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.)

I have an opening for an unpaid* intern, starting July 14th and ending August 25th. (6 Weeks.) This position is an excellent opportunity for a success-minded young person looking to have a first experience in publishing, self-publishing, or general business marketing.

Previous interns and casual staff have always formed lasting relationships and networking opportunities through our extensive network of contacts. All are encouraged and supported to develop independent business opportunities for themselves as they arise. There may even be a possibility that this position will progress to a part-time or full-time paid position for the right candidate, as we have a number of projects ramping up this fall.

This position can be virtual to someone anywhere in the world, but preference will be given to applicants in the areas of Vancouver or Vancouver Island (Nanaimo area) of Canada. It is certainly true that being in the area will provide a much more enriching experience than a virtual one. Candidates in the area will be interviewed in person. Candidates out of the area will be interviewed on webcam.

The right candidate should have the following attributes;
- enrolled in or affiliated with a secondary or post-secondary publishing, marketing, or general business program
- excellent language skills in English (not necessary that English is their first language, but they must be well-spoken with a clear and efficient communication style, both verbally and in writing)
- good email and telephone manner
- comfortable working as part of a virtual team
- strong basic computer skills, and experience using functions like downloading and uploading files, importing and exporting, and a basic knowledge of .html tags (we use Open Office as our standard tool for a wide variety of document production)
- comfortable using Skype and other instant-messaging tools

Training and exposure to a wide variety of skills and tools are offered as part of the in-kind compensation for this position. It cannot be understated that the right candidate must be energetic, hungry for success, and eager to learn from a successful team. We love to see people take what we teach them, and use it in their own way! This could be the best 6 weeks of your life.

Please apply by sending your resume to: internapplications@humanuspublishing.com. Please include not only an email address, but a telephone number on this resume. Only candidates considered for the position will be contacted. Contact to candidates will be made by phone.

*Although the position has no salary, all expenses, including telephone, travel KM’s, meal allowances, and all other resources necessary to complete tasks will be provided in advance or fully compensated. Successful candidates will receive an allowance to compensate them for the use of their personal computer.

Working virtually often works extremely well in the Author – Editor relationship. I was recently made aware of a new escalation of this creative working concept by a friend of mine in the music business.

Adam Wakely is a pretty cool guy. He’s a talented brewmaster, has a devastatingly wicked sense of humor, and is a very talented musician to boot. His kids are following in his footsteps, and they will be able to make use of music technology in ways that Adam is just beginning to explore for himself.

Check out Adam’s latest successful experiment: a virtual band called Strange Trax. Adam and his band-mates Natalie, Adamz, Pooch, Beradley, and Web of Destress (where do these drummers get these wacky names, anyway?) have never met in real life. Adam’s brother Aaron is the final band member, who lives in the same town as Adam, but other than that, the entire band is virtual.

All the music is written, revised, practiced and recorded in different locations, including Canada, the USA, and the United Kingdom. Adam used his skills as a Master Music Editor and Recorder to make it all come together. I can’t believe how cohesive the sound is – not only inside each track, but between the tracks themselves. They have a consistent style, which is what it takes to snag and keep a following.

As the site states, “Is this a new step forward for the music industry? A new way of making music, with space and distance no object?” For all the writers who think that distance is an obstacle to making their book happen, think again. I sing a little, and I’m a lousy pianist, but man, can I edit.

I’ve had an expression for a number of years that I quote to clients, partners and affiliates as often as appropriate: “Every organization is a sales organization.”(c) This means that no matter what you are part of – your school, your company, your sports team, your scouting group, your religious assembly, your book project or anything else that you have on your plate – if it’s an organization that wants to grow, selling is how that will happen. This expression also means that every activity you undertake can and must relate somehow to your sales and marketing plan – even if it’s a stretch.

Because self-published authors are almost always also self-promoted, self-publicized, and self-sold authors, they must find ways to make a single selling activity work for them in more than one way. This means that they must have a good selling strategy, based on a big-picture view of their market, and they must constantly remind themselves of their “Grand Vision”, or what it is they are trying to achieve.

But when I talk about sales to some clients, they stumble and don’t know where to go with the topic. They don’t consider themselves “sales people”. This is confusing to me, because in fact, many of them are already quite accomplished at selling. They network, they fix things, they clarify, and they communicate. They do so by providing a solution to a clearly-identified problem, and not by pushing something on someone who doesn’t want what they have to offer. That, my friends, is the definition of quality selling.

Just like writing a quality book, quality selling begins in the research. For most of my authors, they are publishing to promote their current business or enterprise, or to raise their professional profile or that of their business. They already know who their audience is and what they want. Or do they?

