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.

Here’s a checklist to help you create a project timeline for your self-published book or ebook, and understand how long to allocate for each stage of the process.

There are two philosophies about when to release your book. One dictates that you should pre-determine a particular event or time of year with which to coincide the release of the book for best effect. This means picking a release date well in advance, and then counting backwards on your calendar in order to determine when you need to have certain milestones completed.

The second philosophy suggests that if your book is “timeless”, you can simply release the book on your own self-determined timeline, and take a more long-term, big-picture approach, because you’re in this for the long haul.

I suggest a compromise between the two: rather than just working along as in the second philosophy, pick a date that is practical for you to achieve, because otherwise, the book won’t ever happen. After all, every book project is for the long haul. Then follow this checklist to get the book ready in time. Rushing it rarely offers a concrete advantage, but dawdling doesn’t make you any money, either.

For a print book, the timeline must include printing, which frighteningly, relies heavily on someone other than you and your core team: Your Printer. Your printer will be your best friend on this project, so be certain that you call them as early in the project as possible (see #3 below for the best time to call them) and see what their press schedule is like. Press time can be booked over a year in advance for some large companies, but for small jobs, many companies adopt a “we’ll fit you in” sort of attitude. The print timeline is also determined by the style of book you choose, including options like hardcover vs. perfect-bound, paper choices, and so on. Your printer should prepare a clearly laid out quote with all of these options and discuss them with you in detail.

I love my printer so much that I feel I should tell you about Friesens, based in Manitoba, Canada. They have grown to become one of the largest book printers in North America, (the world?) and frequently print for the big publishing houses and many other American companies as well as their native Canadian market. My rep is an amazing guy named Gerhard Aichelberger, on Vancouver Island. (Reps are determined by where you live.) He’d love to talk to you about your print needs, and no, I’m not being compensated in any way for saying that. He’s just an extraordinarily nice guy who has repeatedly bent over backwards to make my Authors happy. All of the Friesens reps are great, and the company is made up of people that are more like a huge family than employees. There is no style of book that they cannot print, stock, and ship, and their quality controls are ISO certified.

Here are the basic timeline elements, with a sample time frame below in [brackets], based on an imaginary project where; there is only one Author, the subject is one with which they are already familiar, there is a marginal amount of additional research to be done, a simple design will be chosen, the book will be simultaneously paper and ebook published, and the Author intends to perform a combination of self-marketing and traditional print book marketing through retail channels.

1. Market Research

The most important thing in the entire project. This might take minutes, or it might take months. Don’t over-do it, but you should have a clear idea as to the size and viability of the market, how they are currently receiving information in this topic area (ebook vs. book, styles of either…) and what niches are still available for you in the market. Be sure to include keyword research in this section, and purchasing of appropriate domain names. (See my earlier post for choosing a domain name, which tightly steers your book titling process.) Secure your social media outlets, like your Twitter account and YouTube channel, along with your Facebook fan page. Brainstorm about more stuff like this day and night.
[2 weeks, including time to bounce the idea off a few people in your network. Future posts will tell you a bit about how I do this with my clients.]

2. Outlining

This feels like a grade school nightmare, but it is essential. Don’t skip it. It is almost as important as #1, because this is how you will know how many pages your book will be, how you can modularize it, how you will format/design it, what associated products you will create, how large a team you will need to help you, how much research help you will need, and much more. I can often complete an outline in a day-long marathon session, with the Author’s core team involved if necessary. This is also the time to secure things like your ISBN number, your UPC code, and so on. Get the technical and legal crap out of the way so you can get to the fun stuff. Set up your initial website, and start blogging. Make a video for YouTube – you’ll make more specific ones later, but start to build your audience.
[3 days, including adjustments to the marathon plan.]

