The Joy of Self-Publishing

by Business Editor on December 21st, 2009

Even if this is your first time self-publishing, there is no excuse for you to commit mistakes. Committing mistakes with your self-published book can project the perception that your work is made in an unprofessional way and this can significantly hinder your success.

Here are some mistakes which you can easily avoid:

Poor Writing

Whenever we write, it is natural to miss a punctuation, or make a spelling and other typographical mistakes. But to allow these mistakes to appear on your book, will make your appear very unprofessional. Just imagine readers reading the blurb page and finding mistakes which could have been avoided if you only had somebody review it for you before printing and distribution.

Another thing that you have to consider is the flow of organization and thought. If your book is disorganized then it can be difficult from someone to read and understand it. You have to make sure that you have a good detailed outline to help you with the writing. If you are having difficulties writing and think that you need somebody to help you out, then you can get a co-writer or an editor to check your work.

If you are writing a story or novel, remember that continuity is important. There are some writers that would miss this out, for example, if your protagonist has hazel eyes, then make sure that his or her eyes stay the same color throughout the story unless it is significant for the story to change it. Avoid giving incorrect information and details. Also, avoid putting wrong captions in pictures and graphs, if you decide to use these.

Inadequate Book Editing, Formatting And Layout

You have to invest on the formatting of the book. Book sales can be significantly affected by a bad cover or a bad title. You may need to get a book designer to do your book layout and your cover. Booksellers recognize that jackets and covers are very important in clinching sales. So do not sacrifice in getting a professional to do the cover design.

Aside from the cover, another thing that can affect book sales is the format of its contents. There are different formats, you can check books from your shelf or you can go to the library to look at some. Things that you need to take note of are page distribution among the title pages, copyright pages, dedication pages and the start of the first chapter.

Lack Of Promotion, Marketing And Distribution Plan

Okay, so let’s say you have produced a good book. It has been checked for mistakes, wrong spellings and typographical errors. Now, you have to come up with a good marketing plan. It is important not to miss this important point. Some self-published authors have overlooked this thinking that having a good book on their hands would be good enough. But how will a book sell if readers do not even know it exists?

You have to make sure that you have a well-planned advertising, marketing and launching plan. If you think you cannot pull it off, then do not hesitate to get an experienced person to help you out.

Aside from marketing, some self-published authors also tend to make mistakes in distribution. Make sure that your target audience gets to have a chance to buy your book. Some authors overlook online distribution. There are cost-efficient online distribution channels where you can have your book made widely available to a targeted and hungry audience. the internet is becoming a convenient place for people to buy stuff that they want and need, so don’t overlook the online sales and distribution channel for your product.

Another thing that self-publishing authors should not forget is getting ISBN numbers. Actually, this is an easy thing to do. There are several websites that can give you instructions on how to buy ISBNs from RR Bowker, the U.S. ISBN agency.

Self-publishing requires a balance between all aspects of the project, from conception to success. To be successful with your book, you do not have to just only write an excellent book but make sure you maximize opportunities for your potential readers to be able to get acquainted with it and buy it.

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36 Twitter Tips for Book Publishers
How to tweet your way to successful title and author promotions. Plus, 5 ways your company can benefit from Twitter (and 6 tips to help you maximize your following) By Noelle Skodzinski from this site.

For better or worse, Twitter has become part of our culture. While some people still may not see the value in engaging on the online social networking tool, many do. According to ComScore Media Metrix’s October figures, Twitter had more than 20 million unique visitors in the United States in September. Many businesses find Twitter useful for connecting with customers, and book publishers in UK are no exception.

“If you are a good Twitterer, people will trust you—even if you are a brand—and will trust your recommendations. And word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool,” says Malle Vallik, director of digital content and social media at Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

Vallik says that, for Harlequin, there is no doubt about Twitter’s value. “We track clicks through a tool like bit.ly [see tip No. 24], and when you see the numbers increase dramatically, it is more than worthwhile.”

