. With self-publishing you can easily and quickly make improvements to your book – especially with an ebook.

3. Control Fate of My Book: As a self-publisher you control the fate of your book – not some publisher that has no interest in your book or subject other than how much money they can make from you. Self-publishers are writing and publishing books because we love our subject, and want to share our knowledge with others.

4. Speed to Market: Traditional publishers take way too long to bring your book to the market. A big publisher would think that you are a silly fool to believe that you could get your book into a world-wide audience within a few weeks. But of course, we now all know that we can – and do.

5. Plenty of Help Available: As a self-publisher you can choose to be involved with as much, or as little, of the creative process. Self-publishing is where you, the author, bypass all the intermediaries that are involved in traditional publishing. These intermediaries do the editing, designing, illustrating, marketing, promotion, etc., of your book. As a self-publisher these functions will typically be your job. Although, you can easily hire people to do these functions for you and still be considered a self-publisher. As a self-publisher you get to choose which functions you want to do, and which ones you need to hire someone to help you with.

6. Keep All Profits: As a self-publisher you keep all of the profits. A traditional publisher will keep almost all of the profits. Then, after several months, when your book sales start to slow down, they will dump you for someone else that is more profitable for them. Even if your book makes you just a few hundred dollars a year, these profits will come to you year after year after year. The more effort you put into making your book look professional, and into your marketing and sales, the more profit you will make. You have complete control as to how much success your book will have.

7. Low Entry Cost: It is much less costly to produce a book now than it has ever been before. You can get an ebook online with a big-name website for free within minutes. You can also get your book accepted by a big-name print-on-demand company that will distribute your book to the entire market for about $112. Additional expenses like ISBN fees, and CIP fees, will add about $100. Hiring a professional cover designer can be anywhere from $250 to $750.

8. My Knowledge of The Market: With some effort and study, you can do a much better job promoting your book than a traditional publisher can. This is especially true when your book is directly related to your career or business. You know your market, your audience, your customers, and your readers, much better than anyone else does. This intimate knowledge of their needs is what will help make your book and career a success.

9. Niche for Success: Your book’s subject might fit into a very small niche – one that is too small for a traditional publisher to even bother with. Filling a small, tight niche is where the money is for many self-publishers.

10. Creative Outlet: Self-publishing is a great way to satisfy your need to be creative – writing, designing, and illustrating – as well as being creative with marketing, advertising, and promotion. Self-publishing will force you to be creative in many areas.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The Art of Ebook Writing and Self Publishing

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

To write great eBooks, all you need to focus on is the content of your book. Write on the subject to keep it simple and interesting for the people who will benefit from reading your book. The most important benefits of self publishing your eBook is that there won’t be any rejections, no change in thoughts presented in the book as there won’t be any editing on the content, make big profits by selling lots of copies, build a list of readers who appreciate your work and best part is the information is your valuable contribution to everyone who benefits from reading it.

The creation of the book and publishing it on the web is easy, especially if you follow simple instructions and take guidance from authors of the many free books available online. The cost associated with this activity depends on the kind of audience you want to target and the promotional activity you want to undertake for your book.

To start publishing your book the first requirement would be to format the content of your book and for that you can either go for professional help or proceed to complete the task on your own. Give your book some time and perform the proof reading activity. If your book is in PDF format then the best option is to lock your book before sending out to the market. This would secure your book and only allow your customers to extract the content and will prevent others from copying your work.

Next you need to create a graphical image for your book as this will help increase sales. Creating an eBook cover with professional help is an expensive affair. The best way to go for cover creation would be to use the available software packages and minimize the cost.

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Author: Jason A Osborn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self Publishing 101 – How to Write a Book Marketing Plan

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

I’m sure you’re not too surprised to find out that your work as a self published author doesn’t stop when the presses finally start -actually, some of the most important work you’ll do to make your book sell STARTS now (if not a bit earlier…)

How often have you heard other self published authors lament their lack of sales? All too often, I’m sure – and all too often, good planning and a smart strategy could have changed those stories

A sound and sensible marketing plan for your book is just as important as the writing, design, and publication itself – no matter how wonderful your book might be, it won’t sell itself… and it’s highly unlikely for a new author (and even many well seasoned ones) that your book is going to jump off bookstore shelves without some help. Remember, in most bookstores, it has about 8,000 other competitors right next to it!

Your marketing plan should be built to identify the revenue streams you expect to attack. This document should be an outline on how you will achieve your income or sales goals, and it should identify in detail the market you see and how you will reach your sales goals.

Building a marketing plan.

