GREETINGS

Hopefully your Christmas was happy and filled with family events. If you celebrate a different holiday, then blessings to you.

If you are thinking of your book project during this season, write from the heart. This is an opportune time to observe life lessons and apply them to your writing.

Best Wishes.

Denise & Joni

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

This is such a busy but joyful time of year. Keep the joy in mind as you struggle to find a parking spot, wade through crowds of shoppers and stand in line to pay for your purchases. After all, you are one of the people causing the craziness. :-)

Don't forget your goals in all of the frenzy. You might even find material for your book in what you observe and the lessons that you learn. It is so important to write what you know about, so keep your everyday life in mind.

Have a wonderful Christmas, no matter how you and your loved ones celebrate this special time of year.

Denise and Joni

Ebooks

Have you heard about Kindle? Have you considered converting your book to an ebook and selling it on Amazon.com? For now, you require a U.S. mailing address but that will change soon. In the meantime, you can download the Kindle reader for FREE to your computer and familiarize yourself with ebooks. This is just a brilliant opportunity, so take advantage of it. There are plenty of free ebooks available that you can use as market research.

If you want more details, just send us an email to info@inktreemarketing.com.

Denise

Excellence in Writing and in Publishing

I wish that I was more dedicated to blogging, but journaling was never my forte. However, I try to send out some words of information if not wisdom as often as possible. For today, I just want to say a few words about excellence.

Writing a book is often about sharing your information and/or your wisdom. So many people have vast stores of experience and accumulated knowledge that can benefit thousands of people. When you decide to write a book, stay true to your roots and to your background. Write about what you know to be true. Even though you are writing from your own knowledge, though, keep your audience in mind. They are the people who are searching for something to fill a need. They don't want to know what is best for you the author; they are searching for help. Hold that thought. Help them and they will want your book.

My best advice to you, coming from my experience, is to publish the very best book that you can manage. Don't be satisfied with mediocre. Be satisfied only with excellence.

Denise

How much does it cost to publish a book?

Here is the question of the day:

How much does it cost to publish a book?

Answer:

That is a big question: it mainly depends on the printing costs (size of book, type of paper, graphics and photos, cover stock, type of binding, number of books printed, etc.). It can cost anywhere from $2500.00 to $50,000.00.

There are other costs as well:

- editing
- graphics and photos
- graphic design

A simple business plan is essential. After publication, the real work of sales and promotion begins. You will need to let the public know that your book is available, and you will need to convince people to buy it. That is why you need a clear idea of how you will sell the book.

Denise

Signing a Distributor Contract

Today I received a question from one of our clients about signing an agreement with a distributor. Here are the basics of my reply:

"The contract seems quite standard but I do have some questions:

1. The contract needs to state that the distributor holds your books on consignment (if the distributor should go out of business, you still own your books and they will not be seized by the receiver).
2. How often does the distributor pay you? That needs to be stated in the contract.
3. How often does the distributor report sales to you?
4. Does the distributor tell you where your books were sold? This is good to know so that you have a way of monitoring the effectiveness of your publicity campaign.
5. Do they tell you which stores returned books?
6. Do they have a sales force or are they only sending out catalogs?
7. Do they pay the shipping to the bookstores?

Some distributors have many fees on top of the commission that they charge. Be sure to compare contracts from several distributors before you agree to sign anything."

I hope that this helps some publishers avoid a few pitfalls.

Denise

Publishing all over the World

Here's a question that I recently received: "Can I self publish if I move to another country?" Of course you can. The basics are the same:
- write interesting content that people are looking for
- know why you are writing a book
- know who you are writing for (who will buy it?)
- have your writing professionally edited
- come up with a great title
- have the book professionally designed
- get it printed at the lowest rate you can
- have a great publicity and marketing campaign

Get out there and sell!

Denise

Digital Printing and Off Set Printing

We wrote about digital printing and off set printing in our latest newsletter because we hear from so many people who want to sell their books to book stores or they want to sell to large volume buyers, but they just can't. They paid too much per book for the printing. The biggest problem is that the publishers do not have a strong marketing plan and they really don't know who their target market is.

Knowing that target market makes all the difference. If you don't know who you are targeting to sell books, it's difficult to decide upon the retail price point and you don't know what kind of discounts you can afford to offer volume buyers.

