Read this fantastic blog post by Tim Ferriss; book marketing guru, world traveler, and Author of The 4-Hour Workweek. Please pay special attention to the part where he mentions, “First off, writing books is a terrible revenue model for authors.”

His summary of the opportunities in eBook marketing are very clearly pointing to using affiliate marketing as the way to make that huge hit really happen. This is the important component that I see missing from almost every single plan that every Author has put in front of me, like, ever. If you want to make money from eBooks, learn every little thing you can about affiliate marketing, and then do it for a couple of years before you decide to get serious about the details.

I love this guy.

The adorable Seth Godin announced this week that he has created his last traditionally-published book. Here’s why his plan may or may not work for everyone.

(It’s a great post, by the way, and I strongly suggest you read it.)

Seth is brilliant – that’s not debatable. He’s a rebel, a visionary, and his writing has caused me to seriously question many things about the way I consume, and the way I conduct my own business. He has spent the last 12 years developing great books that (mostly) turned out to be bestsellers. He claims this latest book, Linchpin, is his “life’s work”. (Can’t wait to read it.) And he has decided that none of his future writings will be distributed through traditional publishing channels.

Why this works for Godin;

- He already has years of live market research under his belt, which is by his own admission, really because of his relationship with great publishers.

- He has a massive private following through his blog and social media connections.

- He really does know his stuff, and he practices what he preaches.

- He has plenty of capital, both monetary and intangible, to re-invest in his business.

- He has a staff.

Do you have all of those things? Possibly not. I know I don’t. So here are my suggested alternatives for those of us who don’t, in the same order.

- We can perform a surprising amount of market research on our own. Let’s start with keyword research.

- We can build a following by doing exactly what Seth does, such as using our own blog and social media connections, and building slowly. We don’t need it to be massive to be effective – we just need it to be loyal. Loyalty must be earned.

- Very simply, we need to do and be the same. This does not take money or even much time. Transparency sells.

- Does it really take a ton of money to make things happen? Can we adjust our expectations to take advantage of our existing resources? What is the value of sweat equity?

- Staff can be had easily and quickly using virtual assistants. Knowing what to delegate has been my big project for 2010. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Does it work for everyone? Not if they don’t have the drive and imagination. But since all of us are writers, perhaps we have an advantage.

Fear of the variables of the eBook biz make as much sense as monsters under the bed.

Fear of how to actually sell and package an eBook is understandable and common. This recent blog post by Seth Godin made me wonder how many ways people avoid launching their eBook business because they don’t exactly know how the “techy” parts of the business will work.

I frequently encounter people who imagine the following obstacles:

1. I’ll have to email a copy to everyone by hand. I can’t believe people still think this, in this day and age. Of course you won’t: an autoresponder or auto-delivery system does that for you. You should never do this, even one time. Not sustainable. Not profitable.

2. I’ll need to setup a credit card merchant account. Nope, just setup an instant PayPal account and be taking payments the same hour. Or when your volume gets up there, switch to Authorize.net.

3. I can’t figure out how to format it into a PDF. So what? Just type it in MS Word, or even better, Open Office Writer, and then send it to Renee Shupe at RedHeadVA.com who will wave her magic wand (hers is red, mine is purple) and it all happens without a hitch. She can even upload it and do the setup for you – ask her about package pricing.

So, what’s holding you back? Imagined obstacles? Or real ones with easy solutions?

(Reader alert: this post contains affiliate links. I get paid when you click on stuff.)

Creating a special web page to sell your eBook is almost more important than the eBook itself. Here are my top landing page tips for eBooks and many other products.

Let’s define what we’re talking about: the term “landing page” refers to the single-purpose web page where potential buyers “land” when they click on an ad, a link, or a direct URL that invites them to buy your eBook or other product. A landing page can be part of a larger website/blog, or link to one, or not. But it’s just designed to do one thing: sell your book. The science of landing page design and testing is now quite sophisticated, and there are a variety of web resources on the subject. I won’t bother to link to anything here, as one search in Google for “landing page design” will bring a flood of information.

Directing web traffic to a devoted sales page has several advantages over sending users to your standard website;

1) You can direct visitors down a strict path that is engineered to do nothing but close the sale. Don’t underestimate the power of this. Certainly, you may wish to provide links to your main web presence, but good salesmanship suggests staying focused on only need to know information until buyers demonstrate additional interest by clicking or scrolling.

