Articles About Books And Publishing

From Idea To Published Book ... How To Self-publish The Easy Way!

I've been involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and project manager; however, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own, personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.

This short article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a few other book projects in the making that will detail the book self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give you a good basis of understanding.

The Idea

The most difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We all have ideas. It's part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people want simple and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books that teach, inform, and entertain.

When you sit down and really think about all you've learned throughout your life, you'll be amazed at how much you really know! Your life experiences alone could fill a library! Even if you feel that you don't have any knowledge that would be of interest to anyone, you can start small. Research a market that interests you, find your competition, learn all that you can about a specific subject, and then write about it. Your ideas are important, as your knowledge and point-of-view are unique and of interest to others.

Planning the Product

I always suggest keeping your book concise and informative. This provides a small footprint, yet it also allows your readers to purchase your book at a reasonable price. Keep it around 100 pages, which, once in book format, equals about 50, two-sided pages.

The core content of the manuscript consists of a title page, copyright, table of contents, figure and table references, acknowledgements, forwards, content, appendices, index, and back page. This list is the basic minimum requirements to support the information necessary to present your book and its content. Of course, you can add other items such as a glossary and a preface, but such inclusions are at your discretion.

It is best to produce your book in the standard 5.5 by 8.5 format in both print and PDF. I always suggest PDF to my publishing clients because it is one of the few cross-platform (i.e., Mac, PC, PDA, and UNIX-based machines) document distribution products available today and it is the most popular.

The Manuscript

Once you've focused on an idea, you'll have to create an outline or table of contents to define the content. The best way I've found to do this is to break the idea down into blocks of contiguous information --- similar to assembling a pyramid. Step through your idea and ensure that you are building from, for example, the most general information to the most specific information. Check the outline several times, and have a friend review it, to ensure that gaps are filled in appropriately.

You can actually over-rewrite your work to the point of frustration and burn-out. Ensure that you've planned and researched appropriately to provide a solid foundation. In this way you can develop a first draft and then perform substantive and grammar edits. Then, perform a technical edit and a second draft. Once the second draft is complete, move into a final copy edit then, once you produce galleys or a sample version of the finished book, perform a proof read. Don't rework any of the core steps of document development, but ensure that each step is completed with quality in mind. This ensures a solid product in a short amount of time. If you would like to update or add to the information in your first release, provide a follow-up revision.

ISBN and Copyright

Once you've started your manuscript, order your group of ISBNs. You can sign up for your ISBNs at http://www.isbn.org for about $240 for 10 ISBNs. However, additional fees can be imposed based on express orders. This is why I say, order the ISBNs while you're writing the manuscript so that you can afford to wait the 10 days for standard, free, delivery.

You will have to convert your ISBN numbers to EAN barcodes to apply to the back page of your book. The barcode must consist of the ISBN you assigned to the book as well as the coded pricing of the book. You can have a vendor generate the barcodes for between $3 (http://www.toupin.com/serv_writing.asp) and $20 per barcode or you can download and use the Barcode Maker (http://hem.passagen.se/sams/barcode.htm) to generate your own barcodes. For the price, it will pay for itself in just a few ISBNs for your books.

Once you have assigned one of your ISBNs to a book, you can register it in Books In Print (http://www.booksinprint.com/bip/). This is how booksellers are able to access your information and sell your book through their outlets. Additionally, you'll want to register your manuscript-in-progress with the Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication (http://cip.loc.gov/cip/ecipp14.html). This registers your book for access by libraries and government archives. You will be e-mailed the CIP data to be printed on the copyright page following the heading Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.

To protect your work and ideas, copyrighting your book is a simple and inexpensive process. There are actually several different methods of protecting your work including government and commercial organizations. The primary sites are the government copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/forms/) and WriteSafe (http://www.writesafe.com/).

Production

There are many different ways to produce your books; however, costs range from a $1,000 initial setup plus the purchase of a few hundred copies down to no setup fees and pay-as-you-go. The final choice is yours, but my direction involved a local printing company and a pay-as-you-go scheme. With this approach, reduced initial costs are reflected back to the readers and your profit potential is seen immediately.

Three places that I've experimented with to print some of my books include Kinko's (http://www.kinkos.com/), InstantPublisher (http://instantpublisher.com/pricing.htm), and Mimeo (http://www.mimeo.com/). Of course, use these for starters to experiment with your books. Eventually, you'll find the right bindery for your needs. You can locate many publishers via Google.com or AllTheWeb.com using keywords such as online printing, book printing, and print on demand, but once you get some experience behind you, the choice will be much easier.

