How to become a successful self-publisher

by Ted Nicholas

Today’s topic is about two little-known action tips that will help you succeed in the world’s most ideal business.

I know there is huge worldwide interest in what constitutes an ideal business.

How?

When I first wrote about this subject in my news-letter in the early nineties, I received more feedback on it than any other topic.

What constitutes the ideal business?

1. Enjoys low overhead.

2. Products can be sold throughout the world.

3. Is portable-can easily be moved and operated anywhere in the world.

4. Requires little capital or major investment in equipment.

5. Enjoys high profit margins.

6. Has minimal labor requirements. Can be operated with few or no employees.

7. Can be operated from home.

8. Is relatively free of government regulation and control.

9. Is highly respected in the business community.

10. Sells on a cash basis instead of offering extended credit.

11. Competitors cannot duplicate. Creation of product is legally protected.

12. Is fun for you while satisfying your intellectual needs.

13. Helps make the world a better place.

Self-publishing best meets the above criteria for the ideal business.

Tip: Publishing unique, helpful information can be an unbeatable marketing tool. Further in this issue I’ll show you how to use it successfully for any business.

Let’s briefly look at what self-publishers and conventional publishers typically do when they decide to market a book or special report.

1. The book is written, taking up to two years of effort. Little or no thought is given to the marketing process.

2. The title is decided by some editor often over lunch in less than 20 minutes.

3. The book is published. Absolutely nothing happens. This has been called “the calm before the calm.”

The book never sells out its first printing. (This is the fate of more than 96% of all books published. Is it any wonder!)

Here are the two most important actions I always take. I recommend both as an indispensable part of your action plan.

1. Write an ad to sell the book before a single word is written.

Tip: The result is the eventual book will have the best chance to do what it should–serve the readers’ self-interest. (Most books are incredibly dull and boring and are an ego trip for the author.)

Plus, of course, you can use the ad to market the book.

More than 90% of your time as a self-publisher must be spent on marketing. For my book HOW TO FORM YOUR OWN CORPORATION WITHOUT A LAWYER FOR UNDER $75, I’ve written more than 120,000 words of advertising copy. The book has just 32,000 words in it. Sales are nearly 2,000,000 copies to date. The reason for all the success is not the book itself, but all the marketing.

As Tom Watson, the late founder of IBM, said so well, “Nothing happens until a sale is made.”

2. Create a great book title. A book title is actually a headline for the book. It’s crucially important. When I create a book title, I write a huge number of potential titles. For my books HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK AND SELL A MILLION COPIES, MAGIC WORDS THAT BRING YOU RICHES, and HOW TO TURN WORDS INTO MONEY, I wrote over 120 titles for each before choosing the final one for each of these best sellers.

Best-selling authors like Harvey Mackay, author of “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” and “Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt,” invest about $60,000 in fees for an expert to create each title for their books. They know how important it is.

Tip: Here is a business-building blockbuster.
Regardless of the business in which you are engaged, whether you market online or offline, you can use books and special reports as free bonuses to build your sales. Here are some examples of businesses and the type of material they could publish that could dramatically boost their business.

Real Estate Developer: “Seven Easy, Low-Cost Tips Which Will Increase The Value of Your Property”

Plumber: “How to Stop Leaking Faucets Yourself in Less Than 60 Seconds”

Architect: “How to Build The Beautiful Home of Your Dreams Below Budget”

Restaurant: “How to Prepare Ten Terrific Gourmet Meals in Less Than 20 Minutes”

Vitamin Distributor: “Maximum Health Secrets On a Minimum Budget”

Tip: Your information should be written in such a way that it is (A) immediately useful to the reader, and (B) you do not directly benefit in any way.

What you are seeking is a special feeling of reciprocation on the part of the reader: “I got so much out of this special report, when I think about possibly availing myself of your type of product or service, I will think about you first.”

The result in increased sales will delight and astonish you.

Stay tuned for more tips on self-publishing success.

Warm regards,

Ted Nicholas
www.tednicholas.com

P.S. To get information or obtain a copy of my best-selling book HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK AND SELL A MILLION COPIES, click here.

P.P.S. “The secret to success, in life and in business, is to work hard at the margin. Relentlessly. It’s as powerful as compound interest, the eighth wonder of the world. Those little marginal extra efforts will inevitably grow into something big.”

BookAgora.com can help you publish your book.  Check out Our Services to You.  We invite you to submit your manuscript

The Business of Getting Published

by Penny C. Sansevieri

What exactly does it mean to be “published?” Well, the truth about publishing is really stranger than fiction and the truth is: getting published is only half the battle. The other half is to keep your reality check in balance so it doesn’t bounce.

While publishing is all about creative expression, it’s also about business and it’s those business savvy authors who will succeed in the end. You don’t have to have an MBA to be a keen business person, you simply have to understand the choices you make relative to your books future should be based on strategies that will enhance sales, not just drain your pocketbook. So, how do you do this?

Keep these guidelines in mind while you are planning your strategy for success as a self published author:

1) Reader profile: create one of these at the beginning of your marketing campaign and keep refining it as you move through the process. Refine and redefine who and where your audience is and how to get to them.

2) Time commitment: determine what you can and can’t reasonably do. If you have a full time job it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to commit yourself to 40 hours of marketing a week unless your boss is on vacation.

3) Investment: how much are you willing to invest in your future? Are you willing to invest money without seeing much in return knowing that you are building a foundation or do you want to see immediate monetary results? Most authors don’t see a return on their investment for a year or more. Are you committed enough to yourself or your project to keep this investment going?