Another benefit, she says, is that it’s “fast and friendly. [It’s] not a big investment of resources, although it’s addictive.” Here are Book Business’ 36 tips for using Twitter effectively from those who have quite a few tweets under their belt.

1. After signing up for Twitter, cruise through WeFollow.com, Twit-Dir.com and the new Twitter Lists to find and follow folks in your niche.

2. Create several Twitter accounts based on the niches in which you publish your book.

3. Avoid the temptation to automate. It is important that you are on Twitter to respond to the community.

4. Sell books by adding substantive information from your books and authors to the conversation. No hard sales pitches, please.

5. Have fun. Invent new … ways to engage your Twitter community—contests, polls, jokes, raffles, giveaways, etc.

6. Be strategically self-promoting. … Enter conversations tied to your book’s topic, and be engaged enough so that when you do bring up your own work and post a link to your site, it seems relevant to the conversation and not just like a sales pitch.

… Really engage the space: … Post frequently and understand that the shelf life of a tweet is about 1 minute. … RT (retweet), and use @ (replies and mentions) and # (hashtags) in your tweets as often as possible. If you don’t know what those [Twitter] symbols are, or have never been on Twitter, it takes just a few minutes to figure it all out. Sign up and join the conversation. (Editor’s note: Check out the sidebar for more Twitter tips and basics [such as hashtags], and visit Help.Twitter.com for a quick Twitter education.)

Overall, you want to bring some humor and wit to your tweets, be seen as a resource (by tweeting links and comments about interesting stuff), and show people that you are paying attention to their tweets by posting regular RTs.”

7. Tweet in a manner that is aligned with your brand identity. At Quirk, we aim to entertain and inform. Our Twitter (and entire social media) philosophy is rooted in that ideal. Your fans expect it.

8. Make the tweet compelling enough that others will want to pass it along. Provide a snippet of useful or interesting content from the book. Announce a contest or giveaway. Promote a media event or article. Offer an exclusive discount on products.

9. Use Twitter as a piece of the story, but reinforce the message in other platforms. Recently, we had a month-long initiative on our blog (Irreference.com) celebrating Quirktober. We had blog posts about making candy corn, carving a pumpkin, choosing a Halloween costume—all pulled from our various books. Not only did we post the blog teasers to Twitter, but we also blasted it out via Facebook and our other social media platforms.

10. Use Twitter to create and continue conversations. When “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” launched to huge success, a fan created a hashtag called #ppzripoffs to allow others to post their own mash-up ideas. We caught wind of it, pushed this out to our fans and contributed our own ideas to the conversation. We picked up a lot of new followers from this.

11. Make timely and appropriate tweets. Our Web site is full of great content. When the “Lost” season finale aired in May, we tweeted with links to our content about surviving a plane crash or surviving a nuclear fall-out. And, of course, we used the #lost hashtag.

12. Think of tweets in the same way you would think about publicity hits. It’s an endorsement of your book. Whether it’s a consumer or a member of the media, share that endorsement with your followers by retweeting their post. It’s a nice way of saying thank you … and it opens the originator’s message up to your followers who may now follow that person and/or retweet the message.

13. Know who your big retweeters are. … If you have a relationship with them, send tweets you know they will be interested in with @username at the end to make sure they see it and hopefully retweet.

14. Have a personality/human associated with the brand, even if [it’s] just a line in the bio about who’s working on it. We’ve all accidentally posted to Harlequin Books instead of our own accounts at this point, and we get personal responses back, so they know we’re human. Read the rest of this entry »

Xlibris Publishing Guide - Get this free guide now and learn how you can self-publish your own book!

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By Lee B. Roberts (The Journal Times.com)

Marvin Lindberg writes first in longhand in spiral notebooks, and then on his laptop computer. (Photo by Mark Hertzberg, mhertzberg@journaltimes.com)

Everyone’s got a book inside them, or so it has been said. And, with the increased access to self-publishing that the Internet has provided in recent years, more and more people are bringing those books to the surface.

