When it comes to publishing content, the same holds true.

I was talking to a good friend, a published author now out on the speaking circuit, last evening.  When I mentioned the word publishing…he nearly grabbed me by the throat and told me…

There is no #?1%ing way I will EVER sign a contract with a traditional publisher again!

Why?

Too slow, give too little back to the author, too restrictive (timing, process, pricing, format, etc…) and financially insanity given that he gets to keep less than a couple of bucks for each of the 10's of thousands of books he sells.

So why would you self publish?

1. Near immediate.  Once your book, ebook or infoproduct is completed, it takes a few days to hit the market. In today's fast-paced world trained to want instant gratification, speed is our friend
2. More control.  You control the look-and-feel, the length, the packaging, the price, length of time on the market and overall launch
3. You have so many other options – Kindle, iBooks, Clickbank, Amazon's main directory, or simply sell it from your own website like we have done on many occasions
4. More profit – Instead of making $2 on a $20 book you can make $10 on a $12 or $15 book OR you can develop it as a workbook, manual, home study course and sell it for $47-$197 product where you keep 75%-95% of the profit.  Why give it to a publisher, they don't offer you any distribution advantage – and will be soon gone
5. You control how and when it comes to market. If you want to launch it and then pull it from the market, you have that opportunity to create buzz through scarcity
6. You get the same benefit as published authors used to get.  There is no longer a stigma associated with self-publishers.  We now live in a time of great equality across writers and experts. If your work is killer and you have done a good job of positioning it correctly – you win!
7. So many distribution paths.  You can literally play multiple distribution paths, a light version on Kindle, a full version on Clickbank with a bundled package available from your own website
8. Flexibility to run your own affiliate programs and treat partners in a way that is best for your business. If you want to sign up a top influencer, you can give him half of the profits whereas others you give 25%
9. Print or not – you make the call if you want to print off a batch for a back-of-the-room pitch at an event, you can do that
10. You control (entirely) your license rights.  If you want to license the rights to some of your content for re-publishing you can do that without breaching any terms of a traditional publishing contract.  We have done this on occasion where we license a portion of one of our books to a private group who includes this content with their training – these license deals can bring you 5-6 figures – all made possible with the flexibility and control of self-publishing

Of course, all of this must be taken seriously. 

Just because you can self-publish, take control of the process and release books, ebooks and infoproducts quickly doesn't mean that editing, proof-reading and quality aren't important.

Indeed, nothing is further from the truth. 

As the market opens up, it also becomes more competitive which means you must pay special attention to quality, your topic and positioning as well as having a product that doesn't distract people because it is poorly edited, full of spelling mistakes or badly designed.

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What about a children's book or novel that you have been dreaming of writing for years now and just can't stomach the thought of being rejected?

Or maybe you have already tried to pitch your idea to publishers but have gotten nowhere and time is quickly ticking away?

Well then, why not ignore the gatekeeper and bring your ebook or book to market by self-publishing?

I'll admit, at one time self-publishing meant BIG risk and BIG TIME learning curve, but today with ebooks, it is really difficult to see ANY downside to taking your idea to market within weeks!

Inside InfoMarketer'sZone we work with writers and non-writers alike on a complete blueprint for moving from idea or concept to finished self-published ebook or book launch.  For most people, 6-weeks is a reasonable period of time to go from concept to launch, for others it can happen even quicker, still others will take a little more time…but in each case YOU control the process – no more gatekeeper standing in your way.

What Are The Steps To Self-Publishing Ebooks?

1. First you want to identify a target reader or customer.  For non-fiction, this means focusing on a specific desire for information or content. 

