Is this the year you will become a published author?

This could be your year!  There are more alternatives, more opportunities and more distribution channels than ever to share your story.  Brush off those beginning chapters you started but didn't know how to finish and what to do next, and stay tuned...

1. Define what success is to YOU. Be specific!  Why are you writing a book?
2. Who will want to read your book. Be specific - Everybody is NOT an answer.
3. Decide who will BUY your book. If you are self publishing, your marketing dollars go here.
4. Don't spend a dime until you fully understand 1-3.
5. Be realistic, positive and get informed. Realize that no matter what your budget is, there IS a way to get you published.

My 2013 resolution is to complete a useful blog post every week of this year with lots of great tips and things to think about as you embark on your exciting journey.

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Want to get the info in condensed form?  

We have classes at Metro Community College in the Omaha area.

How to Write Your Book:  January 12, 9:00am to noon, Sarpy campus (Course COMM-005N-70)

How to Publish Your Book: February 16, 9:00am to noon, Sarpy campus (Course COMM-525N-70)

How to Market Your Book: March 2, 8:45am to 11:45, Sarpy Campus (Course COMM-530N-70)

Register: All classes are $29 (senior discounts are available) www.mccneg.edu/ce or call 402-457-5231

Small Press Month - PLEDGE TO SELF PUBLISHERS

On this, the final day of Small Press Month, I celebrate all of those who have voluntarily embarked on the journey of self publishing in your own small press. We are gaining ground in changing the way self publishing is perceived, but it takes all of us to demand excellence. Forget the detractors and cynics. We know that quality self publishing affords flexibility of timing and editorial content; but with that comes the responsibility to produce quality products that deliver value in a more timely fashion than a traditional publisher can do.

As an advocate for self publishing, I pledge to continue the quest to help you, the independent author, share your stories to a proper and realistic audience with the highest quality product possible.

WILL YOU TAKE THE PLEDGE?

I ask you to pledge the following for the good of the entire self publishing industry. One bad apple CAN spoil this bushel, so stand tall, self publishing comrades -- and demand excellence of yourself and others!

• I promise to never consider self publishing as a step down, or a last resort, and to always celebrate the vital role self publishing plays in the world of books.
• I promise to not let my ego get in the way of producing useful and entertaining products.
• I promise to strive to learn and to improve my writing every day of my writing career.
• I promise to listen and accept the advice of a professional editor and other book professionals I hire.
• I promise to use quality production techniques.
• I promise to use professional business practices in my publishing endeavor, from concept to distribution.
• I promise to learn the wholesale and retail side of the book business and to conduct myself correctly when in this environment for the good of the whole industry.
• I promise to lift up and support other self publishers that produce exceptional products, and try to help those who aren't quite there.

Happy Small Press Month, my friends.

Here's a valuable article from Penny Sansevieri in the Huff Post:
How to write and publish the (almost) perfect book

Small Press Month - Tip # 29

March 29 - Plan marketing with a full understanding of the relationship between Reach and Frequency. Let me start by giving an example. Have you ever noticed how an advertisement may seem familiar a few times, but it doesn't really capture your attention completely? You've seen it, sort of noticed it in parts here and there, and then all of the sudden (you've probably actually seen the ad eight or ten times) you put the whole message together in your mind ...and then WHAM! you realize the benefits of owning the thing advertised and buy one? That's the epitome of Reach and Frequency -- they identified a prospect (you) and then found vehicles to show you the message often enough to break through the noise of your busy life.

With previous careers in marketing, I've found that book marketing is one of the purest forms of niche marketing there is -- it should be just you (the author) and one person who is totally interested in your book (your reader's profile). Since "everyone" clearly is not your audience, and budgets are rarely unlimited, the terms Reach and Frequency are more than just two simple words -- they are critical concepts to know when planning your marketing.

Reach and Frequency apply to any promotional activity you undertake: broadcast or print, direct mail, direct selling, trade or bulk deals, special sales, and even in your social networking. Reach is the number of people exposed to your marketing message. Frequency is the number of times you touch each person with your message. The most important rule in these concepts is that Reach without Frequency is a pile of wasted cash.

While intuitively most business people really do understand the concept of Frequency for successful promotional and sales campaigns, when it comes to actual implementation of the campaign, most small businesses opt to sacrifice Frequency for Reach. Most often, this occurs because we are a culture of immediacy. If something doesn't have a return on the first ad, we assume it isn't working. Without question, the biggest waste of marketing dollars is when promotional activities are implemented without adequate frequency.

