Self-Publishing
Something always seems to come along to toss me off my goal of blogging an entry or article every day.
This time is was my darned lower back with some unfriendly spasms. Oh well. They're gone now.
Today, I received B.L. Ochman's latest ezine.
You simply have to go to Expertizing -- How To Become Known As An Expert – On Anything.
If I'm to believe B.L. and her guest expert, Fern Reiss, you simply have to have a print book if you're going to build your brand, a consulting and speaking business.
And I do believe them.
Since starting Knowledge Download, and especially the last year, I too have seen the need to have a print book (as compared to only an ebook) in order to be taken seriously by the press. And since the press can influence prospects to call you or seek you out as an expert, it's worthwhile.
From a strategy standpoint, you can and should still write your text and create your ebook. You can get it up for sale with a live website. Meanwhile, once your text is done, you can start shopping for Print on Demand printers without worrying about having SOMETHING to offer your prospects that will demonstrate your expertise.
Enjoy the B.L. interview!
Self Publishing Success
I have received a rash of inquiries from subscribers, readers and visitors to Knowledge Download asking for tips and advice on ebook self-publishing.
Many have their texts written and often send them to me. Some even send them with press releases. But then they ask me how and what to do next.
It's a bit frustrating to me.
That is what the entire Knowledge Download website, free articles and this blog are about.
I can assure you that at $14 per month for our ebook website builder & hosting service, and the time cost of supporting our authors using the system, there isn't a lot of extra time to personally instruct people in what to do.
More or less, what order or steps to do them in.
That's what all the free info is for.
It has come to me that probably they are just finding our website and not taking time to review the offerings. It is a rather large site these days.
However, perhaps people need a single, simple source to turn to for a specific roadmap of what and how to go about getting their ebook or print book self-published.
I have never held myself out as an expert on the topic. I'm learning and improving and been freely sharing my experiences with readers in this blog.
Your expert is Dan Poynter. He offers books and book coaching at his website.
parapublishing.com
Another expert and coach is Judy Cullins. You've probably seen her articles all over the Internet. You'll also find them in the Writing section of Knowledge Download.
bookcoaching.com
So buy one of their books or some of their coaching time. Then when you are ready to build and promote your works on the Internet with a ebook website, be sure to come back to us!
Closing note: As I am not a professional writer (I've written on that ad nauseum), I am proud to point out that I wrote an article or blog piece every day of April except for 2 days.
I wanted to do so on every day. Oh well. Missing only 2 days, for me, is great progress. What this rather grueling process has done is give me great practice and confidence. It has helped me understand my limits, find my "voice" and feel that I am helping people.
For my own selfish reasons, it's been a great journey so far!
Print on Demand
Many of our ebook authors who self-publish are building their websites and starting their marketing campaigns.
Congratulations!
Many of our ebook authors have had their websites live and in some stage of marketing for quite a while.
If you haven't considered it yet, you may want to add a print version of your ebook. It's easier than you think.
The Globe and Mail piece on print on demand gives an in-depth look at print on demand and identifies some excellent resources for you. (sorry, URL removed due to the Globe and Mail removing the URL)
Like with electronic books, print books demand that YOU do your marketing and promotions. There is no easy lunch and there are very few Bob Woodward's among us who can instantly gain sell-through in the retail bookstores.
No matter. Getting your ebook into print is probably a smart move, especially if you are moving toward becoming a speaker, coach or giving teleseminars. There is still something magic about print books.
After all, whoever finished a keynote speach with an ebook giveaway?
;-)
Blog Tools
A couple of days ago, I opined on how I think blogs may fit with ebook and self-publishing.
Obviously, blogs are a form of self-publishing. What I was referring to was how blogs as tools will be used to help self-published authors of ebooks and print books.
As promised, I told you that I would post some links to blogging tools, software and systems so that you can experiment with them.
Movable Type - software to install on your server
Type Pad - a hosted version of Movable Type
Userland - Manilla software or Radio hosted
Pmachine - software to install on your server
Live Journal - hosted service
Blogger - hosted service
One additional resource for you is Open Source CMS, which provides hosted trials of lots of software, including blog tools.
So you don't get confused, sroll down and look on the left nav bar for "CMS - Blogs". The fellows who run this site have done an awesome job of installing and configuring open source content management systems, including blogs. There are live demo versions you can run right from their site.
Do some research, pick one and get busy with your blog. Make sure you choose your theme as similar to your ebook or print book theme or topic.
Good luck!
Fiction eBooks
As most of my regular readers know, the primary goal of this site is to help non-fiction authors and writers of ebooks. That is likely due to my single dimension mind, but it is what it is. It was an early decision as to who I was going to focus on.
However, we do have our share of fiction authors using the KD system to produce ebook websites.
I don't often find much valuable info for fiction writers and simply don't understand how they are able to conjure up the ideas and concepts of their works.
None the less, from time to time I do come across some good info that I like to post so as to be helpful.
Here is a good article about fiction and a new fiction publisher that may be of interest to you fiction ebook writers and authors.
I'm not going to quote anything out of that article (on Fox News of all places), but if you are interested in getting visibility of your work into the print publishing world, that article points you to a publisher who sounds willing to take a look.
Best of luck!
Web Logging (Blogging), eBooks & Self-Publishing
The culture of blogging, which is short for web logging has emerged as a force for freedom of speech, among myriads of other purposes and benefits.
This article by Nico Macdonald in The Register is an excellent piece discussing the rise and reason of blogging.