2. Second, identifying a unique angle will help you to stand out from the dozens (if not hundreds) of other competing titles in your market.  This is one of the most important steps to getting your ebook to sell LOTS of copies and make big profits

3. Third, we work on setting up the very latest tools online to begin building attention – or a platform as traditional publishers liked  to call it.  That can mean blogs, social networking, email lists, an optimized website, affiliates or partners, press releases, and so on…  There are so many ways you can build momentum around your ebook launch, and believe me, 99% of writers today are completely missing out on these incredible techniques

4. Fourth, you'll need to know how to outline, obtain content, know the shortcuts and format your book or ebook based on the method of distribution options you have…this can confuse and paralyze many who try to bring their ebook to market

5. Finally, there is the entire process of operationalizing and promoting your ebook or book launch.  You'll need to understand the different models of selling, marketing and making your ebooks available for download.  Here you want to account for higher profit options, mobile devices, getting listed in retail directories AND making your ebook available to potential partners to promote. 

Self-publishing is an incredibly exciting, profitable and fun buisness…not bad timing either given that we are right at th tip of the self-publishing, ebook revolution.  In other words…NOW is the time!   Head over to InfoMarketer'sZone where hundreds of self-published writers are hanging out right now…

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The challenge once you have your report or ebook is getting maximum exposure across your market.

Certainly, building a platform for yourself using blogs, social networking, virtual seminars (teleseminars, webinars) , press releases, keyword optimized content, videos, etc…are all terrific ways to draw your market toward your self-published ebook or info product, but there is another way.

To get your report or ebook listed across various tradiitonal retail websites including Barnes & Nobel, Sony, Kobel and other ebook directories you can submit to Smashwords and have them do all of the dirty work for you.

Here is a great blog post working through the steps you need to take to submit your self-published ebook to Smashwords so they can take care of getting it listed for you. 

(NOTE) The other two big directories Apple and Amazon's Kindle will require separate setup at this time, though the belief is Smashwords will eventually support Amazon as well.

Basically it comes down to 3 major steps:

• Signing up for your account at Smashwords
• Making sure your MS doc is properly formatted as per Smashwords style directives (this is very important or you risk non-acceptance or an ebook that looks terrible on different ebook reading platforms)
• Setting the price and having a cover graphic designed

That's all there is to it, Smashwords will take care of formatting and distributing to the different directories – this will not cost you anything up-front, and only a small percentage on the sale of your report or ebook.

One final word – these tend to be low-priced ebooks, so our recommendation is that you take a subset of your info product and turn it into a 30-60 page ebook that you sell for .99-$9.99 for the added exposure and potential high volume sales while you keep your main info products up-market at higher margins to capture profit from your most committed and desperate buyers.

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A former technology executive turns his passion for stress management into a top selling membership site, another unemployed 33-year old turned his energy and passion into creating his own top selling ebook and now makes more money in one month than he made in the last 6-months combined!

While the added income is very important in today's terrible economy, even more important is having the ability to control your own income…once you have your own self-published books, ebooks and info products on the market, nobody can come into your office and tell you that in two weeks you will no longer have a source of income!

And…if you want a raise, you simply use the same process to produce another self-published product – which can be done in 30-days or less…and you have given yourself a 50-100% raise – sure beats 3% doesn't it?

Maybe you have already lost your job, or maybe you are just tired of worrying about what would happen when you do…either way, putting a little work into publishing your own hot selling information product on the internet is a tiny investment for peace of mind, replacement income with near unlimited upside potential. 

We've worked with hundreds of others through InfoMarketer'sZone who have liberated themselves from worry, fear and frustration – most projects take 30-45 days to launch the product and begin to see the money roll in…

Is it worth it?

No question for those who now see their non-fiction information turning into daily sales and profits.

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Many of us have been turning information and stories into money for more than a decade (yikes…that sounds like a LONG time!), we were known as information publishers or infoproduct entrepreneurs.  Now, it seems, the industry is coining the term micro publisher to label authors who are now directly taking their books, ebooks and other information products to market.

Our network of successful, profit earning writers and info product creators (now known as micro publishers I suppose) over at InfoMarketer'sZone are among the top in this high powered, high growth movement where insatiable demand for information is quickly met with high-value, high profit, direct-to-consumer ebooks, training programs and books – numbering now in the high hundreds of thousands.