It just can't be said often enough - do your research, educate yourself on the publishing and marketing processes and make wise decisions.

We really hate having to tell people that they don't qualify for marketing programs because they paid too much for their book printing, and now they don't have enough room for the required discounts.

Think long term before you print books - know where you plan to sell them and choose your printer accordingly. Don't decide after the deed is done that you want to sell books in other markets. It's too late.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Denise

Get a Sponsor

Our friend Mike Volkin recommends the following:


Authors, want to make money? Get a Sponsor

Authors can have a variety of extracurricular activities. Depending on how involved the author wants to be with his/her book, radio shows, speaking tours and other activities can create extra income. Each of these activities could have a sponsor associated with it. For example, if you have an online radio show at BlogTalkRadio.com, you could have sponsors advertise on your show. Doing this is a great compliment to book sales and can provide a good source of income. A good sponsor will not only pay you, but also help you sell books, so the partnership might be beneficial in more ways than one.

To find a sponsor, I would recommend going to the website GetYourSponsor.com, simply fill out a profile and other companies or entities wanting to provide a sponsorship might see a match.

If you want to learn how to sell books online, just get my new paperback Social Networking for Authors, it will be the best $18 you ever spent. I have a couple sponsors that even asked to sell my books for me! It doesn’t get any better than that.

Time for Reflection

It has been a difficult time in the Ink Tree office. Linda, our Office Manager, recently lost her Father to a severe illness and a week later I lost my Father-in-law (Joni's Grandfather) to old age and illness. We are now in the process of trying to heal. The loss of a loved one causes one to think more about the important things in life. This time of loss and healing makes one focus on why we do the things we do and what are the results of those actions.

This might be a good time to ask you, a person who is interested in writing and/or publishing a book an important question: "Why do you want to write a book?" There are reasons too numerous to even discuss, but you need to be very clear about why you want to write and most importantly why you want to publish.

From my observations, most people don't really know what a publisher is. Briefly, it is the person/company who edits, designs, has printed and sells the book. Sometimes that person is even the author. The publisher is the one who actually owns and profits from the book.

In our publishing course, we emphasize the "Why?" question so that people are clear about their goals. This time of relection has brought this question to mind again so I ask it of you once more, "Why do you want to write a book and what do you hope to gain from it?"

Take a moment to write your answers down. They might surprise you.

Denise

Amen

Amen to what Joni just said. When you publish a book, you are starting a publishing business. YOU must be in control. YOU must learn the publishing business. It is far more important to educate yourself and formulate a business plan than it is to run around finding people who will do it all for you. That's a sure way to make costly mistakes. How will you know if the people you hire know what they're doing if you don't know what they should be doing?

Again - you are starting a publishing business and the best way to ensure success is to become educated and to have a solid business plan.

We can't wait to see the great books that YOU CAN create.

Denise

Denise's last post reminds me of the call we get ALL the time:

"Will you do all the marketing work for my book for me and I'll pay you a commission on sales? My book is really great, so there should be lots of sales. I won't need to pay you for your time because we're going to make so much money that a commission should compensate you well."

Really? Seriously? Would you sit in your doctor's office and say "ok, let's try the surgery, and although you've spent half your life in school learning about this trade and you'll spent countless hours preparing and performing the surgery, I'll give you a check when I come out of it ok in a few years time." Grab a brain people!

My partners and I have worked for YEARS learning about, and experiencing, all of the ups and downs of the publishing world. Some of us have even published bestselling books. We have learned what works, but every book is a business on its own. You are starting a business here, from scratch. Your marketing plan starts now, from scratch. You want me to start up as your VP Marketing, work my butt off and collect commissions from you months down the road when the book takes off? Please.

Do What You Do Best

I received a most interesting phone call from a gentleman who wanted us to market his book for him. As I replied, we do not do the hands-on marketing - we are educators. We teach people what to think about when writing, how to physically publish, how to market and how to do publicity. He was not satisfied with my reply, saying that he has an amazing book. That may be, but my reply again was that we are educators not do-it-for-you marketers. So he persisted: his book is apparently very similar to a a now famous book. My response was: that's already been done. So again he persisted: if I knew then what I know now about how successful the popular book has been would I then consent to be the marketer of his book? What do you think I said?

