It seems all aspiring authors seek the holy grail of getting published, only to find out that the experience is incredibly souless. While I personally recommend most authors who self-publish with ZDocs to not give up on their goal of “getting published,” I often hear stories much like that of Mr. Goodman below. I think Gary’s comments are insightful, especially because they come from someone who has reached the lofty goal of being published.  Enjoy.

Stupid Rejection Letters From Book Publishers - Volume I

By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

I’m the best-selling author of 12 books, all with major publishers, and I’ve written well over 1,000 articles.

I just want to say that for the record; to establish my bona fides, and to alert you to the fact that I’m actually one of the few “winners” in the publishing lottery.

So, when I tell you that the absurdity of traditional book publishers simply grows worse with each passing year, you might want to take note.

I’ve decided to share with you some of the most stupid rejections that I’ve received, and continue to get.

For instance, the other day I received a form letter from a fairly big business book publisher that said, more or less, “We have such a pile of submissions that yours just doesn’t matter, but here’s a goofy quote about rejection that might inspire you.”

What’s interesting about this letter is it arrived nearly a year after I WAS INVITED TO SUBMIT MY PROPOSAL. My pitch didn’t come from the “slush pile,” as the uninvited stack is so ingloriously called.

This publishing house is improving.

It took these wunderkinds a year and a half to say no to my last offer, which by the time I got their “Sorry!” letter, the underlying manuscript had already been purchased by a different publisher and the final product was about to hit the bookstores in 30 days.

That entire process of pitching, negotiating, writing, editing, proofing, printing, and promoting was done by the time the sluggish outfit got around to communicating its disinterest.

I have more war stories to tell you, but for now, just remember these points:

(1) Traditional publishers are generally clueless. They don’t know what will sell and what won’t.

(2) They’re curiously impervious to instruction and improvement. Surrounded by “knowledge” they’re drowning in ignorance.

(3) Despite being in a dinosaur industry, without a clue about how to charge for information in an Internet age, where so much of it is free, they’re as arrogant as they have ever been.

Don’t hitch your wagon to this falling, or is it imploding star.

Self-publish, use the e-book format, write articles, and if you can, transform your ideas into more exciting media such as audios and videos that can fetch much larger royalties and profits than books that are priced at $17.95.

If you do any or all of these things, you’ll be faster to market with your ideas, and you’ll deal with fewer dumb intermediaries that hold keys to castles made of sand.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. His seminars and training
programs are sponsored internationally and he is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UCLA Extension, where he has taught since 1999. Dynamic, experienced, and lots of fun, Gary brings more than two decades
of solid management and consulting experience to the table, along with the best academic preparation and credentials in the speaking and training industry. Holder of five degrees, including a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a law degree from Loyola, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies along with successful family owned and operated firms across America. Much more than a “talking head,” Gary is a top mind that you’ll enjoy working with and putting to use.
He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

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There are blogs and then, there are blogs. Some blogs are to entertain. Some are to inform. As an author who is looking to pump up her blog to sell more books, your blog needs to be a lot of both to makes sure you get those books sold.

I cannot stress this more: EVERY AUTHOR NEEDS A BLOG.

If you don't, you are missing out on one of the most VITAL elements in successful book promotion.

If you don't, you will NOT see the sales you expect.

If you don't, hop on over to www.blogger.com, or one of the other free blogging services, and set one up today because I am about to tell you some insider secrets on how you can turn your book blog into a money-making machine.

Are you pumped up yet?

Good!

The first place to start is with a blog that is entirely devoted to pumping up your book. Save those everyday conversations (unless they're related exclusively to your book) for other blogs you might have.

Today starts the first day you're going to pay careful attention to what goes up on your blog and how you can make your blog stand out from all those other blogs out there. What you will be doing is creating a powerful online presence, as well as pulling in that audience. After all, what's a book blog good for if it's not going to be noticed?

Surely, you can't have that happen because pumping up your online book promotion is your main goal in successful book promotion any way you look at it.

With that said, if you really want to draw in buyers, make sure you do have a blog pertaining to the subject of your book. Since most blogs are free, it's wise to have a separate blog for this so that the attention will be directed toward your book and not what you had for breakfast, so to speak.

The point I'm trying to make is that in order to pump up your book promotion, you need to center yourself and figure out how you can turn your blog into a great promotional vehicle to sell your book without coming off as one big ad.

