*The succeeding article is about marketing self published books, Internet Marketing Promotion, Book Marketing Services, and many other useful tips about online book marketing.

With hundreds of thousands of books getting published everyday, the competition level of the book-selling industry is currently at an all-time high. Consider this: In 2008, over 200,000 books were published last year in the United States alone, 80 percent of which are self-published and, not surprisingly, a large chunk of these books are for sale. What’s more, the number is expected to experience a significant rise this year.

With this kind of competition, an upstart author with limited financial resources (and can’t afford a book publicist) and limited time (and can’t go on a nationwide book-marketing tour) would do well by marketing a self-published work through the Internet. But just how does a published author wage a low-cost, yet efficient book marketing campaign in the Internet?

One of the sure-fire ways to do just that is through the opt-in email advertisement campaign, a unique book marketing method that reaches a massive, yet viable, target audience through electronic mail (email) advertisements.

An email advertisement campaign, essentially, is a massive email broadcast of “book ads” sent to hundreds of thousands—and even millions—of “profiled” email subscribers. An “email book ad” consists of a visually appealing and enticing graphic advertisement of a book, replete with the book description, the book details, and if any, the positive reviews of the book. These “book ads” also come with a unique Web address or URL (uniform resource locator) links that direct the “clicker” to the book author’s official Website or online bookstore, or even both, where the consumer can read more about the book and learn how to purchase it.

As previously stated, these ads are specifically designed to hit e-mail subscribers who have “opted” to receive commercial marketing messages, according to their specific areas of interest.  For instance, an email book marketing ad for a book about, say, French cinema will be delivered to a customized mailing list of e-mail subscribers who have indicated their interest for “movies”, “books,” or “literature” in their email profiles.

Opt-in email book marketing advertisements reach a vast, specific target market, making it a favorite marketing tool for authors for its precise demographic targeting, massive reach, and reasonable cost. But perhaps the best thing about this program is its traceability: email marketing service providers routinely furnish clients with detailed reports of the email advertisement’s “open” and “click” rates. An “open” rate is the statistical data of the number of ads that are “opened” by a target email subscriber, while the “click” rate is a statistical tracker of the number of times the ad is “clicked” by a target email subscriber.

As such, opt-in email marketing ads not only boost the marketing punch of a book but it also serves as a terrific reference guide for future marketing campaigns, making it a highly effective, multi-dimensional book marketing tool in today’s competitive book-selling landscape. 

BookWhirl.com’s email marketing services is designed to reach email subscribers who have opted to receive marketing messages, according to their specified interest. Over all, your book advertisements are delivered to their appropriate market – an efficient way for your Book Publicity.

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by: Irene Watson
Source: http://www.sellingbooks.com/strategic-book-marketing-and-roi

Authors want to promote their books and myriad ways exist for doing so. Sometimes small and low-cost advertising can be more effective than expensive advertising with grandiose promises. Whatever marketing an author does, analyzing the ROI (Return on Investment) must be the key factor.

Anyone who publishes a book is soon going to be flooded with mail and email from people and companies seeking to help you promote your book. These people will tell you how to get on TV, how to sell truckloads of books, and how to place ads that can result in thousands of sales. Authors with big dreams will want to jump at these chances, but every form of book marketing does not work for everyone, and it doesn’t make sense to spend large amounts of money on marketing if you can’t have some certainty of the results.

Let’s take a couple of examples of big book campaigns that might not be worthwhile. An author I know was recently approached by a television show looking to have authors on the program. It was a morning talk show on one of the cable networks. The producers wanted several thousand dollars to be on the program. First off, most television shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, will pay your travel expenses and pay for you to be on the show, not have you pay them. Even so, if you feel you’ll sell enough books to make it worthwhile, you might consider it. If your book profit after printing costs is $10 per copy, and the producers want $4,000 to be on the program, you will need to sell 400 copies just to break even. You need to determine the likelihood that you will sell that many copies. How do you determine your likelihood of making a profit? Ask some questions about the show’s demographics. If the program’s viewers are predominantly middle-aged women and your book is a novel about street fighting, you probably aren’t going to sell enough books to make it worth your while. If it’s a sports show on Spike TV geared toward young men, then you might have great success selling your book on the program.

