Information Overload

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I feel like my brain could explode at any moment. I finished reading How to Make Money Publishing from Home by Lisa Shaw this week while I was out of town and got about halfway through How to Publish Your Nonfiction Book by Rudy Shur before I realized that I was reading words but my brain was no longer processing what I was reading. This may be partially because the latter of the two books is so geared toward preparing a book for submission to a publishing house that the information seemed too irrelevant for my situation. So I did something I almost never do. I quit reading it. I abhor the thought of leaving things unfinished and often continue reading a book even if I’ve lost interest just to “cross it off the list”, so this was a big step for me.

In my efforts toward “vigorous self-education“, I’ve allowed myself to do something else I rarely do – skim or [gasp!] even completely skip certain paragraphs or chapters that I don’t perceive to be beneficial to me at this point. Normally I’m a read-and-process-every-word sort of person, so you can see I’m really branching out these days. 🙂

While these weeks of intense study and absorption in the field of self-publishing have been incredibly beneficial, I think I’m ready to adopt a slower pace as I try to retain the things I’ve learned and explore some new resources. I’m also really excited about some new approaches I’m going to be studying in the coming weeks as I start outlining the next steps in the self-publishing process for my book. Stay tuned for new developments and exciting announcements in the coming days!

How to Promote and Publish Online Review

Marketing, Reading/Researching No Comments »

This book – How to Publish and Promote Online by M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy – is a collection of very short chapters contributed by a variety of authors with expertise in the areas covered. Although overall the book is geared toward online publishing, there are a number of helpful chapters that are equally applicable to the print publisher. The edition I have is from 2001 and it’s amazing how much technology has changed in these seven years, making some of the ideas and references obsolete. It’s an easy-read, though, and has numerous lists of specific resources, like Where to Send Book-Related Press Releases and Announcements Online, Where to Get e-books Reviewed, Cheap Advertising, More Essential Online Resources, and more.

The book is divided into three parts:

Part I – Everything You Need to Know About Publishing On- and Offline

Part II – Self-Publishing Success Stories

Part III – Pounding the Virtual Pavement: Selling Your Book Online

One of the things I really found helpful in this book were a couple of chapters of interview questions and responses from people in the book review and radio industry. Their input was varied, but gave an interesting perspective of their preferences when dealing with authors. That, and a number of other factors, assisted me in coming up with my 3 Keys to Marketing for the Self-Publisher. The authors are also forthright in identifying and revealing ideas and marketing strategies that didn’t work for them. Their experiences enable them to give good advice for where to spend money and what strategies to pass up.

Overall, the book provides a handy reference tool for authors and self-publishers trying to navigate their way around the web and the lists are especially time-saving in that someone else has done the legwork in identifying good places to publicize your work. I probably won’t buy this book, but it’s definitely one worth checking out from the library again when I get to that stage of my marketing plan.

Lots of Reading

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I just realized a day or two ago that all my self-publishing library books are due back this Friday. Since I’ll be out of town next week, I decided to try to take in as much as I can from the books before Friday and then catch up on my writing next week. Hence…less content on this blog. But I plan to post some reviews soon!

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers Review

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Anyone who does any research in the field of self-publishing will quickly learn that there are three keys to selling books. 1. Marketing, 2. Marketing, 3. Marketing

For anyone feeling uncertain about how to approach the vast world of marketing possibilities (and I’m pretty sure that includes just about every author-turned-self-publisher!), just pick up this arsenal of “100 No-Cost Low-Cost Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work” – Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen. One can’t help but feel as they read this book that the authors are really serious about wanting to help writers achieve success in their marketing efforts. Although it’s written with the assumption that the author’s goal is to be picked up by one of the big publishing houses, it is equally useful for the self-publisher. Perhaps even more so, because every time I read, “Your publisher should…” or “Ask your publisher if…” I made a mental note that I am my publisher and those are responsibilities that I too must shoulder.