What I would like to do is give you some examples of blogs that are directly, and intentionally, geared toward blogging about their books.

Rachel Newstead's book is called “Orphan Toons: Relics of Animation’s Forgotten Past.” It's not published yet, but what she is doing is creating a platform even before the book sees the light of day. A fine example of pumping up your book promotion. If you go to her blog at http://rachel-and-kevin.blogspot.com, you can see what I mean.

Another great example is Kathy Holmes’ blog at http://www.kathyholmes.net where she promotes one published book and another yet-to-be-published book, but she carries them both off very well without being obtrusive. Her published book is titled “Myths of the Fatherless” and I have to tell you, this woman is one of the best promoters I have seen as far as getting the word out about her book, without it looking like one big ad for her book. Her other book is with an agent looking for a home, but it's called “Real Women Wear Red” and she does an excellent job talking about what the main theme of the book is about. Even though it's fiction, it deals with women of a certain age which she blogs about quite often. Now this is a pumped up blog if I've ever seen one.

While Rachelle uses her blog to create buzz for when her book becomes published and Kathy uses her blog to promote an already-published book, some authors even go outside of the box and create blogs for the characters in their books. Quite a neat idea, if you ask me.

One such writer is Jamieson Wolf. I've read many of his other blogs on a daily basis and I have to admit, this guy is going places. If I can only write as much during one day as he does, I'd be set in books for life. What Jamieson has done is started a blog for one of his characters in his upcoming book, Hope Falls, which you can see for yourself at http://www.hidingfromhope.blogspot.com/.

These authors know what it takes to create a buzz for their books, whether they're published or almost-published. Maybe they'll give you ideas on how you can pump up your own blog--or perhaps to start a new one exclusively devoted to your book--to create a powerful online presence not only for your book, but yourself, too. It's all in how much you want it.

© Dorothy Thompson

On February 28, 2007, I have been asked to speak on the seven secrets of publishing your own book.  I’m not sure there are any secrets when publishing a book, but the seven “topics” I’ve chosen to talk about are topics that would-be self-publishers I speak with every day find useful.  I hope you will find these topics useful as well.  Here’s the first topic - A book is not just a book.

Secret Number One - A Book is not Just a Book

We traditionally think of books as 9 inch by 6 inch pages of words printed on 60# Offset paper - something a little nicer than the paper that comes out of your office printer - and then softback bound with a flashy color cover.  Of course, these books might be hardback bound, but the principle is the same.  We think of books as something we hold in our hands and read in airplanes or in bed or while lying on white plastic chairs on white sandy beaches.

But today, a book can be an ebook we download directly from an author’s website, or it might be an audio book we listen to on our iPods while running around the park or it might be a seminar we attend.  That’s right, a book might be a seminar.

ZDocs prints books for Will Marre.  You may not know Will, but Mr. Marre co-founded the Covey institute.  Most of you probably know Steven Covey, the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”   What you might not know is that Steven Covey struggled to write his “Book.”  Every time he sat down at a word processor to get his thoughts on paper, he lost his voice.  (I’m basing this story on a Podcast I downloaded from Will Marre.)

One day, according to Will, Will and Steven realized that the best way to write the book was to record Steven’s seminars.  So yes, a book can be a seminar. 

A book is nothing more than the organized thoughts of an author.  A book is not the jumbled words an author might write on napkins and scratch paper and then copied and bound together, but rather a book is the thoughtful organization of those thoughts.  For me, the main purpose of a book is to help the author communicate his or her ideas to an audience.  To effectively communicate, the author needs to formulate his or her ideas into words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters. 

Each year, over 2.5 million authors seek to publish their books with mainstream publishers.  These books are memoirs, business books, political books, novels, cookbooks, fitness books you name it.  The human race wants to share ideas and since the time of Guttenberg (you know, that guy who created the printing press), the most common way for us to communicate complex ideas is by printing our words on paper and binding them together.

But the world is changing.  We must embrace all forms of communication including books, CDs, ebooks, audio books, and so forth.  An author has spent hundreds of hours organizing his or her thoughts in order to communicate a complex idea to an audience and authors today need to be ready to share their “books” with their readers (listeners, viewers, etc.) in many different ways.