A lot of people are willing to get you an ad in the “New York Times” for a few thousand dollars or in other major publications or even create television commercials for you. Your ad might be seen by thousands of people, but is the audience of that publication or network composed of the type of people who will read your book?

If you just ask around a little, you’ll hear stories of authors who spent thousands on such campaigns and only sold maybe two books. Sure we all want to go big, but sometimes it’s best to start smaller or work toward more conservative but likely results.

Whether it’s an advertising campaign, a radio or a television appearance, selling books at a festival, or any other form of marketing, here are a few key factors for determining whether you should take the risk, or if you prefer, invest in the opportunity.

Find Out the Costs and Requirements

What does it cost for the ad, booth, or placement? Make sure you find out the total amount. Sometimes book fairs will want $100 in advance and then 10% of book sales later, or a similar arrangement. Make sure you know exactly what the cost will be ahead of time.

Calculate the Return on Your Investment

If you’re going to spend $500 on this promotion, how many books do you need to sell to break even, and how many to make it worth your while? Some authors may be content just to get the attention even if they only sell a few books. Others are content to break even, while others will feel it a waste of time not to earn at least $200, or $1,000 as a return for the investment. Determine what results will make you feel happy or at least comfortable with your investment.

Calculate the Return on Your Time

Time is money. Don’t forget to analyze the return on your time. If you sell $100 worth of books but the event is eight hours long, plus an hour to drive there and another hour back, and another hour to load and unload your car, that’s eleven hours you spent to make $100. Is a $9.00 an hour return worthwhile for you? Is spending all day Saturday at a book fair worth it to you when it means missing your son’s birthday party?

Get References

Don’t let the chance at fame stop you from making good business decisions. If someone promises he can get you national exposure for a price, ask for references. Ask for the names of other authors he’s worked with and find out what he did for them. Don’t forget to do an online search to learn more about the person or company.

Network

If you decide to spend the money for a big event like Book Expo America, are you likely to sell many books? You’ll be up against stiff competition, but money is not the only way to get a return on your investment. Who can you meet there who might help you down the road? What contacts could you make to further both your and their goals?

Never Forget the Possibilities

Don’t forget that you never know what could happen. I’ve had authors tell me about book signings where only one person showed up, but that one person was the right person—perhaps she’s the president of the local book club and gets the other twelve members to buy your book to read next month. In which case, you could look at that book signing as having sold twelve books, even if technically you only sold one that day.

Be Reasonable About the Possibilities

Yes, anything can happen, but consider what is reasonable that could happen. Just because you go to a book fair in Chicago, it isn’t reasonable, though still possible, that Oprah will show up, and even if she does, what’s the chance that your book, out of the 5,000 displayed there, will be the one that grabs her eye? But it is perhaps possible that the local news channel might show up and interview you for thirty seconds for the 6 o’clock news, and perhaps you could sell twenty books as a result of that exposure.

Try New Things, Discard What Doesn’t Work, and Stick With What Does

Try something new each month, quarter, or year. If it doesn’t work, don’t repeat it unless there are clear reasons why it didn’t work that you can fix. If it does work, stick with it and keep improving it until it quits working.

Many new and old ways exist to promote your book. Some cost a lot of money; some cost a lot of time. Some cost little but pay off greatly. Always determine the possible return on your investment before you spend a lot of time or money. And always take time to analyze your results afterwards to determine whether to repeat the activity and how to make it more effective. Marketing your book in a profitable and successful way requires time, energy, creativity, and continual reassessment. I hope the advice here helps put you on the road to greater success for your book.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

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by: Dana Lynn Smith

Source: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2010/11/book-publicity-tips-for-authors.html

Book publicity is the process of seeking and getting media coverage for books and their authors. Media coverage can potentially exposure your book to a large number of people and it offers more credibility than some other promotional methods. It’s also a great way to build your author platform, name recognition, and expert reputation.