Even more interesting is where these micro published books and ebook are being sold.

Yes, some are making their way into physical bookstores and competing for shelf space with traditionally published books, but most are taking advantage of a huge shift in book buying – from store to online.

As an author or owner of content, you can have your ebook, book, manual or other info product for sale right along side the biggest published works online at B&N, Amazon, Chapters Indigo or other major book retailers. 

In addition – we have several online digital info product directories targeting niche audiences such as Clickbank, Commission Junction and so on…holding tens of thousands of addtional titles.

Finally, we have hundreds of thousands of separate micro publishers hosting their own websites where they market and sell their books directly to consumers available for mail distribution and fulfillment or direct download from their servers.

All in all, we are approaching estimates of 1 Million titles that are being sold by self-publishers led strongly by highly focused micro publishers like you or I. 

In our own little world, we have 13 different ebooks, reports and books as well as coaching and membership sites now offered – and sure, I'm ok with being called "micro" so long as that doesn't reflect the ever growing profits we get to keep – in fact…a more apt audience for "micro" may be the traditional authors who get to keep 5% or less of their profits when publishing traditionally – now that is what I call MICRO!

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With more than a dozen titles, we offer all of our ebooks and reports in digital format for immediate download.   When you do a proper job of picking a high-demand topic and your audience is hungry for the information you share, many will want to download the info product immediately. 

But there are also cases where you want to have a print version of your product, for example:

• You want 100 copies to hand out at a local seminar or trade show you are doing
• You want a dozen copies to keep on hand for consulting clients
• You want a couple hundred copies to send out as lead generators or pre-sales tools for higher priced products and services you offer
• You want 500 copies to leave with local retail outlets that will be interested in offering your book to their customers
• You want a single copy to show off to your friends, family and to use as a background in your videos
• You just want to see your name on the cover of a printed book – damn it…!

What are your choices? 

First, let's list the steps you will need to go through to turn your electronic or digital ebook, report, manual or other written product into a print copy…whether it is a 10-page report or 200-page ebook

1. The first step is to decide how much of design and editing work you want to do, some print on demand publishers only print (such as LightningSource for example), while others provide more inclusive design and editing packages (at higher cost of course).  It's sort of like building a house, you can either have someone else do it all for you (and you trust and pay them), you act as a sub-contractor where you project manage all the pieces or you do it yourself. 

2. Assuming you want to at least explore taking control of the design and editing, then you want to download the publishing guidelines that each POD publisher issues.  Some of these can be 40-60 page documents, but really they are not that tough to follow.  In these documents they list typical design elements such as margins, pagination, image specifications, etc… as well as file formats they accept and prefer.  These will serve as the majority of your roadmap for turning your current MS Word or OpenOffice format digital file into a print-ready manuscript for your POD project

3. You will likely need to get a cover designed.  Even if you already have a high-quality digital image for your ebook cover or report cover today, you will likely need to get that redone – and may want to for any re-branding considerations anyway.  Your print-on-demand publisher will offer guidelines for having this developed properly.  Most ebook cover designers are capable of developing professional print covers, but make sure you get someone who has done that before as it is different than developing digital only covers. 

4. You will need an ISBN as any of the options for listing your print book in print on demand and retail directories require a registered ISBN -in the United States (isbn.org), ISBN's are sold in blocks of 10 and run about $150  Having the block of ISBN's is not a bad thing for when you want to expand your product line into future editions, release an related DVD or CD or list another product as the publisher. 

5. Be ready to proof your first version after you submit it.  The oddest things that looked fine in your digital ebook or report can look really messed up in the final print proof, so look at it quickly.  Before you submit your file for proof, it is a good idea to do a final edit of your work – for whatever reason many of us tend to release ebooks that pretty sloppy spelling and grammar, it is good to clean as much of this up as you can before you submit your proof. 

SO, WHO DO I GET TO PRINT MY BOOK?