Small Press Month - Tip # 28

March 28 - Participate in blog promotions and contests. A great way to spread the word about your title (as well as a relatively free or pretty cheap way) is to participate in blog giveaways. I don't mean enter to win a prize for yourself -- I mean offer YOUR book as the prize! There are many benefits to your book being "the prize". The blogger will mention your title multiple times in their posts: 1) to announce the giveaway, 2) to keep readers up-to-date on the entries, and 3) to announce the winner, at the very least. And more likely than not, they will link to your website...and we all like backlinks.

There are several ways to find blog giveaways in which to participate. The most obvious way is to search for blogs that cover your topic and then contact them to say you are interested in doing a giveaway of your book to their followers. They might say yes, but they might say no, too.  Move on to the next one and thank the blogger for their time. A more sure-fire way to get your foot in the door is to subscribe to free sites like HARO.com and PitchRate.com, which will send daily requests to your inbox from reporters and bloggers looking for sources and materials. You can tailor your results to fit your interests, whatever they may be. Bloggers will often get the word out this way when they are looking to do a giveaway, and you sure as heck want to know when they are asking!

When you receive a request that fits your topic, you simply contact the requester (however the site requires you do it) and let them know you are interested in being a part of their giveaway. Be sure to send them all the information they will need about you and your book. It is also a good idea to send them a link to your website and your online press kit if you have one (which you should!). If all goes well, they will let you know that they would love to do a giveaway of your book! The blogger will tell you what to do next -- some will want you to ship them a copy of the book for them to keep, as well as a copy to send to the winner. Others will want you to directly ship the winning copy. Either way, you have successfully done your first blog giveaway and added yet another great way to spread the word about your book to your toolbox.

Small Press Month - Tip # 25

March 25 - Create a list of discussion questions for book clubs and other groups. Make sure the questions are not leading ones...and make sure they relate to many aspects of your book. You want readers to think and discuss your book, but sometimes you have to "guide" the group along without leading them to the answers you think they should come up with.

Think about how you want people to view your characters, or how you want them to behave after reading your book. Create your questions from those thoughts, but keep an open mind when doing this. Ask people that have read your book to review the discussion questions and try to have a discussion based on the questions. Listen to what they say and adjust your questions so you are not leading the answers by how you ask the question.

Plan on having 10-15 questions of varying lengths and topic areas. Focus on scenes, characters, emotions, thought processes, outcomes, metaphorical references, and time periods. Try to stay away from educationy-sounding questions -- you don't want someone criticizing you for being too "didactic". (Which I hear a lot these days. It means "intending to instruct" -- which is kind of ironic, because it's usually people in the education field telling me this. How can something for an educational environment be not intended to instruct?... but I digress.)

EXTRA TIP: We now put a little seal on the back cover of the book that says "Includes discussion questions," and that helps schools, libraries and book clubs select your book over another one because you have made it easier for them to utilize your book in groups.

Discussion questions also do one more thing. They really help the group leader understand your thought process, and that helps them see the relevance of your book to their group.

(Oh yeah, have some fun doing this!)

Small Press Month - Tip # 24

March 24 - Ask well-known authors or public figures who are relevant to your topic to endorse your book. This may seem like an impossible task, but really all you need to do is ask -- you never know what they'll say. It could be yes (more often than you can imagine)! You might be met with resistance sometimes -- maybe they'll tell you that they don't want to put their name on a competing product, but just kindly remind them that they are putting their name out there again as well -- you'll simply be supporting each other for the same cause.

When do you have enough endorsements and testimonials? Never. Never stop asking for feedback (which is what an endorsement is).

Small Press Month - Tip # 23

March 23 - Price your Kindle book competitively and carefully, so you can make a decent profit. I see a lot of Kindle books priced above $9.99; but guess what, your sales are probably affected more adversely in the Kindle world than in any other distribution channel by price. When your book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99, your percentage royalty is 70%. Pretty much outside of that, you make 35%.  

Basic math, you price your book at $9.95, you make $6.97. 
You price your book at $19.95, you make $6.99. 

There are some other caveats on which you must educate yourself, but for nearly all books, this pricing is true. As always, do your research to make sure the size of your book fits the specs, and your distribution plan is in line with their requirements.

Small Press Month - Tip # 22

March 22 - Only a few years ago, it was atypical for a company not to have a website.  Back then, if a company was not on the web, customers might still have found them through more traditional methods and may have opted not to hire them, worried that they might be behind the times a bit. Even now, who wants to hire a company that can’t even get a webpage pulled together?  (Personally, we think GoDaddy has the easiest platform on which to build simple websites.)

Today, however, the same goes for a professional Facebook page. That is the first place many people will go now to check you out, and some companies have even gotten rid of their websites and replaced them with Facebook pages. They’re free (for now), so why not?  Facebook pages are super easy to update, and if you want a quick promo or announcement of an appearance -- presto!  It's up in seconds and out to your fan base.   (Don't have a fan base yet? That's another post.)

