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Published on August 20, 2014 06:26

17 Bestseller Tips – from Trade Publishers

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If you ever see Marketing and Advertising from traditional puplishers, it’s for their Bestseller authors only, such as: Advance Book Reviews, posted on their book’s cover, Book Tours and Signings of celebrity authors, media coverage including reviews, speaking engagements, and placing at major bookstores who report to Bestseller lists. How can author-publishers use the methods of global trade publishers to promote their self-published books? You don’t need to travel to the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, like Johannes Kepler did in 1620 – yes, self-publishing was en vogue already four hundred years ago!

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7 Million Self-Published Titles: Stiff Competition

Since 2010 roughly 7 million new self-published books appeared, almost all at online retailer’s websites. And these titles will be offered for many years to come, as most of them are in digital format. The “gold rush” seems to be over and self-publishing has been dropping almost 50% per year, obviously “separating the wheat from the chaff”. You’re not a New York Times bestselling author. You don’t have a publicist. And your Amazon sales numbers are awful. Should you quit writing books? No, absolutely not!

For those of you who want to succeed at self-publishing, use also some traditional marketing methods, create a Business Plan and a Budget, including anywhere from 5-10% for your overall book marketing, including website, paying for IT help, designer, or Google ads.

Traditional publishing uses multiple ways to promote. Self-published authors attempt to market their books to the entire world via Amazon, social media, and their website it seems. Publishers select books in order to stay in business, and also to determine what the publishing house’s identity is. Here’s how you can copy traditional ways to market – adjusted to self-publishing. One step at a time, but continually every day – split in small tasks.

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1. Start Early

Market Research – the very first step to do! An editor will need to make a case that the book fills a market need. And to do that, the publishing house will look carefully at what’s out there. Has the competition a recent publication in this sub-genre? Does it have similar scope? Is it widely available?

Authors, and especially self-publishing authors need to study their competition carefully too: Read their books, study book covers, pricing, reviews, and the marketing of competing books. The most powerful and essential steps you can take toward promoting your book begins long before the actual writing of the book. At least two years before the book is published, start building a network of supporters and reviewers.

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2. Print!

Traditional publishers concentrate on print books, which still make up for about 60% of the book market, depending if you look at book sales numbers or revenue per book. Audio Books: The audio-book market is certainly growing, and Trade Publishers are not only investing in digital (even so it took them a very long time) books, but also in audio-books.

E-book authors might be happy with their sales on Amazon, Apple, Kobo or Barnes & Noble. You might have even turned it into an audio book. But the questions for a “real” book, paper back or hard-cover copy from conservative friends or elderly family members are nagging… And wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a Chapters or Baker & Taylor or one of these rare independent book shops and see your book in the shelf? You will not earn a fortune, not even a living, but for a couple of months it is a nice pocket change. Only months… yes, because longer than this, barely any book will stay in the book store, unless it really is a bestseller and gets re-printed. If you go the indie route and choose for example the POD services and worldwide distribution through Lightning Source, (provided you have at least 3 books to be considered a small publisher) your book is printed on demand and will never get discarded (good: no-return-policy in POD worldwide distribution). See this article How to Distribute Your Book Worldwide.

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3. Book Sales at many outlets

Imagine you could buy all books from Penguin only in one book chain… Publishers distribute their books to as many outlets as possible, to brick-and-mortar stores, independent book sellers, mass markets, online book sellers, even via Affiliate programs.

Authors: Sell your books, e-books and audio-books not only through Amazon, but as well on Barnes&Noble, Apple and Kobo websites, to have your “eggs in more than one basket”. And don’t forget the potentially huge potential market for hardcover books, selling them to libraries all over the country! However, there are way more online retailers for e-books and books than just Apple , Sony, Diesel, Kobo or Barnes & Noble. Sign up with a book distributor / fulfillment company for your print-version of the book. Distributors mostly require just three books to be listed as a publishing business, and if authors have not written three books yet, they can band together with other authors to reach this minimum. Traditional publishers and the books of their authors can be found on Bowker’s global database of books. How to get into “Books in Print”, a worldwide database and to register your book for FREE! with Bowker is the topic of another blog posts.

Books available for future publishers: Aaron Shepard has written two books about the topic of book distribution: POD for Profit and Aiming at Amazon, both contain very detailed information for small publishers. Another great source is Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, a classic publishing guide-book.

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4. Sell books to Libraries

All traditional publishers sell their books to libraries.

According to statistics from the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group, libraries yearly purchase books for nearly $2 billion. But not only books, also audio-books and other forms of publications. Around 95% from major publishers. Imagine, you sold your $15 book at a 50% discount to only 10% of these libraries, you will earn more than $75,000. But how can you tap into the lucrative library market? It is explained in detail, including valuable links of wholesale companies who sell to libraries, on SavvyBookWriters here and here.

