Doris-Maria Heilmann's Blog, page 85

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

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Tagged: book marketing help, Book Marketing on a Shoestring, GoodReads, promoting a book, social media help, target readers, Tumblr

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Published on May 27, 2013 16:44

Top Benefits of Goodreads Author Program

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Goodreads Author Program – use it to promote yourself and your books. What is the Goodreads Author Program?

Goodreads explains their Author Program: a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books.

What Can You Do as a Goodreads Author?

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1. Take Control of Your Profile

Make your profile a dynamic destination for curious readers. Here are some of the features you can use on your profile:

Add a picture and bio.
Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans!
Write a blog and generate a band of followers.
Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements.
Share book excerpts and other writing.
Write a quiz about your book or a related topic.
Post videos.
Add the Goodreads Author widget to to your personal website or blog to show off reviews of your books.

2. Promote Your Books

Get the word out! Here are some of the promotional tools available on Goodreads:

Sign up to advertise your book to up to the Goodreads Community—16,000,000 readers!
List a book giveaway to generate pre-launch buzz.
Lead a Q&A discussion group for readers.
Participate in discussions on your profile, in groups and in the discussion forums for your books.

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How do I join?

If you are already a Goodreads member, make sure you are signed in. If not, Sign up for an account.
Search for yourself and click on your published author name. The author name is listed below the title of your book in the search results. If you do not find your book in our database of published works, please see section below (who can join).
Clicking on your name takes you to your basic author profile page. This page has your name at the top and “author profile” to the right of your name. This page is part of our database of books and authors and is separate from your member profile page (which lists your bookshelves and friends).
Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click “Is this you?” to send a request to join the Author Program. Please give us a few days to process your request. You will receive email confirmation when we successfully upgrade your user account to an author account. Joining the program merges your author page with your member page. The email will also contain further instructions for managing your author profile.

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Who Can Join?

The Author Program is designed for people with published books, or who are in the process of publishing a book. It’s best if your work is on a bookseller’s website, such as Amazon.com or BN.com, but we will accept any author who has published a book. This includes authors from other countries as well as authors who are self-published (such as through Barnes & Noble pubit! or services like Lulu). If your book is self-published and is not yet in the Goodreads database, you may manually add it.

If you are a writer but have not yet published a book, you may want to check out the writing section of your profile where you can post your writing for others to read and review.

Questions? Email us. Already joined? See more on how to use the Author Program effectively at our how to page.

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How To Use the Author Program

Learn more about how to promote your books with special tools on Goodreads. Each slideshow demonstrates a different aspect of our Author Program.

Author Profile, Author Dashboard, and Widgets

All members of Goodreads have regular reader profiles where they can review books, add friends, and post information about themselves. When an author signs up for Goodreads, he or she begins with this basic user profile.
For any book listed in the Goodreads catalog, you can click on the author’s name to find the author profile. This page lists all of the author’s published work, whether he or she is a member of Goodreads or not. When an author joins the Author Program we merge his or her user profile with the author profile. Becoming a Goodreads Author carries special privileges, such as the ability to

edit profile information,
add book cover images,
post events,
write a blog,
upload videos,
and start featured author groups.

After you’ve signed up for the Author Program, your log-in process does not change: You’ll still use the same username and password, but now your user profile will point to your author profile. You’ll also have access to a special Author Dashboard that contains useful links and statistics about your books.
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 760 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: add book cover images, benefits of Goodreads Author Program, Goodreads Author Program, how to join Goodreads Author Program, how to use the Goodreads Author Program, upload videos on Goodreads

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Published on May 26, 2013 20:59

Are You Looking for a Publisher?

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Amazon.com recently announced Kindle Worlds, a digital publishing platform devoted entirely to fan fiction. It is a broadly-defined term for stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator. Unlike when you self-publish your book and load it up to Amazon as seller, with Kindle Worlds Amazon is the publisher and you are selling your work to them forever.