One of the best all-around selling research techniques that is weirdly overlooked by most people in publishing is the Focus Group. This is fancy talk for “asking people what they think”. It is necessary to perform research by talking to your readers. This is not selling – this is asking. (Which incidentally, is great practice for selling.) By asking questions and stimulating discussion in a group of independent and completely objective people, you are getting the highest quality information that any sales person could ask for: somebody’s real and unbiased opinion.

For one client that I worked with, we did this in a very casual way, by having what we called a “One-Night-Reading-Stand”, where people came by a local coffee joint, and in exchange for a free coffee and a copy of the book, we asked them what they thought. The author was not present, so people were free to speak their mind without worrying about what the author might think. We recorded the entire event as an .mp3 so that I could analyze it later. The author never heard a word of the interview. I made a summary of what needed to be done, and delivered a to-do list to the author later. The participants were never identified publicly, and they ended up being advocates for the product in the market. Everybody left happy, including the author, because he knew what needed to be done to be a success.

This research is what enabled the author to tweak his product and message, and isn’t it funny how he sold out his first printing in 60 days, without having to “sell” anything? Research in this case was performed before the first printing, but this could easily be done at any point in the production process. By networking, fixing, clarifying, and communicating, the author tripled his anticipated sales.

The bottom line: selling more of your self-published books is the same as selling anything. Apply good research, create your own opportunities for publicity (the coffee shop took on the book as a product, and many people stopped to ask us what we were doing that night), network (all the people in the group ended up helping to sell the book – they were selected as “people of influence” for their role in the community that we wanted to target), fix and clarify (the messaging activity that took place that night helped us avoid some less-than-obvious pitfalls and develop clear marketing messages for the book), and communicate (everybody that entered the coffee shop that night left with a bookmark that had a copy of the URL on it, and a handful more to pass on to friends, plus we we turned the focus group into a marketing activity by submitting a press release to the local paper).

Successful self-sold books = a single activity, turned into multiple selling activities.

What a weekend it has been for Humanus Publishing! A launch party for one of my authors, a new release from another of my authors, and the rollout of our new affiliate program, all in the last 4 days!

Sunday was the launch party for The Freshman FlyFisher, (ISBN 978-0-978-3292-1-1) by Rick Passek of Surrey, BC. Rick held his launch event at the Little Campbell Hatchery at the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club on 184th in Surrey. What a huge success for all involved! Rick not only sold plenty of books, but made numerous contacts related to promoting family outdoor events in the Surrey area. We are grateful to the Rotary Club of Cloverdale BC, for their wonderful management of the food concession stand, and to the City of Surrey for their support. As always, Rick was a real star, and was cool as a cuke from Friday morning’s appearance on Breakfast Television on City TV, to his interview on CBC Radio’s BC Almanac Friday afternoon, right through Sunday’s festivities. My favourite moment was little 6-year old Gracie’s fishing lesson on Breakfast Television Friday morning. She picked up the fine art of casting in a matter of minutes, due at least in part to Rick’s careful tutelage. Good going, Rick!

Another one of my authors, the lovely Jeri-Lyn McCrea, is the author of Words in Action – A Journal to Inspire Change, (ISBN 978-0-9809325-0-8) which is scheduled for release on April 25th. I saw the first copies back from the printer’s on Saturday, and boy, do they look fantastic!! The matte-coated hardcover is sooooo soft in the hand, and the pages look truly inspiring. I’m really excited about this journal (I guess we should stop referring to it as a “book”), because it breaks entirely new ground in the area of motivation and self-improvement titles. Jeri is so right when she talks about people “figuring it out for themselves”, and not looking to others to “complete their lives or tell them what to do”. Her journal is a book you ultimately write for yourself, and get a little burst of energy and motivation every day. Setting goals and making up your mind to achieve them – that’s what Words in Action is all about. Watch this blog for more info about events coming soon to the Langley and Surrey areas.

The cherry on the cake of this weekend was our new Humanus Publishing Affiliate Program. I started this project a few weeks ago to solve the problems of one author’s quest to market their product online, and it has now snowballed into something that can be used by any self-publishing author who wants to sell their books direct to consumers over the internet. Authors want to be freed of the hassle and overhead of online sales in order to keep writing, and this system means that they do not need to put up any money up front to make that happen. It’s cheap, fast, and keeps writers doing what they should be doing – writing. I hope that this system will expand into something resembling a marketing co-op for self-publishing authors, while continuing to align itself with the values of Humanus Publishing. If you know of a publisher who wants to sell their products through our program, you can earn money by referring them. Simply email me and let’s find a way to make it happen.

