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Fifty Shades of Publishing

Fifty shades of Publishing.

The Publishing Industry, just like any other industry, is a world of its own, and just like any other industry has its own language and terminology. To the uninitiated what seems to be so obvious, is in fact, not. In publishing there are as many definitions and nuances as the subject of Fifty Shades of Grey has – only I look at it as fifty shades of publishing.

Take the term self-publishing or self-publish. Seems obvious, i.e., you, the author, write and publish your own work and put it up for sale.

Simple enough.

I thought so too. After all that is exactly what I did when I wrote and published my first book, Power of Daily Journaling. I bought a course, followed it to a T and voila! just like that I had a short eBook on the digital shelves of Amazon. All within one month, I might add.

Fast forward to a conversation I had with someone I recently met. She was both astounded and impressed that I had a book out, that I wrote it, published it, and that, miracle of miracles, it was actually selling.

How much did all that cost me, she wanted to know.

Huh? Cost? Ummm … nothing.

She was aghast.

She then told me her story.

She had a book in her. From the get-go she felt that going to the traditional publishing houses would get her nothing more than a boxful rejection slips, if, even that. More than likely her idea (not yet even a manuscript) would get short shrift and unceremoniously filed in the circular file.

Friends suggested that she “self-publish” and helpfully gave her the names of a few publishing houses that she could approach.

“But of course, we can do that” was the reply she got from each and every one!

Oh joy!

Oh wait!

For only a few thousand dollars you say!

Now you must understand that my friend is an artist at heart, an independent graphics designer by profession. And while not exactly a starving artist, shelling out thousands in hard earned buckaroos to have a book published was not in zee budget.

The “book” languished in her dreams for, by that time, nine long years!

Still early in my newly found publishing career, I was confused. Dug in and did some research. Reached out to a wider scope of authors and along the way discovered that the world of publishing has as many shades of grey as the colossally successful book’s title suggests.

Along with many other terms commonly bandied about, I found out that the term self-publishing was a hybrid of sorts and did not automatically mean what I thought it did.

What then, exactly, is a self-published book?

Before diving into the world of self-publishing, let’s take a quick review of publishing.

Traditional Publishing aka TRADS

Book publishing has a long and storied past, one might argue that it could even include the etchings of pictographs discovered in ancient cave dwellings, they did after all, tell a story of sorts, and give us a better understanding of what life on earth may have looked like all those thousands of years ago. In today’s vernacular those cave etchings could fall in to the information publishing/marketing niche … ok, bit of a stretch!

Cave etchings, papyrus paper hieroglyphics, wood block prints, monk-scribed copies of the bible were all in their day a publishing system. Tedious and time consuming.

In 1540, Johannes Guttenberg invented a printing machine, the Guttenberg Press which revolutionized how society gathered, published and distributed information that chronicled historical events, educational content, and books. It was the harbinger of today’s traditional publishing system.

As recently as 20 years ago, traditional publishing houses ruled the roost when it came to gathering, collating, publishing and distributing information on the life and times of the world as it unfolded before us. Newspapers, magazines and books: these were the main products. We bought them, read them, and sometimes even wrote them.

When we think about publishing it is most often that books come to mind, or, is that vice versa? We seldom think about publishing but hold a book in your hand and instantly there is a connection.

Books hold promise of forever after. Write a book and it will live well past your life. Future generations will be enlightened, entertained and perhaps educated by what you wrote. Typically, authors sent their manuscripts to a traditional publishing house such as Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster or to one of their many subsidiary arms of publishing. The process was and still is tedious, time consuming and more often than not, results in an outright notice of rejection. Hope being eternal, the author repeats the process, again and again and again. Sometimes, tenacity pays off and the writer is offered a contract.

The advantage of being published by a Traditional Publishing House (TRAD) is that the publisher takes on the full financial risk. To sweeten the deal an “advance” payment is given to the author with promise of future royalties embedded in the contract. Should the book not sell as well as anticipated, the author is not expected to return any portion of the advance.

The disadvantage of being published by a TRAD is that you are now merely the author. The House owns your content and all decisions relative to editing, pricing and distribution is made by them. All rights belong to the House. Marketing is a moot point but most frequently left to the author or author’s agent. Contrary to popular belief, book advances are typically in the four-figure range so if millions of dollars are dancing in front of your eyes, one word: FUGGETABOUTIT! Those million dollar advances are reserved for authors with proven chops, celebrities and increasingly politicians.