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5. Book Shows & Fairs

Representation at the applicable trade shows includes bookseller trade shows like the Bookseller Expo America (BEA) or one of the regional bookseller shows, like the New England Booksellers Association, Book Shows for the Library Association (ALA) and certainly the world’s most important, the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany every October.

Which Book Fairs or other Literary Events will you attend in the coming months to present your work? How to organize your participation and how to attract visitors is explained in detail in this blog post, pointing out the do’s and don’ts at book fairs.

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6. Book Signings

An author tour can take various forms. Two weeks of travel, flights from city to city, an author appearance every day, twice a day if possible. Publishers often make their choice on the basis of three factors: if the book can sell in quantity in bookstores; if the book can be reviewed in newspapers, not simply journals; and if the author is presentable.

How you can organize your own book signing is explained in detail, even with a time-table, here on this blog post at SavvyBookWriters.

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7. Book Clubs

Traditional Book Publishers sometimes sponsor book clubs, or invite them to partizipate in a contest, such as the one offered by Random House of Canada “Book Clubs are Beautiful”. Members suggests four or five books that they must have read and then the voting and lobbying begins until they’ve got their list. member suggests four or five books that they must have read and then the voting and lobbying begins until they’ve got their list.

Authors on the book clubs list have attended a meeting or contacted them by phone or email. Writers can find easily contact addresses of book clubs via Google. Offer them a free copy of your book, just as big publishers do. Don’t overlook virtual book clubs at Goodreads, Wattpad, Bibliophile etc.

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8. Writing Contests

Many published authors compete in writing contests, and publishing houses sometimes organize contests.

How to Get More Readers from an Award: Publicity around a book award will boost your book sales. Contests are a great way to hone your craft and show the world how much better you are than other writers. Winning a book award for your self-published fiction or nonfiction book is a great way to gain recognition and approval. You will not only see an increase in your book sales – if you market it well – you also can add the award sticker to your cover and mention the achievement on your back cover, in your books’ description, and in all your marketing and promotions – online or offline. 25 Writing Competitions You Should Enter

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9. Content Writing for magazines & newspapers

World-famous bestseller writers from big publishing houses, such as Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Tom Chiarella, Gloria Steinem and Stephen King did it: Writing occasionally short stories and magazine articles – before blogs became fashionable.

Your book has been launched months ago or even last year. NOW readers need to see something NEW from you. It doesn’t need to be a whole new book:

The three main assets you have already

– your writing skills

– the content you already penned

– the research you have done for your book(s) can be used to write at least 20 – 30 articles or blog posts – and if regularly posted on Google+ it is raising your Search Engine Ranking on Google tremendously.

More benefits of writing content:

– it is a subtle way to promote your book

– you receive valuable back links to your website or blog

– you will have lots of possibilities to post on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook.

– include links to your articles in email newsletter (that you hopefully send out regularly to your readers)

Post these articles on your blog or contribute guest blogs to other sites that are focused on the same topics as your book.

Content is used to draw in your ideal readers / reviewers, it will link to your book sales page or your website and it helps a lot to build a platform. Last but not least it gives you a lot of material to post and to tweet. The result: you will increase your exposure, show your writing skills, grow a loyal following and attract reviewers – in one sentence: you will achieve success with your writing – and in many cases, even get paid for it.

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10. Press Kits on your website

Bestseller authors at traditional publisher have the support of the publisher’s in-house (or out-sourced) publicity department. How much publicity support depends on many factors, but there are the basic elements that a publicity department will likely provide: Book Press Materials. Near publication date, the book’s publicist will email the electronic version of the press kits to a large number of applicable editors and producers to garner interest in the book. Book Media Follow-Up is the next step. The book publicist will follow up with any media outlet that responds to the mailings or e-mailings, will mail additional copies of the finished book, and will make additional calls or emails to other outlets to remind them the book is in their in-box.

To get the word out about the upcoming book launch, to receive positive articles in newspapers., magazine, book blogs, or to get interviews, writers should professionally deal with anyone who could tout their book – not only national press or TV. Don’t make these common errors: Not having a press page on your website for example. Unfortunately most writers are not aware that journalists, bloggers or radio hosts need a bit more information than what they see on your Amazon page. And they won’t just copy and paste your “about the author” or the description of your book on the sales page. Check out Stephen Kings website, see how he organized his page for the media: http://www.stephenking.com/press.php where journalists can download high-resolution press photos.

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11. Book Reviews in magazines and newspapers

Did you ever wonder why brand new books had already reviews? New author-publishers can learn a lot in book stores: Check out how professionally published books look like: Many of these trade books have either on their back cover (paperback) or on their binding flap (hard cover) several snippets of the book reviews, as well as endorsements from bestselling writers or other professionals, that were already written before the book was printed.

Traditional publishers may budget anywhere from fifty to several hundred “free and review” copies. Advance Review Copies (ARC’s) are what they send out half a year before book launch date.