4) Reality check: what’s realistic for the industry you’re in? Are you latching onto a fad or something with more longevity? Are you getting into a brand new market that will require lots of reader education? Or are you trying to go mainstream with a non-mainstream topic? While this is an admirable goal, it can be like swimming upstream.

5) Budget: while we encourage authors to invest in their future, we’ve also seen a number of people go into heavy debt, quit their jobs and even sell their homes just to promote their book. While that kind of dedication is certainly admirable, remember that although you have the potential to make a great deal of money it’s not going to be overnight. The lure here is of course that “If I stick with it, this next sale will make me famous.” Well, maybe or maybe not. If you’ve been plugging away for a while without any significant success, get a professional to give you some honest, constructive feedback about your plan, your market, and your book. It might be that a poorly designed has fallen off of the public’s radar screen. Remember, as you’re waiting to hit the big time you’ll still need a place to sleep and Uncle Vinnie’s couch will get old real quick.

6) Burnout: we hear this term often, even to the point of being overused. What we’re really talking about here is author burnout. We’ve found the average author only markets their book for 90 days. That means 90 days of day and night marketing, radio interviews at 3 a.m. and a book signing every weekend. On day 91 they are so tired, discouraged and broke that they quit. You can avoid this by giving yourself realistic goals and a realistic timeframe in which to complete them.

There’s nothing in the world like seeing your book in print. If approached realistically, objectively and with sound business sense, it can be one of the most exciting times in your life.

This article was written by book marketing and media relations specialist, Penny C. Sansevieri. To learn more about her books or promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Why authors who self-publish books need Websites

by Matt Pramschufer

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can with what you have right where you are.” There is no better way to implement your resources than with your own website. A website provides three invaluable tools for self-publishers: worldwide advertising at the click of a mouse, lightning fast responses to customers, agents and publicists, and a website ultimately gives writers a virtual book tour without ever leaving the comfort of home. Best of all – this is an affordable option for self-publishers.

Who needs a website? Don’t the classifieds or banner exchanges on the internet do the trick?
The bottom line is that banners and classifieds turn people off. A website is a great method of advertising that targets not only local interests but reaches a market worldwide. And it can say as much as you want, and you leave it up to the viewer to decide what they want to read. Think of your website as a virtual brochure. It provides readers with invaluable information, at a reasonable cost, about the book and the author. The more information made available, the more buzz that can be generated about your writing.

How would my own website facilitate communication to customers, agents, and publicists?

The internet is now the place where journalists, and agents seek out new writers, so you can reach them without actually going to them. Journalists are looking to find the newest story about upcoming authors, and agents do the same. Either can contact you via your website and this way they are the ones doing the “knocking on the door” so to speak. And of course, customers can research invaluable information about you and your book and hopefully place orders too.

How can my website create a virtual book tour?

It is daunting to realize the average shelf life of a book is only three to six months and this only applies to 15% of the books that make it into stores. So how are the other 85% of books sold? Through self-promotion! Websites aid in self-promotion in that they create a virtual worldwide book tour open 24 hours a day. The website can include book discussions, purchasing information, information about the author, and so much more! This virtual book tour travels the world faster than you could ever hope to.

Is a website really that hard to make? Can’t I do this myself?
There are many aspects involved in developing a website that people take for granted. For instance easily understood navigation, effective color schemes, overall look and feel of the site, and proper maintenance and upkeep, not to mention proper programming for effective results in search engines. The entire process is not that hard if you know what you are doing but for the amateur it can be quite daunting. If you feel that you would like to take on the proposed project yourself by all means go for it, but just remember that a poorly designed website can hurt your advertising campaign more than not having a website at all.

It sounds like worldwide advertising is effective, but is it cost effective for a self-publisher?

Absolutely! Whereas other forms of advertising can be quite costly – potentially ranging into the hundreds of thousands of dollars – a website is wholly cost effective. In fact, companies like Go Publish Yourself and E-Moxie Data Solutions, Inc. offer self-publisher website design packages from $375.00.

BookAgora.com can help you publish your book.  Check out Our Services to You.  We invite you to submit your manuscript

Write Your Book for ONE Audience, but for MANY Markets

by Joni Pypers

You want to write a book – a very exciting and challenging undertaking. Good for you. You have a great book idea – an idea that you believe needs to be in print. You believe that other people have an interest in what you have to say. You believe that many people will buy your book, and if you do the job of writing correctly, many people WILL buy your book. 

It is your dream to have your book in every bookstore in the country, perhaps even in several countries. But wait, have you planned beyond bookstore sales? Many authors are unaware that there are many markets for books beyond the bookstores. The bookstores may be your first market, but there are many other “hidden” markets, and here are some key book marketing tips to help you tap into those markets.

Let’s begin with the job of writing the book. When you put “pen to paper”, it is important that you focus on one audience but write for many markets. Let’s begin by identifying why you are writing a book. Some people merely want to be a published author, giving them claim to a copyright and their name on a book. That is satisfaction enough. They don’t care about the financial return or the development of writing or publishing as a career. Other people just want to write a family history and sell it to their extended family. Some people are interested only in selling to the attendees of their seminars. Many others, however, want to sell thousands of books in as many markets as possible. Decide at the beginning of the writing process why you are writing so that you can determine whether or not you are creating a business venture.

Once you have established your reason for writing, move on to what you are writing about. Don’t try to be all things to all people or the encyclopedic source of all information on a subject. Choose an area of a subject with which you are very familiar and develop your topic well so that you don’t overwhelm or bore your readers. For instance, if you are writing a cookbook, don’t try to be The Joy of Cooking – that’s already been done. Instead, write about a category of recipes, such as heritage recipes, or recipes of a region or culture, or recipes from famous restaurants, etc.  Your goal is to make your book different, and better, than other cookbooks.

