Web Content and Social Networking Experts

Want to sell a million books?

So, you want to sell a million books. Here's how. Do your book project backwards. Yes, you read that right. Don't write the book and then try to sell it. Here's how it works. Well, in thumbnail anyway.

• Research the topics that sold a million books over he last five or ten years.
• Pick one you like and that has not been done lately.
• Create a new slant, a new opinion, something new and fresh is what you want on a proven theme.
• Research the market viability of the idea. If it looks good.
• Get a agent on-board and get the idea fine tuned. If this is to be un-agented get together people in the business you trust and do the same thing.
• Complete these profiles of your buyers:
  • Demographic
  • Psychographic
  • Geographic
  • Behavioral
  • and Preference Study
• Start researching the book.
• Start thinking about marketing and advertising.
• Fulfillment. How will you get the product to the customer if a paper book. If an eBook this is not a problem.
• Obtain testimonials and recommendation for the back cover, your Website, online, and inside the book as well. Get people known in the field directly related to your book or people known to the public.
• Start writing the book.
• Get going on prepublication publicity and marketing.  
• Finish the book and get it to the printer / agent / publisher.
• Publish the book.
• Ramp up your marketing efforts with
  • article marketing
  • online marketing
  • the book's Website
  • the book's Facebook page
  • socially networked press releases are ready. Send your press release to
    • bloggers
    • libraries
    • newspapers
    • television
    • radio
    • and other pertinent media outlets.
• Continue to market online, schedule personal appearances, put together a book marketing tour, and anything else you can dream up.

That should do it. We said this was done backwards. By starting with the end in mind, you create a book project with a high probability of achieving the one-million seller list. Which is the whole point.

Authors, writers, ePublishers, Mobipocket Creator is the tool for you.

If you're an author you may be asking yourself how you will create eBooks. Have we got a tool for you! It's called Mobipocket and it does some very good things that save you a lot of time and aggravation.

• It creates whole eBooks from a Word file, text file, Portable Document Format (PDF), or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file.
• It's wizard creates your table of contents. This is just wonderful for those of you who want to do hand coding because it eliminates you of a great deal of drudgery.
• You can add a personalized cover page as well.
• Include books marks to specific parts of your publication.
• Ten applications are include a Photo Album, Date Book, Recipe Database, Simple Generic Database, more
• Integrated is a browser that lets you preview your book in a Web browser.
• There are three security options: no encryption, encrypted, and password protected.
• Also Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect the copyright on your work.

You get all of this, and more, for a free download. This is good stuff. Download Mobipocket Creator Here

EPUB an excellent book by Elizabeth Castro on writing ePublicatons for the Apple iPad and other eReaders

Elizabeth Castro has been my favorite author of books on HTML. Her book on ePublishing, EPUB Straight to the Point is for you.

Here you will find how to use Microsoft Word, InDesign, or your favorite HTML or text editor to create your ePublication files. 

If you're interested in ePublishing, this book is for you.

Today you're more than an author, your an eBook publisher. Tomorrow, maybe a Lone Wolf Publisher?

Have you seen the price of eBooks lately? Not expensive are they? That's because there are so many of them. The automation of publication, distribution, and eCommerce means that everything takes place with little human interaction. Employees are expensive. Computers aren't.

So How do Your Profit?

By publishing eBooks, or course. You can do so with a minimum of effort. We are not saying that writing, research, publicity,marketing, sales, and social networking are easy. They are not. Today, the surprising thing is that you are no longer a writer; you're an eBook publisher. And soon you will be even more. You will be a Lone Wolf Publisher.

Lone Wolf Publishing

This is how we refer to to the future status of writing - publishing. As a Lone Wolf Publisher you will be able to do everything from your computer. This is literally desk top publishing, advertising, marketing, fulfillment, Ecommerce. Everything. You will do this for little cost and high reward. If you can sell books, that is.

Lone Wolf Publishing brings challenges. You will need to cut through the clutter of all the other books out there, and cultivate your niche market. For that you will implement a social networking and perhaps an advertising campaign as well. Also done from your computer.

Currently Portable Document Format (PDF) files fill the need for a solid technology to publish in. However like anything else there's a problem.

The Problem

As this technique does not use ePublishing, but PDF files (at least currently) you will need to address the unpaid duplication and transfer of your work. Traditionally, copy protection and password schemes not done well, and will likely not do well here either. So, we may have to accept the lost revenue as a consequence of doing business, or not use this idea at all. After all, that's only what it. Might be a good idea; might not.