As mentioned earlier, until recently that was the system. There were no other options. It was the Traditional Publishing way or no way.

These days, not so much.

Just as the Guttenberg Press revolutionized monk-scribed bibles and books, technology and the advent of the internet changed the game of publishing. Suddenly there were optional venues a writer could look into. Welcome self-publishing. For an intro to self-publishing visit my blog on The Art of Self-Publishing & Why Authors Choose to Self-Publish

Self-Publishing

After my conversation with friend, I dug into why the cost and what on earth she was talking about. Holy guacamole! There was self-publishing, self-publishing and more of the same but each one with a different shade of grey.

Kith and kin to the Traditional Publishing, self-publishing houses have sprung up like mushrooms on a fall day in the forest. Mostly they have shed the rigorous system of the TRADS and pretty much replaced it with a “Have Money? Will Publish” maxim. Where there is money to be made, new players step up to the plate.

Vanity Press

Vanity press was the forerunner of self-publishing. A pay-to-publish model, it first appeared in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Laser focused and no bones about it, its market was the author whose manuscript did not pass muster with the Trads and who would pay anything to see their name in print. And of those there were plenty.

Venal in concept, quickly stigmatized, avoided at all costs by “real” authors and yet, against all conventional odds, the vanity press industry flourished.

Dang the stigma! Damn the cost. Vanity was at stake. Scorned authors thumbed their noses at their colleagues and the traditional publishing houses, pulled out their checkbooks, wrote the amount and got published.

Vanity press has come a long way since those heady days of yesteryear but the stigma lingers on. To side-step the negative connotation, vanity press has co-opted into the more acceptable term: self-publishing.

Hybrid Self-Publishing

Some self-publishing houses offer the full meal deal, including if needed, someone to ghost write your book. Some give you an a la carte menu of services to choose from, and yet some will even pay royalties. Sounds good right?

Not so fast Ninotchka!

Selected items from the menu easily add up and before you know it, you’re looking at a bill of a several thou or more. Check the items carefully, and most importantly pay attention to who owns the rights to your body of work, If it is published under their ISBN number, chances are that it is they who own it, at least for the duration of the contract.

Increasingly, authors are taking control of their publishing. It is true, no author can write, edit, market, publish and distribute entirely on their own and do a great job of it. But an author can outsource to freelancers who help carry the load for the independent self-publishing “Indie” author.

Next week, we’ll look at what tasks can be outsourced, which are an absolute, and which are nice add-on.

The Rise of Self Publishing and The Independent Author

by Valentina | Entrepreneur, Self-Publish

In the year 2008 Amazon disrupted the traditional book publishing (Trades) industry with its release of a technological triptych that would revolutionize the world of publishing: the e-reader Kindle, the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and a new payment process that offered commission on sales instead of traditional royalties and advancements.

For the first time authors were able to take full control of their work. No longer subject to rigorous vetting, fledgling authors liked the independence that Amazon offered, took a chance, tossed their hats into the newly opened opportunity, wrote, uploaded the manuscript to KDP, pressed the publish button and held their breath.

If the publish button was pressed with mixed feelings of skepticism that was soon dissipated when the eBook was published, copies sold, and the first check arrived.

Aah! The sweet smell of success.

How did Amazon’s technological triptych fuel this success? Brilliantly staged, strategically positioned, each TYCH was a springboard to the next and together the three created a publishing phenomenon not seen in modern times.

1. The launch of Kindle, a digital e-reader and app.

Amazon was not the first to invent the e-reader, in fact there is reference that the very notion of one goes back decades even before the first one:

“ The idea for a device similar to the kindle was first described in a 1930 manifesto, such a device was first described in a 1930 manifesto written by Bob Brown titled The Readies, which describes “a simple reading machine which I can carry or move around, attach to any old electric light plug and read hundred-thousand-word novels in 10 minutes” … Wikipedia

Sometimes ideas come before their time.

