7 Reasons to Self Publish

You have written a book and no one wants to publish it. Why would you do it yourself? Here are 7 good reasons to self-publish your own book - -

1. You design the cover. All trade publishers have their own designers and you have no control over what your book will look like.

2. You choose the title. The editor assigned to your book will choose the title and you have will have no input or control over what they choose.

3. You choose the price. You know who your readers will be and what they are willing to pay. You can afford to sell for a bit less than a trade publisher because you control the costs.

4. You decide how to market your book. You have to do your own marketing no matter how your book is published, so you might as well be marketing your own product.

5. You  know who your readers are and can make decisions based on this knowledge. Publishers don’t always ‘get’ your book or your audience.

6. You don’t have to wait a year or two for your book to be in print. You can have it in the hands of your readers within months (I don’t recommend weeks).

7. You make the profit. Instead of a small advance and even smaller royalties, you make all the money from your books.

It feels good to DIY and be in control of every aspect of publishing your book. Why not give it a try? Self Publishing in Canada: A guide to designing, printing and selling your book will help you every step of the way. Purchase your copy today. Available at any independent bookstore or through the website.

http://selfpublishing.ca

What is Self Publishing?

Guest Post
By Judy Cullins

Opinions vary about self-publishing. I self-published 11 of my own print and eBooks that are business books about book writing, self-publishing, and marketing.

Self-Publishing vs. POD

Self-publishing is not a vanity press option, where you can get a company to get your family cookbook or anything into print.

Print on Demand is a digital print offering however, but does not include publishing or marketing for your book. Many choose POD and get disappointed because they don’t know its downfalls.

Think YOU when you think self-publishing.

YOU are responsible for all the things that you must do to get your book into the hands of your readers.

YOU get an ISBN number for each book, which makes you the publisher, unless you plan to only sell your book at your website. YOU can set up a publishing name/business as Dan Poynter advises since some book printers won’t work with individuals. But, you don’t have to.

YOU will need help on your book.

You choose a book coach, such as myself, to help make your book more saleable. And a good book coach knows a lot about non-fiction chapters to help you engage your readers, not lecture to them. It’s amazing how few people realize this. A book coach will look at the whole picture and help you set up proper pre-marketing and develop your author platform to sell a lot of copies and brand you, your book, and your business.

With a professional book coach’s expertise, YOU arrange for your own editors, proof-readers, book cover designers, and formats.

If you want a print version, YOU choose a printer.

Or a combination printer-and-distributor such as LightningSource or CreateSpace who allow you to print-on-demand with your own ISBN. Or you go to an offset printer who has experience in making books, some of whom can recommend providers of services you can’t or don’t want to do for yourself.

As a 24+ year book coach, I advise my clients to not do what many POD services tell them to do – such as printing huge numbers of books for a discount. Forget the discount and use a digital printer like Deharts to print only the number of books you can sell in three months. Then, you’ll have more money for promotion and marketing – the self-publishing task that matters even more than what’s inside your book. Without marketing, not much will happen.

You can self-publish an eBook with little effort and money.

It’s a good idea, because you can get the mistakes and kinks corrected before you spend a lot on printing. I often advise clients to write an eBook first, then a print book which you may wish to expand on and make longer. You can actually write them at the same time.

Think about your audience before you write your book.

Know for non-fiction or self-help, your target readers want a much shorter book – easy-to-read and one that solves their problem.

About the Author, Judy Cullins

Book and Blog Coach Judy Cullins helps you gain confidence and transform your ideas into life-long money-making content. Author of 14 books for business people and authors include "Write your eBook or Other Short Book--Fast!"Judy offers free, up-to-the minute weekly publications on book and blog writing and online marketing at http://www.bookcoaching.com

*You are welcome to reprint this article provided the above bio is included.