Want More Information? Attend Our Program at CAPA-U

We will be discussing this at my presentation: Embracing Publishing Changes By Using Social Marketing at the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association's yearly conference, CAPA-University. Saturday, May 12, 2012 at the Hartford Steam Boiler Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Download the 2012 CAPA-U brochure.

Want to sell a million books? Choose a topic that appeals to a million people.

Many writers have it all wrong. They write a book and then try to sell it. It is far better to look at your book as a project with definite parts.  Note some of these points will vary if you are publishing an eBook, or perhaps if self publishing.

• Market research. What is selling currently, and what do you expect to be selling when your book hits the market? Here is a clue. A glut of books on any particular subject tend to indicate that another book in that field will not be popular. After all the market is glutted.
• Research who your target buyer is, how you will notify your audience that the book exists, and where it can be purchased. Begin thinking marketing and advertising, agent, and publisher if going the traditional route.
• Chose your topic.
• If nonfiction do your book proposal before you write the entire book. Should no one want be interested in this project, cut your losses and move on to a project that is lucrative.
• Online and offline research and perhaps interviews.
• Collation of all your data.
• Make a rough outline that contains everything you want in the book. This will be cut down later as you see how much material you have and what does not fit or is not pertinent.
• Finalize the outline, including the timeline or sequence of events. Put everything into chapters, each with a working title.
• If you will use a quotation at the beginning of each chapter add them now.
• Get your graphics photographs lined up, edited and saved. Know where each will appear in the manuscript and how you will indicate such. 
• Begin writing.
• Get started on cover design.
• Finish the book. Send the manuscript, cover, graphics, photos to the publisher. 
• Market the book aggressively online, offline, write and send press releases, and line up an author speaking tour. Now its time to sell.

 

I'm included in an eBook, Write A F*$%'ing Book Already - The Insider's Guide To Increasing Your Sales & Improving Your Career With A Book, written by Jim Kukral.

I'm mentioned in Jim F. Kukral's ebook on writing a book.

Write A F*$'ing Book Already by best-selling author and marketer Jim F. Kukral. It is published at Amazon and can be downloaded to the Kindle or other eReader. You can find out more about Jim at Author Marketing Club.

Part 5 Publishing in 2012 PDF Publishing

This is a technique that you won't likely find being discussed. We think this is a valid, workable, and profitable way to sell your work. The technology is 'off the shelf'.' Totally mature and secure. You have nothing to fear, or be concerned about. Technical issues can be handled by any competent Web shop.

Advantages

With little more than a Web site, or blog, a book or other publication in Portable Document Format (PDF), and PayPal, you can be your own publishing house. In fact, if you have a project ready to go, you can have it online and for sale in less than 48 hours from now.

This can be done nicely with WordPress, and you can get a WordPress blog for free. Same with PayPal.

• To set up a WordPress blog on your Website.
• For a free blog at WordPress.com.

Your Website, or blog, will do three things for you.

1. It will advertise and sell your work.
2. Be found by search engines.
3. Be the crown jewel of your social networking campaign.

Here there are no middlemen. No one to take a commission from you. No one can refuse to publish your work. You seek no one's approval. You make money or you don't totally on your own because you are totally on your own.

Disadvantages

Piracy of your work. Despite your best efforts your book's security may be broken. should that happen, you will receive nothing from any copies made. This happened to me, as I've written here in a previous post.

So, look for Digital Rights Management (DRM) cracking and illegal sharing of books much like what the music industry went through in the 1990s. See late news below. Apple is involves and did much to end the music privacy. That's good news for all of us.

You are totally responsible for the entire project. this very much includes marketing and sales. there is no one to help you, unless you hire someone. And like anything else it cuts into your profits.

As to pricing your PDF eBook, we suggest you price it according to similar work sold at Amazon, Barns and Noble, and other major eBook outlets.

Late breaking news!

We literally just heard about Apple getting onto the publishing business. This from a friend, editor,and writer, Lindsay Kelloc. Read the entire article here Has Apple just invented a new kind of long-form journalism?

Even better, Apple has created an eBook creation tool iBooksAuthor From Apple.

Part 4 Publishing in 2012 eBook Publishing

What's an eBook? It is a book that is read on a reader. Major book store chains like Amazon and Barns and Noble sell their own proprietary readers. Barns & Noble sells the Nook; Amazon the kindle. Also, the Apple iPad can download books. You read the book on the reader, no paper is involved. Hence the name electronic-book.