Marketing and Distribution

Once you assign and register your ISBN for your manuscript, it becomes available to the multitude of book stores around the globe including Amazon, Borders, Barnes&Noble, and various other major book sellers. Now that you have your book out there, the trick is to have people purchase the book and have book stores stock copies on their shelves.

To have the book stores purchase in quantity, you'll have to devise a solid marketing plan to their acquisitions personnel. In many cases, book stores will simply sell your book to their customers as it is requested, but if you can get them to buy in bulk, that's greater exposure and sales for you!

You can also license out the content to various professional speakers. Speakers are always looking for ways to provide quality information specific to their presentations. They might use your content in a handout, or perhaps for sale in the back of the room. Locate those speakers that fit within your audience and contact them. Find out their needs for their next presentation and work out a deal for them to resell your books. I've had many speakers use my articles in their presentations and the exposure and feedback has been overwhelming.

Of course, you should always locate affiliates to help sell your books. One way is to offer them a percentage of the gross sales or sell them copies of the books at a discount. Either way, you will have agents out pushing your books for you to make money for them, as well as for you.

Always provide a web site that boasts the benefits of your book. Use a book cover maker to create a book image on the web site. One quality book cover creator is called CoverFactory (http://www.ans2000.com/a2k_coverfactory.php) and provides numerous capabilities to generate professional looking covers for books, software, and services.

Free content is an important way to bring people to your site and let people know about your book. You can provide rewritten excerpts from your book as articles and submit them to various article announcement lists, press release sites, zines, and directories. I've been able to locate and associate with over 1,000 sites and lists that accept and publish my articles. This provides outstanding coverage for my sites, services, and products.

Sales and Returns

Since you are the publisher, you now have to determine how to handles sales. It's important to define how you will handle direct sales and shipping, bulk sales, and affiliates. You want to ensure that your sales go smoothly as well as provide enough of a margin so that everyone profits.

When collecting funds, it's important to accept credit cards through one of the popular merchant vendors. To minimize expenses and provide a common and secure payment mechanism, I use StormPay (http://www.stormpay.com) and PayPal (http://www.paypal.com). Since people have their likes and dislikes of online payment vendors, using both allows many different types of users to submit payments. Of course, you must always determine how to handle returns as part of a quality customer service program.

What's next?

Obviously, the information provided here is merely an overview of the entire process. However, I am working on a book that provides all of the details of producing your own book under your own imprint. Publishing provides excellent return monetarily as well as through enhanced self-esteem. There is quite a feeling that comes with getting your message out there and having people return positive feedback. Perhaps, once you self-publish a few of your own titles, you can work on publishing other authors and open a full-fledged publishing house. In this day, such a venture is not unheard of!

Edward B. Toupin, Ph.D., is a published author, life-strategy coach, counselor, Reiki Master, and technical writer living in Las Vegas, NV. Edward works with people to help them strive for a richer life. He also authors books, articles, and screenplays on topics ranging from career success through life organization and fulfillment. Check out some of his recent print and electronic books as well as his articles covering various life-changing topics! Contact Edward at etoupin@toupin.com or visit his site at http://www.make-life-great.com.

Other Article Sites

findabook.com  moneycd.info  a-mortgage.info   about-lemon-laws.info  aboutstudentloans.info
all-about-publishing.info  auctions-articles.info  bestcollege-university.com  bestispconnection.com
biblefolder.com  blogger-website.com  books-used.info  brokers-guide.info  buywindows.info  cable-dsl.info
career-miner.com  carpel-tunnel.info  cashinaflash.info  cashloanreviews.info  casinobell.com  chat-house.info
clearmycredit.info  collegeloantips.info  crones.info  depression-articles.info   dirnic.net  dishguides.info
divers-below.com  expodog.info   financewizz.com  fire-insurance.info  getgood.info  handleit.net   it-idea.info
health-supplies.info  hosting-right.com  insidealert.com  insurance-facts.info  jobs-employment.info
justgood.info  lookgold.net   lowcost-travel.info  money-source.info  myhostzone.info  numisblog.com
peoplesearchfinder.info  pr-articles.info  realeas.com   refinancing-guides.info  spyware-remove.info
telelot.info  the-law.info   toppaid.info  travel-deals.info  travelcorrect.com  wedding-guide-site.com
your-blog.info  your-credit.info

MORE ARTICLES:

Offshore Newsletters, Books and Guides
Introduction - Our law firm has clients that come to us referencing some book they read about offshore banking or offshore corporations. We have read a lot of this material and though it was time to comment on it and the same for the offshore newsletters.