Although a newspaper article or radio interview won’t cost you anything, you may have costs associated with generating interest from the media, such as hiring someone to write a press release, paying for press release distribution services, or hiring a publicist to prepare publicity materials and make media contacts on your behalf. If your budget is limited, you can do these tasks yourself.

Below are some resources to help you learn how to generate your own media coverage:

* Award-winning publicist Sandra Beckwith offers a terrific publicity workbook packed with book publicity forms and templates.

* Author and marketing expert Marcia Yudkin recently wrote and distributed nine different press releases for her new series of books. In this case study, she shares the details.  Also, take a look at Marcia’s article on how to generate media coverage.

* This book publicity article by Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, has some very helpful tips for the most effective ways to pitch the media.

* Joan also offers an excellent free course on how to use news releases effectively. You can sign up to receive a daily lesson by email for 89 days at no charge, or purchase the entire series in ebook format so you don’t have to wait three months to get all these great publicity tips.

* This collection of book publicity tips on the Savvy Book Marketer blog includes several guest posts written by experts in book publicity and promotion.

There are many online press release distribution services. For my most important releases, I use the paid service at PRWeb.com. For routine releases, I use the free service as PRLog.com.

Media coverage can be valuable way to gain attention for your book. If you don’t already have a book publicity plan in place, get started today.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com.

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Source: http://writenonfictioninnovember.com/2010/11/20/how-to-market-books-with-articles-podcasts-and-videos/

One of the best ways to brand yourself as an authority and increase book sales is to write articles and create podcasts and videos, and submit them to the major online directories, including EzineArticles, Itunes and Youtube. This approach provides links back to your Website as well as targeted traffic. Additionally, if you provide awesome content, your files can go viral, which will create a flood of traffic to your Website.

The key to maximizing your return is to use the same content to create all three formats. For example, you write a short article about your niche topic. You then read and record it as an audio file. Next you create a video presentation with voiceover. Once completed, you submit the article to an article directory, the audio to a podcast directory and the video to a video directory. This book marketing technique can be accomplished using free software.

Benefits

This approach provides the following benefits and should definitely be a part of your book marketing campaign:

* It helps your search engine ranking by providing three back links to your Website for the same content.
* Distributing in three formats can reach a larger audience within your niche.
* You can achieve multiple simultaneous “top-ten” rankings for your competitive long tail keyword phrases.
* Media reporters and producers can find your marketing material when researching story and show ideas within your niche market; being an author helps them to view you as an expert worth interviewing.

Eight Step Model

Use the following model to perform this effective book marketing technique:

1. Conduct keyword research to find the targeted low competition long tail keyword phrases that you can rank for in the search engines. You can begin by using the free Google keyword tool.
2. Use those keyword phrases to write articles (350 to 500 words) and include an effective resource box with the keyword phrase as anchor text in a link back to your Website.
3. Post the articles to the leading article directory EzineArticles.
4. Create an audio file of each article using Audacity, the free audio recording software. Include your Website in a call to action statement at the end.
5. Submit your podcast to Itunes (Tutorial).
6. Create a video file for your article using the free program Windows Movie Maker, or you can invest in Camtasia, the industry standard for Internet Marketing.
7. Submit your video to the video directory YouTube.
8. Once submitted, “rinse and repeat” by revising your article to be at least 50 percent unique. Then create your podcast and video files, distributing them to different directories. This provides three additional links for the same material and is now available to surfers who visit these other directories.

Conclusion

If you wish to sell books, you need to brand yourself as an expert first by providing excellent content. View your book as a credential that reflects your expertise and not as a product. When you build a relationship by helping others with your content, your books sales will soar because you build trust and a relationship. Articles, podcasts and videos need to be part of your book marketing strategy and this technique can triple your return.

About the Author

V. Michael Santoro is an award winning author and creator of the Author Intern System. Discover how using a student intern as your book marketing assistant can unleash your book’s potential. Sign up today for his free book marketing training course that covers the pros and cons of the various book marketing services and techniques available today. You need to complete this course before deciding to invest in these book marketing options.