Marvin Lindberg, for example, took up writing in 2003 after selling his assisted living business, Loving Care Homes, which he had run in Racine County for many years. He has since written several fiction books which he had published through print-on-demand companies online.

Two of Lindberg’s books, “Final Justice” (Trafford Publishing) and “Saving Vegas” (Xlibris), are thriller/adventure stories based on themes from current events. His most recent effort, “Four Square,” (Xlibris) is aimed at the tween market with its story of two 12-year-olds dealing with divorce, with a little adventure thrown in.

No matter what the subject matter, producing books is something Lindberg says gives him a great sense of accomplishment.

“I really enjoy the writing process – especially creating characters and giving them personality.”

Figuring out the self-publishing process seemed difficult at first, he said, but once he went through it, it seemed like “a piece of cake.”

Virginia Burlingame decided to give self-publishing a try for her first attempt at a novel, “A Window Bed,” which follows a mother/daughter relationship as it evolves in the last year of the mother’s life. A local gerontologist, Burlingame had gone through traditional publishing companies with her previous professional books, but decided self-publishing was the best route for her first fiction venture.

Armed with advice she’d gotten through both a self-publishing class and from fellow authors in a couple writing groups she belongs to, she chose to publish her novel through lulu.com, a print-on-demand publishing house.

“It was one of the best deals I found,” she said.

The process, which Burlingame is still going through, can be a complicated one involving everything from formatting to marketing, she said. But, there is help available along the way.

“I hired someone to do the formatting for me,” she said.

“The biggest problem with self-publishing is that you have to market the book yourself,” Lindberg said. “I haven’t had huge sales, but that hasn’t stopped me from writing.”

Doing, not being

It is true that sales and marketing are important aspects of self publishing – ones that often give writers pause when considering self publishing – says Peter Bowerman, author of “The Well-Fed Self-Publisher” and “The Well-Fed Writer.” But, in today’s oversaturated book publishing market, even authors who go through traditional publishing companies are required to do most of their own marketing, said Bowerman.

Such skills can be learned by anyone, he said, and despite popular thinking, an outgoing personality is not required to be successful in sales and marketing books.

“It is more a matter of things you have to do, than some way you have to be,” said Bowerman, who devotes an entire chapter to sales and marketing (“Learning to love S&M”) in “The Well-Fed Self-Publisher.”

“I want to help people get over what is really an irrational fear of the whole sales and marketing process.”

The whole point of Bowerman’s book is to show writers how they can make a living through self-published writing. And while his expertise is aimed at non-fiction writers like himself, some of his advice can apply to publishing fiction, he said.

His blueprint for self-publishing goes way beyond the print-on-demand option, with a goal of producing a book that the average consumer would not be able to tell apart from a volume published by one of the big publishing houses. His self-publishing methods, he says, not only allow authors to have more control over their finished work than they would through traditional methods, but to keep a larger percent of any profits. For more about Bowerman and his self-publishing success story, go to: http://www.wellfedsp.com

Just us

Not everyone, though, goes the self-publishing route to make money. Donna Peterson is in the process of self-publishing a cookbook of recipes from her late Aunt Dorothy, who she described as “an excellent cook.” Her purpose in doing so is to preserve and share the beloved recipes, as well as humorous anecdotes about growing up in wartime America, with her friends and family.

Peterson’s self-publishing journey is a more low-tech version, as she is having her book produced by a local printing company, Schabel’s in Caledonia, rather than online. Even so, Peterson said she has enlisted a lot of help along the way, having friends and family assist with editing, formatting and general advice.

“I’ve been reaching out in every direction,” she said. “I’ve also had a lot of input from Barb Trentadue at Schabel’s. She’s a wonderful resource. We have a good working relationship.”

Putting the 10 chapters of recipes (the originals of which were all handwritten), her 12 short stories and assorted photos together into a finished product wasn’t easy, Peterson said. But all the effort seemed worthwhile when she recently saw the mock-up of her cookbook.

“It surpassed my expectations,” she said. “I really feel good about it.”

Peterson’s advice for anyone looking to publish a similar piece of their family history: “Don’t be afraid to ask for help. “It’s out there, all you have to do is ask.”