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From Amazon’s Web site:

Get ready for Kindle Worlds, a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games. With Kindle Worlds, you can write new stories based on featured Worlds, engage an audience of readers, and earn royalties. Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries, with licenses for more Worlds on the way.

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Kindle Worlds for Authors
Kindle Worlds is easy to use. When the Kindle Worlds Self-Service Submission Platform opens, you will be able to upload your story easily—along with a title, editorial description, and other information. Sign up to be notified when we launch the platform.

Kindle Worlds will accept novels, novellas, and short stories inspired by the Worlds we have licensed.
Using our Cover Creator, you will be able to design a cover for your Kindle Worlds story.
World Licensors have provided Content Guidelines for each World, and your work must follow these Content Guidelines. We strongly encourage you to read the Content Guidelines before you commit the time and effort to write.
Stories will be available in digital format exclusively on Amazon.com, Kindle devices, iOS, Android, and PC/Mac via our Kindle Free Reading apps. We hope to offer additional formats in the future.
You will receive monthly royalty reports and payments for all copies sold.

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Here are the details that will help you get started:

All works accepted for Kindle Worlds will be published by Amazon Publishing.
Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to the rights holder for the World (we call them World Licensors) and to you. Your standard royalty rate for works of at least 10,000 words will be 35% of net revenue.
In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works (between 5,000 and 10,000 words). For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World Licensor and will pay authors a digital royalty of 20% of net revenue. The lower royalty for these shorter works is due to significantly higher fixed costs per digital copy (for example, credit-card fees) when prices for the entire class of content will likely be under one dollar.
As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of customer sales price—rather than the lower industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly.
Amazon Publishing will acquire all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright.

Prachi Gupta from Salon.com

“Through these licenses, or “Worlds,” as Amazon has named them, approved fan fiction pitches will be published by Amazon Publishing, who will pay royalties to the rights holders and the writers. Works of at least 10,000 words will yield 35 percent of net revenue, while stories ranging between 5,000 and 10,000 words will yield 20 percent of net revenue. Titles will go on sale in the Kindle store, priced between $0.99 and $3.99. A note of caution to writers, however: Amazon will retain the copyright to the text.”

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 760 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: Amazon as publisher, Amazon publishing, Amazon.com, fan fiction, Kindle Worlds, monthly royalty reports, movies

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Published on May 25, 2013 20:18

Did You Use Fiverr Already?

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Big corporations do it – and so can you as a small publisher: out-sourcing tasks to one of th many freelancers. I am sure you have heard or maybe even used Fiverr already. With several hundred-thousand active listings on the Fiverr site you might find a quick and inexpensive fix for many challenges in self-publishing, website and computer issues and even graphic design jobs. For me, it turned to be a great help for the tiny amount of $5 that I spent on each small gig, ordered at Fiverr. This now 3-year old global online marketplace is offering tasks and services, referred to as ‘gigs’ and micro-jobs, beginning at a cost of $5 per job.

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Fiverr originally started out as a new and very unique concept. There were only these well-known large freelancer sites, such as Elance, Guru and Freelancer in the past. Fiverr brought in a refreshing change with its flurry of practical micro tasks like CSS micro bugging, social marketing, resume revising and PowerPoint editing help. The site grew to the top 200 in the world since the beginning of 2013.

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Here are some samples of “I will”:

• Will place 40 Delicious, 40 Diigo and 40 StumpleUpon bookmarks for you website/video for $5

• Will write original and effective content up to 500 words for your website for $5

• Will tweet your product, services, or link to my 16,000+ twitter followers for $5

• Will translate any text from 50 to 200 words from English to Spanish and vice versa for $5

• Will draw a cartoon with your messages or sentences for $5

• Will post any message on my Facebook wall of 4,000 friends for $5

• Will convert ANY of your files from one format to another for $5

• Will edit, proofread and provide feedback on any document up to ten pages for $5

• Will audit your website design and usability from a DESIGNERS point of view for $5

• Will make a nice logo design for your business and deliver the LOGO within 3 days for $5