2) If your product takes off and sells like hotcakes, you may end up with an overloaded web server, or coping with some inevitable negative feedback. Insulate your website by keeping it separated, except for hyperlinks if you choose to provide them.

3) You can target sales niches that are outside your normal market, by slightly altering your copywriting, graphics, etc. on this page alone. Make niche buyers feel extra special by speaking directly to their specific problems.

4) You can offer partner companies custom sales pages that enhance a link between your product and someone else’s. This might relate to affiliate marketing relationships, or an important endorsement.

5) THE BEST REASON: You can use a special targeted URL for a landing page, such as TheTitleOfYourBook.com, rather than YourCompanyWebsite.com, which may have no intuitive or similar-sounding relationship to the name of your eBook. I never, ever endorse a client marketing a product for which they do not own the associated .com domain name. Click here to view my tips on how to choose great domain names, and in turn, titling your eBook.

Landing pages and the “science of conversion”, or figuring out what converts browsers into buyers, is an extremely deep topic. But we can explore a few basics here that will help to eliminate any obvious mistakes.

Top Tips for eBook Landing Pages;

1) Make a beautiful, bright and most importantly, clear “Buy it Now” button (BIN button) and put it in several places all over the page. (See below for the 4X4 Rule.) The term “Buy it Now” is obviously not the optimum sales language to use on the actual button, but when we talk about the BIN, this button is what we mean.

2) Use video. Sitting in front of your webcam is better than nothing, but if you have a home video camera, that will do an excellent job. Edit the video as per the tips in my “Video Tips” post.

3) Make sure that all text and images are high-contrast and easy to read. No flaky fonts, no greyish text on patterned backgrounds, etc. Pay attention to the heirarchy of the information you want to convey, and make that in the largest font, then the second-most important info in the second-largest font, etc.

4) Use imagery from your eBook on the website to entice readers with a bite of what’s inside. Don’t give away the farm, but pictures send a message quickly. Use them to tell the story fastest.

Nadine is the Author of “The Groove Mamma Goes Gourmet – Easy Ways to Put the Fun Back Into Entertaining”, a 28-page eBook that I created for her. Nadine created her landing page at GrooveMamma.com herself, and she did it in one evening. She sold 10 copies in the first 48 hours, before the marketing campaign had even begun. The lesson to learn here? SPEED is the name of the game.

The 4X4 Rule:

When designing your landing page, follow the “4X4 Rule”. This rule is about where you place specific items on the web page. This is based on eye-mapping testing, which tells us which parts of a web page get read more often or in priority order, and this is also based on actual split-testing of results on various landing pages.

Divide your space on the landing page into four quadrants, and put the following content in each quadrant:

Top Right: The Desired Action
Whatever you want people to do on this page, put it here. The BIN, the sign-up form, the download, the “vote now” button – whatever.

Top Left: The Story Image
An uncomplicated, clear image of the emotional story that you want buyers to understand right away should be part of some sort of banner that sits here. The photo can be overlayed with the product name or a Big Question, but keep any text really, really simple and easy to understand and read. People need to instantly GET IT and want to be or identify with what they see in the picture.

Bottom Left: The Details
Here is where you type the topics covered in the eBook, the problems addressed, the items included, the extra bonus CD’s, the incredible benefits by reading it, etc. Don’t forget to tell them what a genius you are and why anybody would want to pay to listen to your advice.

Bottom Right: The Endorsements
Here is where you put quotes from happy customers, logos from websites and magazines where your product has been featured, and links to both of those if you choose to add them, which will be super appreciated by those other sites. Be sure to get permission where appropriate.

Don’t spend valuable time creating your viral marketing video until you examine these simple-but-important tips. All of them are FREE, but essential.

If you’ve heard about video marketing, but are unsure how to really hit the streets with it, all that we’re talking about is creating a small video that helps to generate awareness and enthusiasm around your book, ebook, or other product. You can easily create videos yourself, or hire the pros to do it for you. The video is then distributed through social media channels like YouTube (and other video outlets), FaceBook, Twitter, on blogs, etc. The idea is to use the video as an automated sales device, driving buyers back directly to you or your retailers. You can read an earlier article I wrote about this subject by clicking here.

1. Display the URL on every single frame. Any simple video editing software (yes, including Windows Movie Maker) will allow you to do this in one way or another such as a simple band across the bottom of every frame that displays the URL where people can go to purchase the book.

