The 10 Reasons That Convinced Me To Become A Self-Publisher

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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.

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 Art of Ebook Writing and Self Publishing

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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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Is Writing and Publishing Your Career Or Just a Hobby?

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Many authors write because they enjoy it, but promoting their books, seriously trying to sell their books, or even writing books that an audience will read requires being willing to make a few sacrifices for the sake of being professional. Here are ten top signs that you may view writing as just a hobby rather than a profession.

Writing is likely just a hobby for you if you say or think any of the following:

  1. I just write it as it comes out. It’s inspired. I don’t believe revision is necessary. Yeah, and I can tell you didn’t revise. Sadly, I’ve seen too many books where it was obvious the author did no revision. Typos, misspelled and wrong words, repetitive phrases, illogical plots, dialogue that isn’t clear. These books are a mess. No one is going to be impressed by them. Not only are you obviously a hobby writer, but I’m sad to say that you’ve wasted your money publishing a book that no one will buy, or if they do, will only hurt your reputation.
  2. I can’t afford an editor and my daughter just graduated from college as an English major so I’m sure she will catch any typos. Please! I recently had an author send me a manuscript that his daughter, the English major, proofread for him. Something is seriously wrong with public education if she was given an English degree. She didn’t catch half the typos if any at all-worse, there were more grammatical errors than there are words in this article. And even if the English major is good at catching errors, it doesn’t make her a book editor. How many books has she written? How many books has she edited? You need to hire a professional. Better to spend the money and have a quality product than to have a book that people will put down in disgust because of the typos. If you’re serious about being an author, you will invest the money to have the book edited.
  3. My friend’s son is really good at art so he suggested his son could do my illustrations. As with the book edited by the daughter, how many books has the son illustrated? Someone who is good at drawing is not necessarily a professional artist. Put some thought into how you want your illustrations to look. Audition some different artists. Perhaps the young man’s drawings will be good enough for your book-if so, great, but don’t let personal feelings interfere with the success of your book. Remember, producing a quality book is a business decision.
  4. I’ll be happy if I just break even. Do you think Donald Trump thinks that way about his investments? If you are serious about being an author, don’t think about breaking even. Think about making a profit. Even if you break even on your printing and production costs, have you really broken even on the hundreds or thousands of hours you spent writing, not to mention marketing your book? Make sure you know how much your book will cost to produce, what your profit margin is, what percentage bookstores and other retailers will want, and develop a plan to make a return on your investment.
  5. I don’t have the Internet so I can’t market my book online. My computer is so old it won’t allow me to access Facebook or Twitter. Get a new computer. Quit making excuses. If you’re serious about writing and you don’t have Internet access where you live, move to where you can get it. If you don’t want to move, hire someone who can check your email, monitor your Internet presence, post your blogs, promote your book online, and keep you regularly updated. If you want to succeed, you need to keep up with technology. Plain and simple. No excuses.
  6. I’ve decided I’ll only have my books here at the Country Bookstore. The staff is really nice, and I’m not really into running around to all those other bookstores. Okay, and I’m sure your readers aren’t into running across state to find your book at the one place you have it for sale. They will go where it is convenient for them to make their purchases, and they won’t ever see your book in those stores so they’ll never buy it. No one is going to know about your book if you don’t make it visible in many locations, both in brick-and-mortar stores and online. Visibility is a requirement for book sales. The more effort you put into marketing your book, the bigger the rewards are likely to be.
  7. I’m not going to get up to give a speech. No problem. Plenty of other authors will. The library or conference will invite a different author. If you don’t talk about your book, then you can’t provide a hook to make readers interested. People want to be entertained, and even if you’ve written the best book ever on your subject, remember, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So get up and give that speech. If you’re shy, go to public speaking groups or get a coach so you get better at speaking in public. You need to present yourself so people will get to know and like you, and then they will want to read your book.
  8. I’m not going to sit at that art fair for eight hours a day all weekend. Yes, doing book shows and art fairs can be long days. They can also be exhilarating experiences where your readers have a chance to meet you personally. They get the opportunity to speak to you individually, to have you personally sign their books. What an opportunity for them! And a chance for you to meet people who might never go to a bookstore or look for your book, but now find you unexpectedly, to your benefit and theirs.
  9. I don’t see any point in going to those publishing conferences. They’re just for socializing. That’s true. You can get a lot of information at publishing conferences and writer’s group meetings, but mostly they are about socializing. They are an opportunity for writers and publishers to get together and share information, to brainstorm, to connect, to give each other ideas and make each other aware of opportunities. Networking is really about making friends. The more friends you have, the more people who will be talking about your book, and the more books you will sell, so get to that publishing conference and socialize, socialize, socialize!
  10. I don’t want to write full-time because then it would be like work. Hmm, well, I imagine you’re working now. Are you working in a call center, dealing with customer complaints, making someone else rich, putting up with a nagging boss, doing a job that leaves you exhausted at the end of the day, sacrificing your family time for a job you hate? Let’s get real here. You love writing. It’s what you’re passionate about. What’s wrong with working at it-with having a job you will love, if not fully, then a lot more than the day-job you have now? Writing full-time-that’s not work, that’s living the dream and never having to work again. Don’t you deserve to spend your life doing what you love? Of course you do.