How these pre-editions Galleys) are produced and to whom they should be sent is explained in How to Get Reviews Before Your Books Launch. Prepare your book review query well in advance and learn what to avoid when pitching to reviewers. Valuable tips can be found at Prestigious Reviews and How to Get Them.

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12. Radio Interviews

Bestseller authors often appear as guest at TV or radio stations. Publicists for major publishing houses have longstanding contacts to their editors and arrange interviews for bestseller authors.

Authors can go the same route, starting with internet radio stations, such as this one: The Book Report. Don’t forget when you plan the marketing of your public events, to announce it for free on Google+ and on Goodreads, use their free Event pages.

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13. Speaking Engagements

Keynote Speakers and Motivational Speakers get handsomely paid, often $10.000 to 15,000 for a two-hour speech! Most celebritiy authors, found as speakers, are writing Non-Fiction books.

Speaker agencies, or organizers of Writers Conferences are the best approach if you want to earn more with speaking engagements than with your book. If you are really serious about publicly speaking, join first Toastmasters.com and then the Certified Speaking Professional Association where you can get certification in public speaking.

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14. Foreign Rights

Basic subsidiary rights that publishers contract with their authors include translation into foreign languages, foreign rights, and reprint of selections by other publishers, just to name a few. An American publisher may also license a book to a British house for separate English-language publication in the UK and the Commonwealth

Foreign Rights as well as translations into other languages can be a great way to leverage the value of your manuscript – but don’t expect big numbers right away. Additionally, it will add an international, professional image to you and your books. Revenue will be an advance and approximately 6 – 10% royalty of the retail price, minus percentage for the agent. Try to get the highest advance possible. It’s also a long-term project as it takes around 18 months until the book is translated and finally available online and in bookstores – and another half year for royalties to arrive.

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15. Bookstore Placement

Placement in bookstores, both chain and local (especially bookstores that report numbers to the Bestsellers List) William Germano explains in his book:

Trade publishers’ marketing departments issue all kinds of catalogues to promote books—ones you see and ones you won’t unless you’re a librarian or a bookseller. The trade catalogue is a publisher’s principal tool for making sales to bookstores. Publishers with two trade catalogues bring out one per publishing season. The fall season usually begins in September and continues through the winter. The spring season begins in February or March, and continues through the summer. Books to be announced in a catalogue must be securely in place at the publishing house up to a year ahead.

For those of you who want to succeed at self-publishing, use also some traditional marketing methods, create a Business Plan and a Budget, including anywhere from 5-10% for your overall book marketing including your website, paying for IT help, designer, or ads.

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16. Placement of books in big box stores

Wandering into a Walmart or Shoppers Drugmart outlet, you will most likely find close to the entrance / cashier desk the shelves of magazines and books, often from Bestseller authors. Big publishing houses sell tons of books to these big box stores – at steep discounts I must add.

If your books are selling like hot cakes, consider selling in bulk too. Book wholesalers or websites such as ChainStoreGuide.com and TheSalesmansGuide.com, provide contact information for hundreds of buyers. You could also visit the websites of your most coveted outlets. Target even maintains a “vendor hotline” to answer questions by phone. However, be aware that having at least a dozen books is the minimum before you approach buyers at big box stores. They will not order single titles. If you have a book that should go into a specific department, for instance Sporting Goods, Electronics, Childrens, etc. contact your local store manager and ask who the buyer is for that specific department.

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17. Book Sales Page

Many big publishers and major online retailers sell from their own website print and digital books – and so can you! How?

Get all the information you need to start selling your books from our former article: How to Sell Your Books From Your Own Website.

Make at least 30% more on your books. Get your revenue immediately and get to know your readers, a very important point for your future marketing and to keep in contact with your customers.

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Conclusion:

This is just a small selection of the many book marketing activities that authors can copy from major publishers – beside Social Media networking. “Just Because You Wrote a Book, Readers Won’t Line Up To Buy It!” Yet, authors who take their publishing endaveor seriously and work as hard on their publishing business as they do on their writing, will always succeed. Read this article regarding the “Book Sales Plateau”.

Find many more detailed tips and links to all aspects of author-publishing and book marketing at SavvyBookWriters, especially how you can act like a professional publisher and take your books to the next level. Remember that you don’t have to do all of this at once!