Having now decided on the why and the what, focus on the who, meaning who will buy your book. You believe that many people will be interested in your book, but let’s define “many”. Do you mean all of the people in your interest group, your church or your workplace, or do you mean everyone? A word of caution, though –   there is NO book that is for everyone. Sure, everyone may need your book but not everyone will want it. If your book is a healthy lifestyle cookbook, everyone might need it, but only people who actually want to be healthy will buy it. Do some research on who those people are and where they are likely to actually buy your book. Understand their demographics: age group, income level, shopping habits, activities, etc. Now write for them. What information are your target readers looking for? Is their a gap in the information about a subject that is very familiar to you or in which you have the credentials to fill the gap?

Make sure that your book solves a problem or problems for the reader, or make sure that your book will increase the well being of the reader. Avoid falling into the trap of writing to make yourself feel better – you are not the one who will buy your book. Or if you are, you are the only buyer that you will have!

The why, what and who now being defined, you can turn your attention to the where you can sell your book. Because there are many markets for books, decide early in the writing process just what those markets are and write to sell your book in those markets.

It is likely that the first market that will come to mind is traditional book stores, and of course they can be a vital part of your sales. Do your research in getting to know your competition on the book store shelves, i.e., look at the other books that have been written in your genre. What writing style is most appealing to a wide audience? Is there a gap in the information provided in the other books? Are there problems that have not been addressed? Find the needs and fill them. When you are satisfied with the information that you are providing, think about what will attract the book store buyers. They will want to know about your planned publicity campaign. If you want people to buy your book in book stores, you are responsible for letting people know that your book is available, thereby driving buyers to the stores.

Besides book stores, books are purchased in the nontraditional book market by display retailers, book clubs, catalogs, gift retailers, volume buyers (think Costco and Price Club), corporations, foundations and foreign markets. These markets are considered “hidden” because they exist outside the usual bookstore market, yet they account for many millions of dollars each year in book sales. In fact, we sell thousands of books to buyers like these every year (for more about our Book Marketing tips and secrets click here: Book Marketing Tips). These markets, however, do not buy any and every book. They are looking for books that appeal to their customers.

For instance, if you are writing a book about spiritual experiences, think about which of those markets will likely buy your book.  Will you approach book clubs? If yes, which book clubs – those that specialize in spiritual books only, or those that market to the general public? Will you approach the gift market or catalogs? Each market evaluates its purchases for its own clientele. Book clubs that target the religious book reader have a greater interest in spiritual books than do general interest book clubs. Volume buyers, catalogs and gift buyers (unless they target a religious market), display retailers and corporations will very seldom buy a spiritual book. Foreign markets, however, are often very interested.

Even if your book is written for the general book trade, you can still think of corporations that might be able to use your book as a promotional item. Make a list of corporations that could be interested in your book and make sure that your writing supports their products or philosophy, and that what you are writing about will solve some problems for the corporate clients. For instance, one cookbook was targeted at busy people who want to follow a healthy lifestyle. It became a bestseller very quickly in the traditional book trade, but sales exploded when it was sold to pharmaceutical companies who used the book as support information for clients who needed to achieve a healthy weight. The book also sold successfully in foreign markets, to catalogs, as fund raisers and to shopping malls as a customer reward. 
 

The point is: you need to know how to slant your writing for your markets.

You can sometimes get around the road blocks by giving your book the look and feel of a gift book rather than one that is a “serious read”. Don’t give your book the look and feel of a thesis. Many volume buyers are looking for broad interest books that people buy on impulse as gifts. This approach to writing increases your market tremendously, so if you want to appeal to a very large audience, approach your subject from a much “lighter” angle.

However, if you are a professional speaker who knows that you have a very good chance of selling your book to your seminar attendees, and perhaps to the corporations who hire you, writing for a very broad market is not necessary. You are not even trying to sell to the impulse buyer. Your buyer is already looking for a source of expertise such as yours.
If you are planning to sell your book primarily from a website to a specific type of buyer, someone who is searching the internet for answers to a concern or problem, you can be as specific as you like. The general public, again in this instance, is not your market – you already have enough buyers to make you very successful. 

So, before you begin the writing process, make an outline of your book. Then, look at your list of potential buyers. Have you filled their needs? If not, can you add information or chapters to your book that will increase the likelihood of sales to those buyers? If you want to sell thousands of books, think about the end user of your book and write for them, not for yourself. That is the ultimate book marketing tip. See you on the bestseller list!

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. We have all the tools you need to succeed in book publishing. Let us help you make your book a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com

BookAgora.com can help you publish your book.  Check out Our Services to You.  We invite you to submit your manuscript.

Make Money Self-Publishing Books

Learn How from Fourteen Successful Small Publishers

by Peter Hupalo, Contributing Author
 
If you’re looking to self-publish a book or start a small publishing company, I highly recommend you buy a copy of Make Money Self-Publishing: Learn How From Fourteen Successful Small Publishers by Suzanne P. Thomas.

While many other self-publishing books will claim, “Write A Book And Sell A Million Copies And Become Immediately Rich,” Make Money Self-Publishing takes a realistic look at self-publishing and provides solid, yet inspirational, advice.

Profiles of Small Publishers

Thomas profiles fourteen, successful, small publishers in detail. Each publisher generates incomes ranging from $20,000 to over $100,000 annually, though many were completely new to publishing when they started. Reading Make Money Self-Publishing will help you avoid their mistakes and learn from their experience. Each publisher featured willingly shares his or her best advice to new self-publishers.

Make Money Self-Publishing starts with a quick course in “Self-Publishing 101.” Thomas introduces us to the basic concepts of the publishing business, such as the importance of cover design, the costs of book distribution, issues of book storage and fulfillment, and choosing the size of a press run.

