Here is a link to Jamie McGuire's
Everything you need to know to publish your book:
Everything you need to know to publish your book:
Publishing for You
Your book is written. It is one for the ages, but mainstream publishers keep sending you rejections – or you want to be in complete control of your “baby”. This is a quick outline of what you need to do to get your book bought and read by your target audience.
To begin:
Identify your target audience
Your target audience can be everyone, children, young adults, adults, men, women or your monkey’s uncle or any one or combination of these. Who did you picture in your mind reading your book as you penned it - I mean ‘computered’ it. (Well spell check is telling me that ‘computered’ is not a word. Live with it. I can’t think of anything better.) Picture hundreds, no thousands of those you pictured reading your book. Visualize it. Make it yours. Now go to work looking for venues to sell it in.
You will need to decide if you want to continue as the publisher or maybe hook up with a more established publisher to help with the marketing. You can investigate small publishers who will publish your book for you or, you can establish your own publishing company.
Now on to marketing
Plan your marketing strategy
Scenario 1: Continue as your own publisher. Then you will need to:
Develop a budget. It can be very simple with line items that include, but are not limited to Income from Book Sales and Other Income. Expenses would include anything that are book production and sale related, including any money paid out for contract labor and salaries, payments to printers, for office supplies, etc.
Get your ISBN Number(s) - go to http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp to learn where and how. You will need this number to sell your book at bookstores and online.
Locate a printer and give them your specifications on how you want your book published – size, binding, typeface, etc. It will be less expensive if you can have it “camera ready” for the printer.
Identify venues in which to sell your book
amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Hastings, Borders, etc.
Book conferences
Book stores
Coffee shops
Festivals
Libraries
Library Conferences
Any place you know people will be clamoring to buy your book
.
You can find this information on the Internet, from other authors, from your local library system office or website
Plan advertising strategy, including ads in the media and press releases in specific areas
Set up a media kit to include the following:
Brochures, business cards and bookmarks
Short biography giving ALL pertinent information about your life, past and present
A really good picture of yourself (not too old, no matter how cute you were when you were 2 years old)
Summaries of all of your books
News releases
Image of book cover
Information about the book(s) being promoted with this kit
Writing awards, either listed separately or included in the resume
Copies of reviews with dates, publication, reviewer, etc.
You can add anything that will call attention to your book – be imaginative
Put everything in a pdf file to email to those who ask for it. Electronically is how it is done these days, but the hardcopy is very impressive and many places will want it.
Set up a website – there are free webhosting places such as Weebley that are user friendly. You can get a professional such as www.promotingauthors.com to set it up for you. The professionals will do the work, usually according to some kind of package deal. Just be sure to lock it in with a contract that is acceptable to both parties.
Start a blog to inform your fans of your future plans and to talk about your books
Begin a newsletter that you link to on your website and social networking pages. This can be once a week (a lot of work), once a month (a little easier) or quarterly (probably the best option). Just be sure you are consistent with it.
Get into social networking – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – any or all of the social networking sites will be a help to you
Link everything to your website and vice versa.
You also need to decide if you are going to publish in ebook and/or audio formats. If you do, research the pros and cons very carefully so that you get the best deal and your work is not hijacked. Although there are some protections out there, they are not yet foolproof. Some works do not lend themselves easily to ebook or audio publishing just because of the content.
Scenario 2: Using an established publisher
Identify publishers who might want to publish your book.
A good resource is http://www.writersmarket.com/ A subscription is not very expensive and has a wealth of information for you, besides a list of publishers.
Send them a query letter. There are some good examples of query letters online and in books like:
How to Write Attention Grabbing Query & Cover Letters
by John Wood
Your Novel Proposal : From Creation to Contract :
by Blythe Camenson, Marshall I. Cook, Marshall J. Cook
How to Write Irresistible Query Letters
by Lisa Collier Cool
You may also want to find an agent to represent you to the publishers. You need to write them a query letter also. There are several good resources for query letters to literary agents online.
As soon as you have a publisher, turn your “baby” over to them and sit back and wait for the money to roll in. HA! You will be required to go to events where people will find you and buy your books, give interviews on TV, the radio and to print publications and ‘hawk’ your book anywhere there are people who will listen to you. The good part is that the publisher will help to set up these events.