2.Be sure you have a landing page in place before you release the video. It’s no use inviting traffic unless you have a place to drive that traffic. Simply driving traffic to your standard website is not enough – be sure that you create a page or mini-site especially designed to sell your book.

3. Keep it short and sweet. Videos with long, useless intros or dragging scenes that frustrate the viewer are wasted screen time. Chop them out. The entire video should be less than 90 seconds, and 30 seconds is ideal.

4. Include the techy stuff. In the book universe, people need to know stuff like page count, ISBN, distributors, etc. A teeny splash page at the end is enough to convey this clearly. All products have some sort of techy details, like pricing, style and size choices, etc. Be sure to give the basics for interested potential buyers.

5. Take into account multiple audiences. Authors need to direct the video at not just readers, but also booksellers, reviewers, librarians, etc. These may have many of the same needs, but including a few different details to address each of these viewers is important. This can be done carefully without diversifying too much.

6. Use humour. Who wants to watch a boring, dry, video? Unless your video is about the stress of bankruptcy or the death of a loved one, there’s always a way to use a gentle hand with a bit of a smile. Your goal is to keep them watching until the end. (And in the case of death or bankruptcy, the smile comes from the relief you provide.)

7. Don’t neglect the metadata fields. In YouTube (98% of all viral web videos are distributed by YouTube*) there are fields that you can add a description, keywords, and other behind-the-scenes stuff that gets picked up by the search engines. This is what makes the video viral – it gets found when people search. Do your keyword research and get that stuff nailed down before you even start creating the video.

See a future article very soon about keyword research, which should be the first thing you do before you even think about creating your video.

* See this additional article for similar stats and info.

The debate surrounding free content has become so heated it melts the keyboards of most Bloggers, Musicians, Visual Artists and other Creators. But does it work for Authors?

Anyone who’s published a book knows that you’re expected to give away a few things for free, including sample chapters, and of course review and publicity copies of your book. Most Authors have done free lectures in exchange for a table at the back of the room from which to sell their stuff.

But what if you gave away the entire book? All the time? To everybody?

Bloggers have been particularly frustrated by the issue of what to give away, and what to sell, at any of the conventions and gatherings I’ve been to in 2009. Most of them have written the equivalent of several books and not gained a penny from their efforts. Bloggers are getting a bit angry about this, because we’ve all seen so many promises of things like huge waves of blogging ad revenue that simply haven’t come true. In addition, people have become quite jaded by a proliferation of quality free content, and don’t seem willing to pay for information that helps them, entertains them, or even makes them money in turn.

But there are people making decent money – in fact, some making fantastic money – giving away content. How are they doing it?

According to Blogger and Podcaster Magazine, there are a few basic ways that people profit from free online content, including (for the most part) advertising, merchandise, and using the content to sell something more valuable: their consulting expertise. Like you, I was worried that this meant that if Authors wanted to learn from other industries and try giving away their books while making money in some other fashion, we might need to place completely unrelated and distracting ads alongside our books, which are now published as websites. This might work for some, but definitely not for all Authors and their creative works.

Seth Godin argues that  “…The book is a souvenir.” In the previous link, he discusses several cases where Authors – including himself, of course – who have released their books for free on the internet, are still selling paper or downloadable copies. Why? Because what people pay for is the instrument of delivery. Special leather-bound editions might only sell 250 copies, but they could sell for upwards of $250 per copy. CD’s containing eBooks, along with perhaps some bonus material, are still capable of significant digital cachet. Here’s an Author’s opportunity to partner with a graphic artist and create something elegant, beautiful, and distinctive – something irresistable.

Even 37Signals, the company who created the online project management system called Basecamp (that last one is an affiliate link), offered their ebook Getting Real for free if you read it off their website. They sell a downloadable version for $19, and a paper copy for $25. Despite offering it for free, they’ve sold over 30,000 copies of the downloadable version alone.

Examine this additional model from filmmaker Nina Paley, who created the film Sita Sings the Blues, based on the Ramayana of Valmiki. (Well, why the hell not?) Her very public accounting (see the link under her name) of the ways and how much money she’s made by not selling her film tells us something very important: this model does work, but you have to take a wholistic approach. Just one of those revenue streams is not enough – you need to present a well-rounded series of offerings.