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: 7 million new self-published books, book marketing activities, Book Reviews in magazines and newspapers, Book Sales Page, Book Shows & Fairs, book signings, bookstore placements, radio interviews, Writing Contests

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Published on August 17, 2014 18:07

How to Get Pre-Orders For Your New Book

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Do you plan a book launch within the next 3 months? Did you know that you can start right away to sell your future book? Amazon allows you to make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. So, as an author-publisher you have more privileges than Hachette and Disney Productions, some of the worlds’ biggest publishers : ) as Amazon refused to set up their pre-orders for the hit movies “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Maleficent”.
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More Time to Promote Your New Book
With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book’s release date. Amazon promises to set up your pre-order product page within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. Amazon delivers your book to your pre-order customers on your books’ launch date.
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Change Your Book Launch Schedule!
One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank, which can help more readers discover your book.
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Amazon Explains How it Works
You’ll list your book as you would with any other KDP book. When you’re adding a new book, on Step 4, “Select Your Book Release Option,” you will choose “Make my book available for pre-order” and set a date in the future. That’s it. More questions? Here are the answers.
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Amazon’s Requirements
When you list a book for pre-order, you’ll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won’t show the version to customers, but we’ll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. Your final version must be uploaded 10 days before the release date you set.
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Plan Your Book Launch Well Ahead!
Can you see how important it is to plan you books launch well in advance? And also to start MUCH earlier to write accompanying articles and blogs to let future readers know about your book. It also means to get more followers, connecting with readers on Social Media and to send out your email newsletters, letting readers know about your pre-order possibilities before or at the day of pre-launch start.. Furthermore you need to have the cover ready three months before the book launch or when you signing up with Amazon to start your pre-order period.
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See an example of a pre-order book at Amazon that launches on October 14: The Greatest Gift by Michael John Sullivan.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

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Tagged: Amazon account, Amazon KDP, Book Launch Tips, How to Start a Pre-Order, Michael John Sullivan, pre-order sales, take book orders 3 months before book launch, The Greates Gift

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Published on August 14, 2014 22:55

How to Deal With Negative Book Reviews?

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It happens to EVERY writer and it hurts you to see someone talk like that about your baby, err novel… At first, you just sit there, stunned. Unable to believe anyone would take such offense. Schock. Anger… Don’t panic. Negative book reviews, especially those that are potentially malicious, are near the top list of nightmare scenarios for every writer. You have been putting your heart and soul into pursuing your passion. So it is understandable when you would like to act first in the face of negativity and have regrets later. Please don’t! Hold your tongue.

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It makes no difference if you won the Pulitzer Price, or if you teach English in high school classes, or how many books you have sold. Check it out, many negative reviews show up on Bestseller books pages online too! In most cases this reviewer would never tell you the same directly in person. But the anonymity of the internet makes for a different mindset. Sometimes – or often – the review has nothing to do with the actual book:

The reviewer expected a different content
The reviewer regrets the purchase
The reviewer thinks there is too much violence or sex in the content
The reviewer could have a bad day
The reviewer could even be a competitor
The reviewer is jealous of your success

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How to Deal with Bad Reviews?

It is difficult to be thick-skinned when it comes to someone reading your work. Writers tend to be quite emotional people, that’s what makes them good at what they do, but it also means that they are likely to take a bad review to heart. Before you plan a strategy for addressing criticism, you need to determine if the review is true. Investigate before taking action. The best way to deal with bad reviews is to ignore them. If they really hurt, talk with your writer colleagues or friends about it. They can go to your books page and choose the “fair” reviews, and click on: Helpful. This way the helpful reviews climb up to the top and the negative review is not as visible anymore. Many readers don’t even know how to write a review. Try to get as many professional reviews as possible, such as Midwest Reviews, Armchair Reviews, ForeWord Reviews, Kirkus Reviews etc. They are trained and know how to write a fair review. Any review, good or bad, is better than no review. Readers who like the genre you write in will give you a better quality review, whether it’s a good review or a so-so review.

Never have any sort of contact with a reviewer. There’s no point in doing so. Everyone has an opinion, and all opinions are valid to the person who has them.

As Stephen King famously wrote: “You can’t please all of the readers all of the time; you can’t please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time.”

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Funny, Negative Reviews

Bestseller author Rayne Hall blogged about negative, but funny reviews she received, some are really hilarious. Read her article, sampling some of the stupidities for her highly popular novel Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel). “This book is too long. I had to spend many hours reading it. I’m busy and have other things to do.” “The character of Queen Matilda is not believable”. There’s no Queen Matilda in the book.

Digital Book World listed snippets from Bestseller reviews:

“It was one of the most boring and shallow books that I have ever read.” —review of the American classic The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Not nearly enough consistency and far to [sic] little plot.”—review of Harry Potter And the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

“If I were you, I’d peruse it briefly at your neighborhood library before putting hard-earned money out.” —review of children’s classic A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

“I find myself saying to myself as I read it ‘bla bla bla’ as that is what the author seems to be saying.” —review of National Book Award Winner Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

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If the Review is Factually Incorrect:

If a statement made is untrue (not just an opinion you disagree with), you have the right to ask for the comment to be removed or retracted. You would have to provide conclusive supporting evidence which shows the comment is factually incorrect. If you can’t provide proof, the sad truth is you won’t get anywhere asking for removal.