Advantages

Ebooks do not require you to use an agent, or a publishing house. This cuts both ways. There is an approval process of course, you can't publish just anything, but there are fewer people between you and a successfully published product.

So, what about an editor and cover design? You are likely well advised to get these people on board. Your product will be stronger and more saleable. The eBook is sold to the buyer who downloads the book onto his or her reader. Once there is is read like any other book.

As to the money? Your eBook seller makes a deposit to your account.

Disadvantages

There are not a lot of drawbacks here. As you do not need to deal with agents and publishers you can get your ebook up and making money in a relatively short time. As to the retail cost, you determine it and pay a commission to the seller. Your money is deposited into your account and you're done.

As to your cover design, you will need to provide it. Whether you create it yourself or hire a graphic artist is up to you. Also, as far as publicity, media releases, social networking and other PR, that's all up to you as well.

For more on this see Amazon Author Central, and ePublsihing Resource Center.

Digital Rights Management

In the future, look for Digital Rights Management (DRM) cracking and the exchanging of books in a manner to what the music industry faced in the 1990s. SeeCopyfight at Corante.

On Monday we finish our series on publishing with Portable Document Format (PDF) publishing, using PayPal to handle your money, and a Web site, or blog, for an online store. Your customers download the book, pay and on on their way.

This is new, and novel (no pun intended). There is no reason why you can't be your own publishing house using this technology. In face, if you have a project ready to go, it can be online and making money by the end of the week. So, perhaps it time to stop thinking like a writer, and start thinking like a publisher. A publisher who publishes your own content.

Traditional publishing, self publishing, eBook publishing, or PDF. There is no reason why you are not published by the end of the day.

The publishing world has changed drastically, and quickly. In the next four posts we will discuss four ways that you can publish a book. With the four paths to publication, there is no reason why you can not be published by the end of the day, week, or month. Depending on where your project is, not on the ability for you to get your work published. here are, what we feel, are the four ways you can be published in the world of 2012.

1. Traditional publishing
2. Self publishing
3. eBook Publishing
4. Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

You may be surprised to see PDFs as a publishing vehicle. We think it is. Especially, when you combine it with PayPal's ability to accept payment, and a Web site to conduct business. For publicity, you will use your Website, a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, media releases, and public speaking.

These capabilities allow you become your own publishing house; virtually overnight. With little more than an Internet connected computer, time, and hard work; but very little money.

Your comments will make this discussion richer, more meaningful, and far more productive. Just click the title of this post. I very much look forward to your hearing from you.

Market and sell your eBooks online.

Before you can sell anything you need to:

• make your target audience aware of it
• tell them what it will do for them
• tell them where they can buy it
• what it costs
• why it offers excellent value for the price.

Know what value is? Here is the best definition we've seen. It's from the excellent book, Words That Work, by Dr. Frank Luntz, page xxvii.

"VALUE" = price + convenience + reliability

Your job is to convince buyers that your product has "VALUE."

If you are marketing a product that never existed before you have the added duty of making people aware of the problem your product solves, and why they need a problem solved today that they did not need solved yesterday.

The Web

The Web provides you with an around-the-clock marketing machine par excellence. All you've got to do is take advantage of it. The tools, capability, and reality of the Web's ability to market and sell if beyond reproach. As far as business people are concerned, the Web is the real deal.

Your Customers

Okay, you've got your product and you've done your market research. You know who will be buying your product(s). You should also know if traditional advertising, social networking, and/or online ads are best to reach your buyers. If you don't know that yet, you need to find out, or be prepared for a trial and error campaign.

If your customers are online (and they may not be), what sites do they frequent? Here are some ways you can reach them and connect with them online. You can pick and choose the ones that work best for you. Be sure to do a integrated campaign. Tie everything you use together, including your company Web site, and maybe a product Web site as well.

Smart Phones and Tablets

In addition to computer screens you will want to develop for (what we call) the small screen. These devices are making real inroads into the laptop market, and you don't want to leave them out of your marketing plan. Be sure you design a your Web site to address these devices because they provide much of what a laptop does. And for many people offer an alternative that fully meets their needs.

Social Networking

The online world of social networking is not to be ignored. Facebook will have one billion members by the end of 2012. That's one in seven of all the people on the planet. It is very likely that your customers are there. Twitter is nearing 500 million, LinkedIn has about 131 million. So, social networking needs to be addressed.

You can advertise on search engines, and on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and likely Twitter in the future. You may also want to advertise on blogs that compliment your products, are popular news sites, or cover the industry or subject of your eBook. Be sure the blog gets lots of traffic.

