Are you overwhelmed by all the choices for publishing your book?
Are you intimidated by the idea of having to promote your own book?
Help is here!
I began this How To Get Published blog out of great empathy — in order to offer guidance to fellow publishing travelers. I have sat on all sides of the publishing table and have tremendous compassion for the effort of getting oneself published.
Please accept the following blog contributions as small gifts to my fellow authors who are on the road to accomplishing a dream of book publication. Let me help you avoid the classic pitfalls. Learn more about how to get published without losing time and money, expending a lot of energy, or becoming overly stressed. Understand the 5-steps to making your book publishing dream come true.
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Clarifying and simplifying every step of the process makes getting published so much easier.
Blog Posts & Articles
Why We Blog, and Tips To Keep Us Inspired
The Frequency Question: How often do you blog? Following are thoughts for those of us who are not easy, ardent bloggers. We are authors and author-publishers whose marketing challenge is to find our niche book community. Our aim is to identify who will want to read us. We seek fellow book/e-book travelers to dialogue with -- the goal is list building -- for when our book offer or webinar or event is ready to roll. What, then, is an effective rate of blogging in order to significantly increase online public visibility as an author? Once a week? Three times a week? Twice a month?
read moreFind Your Ideal E-Book Conversion Company
At this moment, with New Publishing quickly gaining ground over the old, there are two favorite self-publishing -- including e-book -- routes for first-timers. One is to use a print-on-demand firm. The other is to use a multi-service printing company that also offers e-book conversion services—for example, Lightning Source (owned by Ingram) and CreateSpace (owned by Amazon). Heaps of e-book conversion companies are springing up, and it's my desire to sort out a handful of trustworthy ones. Smashwords is a great example. They offer distribution in addition to free conversion. The only problem is that they prefer converting straight-text word documents. So if what you have is nonfiction with visual elements like graphics and tables, you'll need to look elsewhere.
read more5 Steps to E-Book Conversion
With the rising popularity of electronic books, any book that is only in printed form is only reaching part of its potential readership. So, do it yourself or hire a service? Fortunately, converting your book into an e-book can be as simple as hiring an affordable service to do it for you. If you're ready to get your self-published book out to people who rely on e-reading devices such as the Kindle, Nook, and the iPad, here's what to do.
read moreIBPA’s 24th Annual Publishing University
No matter what stage of publishing you're in-an author-publisher, a beginning publisher, a more experienced publisher-IBPA Publishing University, in a new location on the west coast for 2012, brings you hands-on tools and techniques to succeed. Visit www.ibpapublishinguniversity.com for details and early bird pricing. I will be speaking on the panel "Creating Websites and Blogs That SELL" the morning of March 10th. I hope to meet you there!
read moreIs Your Self-Publishing Marketing Attitude Half Full or Half Empty?
I empathize with the frustration of having to knock on so many doors to effectively promote a book. Jumping into social media alone is daunting enough, and much more is usually needed. The core marketing question is this: How and where will you show up and be publicly visible to your ideal reader? Imagine this scenario. You have several novels under your belt. You've been a dedicated writer for years, and you've spent many of those years going to writers' conferences, attracted by the promise of scheduled ten-minute appointments with editors and agents.
read moreWant to Be a Published Author? 7 Reasons to Publish an E-book First
Spend less -- go the E-book route first. Production for the physical book plus the digital printing can come later, once you've tested the market, made desired revisions, and collected additional endorsements. Are you still hung up on the idea that E-book publishing isn't "real" book publishing? The answer to this is that nowadays everything is simply content, and there are many legitimate forms in which content can be offered. View your inaugural E-book as just the first published representation of your content. And remember, there is a growing number of readers out there who don't think twice about reading E-books instead of print books.
read moreAuthors: Get Past Your Facebook and Blogging Challenge With One Strategic Move
If you're new to promoting your book through social networking, the goal should be to establish yourself with fellow travelers in your niche community. For example, let's say your book is in the Irish-American historical fiction subgenre. You are a newbie, this is your first book, and you are a complete unknown outside your family and friends. Your goal is to seek other Irish-American history buffs who are really looking forward to your book—except that they don't know it yet because they haven't met you! Here's one self-contained activity that just requires a setup and not a whole lot of time.
read moreMarketing Your Self-Published Book: What’s Holding You Back?
What is it about promotion that's distasteful to you, that holds you back from moving forward? To help push past inertia, let's look at ten sample marketing initiatives, then see if you can say Yes to three of them. The good news is that YOU are the best spokesperson for your book. You have lived with, and know, the material deeply. You are your book's champion. After months of writing and rewriting, you long to get this book out into the world. So, carpe diem! Grab the chance to share your book! 1. Open up. I've said this before and I’ll say it again. Start with one change you simply must make if you plan to be successful in marketing your book: Get over being shy. 2. Join a local Toastmasters group. Set a goal to become more comfortable with public speaking. Toastmasters programs (or an equivalent) can be incredibly supportive for anyone who fears public speaking.
read moreDon’t Lose Heart for Self-Publishing Your Book
Question: Do I really need to spend so much money to independently publish my book? The answer depends on what you hope to achieve and how much work you’re willing to put into it. Technically, becoming a small publishing company—an author-publisher—is easy. You choose a publisher name and open a bank account, and if your state has a Home Occupation License requirement you file for one. In practice, however, it’s not so simple. So let’s take a closer look: What are the additional steps you need to take before bringing your book into the world?
read moreLook For 5 Key Characteristics When Hiring Your Self-Publishing Team
1. Deep experience. It's vital that you don't serve as the guinea pig for a vendor-in-training. You will already face a learning curve with every book publishing contractor you hire. And that increasingly expensive list does not include your marketing. You probably would benefit from hiring a publicist. However, unless you are currently involved in -- or at least open to -- social media, you will miss out on worldwide promotional online opportunity if that publicist is not experienced in social media. No matter who you include on your publishing team, you are looking for track-record professionals.
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