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You’ve done your best; you can’t change the book, other than a misspelled word or comma in an e-book. Life is too short to worry about what anyone thinks of your work. You shouldn’t be reading your reviews at all. And here are the good news: Consumers are smart enough to sniff out and ignore one odd-ball negative review in a sea of positive ones. Hopefully you worked hard on getting lots of reviews, so that few bad ones diminish in a sea of brilliant reviews. Read a list of bestseller authors that got hundreds of 1-star reviews. And not only bestseller reviews. Almost all books have a huge variety of reviews, from 5-star to 1-star reviews. Hope that helps. What Else Can You Do to Increase Your Books’ Success is described in this blog post.

What other advice do you have for handling negative book reviews? Let us know in the comments below.

More About How to Get Professional Reviews

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/prestigious-reviews-and-how-to-get-them/

Huffington Post Collection of Articles Regarding Bad Reviews

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/bad-book-reviews/.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: 1-star reviews, How to deal with negative reviews, How to Get Professional Reviews, Negative book reviews, online reviews, Stephen King, What to do when your book received a negative review

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Published on August 13, 2014 05:03

What is Your Publishing Business Name?

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Hopefully not your family name! Or the exact name of your book! It just doesn’t project a professional image and screams “Self-Published”. So, how do you choose a great publishing business name? You want a unique name, and need to make sure it is not already taken.

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Other Considerations

Choose a name for which the .com domain is available. That’s not a requirement, but you need definitely a website and it’s best to have a domain that matches your company name. Furthermore choose a business name that is memorable. Create a name that’s easy for your customers to remember and good for business promotion too. A winning business name:

has to be memorable – but easy to spell
needs a visual element
has to have positive meaning
needs to include info what your business does
it has to be fairly short

A name that relates to your topic, but is not so narrow, that you name it after your book. For example, a book titled “Vegetarian Sushi” should not have a company name like “Sushi Press”. It also limits your opportunity to publish books on different topics. A narrowly focused name makes you look small. Think big: Asian Gourmet Press or CookingJoyPublishing, or the like.

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How to Find the Right Name

Here are some examples of free tools:

Google’s Keyword Planner might be the first step, but WordStream has launched a free keyword research tool that is better than Google’s limited one, they have over a trillion keywords in their database. Another option is the KeyWord Density Analyzer. All of them are helpful when you brainstorm your business name.

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Register Your Business Name

In Canada, a business name search can be done on the Internet. In a former blog article you will find all the details on setting up a publishing business, and the appropriate links to government pages. Joel Friedlander explains in an article on his website how it works in his Northern Californian county in the US:

“You pick a name and conduct a search in the county records, and the state records, to see whether anyone else is operating under that name.
You file the form and pay a fee.
You publish a legal notice in one of the newspapers approved by the County Clerk, for three or four weeks.
You receive a document certifying that you are operating under the name.”

He advises also: “Bowker provides the Bowkerlink.com tool for publishers. This free portal allows you to market titles through Bowker products to many sectors of the book industry including wholesalers, distributors, retail chains, independent retailers, online retailers, schools, libraries, and universities.

Bowker’s online listings Books In Print® and Global Books In Print® websites have over 3000 subscribers including retailers, libraries and publishers.

Bowker has over 1800 library customers including The New York Public Library, Harvard University Library, and the British Library. Including branch libraries, over 5000 different locations can access your data.

When you complete the Title Information for Bowker, your book will automatically be entered in their system, and recoverable with the unique ISBN that you assign to it.”

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Get an ISBN for Your OWN Publishing Company

ISBN for example are always associated with the publishing company. Something you might not realize is that if you go with a vanity press and have them assign your ISBN, and THEY ARE technically the publisher, not you. This does not infringe on your copyright as an author, but it does limit your ability as a publisher and inflicts often with your marketing plans.

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Publishing Company Logo

Crafting great company logos is a separate skill set to creating a book cover. Unless you are a graphic designer with logo experience, please don’t attempt to do this on your own. Choose a graphic designer who can show you a portfolio of logo designs. Your publishing logo should be simple and easy to recognize – even at a very small size. The color of your logo will have an immediate impact on the viewer. If you choose a color logo, also get a black and white version made to use for photocopying and black & white publications.

A back cover/spine of your print book that bears your publishing name and a professionally designed logo are what let’s you stand out from the crowd.

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Name and Logo Support Your Brand

Your publishing name and logo will not only appear on the spine and copyright page of your book. It can be used for your website, business cards and marketing materials, as well as all your business correspondence including emails, letters and invoices. This helps create a brand that people will recognize, remember and associate with your business.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: book cover design, book spine, BowkerLink,

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Published on August 10, 2014 19:08

Write to Your Passion – Like Tennessee Williams

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What is Passion?

A great example of a writer who was successful because he wrote with passion and authenticity is Tennessee Williams. It is said that his play, The Glass Menagerie, is somewhat autobiographical. For those familiar with this play, it’s obvious that the playwright had strong feelings about his characters and the society in which they lived. Successful writers will follow Tennessee Williams’ example of identifying what they care about and writing on those subjects. It’s also important to show heartfelt emotion without going into unnecessary detail.

