Jr. | Deborah H Bateman

Writing a One-Page Business Plan: 5 Questions A Self-Publisher Must Ask

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Whether you are about to self-publish your first book, or start a micro-niche publishing company, you need to have a business plan in place. A business plan will give you a basic roadmap for your new business. An easy and quick way to do this is to create a one-page business plan. This will let you quickly clarify your own thinking about your new business. This short, one-page plan can also be used as an outline for a longer more in-depth plan. With some research, you should be able to complete this one-page plan in under one week. Here is a list of five questions that you must include in your simplified, one-page business plan.

1. WHY do you want to self-publish?

Your answer cannot be only about the money. It needs something more than that. It also needs to be short, very specific, and very personal.

Examples:

a. “I want to write a book that will help new nurses be more productive, more effective, and more marketable in today’s tight job market.”

b. “I want to write small-business management books so that I can share my knowledge and expertise with others that would like to start their own small-business. I gained this knowledge and experience over the last 35 years while starting and managing my own successful small-business.”

c. “I want to write and self-publish a book to give myself more credibility in the eyes of my peers.”

2. WHAT will you write about?

Explain it in one sentence, in very specific detail. You must understand what your writing niche, or specialty, will be.

Examples:

a. “I will write and publish books about all aspects of self-publishing for people who have not written a book before.”

b. “I will write a how-to book for experienced nurses who want to advance to become part of nursing management in a hospital.”

c. “I will write a how-to guide for new parents who are raising a deaf child.”

3. WHO is your market?

You must narrow this down to a very specific group of people. Your answer cannot be “everybody and anybody”. You must know exactly who buys your type of book. You only have a limited amount of time and money for marketing and promotion. You must target your best efforts at those who are most likely to buy your book. Keep your answer down to a few tight sentences.

a. “The market for my book is American nursing students that are in nursing school, or have just graduated as RN’s with an AS or BS degree in nursing and are searching for their first job. They are generally females between 20 and 26 years of age. Half of them like to read a hard-copy of a book; the other half like to read the ebook version. They are very worried about getting a job after graduation, because the nursing shortage has ended.”

4. HOW do you define success?

You might spend the next twelve months writing your first book. And then a year later you are selling less than 8 copies a month on Amazon. Therefore, you must come to terms with what success means to you. Does success mean seeing your name on the cover of a book? Does it mean being able to give each of your customers a copy of your book so that they will have more admiration and respect for you? Does success mean getting letters and emails from people who read your book – telling you that your book has helped them in some positive way? We all can agree that making a lot of money is great – and is possible as a self-publisher – but it cannot be your only reason for writing a book. Therefore, you should write a paragraph here about how you define success for your book.

5. HOW HARD are you willing to work at it?

How much time and hard work are you willing to put into your self-publishing venture? This is probably the step that you must put the most honest thinking into. Are you willing to spend most of your time marketing and selling your book? Your book might take 6 to 12 months to write. But you will spend the next several years marketing and promoting it. Are you willing to put yourself out there and market and promote yourself, your name, and your book, the for next several years? Are you willing to keep writing and building your next book? The more time and effort that you put into your self-publishing venture, the more success you will have. It will be much easier to go the distance if you love your subject matter. And the more you love your subject matter, the more successful you will be at self-publishing. It is as simple as that.

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 10 Commandments of Becoming A Financially Successful Self-Publisher

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

1. Publish Ebook First: Start with an ebook (pdf and epub) first. This is the easiest and fastest way to get started. Creating an ebook first will also allow you to get some feed-back from your readers, and make adjustments to your book accordingly. After you get your ebook online and get all the kinks worked out, then add a print-on-demand paperback edition.

2. Stick To Your Niche: Your book should be directly aligned with your market niche. For many self-publishers, success comes from focusing their book, and their marketing, at their particular niche. Part of sticking to your niche is that you must learn about and understand the subject of branding.

3. Design A Great Cover: Spend a lot of time developing and designing a great cover. Design many sample covers for your book. Especially look at books that have a similar topic as your does. If you are not creative, and have the money, pay a professional to do the cover design for you.

4. Perfect the Contents: Spend a lot of time perfecting and editing the contents of your book. Make improvements and corrections even after it is published.