As Paley says on her website, “There is the question of how I’ll get money from all this. My personal experience confirms audiences are generous and want to support artists. Surely there’s a way for this to happen without centrally controlling every transaction. The old business model of coercion and extortion is failing. New models are emerging, and I’m happy to be part of that. But we’re still making this up as we go along. You are free to make money with the free content of Sita Sings the Blues, and you are free to share money with me. People have been making money in Free Software for years; it’s time for Free Culture to follow. I look forward to your innovations.” (Links in previous paragraph are from Paley’s original website. I encourage you to give her money.)

Even with all the heat, I think I’m up for the challenge. Even if it melts this keyboard.

Here I am posing in a very fuzzy picture with Aaron Yonda (left) and Matt Sloan, the creators of Chad Vader, the viral YouTube sensation. Sloan and Yonda’s creation is housed through their company and website, BlameSociety.net.

I was eager to hear these two speak for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I was extremely curious about what sort of brain could imagine a world where Darth Vader’s doppelganger is the night manager at a small grocery store in the middle of suburban America. But more importantly, I wanted to know how they did it – the real nuts and bolts.

The answer is surprisingly simple: they had an idea, found some friends to help them create it, put it up on YouTube, and then did plenty of unsophisticated marketing to get traffic to the video. It has now grown to the point where both of them can make a living at this, and although they are very frank about the fact that they’re not yet millionaires, they are also clearly excited by the attention from the film and television industries. Their next project will be one of many they currently have on the go, all of which will be bigger, but still retain the wacky edginess that is their trademark grass-roots approach loved by millions. (Yes, millions.)

Just like many internet video geeks, I have a bottom drawer full of screenplays, idea files, magazine and newspaper clippings, sketches and outlines. Coming up with the ideas is not hard for most of us, but figuring out a way to make money from the ideas is often difficult, and what Sloan and Yonda clearly demonstrated for me today is that it does not need to be difficult. We only imagine it must be.

Like most internet content, the way to make money by giving stuff away is through affiliate marketing, which is driven by traffic. Most of BlameSociety’s revenue still comes from the ads that overlay their YouTube videos. They increased their traffic by approaching other video creators and offering to partner, trade services, trade traffic, and so on. They identified key players and then wrote them personal emails asking to do things like add trailers for their videos to the backend of the other producer’s videos. They used every trick on YouTube’s cheat sheet. They created parodies of current YouTube “hits”, and then capitalized on sideways traffic. They maxed out all the basic avenues – they didn’t invent crazy systems, use cutting-edge new video distribution services, or even host their videos on any other service except YouTube. They committed to a single path, and worked it baby, worked it.

I reflect that much of what I’ve witnessed on this trip relates to taking a single brilliant idea to the max. What happens when a great idea is really given the full chance it deserves? Is given resources? Is given freedom?

I mean seriously, if someone pitched an idea to you about dressing up as Darth Vader in a rented costume and making videos at night in the local grocery store, would you really be ready to leap at that at first soundbite?

And yet, break it down: it was almost risk-free, in the sense that they made the videos themselves on a shoestring budget. There was no corporate boss or overhead to please, so by doing what they themselves thought was funny, they at least had fun making it. They learned lessons as they went. I see that as a no-possible-loss situation.

P.S. Sloan and Yonda treated us to the world premiere of episode 9 of Season 2 this afternoon. It’s the second-to-last episode planned, and trust me, you’re going to love it!

I’m being interviewed on July 2nd by Sheri Kaye Hoff, regarding eBooks and the video trailers to sell them. I’ve compiled a list of good and bad examples of video book trailers to make a few of my points clear.

Love, Stargirl

This one was the winner of the 2007 Teen Book Video Awards. (Like, if there’s an award, we should all make sure this is top on our priority list for book marketing, right?) Even though this example comes from a highly-niched fiction market, the comments still apply for business and non-fiction books.

Things I like about this one:
- extremely involving sequence, tone, etc. to draw in the watcher
- cool imagery appeals to the designated audience; in this case, teen girls
- a little weird and makes good use of “creepy” element
- it’s well-edited and looks very Hollywood-quality (essential here to foster the fantasy, but not essential in every case)
- kudos to them for finding an appropriate contest to enter and gain additional publicity

Things I think could be done better:
- more visibility of a URL or book title throughout production
- a clickable purchase link at the end (YouTube allows you to do a lot of custom stuff with a bit of research – see a future post about how to manipulate YouTube)
- I don’t see this in a lot of other locations, distributed on blogs, etc., which means somebody didn’t do the legwork

Duma Key

You may be surprised that this is my least favourite video of the bunch, and not just because this is a Stephen King cookie-cutter product: blood and gore, etc., etc. Loyal readers like my husband love this stuff, and the video gives them what they want. This is also the shortest – only just over 30 seconds.