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What is heartfelt emotion, or passion?

A Wikipedia article explains that passion is an intense emotion, such as; enthusiasm, desire, or a positive affinity or love towards a subject. Passion also has a dark side. It can be linked to intense negative emotion, such as hate.

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Why is it Important That Our Writing be Passionate?

We need to write about that which we have strong emotions, positive or negative. Simply put, we need to write about what we care about. Why is this important? Writing is like acting. People can tell if you’re emotionally connected. The most respected actors are the actors who are not “acting” a certain role; they are “being” a certain role. For example, if we see someone like Meryl Streep in a movie, we don’t think that she’s portraying the character in a skilled manner. Instead, we feel that she has actually become the character. She is not divisible from the character. In the same way, writers want their material to flow smoothly. Writers cannot write material that flows smoothly unless they care about the subject of their writing.

Suzanne Fetting, Confidence Coach, defines passion as energy in her blog. She says that passion fuels the fires of inspiration and that it motivates us. It’s hard to write about that which doesn’t engage us emotionally. How Do We Find Our Passion.
Mary DeMuth, guest blogger on Michael Hyatt’s blog, says that one of the best ways to find our passion is to find where need and joy collide. A good example of this would be a job that contributes to society in a positive manner while it utilizes our unique talents. Another way that she suggests that we find our passion is to ask our friends to identify what is our main personality characteristic. For instance, our friends may define us as “artsy”, “intelligent”, “athletic”, and so on.

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How Do We Balance Our Passion in Our Writing?

It’s important not to be too emotional in our writing. When I was using some of my own life experiences while writing my first book, I spent a lot of time editing them because I was too emotional about those experiences. I edited certain passages fifteen times, and I still found that too much strong emotion came out in my words. In the end, I believe that I made my point clear with less emotion and fewer words. Readers don’t need a lot of details to understand a particular emotion that is being portrayed. In fact, too many details may be distracting. So, we want to keep details to a minimum.

Traci Lawrence writes about her passion: communication, relationships, the value of individuals and rising above verbal bullying, or trash talk. She lives in the Northern Virginia area of the United States and teaches English, among other subjects. Please find more on her blog, and read her book: Accept No Trash Talk.

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Tagged: Mary DeMuth, Michael Hyatt’, Suzanne Fetting, Tennessee Williams, Write to your passion

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Published on August 06, 2014 15:29

The Nirmala Effect by Fiza Pathan

ebooksinternational:

Powerful, Passionate Fiction – and Why Fiza Pathan Wrote it…

Nirmala: The Mud Blossom graphically depicts the travails, discrimination, and abuse faced by female children in India from the cradle to the grave. Not an easy read I thought before starting the book. Despite it is a fictional story, it is a clear indictment of India and the inhuman way women and girls are still being treated today. However the story immediately drew my attention and I finished this gripping, fascinating novel in one reading session over the weekend.

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The Reason for Writing this Story?

I was wondering how Fiza Pathan, a very well educated, and well-off writer, could tell the story of Nirmala the Mud Blossom. After all I knew her for her great non-fiction work CLASSICS: Why We Should Encourage Children To Read Them. And now a novel that takes place in the slums of Mumbai?

“Rejected and thrown into the dustbin when she was just two days old, the child was rescued and returned to her family by the NGOs. All because this little girl had the misfortune to be born as a female in Mumbai, India …

Nirmala is ill-treated by her mother, always subject to violence at her hands. She is allowed to continue her studies only because she can then coach her younger brothers, as the parents are illiterate. Each beating is accepted with forbearance, as she loves to go to school to get books to read from her library.

Nirmala is forced to stop her studies after the twelfth grade so her parents can save enough money to send the boys to college. She is then married off, but while her married life begins smoothly, it is only the beginning of her next phase of hell. After giving birth to her first child, Nirmala is subjected to harassment, beatings, and forced into doing things contrary to her beliefs and dreams. Her life is shattered.

What will happen to this little mud blossom? Will she fight back or succumb? How can she rid herself of harassment and rise above the stigma she endures?”

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Fiza Pathan Explains in Her Own Words Why She Had to Write Nirmala: The Mud Blossom

Originally posted on insaneowl:

The Nirmala Effect

My first novel which has just been released titled ‘Nirmala: The Mud Blossom’ was an accident. I had no intention of writing this story, let alone framing and formatting it into a novella. Yet when I pass the many filthy slums of Mumbai surrounding sky rise buildings and towers…I think to myself that maybe my character Nirmala and I both were accidents. Nirmala, was tossed into a dustbin because she was a girl…I was sent home to my mother’s family because I was a girl. Nirmala and I are two really different people and I can’t understand how I managed to write about her in the first place.

Do I empathize with Nirmala? Maybe…Do I sympathize with Nirmala? Maybe…but one thing is for sure. Nirmala got me thinking about reality, the reality that girls in India are not wanted…Nirmala and I both were not wanted.