5. Get Testimonials: Make great efforts to get testimonials and endorsements. You must never stop asking other guru’s in your industry and celebrities to write them for you. Keep adding them to your book and to your book’s blog. Convince one of these guru’s or celebrities to write your book’s foreword.

6. Set-up Blog: Set-up a blog to support your book. This is not difficult or expensive. By far the best way to do this is to set up a blog with a big company like WordPress. These blogs are specifically designed to be user friendly. They are also designed to work very well with search engines like Google.

7. Max-Out Third-Party Websites: Max-out your use of every website that lists your book. Many websites, such as Amazon, allow you to add a large amount of information about yourself and your book. Doing this will be like giving your book another website devoted to you and your book. Take advantage of everything Amazon has to offer.

8. Avoid Bookstores: Do not put your book into the bookstores by using a wholesaler or distributor. This step is for much more advance publishers, and self-publishers with big bank accounts. Bookstores sell very few books – especially by self-publishers that are not big-name celebrities.

9. Use All Major Online Retailers: Get your book into every major outlet such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, Scribd, etc. – just to mention the major ones. Using services like SmashWords, BookBaby, and Lightning Source, will get you into the big-name ebook outlets. Also, some professional organizations allow their members to list their book in the organization’s catalog.

10. Market, Market, Market: Getting your book online is the easy part. Making your book financially successful is the time-consuming part. But now, because of the internet, it is not difficult. The more effort you put into marketing and promotion, the more financial success your book will have. Even if you are not a business-minded person, you will find that marketing and promotion is a very interesting process.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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eBook, PDF, and EPUB: What Is The Difference? A Guide for Self-Publishers

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

What is an eBook?
Ebook is short for “electronic book”. An eBook is simply a book that has been formatted so that it can be read on a screen. Until recently, eBooks were typically limited to being read on computer screens and the larger reading devices. Now, more than ever before, eBooks are being developed exclusively for the screen, and not for print. But now, the term eBook is being used as a generic term for any electronic book, whether it is in the PDF format or EPUB format. The term “eBook” will remain with us even after the EPUB format becomes the standard for the publishing industry.

Open Format Vs. Closed Format
You must understand the difference between “open format” and “closed format”. “Open format” means that a wide range of reading devices can display the publication. Most reading devices use an open format – such as the eReading device from Barnes & Noble. “Closed format” means that the publication can only be read on the device that it was downloaded onto. Amazon’s Kindle uses a closed format, which means that publications purchased for the Kindle cannot be read on any device other than the Kindle.

What is PDF?
PDF is short for “portable document format”. It is a computer program that formats a document to make it easier for computers to share the documents while still retaining the original formatting (fonts, text, images, etc.) – almost like a photocopy of the original document. PDF is the default format for static documents. The PDF document is indifferent to the device that it is displayed on or the operating system (Apple/Microsoft) that is used. It is the standard way for people (businesses, colleagues, clients, students, etc.) to share electronic documents – and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Until recently, exporting a publication to PDF was the traditional way to create eBooks. The problem with eBooks created with PDF is that they can be difficult to read on a small screen, such as on a cell phone, because the text and images don’t flow gracefully enough to be read on a small screen.

What is EPUB?
An EPUB is short for “electronic publication format”. It is a computer program that formats a document to make it easier for computers and small-screen devices to display readable text – it makes the text adapt to every screen size. It can do this because it is similar to a web page; and an eBook reader is similar to a web browser. EPUB is the default format for re-flowable documents. The EPUB format is quickly replacing PDF as the standard for eBooks. PDF will remain the standard for document sharing for MS Word and Excel documents, for example. EPUB is becoming the publishing industry standard because it was designed to make a book’s content “reflowable” irrespective of the size of the screen of the eBook reader, portable/mobile device, or computer screen. The most important point is that EPUB is becoming the standard “open format” for the publishing industry and quickly becoming the standard for most reading devices.

What Does This Mean For a Self-Publisher?
As a small publisher it is essential that you prepare all of your publications for print and screen. You will need to be very familiar with both PDF and the EPUB format. Fortunately, there is only a very small learning curve to become familiar with each format. With a little effort it shouldn’t be too hard to learn about, understand, and use both formats. But learn them you must, because PDF is essential to running your publishing business, and EPUB is becoming the standard format for eBooks within the publishing industry.

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 blog at http://KunzOnPublishing.com/ an insider’s guide to becoming a financially successful and happy self-publisher.

Author: Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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