3. Specification

This is the stage where you determine how long your book / ebook will be , how it will be printed (if at all), how it will be graphically designed (work with the designer to get a quote at this stage), how it will be marketed, how it will be sold (that is, the technical or real-world logistics), and many other items. Now that you know how long it’s going to be, you can calculate how many pages it will take up, based on a calculation involving page size, number of words designated or estimated per section, and how many words / illustrations / diagrams fit on the chosen page size. This means that you can now get a quote from your printer, and book your press time well in advance.
[1 day to 2 weeks, including a small amount of additional sales research. Our sample will be 2 weeks.]

4. Initial Content Development

Here’s where you start actually writing. Most clients who work through my process are extremely frustrated by the fact that they don’t get to start writing until now. My answer is: do you want to write, or do you want to make money?
[Time varies widely based on the working speed of the Author. Some people can write an entire book in a long weekend - I once wrote a 30-page ebook overnight, but I don't recommend that! For some, it can take months, but let's hope for something in-between. For our sample project, let's call it 6 weeks.]

5. Editorial Stage

There’s a lot of back-and-forth at this stage. Do not let this frustrate you. Your Editor’s job is to preserve your voice, but to make the data as saleable as possible. They should remain objective and be representative of your designated market. Usually, the book will be shorter when you get it back from your Editor, and you may have up to about 6 revisions on some areas, though more than 3 is not typically efficient. Do not indulge in dangerous emotional attachment to your content – it is only a product.
[7-10 days is often enough for a medium-length book that is essentially well-written to start with.]

6. Design

Once the content has been completely, 1000% revised, there are no more changes or spelling errors, no bits that you forgot, and your diagrams or tables have been laid out for the designer to re-create, you hand the manuscript over to your typesetter/designer. See other posts for tips for working with designers, but just be sure that there are no more changes to the content before you hand it to them, as changes after the design has started can be costly both in terms of money and lost time. Be sure to include time to design an appropriate website, hopefully in tune with your book’s design, to create wholistic and congruent communication with your reader base.
[1 to 3 weeks and up, depending on the length of the book and how clear you were in stage 3 with your design choices. Our example project will be 2 weeks.]

Tip: If you feel qualified to perform your own typesetting and design, it is often a good idea to actually write the book in the design template. Adobe InDesign and InCopy is especially good for this, but I have also successfully used open-source applications like OpenOffice.org. Writing in the design template allows you to see how words flow, gives insight into subtle things like aligning style and content, allows you to create flyouts and featured content more easily, and may help you spot trouble before you’ve gone too far.

7. Pre-Press

Some might say that this stage is not really worthy of a numbered point by itself, except that if there are any problems with the file that is uploaded to your printer, it can mess up a lot of other time frames. Ideally, this should be an invisible part of the process that takes minutes, but I’m adding this in as part of my “hope for the best, but plan for the worst” philosophy.
[Ideally, minutes. Possibly, a couple of days to figure it out and correct the problem. Keep in good contact with your printer during this time to ensure that you don't lose your press booking and that they are still on schedule. Our example project will not include any time for this.]

8. Printing

The day you send the book to the printer, you will not sleep that night, and will instead spend the night staring at the ceiling, wondering what you forgot, misspelled, left out, etc. I advise you to have a glass of wine or go to a movie and just try to get through it.
But remember, this is *not* the time to sit on your hands! If you have an ebook that was created at the same time as your print book, get that sucker out there are start hawking it – hard. Call the book distributors and retailers that you’ve been talking up and give them an update. Plan events. Create downloads for your website. Blog till your fingers bleed. Start doing interviews. Tweet like a songbird. Just keep building the momentum until it comes back from the printer and lands on your doorstep.
[2-3 weeks including freight, but this depends heavily on your printer's press schedule. The earlier you book, the less time you need to budget. Our example project will be 3 weeks.]

9. Safety Margin

It’s rare, but print errors happen. Freight gets lost, snowstorms tie up deliveries, and sometimes people just catch the flu. This time is your margin for error that ensures if you have promised delivery of the books to someone, you can deliver them early and look like a genius, or you have time to fix the mistake / wait for the snow to melt. Planning this time into your calendar at the outset will reduce a lot of stress, but if you end up with the books without delay, consider it bonus marketing time. Send out more review copies, get more last-minute interviews, do a few more talks or lectures, and just work it baby, work it.
[2 weeks in summer, 3 weeks if in winter, not because of weather, but because if you are printing at a busy time of year, you will need more time to get back on track. Our example project will be 2 weeks.]