You are reading a blog.
How do blogs, ebooks and self-publishing fit together?
Well from what I see, they don't; yet.
I feel somewhat alone and perhaps early in the coupling of blogs, ebooks and self-publishing and take some regular "hits" as a result. There are more compliments than critisisms, and that helps.
I moved away from doing an email based ezine to this blog about 6 months ago. My motives have been explained previously, but largely, I do this because it gives me a purpose to write, practice at writing, giving a voice to and for first time authors and capture ideas, thoughts, analysis and tips for future reference (for both you and myself).
I see blogs replacing ezines in the future. Whereas in the past, authors who excelled at copywriting and self-promotions could use email to build their "brand" and a following and to generate sales.
Today, that is near impossible due to the growing spam problems on all fronts.
To add to the spam problem, the use of affiliates to market your products online is diminishing for partly the same reason, and partly due to the penalties that search engines like Google and Yahoo place on affiliate link laden sites.
My belief is that blogs and RSS feeds are the future of building your brand, your expertise and a following. Promoters won't be able to get away with only crafty headlines and body copy or clever use of email and web pages.
I feel that successful ebook and self-published authors in the very near future will have to have a blog and write in it regularly, as a key strategy to generate sales, consulting work, speaking and teleseminar fees.
The requirement that end users are placing on their trusted experts to "prove themselves" as worthy, knowledgeable and valuable is growing. The maturity of buyers and consumers of info products are now wise to the tricks and are only interested in substance.
My tip to you is this: if you haven't investigated blogging, get busy. In future articles, I will post several resources to help you get started.
Non-Fiction Self-Publishing
As most of my readers know, the main theme of my writings, help, tips and advice lean largely to subject matter experts who are self-publishing an ebook on a non-fiction topic.
On somewhat irregular basis, I post some comments and analysis on success stories in the self-published world.
This story about a Flagstaff, AZ Doctor is just such an example of real world expertise and experience reduced to writing.
Dr. Shrader isn't likely to get rich, nor make the NY Times Bestseller list. But....who knows? Stranger things have happened.
I don't know Dr. Shrader, nor am affiliated with him or his website How To Be Your Own Doctor, but I'm sure he is genuine in his mission of trying to share his experience to help people, help themselves.
Since his medical work is his life, he clearly has passion, which I wrote about the other day. That passion will sustain him regardless of the volume of his book sales. His endurance with regards to his book will likely be long, as the book is merely an "add-on" to his life's work.
Most likely, Dr. Schrader isn't expecting to get rich with this book.
Relative to my article the other day, if you are a person of lifelong expertise and experience in your subject matter, you have passion for that subject and want to help people, then you are a great candidate to self-publish an ebook or print book.
I applaud Dr. Schrader. My only tip to him would be to make an ebook and add that to his website for those people who may want his valuable info right now.
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Info Publishing Business
As I sit here watching the Diamondbacks game and thinking of what to share with you today, I remembered there is a web site and the owner who is in the info publishing and consulting business I've been meaning to tell you about.
Juiced Consulting and it's owner, Jennifer Tribe, offers a tremendous amount of very, very solid information, advice, tips and more.
juicedconsulting.com
I don't remember how I came to learn of Jennifer, but I have become acquainted with her via email.
Jennifer has an awesome free ezine that you should subscribe to.
She focuses on the broader market of info publishing, whereas Knowledge Download is focused mainly on ebooks and self-publishing.
I have learned quite a bit from her, to tell the truth, and plan on offering some of my experiences of re-use of my published information and tips as I move along using new media and tools.
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eBook & Digital Goods Security
One of the most common questions we receive at Knowledge Download has to do with protecting ebooks from theft.
In the enterprise space, the software, security and systems are known as Digital Rights Management, or DRM. It's expensive and has a steep learning curve. DRM is not for the individual author, or should I say, DRM from the current software community is not for the individual author.
However, there are other solutions.
Recently, I was contacted by the owner of eBook Security.com. His company is what I call a "micro" business, just like KD. A micro business is one with less than 10 employees and typically works from a home or executive office.
At any rate, the eBook Security service is a form of DRM for the rest of us.
I haven't had time to conduct any testing or trials. They offer a trial for $2.95 which seems reasonable.
Given the list of features and functions, I can tell you that if I had an ebook or digital download that I felt had a lot of value and might be worth thieves' time to pass around or sell, I would take on a trial.
To remove the risk to you, eBook Security offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you have nothing to lose.
Also from my discussions with the owner, I can also say that it appears the eBook Security service is totally compatible with the Knowledge Download software system.
So from the early appearances, it looks like a winner to me.
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Excellent Self-Publishing Article
In trolling the USA Today site recently, I came across this timely article on self-publishing.
In it the author, Laura Vanderkam, does a fine job of outlining the upside and downside of self-publishing.
But most important, she and some of the authors she interviews, gives us a very honest, straight shooting fact about self-publishing (printed books that is):
Few will succeed.
Which support, at least indirectly, my theory that self-publishing digital products, such as ebooks, makes much more sense and can be accomplished easier than the print counterpart.
Not that it is easy to do on the web only. It's not.
However, on the web, it is easier, in my humble opinion, to make friends and connections and joint ventures. It's also cheaper to advertise on the Internet than in print publications.
At any rate, the USA Today article is a good quality view on the self-publishing business. I hope we all continue to give traditional print publishers challenges to they continue to improve!
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