The book is divided into four parts as follows:

Part I – Guerrilla Marketing: The Right Idea at the Right Time

Part II – Weapons that Make You a Guerrilla

Part III – Weapons Galore to Help You Sell More

Part IV – Weapons that are All About You

Each of these is subdivided into smaller categories into which are placed each of the individual “weapons” – specific marketing ideas. The Table of Contents lists each of these individually and serves as the perfect place to mark the strategies you want to use first. If I wasn’t borrowing this book from the library, that’s exactly what I would have done. In fact, the book would have been very well-marked by the time I finished it if it was mine.

In addition to all the practical strategies, the authors share numerous additional “guerrilla tactics” – ideas submitted by other authors, and “war stories” – real life examples of the guerrilla tactics and weapons in action. I can’t wait to get my own copy of this book and start marking it up! I’ve also just begun perusing the wealth of information and resources contained on the Guerrilla Marketing website. Between the book and the website, it’s almost as good as having an experienced mentor guiding you through the steps to effectively market your book!

Staying Current with Trade Magazines

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After reading several times about Publisher’s Weekly, I finally remembered to check out their website and subscribe to their free e-newsletters.

At the recommendation of someone on one of the self-publishing groups I joined, I also signed up for a free subscription to Book Business, another trade magazine.

Publisher’s Lunch is another highly recommended trade e-newsletter, so I went ahead and subscribed to that as well.

I figure I’ll try these all out for a month or so and determine whether they are beneficial or not. If not, I’ll just cancel my subscription. In retrospect, if I had thought of it before I finished subscribing, I would have created a separate and specific e-mail account (i.e. subscriptions@journeytoselfpublishing or something like that) to handle these, that way if my e-mail address gets phished by other companies, I could just delete the account. Rats! Wish I had thought of that sooner! Oh well, maybe someone else can learn from my mistake. 🙂 If you know of any other good (and free!) on-line or print subscriptions, please let me know!

The Prepublishing Handbook Review

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The book research and writing is going a little slower this week, due to other responsibilities, but I finished reading The Prepublishing Handbook: What you should know before you publish your first book by Patricia J. Bell and wanted to post a quick review.

I knew with a copyright date of 1992 some of the information would be outdated and quite a bit of it was. But I still gleaned some good thoughts from it. In particular, Ms. Bell makes it clear that this is a “whether-to” book, not a “how-to” book. She does her best to scare off the faint of heart (or at least make sure that her readers are fully aware of what they are about to get themselves into if they decide to go the self-publishing route!). She points out that the self-publisher is an entrepreneur who uses his/her money to finance the project. Courage, persistence and resourcefulness are a necessity!

Ms. Bell makes it clear that a self-publisher must know what they hope and expect to achieve from the publication of their book. Is the goal to make money? Change the world? Pass on a family heritage? It is critical that this objective is clearly defined so that appropriate decisions can be made down the road.

Ms. Bell goes on to lay out five assets that will help an aspiring self-publisher determine if he/she has what it takes. The first four are interior assets (personal characteristics) and the last one is an exterior asset:

  1. Creative
  2. Confidence – you must learn to view your book as a product, not as your “baby”; you must be objective.
  3. Courage
  4. Stamina – persistence; determination to carry-through; need much physical, mental and emotional energy.
  5. Money – Ms. Bell suggests that at least $12,000 is required for the first year.

In chapter 3, the many hats of the small publisher are briefly explored:

  • Writer
  • Managing Editor
  • Financial Manager
  • Designer
  • Production Manager
  • Marketing Manager/Promotion Director
  • Sales Manager
  • Distributor
  • “Expert”
  • Secretary

It is prudent to consider that as a self-publisher one is assuming all the roles that are filled by a staff of people in a traditional publishing house. Of course these may be contracted out to freelancers as desired, but ultimately all the responsibility for the production of the book rests on the shoulders of the self-publisher himself.

At the end of the book Ms. Bell includes an annotated list of Recommended Reading that is very helpful. It is arranged according to various categories (eg. Publishing, Business Planning, Production, etc.) and some of those that she highly recommends – like Dan Poynter and Marilyn Ross – are still known today as “go-to-people” in the world of self-publishing.

The number one insight I have taken from this book is the need for vigorous self-education. And so…let the journey continue!