Original post by Phil Davis, ZDocs

Many writers balk at even attempting to play publisher, but if they only knew that it’s not as hard as they think it is, plus they keep to keep all the profits, I feel that more people would realize that self-publishing ebooks is not only a profitable venture, but they are really simple to promote as long as you take a no-nonsense guerilla approach to marketing.

As long as you have a market, and have a quality eBook that is free of errors, your eBook can become a success, thus give you that added income.  But, the great thing is, you won’t be sharing the profits with anyone.  There is no overhead except for website expenses, which you should already have.

I have successfully promoted several eBooks for myself and for my writing group, getting those eBooks into the #1 position in the search engines.

How?

That’s where your guerilla marketing plan comes in.

Here are a few simple ways I have used to promote my eBooks and get them to the top of the search engines:

1) Using key search words throughout my selling page and on every single piece of promotional literature I send out.

2) Using free press release sites frequently, keeping in mind to use those key search words not only in the title, but also throughout the release.

3) Using free article banks as vehicles to get my selling page’s link on hundreds upon hundreds of websites.

4) Using online storefronts who will list my eBook for free.

5) Using writer’s forums and websites who will let you announce your eBook.

6) Using blogs to announce your eBook and promote it.

7) Using others’ blogs to set up virtual book tours.

The secret to selling self-published eBooks (or any kind of eBook or print book, for that matter) is to get your link on as many websites as you can.  You have to remember, you have an electronic book.  You can’t go on book signings, so you have to rely on the Internet to get the word out.  But, by following those seven examples above, I’ll guarantee you’ll get the sales you need.

So what if you’ve done everything above, and your eBook still isn’t selling?

Where some authors go wrong is that they fail to remember the most important thing you need in order to sell any kind of books—a market.

No amount of promotion is going to do you any good unless you have an audience who is willing to fork out the money.

Before you even put down that first word, you have to ask yourself these following questions:

Who is going to buy my eBook?

Why is my eBook any different than Joe Blow’s eBook on the same subject?

What will my audience gain from my eBook?

Can they already find this information readily on the Internet?

Will my buyers gain something from my eBook, or is it simply to entertain?

Pique your potential buyer’s interest.

Post an excerpt on your website so they can judge for themselves whether your eBook will be something they need.

Once you get into the mindset of your buyer, things start falling in place, and you’ll get those sales you want.

Zero in on your market, and do the steps I’ve outlined above, and I’ll guarantee you’ll be selling ebooks.

Happy promoting to you!

© Dorothy Thompson

Dorothy Thompson is the editor of The Writer’s Life (http://www.thewriterslife.net), one of Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers, and the author of the self-promoting eBook “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook,” available at http://www.thewriterslife.net/promoteebook.html

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Whether or not the chats do anything to stimulate sales is up for debate. At best, most freeware chat rooms used by such sites can host a maximum of twenty to thirty people, and publishers often have to be wary to see if the majority of chatters are the authors. Personal experience has seen scheduled chats comprised mainly of authors, chatting with each other! While it is beneficial to offer these promotional opportunities, it hardly does a publisher good if readers do not come.

That said, incentives are usually offered to fill the chat rooms with readers. Authors may give away a prize to one lucky reader, like a small gift or a free book. The question of whether or not it is prudent to distribute complimentary books as prizes has long been argued among authors, particularly in the eBook industry.

Some authors condone the practice on the premise that a book in the hands of a reader may encourage that reader to buy more books. Especially if the book is part of a series, the reader may wish to collect the entire set. Using a book as the proverbial carrot, too, may guide readers to the author’s website, where they may find titles appealing enough to purchase. Also, an author seen as being so generous may develop a following in a faithful readership that will benefit them in the long run.

On the other hand, such generosity may backfire, according to other authors who condemn the practice. When you consider the tightly knit readership of eBooks, particularly in the romance genre, authors may tend to see the same Internet nicknames populating chats. If word gets around enough that free books are the prizes, an author might soon discover that he or she is giving away her entire catalog to the same readers without seeing any profits. An author can feel frustrated with the practice, and wonder if such regular contest winners will ever buy his/her book.

Of course, an author might feel obligated to give away something, and not upset the readers. Word of mouth is still the most effective method of promotion, and for an author to gain a reputation for being difficult or stingy can be damaging to future sales. Should an author feel trapped, however? The answer is an emphatic no.