The first e-reader, the Rocketbook was developed and pitched to Jeff Bezos of Amazon in 1997. Bezos was intrigued, understood the value of the technology but took a pass because the device needed to be plugged into a computer to download the digital books. That seemed cumbersome.

The idea though, never left Bezos’ mind. He put a team together to develop an e-reader that was easy to read, portable, could download eBooks from the Amazon book store in seconds, and build up its own library list that could be accessed from anywhere. Three and a half years from startup, the Kindle was launched.

This time the software was user friendly and the timing was right. By 2007/ 2008 there was a decent inventory of digital books that customers could buy and download. The price of an eBook was significantly lower than either hardcover or paper book versions making it an attractive option for price conscious customers who loved to read.

2. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

In order for the Kindle e-reader to succeed, Bezos saw the need for a massive inventory of digital books. eBooks are typically priced between $0.99 and $9.99. At this rate it would take a long time to recoup the investment in the Kindle e-reader. The question was what could be done to vastly increase the number of digital books in the shortest time possible. What incentives could be put in place to attract authors?

The solution was Kindle Direct Publish (KDP). That was the carrot on the stick that Bezos and his team came up. In essence, it removed all barriers for book publishing; gave authors full control of content, covers, editing, marketing and promotion; and let them keep copyright privileges. No vetting, no gatekeeping, no anything. Book goes up for sale on Amazon. Let the market decide whether to buy or not.

3, The coup de grace that sealed the deal

Amazon offered self-published authors a new payment process with commissions on sales of books instead of traditional royalties and advancements. Authors received 70% on eBooks selling between $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% on eBooks selling between $0.01 and $2.98.

Buoyed by their initial success, authors flocked to KDP like bees to honey. Their ranks swelled.The massive inventory of digital books that Bezos needed, swelled. Revenues swelled.

Bezos was happy.

Amazon shareholders were happy.

Authors were happy.

Some authors hit best seller lists, banked big bucks for their efforts, got press and publicity. The storied 50 Shades of Grey was the first self published book to hit the $1million dollar mark in sales.

The once lowly Indie toyed with celebratory status, became a force to be reckoned with and some even wooed by the Trades.Their new readers brought excitement to the world of books, but more importantly, a sizable cash flow increase.

The Indie, self published played a key role in propping up self publishing’s reputation from tarnished to legitimate.

Next week: Publishing and Indie Shades of Gray.

Times are Bad. Children No Longer Obey Their Parents, and everyone is writing a book

by Valentina | Self-Publish

The headline above could easily be the headline of a New York Times article. There is truth in it. There is no shortage of media coverage on just how bad the times are today.There is plenty of evidence to show that cosseted children demand rather than obey, and, a quick scroll of the New York Times Best Seller column shows an endless list of recently published books, enough to keep you up to all hours of the night reading or listening to audible versions of your pick.There is plenty of fiction and just as plenty if not even more, books on the events of the day and biographies, authored by historians, news personalities, politicians and celebrities.

What if I told you that the headline is not one of today but of a long time ago?

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book”
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, philosopher and a prolific writer. He was born, lived and died in the Last Century BC, 106 – 43!

That is over two thousand long years ago!

Has nothing changed?

A lot has happened in those two thousand years:

Many wars have been fought including two that were supposed to end all wars forever
We survived the the difficult times of the Medieval Ages
We thrived during the Renaissance Ages
The Industrial Revolution shifted manufacturing of goods from craftsman to machine, from shop to factory

Along the way man has made many technical advancements, some minor, some major but the sum total of those advancements is that they both improved systems, products and made our lives more comfortable.

I had to smile though when I read Cicero’s quote. A lot has happened in those two thousand years but it also seems that there is a ring of truth in the old saying that the more things change the more they stay the same. Throughout history, during good times or bad, someone will always be having a bad time; children disobeyed then and will continue to do so, it’s a rights-of-passage thing; and everyone is writing a book.

But two thousand years ago? Who knew?

While Cicero’s “everyone” may have been an exaggeration spoken to make a point, the point hits closer to the mark today as an increasing number of people do indeed write books. For one, writing, publishing and distribution is much easier now and readily accessible to anyone who wants to write a book.

A quick review of book writing between Cicero’s time and today may give us the short answer.

