Sell

When I first started researching companies who provide author solutions services some years ago, Virtualbookworm (VBM) was one high on the radar. About four or five years ago, had you dropped ‘self-publishing’ as a keyword into a Google search or visited many self-publishing resources looking for information on self-publishing, you can bet VBW would have been pretty high up there in prominence. Try the same now and you will have to do far more extensive searches before you come across the name, VBM.

“Then he [writer and founder] discovered self publishing and the endless opportunities it presented. However, such a venture requires countless hours of research of printers, proofreaders, artists, etc. And after publication, even more time is consumed trying to market the book.

So, Virtualbookworm.com was established as a "clearinghouse" for authors, since it offers virtually everything under one roof. Although we now charge setup and design fees, those costs are kept to a minimum so as to cover all expenses. And, as with "traditional" publishers, we carefully review each manuscript and only offer contracts to authors who truly have exceptional manuscripts. We don’t print garbage, and we want our authors to proudly say they were published by Virtualbookworm. If we accept your book for publication, you can rest assured that it will be sold next to other quality books, and not just work that had enough money behind it. And, you’ll receive some of the best royalties in the business!”

I have never once thought that a writer founding a service for self-publishing is entirely a sound foundation, unless of course that writer has had considerable experience in all the critical areas of the industry—sales, marketing, editing and production under the umbrella of a traditional publisher. I also do not think authors of any savvy will take to the description of VBW as being a ‘clearing house’ when it first was established.

“What makes Virtualbookworm.com different than other POD providers?

Well, first off, we won’t print garbage. You must follow the submission and genre guidelines … and each manuscript must be reviewed and approved before we will accept your order. If we do accept the order, we will give you as much personalized support as necessary until the project is complete. This means your book won’t be selling on the same site as a book that has tons of errors just because the other author had enough cash! Plus, Virtualbookworm.com is one of the most established POD publishers in the industry, having been in business since 2000.”

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/about.html

“Have a question or comment? Need help ordering or with the publishing section? First check our searchable Knowledge Base for Frequently Asked Questions. If you didn’t find the answer to your question, please click the link below to go to our Support Center, which is on a separate server to save resources. After registering, you can submit a trouble ticket (which can be used for any question, etc.) or check the status of a ticket.”

VBW do offer a downloadable publishing guide to their services, an online bookstore, a latest release link at the bottom of their web pages, and a recently launched author community, which turns out to be essentially links to their Facebook and Twitter pages. However, for the first real time, we get a glimpse at a number of published titles with links directly to their online bookstore.

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/ebook.html
 

“How much of a discount does the distributor and/or bookstores receive?

This is a tough question since it depends on a number of factors. We usually list our books at a 30-35% discount. This keeps the retail price low and is acceptable by Amazon and the other "big boys." However, some small bookstores want a 40-50% discount. Since it is your bottom line that is affected (royalties), we let YOU decide on the discount (however higher discounts will raise the retail price).”

Taking the retailer discount at its lowest, for books sold through distribution networks like Amazon, the breakdown is as follows:

“Since some authors think true self publishing is when you do all of the setup, etc. yourself, we’ve decided to just put all of the services under one roof (er, website) for you. Instead of having to search for a cover designer, layout artist, editor, printer, etc., you can simply do it all here. Just let us know which services you need and how many copies you would like in your original order and we will send you an estimate.

Please note that you will be sent the master files of everything, so you can always go elsewhere to get the books printed if you prefer.”

VBW offer their authors a non-exclusive contract, though it should be noted they require exclusive distribution rights for ebooks—meaning you cannot make your ebook for sale outside of VBW’s distribution channels. The contract contains a cancellation term of 90 days for the author, but this is subject to a $50 fee before the author can move their book to another provider/publisher. The term of the contract is for two years.

“The Author also agrees that he/she will hold Virtualbookworm.com, its distributors, and any retailer harmless against any recovery or penalty arising out of his/her breach of this warranty. Author will also reimburse Virtualbookworm.com Publishing for all court costs and legal fees incurred.”

Heck, I don’t fancy paying VBW’s court costs even when I’ve won a judgement! I am not sure how this term would play out with a judge in a court of law, but technically, I have signed the contract and I am bound by its terms.

This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney’s POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing site.

Twitter is a great way to promote a book while you build your networks and expert reputation. Here are ten ways authors can harness the power of Twitter:

1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. You can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, offer tips and discuss other books that you enjoy.

2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you’re listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.

3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.

4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, teleseminars, and book launches.

5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner. See this post for tips on creating a Twitter contest.

6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it’s amazing how helpful folks are. You can also ask for feedback on your book title, cover design or website.

7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products.  Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.

8. Promote a book or other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches. Keep promotional and self-serving tweets to 10% to 20% of your total posts.

9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it’s a great place to learn more about the publishing industry and meet partners who can help you promote a book.