Further, you can sell at Amazon and other online book sellers. Include testimonials from people who are in the know about your subject matter.

Using a blog is a good way to stay in touch because it's interactive. Use it to place the first chapter of your book online for comments. This is an excellent way to tune the book to the needs of your audience as it is being developed. This provides you the ultimate in market research.

YouTube and videos provide superb marketing opportunities and are inexpensive. Be sure to SEO your YouTube account so that it will be found by search engines.

For more on setting up your social networking campaign, download our Nine Steps To Social Networking Success.

Your Web Site

A site that sells a book is not your normal corporate Web site. It is a sales site and not to be under estimated as a marketing tool. It's job is to sell your book, so it only presents material on the book. Include endorsements, where to buy it, and information about you the author as your expertise pertains to the book.

Article Marketing

Publishing articles that relate to the book is one of the best ways to make people aware of it in a non-threatening environment. Look to publish the article in magazines that are a good fit for the product. Be sure to use the About the Author section to your advantage.

Want more on anything you see here? Does article marketing sound good? Post a comment and we can cover more on what's important to you. And, if you read out Nine Steps to Social Networking Success let us know what you think. What would you like to see added? They are not designed to give you answers, but to generate questions that, when answered, lead you to the development and implementation of a customized social networking campaign.

Ebooks, copyright, SOPA PIPA, security, online theft and our solution.

A few days ago we blogged on SOPA PIPA. We don't support SOPA PIPA, as we said so in the post, but do want the online theft of intellectual property to stop. We've personally lost revenue to online theft, as have many other artists, writers, movie makers, and others who put the fruits of their labor online.

Ebooks

We like ebooks for lots of reasons. Many concern the process of publishing and don't concern us here. Also, we like it that ebooks are harder to steal, not impossible, just harder. Also ebooks need something other than a computer to run on. so a simple download to your PC or Mac won't work. The end user has got to make an investment in a device to view the book.

We realize that, sooner or later, someone will develop a hack to get around this. Until then, eBooks must come from a trusted source that charges for the product.

For these reasons our next book will be an ebook. We will follow it with others; many others. All will retail for 99 cents.

Will ebooks replace blogging as a social networking tool? They just might.

As print book sales continue to slump, electronic publishing, ePublishing, gains ground. The question for us business people is, does ePublishing offer us any advantages, and if it does, how do we take advantage of them?

If you're blogging now, you're very likely creating enough content for an ebook. Certainly enough for whitepapers that you distribute online. More on this below.

Blogging Versus Ebook Publishing

At the end of a year you've written the equivalent of an ebook. You're doing the work. That's a given. All you need to do is take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using ebooks in your social networking campaign. Don't forget, you may well decide to use blogging and ebooks. No reason to lose a blog that's an asset.

Blogging

• Excellent way to stay in touch with your clientele, of that there is no doubt.
• Great way to show your expertise, especially when combined with Twitter.
• You need to post at least once per week, more is better.
• You can respond to clients questions, comments, and establish an interactive conversation.
• Takes time to develop a following.
• May, or may not, never pay off financially.

Ebook

• Requires an effort to write, create the cover, and convert to ebook format.
• You sell this for money from day one.
• You need to promote it online and offline. This promotion may include Twitter, a blog, a media release, personal networking, YouTube videos, and definitely your Web site.
• Establishes you as an author, an expert, and a publisher of professionally relevant content. This will significantly set you apart from the competition whether the book makes money or not.

A PDF Whitepaper

Let's not get tunnel vision and only see ePublishing on an ebook reader. You can write whitepapers as PDF files. This is a powerful technique. We do this with documents on social networking and writing for the Web.

Whitepapers can be anywhere from two three or four pages to twenty pages or more. so, the length, if short, is not a disadvantage.

Portable Document Format (PDF), files are easy to make. Likely your wordprocessor will do just fine. Also there are converters you can download. and placing them on your Web site is not at all difficult. If you don't do this your Web master can easily do this for you.

Whitepapers do not have the cachet of a book, but so what? They can still establish your expertise. Cast you as an expert. And that, my friend, is the whole point.

Up To You

Only you can decide if this is right for you and then find the platform best for you. Here is a list of eBook publishers at eBook Crossroads.com. Be advised that this is a list of publishers.

There are other venues to consider like: Amazon and publishing on their Kindle, and Barns and Noble and their Nook. If these products do not work out for you, search Google for ebook publishing.

Let us hear from you. what do you think? Just click on the title of this post and lets us know.