For one, the times are different. We are now living in the Information Age

“The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age…)is a historic period beginning in the late 20^th century and characterized by the rapid shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy primarily based upon information technology…” Wikipedia

Back in Cicero’s time writing a book was a laborious and exacting task, it really was putting pen to paper. Books were written on sheets of papyrus or parchment 50 feet long, which was then rolled up and put into an oblong wooden box for safekeeping. That was what a book looked like. No hardcover, no paperback, no eBook, no audible.

The tools needed to write the document were cumbersome by today’s standards and the making of them required skill. Ink was made of soot, mixed with burned resin or pitch. The writing tool was dipped into this mixture and the writer would proceed to make marks on the papyrus. Calligraphy became an art form practiced to perfection by the intelligentsia, the rich and the powerful.

If not mixed to just the right consistency, the ink would either run, splotch or clot and an expensive piece of papyrus was ruined. The most common writing tool was a quill, fashioned from the quill feather of a goose, swan or other large bird. It had to be softened, then hardened then the point had to be cut at just right angle so that it would hold enough but, not too much ink to write with. The writer had to dip the quill into the ink frequently. Extreme care had to be taken to avoid making mistakes as there was no way to correct an error.

It was difficult, tedious and time consuming

And yet … everyone was writing a book!

Gutenberg Printing Press

The art of writing improved during the Renaissance era when the Gutenberg Printing Press was invented. This invention combined movable pieces of metal type that could be reused with a press that could produce sharp impressions on paper over and over again.

Prior to its invention books were copied by hand, page by page. Monks who had mastered the art of calligraphy, were the main producers, and monasteries, the publishers of books at the time. The printing press made it possible to produce books and other texts quickly, in big numbers and inexpensively. Historians credit the invention of the printing press with increasing literacy and making education available to the middle classes.

The printing press still called for accuracy in placement and arrangement of the metal pieces of type on a wooden plank, applying ink to the pieces, laying a sheet of paper over the type, then pressing the two together for each page. Each page repeated for as many copies as were needed.

Much faster than hand copying page by page, but compare that to the ease with which we can write, collate and publish documents and books at will today. The Gutenberg was the early forerunner of today’s computer.

HAVE COMPUTER – WILL PUBLISH!

No wonder “everyone is writing a book” today!

As mentioned earlier, I would venture a guess that Cicero’s “everyone” was a tad of an exaggeration as it still is today but not as much! What is interesting about the difference between then and now, is that now everyone can write and publish, and many do.

With author friendly publishing companies such as Amazon, authors are able to self-publish their work and instantly have it available for sale online. When Amazon introduced KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) self-publishing, authors flew at the opportunity to have their works published. Quickly new books began to fill Amazon’s virtual shelves, sales began to take off and a new breed of author was born – the “Indie” or independent author. Romance, paranormal and thriller fiction did particularly well.

While wolves, spies and erotica drew an ever-increasing audience, a new type of book writer emerged, one who wrote nonfiction on areas of their expertise. Good, valuable information written in layman’s language and aimed at an audience that would benefit from the content. Nonfiction has stealthily crept up the ranks as growth industry.

From an article in Forbes Magazine:

“ In the publishing industry, adult non-fiction revenues are soaring above fiction revenues and have been widening the gap for the past five years … 2013 was the last year that the adult fiction category beat non-fiction in revenue (at $5.21 billion in revenue to non-fiction’s $4.82 billion … in 2017 non-fiction revenue was $6.8 billion, easily outperforming declining fiction revenues of $4.43 billion for the same year)” … full article

These are not door stoppers. They are typically short books ranging from as few as 30 pages to 100, seldom hit the #1 New York Times bestseller list but, what they do do, is help authors to grow their primary business by expanding their market reach, increasing the business owner’s social profile, and contributing to their bottom line.

Next: The Rise of Self Publishing and The Independent Author.

Power of Daily Journaling – My First eBook Republished

by Valentina | Personal Development, Self-Publish

The very first book I self-published on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) was The Power of Daily Journaling. That was three years ago. I just republished it. One of the things I learned from my mentor was that when a book is selling well, add more value for your readers. If the book is a skinny, beef it up a bit. I did. Doubled the content with more real life stories and thought provoking insight.

Its trending well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed but more importantly I’m really excited to see what affect some of the new tactics I applied will have on this book. I kept track of everything.