10. Keep in touch when you’re on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.

Have fun! It’s fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship while you promote a book.

Excerpted from Twitter Guide for Authors, by book marketing coach Dana Lynn Smith. For more tips, visit her book marketing blog and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.

 It’s probably every writer’s dream, secretly or otherwise, to make a living as a freelancer. Unfortunately, the reality seldom meets the dream and most of us either suffer until we die or, more likely, until we get a “real job.” Enter the idea of self-publishing.

I am no financial wiz, but as an up and coming Independent Author I’ve come to realize that money matters — a lot. Like others of you struggling to “make it” as a writer, I want to succeed, to see my dream become a reality. I refuse to buy into the myth, as Joseph and Denise call it, of the “struggling artist.” I don’t just believe in the possibility. I know it exists and I will be following the financial roadsigns of success on The Road to Writing.

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Road To Writing blog.

Recently I wrote a post about how self-publishing is a perfect long-tail business. As I said there,

As publishers, we can use this information to our advantage. Google and other search engines make available the actual search terms that people type into their search field. This powerful information is studied by internet marketers under the term keywords. An author who understands keywords, how they are used, and how to target the people who search on them, can go a long way toward making his nonfiction book a success.

Now I’d like to take a closer look at keywords and how they can help the nonfiction publisher.

Web Presence First and Foremost

Before we can address keywords, though, I have to say something about web presence. This is, for many self-published authors, the beginning of their platform building efforts. Most of the people I see entering self-publishing have little or no web presence before they begin the publishing process.

Maybe they have a personal blog, or a website connected to a business. But I’m talking about an actual personal presence on the web and in social media. That includes:
 

• active blogging on your specialty, and or
• Facebook marketing through fan pages and regular updates, and or
• developing a Twitter profile and connecting to people with similar interests, and or
• connecting on other sites appropriate for your subject area. Lots of business-oriented publishers congregate on LinkedIn, for instance, and there are subject-oriented online communities centered around most topics.

As an author in whatever field you write in, you need to become familiar with these social settings. This is where people interested in your topic “hang out” and where you can learn what their interests, their problems, and their needs are. And they can get to know you.

Interacting in these social media spaces helps to establish your expertise as well. All of these efforts will bear fruit when it comes time to market your book.

The Big Funnel

With some kind of presence on the web, with a central location you can refer people to when they express an interest in your book or your niche, you are ready to look at keywords. Why? Because every nonfiction author has goals, and those goals are usually dependent on finding more readers.

Your challenge is figuring out how to find the people looking for your book, even though they may not even know it exists. Going back to my example of pizza baking, if I’m publishing a book on the best way to bake pizza at home, I want to find the people who are already looking for that information. Pizza is the number one fast food in the United States, outselling burgers, tacos, burritos and every other form of fast food, so we know pizza is popular. We also know more and more people are interested in cooking at home, in slow food, and in artisinal food preparation.

This is where keywords comes in. Keywords are really nothing more or less than the terms that people use when they are searching for something. But which keywords will work for a nonfiction author of a book on home pizza baking? Single keywords—like pizza—are virtually useless for us. They are too general. If you search on that keyword, most of the results you’ll get are for local Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s and so on.

Here’s where I’m going to introduce you to a great free tool you can use to investigate your own specialty area. It’s the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. There are lots of keyword tools available, but this one is free and easy to use. It’s a great place to start.

Going Google on Keywords

Click to enlarge

Google provides this tool for people who want to advertise with them because their AdWords program is a way to “buy” keywords and the searches that are made on them. But let’s take a look at the tool itself:

You can see I entered the phrase “baking pizza” in the entry box. I put the phrase in quotation marks because I want only results that mention this exact phrase somewhere. In the bottom half of the window you see the top of the results list. Looking at the top line, for instance, we see that “bake pizza” was searched for in the previous month 33,100 times in the United States, in English. The green bar indicates that advertisers are bidding on this term to capture traffic from people typing “bake pizza” into a Google search bar. This is also how Google’s software matches its ads to your searches.

But the real value for niche marketers is in going down, down, down the list to find the real treasures. This is where you’ll learn more about your target market, the people most likely to be interested in your book and your other programs associated with it. Below this section is another section Google calls “Additional Keywords to Consider.”

The list starts with short keywords, like baking stones and pizza ovens, highly sought-after keywords for companies looking to capture searchers looking to make a product purchase. Farther down, the phrases get longer. This is where you start traveling out the long tail of this search. Now we encounter active search phrases like these:

• making pizza dough, 5,400 searches
• wood burning pizza ovens, 1,900 searches
• pizza dough recipes, 27,100 searches

Keep in mind that each of these longtail keyword phrases can also generate more keywords. For instance, if I enter “making pizza dough” in the entry box and search again, I’ll get a whole new set of keyword results, one of which is “quick pizza dough,” with 8,100 searches a month.

