Gordon Burgett’s Newsletter
for writers, speakers,
publishers, and product developers
November, 2009
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I promised five more ways to share your
book’s contents...
In the 10/1 newsletter I showed
you how, through ancillary publishing, you can take your completed book copy
and cover and have others publish it nine more ways, free and “hands off.” Or
you can slip around the whole publishing process this way and let others do it
for you.
But why stop there? If you
have a book that folks will gladly pay to read, why wouldn’t you sell that
book’s core contents in other formats to those poor souls to whom the written
word isn’t gilded? Like...
* By sound. Restructure and explain your
topic on audio CD or DVD
(perhaps with a .doc workbook or guide on a separate CD). Or
as a downloadable podcast.
* In parts. Done right, you can
usually convert a needed book into a series of paid articles in a key
publication. Or separate articles in many publications. How better to
strengthen your perceived expertise? Mention in your bio slug that you have a
free booklet or report with valuable add-on info available at your website. When
they ask, download the requested pages and add that fan to your e-list for your
newsletter and the promo releases about each of your coming books.
* Revisitably.
Assuming you offer your book in both bound and digital versions, this is the
latter, yet (you remind your buyer) it never need be printed. An example. Loads of folks buy my Treasure and Scavenger Hunt
book digitally—because their party is tomorrow and they’d spend twice its cost
to overnight it! They pay by credit card and we send it in two minutes as an
e-mail attachment. But we also suggest that they give it an honored place on
their computer’s internal bookshelf, they read and use it now, then they come back to it on their monitor for future
parties. And we all save paper!
* With friends. Build a fun, usable
workshop or seminar around the bones of your book. Mix in some exercises,
hands-on starter steps, experiences and suggestions given by the attendees—use any
of the speaking tools that inject spark into a process or adventure. You get
paid too—plus the sponsor will often pre-buy the book as a supplies handout. If
not, the attendees will buy it, plus other good stuff you also offer.
* One-on-one. Somebody or lots of somebodies want to reward you well if you will personally counsel or coach them on
the very topic of your book. For an hour, half-day, or days, they will gladly
pay you to lift them over the stumbling blocks that took you years to conquer.
(If you take careful notes and later add in the additional questions not asked,
you can often resell the step-by-step process in a follow-up guidebook.)
Sounds like empire
building!
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I wish I’d had this book way back when...
Most of the stuff that
shouts at you about Internet marketing is hot air, expensive, and ultimately
designed to snag you into the seller’s costly consulting, boot camps, or
do-as-I-do claptrap. But Kim Stacey’s 185-page e-book called 21 Steps to Starting
and Launching Your Own Internet Marketing Business is the real
deal: first-rate, full of the very answers (and starter sources) you need. The
best $39 I’ve spent since I jumped into this odd world (for an old
cut-and-paste guy). This book would be a bargain at three times the price.
Look, if you have
something others should know, you’ve got a niche market for it, you can at
least write an e-book, and you can use Word, there are two paths to controlling
your information-selling future: (1) the brick-and-mortar store, the bound
book, and the usual spin-offs, or (2) the Internet marketing approach, where
digital, downloads, websites, and URLs rule. My advice: do both, but get going on your Internet marketing now, do it right,
and be cautious about your expenses. Except here: get this book. It would should save you a ton of time.
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But if you’re already an established
publisher, how does the ancillary publishing help?
In my 10/1 newsletter article
I told you how to get your finished book picked up by established ancillary
publishers and sold widely and often—free to you.
“Why bother?” several of
you veterans asked (in nicer ways), implying that at present it would bring in chump
change compared to publishing it yourself and controlling its own selling
destiny.
Well, it could be huge
change, and soon enough it may be even huger (yes, I know), but, if you have a
defined, tested niche market, you are right. Your money pot is elsewhere—and it
may not make enough cents to take advantage of this extra selling leverage.
(See my Niche Publishing book or CDs for that sleight of hand.
Niche books are where the biggest risk-free pot of gold hides.)
How would I treat
ancillary publishing for my own marketing? I’d write my book, get it proofed
and ready to go, get the cover chiseled in .jpg, and print the quantity I could
sell in the next three months. But early on, I’d also get my e-book out and I’d
put that in the ancillary handlers’ hands. Would I use Lulu and CreateSpace for a bound version? Not worth it if I’m
already covering my niche market well. But for a general
market book, sure.
There are two more very important
considerations.
(1) Sometimes you have a
wee book idea in a different field where you don’t want to crank up your own
promotional gears at the outset. There, I’d get it ready (no slacking in
content and appearance) and let the new guys see if they can find a market for
it. See if lightningsource, Kindle, Smashwords, Blurb, Squibd (plus
Lulu and CreateSpace) can create some magic. If they
do, I’d gladly be stunned, buy some P.O.D. copies to start, then
print out as many press runs as my shocked heart (and delighted purse) could
take!
(2) Or you know that you
need a book but you abhor the idea of putting on a print apron and having to
publicly associate with distributors. In that case there are two roads to print
paradise: (a) go straight to Lulu, CreateSpace, or
Blurb and make your tome their poster model in style and content, use your own
top-quality cover, and buy a couple hundred to start using for promotion, or (b)
create just as good a book, head to lightningsource
and get the same 200 copies by P.O.D. to sell or distribute. But then also create
an e-book version and let the ancillary publishers sell that. If the e-book catches fire? We should all have problems like
that! Start selling your own e-version too!
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That “how to” ancillary publishing e-book or audio
CD program I’m prepping? Not ready yet, but I’m busy making it happen! Its detailed
workbook with new, up-to-date specifics will help walk you through the process
of producing many different books from just two files. In the past weeks I gave
two four-hour seminars near
There’s some new information at www.ancillarypublishing.com
too...
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Coming newsletters? Some thoughts on shipping costs—my biggest
complaint about Internet marketing. And URLs. If
you’re not nailing yours down, you’re more likely to get nailed.
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Where are most of my products hiding? Right here. Shh... For
more information about each, quietly click the link by the title. Or just order
away...
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The archives of the past newsletter issues sleep at www.gordonburgett.com/NLarchives.htm.
Do you have friends who
should get this newsletter? Please
send them to www.gordonburgett.com/free-reports.
Finally, my bio is at www.gordonburgett.com/gbbio3.htm.
Best wishes,
Gordon Burgett