But first a bit of background.

Three years ago I bought a course on how to publish eBooks on Amazon. For most of my life I flirted with writing but never took it seriously. Writers are notoriously grouped in the “starving artist” category and the notion of becoming a starving artist had zero appeal to me.

One evening at a Meetup my ears perked up, my brain became a sponge as I listened with intense interest to our keynote speaker that evening. He was a successful internet marketer, pulling in a cool 60K/month and growing.

Impressed? You bet I was! But not for the reason you might think. While 60K/month isn’t exactly chump change, our roster of previous speakers laid boast to the fact that there were plenty of dudes in that bracket.

So no big deal.

But what was a big deal was another number he threw out, one that was significantly smaller, a mere $10,000 royalty payments he received monthly from Amazon. He went on to explain that the springboard to his big bucks was a small publishing business he started a few years back publishing eBooks on Amazon, and from there he spun out other complimentary businesses.

Granted 10K isn’t what legends are made of, but at 10K one did not need to live the life of a starving artist. One could live reasonably well. It wasn’t the 60K that interested me, it was the 10. Hah! I could write and eat too!

The short of the long of it I bought his course. Diligently followed every step of it. Wrote the Power of Daily Journaling, some 4000 words of it. The objective was to publish a short book and at 4000 words it qualified.

I continued to polish those 4000 words over and over and over.

The book was ready but I wanted to make it better. It was ready for the press. Who was I kidding? All this polishing was procrastination, pure and simple. It was just a stalling tactic!

Truth was I was afraid.

Afraid that no one would see it.
Afraid that if they saw it they would not buy it.
Afraid that if they did buy it they would not read it.
Afraid of the ultimate rejection that they would return it for a refund.
But my worst fear of all was that someone would buy the book, actually read it and post a negative review.

Mike Litman’s words rang clearly “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going”

So I mustered all the courage I could, logged into my KDP account, and tremulously pressed the PUBLISH button.

Surprise of all surprises!

People found the book.

People bought the book.

Some even liked it and posted nice reviews.

My new small business was short lived. After publishing six books within a year, I turned my attention back to running my digital media marketing business. I put those six books on the set-it-and-forget-it shelf.

And then a funny thing happened. Every month on or about the 29^th, Amazon makes royalty deposits straight to my bank from every country that my books sold in. A while back I logged into my bank account on the 29^th and yup, there they were, four royalty deposits from the four countries in which my books sold.

Residual income!

That is an author’s holy grail.

The penny dropped. My entrepreneur self kicked in. It was time to revisit the self-publishing industry. I reached out to some of my former colleagues. Connected with new ones. I found that there was a lot more than just pressing the publish button on Amazon. There were so many more things I could do to revitalize my small publishing business and increase the cash flow. The obvious was write more books. The not so obvious was to take one of my existing books, beef it up with additional content, create a new cover, fine tune the title and republish.

That is the wonderful thing about writing and publishing eBooks. It’s so easy to improve on an existing book and republish.

I chose my first and best selling eBook: Power of Daily Journaling. Immediate steps I took:

Changed the title from: Power of Daily Journaling 101
to: Power of Daily Journaling
Shortened the subtitle from: Keeping a Daily Journal Will Help You Uncover Your Authentic Self, Unleash Your Hidden Potential and Live Your Life with Abundance and Prosperity
to: Uncover Your Authentic Self, Unleash Your Hidden Potential and Live Your Life with Abundance and Prosperity.
Beefed up the content from 4000 words to almost 18,000.
Redesigned the cover

And just like that, the book was republished.These were the immediate steps.

There are others. I will keep track of each step and share the results with you. I will keep polishing and maximizing marketing strategies for this book, and the others that I have, I will also write and publish more books.

Glad to report that sales of Power of Daily Journaling have doubled and trending well.

Power of Daily Journaliing
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR COPY

Valentina

The Art of Self-Publishing: Why Authors Choose to Self-Publish

by Valentina | Entrepreneur, Self-Publish

The art of self publishing is alive and well and flourishing on the internet. Traditional publishing houses such as Penguin Random House and Hachette are facing fierce competition from none other than the lowly independent author.