The authors and self-publishers featured vary tremendously in genre from mystery to cookbooks to gambling books to computer books to genres that defy classification. The publishers featured also vary in motivation and personal goals.

For example, Thomas tells us that Virginia and Robert Hoffman of the Hoffman Press, one of the publishers featured, wanted a hobby during their retirement years, so they decided to self-publish a book about cooking with wine.

Thomas relates the Hoffman story: “They decided on an initial press run of 5,000 because that gave them the best price break. ‘One day a big truck pulled up to our driveway and unloaded three large pallets of books. “What have I done?” I thought as I looked at all of them.'”

Thomas continues: “Close to seventy years old at the time, Robert personally carried all the books into the garage because the truck driver couldn’t help him. ‘Three weeks later the books were sold and Virginia and I were launched into publishing.'”

The Hoffman Press’s success, Thomas explains, was partially due to the Hoffman’s intelligent partnering with wineries through which the Hoffmans sold their book. The wineries mentioned in the book wanted copies to sell in their gift shops.

In his interview with Thomas, Robert Hoffman goes on to emphasize the importance of hiring help. And, today, The Hoffman Press uses an order fulfillment company to pack and ship their books. That’s probably a good thing as they sell over 100,000 cookbooks a year.

On the other hand, Peter Kent of Top Floor Publishing, another publisher featured in Make Money Self-Publishing, was a popular author of computer books who was dissatisfied with the quality control in the editing of his computer books by mainstream publishers.

Marketing Through the Internet

Thomas discusses Top Floor’s creation of the popular “Poor Richard’s” brand of computer books, including, for example, Poor Richard’s Web Site. Not surprisingly, we learn that marketing through the Internet has been of key importance to Top Floor.

When Top Floor branched out into publishing books
by other authors, Thomas tells us that Kent looked for authors who already had an online following to speed the marketability of the books. I especially liked how Make Money Self-Publishing interweaves excellent marketing advice throughout each publisher’s story.

While some self-publishers enjoy the business aspect of publishing, other authors become self-publishers to enhance the salability of their titles to larger publishers. Thomas features one initially self-published author who sold his title to Doubleday for an advance of $250,000. In the process he also secured a contract for his second book. This chapter is a great case study in the power of bootstrap marketing. Thomas explains how the self-publisher leveraged each media mention to generate more publicity in a snowball fashion.

Make Money Self-Publishing is also filled with some amusing anecdotes that anyone associated with publishing will enjoy.

For example, Thomas writes: “Cheri [Thurston of Cottonwood Press, a featured publisher] accidentally stumbled upon a way to partially even out her cash flow. ‘I was talking with a friend and it came up that I play accordion. She said she didn’t know this about me, so I said I’d have to come out of the closet. It stuck a chord and I came up with the idea of forming an organization, Closet Accordion Players of America. I wrote a funny press release and sent it out to 40-50 newspapers around the country.'”

Thomas continues: “The media loved the idea. Cheri’s organization has been featured in almost every major newspaper in the country including USA Today. ‘It’s gotten to the point that I don’t even send out press releases in June anymore, which is National Accordion Awareness Month, because I’m so tired of doing the radio interviews. I can’t keep up with them. It’s hysterical. Talk about free publicity, not for my company, but for this $12.95 membership.'”

Today, many people, who don’t want to risk several thousand dollars to publish a book conventionally, are considering publishing an online e-Book. Those individuals will find Thomas’s feature of Angela Adair-Hoy of Booklocker.com particularly valuable as it discusses e-Books in depth.

Make Money Self-Publishing concludes with a valuable Afterword where Thomas summarizes “Ten Tips to Make Money Self Publishing” distilled from the experience of the small publishers.

“Publish at Least 3 Titles”

Thomas’s first tip is to “Publish at least three titles.” Thomas explains that multiple titles not only help amortize overhead costs, but each title can serve as a marketing means for the other titles. Plus, you never know which title will be your big hit or when sales of a particular title will sag. Trying to make a living as a one-title self-publisher is difficult.

Thomas’s second tip is to “Develop a series or specialize in one category of books.” Thomas points out that related titles are easier to market to the same audience, because related books can establish a connection to your other titles.

New publishers will benefit by following Thomas’s ten tips and the advice and experience of the publishers featured.

Make Money Self-Publishing is also filled with resources (publisher and writer’s associations, web sites of interest, service providers and companies of interest to publishers, recommended reading, etc.) to learn more about self-publishing and to introduce you to the resources you need to self-publish your book.

Incidentally, we should note that Suzanne Thomas, herself, is a successful self-publisher and the author of the highly-regarded book, Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor, which is a top-selling book on amazon.com.

If you are seriously considering risking your time and money to self-publish a book, do yourself a favour and buy a copy of Make Money Self-Publishing: Learn How from Fourteen Successful Small Publishers. If you are involved with the small press industry or are a small publisher, you will find Make Money Self-Publishing to be a great read.

About the writer:

Peter Hupalo is the author of the best-selling book “Thinking Like An Entrepreneur: How To Make Intelligent Business Decisions That Will Lead To Success In Building And Growing Your Own Company.” Visit his website at LINK

BooksAgora can evaluate your manuscript’s readiness for book production.

Featured LINK: Alternative Lifestyles Personals – Free and anonymous membership

Short Cut Your Book’s Success with Self-Publishing

by Judy Cullins 

Do you wonder about how and where to publish your book? Maybe you think that it would be great to be taken under a publisher’s wings — for them to promote your book. it wouldn’t be so much work and wouldn’t take any money up front.  