I said NO. That is not what we do. The point is, do what you know and do it well. If you want to become a publisher, learn how to publish. Don't assume that you will write a book and everyone else will be responsible for its success. Become educated. Focus on making your book a household name. Sell books.

Another lesson learned from the gentleman's call is: don't copy someone else. You very likely cannot do it better than the author/publisher who has sold a gazillion copies of their book. The public associates the well-known book as the final word. Be unique and be successful.

Here's to successful publishing,

Denise

SELF publishing

I thought that I would share with you a few thoughts that I wrote today on SELF publishing:

When is Self Publishing SELF Publishing?

There appears to be some confusion about the definition of self publishing. So you ask, “What is it really”? As an author and aspiring publisher, you need to understand the different ways in which to create a physical book.

Basically, there are three strategies for publishing:

submit your manuscript to a publishing house, which takes over the design, editing and printing
find a “publishing service” that takes over the design and editing, and sometimes the printing
organize the design, editing and printing yourself.

Which one do you think is SELF publishing? If you chose number one or number two, you are wrong. The correct answer is number three. In order to produce a quality product that will sell over a long period of time, YOU must be the publisher.

Imagine that you want to build a new house. You have a vision of how your dream house should look, but you decide to turn the project over to someone else. You tell them to design and decorate the house and when it is done, you will move in. Do you really think that the house designed and decorated by someone else will entirely meet your needs and your tastes? Where do you want the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the laundry room? What materials do you like for the floors, the cupboards, the walls? What colors do you like? You can have the house built by a contractor, but the designer cannot get into your head to envision the final product, so you must call the shots.

The same holds true for your book. When you work with your own editor, your own graphic designer and your own printer, you can create the beautiful, professional-looking book that you know you can live with and that you can sell because YOU called the shots.

Denise

Submit your book

I completely agree with Joni's offer to critique books. What if you have never sent your book to us, though, but you would like us to critique the book? Go to our website (www.inktreemarketing.com) and mail us a copy with a request to have it critiqued on this blog. It will be fun. Before my book was published, a local publishing support group analyzed the draft and the results were not pretty. I thought, "How dare they say that my book doesn't look well designed and that the title is awful?" Once my common sense returned, it became apparent to me that maybe, just maybe, they were right. That's when my research began. After many hours in book stores and libraries, the light bulbs began to pop in my head. Oh, so that's how a beautiful cook book looks. It should not look like something produced by the church committee on a home computer - it should look like a professional publishing house produced it. Right - now the search for a graphic designer began. Wow!! I could not believe the transformation. I sold over 250,000 copies of "Fit to Cook - Why 'Waist' Time in the Kitchen?" It's a guarantee that the book would not have sold 250 copies in its original format. So, send us your book and let us help you turn the ugly duckling into a swan. :-)

Denise

Back to Work...

Well, we're now well into September, my first-born just started Preschool (sniffle) and my baby is now 14 months old and walking and talking up a storm. Time flies. As much as I love the flexibility I have with my businesses so that I am able to stay home with my kids, the time has come for me to get a bit of work done without sticky peanut butter fingers clawing at my legs and little munchkins sitting in my lap. So, thanks to "Nana", I am able to work ON MY OWN at the office now 2 days each week! The biggest upside to owning your own businesses is actually being excited about going to work.

I'd like to try something a bit different with the blog for the next little while... We receive zillions (seriously, zillions) of books from aspiring self publishers who want us to sell zillions of copies for them. One of the most difficult parts of this business is not breaking the hopeful heart of every wannabe bestselling author out there by telling them "I'm sorry, but your book is crap". Unfortunately, MOST of the books we see are just that. So, rather than just trash everyone and ruin any shred of remaining hope, let's try to turn the critique of the "crap" into something a bit more constructive, shall we? I'm going to pull random books off of our shelves and give you my two bits. What do you think? We'll pull out a book and talk about what was done properly and what wasn't, as well as what can be done to sell the book now. We'll start on Thursday...

Questions we are asked regarding selling books.