Once dismissed as upstarts and wannabe authors that couldn’t pass the muster with the established publishing hoi polloi, indie authors are crushing it on the internet and pocketing a fair bit of change in the process.

John Locke was the first indie author to sell over a million eBooks on Amazon … in 5 months no less!

Darcie Chan, author of The Mill River Recluse, was repeatedly rejected by publishers and agents, decided to self-publish as an eBook and went on to sell 650,000n copies.

Sensational E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Gray trilogy sold over 70 million copies worldwide. She used a small company to self-publish in eBook format as well as print on demand.

While fiction clearly rules, an increasing number of nonfiction authors are joining the six-figure annual income club. Notable amongst them is Steve Scott who polished off some 40 books before hitting the big time with his Habit Stacking book.

Brief History of self-publishing

There was a time when writing a book meant years of writing and re-writing, submitting your manuscript to editors and publishing houses, just to be rejected time and time again. With the advent of technology and the internet all that has changed.

Amazon was first up to the gate as an online outlet for publishing houses to sell their books. That was back in 1994 when the whole internet thing was still in its infancy. Business was brisk as Amazon’s sales and revenues grew year on year. But it still meant that would-be authors were shackled by the traditional book publishing process and many a talent died on receipt of yet another rejection slip.

Round about the same time Justin Hall created a site called links.net. which is generally recognized as the first blog. That little site launched another online phenomenon, the blogger. For the first time people were able to publish short articles on platforms such as Google’s Blogger and eventually WordPress. Authors took to blogging like ducks to water writing on areas of their expertise. Success stories began to emerge as bloggers gained traffic and readers, often at the expense of traditional magazines. Businesses began to pay for ads on blogs that were in their niche.

But it was still uphill for anyone who wanted to write a book and have decent sales.

Enter Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Unlike other forms of media, book publishing has had a relatively smooth transition into digital, particularly after Amazon introduced Kindle Direct Publishing along with Kindle. Authors could now self publish books on Amazon, both in digital format and print on demand. The growth has been stunning. Digital books, commonly referred to as eBooks, are now outpacing print books. According to Amazon, 40% of eBooks sold are self-published.

Popularity of eBooks

EBooks populate all genres of literature, from romance, history, memoirs to short nonfiction “How To” books. Personally if I am buying a book that is three or four hundred pages long, I prefer to hold it in my hands, make notes, highlight paragraphs and eventually add it to my library, but I may be a member of an endangered species.

When it comes to reading nonfiction books that are relevant to my digital business, I prefer the digital versions. My reasons are not exhaustive but I suspect that many eBook buyers share some of the same reasons for their preference of eBooks over print.

Affordability:
Although there are eBooks that sell at double digit price tags, most are somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99 while as paper backs range anywhere from $15 to $30 (and more if you want a hardcover). If your book budget is $99, you could get as many as 30 eBooks vs six to as few as three in print. This makes a big difference to me as I like to bunch up purchases in market niches/categories that interest me. These are typically short books (usually under 60 pages) that give me in-depth information on trends or new developments within niche markets that I am interested in.

Convenience:
Ease of access to your books make the eBook a popular choice over its printed cousin. With just one digital reading device you can easily access your library whether at home, the beach or on a train commute to and from work. Conveniently stored in the cloud, they do not take up space on your bookshelf nor clutter the coffee table.

Portability:
Free apps are available for all reading devices. Whether you tuck your tablet, iPad, Kindle or smartphone into your handbag or back pocket, your reading material is always with you.

Eco friendly.
Speaks for itself. Save the forests.

Appeals to the younger set.
Digital is the choice of millennials’ and their younger siblings for buying, playing and reading.

If you have always wanted to write, but have been held hostage by the notion that writing and publishing meant countless hours of writes and re-writes, submissions to publishers, and a vision of rejection slips collecting dust in your drawer, I’m here to tell you that all that is just a bunch of BS. I have my own story of how one day I bought a course and published six books. I was thrilled when the first royalty deposits showed up in my bank account. Then I turned my attention to my main business, put the books on a set-it-and-leave-it mode and went about tending to earning my bread and butter. That was several years ago.