Many people…

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Tagged: abuse faced by female children in India, CLASSICS Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them, Fiza Pathan, Mumbai India, Nirmala: the Mud Blossom, powerful story

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Published on August 06, 2014 05:00

Crowd-Funding: More than Money for Your Book

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The Guardian, while mentioning the Karen-Klein-Bus and the Tesla-Museum projects, wrote about Crowdfunding: “It’s quickly becoming the world’s incubation platform, changing the role of gatekeeper and finally giving the world true choice in determining which ideas come to life. Such meritocracy has never existed in the world of finance before.” Crowdfunding for your book offers an amazing opportunity as one of the starting steps in the publishing process. You heard it so often here on this blog: Marketing your books should start well before publication. When using crowdfunding, authors can focus their marketing efforts, while reaping the benefits of a successful crowdfunding campaign: raising funds pre-publication, collecting pre-orders and testing market viability.

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Is there a Market for Your Book?

A successful crowdfunding campaign is proof that a market exists for your product or service. Publishing means you have to sell, and a crowdfunding campaign is a cheap way for you to test the waters. If you create an interesting campaign, crowdfunding sites will promote it additionally and let the message go viral. Indiegogo, for example uses an objective algorithm called the “gogofactor” to ensure crowdfunding campaigns earn exposure based on the community’s response to them.

Raising funds pre-publication can help authors to produce a higher quality book. Even if an author tends to go with a traditional publishing house, crowdfunding offers an opportunity to prove market viability for their book.

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Create Buzz for Your Book

Conducting a crowdfunding campaign is a great way to land interest and support around a book pre-publication, an essential part of the overall success of a book. This allows authors to collect pre-orders for their book during their crowdfunding campaign. The ability to collect pre-orders provides authors with an already active audience – and often reviewers – to jumpstart the success of their book once it’s published.

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Get to Know Your Readers

Once your book is sold in retail shops, on- and off-line – these sellers have your customer’s data, and you have very view possibilities to get to know or to communicate with your readers. Maybe when they write a review, but not even then … However, crowdfunding gives you the opportunity to build a long-term relationship with the people who fund you. The reward of crowdfunding is not just in Dollars, Euros or Pounds, but in access to your readers’ contact information.

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Readers and Reviewers

Authors can offer copies of their book to their supporters. For example, let’s say an author’s book campaign gains the support of a hundred people who will receive a copy of the book as a reward. The day the book debuts, the author will already have access to those hundred readers, who will be able to review the book on Goodreads, Amazon or B&N, Kobo or Apple and help to generate attention and momentum immediately after publication. If the book is sold in print through book shops, it has only a couple of weeks to succeed and with an initial boost its likelihood of success is much greater.

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One author explains it: “Kickstarter provided effective market research and publicity for us. We developed an audience that cares about our product, who can convince others to be excited about it too.”

Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of Indiegogo, said: “It’s time to fund what matters to you.”

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Photo Jennifer Pugh

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More Benefits Beside the Money

Crowdfunding for authors could quickly become the natural and necessary step between the writing and publication of a book. Even if an author believes they don’t need the money, the other benefits are immeasurable. Plus, authors can come up with many other enticing ways to allocate their funds if they don’t want to use them for the publication of their book.

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How to Organize Your Campaign:

Make a business plan. YES, start your crowdfunding organized! This is a business! Check out your suppliers (funding companies), calculate conservatively the money you need and a little cushion for hidden expenses.
Create a compelling pitch. Your fund-raising pitch should focus on emotions and get donors excited about your business, your product or service and your entrepreneurial passion. Decide the length of your campaign. If you go too short, it might not be enough time to get the word out, most campaigns are between 30 – 45 days.
Prepare at the same time your update strategy – and prepare help to send out mails, either friends or a professional mass mail company. Don’t stop with one initial offer, your funders love to hear frequently from you, how the funding process and later the implantation process goes along. They love to see a result!
Create attractive rewards for your funders – it must not be neccessarely monetary, at least not for the under $50 funds, but it should be a customized gift or one that shows your appeciation, such as a mentioning in a book or a film.
There is a lot of competition on these crowdfunding sites, so if you want to stand out, use not only your social media platform, but also your real-life contacts, your own networks and their networks’ networks. If you want people to back your project you have to tell them about it. More than once… Folks have to hear a message about seven! times, before they act!

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Answer these Questions for Yourself:

Who is my audience for the whole publishing project?

What is the uniqueness of my publishing project?

Why should people donate to your publishing project?

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Conclusion:

The supporters of your crowdfunding campaign are your customers. Crowdfunding is a way to pre-order books before they are produced – invaluable for a startup author-publisher. Too often, authors write books before knowing the depth of their reader base. Crowdfunding means you have readers before your book is published.

In other words: The author’s knowledge of the audience of their book and how to reach them is the key to success in publishing. Crowdfunding means, an author is able to test the market for the book and find and connect with their audience pre-publication, which gives them a tremendous advantage when the book is published and promoted to a large audience of readers.

