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Showing posts with label Book Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Marketing. Show all posts

7 Steps to Successful Publishing

by: Ink Tree Ltd.

The decision to publish a book is very exciting! It causes the creative juices to flow and the eyes to light up. But wait – before you begin the publishing process, know about the seven most important steps you need to know before publishing your book. Make sure that you take every step into careful consideration so that your road to success is an easy one:

1. Know why you are writing a book. Are you writing your memoirs for the family, are you writing a community cookbook, are you writing a book of regional interest or are you writing a national bestseller? All of these goals are valid, but each goal has different implications for your business plan. Know why you are writing and know that you can create that bestseller if that is your goal.

2. Treat publishing as a business. You are passing beyond the realm of author into the exciting world of publishing. You are not just a writer, you are about to become a publisher who wants to produce a profitable book, and you want to keep the profits for yourself.

3. Write a business plan. Being aware of the business aspect of publishing is not an end in itself – you need to formally write your plan. It does not need to be a fifty page document with every accounting possibility recorded, but it should outline all of the costs that you will encounter from obtaining the necessary funds to knowing the price of mailing a book. The business plan needs to account for future expenses as well as pre-publication expenses.

4. Plan for publicity and marketing. You must plan for the publicity and marketing of your book. You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. You don’t want to print books that sit in your garage. You want to print books that will sell, sell, sell!

5. Write about a subject that you know well. Don’t write about something that you can’t talk about without effort. Write about a subject with which you are very familiar and that excites you. Writing the book will establish you as an expert in your field, so choose the topic that causes everyone you know to come to you for advice. The publicity will then be so easy that you will love being the “star”.

6. Know who will buy your book. So many authors think that “everyone” needs and should buy their books. Not so. Perhaps “everyone” needs their books, but not “everyone” will want to buy. Research and know WHO will actually WANT your book and market, market to them. They will buy!

7. Look for non-bookstore markets and do not be afraid of the large discounts. Bookstores are a hugely important market for most authors, but they are far from being the only place to sell books. There are many non-traditional markets that buy books in large quantities with no returns. This is a great market – sales made are guaranteed sales not consignment sales. Do not be afraid of the larger discounts when you make those large volume sales. The books you sell are actually SOLD.

Think how much more pleasant a journey is if you know which fork in the road will lead you to smooth driving and which fork in the road will lead you through potholes. Knowing the most effective publishing steps before you print will make your publishing career fun and profitable.

Copyright © 2003 Ink Tree Ltd.

Ink Tree Ltd. Helping writers publish, market and sell books! If there is a book inside you – profit from it. Learn everything you need to guide you from Idea to Book… to Success – the fast, easy, simple way. Publish your own book with one-on-one expert help from publishing professionals who have created numerous bestsellers and sold hundreds of thousands of books.

Phone: 1-866-500-8733 or 403-295-3898 Email: info@inktreemarketing.com

Web: www.moneyinpublishing.com or www.inktreemarketing.com

Ink Tree Ltd. is a book marketing firm that helps writers publish, market and sell books. Learn everything you need to guide you from Idea to Book... to Success - the fast, easy, simple way.

www.moneyinpublishing.com or www.inktreemarketing.com

info@inktreemarketing.com

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7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales! - Part 2

by: Bluedolphin Crow

Secret #2: Creating your Marketing Timeline for Success!

Aho!

You can increase your sales and free time by creating your own marketing timeline. Marketing timelines are essential for all Internet businesses. They provide not only organization but a truly well defined goal sheet as well.

To understand your timeline is to understand your business. Can you really know where you are going if you don't have a goal? I think not! Can you really tell how well you are doing if you are not logging your results? I think not again! Can you really tell what your profit margin is at this moment and will be next month at this time without tracking your sales, goals and future plans?

Well I think you know my answer by now.

There is tons of internet marketing "How To" infiramtion online. However have you noticed very few people teach you how to organize your information? Well, now you will know.

My marketing timelines include: goals present and future, Action plans for today and tomorrow as well as next month, and last but definitely not least you have a sales tracker as well.

Ok. Now take out a sheet of paper, and for computer lovers, open up your word processing program.

Let's begin with our goal sheet.

On top of the page in BIG letters type:

Goal Sheet - Short Term

Now grab another piece of paper, or another page, and on the top of that one in BIG letters type:

Goals - Long Term

Next page write in BIG letters:

Action Steps - Short term

And another page in BIG letters:

Action Steps - Long term

One last page in BIG letters write: SALES

Now you have the foundation you need to begin really understanding your ebusiness as it grows and matures.