There are ways to successfully offer giveaways without giving away everything. While gifts like soaps, teas, and other trinkets can add up over time (though they are tax-deductible, authors, make notes!), there is one giveaway trick that can help stimulate sales. The next time you participate in a chat, write a one to two-thousand word story that reads as a supplement to your novel.

It could be a sequel, a prequel, or a side story with supporting characters. Have it formatted as in eBook in HTML or PDF and offer it as an exclusive prize to one winner. The gesture may influence the winning reader to buy the corresponding book, and your other titles. As time goes on and you write more novels, you can offer these short tidbits to entice readers to sample your work, then buy! This way you are giving away a story, but not every story.

Give it a try, and watch your readership grow.

Kathryn Lively is The Write SEO, offering free SEO advice to authors who promote online. She writes for CINIVA Systems, Virginia Beach website design.

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Originally posted on February 2nd, 2007 by Phil Davis

You have written your book. It is out in print, ready for the world to read. You have set up your Razorpages author page and have started blogging. You have found an audience - one whose interest you have captured and who faithfully visit your blog everyday to see if you have written something new.

Chances are this scenario does not apply to you - at least not the part about faithful visitors to your blog EVERY day. It is more likely that even the faithful readers do not take the time to visit your blog everyday but instead rely on some type of service that alerts them when your blog has been updated.

And what about the many blog readers out there searching on a topic that your blog happens to speak to and yet, they do not even know your blog exists? Your blog just may have what they are searching for.

These are but just a couple of issues impacting your blog. But it is not difficult to address them. First, make a commitment to write in your blog at least once a week.  The more you post, the more often people will read your blog.

Second, and most important, PING!  What is ping?  Pinging (as it relates to your blog) allows the blog search engines know when you update your blog.  There are certain services that scan blogs and publish them.  When you ping, you let those services know that your blog has been updated.  They can then crawl and index your site, publish your blog contents, and increase visibility for your blog and consequently, your author page.  There are many sites that provide this service but two of the better ones are Ping-O-Matic (pingomatic.com) and Pingoat. These both ping the top blog search engines.

One thing to remember - do not ping just for the sake of pinging. If you have not updated your blog and you ping anyway is considered spamming and could get your blog blocked.

The ultimate goal is to bring traffic to your blog and your author page. The more you update your blog and ping, the more traffic you will receive.

Happy blogging!

Today\'s entry is the next in a series of entries about the new technology we can use to promote ourselves, our businesses and most important for most of us, our books.  The first entry, What\'s a community website, discussed the new Web 2.0 and the power of community websites.  You can read this entry by simply scrolling down.

The community website that has become a household brand is "myspace.com."  Myspace.com, Flickr.com and hundreds of other websites are popping up all over the place.  This movement is referred to as Web 2.0.

A community website is a website that has a central theme and gets most of its content from its visitors.  On myspace.com for example, 65 million people - rock bands, movie stars and wannabes -  join for free and are able to express themselves however they feel like it.  Flickr started out as a game and then the owners saw a new opportunity.  The company developed over 2.5 million users, people sharing their shoebox of photos online for all to see, and then sold to Yahoo.com.  And Razorpages is a community of authors helping authors succeed (more about this topic in future blog enteries.)

We now have the "great brains" of our society talking about how the collective thinking of a large community can make better decisions than a few experts.  I find this new trend fascinating.  When Innovations and ZDocs got together on our new community blog site Razorpages.com, one of the primary driving forces was to create a platform for the market to decide if they like a book or not.  Instead of some employee of a publishing house deciding a book is any good or not, our goal is to let thousands of readers decide.  Mostly, market feedback will be in the form of readers deciding to buy a book or not.

Our catch phrase at Razorpages is "Authors helping Authors Succeed."  Here\'s one way this works:  Let\'s say an author has over 1,000 visitors to her blog site each month.  Those visitors may choose to browse other, similar sites that are part of the same Razorpages community.  Also, the author may refer her readers to another book on Razorpages that she thinks the readers may be interested in. 

The other part of how this community works is in the form of RSS feeds which will be the topic of my next entry.  I could ramble on and on about community websites, but the best way to know what one is is to visit one.  www.myspace.com , www.youtube.com, www.flickr.com are just a few to get you started.  And of course, if you spend some time exploring Razorpages you will get a good feel for what a community website is.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave us a comment.