• Will do Performance Testing of your website for $5

• Will teach you how you can Set Up a Database in Excel for $5

• Will edit CSS for you for $5

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http://www.Fiverr.com is really easy to use, give it a try. Snippets from the Wall Street Journal: “Although buyers pay $5, sellers receive less than $4, after PayPal payment-processing and Fiverr fees, which is the primary way the site makes money. PayPal is the payment method and posting or finding a gig is free. Fiverr.com, is a site that allows you to buy and sell (business) tasks for $5 and the site is a good match for this economy. Buyers are looking for cheap prices and sellers are often unemployed or underemployed, seeking freelance income. There is a bizarre joy to browsing the sometimes hilarious user-created content on the site.”

There are a lot more sites where you can find inexpensive and professional freelancers for all kind of jobs, also not for $5.00.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 760 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

Tagged: elance, Fiverr, freelance help, freelancer, gigs, Guru, micro jobs

http://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Business-Online-Internet-Marketing/dp/0137064411

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Published on May 25, 2013 03:48

Interview with Lara Fawzy, Business Author

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Today’s author interview is with Lara Fawzy, a global marketing specialist and business writer. She authored together with Lucas Dworsky a non-fiction guide book to “Internet B2B marketing in emerging markets” worldwide. It is not only a valuable source for economists and businesses, but also an amazing textbook, describing marketing models, and concludes with detailed case studies showing the ebocube model at work, driving real profits.

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Internet-B2B-marketing-in-emerging-markets

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How would you describe your book to someone who has not yet read it?

It’s the first comprehensive guide to Internet B2B marketing in emerging markets, introducing ebocube model, a framework and methodology business leaders can implement with low-risk and high reward to penetrate the world’s fastest-growing markets, and create significant value where it never existed before.

The book begins with an up-to-date introduction to emerging markets, including economic potential, languages, culture, time zones, economies, politics, and Internet/mobile penetration.
Next, the book covers best practices for branding, distribution, segmentation, and collaboration in emerging markets. Then, in the heart of the book, the powerful, three-phase Internet-based B2B marketing and sales model “ebocube” is introduced.
Readers will learn how to establish metrics and dashboards to stay on track through the entire B2b buying cycle; how to plan and manage campaigns, from selling propositions to media mix; how to utilize email, webcasts, websites, social media, and banner ads in emerging markets; how to mix in offline media and channels; how to budget and manage marketing operations and much more. The book concludes with detailed case studies showing ebocube at work driving real profits. Emerging Business Online brings together powerful lessons and techniques that are being applied successfully by Cisco and other global leaders.

Is there a message in your book that you want your readers to grasp?

Don’t struggle with trial-and-error approaches to Internet B2B marketing in fast-growth emerging markets. Begin with a blueprint that works: ebocube! The model is called ‘ebocube’, which stands for emerging business online, with cube referring to the visual framework of the three-phase model.

Phase One: The Dashboard and the Datacube.

This phase focuses on reporting on marketing, sales, and company or contact data for the businesses being targeted in emerging markets. It measures what’s working (or not working) and which market is generating the highest return on marketing investment (ROMI). The datacube also represents the quality of contact data to leverage an eCRM strategy. These reports mean business decisions are not based on instinct or assumption, but on numbers and business intelligence.
Phase Two: Campaign and Data planning

Using the ebocube commercial cycle (contact buying cycle/decision-making process and data life cycle), phase two discusses the proposition, messaging, the incentive, localization, budgeting, and integrating the media mix (online and offline) to achieve ebocube commercial cycle goals.
Phase Three: Marketing Operations or mops.

Phase three covers budgeting, planning, executing, tracking, and measuring campaigns to feed the dashboard with meaningful metrics. It also demonstrates how to feed your company database, with contact and company data, which can be represented in the datacube. Phase three closes the loop on marketing, data, and sales in global markets.

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ebocube

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What inspired you to start writing ?