Things I like about this one:
- short and to-the-point
- high-contrast graphic imagery makes it easy to see on the smallest of screens, like iPods, etc.
- the book graphic at the end makes it clear what’s being sold, as this is still new for many readers
- release date stated clearly at the end

Things I think could be done better:
- again, no direct link for ordering (Like, haven’t any of these people heard of affiliate programs?)
- perhaps this is too “corporate”, in the sense that it is rather predictable: a new author may consider taking bigger risks to gain an audience
- the imagery is somewhat disjointed, in that there is no “story” to this video – it’s just a bunch of scary stuff with a splash of blood, with nothing to involve the reader and link to something in their own lives (this is really about “features” vs. “benefits” again)

Nineteen Minutes

This video for popular Author Jodi Picoult was produced by AuthorBytes.com, a company that specializes in this type of media – and it shows. I’ve never read any of Picoult’s work because I thought it was something I wouldn’t be interested in. I think I may have been wrong.

Things I like about this one:
- the Author herself narrates the entire video, and there are photos of her periodically that help readers connect with her
- the shock value of the commentary is quite powerful, demonstrating contrast that I suspect will also be present in the Author’s work
- the commentary asks us to think of ourselves in perspective of the book’s subject matter
- the accompanying copy (“Details” in YouTube) is well-composed and easy for bloggers and others to use
- the narration and imagery reference other works by the same Author that have been highly successful and are easily recognized
- this doesn’t need full-motion video throughout to make the message work, and still images are used extremely well
- all the technical gunk is there at the end, such as ISBN number, cover format, page count, etc. which means this video is not just useful for consumers – it’s also very useful for booksellers and other markets

Things I think could be done better:
- again, no direct purchase link (How many times do I need to say this?)
- could be a lot shorter and still tell the story well
- the “clock” intro at the beginning drags a fair bit
- the music selection is not appropriate or powerful, and a better choice would make all the difference in the world
- this has 36k views and yet no comments, so perhaps a few “plants” would attract more viewers, and this may also signify a lack of effort to distribute and make use of this valuable resource

I’m really looking forward to our conference call about eBooks and video book trailers on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009. Click to Author Sheri Kaye Hoff’s page to register for this free call. Hear you there!

There are many reasons why getting someone else to ship your books, CD’s or other products makes good business sense.

What is “fulfillment”?

Fulfillment is the act of shipping, or fulfilling orders from Readers who purchase your book or product off your website or through your company. Fulfillment providers will sometimes even manage your entire inventory for you, keeping monthly counts, packing, documenting, and of course shipping orders, sending out larger shipments to retail stores, and then billing you at the end of the month for that service.

There may be some confusion between the terms fulfillment providers, and those who call themselves “drop shippers”, which does not really apply to self-publishing Authors. A drop shipper owns the product until you tell them to send it to your customer. Drop shippers will then typically send you a check at the end of the month for the difference between your cost on the product, and what it was sold for to the consumer. In the case of a fulfillment provider, YOU own the product, be it a book, CD, or whatever. Somebody else is just warehousing it for you, and sending it out when  you send them a packing slip. At the end of the month, you pay them a fee based on volume.

Perhaps you’re casually saying to yourself right now, “But I have plenty of time – I can easily ship my own orders for now.” That may be true – for the short term. But be honest with yourself: how many hours a day are you spending managing logistics instead of creating new products? Do you even enjoy shipping? Does it take time away from your family? Does the money you save equal what you could have earned in the time it took you to do all of that work? (Experience tells me that no, it didn’t.)

Even if time and enjoyment were not issues, perhaps ask yourself if you should be shipping your own products, when your time is better spent running your business. After all, what is your “real job”? Instead, what would happen to your business if you spent that time setting up affiliate relationships to sell your products for you?

(By the way, if you’re looking for the plug in this post, here it is: I have used Michael Bickler of EG Liquidation in Washington State for a number of years. He’s amazing! He ships anywhere in the world for me at an unreal price, and he actually *cares* about his customers. You can email him through info_at_egliquidation.com and tell him I sent you.)

What does it cost?

Fulfillment providers will typically charge a fee based on orders that leave their warehouse, plus a pallet fee for storing your product for each monthly cycle.