A funny thing happened. Every month on or about the 29^th, Amazon continued to deposit royalty checks from every country in which my books sold. These are books I did absolutely NOTHING with to promote their sales. One day, as I logged into my bank account and saw yet once again, 4 deposits from the four countries where my books sold, I decided it was time to look further into this self-publishing thing, I love writing. I will never be a John Locke or a Darcie Chan as I’m not good at fiction, by hey, maybe I could boogey on up and join Steve Scott in the six-figure club. How about you?

Valentina

Book of Intuition: Introduction to the Power of Intuition

by Valentina | Self-Publish

Now available on Amazon … Book of Intuition: Introduction to the Power of Intuition

About a year ago, I got a call from Yama. He wanted to meet to discuss something. That “something” is now available on Amazon. A self-published eBook titled Book of Intuition: Introduction to the Power of Intuition.

I am so thrilled! Doubly so as I am a co-author of the book.

Several years ago I met Yama at a breakfast meetup. We chatted. I began to attend his monthly seminars on intuition. The subject had an “intuitive” (yes, pun intended) appeal to me. I believe that everyone of us is born with intuitive powers. I don’t mean the psychic, the spiritual or even the metaphysical although each is within the broader scope of intuition. I mean the primitive fight or flight mechanism, the gut feel if you will, that is within all of us and that let us live to see another day. It is also that which in my mind contributes to our individualism. In today’s busy and noisy world, that mechanism is being silenced.

What I liked about Yama’s seminars was that he brought a fresh element to the discussion on intuition and showed how the invisible world and science do indeed run on parallel lines and that an invisible world driven by intuition, produces visible results.

At our meeting Yama invited me to be a co-author of a book – one that he’d been thinking about writing for a long time. I was so honoured to have been asked … no, actually I was totally OVER THE MOON!

We set to work. This is the route we took from idea to publication:

Is there a market for books on intuition?
This was important. If there was no market or interest in intuition then writing a book about it would be relegated to that of a hobby. The world’s biggest online book retailer is Amazon. Checking on Amazon we found that there were close to 2000 results in Amazon Kindle, and over 5000 in books.
There is a market

Is this a profitable topic?
Looking at the top 10 eBooks, we found that the best selling eBooks on intuition were in that desirable sellers ranking of below 50,000 for all paid kindle books, one even at 18,141 (the lower the number, the higher the ranking, the more sales).
Authors are making money on their books

Competitor intelligence:
– Length of books: The best sellers had 200 – 300 pages.
– Original publish date: these ranged from years 2007 to 2014
– Number of reviews: from as low as 68 to a high of 951
– The statistics available were only for the eBooks. Each of the top sellers had additional formats, some as many as 10.
– Prices were on average $8 for eBooks and $15 plus for print.
– Top sellers had publishing houses behind them.

Trends and opportunity
How are we going to compete against books that have the marketing machinery of established publishing houses? Books that have been on the market for as long as 10 years and a review count as high as 951? We were facing a competitive market with some muscle power behind it.How could we counter that? What was our competitive advantage … for that matter did we have one or was that just wishful thinking blowing in the wind? We found that eBooks were trending upwards and overtaking print book sales. In December 2009 Amazon eBook sales overtook print for the first time. That trend has continued unabated.Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon.kdp) has opened the literary floodgates to authors who otherwise would not get the time of day from traditional literary agents, let alone get published. Now independent authors are able to self-publish and get their product to market on the largest online book retailer in the world.Fiction rules. Non-fiction not far behind.Short “how to” and information books sell well.“Indie” authors are swelling the ranks, many with impressive sales results in the mid to high 6- figure income club. Some have even reached the magical 7-figure income. Heady days!Do we sink or do we swim?We decided to swim.

Our path to publication
We looked at book publishing situation. We looked at our situation. Our category and topic was in the nonfiction genre. We took the following steps

Decision One: Format
Step one was the decision to self-publish an eBook with Amazon. This was a no-brainer. Amazon’s author friendly KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) made total sense. The digital format is easy to publish and allows for quick updates, adding more content and ability to have the edited version republished within 24 hours.

Decision Two: Financial
Amazon not only offers an author-friendly platform, but an attractive royalty plan. We had options of going with other digital production/publishing houses, but none came close to the 70% royalty we could earn with Amazon.