In the next installment, I’ll show you how you can use this very exact information that Google makes freely available about the searches run through its software. And just how powerful this kind of information can be for the nonfiction author who knows how to use it.

Takeaway: Nonfiction self-publishers are in an ideal position to take advantage of keyword marketing once they’ve established a presence on the web.

This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer site.

The next book I wrote after "Hello Alzheimer’s Good Bye Dad", about caring for my father, was "Open A Window" – ISBN 1438244991. A caregiver’s handbook that is used to train CNAs in long term care and as an ice breaker at Alzheimer’s support group meetings. This book I actually had printed at a print shop. I’m very proud of the book for the help it has been.

In 2000, residents family members would stop to ask me questions about why their loved one said things like they hadn’t been fed all day. Sometimes, the family couldn’t understand the behavior problems or the sudden declines. I remembered the days when I wanted so much to know about Alzheimer’s disease in order to help my father. By 2000, the Alzheimer’s Association was well known and very helpful if families contacted them. In some cases that didn’t happen. Not realizing how devastating the disease would become, the relatives didn’t bother to become educated until they were surprised by devastating events. I decided I need to write a book that would educate the families that I came in contact with at the nursing home. Little did I know that the book would go much farther than that.

Over the years, I had 100 copies printed, sold those and had another 100 books printed before I self published the book last summer. To go along with publishing the book, I asked Jolene Brackey a well known author and speaker about Alzheimer’s if she would give me a review to put on the back of the book. Now how did I get the nerve to ask for that review? The administrator at the nursing home had sent one my book to Jolene. She liked it so much she called to ask me if I would let her use some of my stories in her next book "Creating Moments Of Joy". What an honor. Of course, I said yes. About three years ago, Jolene was in the area doing her presentations. I went. Jolene waved her book around as she told the audience if we wanted one we would have to buy it from her website. She only packed one for the plane trip. As I was leaving that day, she stopped me and handed me that signed book. She had brought it for me. So when I published my book "Open A Window" I thought I’d ask her for the review, and I got it.

Jolene’s review – "This book shares what is possible if we allow a person with Alzheimer’s to "be" who they are right now. Thank You for "opening" a window."
 

For more about Jolene Brackey visit her website http://www.enhancedmoments.com

In August of 2002, I was asked to be the first speaker for an evening session for CNAs at the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual conference. Due to the fact that I mentioned CNAs don’t get enough education about Alzheimer’s. They learn most of what they know by on the job experience. My presentation was "Many Hats" taken from the social worker’s call to me about my father in 1999. That presentation was a workout that signified how hectic our life becomes when we deal with sick parents, our family needs and work. I confiscated some of the better looking of my husband’s many farm caps. On each, I sewed a pink ribbon band with the words, wife, daughter, mother and CNA. ( Which I had to remove before my husband would wear the hats again.) As I told about my concerns and experiences, I took off one hat and slapped another on my head for emphasis. At the end of the speech, I showed the audience my book. The CNAs flocked to buy them. One woman was a social worker. For two years in a row, she took a box of my books to the social workers conference in Ames, Iowa and sold them. That is how my book wound up at the first CNA training. A social worker gave her book to an RN who trains the CNAs. The RN sent for more books.

Promoting doesn’t and shouldn’t end with the book sale. I live in the middle of farming country where book sale events are hard to find. Harvest is about ready to start. Winter is coming soon. The internet is my best and handiest method for promoting. I’ve just had a successful book sale. Now I can build on that and find ways to promote the fact that I am an author with books for sale.

I took my camera to the book sale and snapped a lot of pictures. The first pictures, my son took of me in my pioneer dress and bonnet and of my table after it was set up with stacks of books and the two posters. With these pictures I made an album on Facebook and other web sites complete with captions.

On twitter, I submitted messages about my book sale and later wrote to take a look at my album on Facebook. By the way, I am developing a following. I have at least two authors following me now – Stephanie Cowell and Steve Weber the author of Plug Your Book – online book marketing for authors: a book I have and use.

Every time I find a website for writer/authors I’ve signed up. In fact, I am on so many that I had to log them in a notebook with login name and password. I picked booksbyfay as a login name to show what I do. Having a list helps me keep track so I don’t forget to make entries on one of those web sites about a new book, a book sale or press release. Several of these websites have links to other websites where I happened to be registered so I can link what I do to be announced on those sites.

I’ve put a link to Publetariat where I could. Hopefully, internet surfers will come across my blog post on the front page. On Biblioscribe, I wrote two news articles. One article was about the success of my book sale. The other article was about my blog post "Preparing For A Book Sale" posted on the front page of Publetariat. That should get people to take a look at Publetariat and perhaps become interested in my blog. I keep readers of my blogs on myentre.net and blogger informed.