I wish, I wish that people would use our information BEFORE they publish their books. It's so frustrating to receive calls from people who have a garage full of books but have absolutely no idea how to sell the books, let alone who would even buy the books.

Rule number one: if you are publishing a book, you are creating a product. End of story. When you create a product, the intention is to sell the product - most likely for a profit.

Rule number two: if you want the product to sell, it must have customer appeal.

Rule number three: if you want to sell the product, you need to know WHO will buy it - not who needs it but who will buy it. Perhaps everyone truly needs the product, but not everyone will buy it.

More on this topic later.

Denise

If I've said it once....

If I've said it once, I've said it 1000 times: there is nothing, I repeat, nothing that a "self publishing" service can do that you can't do yourself - better!

So many times people ask if they should "self publish" by using a publishing service. My repy is always: "self publishing" means that YOU are the publisher.

YOU can hire your own graphic designer who will actually customize your book to match the content.

YOU can hire your own editor who will ensure that the book is grammatically correct and that the story or information flows in a logical manner.

YOU can hire your own printer who will print according to your specifications: type of paper, type of cover stock, type of binding, etc.

I don't know why people who decide to self publish think that it's a good idea to turn the project over to someone else - someone who just does not have a vested interest in the final book. People who want to turn control over to someone else should just work with an agent to find an interested publishing house. In that case, one expects to lose control of the project.

When you self publish, you ARE the publisher and it is YOUR business, and the profits are YOURS.

OK, I'm ranting, but the decision to self publish or get published is a personal decision however the decision to self publish means that you SELF publish.

Best of luck with your project.

Denise

Summer is here

Finally, summer is upon us with blue skies and warm days. Hallelujah!!! Enough of cold and snow, heavy coats, boots, gloves and scarves. Hurray for shorts and flip-flops.

Summer is a good time to reflect on past goals and to work toward new goals. Summer is a good time to work on that book writing and/or book publishing project that is stored in your computer waiting for that "right time". Well, this summer can be the right time. You can spend your time at the cottage, at the beach or even on your patio, planning how are are actually going to get that book idea published. Now is the time to gather information and to read, read, read everything that you can about publishing and especially about book marketing.

More important than getting the book published is figuring out how to sell the book. Who will buy it? Where are the markets for those buyers? How will they know about your book? Summer is a good time to get a notebook and make notes as ideas pop into your head. It's a great time to brainstorm your book project as you share a margarita with friends and family. You will be amazed at the ideas people will give you just in casual conversation.

When you are relaxed, you have time to just let your mind wander, gaining information for your book. You have opportunities to observe people in book stores and in libraries: how do they browse? What catches their eyes? How do they choose a book in a specific genre?

Summer is a good time to research your book cover. What makes a book cover attractive? - fonts, colors, photos and graphics, title, emotions created??

Use your leisure time as productive time, even though it doesn't seem like work. Just let your mind work on its own and you will be amazed at the results.

Denise

Isn't it interesting?

Isn't it interesting that so many authors do not understand why their books are not selling well? I receive calls on this topic every week. My standard response is, "Do you have an ongoing publicity campaign?"

Just having your book on the book store shelves is no guarantee of sales. Have you seen how many books are in a book store? Have you seen how many books there are in your genre? Why should someone buy your book? What makes it stand out? What makes it better? Those are questions that you need to answer before you even write the book, let alone print it.

Who knows about your book? If no one knows about it, no one will buy it. People need to go to a book store in search of YOUR book, and YOU need to send them there to buy it. The key to sending people on a quest for your book is publicity. Other than the minimal cost of the creation of a media kit and some review copies, publicity is FREE if you manage your own publicity campaign. FREE!! It doesn't get any better. You can't buy that kind of advertising.

The media is in constant need of stories that will catch their audience's attention. All that you need to do is provide them with a good story, one that suits their audience, and you are in.

There are many things to know about running a publicity campaign, but they are not rocket science - you can learn how to do publicity with a little help. First and foremost is the creation of a killer news release and a professional media kit. You also must zero in on the most appropriate media outlets and the correct editors or producers.

Getting yourself into the public eye can be a bit intimidating, but when you know what you're doing it can be a lot of fun - and you will see your book sales soar.

Denise

What should I write about?