Top Ten Things To Do To Promote Your Book

Top Ten Things To Do To Promote Your Book

By Keith G. Powell, publisher/author

http://www.wildhorsecreekpress.com

1) Believe your book needs to be promoted. The harsh reality is that the world's isn't waiting for you to publish a book. (Remember writing and publishing your book is the easy part)

2) Have plan or strategy in place well before you publish your book.

3) Remember no one can promote your book better than you, the author, can.

4) The first 3 to 6 months are critical, get as much publicity as you can.

5) Always have your business card ready to hand out.

6) Make sure you have a quality photography of yourself and of your book to send to the media.

7) Prepare your press releases in advance. Have a hook...eg. I launched my first book with a climb to the top of Mt. Fisher and the 2nd with climb to the Kain Hut in the Bugaboos.

8) Take on as many events as your schedule allows – book signings, speaking engagements, library readings etc.

9) Do as many media interviews as your can. CBC is the holy grail but don't overlook your local media and look for vertical/special interest niches.

10) Ask yourself everyday – what did I do today to promote my book? Make it a goal to do something to promote your book everyday.

How to Get Your Book Into Libraries Using Smashwords

This week Smashwords announced that all 100,000 of the e-books they have in their catalogue will be available to public libraries through Baker & Taylor (a large distribution firm). What does this mean to self-publishers? It means we have another avenue for selling books!

Just who is Smashwords? They are the leading distributor of independently published e-books. They distribute to such online retailers as Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel eBook Store. Their books are also available for certain mobile e-reading applications such as Blio, Aldiko, Stanza and FBReader. It is free, easy and fast to get your book converted and available for readers to download. Dan Poynter highly recommends them.

Have a look at their website and blog to see if this would be a good fit for you.

When I finish converting my books for Kindle, I'll do them in Smashword and report to all of you.

Is there an easy way to convert books to e-books?

Amazon.com has detailed instructions on how to turn your book into a Kindle e-book. It gives directions for both Mac and PC platforms. But the basic premise is that you have to use your original Word document to make the change. They recommend Word because it's easy to format. If you have your book broken into separate files for each chapter, start a file called "Your Book, Kindle version" and copy/past each chapter into the one file. Insert a Page Break at the end of each chapter. Save your file to a .doc file and not .rtf or .docx.  The newer versions of Word do not translate well to Kindle.

I am now converting Self Publishing in Canada Second Edition to a file for the Kindle reader. Of course I will use other formats too. Most public libraries across Canada are using the Kobo reader as their platform for lending e-books. That is a whole different format to  convert our books into. So why can't they just have a standard? Is there an easy way to convert books to e-books?

Why I am changing direction on self-publishing

After much discussion, we have decided not to self-publish printed books anymore. In 2011 we put out an out-of-print book by a deceased author and the Second Edition of Self Publishing in Canada. Even though we have a distributor and even though we have marketed the book, sales are not as good as we had expected. The question became, "Do keep doing this as a hobby or find another way to self-publish?" The truth is we can't afford this as a hobby, so we need to find another way.

We are committing ourselves to publishing e-books. The sales of e-readers was phenomenal at Christmas and we see it as a less expensive way to get our message out without either having to put up the funds to pay for printing costs or find a place to store books. I am currently formatting Self Publishing in Canada and All On Her Own to a Kindle format. Then I have to completely type up Good Morning Quadra since nothing will read that kind of disk anymore.

Does this mean the print book is dead? Not at all. It's just not the right fit for us at this time.  Check in regularly and learn about the new adventure...and how to self-publish the old fashioned way.

New international organization for self-publishers

A British author and former literary agent has established an international non-profit organization for self-published authors. The Alliance of Independent Authors will represent the interests of self-publishers when they have to deal with agents, booksellers,  wholesalers, and trade publishing companies.

Organizer Orna Nass hopes to sign up 500 members in the first year. She plans to offer a newsletter, a helpline, monthly meetings, and a biannual conference. This could be a real boon for self-publishers. Even though it is in Britain, it might we worth looking at.

Their website will be live in a few weeks. I will post the website when it comes online.