10. Book Release Date

This date is not the end of your book journey, but the beginning. A well-designed book should have an active life span of 2-5 years, and perhaps a great deal more for an ebook, as it is a living document and can be revised to a new version any time, replacing the previous version on your website. You now have a full-time job of being an Author, and should continue to perform all of the marketing activities that you’ve been ramping up before this time, adjusting for market fluctuations and actively marketing your personal services alongside the book.

All of these time blocks, including the Safety Margin add up to: 19 weeks, or about 5 months. That sounds like a lot of time, and it is. I’ve seen Authors who work solo do it in less than 3 weeks plus press time, and it is of course possible to produce an elemental ebook overnight. 2-3 months is still practical for a paper book all in, assuming that there are no problems, and that the Author is decisive and well-prepared.

It’s up to you to process each of these stages and design a timeline of your own, but just be sure that you give yourself enough time to include proper market research up front, and a margin for error. The market research will guide you for the length of the project and steer every decision from content to design to printing to marketing. It’s first on the list because it is most important.

This was a long article, but I hope it’s encouraged you to think of your project in terms of the big picture – the picture where you are a successful, independent, and slightly wacky Self-Published Author.

Indexing a book is often ignored because it seems like an “extra step”. But it could be a fast and easy way to add incredible value for book buyers.

Think about the last time you were in a bookstore, either browsing aimlessly, or looking for something specific. How many books did you pick up to give a second glance? Did you flip to the back cover? The flaps? Did you check the index to see what topics the book covered? I’d bet you did, just like I do each and every time.

A well-created index makes the book “a keeper”. Users only want to buy and keep books that do something for them, such as give them fast answers. Think about the books you consider your “regulars”, the ones you keep close at hand. An index allows the reader to maximize their investment in your book by increasing the book’s usability factor. Libraries, reviewers and distributors will all demerit you if no index is present in a book that should clearly have one.

For all the things you do as part of your publishing project, an index has a very low cost in terms of additional overhead. There is typically no additional print cost, or if so, it is virtually nil. Flagging items for indexing as you write takes no calculable time. Planning items for indexing can actually help you during your outlining process, before you write a word, making your book more organized.

In regards to the technicalities of typesetting, there is (like many things in publishing) no “right” or “wrong” way to do it, and it is up to the typesetter to create their own formatting, unless a template is being used that they can rely on. Unlike the rest of your book, here is not the place to get creative. Follow current conventions, and perhaps use a handful of other books you like as a format reference. Give the Searcher what they are already used to.

I always prefer two columns per page, in a simple serif-style typeface, regardless of the formatting elsewhere in your book. Readers have been trained to look for those trademark double columns as they thumb through in a hurry, such as when they are making a decision whether or not to purchase. A serif typeface increases readability, especially at high speed and in smaller font sizes. Your book should have one serif typeface anyway, so re-using it here will ensure continuity. Use italics to bring attention to alternate forms of the word, even if you are duplicating a reference. Readers of a topic rarely think the way the writer does – ask your sample readers for feedback about other terms they feel should be indexed, or alternate ways of saying the same thing, perhaps in “layman’s terms”.

These days, automated indexing tools such as those in Adobe InDesign or even Open Office are remarkably easy to use and accurate. They allow you to ensure accurate referencing to page numbers, even if whole sections of your book are dramatically altered. Searches will guarantee that all flagged words are referenced to the same root word, or to related words and references if you prefer. Even so, be sure to proof all entries, or if that’s not practical, check a broad sampling, to ensure that page references are all accurate before going to press.