Grab a file folder, or on the computer, make a file folder that says: "Marketing Timeline." This folder will hold all your files.

Page one: Short term Goals: Make 3 columns.

Column 1: Date

Column 2: Goal

Column 3: Date completed Goal

Page two: Goals - Long Term: Make 3 columns.

Column 1: Date

Column 2: Goal

Column 3: Date Completed Goal.

Page 3: Action Plans short term: Make 3 columns.

Column 1: Date.

Column 2: Action Steps.

Column 3: Date Completed Action Steps.

Page 4: Action Plans - Long term: Make 3 columns.

Column 1: Date.

Column 2: Action Steps.

Column 3: Date Completed Action Step.

Page 5: Sales tracking - Make 3 columns:

Column 1: date

Column 2: Sales

Column 3: Continuing Total.

I can hear a lot of you out there groaning, "there must be a way to automate this!" and yes there is! However, I want you to do it manually when you first start your ebusiness. I have found that this will not only show you how you are doing and where you are and what has to be done to get to where you want to go. It also helps to seat all the information in your unconscious brain. Walla! Automating the Brain!

Really, I am serious. By doing this manually you will learn a lot more in the beginning and not have to learn it as you go along. For those of you that can't wait to automate, I have included links to a lot of automated services and software in my eBook: "eBook Marketing Secrets Revealed."

Have a great week!

Blessings

Bluedolphin Crow

Copyright 2004 Bluedolphin Crow - All Rights Reserved.

Bluedolphin Crow Ph.D. is a Native American with 6 years internet Marketing Experience and 20 years Sales and Marketing experience. The above article is an excerpt from her upcoming eBook: eBook-Marketing-Secrets-Revealed! To reserve your FREE copy before publication (A $49 value) send a blank email to: mailto:freeebook_16@sendfree.com

"How to eBooks - Free eZine: mailto:how_to_ebooks@sendfree.com

http://www.lostdazedandconfused.com

bluedolphincrow@yahoo.com

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5 Steps To Help Fail-Proof Your Growing Service Business

by: Debbie Jenkins

Business startup and failure rates are scary...

In The USA...

- Every Year Over 1 Million People Start A Business

- By The End Of The First Year 40% Of Them Will Be Out Of Business

- Within 5 Years More Than 80% (800,000) Of These Businesses Will Have Failed

(Source: The eMyth Revisited, Michal E Gerber,US Department of Commerce)

In The UK...

- 2003 Saw 423,100 New Businesses In England & Wales Startup

- Over Half of All New Firms Fail In The First 3 Years

- At Least 211,550 Of These Businesses Will Have Failed Before The End Of 2006

(Source: Barclays SME Market Research Team England & Wales Statistics Based On Business
Current Account Customers)

Unfortunately more and more people are being encouraged to go it alone by government agencies and banks while being given out-dated advice that doesn't actually work.

The advisors in these organisations typically have experience in larger production / manufacturing /financial businesses and share marketing advice that really doesn't work for the majority of small service-based businesses today.

Their text-book marketing principles simply do not translate to businesses with limited money to invest in advertising, direct mail and telesales.

In many cases these advisors are telling people how to run a business even though they're actually working for a bank or government agency themselves. They have no real experience spending their own money to grow a business.

Survival and inevitable success means being lean, mean and focused on getting a genuine result (in the form of profit) from the time and money you invest.

So here are 5 tips you can use to take the power back and begin "fail proofing" your growing business today.

#1. Question "Experts" Thoroughly

Be wary of government funded trainers and / or advisors put forward by banks.

These people, in many cases, don't have a clue what its like to run and grow their own business. Make it your job to "suss them out" before taking anything they tell you too seriously.

Some questions that I like...

What's your experience of starting and running a small business?

Have you actually spent your own money trying to make a business work?

What mistakes have you made? What lessons can I learn from your experience?

Will this advice / support / idea cost me money or make me money?

Who really benefits when I take the course of action you're recommending?

#2. Model Excellent Businesses

Now by this I don't mean simply copy random things they do.

Just because the boss of a successful firm like yours drives a brand-new Bentley it doesn't mean you should rush out and buy one too. That won't guarantee success.

You're looking to find the things that she did in order to afford the Bentley in the first place.

So find out as much about their processes and systems as you can and then look for evidence to support applying similar things that work for them to your business.

Subscribe to their mailing list. Visit
their premises. Talk to their staff.
Talk to their customers. Read their
ads (or notice that they don't advertise).
Network with them.

