Self-Publishing

Forget four-color glossy brochures. Instead, spend time writing,
producing, and printing your own book. Picture this. You have a book
completed and printed on your topic of expertise. No matter who else
is in the market, I’m 99.9% certain you will be the only one in the
market who has written a book specifically on your topic. Since you
have written the book, you are now the expert.
Who is going to publish your book? You are. You will self publish your
book. How much will it cost? It depends on how many copies you
print, how many pages you write and how fancy you make the cover
and binding. Keep in mind that your book becomes one of your most
effective pieces of promotional material. You may also use the book as
your least expensive front end product for your funnel (See Chapter
15).
Three Ways to Write a Book
If you don’t have the luxury of taking an extended working vacation,
you may want to consider the next few options.
25X4X2 System
Take your topic of expertise. Ask yourself what are the 25 most
important main topics regarding this subject matter. Then ask
yourself to come up with approximately four subtopics for each of
these main 25 topics. Write two pages per night on each of these
subtopics. You will end up with a 200-page book in just over three
months.
The One Page per Topic System
I know someone that used this system to put together a book on
marketing. He had many ideas that he wanted to share with people so
he brainstormed ideas and wrote down every single marketing idea
that came to mind. He then wrote something on each topic. Some
topics had short “blurbs” and others had five or six pages. After
writing, he put the topics into categories that made sense. At the end
of this exercise, he had a 265-page book filled with great marketing
ideas.
Transcribe the Seminar System
This method is particularly effective for those of you who have
difficulty writing. I assume that if you don’t particularly like writing,
you prefer speaking. That being the case, get six or eight of your
favorite friends together, sit them down in a nice room, serve cocktails
and deliver a seminar. Make sure you have thoroughly outlined your
topic and have divided your presentation into bite size “modules.”
These will end up being your chapters when all is said and done.
The next big trick is finding someone who will transcribe the tapes for
you at a reasonable price. Where can you find someone like this?
Start at the local college or university. Next try the senior citizen
centers. You would be amazed at the kinds of resources out there if
you just start to look. Another resource you may want to check on the
web is Hiredhand.com. These folks charge a certain amount of money
per page.
Getting Your Book Edited
The biggest problem most people have is editing. This is simply a
psychological block, especially if you feel you have to make everything
perfect. This is an impossible task. Just get your thoughts down on
paper and hire an editor to clean up your mess.
The best place to find inexpensive editors is, as I mentioned above for
transcribers, your local college or university. Ask to speak to the
English or Journalism departments. Then let the various secretaries of
these departments know that you are looking for student editors.
Unless things are different in your part of the country, student editors
are inexpensive.
The Next Step
The most cost-effective way to get the book printed is to provide the
printer with a CAMERA READY copy of your manuscript. (Talk to your
printer to find out what they need). Or you can provide your
manuscript to the printer on a disk, typed in a common word
processing program like Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Or, if
you don't have access to a computer you can have typewritten pages
digitized (a process that scans typewritten documents into a
computer). There is a fee for taking your manuscript off a disk and
preparing it for production. This is referred to as typesetting or layout.
Shop around. Get quotes from at least three different printers. Check
out their previous work. Just because they're cheaper doesn't always
mean you're going to get a quality product. Once you find a printer,
be sure to get a contract. This will help to ensure that your
expectations are met, i.e. price, delivery, specifications.
Find a book you like the looks of. Publishing starts with the appearance
of the cover. Model your publication after it. Check with the printer you
decide to use. They can help you in this area.
So, how many copies should you print? You have 3 main options:
• Print 2,000 - 5,000 books at a reasonable unit price.
• Print 500 - 1,000 books at a higher unit price.
• Print covers ahead of time and copy your text on demand. This
will provide you a competitive unit price with low, up-front costs.
What factors will affect the cost?
• Book dimensions (6"x 9", 81/2 x 11", etc.)
• Type of binding (perfect binding, hard bound, comb-bound,
saddle stitched, velo-bound, wire-o-bound)
• Kind of paper used for the cover
• Number of ink colors on cover, and in text.
• Number of pages in text (count title page, table of contents,
index, each and every page)
• Quantity of books desired.
• How prepared your manuscript is.
Copyrights and ISBN
Once you write and register the manuscript, you will own the copyright
to the material. It's a matter of filling out a form and sending the
required fee to the U.S. Copyright Office at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
ISBN numbers are a unique number assigned to books and publishers,
which are assigned and maintained by the ISBN Agency. This number
is useful for consumers when trying to locate books. It is also
necessary if you want to sell your books in bookstores. For more
information about ISBN numbers contact the U.S. ISBN Agency at
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/index.asp