A new-generation technology prompted us to write this book that technology is telepresence, the next generation of videoconferencing technology. Telepresence uses the Internet to transfer conference calls as well as high-definition images and presentations. It can provide life-size images and surround sound and can thus create the illusion that all the attendees are in the same room.

Holographic videoconferencing is an application that appears to beam three-dimensional images of people into a room. This is but one example of existing and emerging technologies that present an effective and responsible alternative to world leaders and business executives who currently fly around the world and ride in limousines to meeting locations. Digital and information technologies are allowing businesses in emerging markets to dramatically upgrade their business processes and operations.

As billions of people now access the Internet, emerging nations and markets are increasing their investments in these technologies to give people greater access (and speed) to information. This book explores how and why the Internet and related technologies are redefining how we all conduct business globally. We identify the most salient new ideas shaping the global information marketplace, and explore how these offer government and private sector managers a new generation of digitally based management and communication tools and how businesses in developed markets can develop, emerging, fast growth markets.

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Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you have learned as a writer from then to now?

***** Start marketing before you publish the book, at least prepare some mailings lists, live events, start a blog, build a platform. If you want a bestseller – learn how to market and sell !!! *****

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Considering a book from the first word you write to the moment you see it on a bookstore shelf, what’s your favorite part of the process? What’s your least favorite?

My favorite part was seeing the book cover design for the first time, and editing the book content. Typing: did not enjoy this part so much, probably the most tiring part, oh and receiving manuscript rejections, however, it was all worth it in the end when we received a contract from the FT Press Pearson

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything about your book?

Probably the title would need to be changed, although I like it, I could play with it forever as a marketer. My publisher has a lot of control over the book, pricing, design etc, there are a few things I would have liked to have changed that were advised to us by the publisher. Perhaps I would consider self-publishing in the future.

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How did you get published? Please share your own personal journey.

We good published by a major publishing house in New York, the FT Press Pearson, ironically Pearson UK rejected our manuscript. The formula included persistence, a very good proposal, targeting the right people at the right time and having a marketable content.

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What general advice do you have for other writers?

Start with a good structure and then write when you can, in the evenings, after work on the weekend, don’t give up if you feel you have viable idea or good business idea or novel. Your vision is totally realistic even if no body else shares it.

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What do you find is the best part of being an author?

Being an author for the FT press gives me a lot of credibility in the business world and has opened doors for me, more importantly, I believe anything is achievable if you commit and persevere.

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What is ONE thing that you have done that brought you more readers?

Writing blogs and sharing on social media, mainly LinkedIn.

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What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I’ve climbed the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, Mount Kinabalu half the size of Everest, it’s my second biggest achievement after publishing my first book!

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Learn more about Lara Fawzy and see her remarkable posts @LaraFawzy, for everyone interest in marketing, digital business and geo-politics.

https://twitter.com/LaraFawzy

www.Larafawzy.com

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: B2B Marketing, business guide, Business Writer, Doha, ebocube model, Emerging-Business-Online-Internet-Marketing, FT PRESS PEARSON, global marketing, Lara Fawzy

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/11/18/why-bloggers-should-self-publish/

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Published on May 23, 2013 20:26

James Altucher: Why Did I Self-Publish?

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James Altucher

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James Altucher, Author of “The Happiest Person Alive” or ”Trade Like Warren Buffett”, formerly published by such traditional houses as Wiley and Penguin wrote in one of his blogs:

Publishers claim they do a lot of marketing for you. That’s laughable. Publishers do nothing to help 95% of their authors to build their platforms and their own brands. This would increase author loyalty and make the lack of a meaningful advance almost worth it.

I’ll give you a quick example. I have published seven books with major publishers. The majority of books now are sold through Amazon. Not a single one of my former publishers told me I can log into:

Amazon’s Author Central
create an author’s page
link my author’s page to my blog
upload a Video
have my Twitter feed in there
have an FAQ in there

and all the other basic tools Amazon uses to market your book.