 

 ISBN Numbers Easier for Self-Publishers: Interview with Andy Weissberg of Bowker USA [33:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bowker, the USA ISBN agency, is making plenty of changes that are especially helpful to self-publishers and small presses. I was very lucky this week to be able to get Andy Weissberg, a recently appointed GM at Bowker, on the phone for what turned out to be a rather lengthy interview.

Andy is a great guy, and his job is to head up the Identifier Services division, which is the office responsible for issuing ISBN’s and similar products. Andy generously gives us a gut-spilling interview that is a full walk-through of the entire process for a self-publisher or small publisher.

Andy has brought a fresh, digital marketing-based approach to an old organization that has plenty of credibility and stablility. From the standpoint of anyone who is self-marketing their information product, it’s a match made in heaven. Thanks to features that make the best use of meta-data that publishers insert for their titles, the playing field is becoming more level between large and small publishers.

Key changes include;
- enhanced meta-data optimization for top search engines
- social media enhancements
- self-management of issuing ISBN’s via the web (coming soon)
- dramatic changes to the pricing structure, especially to reduce costs to users who only need a single ISBN (coming soon)

I was particularly impressed with Andy’s statement that it is at least partially the self-publishing movement that is prompting Bowker’s changes. Books, they are a-changin, and Bowker is keeping pace nicely.

Watch for more interviews like this in April, and I’ll be meeting up with Andy at Book Expo America in Los Angeles between May 29th and June 1st for a video podcast. Thanks Andy – it was a real pleasure.

This podcast can be re-distributed without royalties provided that appropriate credit and cross-linking is given. To link back to this podcast, please use the direct link for this post, which is here. (Or, just copy what’s in your browser’s URL bar right now.)

You can also download the MP3 and host it elsewhere, using the tiny “audio mp3″ link right next to the player built into this page. The cross-link must use the link referenced in the previous paragraph. Credit must be given as “All content copyright Humanus Publishing, Inc., 2008. All rights reserved.” Thanks!

Here’s a great example of getting bloggers and other online social media users to talk about your new product – otherwise known as a “meme”. This is social network marketing at its best.

Being such a huge fan of the James Bond films (Brosnan was my favourite, until the last one…), I was thrilled to see a teaser (embedded below) for Quantum of Solace, the new Bond movie currently being filmed in various locations.

Notice the handy little button at the lower right corner of the screen, labeled “Link/Embed”? This code allows you to quickly share this content with anyone you choose, and in a multitude of ways, thereby increasing your page views exponentially. The link/embed feature travels with the video, as you can see. And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on…

The only question left for me is whether or not Daniel Craig appears sans trousers again in the new film. Yummy.

Some might say that I have serious control issues. Not a bit of it – I just like all the forks to face west in the cutlery drawer. The blades of all the knives must face east, but the spoons can be any which way. I still stack my mixing bowls according to size and colour, but I’ve conquered my issues with the folding of fitted sheets in the linen closet.

Because of this monkey on my back, for many years, my drug of choice has been 3M Post-it notes. It’s not difficult to maintain this addiction, because I don’t have to buy them discreetly. But the cascade of storage problems for the variety of note styles I now have in my personal stock has forced me to add harder stuff to my repertoire, like Rubbermaid storage products. And when I need a fast fix, I rely on my handy box of Ziploc bags in my bottom desk drawer.

One of the key ways that Post-it notes have actually helped to further my career is through something called a card-sorting exercise. This is custom-made for writers with organizational issues and a parade of marketing issues and tasks to sort out. I can’t do an outline without them now.

To really make this work, you need a broad surface that holds the adhesive on a Post-it really well. A glass patio door is pretty much perfect, but a window or white board will also do nicely. You will also need an assortment of Sharpie pens in colours that you find attractive. I use different colour pens to differentiate different clients: Joe is blue, Rick is green, Sue is orange, etc.

A card-sort exercise can be used for a variety of things, but my favourite is for prioritizing information and processes. If you’re working on a project where you have to stop and ask yourself things like “What comes first?” or, “Have I covered all my bases?”, this trick is for you. It is especially helpful in creating steering documents for group projects, because it ensures that all members of the team share the same vision. I always use it for project planning, marketing sessions, etc., but I also use it for simple stuff like planning my vacations, and my daily to-do lists.

Essentially, anytime a concept, task, challenge, or don’t-forget item occurs to you about a project, you write it on a Post-it using about 4-5 words max. I try to write large enough that I can read the note from about 10 feet away. This means you can relax – it’s now documented, and you won’t accidentally forget it. You can now feel free to open yourself to the next concept.

Once you’ve put all those ideas that were spinning around in your head on their own notes, you stick them all on a wall or glass door. (They seem to stick better on glass than painted surfaces.) Then, simply re-arrange them in priority order, or in columns, or to assign particular tasks to certain people, or whatever categorization you choose. When you’ve got them arranged how you like, use a digital camera to take a snap of the wall, and then you can remove them if necessary. By studying the photo, you can make a lovely chart which can be turned into a PDF and emailed to all team members.