You can learn just as much from non-competing businesses too. So why not set up a support / learning group or see if a successful entrepreneur would be able to mentor you.

#3. Have A BIG Goal

Big goals, by definition, should be easier to hit than small goals. So don't think small - think big.

After nearly 8 years in business I still like to set regular, big, 90 day goals. I call these goals SHAGs - Short Hairy Audacious Goals.

Too many businesses focus on surviving. They think in terms of what they don't want. They miss the opportunity to really succeed and then get what they were desperately trying to avoid - failure!

Focusing on what you don't want really doesn't work. If you don't want to fail you should focus on succeeding in a big way.

#4. Improve Constantly

Have goals and set targets. Know what outcomes you want and quantify them where possible.

Then work towards your goals using the following cycle...

1. Implement (Do Something)
2. Measure (Test & Review)
3. Improve (Learn & Adjust)

As my friend and firewalk trainer Sanjay Shah says, if you simply improve by 1 percent a day, you'll have improved 300 percent (allowing for holidays) in a year!

#5. Don't Follow The Crowd

Look, we both know most businesses fail so don't do what most other businesses do or you'll get the same results.

Don't just advertise because every other business seems to advertise. Make sure advertising will make you money.

Don't just do telesales because that happens to be the service your local Chamber of Commerce is selling.

Don't measure turnover when profit and cashflow is usually more important.

Don't take on staff just because other businesses believe more people equals growth. More people often just means less profit!

Don't do the same thing, in the same way, to the same people as every other business like yours.

Do something different!

About the Author:
4 Out Of 5 Small Businesses Go Bust Inside 5 Years! Finally - A Guaranteed Way To Make Sure You're Not One Of Them... http://www.leanmarketing.co.uk/toolbooks

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5 Reasons Why You Can't Create Your Own eProducts

by: Dan B. Cauthron

What is there that prevents you from creating and marketing
your own exclusive information eproducts?

Chances are, it could be one or more of the self-defeating
reasons that we commonly hear from those who contact us
seeking advice. Several of those reasons are addressed
here. We intend to debunk the validity of each and every
one.

Reason #1 - I Can't.

Can't isn't even a word! It's a contraction of the words
can not. Those are the two most self-defeating words in the
English language, or any other language that they may be
translated to.

Think of it this way. In the first stages of all our lives,
we really could NOT do much of anything. Mother or Dad, or
someone else, had to do everything for us. But all of us,
as we grew, LEARNED to DO things for ourselves.

Our human ability to learn is what sets us apart from the
beasts of the field and forest. Take advantage of that
miraculous gift. After all, do you think that the world's
most successful people were born knowing everything they
know today? Of course not!

Reason #2 - I Don't Have a Good Idea For an eProduct.

As the Internet itself is in a constant state of flux and
metamorphosis, so do new problems and new needs arise
constantly. Therein lies a hotbed of potential for new
solutions and new information to be disseminated.

Consider your own needs and problems as an Internet user.
Believe it or not, there are untold numbers of other people
worldwide who are experiencing the same situations. I
behooves you to do some research, find solutions to your
own problems, and then help others to fulfill those needs.

Now, think about what specialized knowledge you already
have. Practically everyone has experience and insight that
others will happily pay for. Natural human curiosity
motivates us all to want to know what others know, and the
range of topics is limitless. What you know IS worth money
to many other people.

Reason #3 - I'm Not a Good Writer.

Have you ever written a letter to a friend? Do you
communicate with others through email? Then you CAN write.
Whether or not you think you are 'good' is not an issue
here. After all, we're talking about creating an
information product, not winning a Pulitzer Prize.

Begin with an outline or framework of the major points you
want to convey. Next, add sub-topics as needed to elaborate
your point. Then, begin 'filling in the blanks' with the
information and knowledge that you have on each point. Even
the great novelist James A. Michener used this mechanical
approach.

Even the best writers in any venue compose their works in
rough draft. Editing, punctuation, and grammar correction
comes later, and is typically relegated to someone else who
has an eye for such work.

Final editing can be easily accomplished by contacting the
English department of a local high school or college. You
may also do an online search for the keywords 'editing
services' or 'ghost writing' to get professional assistance.

Reason #4 - I Don't Know How To Compile The Product.

eBook compiler softwares are readily available for as
little as $20 US, and since their advent a few years ago,
they have come a long way toward being user friendly.
Besides, this is actually the most simple of all the steps
in generating your own eproduct. Using a good software like
eBook Edit Pro, you can have a ready to market product in
as little as 30 minutes.