There are, of course hundreds upon hundreds of choices in book printing – but I've heard enough horror stories about local or even national (but less recognized) printers who take your money or make big promises but then disappear or do not deliver as expected. 

So, when we have projects to have printed or advise our friends in InfoMarketer'sZone on who to get to print their book we suggest one of these 3 choices:

1. LightningSource:  Turns out that most other print on demand companies including Createspace and Lulu use Lightningsource for their printing.   There are many advantages of going directly to Lightningsource, not the least of which is they are owned by Ingram book publishing and can provide a very wide channel to market when you have your book printed and listed with them.  They also have a very good reputation, some of the best pricing in the industry (especially if you see yourself having to print more than say 50 books at a time)  and do very good work.  Not to say there aren't challenges – of all the POD book publishers LightningSource has deviated the least toward being a full-service shop which means they still just focus on what they do best – printing!  For you, that means you need to take the sub-contract route and have your editing and design work done outside.  If you are willing to go that route, then you will be happy with LightningSource.  Luckily there is a very inexpensive ($15), but amazingly comprehensive guidebook on using LightningSource that makes it so much simpler – POD for Profit: More on the NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books With Online Book Marketing and Print on Demand by Lightning Source

2. Lulu:  Also have a good reputation but definitely cater to the individual who wants to simply get a few copies of his or her book perhaps as a gift or to sell in very small quantities.  What you will find is that if you begin to move higher volumes going directly to Lightningsource will be better.  Lulu also offers some additional benefits such as the community, forums, and user interface for tracking your sales are all much better – they also have a marketplace which gives you either a place to initially get your book up for sale (before you have a website) or as added exposure for those who do have a website already to sell their book.  My guidance would be to go to Lightningsource unless you 1) Are at all freaked out with having to figure things out yourself — Lulu does a better job of catering to the first-timer or 2) If your book printing needs are minimal, where you won't need the added volume discounts that kick in with Lightningsource

3. Createspace: A slight advantage on start-up costs wtih Createspace (but do remember you want to maintain control over your ISBN and be the publisher – don't let any POD be listed as the publisher as that results in lost control for you).  But we are talking about less than $50 difference in setup fees which will run you $75 or less for all of these choices minus the ISBN acquisition of course.  On the down side you don't have as wide a retail distribution channel with Createspace as you do with LS (widest) and Lulu (as an extra they will get you wider distribution).  None of this matters unless your title is in high demand, but can make a significant difference if it is. 

All 3 options are very good and safe, the differences are less than $100 in setup costs, are relatively small on 1-100 book printing (but can get bigger as LS offers bigger discounts for higher quantity printing), amount of support you get (LS the least) and amount of exposure you receive in the retail channels (LS is best here).

For my needs I typically go through Lightning source but have had clients that have used all 3 happily. 

There you have it…turning your ebook or report into a print product is a very good idea and with a little sweat on the design and editing side, can be relatively painless and profitable exercise. 

Oh yes…one more IMPORTANT point — how much money you make with your print book all depends on two important factors:

1. How well you have tapped into an in-demand desire in the marketplace
2. Your ability to market and publicize your book

Understanding market opportunities for non-fiction book titles, looking for ideas on content, targeting your book within your market and understanding advanced techniques of selling book on the internet are all the purpose of InfoMarketer'sZone – the only site that will actually put money in YOUR pocket when you are ready to write your own book or ebook.

Questions or experiences you would like to share – leave us a comment.

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For years now many of us have quietly targeted and sold self-published books into hungry niche markets where demand to buy our books online is sometimes quite crazy!

You have seen the feeding frenzy sharks have when they sense blood in the water, targeting your own self published book properly within hungry markets can have the same effect.

With more than 12 self-published books using the system we share with others at InfoMarketer'sZone, first time writers are finding that the opportunity the internet brings when you publish a book makes it possible for any of you to sell thousands of copies of your own book or ebook keeping most of the profits unlike traditional publishing models.