As a teaching tool, an index is invaluable. If you plan to use your book as a guide or text, or as a pre-requisite for any sort of coursework or other material, an index is simply a must. Doing some competitive research on other books in your category can also help you to highlight terms that should be flagged for your own index, or bring to light terms that have been ignored elsewhere and deserve greater attention.

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.

What is an index worth to your book? As an article from the American Society of Indexers reminds us, an index is not just a cool add-on, it’s a sales tool.

Every author I’ve ever worked with has given me that same funny look when I mention the idea of having an index for their book. I can understand why they don’t think of it – they’re really focused on getting the content created, as they should be. But what value is great content if it’s not made easy to use and access?

As a teaching tool, the use of an index is obvious. It’s the key that unlocks the door to your non-fiction book as a reference, and for reviewers who want to refer directly to certain portions of the work. (Many reviewers, like myself, use it as a direct criteria for rating a book.)

Buyers in a bookstore will check the index to see if a book talks about the exact topic that they are interested in. Think about it – you’ve done it yourself. If the index was not well written, or comprehensive enough, did you still buy the book?

Like a good cover design and professional typesetting, the index is a measure of credibility of you and your content. What is the reason that you’re publishing? If peer credibility and building your business has anything at all to do with it, your index may be the make-or-break of the entire project.

For direct sales benefits, remember that many online retailers like Amazon will use the index to refer new potential buyers to your book. Buyers may even be able to see screen shots of it using Amazon’s “look inside” feature.

As said by the Society, “Creating a good index takes understanding of the reader as well as the subject. It takes objectivity, perspective, a sense of proportion and priority, patience, speed, technical training, and experience. If you have all these qualities, if you can apply them under deadline pressure, and if you would rather index your current book than start writing your next one, you, the author, are the best indexer for your book. Otherwise: Entrust Your Index to a Professional.”

Oh yeah – it’s that important.

Thanks so much to Kim Plumley for being my guest on BlogTalkRadio.com today. She gave us all sorts of free advice for publicity and book / small business promotion, and lots of laughter to boot. (I just love a quirky show!) My apologies for all the technical glitches, but thanks again to anyone who sent in their question via email or the chat room. I hope that we were serious long enough to give you quality answers to your questions.

The next regular show is on December 3rd, where I’m fortunate to have Chris Flett, founder of Ghost CEO as my guest. Chris is the Author of the book What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook. [ISBN: 978-0470145081] Chris is an expert coach for women in business, including female authors. Again, we will be taking your calls live on the air, and via email or comments to this blog.

Aside from our regularly scheduled show, I’ll be hosting a 30-minute Christmas special on Monday, December 1st, where I’ll share all sorts of amazing goodies with you! My topic is Best Gifts for Bloggers, Writers and Podcasters, and there are all sorts of incredible items on my shopping list, believe me.

See you on the air!

Thanks to everyone who listened yesterday to our live call-in show on BlogTalkRadio.com. I promised you more before we got cutoff, and I will deliver shortly. Alexa and I recorded an additional 37 minutes of content immediately afterward, which I will post as soon as I overcome some small technical issues. (Hopefully today – Thursday, November 6th. Just subscribe to my feed if you don’t want to miss it.)

Thanks again to Alexa Clark of MiniBookExpo.com, and to Renee Shupe for producing the show for us. This worked so well that all three of us agreed that we’d like to do more. Much more! Stay tuned to the player here on this blog for a complete playlist of all past and future broadcasts.

While browsing in Borders this evening here in Las Vegas, I took a few moments to notice what other customers were passing up, picking up, and buying up.

Fresh off the press is the latest from journalist Bill O’Reilly. Now, I don’t know if other people were picking up this hardback because of the author, because of a nicely designed cover, or because of the subliminal messages associated with the colour red on the cover, but I sure know why I picked it up: it was the only book on the rack with the price on the front.

While all the other books have their prices displayed on a tiny-print label on the back of the book (which I need my glasses to read, and I know I’m not the only one…), O’Reilly’s latest proudly displays the price of a lousy $14.95 – roughly half of many other books on the shelf.