How to Remedy Ignorance When it Comes to Self-Publishing

Reading/Researching 1 Comment »

I’ve been reading through The Prepublishing Handbook: What you should know before you publish your first book by Patricia J. Bell and found this sentiment both slightly humorous and quite relieving:

“You need to have a strong belief in yourself and your capabilities to do what has to be done. This need not be a major problem. If you were smart enough to write a good book, then you are smart enough to publish it. Remember, you can remedy ignorance through vigorous self-education.”

The more I dive into the world of self-publishing, the more I feel ready to drown in the sheer mass of information one must assimilate in order to proceed in an informed manner. I continue to feel increasingly ignorant! But Ms. Bell’s statement inspires me to engage in vigorous self-education. Perhaps eventually I’ll feel like I know something!

Free Publishing Basics Book

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A couple of days ago I came across the Self Publishing website. The amount of information on the website is quite overwhelming! But you can order a free copy of their book, Publishing Basics – A Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher that will help guide you through a lot of the resources available through their website. Just fill out the form to download the free e-book on this page. Then you will have the option to order a printed version of the book for free (+$1.99 shipping). I just finished the book today and not only is it chock-full of useful tips for self-publishers, it is also printed on various types of paper with examples of both offset and digital printing processes. This provides an excellent way to examine the difference between the papers and printing options available.

Publishing Basics is an excellent way to navigate through the terminology used in the publishing industry and sort through the conflicting information in the self-publishing industry. Here are a few of the helpful tips I gleaned:

1. Start your own publishing company and buy your own block of ISBN numbers. Do not buy a single ISBN number from another publishing house or author services company. If you do, they will own the ISBN and be listed as the book’s publisher.

2. Use MS Word for word processing, but not for book layout. If you aren’t inclined to purchase and learn to use a page layout software (Quark or PageMaker), it is well worth it to hire a professional to do the page layout design for you.

3. Print-On-Demand (POD) is a viable option for short-run jobs, but for a truly professional look, web offset printing is the way to go and can be used for print runs of 500 or more books.

Of course, much of the book is plugging the services offered by selfpublishing.com, but whether you use their services or not, it is an incredibly handy reference book (and well worth the $1.99 shipping charge)!

Self-Publishing Books Galore!

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I was giving a workshop at our library this morning, so I took a few minutes after it was over to scour the shelves for books related to self-publishing. I by-passed some of the really old out-dated ones, but picked up a handful that I hope to skim through in the next several weeks. Here’s what I found:

Chicago Manual of Style – I’ve had a couple of questions recently about certain stylistic elements and thought this would be a handy reference. For example, I wasn’t sure whether to capitalize the word spring when referring to it as a season. Rule 8.94 in the 15th edition states, in part, “The four seasons are lowercased (except when used to denote and issue of a journal).” Question answered.

The Prepublishing Handbook: What you should know before you publish your first book by Patricia J. Bell – Although the copyright date on this one is 1992, a seal on the cover identifies it as a recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Publishers Marketing Association. Not that I know what that means, but surely that makes it a book worth reading. Right? Plus, the Table of Contents looks very interesting and relevant.

How to Publish and Promote Online by M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy – With a range of topics addressing both traditional print publishing and e-publishing, this book of 58 short chapters looks to be full of practical ideas and resources.

How to Make Money Publishing from Home by Lisa Shaw – Covering the broad spectrum from books to newsletters to web sites to greeting cards and even software, this book seems to deal mostly with the business side of things. It looks like it covers a lot of the nitty-gritty details of the daily operations required of the self-publishing business.

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen – I’ve heard people in the business world rave about the Guerrilla Marketing books, so I was excited to see one specifically written for writers. Plus, I keep hearing that marketing is the key to a successful self-publishing venture. I hope to pick up lots of great ideas from this book!

I’ll be sure to report back with more thoughts as I read through each of these books in the coming weeks.

What Do All Those Acronyms Mean?

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Here is a really helpful question and answer page that explains all the acronyms related to book publishing (like ISBN, LCCN, CIP, SAN, etc.), how to determine which ones you need, at what point in the process to purchase them and links to where to purchase them. I know I’ll be revisiting this page numerous times!

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