After reading this list, you probably realize you have some of the “writing as a hobby” mindset. Now that you’re aware of it, get rid of it. No more excuses. Make today the first day of the rest of your professional writing career!

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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So You Think You Want to Self-Publish Your Novel?

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If you’ve already read my previous article about the truth of the publishing industry and how difficult it is to break in and become the next star novelist, then you may find this next commentary interesting. In the past ten years, new opportunities have cropped up for would-be, frustrated authors. Print-on-Demand and Ebooks hit the market, tempting unpublished novelists with promises of do-it-yourself fame. Some authors have actually been able to gain some success through these avenues, but most authors who travel the self-publishing path remain just as underpaid and anonymous as before.

For the sake of this article, I will focus on the Print-On-Demand opportunities. Ebooks may be okay for some things, but to date, Ebooks are not turning enough revenue for me to consider them interesting.
 
The key to self-publishing is first and foremost the quality of the product. It is vital to an author’s success to have a completed, very well written, perfectly researched, and highly polished product before self-publishing. Secondly, it is important that the book publisher produce a product that looks aesthetically appealing. Some Print-On-Demand books are very high quality, which is a good thing. But oftentimes, the author has to pay someone to prepare a book cover and put together the book block, the interior pages. This can be costly. If you are an author on a budget, you may not have any other choice but to provide cover art and a strong PDF version of your pages. Some of the software used to produce either product can cost hundreds of, or even a few thousand, dollars.
 
Prolific authors shy away from self-publishing because they know that to follow that path means their next novel won’t be written for a minimum of a year. Why? Because they will spend that time preparing the book block, the book cover, and then promoting what they produced. Promotions are costly. An author with a lot of money in the bank can simply hire a publicist. But the average author will have to do all the promotional work themselves. Promotions can pay off when a publishing house suddenly notices this self-published phenomenon, but it takes a tremendous amount of work, a great book, and some savvy footwork before a publishing house even cares to notice. Without a doubt, successful self-published authors throw themselves into heavy promotional work. Think in terms of radio shows, internet marketing, print marketing, speaking engagements. You will suddenly be lifted from the profession of writer and thrown into the profession of advertising executive. Most ‘artists’ don’t care to participate in this venture; they prefer to go on to the next piece of artwork. But a frustrated author can have the ambition and the drive to actually make it work.
 
Bottom line: Do your homework, know exactly what you want out of the deal, understand the amount of work and promotion it will take, and have the best product you can produce.  
For more tips, keep your eyes peeled for future blogs and articles by author C. D. Blizzard

Copyright 2008 C. D. Blizzard

C. D. Blizzard is the author of Blackwater, Broken, and Profile. Want to take a peek inside this prolific author’s life? Visit one of the most popular blogs on the web. http://www.cdblizzard.com

Author: C. D. Blizzard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self Publish E-Books – The Planned Approach

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You probably want to know the planned approach that will work wonders for selling your writing (ebooks) on the Internet. Well, here are the steps for a planned approach:

1) You have access to the Internet and a computer.

Notice I didn’t say you’re paying to be connected or have a computer you own. I used the word “access” which means you could do your self publishing from your local library or even at an Internet Cafe with computers.

2) You have an idea for an ebook

Before you start writing your ebook, you want to determine if there is a market. Why waste your time writing something that isn’t going to sell? There are many, maybe thousands of writers on the Internet who did not research their market and are now suffering the consequences of zero sales.

Don’t you be one of them.

3) Once you’ve done your research, you write your ebook

You must have a finished ebook. Too many times writers jump to producing a web site first, then write an ebook. This will cause you to have problems with the next planned approach.

5) You buy a domain name

If you buy the domain name before you’ve named your ebook, you have less of a chance of getting targeted (meaning buying) customers to your web site. Your domain name should specify exactly what you’re selling.

For example:

My name “a good read” was acquired before I knew the above. Yes, it’s EZ to remember but it doesn’t spell out exactly what I do. Is it a bad name? No, but it’s not as good as if I chose “Makingebooks.com” for my domain name. It would have expressed what I do better. But hey, after 10 years, I’m attached to agoodread.com.

6) Set up your hosting company

You must have a domain name before you can buy hosting. The hosting company needs to have a valid address to put on their servers.

7) Next is building your website.

This can mean from one to several thousand web pages. But if you have one product (ebook), then you should have four pages.

These include:

  • Opt-In Page
  • Sales Letter
  • Order Page
  • Thank you Page

The opt-in page is extremely important and I’ll go into that in another post but, for now, simply understand and accept your customer will not buy from you the first time they visit your site.

8) An Autoresponder is an absolute necessity.

I didn’t know this when I first started. I let hundreds of thousands of visitors come to my site and did nothing to keep in further contact with them. Don’t you make the same mistake.

9) Another essential item in your Planned Approach is a Shopping Cart

Yes, you’ll need a way to process orders. It can be as simple as using PayPal or any other online merchant like 2Checkout which accepts credit cards.

10) Bring traffic to your site.

Now this is where most writers fall down on the job. You can have the best ebook on the Internet but if nobody knows about it, your sales will reflect this.

There are other parts to the Planned Approach but these will get you started on the right path to self publishing your ebooks.

Judith Tramayne’s “EBook Learning System” has (7) Videos which show you how to make your ebook (2) times better using free software at: [http://www.agoodread.com/makeebook.html]

Author: Judith Tramayne
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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