Here is a question that we received recently from a client:

Q. I would like to sell large numbers of books. What should I write about?

A. What are you qualified to write?


You cannot just write about anything. In order to be credible you need credentials. It is soon apparent to a reader if your information is superficial. You must write about something for which you have great passion or considerable experience and/or education. You "can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time".

As an author, your goal is definitely to sell books, but primarily you have to write with your reader in mind. After all, that is the person who will buy your book, and the primary question in that buyer's mind when looking at the book is, "What's in it for me?" If the book doesn't offer something life changing, the buyer moves on to another book. The buyer is looking for the solution to a problem, so he or she will buy the book that has the solution. Incomplete or inaccurate information just won't sell.

The age old advice of writing about what you know is so true. Follow that advice and you are on the right track to many book sales.

Denise

Life gets in the way

It has been a while since I blogged, but I guess that I've been too busy just living life to write about it. However, that is no help to readers of this blog.

So, where do I start? People call and email every day asking if we can recommend an editor or a designer. The short answer is, "No."

Certainly you don't want us to give you a generic referral to someone who just is not a match with you. Editors and designers must be as passionate about your book as you are - their job is just to make it better. You need to find professionals who can work with you to produce a stellar book.

It is important to find an editor who understands your book's genre. An editor has to make your ideas flow in a grammatically correct manner, and to ensure that the writing still sounds like "you". A good editor can keep your "voice" while improving the readability of the material. It is also important that your personalities complement each other. You want the editor to suggest changes in a way that you can accept and you must be able to communicate your wishes clearly to the editor.

A good designer can change the appearance of the pages in your book from hard-t0-read to clear-as-a-bell and easy on the eyes. I recall taking some of my book to the designer who said, "OK. Just leave it with me for a few days." When I returned to look at her work my response was, "Oh. That's what it should look like." The difference with her subtle changes was amazing.

Good editors and designers are defintely "worth their salt" as my mother used to say. Make sure that you hire good ones because after all, they are working on your "baby".

Denise

A little update

We've had a busy time over the past couple of weeks with our new service, hence the lack of blogging. Ink Tree now has an Affiliate who markets books!! So exciting!! His organization produces a catalog that goes out to 5000 commissioned sales people who look for book buyers in the corporate world, as well as associations, the display market, schools and the military.

This is such an amazing opportunity for self-publishers that I danced for joy when we formed our Affiliation. Imagine having 5000 people showing your book to 5000 times many buyers. You couldn't do that yourself in a lifetime.

Amazingly, the biggest market for books is not book stores. I don't remember the exact figure, but out of 250,000 copies sold of my book, maybe 8% was sold to book stores. There is a big world out there of potential book buyers. Publishers just need to think long and hard about who would benefit from using their book as an incentive or a thank you gift, and sell them on the idea.

When you write a book, think long and hard about who will buy it because that is who you are writing for. Don't write for some self indulgent reason - people don't buy self indulgence. They buy benefits for themselves. Know what your book's benefits are and write with them in mind.

Denise

Approaching corporations

Last week I had coffee with a lovely client. It's not often that we actually meet our clients, since they reside in all areas of the planet, so last week was a fun exception. During our chat, the client asked me how to approach corporations. Should she send a news release and a media kit? Should she just send a copy of her book? The answer to all of the above is no.

A news release and a media kit are for approaching and informing the media. You are hoping to catch the attention of the editor or the producer and then follow up with all of the information that she/he needs to write a story or prepare an interview.Corporations are not interested in your story. They want to know what your book will do for them - in other words, how will the book increase the bottom line a.k.a. known as sales a.k.a. money? Your job is to research the company, understand its clientele, and demonstrate how your book can create word-of-mouth advertising (the best kind), increase customer loyalty or show the world what a great and caring organization the company is. All, of course, with an outline of how those things will increase sales.Include a discount schedule which encourages a large volume purchase and offers a variety of options.

Interestingly, people are afraid to approach companies. It's actually quite simple - pick up the phone, call, and ask to speak to the Director of Marketing. Most likely you will reach an assistant, which is just fine. Explain why you are calling, tell the assistant about the benefits of your book and ask if you can send a proposal and a copy of the book. Most importantly, ask for the name of the person to whom you should send your package. Without a name, the book is going into the circular file (waste basket).Then, follow up, follow up. Be very, very patient. Large corporations have many levels of management who all need to know about marketing plans and how they fit into the budget.