By Rege Behe (TribLive)

Everybody, it seems, wants to write a book: Witness the growth of self-publishing companies catering to those who can’t get noticed by major publishing houses.

Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts are rejected by publishers annually — and most for good reason. “Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us: A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected” by Jessica Page Morrell is a guide for those who are determined to succeed against tremendous odds — less than 1 percent of manuscript submission are accepted.

Even if one has no dreams of getting a book on a best-sellers list, “”Thanks … ” contains some common-sense advice for making one’s writing clearer and more concise.

But any guide can only do so much. As it’s often said, everybody has a story to tell; not everyone should tell their story.

• Plotting: Don’t start with a theme or an archetype. Start with a character reacting to a problem that is propelling his or her life in the wrong direction.

• Characters: Never create characters who are invulnerable to danger. Create characters who make mistakes with fatal consequences. Orchestrate a character’s missteps so they’re based on his flaws.

• Writing descriptively: Description is sparing but revealing. Description does not equal inventory. It most often is effective at its briefest and cleanest. Spark the reader’s imagination, don’t provide a portrait.

• Dialogue: Don’t think too hard or overanalyze what your characters need to say. Good dialogue comes from our instincts and intimacy with the characters.

• Scenes: If you can remove a scene without changing the outcome, clarity and mood of the story, remove it.

• Conveying emotions: Readers want to see emotions depicted in action and dialogue, but also in subtext: the subterranean river of emotions that exists beneath things. Remember that what is left unsaid ofteis n more potent than what is expressed. That subtext also can create a layer of symbolism and meaning in any story.

Xlibris Publishing Guide - Get this free guide now and learn how you can self-publish your own novel!

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By Brian Coulton (metronews.ca)

With financial risk and a lot of work, authors can find their way into print.

Erin Bolger had a vision of what she wanted her maiden manuscript to look like in published form: A country-meets-city cookbook with punchy colours, vivid photographs and an openness about herself at the “heart” of the book.

Erin Bolger took a leap of faith to self-publish her first book, The Happy Baker: A Dater’s Guide to Emotional Baking.

“I thought publishers might want to take that out and make it a little more safe,” said the Toronto-via-Blyth, Ont. author. “They might want to change the title or direction of the book.”

Instead, she took the reins — and complete creative control — before publishers could, opting to self-publish The Happy Baker: A Dater’s Guide to Emotional Baking. Using connections she made working as a makeup artist and in television, Bolger hired a photographer and designer and sought out an Ottawa printer to turn her literary loaf from dough to dessert.

But it didn’t come without work. “With self-publishing, you’re doing everything,” said Bolger, who estimates she worked 12 hours a day for a year, “I’m the one driving my books to the Chapters distribution centre. I still have to do all my own PR.” And as someone who had never entered debt, going $45,000 into the red was a setback she took on largely because of wider economic circumstances. “In a way, the economy being the way it was, was the reason I decided to do it. Everybody was in debt. I just thought I’d be in debt with everyone else.”

By Keith Ogorek’s measure, it may have been Bolger’s best bet. The vice president of marketing for Bloomintgon, Ind.-based Author Solutions, a network of self-publishing companies, said money woes have categorically affected traditional publishers, who are acquiring less content and investing more in “celebrity author” sure bets instead of up-and-coming writers.

“It’s really squeezed the market, including an author’s ability to get their books into the market and develop a following,” he said. “Self-publishing allows an author to invest in their work, whereas before, they would have been completely and fully dependent on a traditional publisher liking their work.”

And the price of a publisher picking up an unknown’s work can be hefty, yielding a new author about one dollar per book. But Ogorek said direct distribution enables authors to earn higher royalties, a trend he said is akin to what’s already happened in film and music. “Artists (who) really believe in their work have circumvented the traditional major channels to invest in their own films and distribution, music and recordings. Now, it’s become the same trend in publishing.”

by Michelle Angermiller (nj.com)

ROBBINSVILLE — Alfred Pris tash was looking through some old letters he had written to his parents when it dawned on him: Perhaps he should document his life so his two sons could learn their father’s history.

