Publisher’s Toolkit – What You Need When You Go to Press

Dear Information Marketers,

Wow. What a crazy week, weather-wise. Sun, rain, sleet...not sure what's it's like for you, but here it has been crazy. I had to put my bike away and take more transport. Got a lot of reading done in the process, which was good.

Speaking of reading, I haven’t gone anywhere without a book for a long time. I never used to be a big reader until I worked abroad and had television robbed from me. Looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened as I found a world of knowledge that I never really took advantage of.

A fellow information marketer e-mailed me a few weeks ago and asked: I have a lot of stuff information here and I think it’s time to take the next step. How do you publish a book? For a long time, I never thought about how someone could publish a book on their own as I always assumed you needed an agent who queried a publisher to print and distribute it for you. You had a fifty-fifty chance of being successful.

But things have changed – for the better I might add – in the digital age. Now you can publish your own work and have all the success you want off it. I asked around and found a guy who had success self-publishing a novel after being dropped by his agency over a disagreement over rewriting his novel. He sent me a list of what you should have if you want to publish on your own.

Here it is:

--An editor: Once you have your content written, no matter how good you think it is, get it edited. Hand it over to a friend you have confidence in or hire someone who edits professionally. An extra set of eyes can give you that objective input you need to make your content look good and correct any outstanding errors that may exist.

--A graphic design: Your product’s content is of the utmost importance, but after that, you need to make it look presentable to your clients. Coming up with a graphic design is how you plan for your information product to look for public use. My friend advised getting a real graphic designer to help you with coming up with cover and layout ideas. I agree, but if you have already have experience with this in the past with publishing print products as some of my colleagues do, feel free to apply your skills to this tasks.

--An ISBN (International Standard Book Number): You know that funny thirteen digit bar code on the back of your books? That’s the ISBN and it gives the book its individual identification for public use and sale. Getting one can be a bit time consuming, but my mate said it’s a good thing to have in order to legitimize your product for the public to use. You can get information on purchasing this code online by visiting www.iso.org.

--A distribution plan: Don’t be confused by this as I am not implying that you have to network with a big distribution agency to sell your book from here to Kuala Lumpur. Quite the opposite, in fact. Start displaying your product on your website and offer it to existing clients in your e-newsletters. Check out related tradeshows and if you can get a place in one, bring along some copies to sell. Also pitch it to friends and colleagues, as someone may be able to carry it for you in their place of business or company and can sell it for a small honorarium. This “baby-steps” method will help your products’ success to get rolling and could lead to others offering to market it for you. If you start small, you can only get big.

This short list of tips is exactly what my friend used to get his book out to book shops and buyers. After thinking he would not have much success after being dropped by his agency, my friend can only certify this to you that it’s a surefire way for people to see what you have to offer and dig into their pocket to pay for it.

For more information marketing and wealth creation tips, visit us here at The e-Wealth Daily website.

Take care,

J.