Agent, publishers, and big talk shows like Oprah will choose only 1-2% of proposals submitted. And the author’s work that goes into queries and proposals is immense and time consuming.

You can Short Cut Your Book’s Success with Self-Publishing

First, get a model for writing a great chapter–one that your reader cannot put down. Then, learn from the long-time book pros more about self-publishing.

Know that the costs are far less than you think. 

Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, independent publishers. Although it represents a small percentage of the publishing industry in terms of sales, it has been present in one form or another for centuries, and has seen an increase in activity with the advancement of publishing technology, including xerography, desktop publishing systems, print on demand, and the World Wide Web. Cultural phenomena such as the punk/DIY movement, the proliferation of media channels, and blogging have contributed to the advancement of self-publishing.

Self-Publishing over 13 books on these topics cost me no more than $500 for print models and nothing for the eBooks that are printable and downloadable. Your audience is used to buying Online and will visit your web site to buy and gladly print your book around 120 pages or less. You putting your ebook in a PDF (portable document format) is one way to publish it. You are the publisher and your web site is your store. You will get all the profits.Self-publishing will put you in charge to make suitable and favorable writing, publishing and promotion decisions.

If you don’t want to do it all, get a little help from professionals! Entrepreneurial experts such as book coaches, book designers, and eBook specialists can guide you through to publishing success. These people may give teleseminars, small group coaching experiences, or offer their book as an inexpensive way for you to learn the ropes. These pros will shorten your learning curve too, so you get the right help right away to write the right book right away. In turn, you can sell your book faster, and increase your cash flow to participate more in the promotion.

When you think you still have to promote your books, even with a publisher, why not keep most of the profits and do some of the work yourself? Learn from your coach’s experiences, “Do What You Do Best-and Hire the Rest!” (That doesn’t mean you can’t barter for services). Check out the methods below and see which one suits you best, is more rewarding, and far more profitable.

On Print Books–Print on Demand Two Ways

1.    Hire the Publisher/Printer yourself to just print your book from your word file. Companies like Deharts.com will put your files into Portable Document Format (PDF) to sell on your web site or another site you choose to sell your books. A complete explanation of these opportunities are included in the “How to Write your eBook or Other Short Book–Fast!”

For Deharts and a few other publishers (we call it Print on Demand–POD) you keep all of your book’s rights and once your pay from $4-$7 per book, depending on the length, you get the books delivered to you and you get to keep all of the profits. They will print small runs of your book such as 100-500 copies.

Note from you bookcoach. Don’t print more books than you can sell in three months. This helps your cash flow and will keep your promotion going.Without marketing and promotion you book will die on the vine.

The advantages? The author is in charge of the book, takes delivery, and will provide a web site where he or she will sell the book. Then, you keep 100% of the profits. The process takes about 6-8 weeks, although it can be faster. Another benefit is that you can start selling your book in 6 weeks rather than 12-18 months with traditional publishing. You get immediate sales to increase your cash flow.

 If you sell your book on your web site, you will make at least 93% of the profits after you pay your credit card merchant such as Pay Pal or Click Bank.

2. Hire Full-Service Print on Demand Publisher/Printers who each charge you an up front fee to set up. They too take your word files and put into Portable Document Format. They may even format your book and provide a cover for you.

For a fee from $500-$800, these companies will give you an

The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN (sometimes pronounced “is-ben”), is a unique identifier for books, intended to be used commercially. There is another quite similar system, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), for periodical publications such as magazines. The ISBN system was created in the United Kingdom in 1966 by the booksellers and stationers W H Smith and originally called Standard Book Numbering or SBN. It was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970.
 
ISBN Number if you plan to sell your book on someone else’s web site or in a brick and mortar bookstore. They will list you in BooksinPrint.com. These companies offer you their Web site to sell your book. But again, the author must learn about Internet marketing (article marketing) from a good coach or book to get targeted potential buyers to the book web site.

The downside? Check to see if you need these services. You don’t need an ISBN # if you sell from your own web site. You probably won’t sell your book in a brick and mortar book store. It’s a lot of work and you can’t compete with big publishers. Think about your book and where your best market is. Opinions from Dan Poynter, John Kremer, and myself say, “Bookstores are a lousy place to sell books.” Walk ins are not looking for an unknown author’s book. Other choices is the world wide web, because books are the # one seller there. Small business people want to buy all kinds of books and they will do it on the Web.

The biggest down of this full-service Print on Demand to me is no control over my book. Here, you must buy back each book from the printer/publisher at a wholesale price–almost half of what you will sell it for. So, your profits are limited.

Buyer Beware: Before you buy any marketing packages from POD businesses, know that they won’t promote your book at all. Consult a book and book marketing coach and learn how you can put together a simple plan and action steps that are mostly free.

With article marketing you can become known world-wide. You write the articles and submit to article directories. Your audience goes to them to get free information and if they like your short pieces, thousands will visit your book selling site each day, and with the right sales message, many will buy.

Self Publishing with eBooks

If you write an eBook, here are some of the benefits:

You… Make all the money, can make ongoing, passive profits for life, spend much less time writing and promoting, retain total control, share your unique, important message with 1000’s daily, build your email client base and credibility, reach your target audience easily and distribute yourself, spend less money and have more cash flow, finish your book within 30 days, make ongoing, passive profits for life, can update your book when it needs it, gain trust, credibility, friends, and adventure, and become the savvy expert in your field.

More benefits: you don’t have printing or inventory costs, can use Word in 8 1/2 by 11 format and PDF, don’t have to travel, don’t have to tell or sell, and you don’t have to package and mail books. Instead, you can distribute and sell online from email or a Web site.