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We have come to celebrate this season of thanksgiving and love. For sure, you have spending a lot of hard work for your book the entire year. The sleepless nights of writing, editing, marketing, and promoting your books. And as the last month of the year is approaching, you deserve the best treat!

Now’s the time to put up that widest smile and celebrate because you will have the opportunity to maximize your money’s worth though BookWhirl.com’s Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010 All-out Sale!

BookWhirl.com will be giving away its Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas treat covering all book marketing services. It’s the greatest way to grab the best deals in this season of love and giving. This is our way of saying “THANK YOU” for your continued patronage and support on our services.

Get the best deals on these dates:
Date                       Discount Price
November 15- 19            $150

November 22-26             $125

November 29 – December 3   $100

December 6-10              $75

December 13-17             $50

December 20-24             $25

These markdowns apply to the following services: Web Design, E-mail Advertisement Campaign, and Media Release Campaign.

Prepare to boost your book marketing campaigns. Triple boost your campaigns with a definitely lesser tag price through BookWhirl.com’s Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010 All-out Sale.

Happy Thanks giving and Advance Merry Christmas!

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GREEN BAY, WI (11/17/2010) – BookWhirl.com, one of the leading frontiers in the book marketing industry, launches its Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010 All-out Sale. Running from the month of November to December, the Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010 offers fully discounted prices to all authors planning to boost their books marketing campaign in the last weeks of this year.

With the promo applicable to all BookWhirl.com’s marketing services, self-published authors are given the opportunity to avail bigger markdowns when they choose to sign up on earlier dates. Kicking off on the second of week of November, discounts start at $150 markdown from November 15-19. Sliding on the third week, from November 22-26, is a $125 markdown. Moving on to the fourth week, from November 29 to December 3, is a $100 markdown. On the first week of the Holiday Season, from December 6 to 10, is a $75 markdown. On the second week, from December 13 to 17, is a $50 markdown. Other self-published authors can still catch up on the last lap of the promo with a $25 markdown from December 20 to 24.

Through the Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010, BookWhirl.com helps authors make the most of their book marketing plan by trimming down expenses. Authors can now have the opportunity of owning a fully customized website, send from half a million to 10 million e-mail ad campaigns, and distribute media releases at more affordable prices.

BookWhirl.com’s extensive and generous Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas 2010 is a way to achieve a more affordable and well-driven book marketing campaigns. Now, authors can give thanks and celebrate an early Christmas with a value added savings.

Disclaimer:  Discounts do not apply to ODL, MRC Tailored, WPT, ABP and AMT Packages.

About BookWhirl.com
BookWhirl.com is an online book marketing service company, specializing in providing low-cost, high-quality marketing services for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. Through its unique, inexpensive book marketing services, BookWhirl.com helps authors promote their published works more effectively and connect to readers in a more effective, more efficient system.

BookWhirl.com employs an experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers, whose combined talents ensure an effective online marketing campaign at easily affordable rates.

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Source: http://www.goblogin.com/index.php/internet/1203-book-marketing/3991-book-marketing-101-for-self-published-authors

No matter what any POD publisher or marketing company tells you (even the traditional publishing houses) you, the author, are almost 100% the reason your book will sell.

It is your belief, excitement, enthusiasm, and energy that will get a reader excited about buying your book.

Publishers are certainly a vehicle by which you can communicate your passion to the rest of the world, but, for ANYTHING to happen you’ll need to know a few things about yourself and your book – and be able to communicate them very clearly.

1. What is your definition of success for your book?

Some authors write for themselves and their families only – they don’t dream of their books as bestsellers in the marketplace. Some authors write for a very specific personal need to tell their story. Some have unique insight into very specific topics. Many have dreams of seeing their book in the front of Borders or Barnes & Noble. Each author is different, but you MUST decide what your real definition of success happens to be. Don’t try to pursue a goal that may not be what you actually feel is important.

2. Who will buy your book?

This is the big secret to sales success in self publishing. Target your marketing to your potential reader – and have it be someone who is reachable.

“Everyone will want to read my book!” Sorry, but that doesn’t work. Even the absolute best selling books – that sell 2 or 3 million copies in a year – only penetrate to a very small percent of the population. Sales success for your book will be driven by defining a very clear picture of who is interested in what you have to say.