Decision Three: Marketing Support
If your eBook sells well, Amazon will help promote it. A built-in algorithm pushes your books up in the best sellers ranking increasing visibility to its 300 million plus list of buyers. Moreover, when someone purchases an eBook in your genre and category, Amazon puts up a “Customers who bought this item also bought … “If your book is performing well it could be included in the selection of similar books that the customer may decide to purchase.

Amazon knows that the more books its customers have in their hands, the more they are likely to buy. When you publish your book you can choose to participate in the Kindle Select program which allows you to offer free copies of your eBook for up to 5 days within a 90-day period. The results factor in when your best sellers ranking is calculated.

Sponsored (for fee) marketing is available at nominal costs.

Decision Four: Short book. Rather than writing a 300 plus page book on intuition, we decided to go with a series of short books on intuition. Typically between 30 and 50 pages. If the book is well received we can expand. If the feedback is lackluster we can edit and improve.

Publish Date: Feb 26, 2017Day 4 … results.

Book of Intuition #1 in Amazon US

We are happy!

Results fluctuate all the time but particularly for the first 30 days. The plan is to improve the day to day results with additional marketing so that the book settles in at less than 50K best sellers rankings or show up on the top 20 page for that category/topic.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK OF INTUITION

On Becoming an Accidental Publisher

by Valentina | Personal Development, Self-Publish

iPublish Books is one of those businesses that was conceived accidentally. My bread and butter is earned in the digital media marketing space working with small, mid-size business owners and solo professionals.

A few years ago I was at a local Meetup. Our guest speaker was a young entrepreneur. Not yet 30, he was raking in big bucks in the business of publishing ebooks and was fast approaching the magical 7 figure income.

I should mention at this point that not all his income came in from royalties on the books he published, although at $10K+ per month it wasn’t exactly chump change either.

His publishing business was the catalyst for several other business models that shared the same touch points he wrote about. He expanded his reach and spun off businesses in both vertical and horizontal markets.

He had my attention.

I was galvanized by the notion that within a relatively short period of time he had managed to create a six-figure residual income from his books alone.

“Why not?”

Said the little voice in my deep seated conscience as I pulled out my plastic and bought his course.

Using a nom de plume I quickly polished off six short nonfictions and published them on Amazon. Three of those books in particular did rather well. I also published a few books for another author in a different genre.

I learned a lot. It was easy. It was simple. It was fun.

Royalties appeared like magic in my back account at the end of every month.

As often happens things changed in the digital publishing world, notably so in the publishing and distribution platform where I sold my books.

My royalties dropped.

The honeymoon was over.

Writing was very much a part time effort for me. I had a business to run so turned my attention back to that which was filling my fridge and cupboards with groceries and providing me with warmth in my home and clothes on my back.

Several years have flown by since I decided to shelve my short lived writing career. Yet month after month, regular as clockwork, royalties, albeit significantly reduced from their heyday, are automatically deposited into my bank.

Residual income! That is the most desirable of all types of incomes. It’s so powerful.

One evening as I logged into my bank account, there it was again. Four deposits from four countries where my books had sold.

My entrepreneurial-self kicked in. The penny dropped. Literally. And I asked myself:

What if I actually worked at this?

What if I made it a business?

What if I shared my experiences with others who may be on the same journey?

What if I actually marketed my books?

What if actually published more books … my own and those of others?

Back I went to see what was happening in the publishing world. Reconnected with some of my colleagues and reached out to others in publishing. Looked at different models and platforms, distribution channels, and more.

Dang! I had only scratched the surface of publishing!

Writing still coursed in my veins. The more I thought about it, the more I experienced a churn in my stomach that took me to that moment when, at a reunion, a classmate recounted how for a long time she would look for my name in magazines as a contributing journalist or, that at the very least I should have written a book or two by now. “What happened” she asked.

What happened indeed! I wrote about that moment in my blog My Story Writing Come Back to Me

A gauntlet had been thrown my way again.

I picked it up.

As of this writing, I have helped one of my students write and create a book which will soon be self-published. I have the privilege of co-authoring a book, soon to be self-published as well; and most importantly I will be dusting off those old books, updating them and applying new strategic marketing practices that I’ll be sharing with you here.

It is true. No blood flows through my veins, only ink.

Valentina