Educate yourself on self-publishing. Read books on the subject, take a seminar or teleseminar, and consult with an book coach, who will save you thousands of dollars in mistakes. Armed with good information, your book will grow into a great seller.

About the writer:

Internet Marketing Coach Judy Cullins helps non-techies get big web traffic, expand your business clients, and sell your products.Check out her AdvancedArticleMarketing 3-Book Special with free ebook “Top 20 Ranked Websites to Submit to.” LINK.

     

BooksAgora can evaluate your manuscript’s readiness for book production.

Featured LINK: Alternative Lifestyles Personals – Free and anonymous membership

9/11 book sheds light on neo-fascism in America

A Real 9/11 Commission Will Help Free America Now!

by Paul J. Landis
Paperback,
ISBN: 0976040824

Book description:

The book entitled A Real 9/11 Commissions Will Help Free America Now! was written to provide evidence before it was filtered by Bush and Cheney, or removed by our controlled mainstream media.

The reader is invited to see pictures from documentaries of footage that was shown on live TV the morning of 9/11 and provided the opportunity to participate, to ‘Render a decision’ on the evidence seen, both manually and on-line.

In May 2006, a Zogby International national poll found that 42 percent of adults polled believe the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission “concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence” that contradicts the official explanation of the attacks. And, 9/11 Commission chairs Republican Thomas Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, say in their new book Without Precedent: The Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception.

In addition to the 42% above, the same May 2006 national Zogby respondents say “More than 40 percent of Americans believe that the 9/11 Commission Report that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is a cover-up”.

Wow! And now, hold on to you hats: based upon a review of their book Without Precedent, we have significant doubts being expressed by these two 9/11 commissioners: Join us Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton in “A Real 9/11 Investigation”.

A key question for a “A Real 9/11 Commission” or if you like, a new, trustworthy 9/11 commission is What would it do differently?

How would or could, Don Rumsfeld prove to the American people that the 757 he says hit the Pentagon really did? If asked, participants in “A Real 9/1 Commission” would say, “he can’t!” Not only are there NO pictures showing a 60 to 80 ton 757 on the lawn of the Pentagon, we would play for Don the 9/11 AM CNN Live report on Loose Change 2nd edition “there is no evidence that a 757 has hit anywhere near the Pentagon!”

We would also remind Don that the famous collapsed Pentagon wall section, if that is where he tells us the plane is? That section collapsed twenty minutes after the explosion. Did the 757 just wait around for a hole to climb into?

So Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, any comments?

The New York City Twin Towers, where 3,000 people lost their lives, we were told ‘collapsed’ because of the planes that hit them. If we asked Don or Dick Cheney to prove this, what could they use? There is a NTST report that supports this claim. But does the evidence support this report?

Briefly: No. We now know that molten steel, 3,000 degrees, was found in the sub-basements of both Towers (and WTC 7) four and five weeks after their collapse. We can only suggest in the space available here, that the reader look at the Special Report in A Real 9/11 Commission Will Help Free America Now on pages 32 to 52 and on the books web site.

You will see photographs of the building ‘collapse’ and can compare these pictures with live TV statements by TV news reporters. We have pictures of multi-ton steel columns projected horizontally into near-by buildings and multi-ton steel structures thrown 600 feet or two football fields away from the ‘collapse’. Is this how you would envision the ‘collapse’ of the massive structures?

And live video recordings of the Towers ‘collapse’ with the sounds of the ‘demolition charges’, would that help Don and Dick? Obviously not: see “911 Eyewitness”, by Mr. Ricard A. Siegel.

We might ask the commissioners: How is it that the collapse of these structures produced only pulverized debris and steel beams conveniently cut into sections that fit on the backs of the trucks used to haul them away? And if the Towers ‘collapsed’, where did the 2,600 pollutants come from that have thus far claimed the lives of twelve “First Responders” and caused 70,000 illnesses?

For the assertion that Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, we will just suggest you see statements by coroners on the scene in Pennsylvania saying “there was no blood or evidence of human remains at the site”, Loose Change Second Edition, http://www.loosechange911.com.

So Don and Dick appear to have no EVIDENCE to justify the statements they made. How about Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, perhaps they want to explain their lapse of finding the above EVIDENCE or any EVIDENCE that the 42% of poll respondents say was ignored?

On a Book TV interview about their book “Without Precedent”, Mr. Hamilton states, “we were there to tell the story.” Unfortunately, the moderator, Mr. Marvin Kalb was too busy being polite and never asked: “What story? The one Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney told us or the one substantiated by facts?”

“Very recommended: “Be sure to check out the great work done by Lynn Pentz and the L.A. Citizens’ Grand Jury. Their results, note this Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, match the above information page 158.

“We the People” were lied to about the events of 9/11. We were lied to by the same people who recently made us ‘Torturers’, who are using their own Weapon of Mass Destruction, a radioactive weapon called Depleted Uranium that is killing OUR soldiers and causing their wives to give birth to deformed babies. We were lied to by the same people who have their own Non-U.S. Constitution – the “Project for the New American Century”. These people are not Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaida. They are Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their friends who support the Non-U.S. Constitution the Project for the New American Century — the apparent motivation for the attacks of 9/11/2001.

Get this at BooksAgora.com Bookstore Consortium

Featured LINK: Alternative Lifestyles Personals – Free and anonymous membership

Global Capitalism undermines Environmental protection objectives

 

 

 

Life, money & illusion: living on earth as if we want to stay
by Mike Nickerson
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-9780973-0-0

Book description:

“Life, Money & Illusion” explains the odd situation whereby our biggest problems result from our size, (depletion of natural resources; conflict over remaining supplies; and pollution from expanding consumption), yet, governments and industry strive for ever more expansion. In addition to showing how this situation came about, “Life, Money & Illusion” identifies the direction in which a stable relationship with our finite planet can be found, and identifies numerous ways for moving in that direction.