Why is O’Reilly (or his publisher) doing this? Because of the first two laws of modern marketing, and for that matter, modern writing. The first is, “Know Thy Market”, and the second is “Be Transparent”.

Who is buying this book? Conservative parents, teachers, and anyone who cares about kids. That’s about half of America. The underlying message of a smaller price tag is that the book is not complicated, nor does it take long to read, nor to implement any of whatever recommended strategies that it may contain. It’s for people who care about kids, with no time or money. Gee, do any of us know somebody that doesn’t fall into that bracket?

Transparency is important here, too. O’Reilly is already an author with a proven track record, whether you agree with his editorial position or not. But break it down: the book is thin – only about 150-ish pages. The layout is freakin’ brilliant: clear pages, large-ish typeface, cleverly stylish larger-than-required page numbers, and a clear heirarchy that is demonstrated by well-written headlines positioned in a layout that allows the content to be easily absorbed by any reader. You quickly realize that the price is just the cherry on the cake, the closing proposition. The message all of this sends is that O’Reilly is just a guy with a few opinions, and here they are laid out in black and white, and I’m not hiding behind a huge price tag or a thick book, and aren’t I a nice wholesome American, etc. Let’s face it: we eat this stuff up with a spoon and spread it on toast.

Right next to this book is one that almost made me swallow my gum: “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down”. Poor Ms. Palin, who already has credibility problems up the yin-yang, has her pathetic little biography, printed on crappy pulp and bound in a thin wobbly paperback cover, right next to Mr. O’Reilly. And for virtually the same price! When I read the title and saw the piteous photo of her on the cover, I felt bad enough, but that limp little volume with the awful title almost reduced me to tears. I gently put it back on the shelf, and tidied the rest of the sagging pile of them.

No matter what my feelings about either of these subjects (and by the way, I’m no fan of either O’Reilly or Palin – I’d rather elect Tina Fey) I must objectively admire O’Reilly for his clever strategic thinking.

Let’s do the math…

recession = fear / brings out our protective instincts : find validation in well-packaged opinions that make us feel better about our fear. Mr. O’Reilly definitely knows his factors.

For a number of years, I’ve had a long internal debate about what makes a good working schedule for a writer, and a book I’m currently reading has an interesting comment on the topic. Robert’s Rules of Writing, by the witty Robert Masello, is making quite an impression on me, and not just about writing schedules. Masello is the author of a number of books, three of which (including this one) are about writing itself. He’s a hardworking professional author, and he knows what it takes to actually make a living in this crazy racket.

For fiction authors, writing schedules are a very big deal, because when you write about something that comes out of your own brain, you tend to spend far to much time alone with just you and your brain. Sitting in dark rooms sipping coffee until 4 am is not a healthy lifestyle, at least, not for extended periods. (By the way, Masello agrees with me on that.)

I’ve heard a variety of testaments from writers about their routines. Some write strictly from time X to time Y, then walk the dog, go to the library, the park, the coffee joint, etc., and then return to their desks, write another Z number of words, etc. Personally, this level of rigidity has never worked for me. I often rely on random inspiration for creative writing, and my non-fiction work also relies on inspiration, although it’s often much less random. I just can’t sit down at 8am each morning and produce good stuff.

Masello’s comment about routines is typical of the rest of the book: he’s clear, concise, and delightfully opinionated. He states, “The hard part of writing isn’t scribbling words on a page. The hard part is scribbling words that mean something, that make sense, that build a narrative or lay out an argument, that construct a scene or articulate a position. It’s not about how many pages you can cover with ink in a day. In some cases, a good day’s work might be a couple of paragraphs. But if those two paragraphs are right, then they’re a lot more valuable than ten or twenty pages of idle burbling.”

He closes that page the way he closes each chapter or “rule”, with a clear statement in bold type, as per, “Writing takes deliberation and thought, craft and commitment.” Sounds like Masello’s no more in favour of writing schedules than I am.