“I didn’t have a plan. I just started,” said the 80-year-old Rob binsville resident.

He started off writing about his father’s time in the Navy, and it “just went from there.” Pristash is living proof that it is never too late to try something new or discover a new dream — in his case, adding the title of “author” to his colorful life.

Pristash is among hundreds of thousands of people now turning to the self-publishing industry to convey a personal message that perhaps may not be highly commercial but still important for family and friends.

He begins the book with this simple statement: “I am 76 years old, and when I look back, it is hard to realize the many earth-changing events I have lived through.”

That is Pristash’s tone in a nut shell. What started as a writing exercise stretched out to a 220-page book titled “My Changing World.” The sometimes poignant, extremely honest and very detailed book takes the reader on a tour of world history narrated by a man who has experienced it all.

The book begins one year be fore the stock market crash of 1929, then chronicles Pristash’s life as a child during the Depression. The drama unfolds as Pristash takes his readers through World War II, his enlistment in the United States Navy during the Korean War, his enrollment in Rutgers College of Pharmacy, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and other events in modern history.

Pristash said writing the book came easily. He would write out the chapters longhand and then recite them to his youngest son, Alfred Daniel, who typed them out for him. In all, it took about 18 months to write, he said.

When he was finished, Pristash decided he should try and get the book published.

“I met a publisher in Baltimore, but the book was too big for her,” he said.

He found a home with AuthorHouse, a company that helps book authors self-publish their novels.

The self-publishing industry offers writers like Pristash a less expensive way into print and gives them more control over their finished products.

According to statistics released in May by publishing industry tracker Bowker, the on-demand and short-run publishing market, which includes self-published books, had grown 132 percent from a year earlier.

Noel Flowers, the marketing manager of Xlibris, a self-publishing company, said out of the 560,626 books published last year, 285,394, or 51 percent, were self- published.

“Self-publishing has definitely come into its own light in the past decade, and it is the best and most viable option for many authors to publish their work,” Flowers said.

Authors of family memoirs, like Pristash, or other niche, nonfiction books may find it difficult to obtain a contract with a larger publishing house, Flowers explained, or some may be interested in publishing a book aimed only at family and friends, not commercial success.

Although self-publishing companies may not offer the same level of marketing assistance found at more traditional publishing houses, or the connections sometimes necessary to get books into bookstores, Flowers said the self-publishing mode allows authors to take more control over their work.

“Many authors have been left high and dry after getting a contract with a traditional publisher after the publisher has decided not to aggressively market the book, and furthermore to stop printing copies,” Flowers said. “Print-on-demand technology ensures self-published authors that their book will never go out of print, and the control over their own destiny appeals to them.”

Flowers said companies like Xlibris often offer marketing advice and campaigns to authors in an effort to help them publicize and sell their latest work. Commercial success, he said, “is largely dependent on the authors themselves,” and how willing they are to aggressively market their book to retailers.

Pristash’s self-published work, which contains family photos of his parents and sons, Alfred Daniel and Nicholas, letters, and memorabilia, is history as seen through Pristash’s eyes. He writes, in remarkable detail, of his childhood in Clifton, his service during the Korean War, his trips through India and Pakistan, his sister’s battles with multiple sclerosis, his employment at Hoffmann-La Roche as a pharmaceutical chemist, his ill- fated marriage, harrowing divorce and subsequent battle for the couple’s two children.

It’s not all heavy-handed. In one chapter, Pristash armchair-quarterbacks the history of the New York Giants. Through it all, he shares his view of the changes he witnesses through several presidents, wars and general societal gradations.

“I’ve seen and done a lot,” he noted.

He also believes that although the story is centered on his own life, most readers will relate to his spin on world events.

“A lot of things that happened before are happening again,” he said. “History has a way of repeating itself, and you can see it with what’s happening in this country at this time.”

“My Changing World” retails for $73.99 and is available through (Amazon.com) and (Barnesandnob le.com).