And – they must be identifiable: Make a list! Which groups would be interested in your book? Why? Who is next? Why should the need or want your book? (remember this – someone is more likely to buy something they NEED before something they WANT)

Now – narrow it down even more. Years ago books on computers were all the rage – the market was saturated at the “beginner” level, and it seemed impossible to get anymore books into consumers hands. Then a company came along with the bright idea that they would write a computer book for beginners – but beginners who felt intimidated by their computers – and the now ubiquitous and quite famous “For Dummies” series was born – at the time the books hit, there were nearly 3 dozen titles out for beginners. Yet this one scooped up nearly a 70% market share overnight. The rest were left to fight for the scraps. Find a unique angle about your book – and don’t try and be everything to everyone, because you can’t – instead target 100% of a specific part!

3. Where will you sell your book?

Start Worldwide (world wide web that is) and then get local: Where are your customers? Probably scattered around the country. Use the power of print on demand and just in time fulfillment to deliver books all across the nation without having to print hundreds at a time. Where does your customer hang out online? What magazines and papers do they read? What stores do they frequent – that AREN’T bookstores? What associations, clubs, or affiliations do they join? What conventions to they go to? How can you reach them? Promote your books where you find your potential buyers.

4. How will you promote your book?

The least expensive and most effective ways to promote books are with book reviews, news releases, search engine registration, and some form of highly targeted direct advertising – such as email campaigns, news releases, and pay-for-performance click through advertising. Longer term promotions include author signings, TV and Radio spots, and tradeshows – these are also the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive to secure.

Do NOT neglect the power of you the author – many publishers promotional packages include materials that can help turn you into a promotional machine. Business cards, posters, bookmarks – all are available to support your marketing efforts.

Follow these steps on creating a plan for your book, and you’ll find it much easier to create an effective and efficient marketing program for your book.

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As an aspiring or published writer, book marketing is of great importance to you career. At some point – if you haven’t already reached it – you will come to understand that you must take matters into your own hands to market your book. Depending on who you are, what you’ve accomplished, who you know or are related to, what your spending budget is and so many other variables, book marketing can be simple or difficult. For the everyday person, the key to a successful marketing plan is implementing cheap or free techniques that are effective.

So let’s get down to business. If you’re reading this article you have an interest in the subject matter, yes? This is target marketing. Come up with a plan that works for you. What are your strengths, weaknesses and resources? Know what you can and cannot do. Keep your costs down.

Here are eight book marketing tips to help you get started:

Create a Fan Page on Facebook (this is a great online viral marketing tool).

It’s popular because it works.
o Create a Flickr.com profile and add pictures that would attract your targeted audience. Be sure to include your author website URL in your profile so viewers can find you.
o P.O.S – Point of Sales is both a checkout counter in a store and the location where a transaction occurs. Consider selling your book in a local Mom & Pop store and have them place it near the register.
o Library Press Release – Are you a member of your local library? Once your book has been published, meet with the branch manager and ask her to issue a press release in the library system’s newsletter.
o Trade Shows and Festivals – Set up shop or just mingle at local trade shows and festivals. This gives you an opportunity to connect with your community and prospective readers.
o Community Outreach – Organize an outreach event in your community and have yourself announced as author (title of your book) or as a writer.
o Local Radio Station – Contact a local radio station. Preferable one that will have listeners who might be interested in your book. Explain as a local to the town or city, you have written a book and would like them to do a feature on you. Community oriented opportunities are usually easier to secure than national ones.
o Celebrity Association – Discuss a celebrity in detail on your blog or author website and your page will come up in searches associated to the person.