Let us know: How did YOU promote your crowdfunding project – besides Social Media?

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More Sources:

Kickstarter Crowdfunding in More Countries

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/great-news-for-canadian-authors-kickstarter-is-here/

How to Organize Your Crowdfunding Campaign

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/12-tips-for-your-crowdfunding-project/

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: crowdfunding for your book, crowdfunding platform, Crowdfunding tips, fund your publishing project, how to organize a crowdfunding project, IndieGoGo, Kickstarter

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Published on August 03, 2014 18:27

Hidden Gems: Google+ Hashtags

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If you are a long-time reader of this blog you might have realized that I am a big fan of Google+ – or GooglePlus – however you want to write it. And I am not the only fan of this Social Media site, more than a billion other people signed up and it won’t take long until Facebook is a thing of the past. At least for professionals who realized how important their Google Search Engine ranking is. Now let’s look at one of the most interesting features Google+ has to offer:

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#Hashtags

Do you know of any Social Media site that creates custom #hashtags for you? Well, Google+ does!

And they do even more: when starting to type a #hashtag, Google kicks in and offers in a drop-down menue with suggested hashtags starting with the letters you have typed so far. Isn’t that fantastic?

And the best is: these #hashtags offered by Google+ are significant to their search engine ranking. If you add your own hashtags to a post, Google+ will display up to three of them in the upper right corner of your Google+ post. Initially, one is visible, but hovering your mouse over that one will show readers the other two #hashtags. Google+ users create in fact a #hashtag database and help establish what tags will be related. In a way it is up to Google+ users what’s relevant on Google’s search engine ranking.

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Forgot to Place #Hashtags?

No problem: If your post has a large amount of text, Google+ will often find main keywords within your text and convert them into #hashtags, which are visible at the upper right of your post, just as your own #hashtags would be.

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Google’s Search Algorithm

It determined in the past which pages should rank the hightest, but now with implementing these #hashtags, Google added a “self-learning” aspect into its algorithm. How to find out what’s trending on Google+ go to “Explore Google”. See a short YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAMrGAU0Jsw. Another YouTube video http://youtu.be/19BKS_hHKYY explains in details what #hashtags are about.

If you want to improve your ranking on Google’s Search Engines even more, use these #hashtags. As a savvy writer you have already a Google+ account and you might have it connected with Twitter – which saves you a lot of time. Let’s meet on GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/19PrQAz

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: Google's Search Algorithm, Google+ creates custom #hashtags for you, Google+ hashtags, GooglePlus, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media topics

http://www.narrativemagazine.com/node/249923

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Published on July 30, 2014 19:53

Benefit of Writing Contests and Book Awards

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How to Get More Readers from an Award

Publicity around a book award will boost your book sales. Contests are a great way to hone your craft and show the world how much better you are than other writers. Winning a book award for your self-published fiction or nonfiction book is a great way to gain recognition and approval. You will not only see an increase your book sales – if you market it well, you also can add the award sticker to your cover and mention the achievement on your back cover, in your books’ description, and in all your marketing and promotions – online or offline. Most awards call for entries every year, so if the competition is closed for this year, mark your calender for next years’ contest call.

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Here are a few of the most popular book contests:

http://www.independentpublisher.com/ipland/ipawards.php (IPPY awards)

http://www.usabooknews.com/2014usabestbookawards.html

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/nonfiction/

http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/selfpublished

http://ibpabenjaminfranklinawards.com/

http://readersfavorite.com/annual-book-award-contest.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/shortstory/index.html

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/poetry/index.html

http://indiereader.com/the-indiereader-discovery-awards-welcome/

https://www.createspace.com/abna?ref=478921&utm_id=5969

http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/writers-digest-self-published-ebook-awards

http://www.forewordreviews.com/services/book-awards/botya/

http://www.thefolioprize.com/

More awards can be found at http://www.pw.org/grants

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Writer Beware

Before you click on “accept” when applying, or pay any money: carefully read the small print, and avoid giving your rights away for free. There are hundreds of options that range from scams to high level and great exposure. Submission fees are from $25 to $250. Enter any book award contest only after careful consideration and review of its reputation. Google the awards name. You sometimes might be surprised … I ommited two links here in this article after reading about complaints.

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How Will You Market Your Award?

Having written or published an “Award Winning Book,” selected from a hundred or more competing titles by an experienced, professional team of judges gives your book the seal of excellence. Winning the award is one thing, but marketing the fact that your book has been choosen among hundreds of others is equally important. Have a plan how you can spread the word about your award-winning book, also outside of Social Media. Add it to your email signature. Post a press release and write a blog post about it. Create a guest post about your experience, with tips for other writers. Do as many book signings as possible, accompanied by a huge poster of your award. Offer your work to book clubs, mentioning your award.

What has your experience been with book contests and awards?

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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