In the title, “Life” refers to the biological processes by which living things maintain themselves over time; “Money” refers to the present economic ideology that says that as long as the volume of money changing hands increases, all will be well. “Illusion” refers to the fact that these two perspectives are directly opposed in terms of how they would solve current problems.

“Life, Money & Illusion” introduces the “Question of Direction” by which we can determine the direction that will offer our childrens’ children the most promising future.

Subject areas:

1. Human ecology
2. Economic policy
3. Sustainable development

Get this at BooksAgora.com Bookstore Consortium

Book on Kyoto Protocol suggests measures of Economic Growth are responsible for environmental destruction

FEATURED BOOK

	Acquire this book.

The Kyoto Protocol Is Not Enough!

Replace Capitalistocracy including the GDP Index Toward a New Political Economy of Social Justice and Environmental Protection

by Raymond Samuels II

Part I: ISBN: 1-894839-97-8,
Part II: ISBN: 1-894934-34-2

Book excerpt: There are apparently some people who think that the current “Greenhouse Effect” will simply lead to an “evolutionary” change in the global climate, so that climatic areas in the northern hemisphere like Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska in the U.S., and Antarctica in the southern hemisphere will become like one big tropical resort area like Tahiti, Cuba, or Jamaica. Soon everyone will be enjoying glorious sunshine, and sipping exotic tropical drinks in Nova Scotia, Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, or around the Arctic waters of Siberia, according to people with this apparent view. These people profess a dislike for the cold, and they therefore welcome any change that might eventually get rid of their abhored winter blaaaaahs.

Unfortunately for these people, such a view is not supported by critical scientific evidence, beyond “scientific infomercials” and propaganda pieces that have been sponsored by various well-financed Big Business interests. Indeed, it has been the job of the largely corporate owned mass-media in Canada, and elsewhere, to channel viewers, readers, and listeners into responses which will complement the elite pursuit of insatiable commercial profit. This corporate owned mass-media does not want to draw public attention to the dire fate which awaits the public, if ‘the Economy’ is not rejuvenated in a manner that minimizes social and environmental costs.

The large scale ‘owners of capital’ have structured the prevailing capitalistic economy to principally serve their interests in the pursuit of money, status, and power for themselves. Like heroine or “crack” cocaine drug addicts, ‘capitalistocrats’ have become so addicted to the pursuit of a self-absorbing materialistic lifestyle predicted on money, status, and power, they would much rather apparently destroy our planet, and all life along with it, than to change their ways of drug-like abuse. Indeed, the mass-media in the prevailing capitalistocratic systems of Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, continental Europe, and elsewhere, are no less corrupt than the politicians which they are supposedly “holding accountable”.

The mass-media has apparently covered-up the fate that awaits humanity, and the rest of our planet, if there is not an immediate substantive response to the Global Warming threat beyond the relatively superficial responses associated with the extremely slow responses to fulfilling the relatively superficial Kyoto Protocol. Indeed, failure to redress Global Warming with great alacrity, will not mythically result in northern hemispheres being turned into extensions of “tropical paradises”.

The cold air masses that hover over the Arctic and Antarctic climatic areas of the planet are absolutely vital to moderating the temperatures of planet Earth. Global Warming by the irresponsible activities of greed driven private enterprises under American led “global capitalism”, are destroying these vital climatic areas at an alarming rates.

As a human species, we have already witnessed deadly heat waves and humidity. The accompanying worsening cancer causing ultra violet (UV) rays due to rapid accompanying ozone depletion is already creating experiences which almost feel like a form of radiation poisoning. Further accompanying weather cataclysms including more devastating hurricanes like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in late Summer 2005, and other such “weather events” are only a relatively small tip of the iceberg so-to-speak. The “hellish” summer of 2005 internationally has poignantly showed relative to the comparatively milder Summer 2004, that changes due to the abusive activities by human beings on the planet can be sudden, and extremely drastic. The current quantuum advancing devastating destructive impacts of American-led “global capitalism” are threatening to precipitate a catastrophic global drought in vital agricultural areas internationally that the world has never ever seen; due to unending rising temperatures, that will make the traditional temperature characteristics of the tropics today (that have benefited from Arctic and Antarctic moderation) seem like comparative ice boxes. Worsening “hellish” summers will lead into hellish other parts of the year also, with the prospective disappearance of the Arctic and Antarctic climatic areas. The inevitable result of such allowed phenomenon will be an ensuing Global Famine that so far, the world has also never seen spreading from the United States and Canada, into Europe and the rest of the World.

The rising temperatures of the oceans would eventually completely destroy all vital air (oxygen) producing plankton. A global crisis in agricultural production would be further accompanied by the cascading rapid dying out of all species in the ocean. The oceans would become dead polluted waters (the Gulf of Mexico has already been basically destroyed, with other parts of the ocean following pursuit).

In such a milieu of Global Famine, the world would be taken over by various warring military camps threatening each other with nuclear annihilation, and privately-run “terrorist” organizations trying to forcibly acquire what little of the Earth is left, for the exclusive use of elites, criminal syndicates, and gangs, leaving “masses” to perish in a milieu of spiralling global starvation, and poverty in a climate of socio-economic chaos and societal upheaval. Indeed, the mass-media has hypocritically ignored the extent to which ‘capitalism’ is actually the root cause of growing apparent “terrorism” as more and more people are turning to violent political extremism, in the face of environmental destruction, related oppression, and overall declines in quality-of-living.