Try it.

Denise

Ebook

Back to the subject of creating an ebook: what do you know? Purchasing ebook software is not necessary. This comes from the internet marketing pro, Rosalind Gardner, who advises that one just needs to create a Word document, save it as a pdf file with Adobe Acrobat or Open Office, insert bookmarks from the Table of Contents to each chapter, insert hyperlinks back to your own website and Voila! - the ebook is done.

Who knew it could be so simple???

I struggled for days with an ebook software only to learn the easy way from Ros. However, lesson learned.

Now on to completing my ebook project...

Denise

Questions from Self Publishers

Q: I just published my first book and now I need to start selling it. I designed it myself and my friend edited it. Everybody who reads it absolutely loves it, so I know there's a huge market for it. I can't get a distributor though and some of the bookstores have turned me down. What more do I need?

A: A reality check. First, if you are not a book designer, then you shouldn't be designing a book. Second, your friend is not an editor, and therefore, should not be editing your book. Third, I'd be willing to bet that "everybody" who loves your book is your brother, aunt, cousin, next door neighbor and assorted other people who are too afraid to tell you the truth for fear of bursting your bubble. Repeat after me everybody "I should not, and will not, design or edit my own book unless I am a professional designer or editor". Start over, do it right.

Ebook

I am now working on creating an ebook, something of a bold or crazy undertaking for a non-techie. Ask my kids how non-techie I am!! Anyway, it will be a good thing when it's finished because it will make our educational products much easier for people to download.

It may be the death of me, though, or it will necessitate more frequent hair coloring sessions as my grey hairs explode in number.It's really not that bad, actually, it's just that an ebook has its own set of rules that are so completely different from a hard copy book.

For instance, setting up pages. I thought that I had to create actual pages, as in a printed book, so there I was going into print preview every time that I added text to see if the text began and ended where it was supposed to on the "page" - the page that doesn't even exist as I have now learned. Each chapter in an ebook is a run-on document, which makes the set-up easier in some respects - now that I know that!!

Anyway, stay posted for more stuff about ebooks.

Denise

Endorsements

To change the subject, here is a question that I received yesterday:



"What is an endorsement and how do I pay for one?"



A. OK, rule number 1 - never, ever pay for an endorsement. That defeats the purpose. An endorsement is not a paid commercial. It's a recommendation from someone. It's someone saying that your book did something beneficial for them, whether it solved a problem, it provided information that they were looking for, it entertained them or it's writing style fascinated them.



An endorsement gives you credibility. It lets the reader know that someone other than you, the author, believes that the book is great for the reasons given in the endorsement. It's a stamp of approval.



Look at books in libraries and in book stores. Read the back cover to see what other people think of the book. Don't the endorsements make you feel that this book could be of benefit or of interest to you?



Like publicity, another source of credibility, an endoresement is priceless. Get as many as you can and add them to your media kit.

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at www.inktreemarketing.com.

Cheers,

Denise

Media Kit

Just a quick note on media kits in case that last post got your wheels spinning and you're wondering "what the heck do I put in my media kit anyway?". Well, here it is:

-Author Bio
-A 'What Makes Your Book Unique' page
-Book Information (all the vitals on your book)
-FAQs
-Endorsements (there's an article on our site about this: http://www.inktreemarketing.com/Articles/BookEndorsements.htm)
-Promotion (what promotion you have done and/or what you're planning to do)
-News Release (I'm not sure, but have I mentioned that this better be good?!!)

What Joni said about boring headlines for a news release is so true. The job of a news release is to grab attention - boring the reader is not grabbing attention. Boring the reader ensures that the news release takes a shortcut to the circular file (the trash can).

Media people receive dozens of news releases every day. You have to make yours stand out from the rest. Make the editor or producer stop and say, "What?" That sounds like something that will solve a problem for my audience. I had better contact the sender of the news release for more information.

OK. They want more information. What does that mean? You had better have a well designed media kit that explains in great detail just how you will interest or entertain the audience. Here is where you do not take short cuts. First impressions count, so make it good.