Staff writer Erin Duffy contributed to this report

by Sara Wolski (eXaminer.com)

Entrepreneurial spirit and smart marketing has propelled several self-published books onto the bestseller list, including John Javna and Julie Bennett’s 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth, John Roger and Peter McWilliams’ Life 101, and Richard Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute?, according to the New York Times. To some in the literary industry, self-published books had a stigma of amateurism, but today that attitude is very much a thing of the past. Certainly in the publishing hubs and within the traditional literary industry this stigma may remain, but it’s quickly becoming a wake-up call for trade houses, agents, and writers alike.

Helen Gallagher, a local expert on everything from computers and web-based technology to ins and outs of self-publishing, says that many writers don’t realize how beneficial self-publishing can be as a means of making timely material available to the masses. “Writers don’t like to think their books aren’t good enough to get published, and they think their work is too good for print-on-demand. Many think POD is a last resort when in reality it is the quickest way to publishing success for most authors, especially first-time authors,” she explains. It can be a tough decision for many writers who want to try the traditional route first: approaching an agent, waiting a while for a response, and potentially dealing with rejection.

Gallagher aims to educate those interested in self-publishing while empowering them as well with marketing ideas, promotion strategies, advice on building a platform, and guidance to maintain a long life for the book. She has self-published twice and her second book, Release Your Writing, was recently featured as a finalist in the National Best Books 2008 Awards sponsored by USA Book News, in the Writing & Publishing category – it’s all about how to successfully self-publish a book and create a sustainable life for it in a very competitive literary marketplace. “It’s up to authors to give their books life and drive,” Gallagher says. “If a book isn’t selling, the author isn’t trying.” This is a statement equally true of traditionally published books. Trade houses are increasingly tight on their budgets, leading to less publicity funds and more reliance on authors to self-promote an create their own visibility.

The bottom line is that self-publishing is a very viable means to achieving a successful book career. In the midst of a changing literary industry, trends thus far indicate that self-publishing may just be the proboscis on the new face of literature.

Helen Gallagher is a publishing consultant based in the Chicago area. Her next publishing workshop will be at the Book Stall of Chestnut Court in Winnetka, IL on July 15, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. For details, and to learn more about her work, visit her online.

Image source: caccioppoli.com 

Source: 1888pressrelease.com

Because of travel and lodging costs, many aspiring self-publishers are not able to attend big publishing shows in New York City or Los Angeles. SPOC 2009 is a virtual conference which means attendees can attend from the comfort of their own home. Connecting entrepreneurial authors with self-publishing resources, the Self-Publishers Online Conference will be held on May 13, 14, 15, 2009.

Aspiring authors and self-publishers can attend SPOC when they have time in their schedule. At their convenience, they can wander the virtual exhibit hall, take part in informative teleseminars, and discover helpful information about writing and publishing books.

Logical Expressions President Susan Daffron says, “The Self-Publishers Online Conference is the next best thing to being at a live conference, except without the sore feet and aching back from lugging around brochures and other conference materials all day. Our line-up of speakers is phenomenal. Almost every author of every self-publishing book I own will be at SPOC, plus other amazing experts that have successfully self-published books and developed a platform around them.”

SPOC 2009 will feature a total of 15 expert speakers over the three-day event. The experts will discuss a wide range of book publishing and promotion topics. Although speakers are still being confirmed and the line-up is not final, publishing experts Dan Poynter, Shel Horowitz, Brian Jud and Sandra Beckwith have agreed to speak.

About the Self-Publishers Online Conference

The Self-Publishers Online Conference is being put on by Logical Expressions, Inc. and Write a Book in a Weekend. SPOC gives sponsors an opportunity to showcase products and services to attendees who are seeking information about how to become a self-published author. The event consists of teleseminars with self-publishing experts and a virtual exhibit hall and conference rooms which feature sponsor, exhibitor, and speaker information. More information is available at SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com.

Xlibris Publishing Guide - Get this free guide now and learn how you can self-publish your book!