Having destroyed the air-producing ocean life, and rainforests under a greed driven ethos of capitalism, soon even the Global Air Supply would become threatened with the overall rapid decay of vital ecosystems. Global Warming promises the convert the whole Earth not into a tropical paradise, but rather into a giant coffin, where all life on the planet will miserably perish. The Earth will eventually become very similar to Mars sooner than you think, unless the whole economic system can rejuvenated from its self-destructive path of Global Warming and accompanying pollution including ozone depletion. The human race will simply become a footnote for other possible space exploring advanced species in the universe to study in their future scientific missions of archaeological discovery, unless humanity changes from its current overall destructive ways.

People in their communities can either choose to play Ninetendo games, and worry about various other materialistic lifestyle considerations in “blissful ignorance”, in the image of the elites who prevail over self-destructive capitalistocracies, or alternatively, people can choose to rally their governments for vitally needed social change. ‘Sober’ members of the diverse public must either become actively engaged in redressing the shortcomings of the prevailing economic system, or face the dire consequences of their jaded attitudes. Members of the diverse public who are concerned about their immediate quality-of-survival cannot afford to be complacent. These members of the diverse public must use what little that remains of destroyed democratic systems (that have been taken-over by the substantive operation of ‘capitalistocracy’) to challenge corrupted government leaders.

Government leaders have allowed themselves to be seduced and “bought-out” by self-serving greed-driven interests, that operate against the vital affirmation of the quality-of-living interests of the diverse public that these leaders were supposedly elected to serve; and against the interests of quality-of-living seeking human beings internationally. So far, these government leaders have chosen to substantively ignore capitalistocractic activities that precipitate Global Warming, and accompanying…

Acquire the book from BooksAgora.com, LINK

How to Self-Publish your own book in the U.S.

by eHow Contributing writer

 

Self-publishing [which include those offered by our Books Agora service] can be a smart choice for writers. It’s cost-effective, relatively fast, pays much better than standard royalty contracts, and lets you maintain control over the publishing process. But there are drawbacks to consider.

1. Step 1

   Decide what your goal is. Some writers want to print out just enough copies of their prized project for colleagues and friends; others think they have a book that will sell to a larger audience.

2. Step 2

   Examine competing titles to make sure you’re not covering the same ground. Find out what sales of those books have been to see if it’s really worth your while to tackle a similar topic. Call book distributor Ingram at (615) 213-6803 and punch in the ISBN of the book you want to check on; you’ll hear a voice message containing the number of copies sold in the last year.

3. Step 3

   Determine what format you’d like to publish in: hardcover, softcover, or ebook, which is essentially an electronic file and requires no paper printing.

4. Step 4

   Check out print-on-demand publishers. If all you want to do is get a book published, these vanity presses will do the job for a price. Some vanity houses will print just a few copies for a few hundred dollars. Print-on-demand is ideal for very short runs (25 to 500 copies). Instead of printing on traditional, ink-based offset printing equipment, pages are reproduced using a highend copier. A digital file from a page layout program links directly to a high-speed copier and then is machine-bound. Some shops offer perfect binding so it looks just like a printed book. Look at sources like Trafford.com, Xlibris.com and Iuniverse.com.

5. Step 5

   Print your book directly from your completed files with a directto- press printer. Instead of producing a different piece of film for each color of each page, the files are transferred directly to the printing plate. You’ll eliminate all the film costs, and save time too.

6. Step 6

   Shop aggressively if you really want your book to sell. If you’re an established writer considering self-publishing, look around. You can either choose to have a print-on-demand company, such as those mentioned above, handle all the layout, printing and production activities, or go to a local offset printer and oversee each of those steps in the process personally.

7. Step 7

   Ask potential suppliers to send you samples of their recently printed books. Don’t be shocked: The quality will vary considerably with regard to paper quality, cover design, layout, and whether it was run on a sheet-fed press or a web press. Ask questions about how individual pieces were produced.

8. Step 8

   View competitors’ books to determine what size and format you’d like your book to take. Find out if there are standard sizes you should stay with to reduce costs, or whether a different format will help your book stand out. Format sizes can affect which print-on-demand publisher you can work with.

9. Step 9

   Familiarize yourself with printing costs. These will vary, but you can expect to spend more than $1 per book for a minimum print run of several thousand copies. You may also be charged extra for layout help, editing, design of a book cover, and for photos. Typical fees are $3 to $6 per page for editing, $3 to $5 for production, $500 to $5,000 and more for design, plus $3 per 300- page book for printing.

10. Step 10

    Hire a designer with book experience (see How to Hire a Graphic Designer). He or she will design the type, flow the pages, and create a spectacular jacket as well. This is more expensive, in some cases considerably so, but the difference in creating a quality product is significant.

11. Step 11

    Tally up your costs, including printing, graphic design, artwork, photography, copy editing and other expenses. A traditional publishing house that buys your book would normally absorb these costs, but then again, you lose control.

12. Step 12

    Request an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), which is the standard code for identifying your book, at isbn.org. The cost for 10 ISBNs is $150, plus a minimum $75 processing fee.

13. Step 13

    Find out how and by whom your book will be distributed. Some print-on-demand companies handle it in-house. If you do it, you’ll need to have the books shipped to you, to contact book chains about stocking your book, potentially visit each bookstore individually, and handle any mail orders on your own. Some bookstores will accept a limited number of your books on consignment, which means you leave them and if they sell, you get paid; if they don’t, you pick them up in a couple of months. Some companies have extensive bookstore distribution; others focus more on online sales, which will have bearing on the types of activities you’ll need to perform to be successful.

14. Step 14

    Be prepared to sell yourself. Any real marketing of the book will have to come from you. Self-publishing also means self-promotion, or hiring a publicist to do it for you.