If you prefer to seek professional help at this stage, do
an online search for the keywords 'ebook compiling
services.' You will be presented with several options to
investigate.

Reason #5 - I Don't Know Where or How To Sell The Product.

This is not a valid reason either. The Internet itself is
an information driven medium. Most Internet users come
online seeking one thing only . . . information. Your job
will be to present your product in the right places when
those people come looking for the information.

Untold numbers of volumes are available on the Net that
deal with the topic of ebook marketing. We're happy to
offer, with our compliments, three concise guides that will
help you on the way to successfully marketing your own
eproducts. Send a blank email to our autoresponder for the
download links.

mailto:selfpublish@listwarrior.com

So you see, there is actually nothing standing in the way
of you creating and marketing your own eproducts, except
your own fears, or your own failure to recognize your own
natural abilities. Begin right now by saying 'I CAN.'

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dan B. Cauthron offers original marketing insights and a
7-Volume eMarketing Library to all new subscribers. Join
his list by visiting http://www.Earn-Revenew.com or send
your name and email address to Dan@Earn-Revenew.com
with the words 'subscribe me' in the subject bar.
-----------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2002 - Serenity Marketing Group LLC
All Rights Reserved Worldwide

About the Author

None

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5 Deadly Viral Ebook Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid

by: John Hocking

Creating a viral ebook marketing campaign can be one of the
easiest and most effective ways to promote your product
or website.

Before you begin writing your viral ebook, you need
to know the 5 most common mistakes that can cost you
time and potential income.

1) Never Link Directly to Content You Do Not Control

You should always use redirect links placed on your own
server instead of direct links to affiliate programs.

You never know when the program you are promoting will
change the way its affiliate links work or go out of
business. Using redirect links allows you to quickly
replace the affiliate links with the new version or
redirect to a similar product.

I can not stress enough how important this step is to you.
Once you launch your viral ebook, you can not get it back
to make changes to it. Using redirect links will prevent
dead links and lost profit.

2) Avoid Using Dated Information By Providing Too Specific
Details.

Do not talk about free trials or time specific discounts.

The affiliate program you are promoting my not always be
offering the trials or discounts. You will anger your readers
if they can not get the bargains you promised.

You should also avoid statements like "Just Released" or
"Just Launched!". The program you are talking about may
have been around for years but the time your reader gets
your ebook.

3) Never Include Information You Do Not Want All Over The World.

Because of the viral nature of your ebook, it will eventually
spread to every corner of the world.

If you include personal information like your home phone
or your cell phone number, you may be unpleasantly
awakened at all hours of the night. The person in England
or Japan, may not be aware you live in United States.

It is best to provide only an email address or autoresponder
for the initial contact.

4) Do Not Brand The Ebook Yourself

Putting yourself in the position of having to manually
brand and send each copy of the ebook is a sure way to
turn your campaign into NIGHTMARE.

You may be thinking, "What's the BIG DEAL?"

Let imagine for a moment that your ebook starts out slowly
and only 10 people request a branded version the first week.
It takes you about 6 minutes per ebook to brand it and send
it to the user. You have just given up an hour of your life.

Now those 10 people each give it away to 10 people that
also request branded versions. You now have 100 new requests
at 6 minutes each. Now were are talking 60 hours.

As you can see with each passing generation, you will
quickly become unable or unwilling to fulfill requests.

The solution is to give your carriers the ability and
instructions to rebrand the ebooks themselves. This will
take you out of the loop and allow your virus to grow
exponentially unattended.

5) Do Not Forget To Launch A New Window For External Links

When linking to any information not found directly in
your ebook, you should always open a new window. Many
sales processes use javascript that could cause compatibly
problems if viewed within your ebook.

It would be terrible if a viewer where ready to buy a
product based on your reccomendation but was unable to
because you failed to include this simple step.

Avoiding these 5 simple viral ebook marketing mistakes will
greatly increase the profitability of your campaign while
avoiding the pitfalls.

John Hocking created http://www.guidetoebookmarketing.com
"Your Source of Information on Creating and Marketing Ebooks"
To learn how to create your own viral ebook visit John
Hocking's Viral Ebook Resource http://www.viral-ebook.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John Hocking created http://www.guidetoebookmarketing.com
"Your Source of Information on Creating and Marketing Ebooks"
To learn how to create your own viral ebook visit John
Hocking's Viral Ebook Resource http://www.viral-ebook.com

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