Did you like any of these book marketing ideas? There are more ways to market your book online and offline through common and unique marketing strategies. Keep your eyes open when you are out and about. Your neighborhood can offer many untapped book marketing tips you’ve never considered. An online search with quotation marks will also help you better target your researc

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Read more: http://business.ezinemark.com/8-great-book-marketing-tips-16cede0da3d.html#ixzz14z5mMAyF
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source: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/103363/publishing/useful_web_sites_for_self_published_writers.html

Written by: Kev Woodward

It is amazing what you can find on the internet nowadays; instructions on how to download music to an ipod, on-line cookery lessons and mouth-watering recipes, broad-sheet newspapers and the history of European art, everything you have ever wanted to know about Elvis Presley , Cat Stevens or S Club 7 – the list is endless – literally. So when you are thinking about self-publishing and are looking for advice, resource or guidance, the Internet should really be your first port of call. But where do you start looking for information? And how can it help you?

There are four principle ways that the Internet can help ease the self publishing process;

1-Getting your text right in the first place and generating ideas
2-Providing you with a forum to learn from and talk to other writers
3-Listing literary agents, editors and designers who can help you improve your manuscript prior to publication
4-Walking you through the entire self publishing process

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Getting your text right in the first place and generating ideas

Nowadays there really is no need to purchase a multitude of text books on “How to use Words”, “Grammar”, “Generating creative ideas” or “Using Language”. Whilst one or two reference guides are always handy to keep on the bookshelf, the Internet can now supply you with all the information and practical guidance you should need on these subject matters. For help and assistance with spelling, word meanings and pronunciation, take a look at Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com) or Your Dictionary (www.yourdictionary.com http://www.yourdictionary.com). If its language usage or grammar that you are interested in, try www.usingenglish.com http://www.usingenglish.com and www.englishforums.com http://www.englishforums.com, where you can find answers to almost all of your word usage and grammar queries. You will also find a wide variety of grammar and spell checker software programmes and packages that you can purchase and load onto your computer – ‘White Smoke’ is one of the more popular software packages recommended.

Both fiction and non-fiction writers find that they need to research their subject matter and look up various dates, facts, places and names when writing their manuscript. The internet is fantastic in its ability to support this “fact-finding” process! Google’s answer to scholarly research is a search engine called Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk) which searches through a wide range of scholarly literature to answer the question or subject matter you pose in its search tool bar. If it’s an easier, straight forward encyclopaedia search you need, navigate your way to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), which is the most comprehensive on-line encyclopaedia I’ve ever come across. And most importantly, it is very easy to use.

Two websites that are particularly handy for generating poetry or story ideas are ‘Instant Muse: Poetry Generator and Story Starter’ (www.thestorystarter.com http://www.thestorystarter.com) and ‘Story A Day Writer’s Kit’ (http://westwood.fortunecity.com/smith/406/StoryaDay), both of which help you get your creative juices flowing with free, fun exercises or writing prompts.

Providing you with a forum to learn from and talk to other writers

Learning from other writers, self publishing or commercial publishing, is an invaluable tool. Other writers can empathise with your experiences and frustrations, they can offer advice and enable you to learn from their successes and mistakes, and they can provide you with a safe haven to bounce ideas around and request constructive feedback from those within the industry. The internet has revolutionised the way that we interact with others, and has significantly broadened our capacity to communicate with other likeminded individuals across the world. Through the introduction of user forums, online communities and networks, self publishing writers can now talk to other writers, editors and publishers across the world. A fantastic resource of knowledge and information can now be accessed, and accessed for free, from the comfort of your own home.

Good examples of forums and networking communities to take a look at are www.writing.com, www.publicityhound.com http://www.publicityhound.com, http://wordsworthreading.blogspot.com, www.writewords.org.uk http://www.writewords.org.uk, www.absolutewrite.com http://www.absolutewrite.com and www.writerswrite.com http://www.writerswrite.com. The last two sites mentioned have specific forums dedicated to Self Publishing authors.

When it comes to on-line forums and networking communities, it is important to remember that each forum is generally created with a specific purpose or discussion topic in mind – be that self publishing, marketing your book, or generating ideas. So you may find that you need to try out a few different forums before you find the one that best suits your needs.