Oh.... and if you have a website, by golly, make sure to link it to your Facebook page! You’ve got to be where your customers are looking for you and the services you offer.

Small Press Month - Tip # 19

March 19 - Sell direct to your consumer whenever possible. Sales that go through bookstores, distributors, retailers, wholesalers, etc., always have fingers in your profits. Participate in events where the consumer is right there so you don't have to worry about paying anyone else from those profits.

Craft fairs, art shows, museum events, trade shows, exhibits, book fairs, vendor fairs, wine tastings -- do what fits with your book and charge a rounded amount for your book. If your book is $17.95, offer it at the event for $15 -- but don't cut too much off. 

Have fun -- stand up and engage people. DO NOT sit in your booth and read a book in the corner and expect sales! (In fact, we don't even put chairs in our booths.)

Sell direct hand to hand every time you can too. When someone tells you "I went into the book store the other day and they said they don't have your book!", say "Good, thank you for looking for my book. I happen to have one in my car. I'll get it for you and even sign it. It's $20, and that includes tax."  (Don't forget to figure out what tax is due when you do this.)

Small Press Month - Tip # 18

March 18 - Create a printed Terms and Policies statement outlining how you will go about the sale of your books. What is it? It's a one page form stating your business policies and sales terms, including the following:

• Your logo, phone, fax, email and address
• Desk copy policy (For books that may be used by schools or organizations)
• Your discounts for different types of distribution channels (Bookstore, specialty retailer, library, catalog, distributor, wholesale, association, etc.), and different quantities (for example, Bookstores --1 to 200 copies-40% discount, 201 to 500 copies-42%, and so on.) If you have a distributor with an exclusive agreement, you need to include that information.
• Consignment Policy or "Guaranteed Return" Policy (do you accept returns)
• Return policy (how to return items)
• Shipping terms
• Payment terms 
• Ordering information
• Barcode and book cover

If you don't have your terms and policies in black and white, expect to negotiate terms on the fly (and then have to remember and enforce those ever evolving policies). Actually, you'll protect yourself legally too -- you can't offer one reseller a deal and not offer that same deal to the next reseller, giving the first a competitive advantage.

Why Go Indie? Part 2

More authors tell us why they decided to go indie:

I wanted to go the indie route for a number of reasons. First of all, the indie author maintains control over his or her intellectual property. That means a great deal to me. The second reason was speed. I didn’t want to wait while I found a publisher. As an indie author, I can still go through all the necessary steps to position my work in the marketplace but still shave off a great deal of time.

Jeff Beals,
Author of Self Marketing Power: Branding Yourself as a Business of One
http://www.selfmarketingpower.com/

I decided to publish independently because I wanted total control of my product content and I was under too short a deadline to go the traditional route through a publisher. My book has been a great extended business card enabling me to expand into both radio and television appearances.

Larry Bradley,
Author of Neither Liberal Nor Conservative Be: An Action Plan for People Disgusted by Polarized Politics
http://www.thecenterstrikesback.com/

Why Go Indie?

Over the next few blog posts, we will be following a common theme: Why did our authors decide to go with us and publish their books independently?

The main reason we decided to publish independently was because we needed to have the book available within a specific time frame. That would not have been possible if we had tried to go through a "mainstream publisher," since that can be a very slow process. Not only that, we wanted to be sure the book would always be available, that it would not "go out of print." Also, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted the book to look like. Publishing independently allowed us to have the final say on how the cover design and contents would be set up.

Donna Miesbach
Co-author of Coaching for a Bigger Win
Playmakers Press
http://www.theplaymakers.org/

Advantages to Being an Independent Publisher, by Donna Miesbach

I always thought that to be published with any amount of credibility you had to go through a "mainstream" publisher, but I've changed my mind. I'm finding that the advantages of being an "independent" publisher far outweigh having the name of a "big" publisher on your book, at least when it comes to what we've published so far.

Working as an independent publisher guarantees that your book will be available as long as you feel there is a market for it. You also have the freedom to make sure that the book is produced in a manner that truly portrays what you are trying to say. Being able to have a voice in all the many details, such as how the cover is designed, and how the pages are set up, is important to me. In other words, I can move forward knowing that the finished product will be a clear reflection of the book's message.

This is not to say I would not ever work with a "big name" publisher, but right now, with the longevity I feel our book is going to require, being an independent is definitely the way to go.
I feel truly blessed to have found people to guide me through the process, people who truly excel at what they do. Together we are making a difference.

Donna Miesbach
Co-author, Coaching for a Bigger Win, A Playbook for Coaches
www.donnamiesbach.com