I’m actually quite fond of leaving them up on the wall when I have space. There’s nothing more satisfying than ripping a task note off the wall once completed, and crumpling it up to throw in the fireplace. Plus, all I need is a periodic glance at my wall to remind me of what my tasks are and keep me on track.

If you’d prefer a virtual version of this exercise, 3M has created a cool mini-app that only costs $20 bucks. This hip little program allows you to click on a virtual yellow pad of notes, and quickly type a note to yourself. You can then arrange them all over your desktop in the same manner that you would on the patio door. This is great for doing on a plane – no phone to distract you, nobody tapping on your door.

I just checked, and I have notes stuck on a wall in every single room of my house. That includes the bathroom. I even have them in my car. Try explaining that to the cop that stops you for speeding. He only needs to glance around the car to know what you’re high on.

Why not be sick in Vegas? I went on this trip knowing that I was ill, but also knowing that being sick for a couple of days in the desert is still better than being sick in a rainforest. (Ie., home.) I was right.

Thanks to the encouragement of my collaborator, uh, I mean, friend Liz Gaige, I managed to struggle through. Several blueberry teas also helped. (More about those later.) Despite a fever that was high enough to actually cause me to hallucinate, I still managed to learn something about marketing and my business.

And yes, I admit that the loan of an extremely hot car in which to drive up and down the strip was what finally pulled me through. Many thanks to the steady hands of Liz who was the driver, unimpaired by Robitussin. Don’t worry Dale – we were very careful as we zig-zagged around the pedestrians on the sidewalk.

In my recent research about overcoming writer’s block, I’ve found about 1000 ways that claim to help you overcome this sometimes long-term affliction. Some are cool, some are crazy, but most are just off-the-edge enough to work.

Here are some of my favourites;

1. Grandma Peggy gets first spot, as usual. Her axiom? “If you weren’t at least a little insecure, you wouldn’t be a real writer.” In other words, stop being moody and get busy.
2. Watch a movie. At the top of my pile for writer’s block is Get Shorty, starring John Travolta. What most people don’t know is that the movie was written by a friend of the real Chili Palmer, Elmore Leonard. The real Palmer has a small role in the film – and yeah, he’s smoky. Check out screen shot at right – Palmer is the younger fellow at the right elbow of actor Dennis Farina. (Another one of those actors I adore.)
3. Watch another movie. Another one of my icons, Mae West, is not just known as the Queen of Corsets, but also as the writer of a number of her own films, including the famous My Little Chickadee, with W.C. Fields. Whenever in Las Vegas, be sure to visit the Mae West bathroom in the NY,NY hotel on the strip. Gilded furniture, pink velvet upholstery, and marble everything. Talk about sanctuary.
4. Need a muse? Why not put Walt Disney’s severed head on your desk. No, it’s not messy: it’s wax. (But still creepy.)
5. Make up your own word, like Brandon Burt of the City Weekly . Of course, his was not in response to writer’s block, but to writers being blocked, aka the recent writer’s (WGA) strike in Hollywood.
6. Figure out what’s blocking you. This serious post by Jimmy of Cinemoose.com points at some clever ways to objectify your block and shoot it square in the eye.
7. Try a Mind Map. The University of British Columbia here in Vancouver, Canada, has a page about mind-mapping software. For a clear idea of how you can use mind-mapping, watch this YouTube video by marketing guru Ford Saeks.
8. Eat something bizarre. For example, Korean chicken in a cup. De-Lishus. Pepto on standby.
9. Visit your fave author. At right is a photo of my husband meeting his, Jack Whyte, author of the Templar Trilogy, among other things. Whyte gives incredible 60-minute talks in bookstores like Chapters, where he discusses gory details of daily life at the time of King Arthur.
10. Make something. It doesn’t have to be big, but it does have to be inspired by something positive – don’t make something with your anger. All you really need are popsicle sticks and empty mint tins. Sometimes making something more tangible can break negative cycles that happen in our own unreal inner world.

It seems to me that I heard somewhere a quote by Bruce Lee, and although I cannot find a link to it, I’m sure it was his, because it represents his philosophy of taking all the good things from various martial art styles and making them his own. The essence of the quote was this: that when one does not actively seek out other styles, or art, or work, and thinks only about their own styles, art, or work, they have nothing to prod their creativity. (Which becomes the block.) They eventually become a prisoner of their own ideas, and cannot move their brain in any new directions. So grab those boots and walk right out that door – if only to your regular coffee joint. Bring something to capture the ideas when they start to flow.