Case in point, here is a great blog report of a group of women who quickly put together a compilation of travel stories called "Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel" – and here is a very interesting point about their experience publishing a book:

Mid-level authors already know that the era of large advances, generous royalties, book tours and media spots are over. They have to spend their own time and money to create a website and publicize their books. Publishers just don't have the resources to offer them full support.

Who are these people that suddenly find themselves in charge of their own profit-center publishing books for money on the internet?

In our own program over at Information Marketing Zone we have found people including:

• Unemployed, disillusioned and fed up workers who suddenly live out their dreams by writing about what they love AND making a better living than they ever thought possible
• Professionals who are looking to take their local, offline businesses online and global, where they make sales whether they show up for work or not
• Freelance writers who used to get stressed out over getting the next project, meeting the latest unrealistic deadline – now they can use their craft AND control their own time and income
• Entrepreneurs who are looking to setup internet businesses, but don't know what to sell.  Information products – self-published ebooks, books, reports can easily be turned into full-scale training, blogging or online marketing businesses – all kicked off by their dedication to self publishing a book

As the Carla mentions in her blog post…

Another market contributing to the big spike in POD is the population who never thought of authoring a book until the tools became so accessible. Family memoirs, for example. Cookbooks by church groups. Businesspeople who write books to enhance their career. Professors who author their own textbooks.

If you fall into one of the groups above and either want to kick off a new career or simply start another income source where you can leverage your time (write once and sell your self published book forever), then head over to Information Marketer's zone where hundreds of success stories have been realized. 

But above all else, know that you can publish a book in the new world of book publishing and have a better chance than some of the top authors out there who earn pennies on their traditional published books.

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Certainly we have helped hundreds of freelancer writers, business professionals and many individuals who were looking for that one missing factor to help them start their own successful business online or get ahead in their career through Information Marketer's Zone – and so it wasn't a complete surprise when we came across yet another great case study of how the most successful book publishers are marketing their books on the internet.

Take author and entrepreneur Jean Ann Van Krevelen, author of the Amazon top seller
Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food

Not only was Grocery Gardening developed from online blogging experience gained by Jean Ann, it was done through a compilation of experts, many selected from online networking.

Indeed, many people may still wonder why serious internet marketers fool around with Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linked-In or the other social networking hubs, well this is one great example of how they can be used to pull together a range of experts for compilation-type information products.

But what is really important to learn from Jean Ann is how she is using EVERY avenue available to her to market her book online (and offline for that matter).

First, I came across her book from an online article that had been written about an upcoming Gardener's exhibition – an event!

Second, I googled Jean Ann and her Grocery Gardening book and guess what I found?

The top 10 listings came up an incredible insight into the marketing avenues available to authors for marketing your book on the internet.

The first listing is Jean Ann's Entrepreneur blog, the second and fourth were her social networking profiles on Facebook and Linked-in respectively.

The third listing that came up was especially illuminating, Jean Ann's blog Gardener To Farmer, a wonderful blog on the niche topic of home farming – and a great platform builder for her book.

But low and behold, we find that Jean Ann has a few different blogs, certainly has the market covered on that front.

Ok next, I see that in her top 10 listings on Google she also is active on Twitter – a nice profile that also cross posts with other social networking sites like Facebook – hmmmm…methinks Jean Ann has had some online marketing training.

I think you get the idea – continuing on with another page or two of Google results we see that she is also plugged into social groups on Ning, Typepad (blogging platform), Plurk — and likely too many others to note here.

Now let me ask you – do you think that it is an Accident that her gardening book currenly sits in the top 20,000 of ALL books on Amazon and in the top 10 and top 30 in gardening categories such as fruit and vegetables?

There are huge opportunities for ANYONE to use the internet to:

• Find red-hot book topics to write about
• Research and package knowledge into ebooks, books, reports and courses
• And market those products effectively on the internet

Jean Ann gives us yet another example of how this is done, we know there are thousands and thousands of others doing the same thing…why not you?