You all know a book won’t sell itself? Right? Surprisingly, many authors DON’T understand this fact until too late – and they are disappointed with their sales performance. Every book needs some sort of marketing plan – something that sets your expectations and creates achievable goals that you can attack in an orderly fashion.

But – how do you create a marketing plan for your book? There is a ton of great freeware, even more that you can spend lots of money on, that all help you create a marketing plan for selling your book. But – before you go to the exciting effort of spending time and money on downloading software, open up your trusty word processor and follow me…

Who will buy your book?

The secret to sales success is to target your marketing as directly as possible to your potential reader – and have it be someone who is reachable.

“Everyone will want to read my book!” Sorry, but that doesn’t work. Even the absolute best selling books – that sell 2 or 3 million copies in a year – only penetrate to about 3% of the reading population. Sales success for your book will be driven by defining a very clear picture of who is interested in your book.

They must be identifiable: Make a list! Which groups would be interested in your book? Why? Who is next? Why should the need or want your book? (remember this – someone is more likely to buy something they NEED before something they WANT)

What is your definition of success for your book? What is your GOAL?

Some authors write for themselves and their faimilies only – they don’t dream of their books as bestsellers in the marketplace. Some authors write for a very specific personal need to tell their story. Some have unique insight into very specific topics. Many have dreams of seeing their book in the front of Borders or Barnes & Noble. Each author is different, but you MUST decide what your real definition of success happens to be. We don’t want to pursue a goal that may not be what you actually feel is important.

Marketing & publicity is a long-term, consistent and concerted effort – it never ever happens overnight, even though it may seem to for some people.

Create a reasonable timeline and budget

All of us have finite amounts of time, energy, and money. Marketing can eat up all three very quickly, leaving you alone, exhausted, and broke. The game is to pace yourself and resources so that you can keep the effort moving along. This is where your planning in Chapter Three works it magic – without looking at the “big picture,” most of us would never know how much of our precious resources should be devoted to each aspect of the game. Organization and prioritizing are the most important part of the process – and you may find yourself returning to and rewriting sections of your plan.

That’s it – the building of a book marketing plan in a nutshell if you will. Let us know if we can answer any questions, and thanks for reading

As always – if you like this information (and found it helpful) please feel free to post it on your site, put it in a blog, toss it in your newsletter, or in general spread it around. Please just give us credit here at www.dogearpublishing.net.

May you have success in your creative efforts!

Ray Robinson is a partner in Dog Ear Publishing http://www.dogearpublishing.net a self publishing services company specializing in delivering “high touch” services to the author community. His company provides a full range of services to authors, from editorial to page layout to marketing and fulfillment. Visit the web site for a complete discussion on marketing your book.

Author: Ray Robinson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Kindle Self Publishing: A Dream Come True for Authors

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Once you have finished writing a book, it is only natural to find a way to publish it and sell it if possible. However, if this is your first time trying to have your own writing published, then this may seem like an overwhelming task for you. So before doing so, make sure to take some time and do a little research about it. You should know that finding out how to have your book published should not be stressful, as there are various options available for you. You can have it published by taking it to a publishing house or you can do this online using Kindle self publishing.

How to get Published

for most authors, the traditional way of publishing their book is to find an agent that will help them find a publisher that might be interested with the book. Sometimes you can get a publishing for free but most of the time, it is something that you have to pay for. Getting your book published for free can be a daunting task, especially if this is your first book. This is due to the fact that it can sometimes be hard to find a publisher that may be interested on your manuscript. What happens to most first timers is that publishers would purchase the rights to their book, which means the buyer will decide what will be done on the manuscript. Publishers will decide what will be done on the editing, the cover design, the marketing and sometimes including the content.

Publishing a Book Online

Due to the advancement in technology, authors are now given the opportunity to publish their writings online. This can be surprising but this really is happening. Your books can now be turned into eBooks and this can now be published using Kindle self publishing. With this option on Kindle, you can now publish your own work and you are given the opportunity to layout your own cover and design.You are also given the option in case you want to change something on your book before publishing it. These are just some of the options available for you but basically, everything is retained.

This type of self publication teaches you how you can publish your book for free. Free means you will not be paying for anything and in fact, you will be earning from it since you will get a profit in case someone decided to purchase your eBook. This is actually a win-win situation for you and for Kindle self publishing. You will be earning when someone purchased your eBook and they will be getting a share from your profit since you published your manuscript through them. So if you have not tried publishing on Kindle yet, this is your chance to grab this opportunity.

Every work from home parent wants to be successful at what they do, I know I was that was and still am. I can help you sell on Etsy, Facebook, and Ecrater. Stay in the loop sign up for my monthly newsletter HERE

Author: JK Evalyn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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