Well, it's late and I have to stop before I babble. More on this topic later.

Have you signed up for our newsletter at www.inktreemarketing.com?

News Releases for the Self Publisher

Since we haven't set any firm agenda for this blog, I think we might be jumping all over the place within the realm of publishing, and I'll try not to vent all of my pet peeves, but since I am a former book publicist, let's talk book publicity for a moment shall we?

Self Publisher: "Joni, I just wrote a news release for my new book and I'd like you to take a look at it"

Me: "Ok, what's your headline?"

Self Publisher: "Author writes new book on how to plan a wedding"

Me: "Could you be any more boring?"

Self Publisher: "But, as soon as they see that, the media will be banging down my door wanting to interview me. I mean, who doesn't want to know how to plan a wedding?"

Me: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!"

Ok, what's the problem here? Anyone know? The world's worst news release headline is "author writes new book about...". Maybe if you're only targeting book review media you'll get a few bites, but otherwise... nobody cares! Remember people, you are approaching the media, the tellers of the news. Is what you've given them a story? Is it news? You have to look beyond the book. Find the story behind the story. Here are a few quick ideas:


- Save $10,000 on your wedding with this one tip

- Don't let your mother in law ruin your wedding - here's how

- Plan your entire wedding in 5 days or less


You get the idea. It's not about the book, it's about the story. Here's a tip: get out the newspaper and study the headlines. That's what you're going for. Make it NEWS.

Denise's turn

This is Denise - the Mom. Self-publishing is also my passion, and most importantly, helping authors become successful self-publishers is what I work at every day. I always say, "I wish I had me before I published my book". Learning to self-publish was like attending a self-imposed university program with no professor involved. I had to learn everything, and I mean everything, from scratch. It was such hard work and took so much longer than it would have if there had been someone that I could talk to about the whole process. I spent two years stumbling through the process, but the time was well spent. If I do say so myself, my book is beautiful. The proof is in the pudding: it sold over a quarter million copies, mainly to non-book store buyers. That was so exciting. But now, I have turned my focus to helping other people avoid the mistakes that I made and to gain from the good things that I learned. One of my greatest compliments came from a university professor/business editor who interviewed me for a major newspaper. She said, "Denise, you have so much knowledge about publishing books that you now have a Street M.B.A. on the subject." That still makes me smile. I hope that you enjoy our blog and that you tell all your author and publisher friends to visit us and to add some comments.

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at http://www.inktreemarketing.com/.

Welcome to our NEW Self Publishing Blog!

"I've always wanted to write a book!"

Oh, good grief, if I had a nickel for everytime I've heard that, I'd be writing this blog from my private cabana, under a palm tree, on my own private island, drinking a pina colada that was just served to me by my cabana boy.... but I digress...

My name is Joni Pypers and my business partner, Denise Hamilton (who is also my Mom by the way!), and I, will be posting to this blog. Sometimes together, sometimes separately, as often as we can, to help you make money by self publishing your own book. Here's a photo of us, with our two other partners (L-R: Debbie Black, Denise Hamilton, Joni Pypers, Linda Matthie):

Self Publishing: this is my business, and has been for the last 9 years - helping wannabe authors get their books published and sold. Is it easy? No. Are many successful? No. Why not? Because they don't listen to me. Well, maybe a few other reasons too, but I wish they would come for help earlier in the process.

So, what happens if you jump in, follow your dream, and publish a book without doing your homework? You end up with a garage full of books -- and believe me, that really happens. It's no joke. Right now, there are thousands of authors out there with a garage filled to the rafters with published books. THEN they come to me for help! Guess what I say? Where have you been?? You should have called me months ago!!

Enter - THE BLOG. I'm hoping to catch some of you before you publish your books. For those of you who already have, I'm going to give you some good tips and tricks for selling your book. Let's clear out that garage!

This blog is going to consist of everything I can come up with to help you succeed in self publishing. Tips, tricks, articles, success stories, interviews... whatever. In my day-to-day business running my self publishing and book marketing site, I come across little tidbits all the time and I'm here to share them with you.

See you soon!

In the meantime, check out my main site: http://www.inktreemarketing.com/. There are piles of articles and resources there to help you.