So don’t stop promoting after a book sale event. Keep finding ways to get your name out there until the next event. Then begin all over again.
 

This is a reprint from Fay Risner’s Books By Fay blog.

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

One of the areas that I get the most questions about is the use of the ISBN, the unique numeric identifier that’s used around the world to identify books. New self-publishers are especially concerned with making sure their books are registered properly, that everything is done so that their book can be sold without any problems or confusion.

Because this area is specific to the book business, there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation about ISBN and how it works. I strongly recommend you use the resources provided by Bowker, the company resposible for ISBNs in the United States, on the ISBN website and at Bowker’s website.

But even faster, without any further delay, here are 20 answers to the most commonly-asked questions about ISBN.

Questions and Answers about ISBN

1. What is an ISBN?
   ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a 13-digit number that’s used as a unique identifier for books. ISBN is used internationally.

    

2. What do all the numbers mean?
   See my earlier article on decoding the ISBN.

    

3. Why do we need ISBNs?
   We need them to identify each book that is published, and each edition of the same book. ISBN also identifies the publisher of the book. It is the standard ID number used to identify books by booksellers, libraries, book wholesalers and distributors.

    

4. Should I get an ISBN?
   If you plan to sell your book in bookstores, to libraries, or through online retailers like Amazon.com, you will need an ISBN.

    

5. Does a book have to be published to have an ISBN?
   ISBNs are issued to publishers, who then assign them to individual books. This can be done at any time, even before the book is written.

    

6. Is the ISBN the bar code I see on the back of books?
   The bar code is a representation of the ISBN in a form that can be identified by scanners. The bar code might also have other information embedded in it, like the price of the book and the currency in which it is priced.

    

7. Okay, do I need to have a bar code too?
   Only if you plan to sell your book in bookstores. If you only plan to sell online, or privately like at speaking engagements, you don’t need a bar code. Many publishers put them on their books anyway.

    

8. If I get an ISBN, does that mean my book is copyrighted?
   No, ISBN is administered by a private company for the use of the international book trade. Copyright is administered by the Library of Congress and is an extension of intellectual property law.

    

9. If I have an ISBN, does that mean my book will be in Books in Print?
   Once you have an ISBN you can go to BowkerLink to fill out the forms necessary for your book to be listed in Books in Print.

    

10. Can self-publishers get an ISBN?
    A self-publisher is still a publisher, so yes, you just apply for an ISBN like anyone else.

     

11. How do I get an ISBN?
    Go to myidentifiers.com, the ISBN website run by Bowker, which is the only company authorized to administer the ISBN program in the United States. Click on “ISBN Identifiers” and you’ll be taken to a page where you can buy 1, 10, 100 or 1000 ISBNs.

     

12. How many ISBNs should I buy?
    The least economical choice is to buy 1 ISBN. If you ever publish another edition of your book, or another book entirely, you will need more than one ISBN. I suggest you buy the 10 pack.

     

13. What do ISBNs cost?
    A single ISBN today costs $125, while 10 ISBNs cost $250, 100 cost $575 and 1000 cost $1000. Note that the price per ISBN drops from $125 to $25 to $5.75 to $1.

     

14. Isn’t it just a number? Why does a number cost $125?
    Many people are pondering this question, so far without an answer. Obviously, it’s not because of the cost of the product. Could there be another reason?

     

15. Well, can I re-use my ISBN?
    No, sorry, once assigned to a book, an ISBN can never be reused.

     

16. Where do I put the ISBN?
    You’ll print it on the copyright page, and it’s included in the Cataloging-in-Publication data block, if you use one. Otherwise, just print it on the copyright page and, of course, on the back cover as part of the bar code.

     

17. I’m doing a print book and an ebook. Do I need two ISBNs, or can I use the same one?
    This is a matter of some discussion at the moment, since there are more and more electronic formats. The policy of assigining a separate ISBN to each and every edition is under review. Check back for more info.

     

18. How about a hardcover and a softcover of the same book?
    You need a separate ISBN for each edition, to identify them for everyone who might want to find them in directories, catalogs and databases.

     

19. If I revise my book, do I need to give it a new ISBN?
    If you only correct typographical errors, and don’t make any substantial changes to the text, you don’t need a new ISBN because it’s considered a reprint. A new edition would contain substantially new material, a major revision, or the addition of completely new elements. Anything that makes it a new book is likely to create a new edition and, therefore, need a new ISBN.

     

20. How about if I just change the cover?
    You can continue to use the same ISBN, since the text has not changed.

Well, there you have it. In 20 questions and about 5 minutes, you’ve overcome the confusion about ISBN. Have a question you didn’t see answered here? Ask in the comments and we’ll run down the answer.

Takeaway: Getting the ISBN for your new publishing company is a necessary step to becoming a publisher and getting your book into print correctly. It’s not difficult once you understand how to do it.

This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer site.