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James Altucher Book TRADE LIKE WARREN BUFFETT

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Why? These are the world’s biggest booksellers. Why wasn’t I told about a basic marketing platform that I could use? I just learned about it last week after writing books for eight years. Now I have it all hooked up and I have a feeling I have only begun to explore the Author Central area and what Amazon can do for me.” Read all the other reasons why James Altucher self-publishes:

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 760 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

.

Tagged: Amazon’s Author Central, have Tweeter feeds, I was blind but now I see, James Altucher, marketing tools, The Happiest Person Alive, Trade Like Warren Buffett, upload a video

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalties#Book_publishing_royalties

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Published on May 23, 2013 02:45

Do You Know How Much Royalties You Will Get?

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Royalties

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What are your royalties? 10%-30% from the list price, 10% of the wholesale price, 20% of the payments received by the publisher, 30% of the price as it’s listed on our website, 50% of net receipts, 45% minus printing costs, 60% from gross… One of the most confusing aspects you must face when choosing a POD service printer, is trying to figure out what they mean when they speak misleadingly of “Royalties”.

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POD printers that are paying a percentage of the retail price as “Royalty” are straight forward and you have the advantage of knowing where you stand and what to expect. You get what they say, usually 10% from wholesale sales, 25-30% from retail sales – hopefully more…

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There are other printers who are a little less straight forward. For example, they might pay you 20-40% from your retail price, but they won’t pay you any royalties at all for the first three copies sold each quarter. Is this a fair “hidden” charge? It depends on the number of copies you are selling each quarter. If you sell less than 10 books, then it’s very high, if you sell 1,000 it becomes almost negligible.

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Don’t Lose Money

You might get an offer for a fixed percentage of the retail price that seems to be extremely attractive (30-35%)… before you jump on board, make sure that they work through Ingram, Lightning Source and other distributors. If they can afford such royalties because they only sell their books through their site you could end up losing money…

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POD Direct Book Sales

Some POD printers offer you a percentage of your retail price, but only for direct sales. When it comes to wholesale sales they give you a percentage of the wholesale price. Infinity Publishing is such a company, they will pay you 20% of your retail price on direct sales, and 10% of the wholesale price on books sold through other channels. For a $15.00 book with a 40% wholesale discount it would be $3.00 on direct sales and $0.90 on wholesale – not acceptable!

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Other Charges

Even if you can buy your paper book at a discount in order to resell it, you’ll still have to pay other charges, and how can you offer it for a competitive price to bookstores? But why do you have to buy your own book? You already paid for the printing, didn’t you? It means you pay TWICE for your book… and on top of that bookstores can return books if they are not sold within a certain time.

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CreateSpace / Amazon

offers do-it-yourself publishing packages for free upload of your paper book but you need to create your own cover and interior and submit it correctly edited to CreateSpace. CreateSpace recommends its free do-it-yourself packages for people with design experience (or you just hire a graphic designer). CreateSpace offers packages that are similar to publishing packages offered by other self-publishing / POD companies, but starting for only $299.

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CreateSpace eStore

20% of list price per sale, this means if someone orders it from CreateSpace’s e-book store on your authors page, you will receive 80% (minus the production / printing cost, mines tax and shipping).

40% of list price per sale means: you will get 60% of the list price per sale (minus the production / printing cost, minus tax and shipping). Expanded Distribution Channel: 60% of list price if ordered by bookstores, libraries etc.

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But as with almost all POD companies, you pay for printing and then you have to give them a percentage of your sales for the distribution and the rest that is left is wrongly called a “royalty”.

Read how you can cir-cum-navigate this and become your own publisher without (or with less) Print-on-Demand / “Royalty on Demand”.

More on royalties:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2009/11/how-book-royalties-work/

http://www.shawntellemadison.com/book-royalties-calculator/

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/11/28/11-frequently-asked-questions-about-book-royalties-advances-and-making-money/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: CreateSpace, POD printers, printing costs, Royalties, Selfpublishing, Writer Beware

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/the-truth-about-pod-publishing/

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Published on May 22, 2013 02:54

Top 6 Tips to Successful Self-Publishing

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Opportunity

Beat the “Print-on-Demand” industry! You can do so much better on your own! Don’t be fooled by POD Services.