Then you can sit back and wait for the money to roll in. HA! Again. You are going to have to keep on writing new books. And then go through the same rigmarole.
As I said, this is only an outline. You will have to do the work on implementing any or all of these ideas
To begin:
Identify your target audience
Your target audience can be everyone, children, young adults, adults, men, women or your monkey’s uncle or any one or combination of these. Who did you picture in your mind reading your book as you penned it - I mean ‘computered’ it. (Well spell check is telling me that ‘computered’ is not a word. Live with it. I can’t think of anything better.) Picture hundreds, no thousands of those you pictured reading your book. Visualize it. Make it yours. Now go to work looking for venues to sell it in.
You will need to decide if you want to continue as the publisher or maybe hook up with a more established publisher to help with the marketing. You can investigate small publishers who will publish your book for you or, you can establish your own publishing company.
Now on to marketing
Plan your marketing strategy
Scenario 1: Continue as your own publisher. Then you will need to:
Develop a budget. It can be very simple with line items that include, but are not limited to Income from Book Sales and Other Income. Expenses would include anything that are book production and sale related, including any money paid out for contract labor and salaries, payments to printers, for office supplies, etc.
Get your ISBN Number(s) - go to http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp to learn where and how. You will need this number to sell your book at bookstores and online.
Locate a printer and give them your specifications on how you want your book published – size, binding, typeface, etc. It will be less expensive if you can have it “camera ready” for the printer.
Identify venues in which to sell your book
amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Hastings, Borders, etc.
Book conferences
Book stores
Coffee shops
Festivals
Libraries
Library Conferences
Any place you know people will be clamoring to buy your book
.
You can find this information on the Internet, from other authors, from your local library system office or website
Plan advertising strategy, including ads in the media and press releases in specific areas
Set up a media kit to include the following:
Brochures, business cards and bookmarks
Short biography giving ALL pertinent information about your life, past and present
A really good picture of yourself (not too old, no matter how cute you were when you were 2 years old)
Summaries of all of your books
News releases
Image of book cover
Information about the book(s) being promoted with this kit
Writing awards, either listed separately or included in the resume
Copies of reviews with dates, publication, reviewer, etc.
You can add anything that will call attention to your book – be imaginative
Put everything in a pdf file to email to those who ask for it. Electronically is how it is done these days, but the hardcopy is very impressive and many places will want it.
Set up a website – there are free webhosting places such as Weebley that are user friendly. You can get a professional such as www.promotingauthors.com to set it up for you. The professionals will do the work, usually according to some kind of package deal. Just be sure to lock it in with a contract that is acceptable to both parties.
Start a blog to inform your fans of your future plans and to talk about your books
Begin a newsletter that you link to on your website and social networking pages. This can be once a week (a lot of work), once a month (a little easier) or quarterly (probably the best option). Just be sure you are consistent with it.
Get into social networking – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – any or all of the social networking sites will be a help to you
Link everything to your website and vice versa.
You also need to decide if you are going to publish in ebook and/or audio formats. If you do, research the pros and cons very carefully so that you get the best deal and your work is not hijacked. Although there are some protections out there, they are not yet foolproof. Some works do not lend themselves easily to ebook or audio publishing just because of the content.
Scenario 2: Using an established publisher
Identify publishers who might want to publish your book.
A good resource is http://www.writersmarket.com/ A subscription is not very expensive and has a wealth of information for you, besides a list of publishers.
Send them a query letter. There are some good examples of query letters online and in books like:
How to Write Attention Grabbing Query & Cover Letters
by John Wood
Your Novel Proposal : From Creation to Contract :
by Blythe Camenson, Marshall I. Cook, Marshall J. Cook
How to Write Irresistible Query Letters
by Lisa Collier Cool
You may also want to find an agent to represent you to the publishers. You need to write them a query letter also. There are several good resources for query letters to literary agents online.
As soon as you have a publisher, turn your “baby” over to them and sit back and wait for the money to roll in. HA! You will be required to go to events where people will find you and buy your books, give interviews on TV, the radio and to print publications and ‘hawk’ your book anywhere there are people who will listen to you. The good part is that the publisher will help to set up these events.
Then you can sit back and wait for the money to roll in. HA! Again. You are going to have to keep on writing new books. And then go through the same rigmarole.
As I said, this is only an outline. You will have to do the work on implementing any or all of these ideas