Listing literary agencies and editors who can help you improve your manuscript prior to publication

As a self publishing writer, you can sometimes feel that you’d like a second, informed opinion on the manuscript you have produced or the poetry that you have written. You may want an editorial critique of your use of characterisation, language, structure, style and storyline. Or you may simply require a second pair of eyes to check your use of spelling, punctuation or grammar. There are several editorial agencies that provide these services for self publishing authors. Words Worth Reading (www.wordsworthreading.co.uk http://www.wordsworthreading.co.uk) provides comprehensive editorial packages for manuscripts of all genres and sizes – providing tailor-made services where necessary to cater for all our clients’ needs. As with most contemporary literary agencies or editors, Words Worth Reading can be found on the Internet, via online search engine tools or by typing in the website index into your tool bar.

The internet is also a very useful tool for researching and locating self publishing companies, printers, illustrators and designers – all of which are crucial contacts for a Self Publishing author. Most self publishing companies and printers offer a design service, giving you the opportunity to work with professionals when choosing your book cover design, typesetting style and paper type. However, you may want to work with an independent illustrator or designer, or at least investigate a range of designers and illustrators to compare cost and quality. www.contactacreative.com http://www.contactacreative.com can put you in touch with various illustrators and designers and provide examples of their work through on-line portfolios. Similarly, www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk http://www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk lists a vast number of children’s books’ illustrators, and www.writersservices.com http://www.writersservices.com has a particularly strong book cover service.

Website search engines such as Google and Yahoo have made the searching process for literary agencies, editors or designers extremely easy. All you need to do is type in your requirements, and a list of suitable companies or websites will appear!

Walking you through the entire self publishing process

So, you’ve got the idea, you’ve spoken to others in the writing community to glean their advice, you’ve written the manuscript and you’ve submitted it to an editorial agency to ensure its squeaky clean. You’re now ready for publication, which for many self publishers is perhaps the scariest stage! Where do you start? Who do you approach? How much should it cost? What about printing? Distribution? Marketing and selling? It can be a minefield. Fortunately there are some excellent websites that can provide you with the advice and guidance you need to make the self publishing process as pain-free as possible.

Take a look at Parapublishing (www.parapublishing.com), a website which contains numerous articles, resources and signposts to books and links that will get you started. The website is built up of comprehensive, informative articles that really dive into the detail. For example, in the ‘Book Design’ section of this website, everything from book covers, printers, audio publication and the benefits of Hard Copies are discussed. Furthermore, each information page includes additional downloadable resources that can be saved onto your computer, or printed.

Another great website to browse through is www.bookmarket.com which covers everything you’d ever want to know about marketing your own, self published book. Whilst it is an American website, it is still very relevant to the English reader, providing downloadable seminar sessions on marketing that you can watch or listen to. This website also contains free marketing reports on both bookstore and internet marketing, and a free online magazine (an “Ezine”) that you can subscribe to.

Don’t forget to take a look at the broadsheet paper’s online book supplements too, as they can help you understand bookseller trends. Most popular are The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk/books http://www.guardian.co.uk/books), The Times (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk) and The Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk).

Two further important websites to look at as a Self Publishing writer are www.isbn.nielsenbookdata.co.uk http://www.isbn.nielsenbookdata.co.uk and www.booksellers.org.uk http://www.booksellers.org.uk. The ISBN website explains how to use ISBN numbers, and their importance if you want to sell your book through book stores. It also provides the pricing list for purchasing ISBN numbers, allowing you to purchase your required numbers directly through the website. The Booksellers Association is a wonderful website for anyone interested or involved in the book publishing and sales process. As well as being a great forum for obtaining an insight into the book trade, this website also allows you to search for local book stores in a given town or postcode area, which is very useful when it comes to drawing up your marketing contact list! The website also provides the names and contact details of all the librarians in your area, so that you can address them personally when writing to encourage stocks of your latest book in their library environments.

There is a wealth of online information, support and guidance available to self publishing writers, so don’t forget to tap into the internet when you need some help or advice. You’ll be amazed at what you can find.

About The Author, Kev Woodward

Need your work appraising or proofreading? Words Worth Reading, an editorialservice for writers. Words Worth Reading provides comprehensive editorial services to writers, as well as running informativewriter’s workshops. It is predominately run by expert volunteers and donates part of all submission fees to Oxfam.

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