Top Independent Comic Books Premiere at New York Comic Con
Summ Publications, King Tractor Press, and After Hours Press are ecstatic to announce that they've teamed up for the New York Comic Con. They will have available exclusive premiere comic books from all three publishers. The three comic book publishers are making booth 959 a must see with a handful of preview books, exclusives and special sales.

3 Ways to Publish RSS
As RSS news syndication gains popularity among users, new ways for publishing RSS are emerging. In this article, I examine the three most popular methods, and help you decide which one works best for you.

Promote Your Books on Talk Shows and Make More Money
Successful authors are convinced that radio interviews are the very best way to reach large audiences and publicize their books. Interviews give authors an opportunity to expound on the topic of their book and disclose personal feelings.

How to Self Publish a Book and Stamp Pro On It
How to Self Publish a Book and Stamp Pro On It

National Bestselling Author Asha Tyson Offers Free Self-Publishing Tele-Seminar On How to "Publish Your Book in 60 Days!"
Aspiring authors are being given a once in a lifetime opportunity to bypass agents and publishing industry executives in favor of achieving success on their own terms -- thanks to national bestselling author, Asha Tyson and her one day only free telephone seminar on how to "Publish Your Book in 60 Days!" Interested authors should visit www.freeselfpublishing.info immediately to secure a slot. Space is limited.

Beginners Cook Books & More
If you are expecting guest to come to your home for dinner for the holiday season and you haven?t cooked any edible meals since your childhood birthday gift, an Easy Bake Oven, practice will help you make the perfect dinner. Don?t wait until the last minute to begin practicing to make your mouth watering cuisine for your dinner guest. Remember, a cook is judged by their dinner. Dinners should be planned at least 2 to 3 weeks before your guest arrive. Purchasing the right cookware along with the right recipe can make a delicious meal.

Children Books Toys Dropshippers
Drop Shipping and Using Dropshippers For The Ebay Auction Arena!: Some times you may have to negotiate a deal to get them to drop ship for you. Even when you can find a wholesaler, chances are that you are either paying exorbitant shipping costs to get the inventory delivered to you or that the wholesaler doesn't have a wide selection of items. In the first case, you have to price your auction items so that you can recoup the shipping charges you paid, a strategy that just may prevent buyers from bidding on or buying your items. In the second instance, you may have thirty-five cases of pink widgets in your inventory, only to find that green widgets are selling like hotcake's but pink widgets went out of fashion last season. Many sellers on...

Inkubook Photo Book Maker Offers Free Books
Collaborative Photo Book Web Site Offers Free Photo Books to Users Who Invite Friends to View Book, Submit Photos.

Why Self-Publish Your Book?
When I meet an author with a great book concept, one who's definitely the right person to write that book, right away I'll often encourage him or her to self-publish. This is because I know that, if an author is thoroughly invested in what they have to say, and if they're determined to create a buzz about their message, they'll discover .

Promoting Audio Books For Quick Profits.
The Ideal situation when doing affiliate marketing is to be able to test quickly without much effort. Then just start checking of a list to see what works and what does not. Pay per click works great for this but often times you need a website because if others are promoting the same web pages you cannot advertise it on Google. So what I do is promote audio books from a site that has many options for me to integrate their content in to my site. This allows me to take the audio content that is relevant to my sites theme. The key here is the ability to use that content to your advantage with fewer restrictions. This also applies to the way you advertise into given pages without having intense competition.

Parents - Let Audio Books Make Life A Whole Lot Easier!
Audio books are dearly loved by parents for understandable reasons: time constraints such as work, household duties and the like, tend to overwhelm parents when they would much rather be tucking their kids in at bedtime and telling them a story; well, children can enjoy audio books like Roald Dahl?s Fantastic Mr. Fox without the parents being present.

New Blank Political Books Reflect Divided Opinions About Sarah Palin and Barack Obama
Satirical books about Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Barack Obama ask: What do they really know?

Bumpybooks Now Available at All New York City Libraries - Books for Challenged Readers Especially those with Dyslexia
The popular bumpybooks is the only book of its kind. Rapidly becoming a preferred reading manual for anyone interested in helping struggling readers to read and write, bumpybooks utilizes their dynamic ability of teaching readers how to teach others to read and write.

Peace River Books Brings an Entire World of Grand Adventure, One Page at a Time
Peace River Books of Grand Rapids, Minnesota introduces adventure writer Ron Shepherd to readers of great adventure stories. He writes of his own adventures and of the many places he has seen and lived during his lifetime.