Visit us over at Information Marketer's Zone and lets work to make you a smashing success with your own self-published ebook, book or training program that sells on the internet.

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Growing Opportunity With Ebooks

Certainly ebooks and digital information products are getting more airtime these days from the mainstream press because of Kindle and the proliferation of handy ebook reading devices.  The hype around ebooks is only just beginning, adoption is poised to skyrocket and that IS changing the publishing industry.

For years before though there have been Billions of dollars of growth in self-published ebooks, books, home study courses and information products changing hands.

The top products over at Clickbank sell millions of dollars each year while millions of other websites promote and allow download of their own information products ranging from $10 ebooks and reports to 5-figure DVD, seminars, membership sites, and home study courses with all sorts of offerings in-between.

Stephen Covey Goes  Self-Publishing

Earlier today super hot author Stephen Covey issued a press release telling the world that he is planning 6 "mini" books in both physical and digital ebook format within the next year and that he will part with his previous traditional publish model to a self-publish model for marketing these new books.

Why?

Speed is one of the major factors he cites.  It often takes a minimum of 6-months for the most influential author to go from idea to "sale ready" format for a traditionally published book.

Remember, that is BEST case – it often takes more like 8-months to 1-year – and most of us really don't stand a chance of getting published these days without a pretty significant profile or position within our marketplace.

On the other hand, in 30-days or less we can have a 100-page ebook or 60-page ebook or book completed, designed and ready to sell with self-publishing AND we get to keep the vast majority of profits.

On the other hand, in 30-days or less you can have your own 60-100 page ebook to sell online earning you profit online

In fact, if you decide to sell your book from your own website, you can keep up to 90% of your profits, keeping close to 50% if you decide to have it printed and carried through a retail network such as Amazon – a far cry from the 5% or so you get to keep as royalties from traditionally published books.

More than anything else, seeing authors of the stature of Stephen Covey moving to self-publishing should give us all a clue that the book publishing industry is in a serious state of change – a discontinuity that we can all use to our own advantage by learning how to self-publish books and ebooks and make more money on the internet.

Looking for more information on how you can self-publish your own non-fiction book and sell it online – take this Free Information Profit Success Course and get the edge.

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We've been helping authors, speakers, trainers and entrepreneurs self-publish their own ebooks, audio programs and training programs for years over at Information Marketing Zone – and what each person learns is that…

• If you know how to market yourself and your book or ebook, self-publishing can be far more lucrative than traditional publishing
• Digital publishing – ebooks, digital reports, online newsletters, subscription membership sites, webinars, online coaching programs, teleseminars and the like are all high-profit product creation techniques for sharing non-fiction information with your markets – sometimes for 10X the amount of a typical book you find in the bookstore
• Digital products can be released in 45-days or even less…a far cry from the 6+ months it typically takes to get a book published…which means you can test new topics, build your readership and make more money faster with digital self-publishing
• You can build in market feedback which you can immediately put back into your writing and publishing business to improve your offerings.  For every ebook we sell online we survey our marketplace twice (once a few days after getting the book and again a few weeks later) which gives us additional feedback, new book and ebook ideas, requests for additional consulting and services as well as rave reviews and testimonials – all automated as part of our email follow-up campaign which automatically goes into effect once an order is placed for one of our ebooks
• By offering online affiliate programs you can expose your ebook or digital information product to millions and millions of eager buyers with software that tracks all of this for you and automatically pays you and your affiliate when they make a sale for you – day or night.

Yes, Kindle certainly may be massively changing the way publishing models work – many authors will now consider releasing digital, self-published versions of their books first whereas a year past, they would never have thought of this option. 

But for many of us – we have been doing just this for the last 9-years when the first ebooks hit the market being sold by their entrepreneurial authors from their own websites. 

Today, the opportunity to package knowledge, experience or research into digital information products (ebooks, reports, presentations, trainings, videos, etc…) is even bigger – it seems that finally the world will be catching up to us thank to Kindle.

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