Are you ready to publish your first book? Get to know the pros and cons of Print-on-Demand and of real self-publishing. Follow these few tips, and you will find the road to success as an author-publisher so much smoother!

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Bookstores don’t buy POD books. Many novice self-publishers are opting for the heavily-advertised Print-On-Demand companies, which promise publication at low fees. For a niche book with an easily-found audience POD can be an option. But what the POD companies won’t tell you, is that neither bookstores nor libraries will generally buy a POD book. However, if you are savvy enough,and have written at least three books (or join with another author) you can find the right wholesale arrangement through Lightning Source / Ingram and Baker&Taylor as outlined in Aaron Shepard’s website and guide book http://www.newselfpublishing.com. But don’t expect to get the same retail discount from “brick and mortar stores” as from Amazon.

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You can judge a book by its cover. That’s what most people do. You never get a second chance for a great first impression! You can get a decent book cover for as little as $100 and a fantastic cover for around $ 500 or more. Just shop around and find out who makes great covers.

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Act like a professional publisher. Nothing is more embarrassing as finding reviews of your book on Amazon that complain about typing and grammar errors in your work. Make sure your book is complete, well-edited, and thoroughly proof-read. Use spell checks, let it copy-edit, content edit and proofread by professionals – not your family or friends. These services provide you with a manuscript that makes you look like the professional you are.

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Don’t use the print shop down the road. Search for a printer that specializes in printing books. You will not only have fewer problems with production, but the prices will be much less expensive. You should be able to print 300 copies of a 250-page soft cover book for approx. $ 2.90 per copy. Digital printers or espresso book machines are useful only for very small amounts of print books, such as for gifts or a book launch party – if you plan to sell mostly e-books.

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Get 100 ISBN’s if possible. ISBN is the International Standard Book Number, and every book sold in bookstores and at most online retailers must have an ISBN. They are the global standard for identifying titles and used world-wide as a unique identifier for books. They simplify distribution and purchase of books throughout the global supply chain. Without an ISBN, you will not be found in most book stores, nor online. In the U.S. ISBN’s are available only from Bowker.com, and you can buy them in blocks of ten, hundred, or even thousand. The fewer you buy the less it costs, but buying just a block of ten marks you as a one-book publisher. And everyone in the publishing industry can figure out how many ISBN’s you’ve purchased by looking at your ISBN number. Lucky if you are a writer from Canada: ISBN’s are free!

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Don’t wait to start marketing until your book is finished. Many first-time writers and self-publishers focus on the writing and the publishing process, and postpone thinking about the book marketing until they have books in hand (or hundreds in their garage). A book – no matter if it is an e-book or a traditional paper book – will succeed or fail on its marketing plan. Before starting your self-publishing project, find out who your audience is, and where and how you will find them. Get to know your competition, search the internet and in bookstores for similar books. Only move forward on your writing project after you have finished your research and your marketing plan. Even find book reviewers before you start writing the book, and blog at least for one year to build an audience for your work. I don’t know of any self-published writer who is successful, without having a blog. Once your book manuscript is finished, don’t forget to use the end of one book to promote another book you have written or you write on currently.

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Self-publishing can not only be lucrative, it can be a lot of fun too. But you need to be somewhat entrepreneurial and do lots of careful planning to really enjoy success with true self-publishing.