Here’s a cost worksheet based on a provider that shipped 100 books for you last month:

Basic pallet storage fee:                                         $____.____

Packing cost per book:                                           $__.____*
Label/envelope cost** per book shipped:     $__.____
Actual freight or postage per book:                  $__.____***

Cost per book:                                                            $__.____ (caution – heavily estimated)
Times 100 books:                                                      $______.____
Plus pallet charge:                                                     $____.____
Total monthly charge:                                             $______.____

Charge per book to ship (revenue):                   $__.____
Times 100 books:                                                      $______.____

Remaining profit:                                                       $____.____

The idea would be to leave a small additional overhead to cover things like returns, delivery problems, etc. A provider should agree with you in advance on a specific cost for things like accepting returns, replacement shipments, and forwarding shipments to you at your own address. While this worksheet assumes that the last line would be two digits, this really shouldn’t be thought of a profit center – it’s more like a slush fund for “just in case” situations.

* This cost can vary widely, and fluctuate from time to time. This can be much lower or much greater depending on volume, item type, packaging, etc.

**Often the post office or courier will provide envelopes or even cardboard boxes at no charge to ensure consistency for their agents.

** Bear in mind that postage rates vary widely based on things like weight, dimensions, book thickness and so on.

The next time you’re thinking about where to store your books, CD’s or other products, why not think instead about what you could create in that extra couple of hours per day.

I find this blog post from the Society of Authors in France interesting because it’s what many of us perceive as the main points of debate on self-publishing.

Here’s what I agree with in this post:

- Every Author needs help. It’s real work – you can’t do it all yourself.
- Every Author is afraid of selling. We all get over it, and the faster you do, the more you’ll sell.
- Hire an Editor. I don’t care if it’s me or not, but almost nobody can edit their own work. (I should know – I’ve tried for years and it always sucks when I edit my own stuff.)
- It’s true that more people are reading eBooks, and for some, that’s definitely the way to go. (BUT: see note below.)
- Write because you have something new, groundbreaking or truly useful to say, not because you think you can make money writing about a particular topic. It is twisted but true that writing just to make money will make you poor.
- Finding alternative or unusual markets for your self-published material can be your greatest success. In fact, any truly great self-publishing success that I’ve personally experienced or witnessed has happened in this way. Don’t think bookstores – they are rarely profitable.
- A new breed of professional is definitely developing (ahem – such as Yours Truly) who is all about helping self-published Authors get their stuff out there.
- All self-published Authors need to get serious about selling from a quality website which includes an affiliate marketing plan.

Here’s what I don’t agree with:

- You don’t lose out on anything such as editing, graphic design, or quality printing if you self-publish. Anything is available to anybody these days.
- eBooks are not a direct alternative to printed book publishing. They are a different market altogether, and anyone considering the eBook route should perform market research to see if an eBook is appropriate for their market and materials. (See a future post for details.)
- You do not lose out on marketing, publicity, distribution, or reviews in the press if you self-publish. (Who ever said a traditional publisher got you all that stuff, anyway? All Authors end up doing tons of work in this area whether self-published or not. You may need help, but it’s no harder than for a traditionally-published Author.)
- Being self-published does not mean that you are not going to be of interest to agents. It means that you are going to have to approach them differently, but they will probably be just as interested if not more, because they know they’re working with an Author who is committed and hungry.
- Shipping your own books is rarely practical. There are plenty of fulfillment providers that will do this for you, and I can recommend a great guy who ships for me worldwide if you need one.
- Self-publishing does not rule out any opportunities to sell foreign rights. I don’t know where anybody got that idea, actually.
- I don’t know why an Author would want to sell their eBook to a publisher. The bulk of the cost of self-publishing is in the printing, so once that is out of the picture, why wouldn’t you self-publish?
- Here I go again, but print-on-demand is not usually the way for most Authors to publish their books. (For my reasons, just read some of my old posts.)

Every Author wants to produce the best book that they can. For some of us, self-publishing seems difficult to navigate, and we’re worried about being forced to accept sub-standard results. We worry about things like learning to sell and how we can afford to launch a national marketing campaign. The reality is that if we are treating our books as a business, we won’t have any trouble selling it. This means doing proper market research, writing very well (ie. saying something really valuable), and performing due diligence on things like quality graphic design and product creation.

In conversations with plenty of authors, self-published or otherwise, I have heard many of the same concerns over and over again. But with help, anything is possible. Always remember that another Author has been there before you, and if they did it, so can you.