Read more about author-publishing and POD’s:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/why-pod-contracts-are-bad-for-authors/

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/comparison-of-major-print-on-demand-pod-services/

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/pros-and-cons-of-print-on-demand/

http://www.theauthorsredroom.com/top-10-self-publishing-tips/

http://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: how to self-publish, POD, POD publishing, pro & con of print on demand, self-publishing tips, successful self-publishing, the truth about POD publishing, who owns the ISBN, Writer Beware

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Published on May 20, 2013 20:22

No Secrets – Tips from Literary Agents

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Going through a couple of literary agent’s blogs, they generally all write the same:

“The problem is that most publishers will not review unsolicited proposals or manuscripts. They receive thousands every year and simply don’t have the resources to review all of them. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

As an author, what can you do? In a nutshell, here are some agents advises:

Read blogs written by literary agents. You can get some incredibly helpful advice and straight-talk from people who pitch proposals for a living. Read their useful blogs: Terry Whalin, Rachelle Gardner, Meredith Barnes or Andy Ross.
Educate yourself. If you want to publish with a general market publisher, read 2012 Writer’s Market by Robert Lee Brewer for writer’s guidelines and submission procedures for publishing houses.
Write a killer book proposal. If you want to write (or have written) a book, get these e-books to find out what publishers want in a proposal:

- Writing a Winning Non-Fiction Book Proposal

- Writing a Winning Fiction Book Proposal.
Let someone professional review your proposal, such a friend who teaches English or is a professional editor, ask them to review your proposal.
Find a literary agent to represent you. This is usually the only way to get in the door with a publishing company – at least in the USA. Canada and Europe are different stories. Literary agents do the filtering. If you want a list of general market agents, get the 2013 Guide to Literary Agents, and study carefully their requirements.
Get a professional avatar, a good photo is only a tiny investment – and you need it for your book / website / social media presence etc. anyway.

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Must-Read Blog to learn more about agents and how to approach them

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents

How Agents work and How to work with Agents

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/how-agents-work-how-to-work-with-agents/

What Literary Agents Want to Know From You

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/what-literary-agents-want-to-know-from-you/

100′s of Links to Publishers and Agents

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/100s-of-links-to-publishers-and-agents/

Which Literary Agent is Right for You?

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/which-literary-agent-is-right-for-you/

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I am just wondering if all these time and money investments are paying off, as it can take years until your work is published – if at all. Judging a book is not always an objective process. Read more about this in my next post: 77 Reasons why your book was rejected…

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Investing in a good editor, hiring a professional book designer / e-book formatting company, spending time to market your work and selling it as an e-book or print POD might well be as profitable (if not better) than to go through all the hassle and time waste with commercial publishing houses.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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Tagged: andy ross, commercial publisher, e-book formatting company, Literary Agents, professional e-book designer, Publishing contract, terry whalin, unsolicited proposals

77-Reasons-Why-Your-Book-Was-Rejected-Nappa-Mike-9781402254123 77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected

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Published on May 19, 2013 16:17

77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected

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Written by Mike Nappa, available as e-book and print book at Amazon. The author’s experiences as acquisitions editor, marketing copywriter, and literary agent uniquely qualify him to write on this topic. He is also the author of more than 40 books and received more than 2,000 book rejections during his writing career!

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The book is divided into three sections: Editorial, Marketing and Sales Reasons for Rejection. Starting with: “It takes less than a minute to reject your book” (by big publishers that is) Mike Nappa goes on with all the legitimate and also the silliest reasons your manuscript or book idea might be rejected.

As an author you might be able to work on many, such as marketing and your platform and following, however some of the reasons have nothing to do with the quality of your writing.

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An editor is going to look at your proposal – and if it doesn’t meet certain editorial standards, it will go no farther. If it passes basic editorial scrutiny, an editor will then consider whether you have done your “marketing” homework — analyzed and defined your audience, established a platform, shown that you know how and why this book will sell. From there, the editor will need to convince the publisher that they can sell this book, and sell enough to merit the investment in its publication.

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Perhaps the clearest message that emerges from this book is that getting published is a lot of work. The job doesn’t end when you finish writing the last chapter. Publishers are in the business of selling a product, and it’s your job to convince them that your book will sell.

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Or maybe you will decide to author publish. After all you have to do your book marketing anyway, even if your book is accepted by a commercial publisher. “Success is the best revenge” .

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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

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