QUESTIONS ANSWERED Part 3
Current mood: busy
Category: Writing and Poetry

MY IN BOX QUESTIONS ANSWERED


(FAQs) Frequently Asked Questions (Part
3)



Before I get into more answers from my inbox messages, I want to say a couple of things in regards to my last post. From one century to another, people try to explain or sometimes change original formats of poetry like, haiku or sonnets, etc. I'll say again, stay with the original and basic ways of doing these things or you will lessen your chance of selling your work.

An example is the way all the additional rules that have come up for the haiku style of poetry. You will have people tell you it is fine to change syllables to 3, 5 , 3 and things. Don't do it. Although these styles have a place in the world, you should remember they came about when people translated the work of the older famous works from the Japanese to other languages such as English. The number of syllables and ideas change when you do that, but the publishers will still want to see the your work in the original format. It's simple. Learn to use the basics to get started and get a bit of success going first. Then you can get away with these things a little as your name gets noticed. Haiku should be three lines of, 5, 7, and 5 syllables. The first two lines work together and the third completes the thought, sort of like the conclusion of the first two lines. Be careful not to make a simple, run on, 17 syllable sentence divided into three lines. That is a no-no.

Try to stay away from using the work of others as a pattern. An example is finding a screenplay of a movie you like on the Internet to use as a pattern. Those are production scripts. You should be learning the basics of screen writing and finding your own voice and style so you can go on out there and get an agent or pitch to a producer etc.


Now I've been getting a few questions about art and photography books. You will have a near impossible task trying to sell one to a publisher as a beginner. They are every bit as hard to sell as poetry books these days.
A book of full color pages of artwork or photographs is very, very expensive to print. Almost all publishers have in-house artists and photographers. If they want to spend the kinds of money it takes to print a book like that, they will, of course use one of their own people first, or find someone with a top reputation in that field. With so many things against finding a publisher for this type of book you will need to build a reputation for yourself by selling your work to small magazines and local newspapers first. Another way is to find and use a free print on demand company such as Lulu to print a book for you. After you get your name out there and enough
people know you and your work one of the mainstream publisher might take a look at what you have. You'll have to really do a load of marketing yourself first to get the job done. Another way would be to team up with a good poet and calendar program to publish a book of sonnets or haiku using your photos or art work as backgrounds and share the profits or royalties. Any paint or word processor program that lets you use layers or turn off word wrap will work to design the pages for it. You could even use a free HTML editor to build web pages of the work and put them on a compact disk to sell yourself. You can even do that with only using your own art or photographs like a published book on CDs. You can find a product to do just that at,


http://kedcostudios.net/



Now I've told you about searching for free programs like "Ultimate Zip", HTML editors and so forth, but some of you say you can't find them from regular search engines. Here are two sites that will have the very last FREE versions of most of the top programs you see advertised today. These are completely free. You can use them forever. From these two links you can find dozens more by clicking on the links menu on the index page.


http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html



http://onlythebestfreeware.com/



One more way you can market your book or product is by using postcards. You can send them to booksellers, church or college student groups, or just people from reader lists you find or buy that might have an interest in your subject matter. Most free postcard or label programs have ready made templates you can use or you can do what I do and use a screen shot of my entire CD tray on the card along with perhaps a dozen lines of copy and ordering information for the book. Someone also told me the print screen button on a PC didn't work. That is wrong. You just don't see anything happen because it only puts the screen image on the clip board like you are going to copy and paste it. Just open the paint program that comes with your machine use the pull down menu and paste it in. You'll see the entire picture that was on your screen when you pressed the print screen key. Then you can crop out all but the image you want and export or save it as a JPG or what have you.




Lastly,
same as the last post, open the "View all my friends"

section here and see all of the important contacts
you
can get to and talk to one-on-one for help.
You'll find
book publishers, magazines, film makers,
comic book
publishers, editors, authors, agents,
publicists,
producers, and artists to do
illustrations for you.
Click on any of the pictures
and look at their pages.

Until next time. All my
best.
Sincerely
Elaine


http://www.kedcostudios.net

4:53 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Questions Answered Part 2
Category: Writing and Poetry

MY IN BOX QUESTIONS ANSWERED

(FAQs) Frequently Asked Questions (Part 2)

It seems as though I've started something here with answering questions about poetry and screen writing etc. The day after my last post I received a message saying a person wanted to know if they could use courier or times new roman with a font size of 10. You're going to find in this column that there is a very good reason for everything I post. It might not be answered with perfect grammar and all, but there is a reason. The bottom line is this, I'm not the boss of you. You can try anything you want because it is your work. I'm only telling you what is standard and the reasons for it. The message I quoted above is answered this way. The reason for a font size of 12 is to give an accurate word count to the publisher. Times roman fonts are narrow typefaces designed for newsmen in order to give them space for more words on the page. That will also change word count per printed book size. The word count by itself is not the problem as much as the word size changing the page count and giving the publisher the wrong information as to the printing cost of the book. They are very fussy about that. Just be standard and use what works. It won't kill you and it just might get your work past the reader at the door and be given to an editor. If you know the editor's name, mark your manuscript to their attention. It might just jump a rung up the ladder. All this means is that you should still use Courier 12 or New Courier 12 in your manuscript.

Getting into poetry I'll say I like good old fashioned, rhyming, romance poetry and sonnets. There are a number of styles other than those that could be easier for some of you. The Japanese Haiku is a fun style to play with. The structure for that is this, use three lines to complete a thought. It doesn't matter how many words you use, only how many syllables. Then combine those thoughts into a subject. The three lines are done in exact syllables of 5 in the first line, 7 in the second line and 5 in the third. That's all there is. Try one and kind of sing-song it out loud to get a feel for the syllables , like this

da da, da da, da
da da, da da, da da, da
da da, da da, da

Now do a few more and string them together as stanzas of the subject matter you are writing about, such as lost love, boating, change of seasons, or what have you.
There you have it. Practice a few and have fun.

The sonnet is 14 lines.
The English or Shakespeare sonnet is three sets of four lines and a couplet (Two lines) at the end. You would rhyme the lines ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and pay attention to meter.

The Italian sonnet is two stanzas. First is 8 lines and the second is 6 lines. The first stanza rhymes ABBA ABBA and the second set rhymes on CDE CDE OR CD CD CD.

If you need anything more accurate in formats of poetry try here,

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/AXF.HTML

BTW Web site names are not always going to reflect what the site is about. One of the top sites for authors is Toasted Cheese. Here's the link,

http://www.toastedcheese.com

Use the sitemap to see articles on just about any subject pertaining to writing. Plan on spending some time there. There is a ton of great information on it.
And for new screenwriters,

http://www.soyou wannasellascript.com

I covered copyrights in a previous post, but I's not the same with a screenplay. With a script you really should do more to protect yourself by getting a copyright from your government copyright office AND in the US register your work with the WGA (Writers Guild of America), or the equivalent of that organization in your own country. I told you before how a screenplay is broken down and should only be 130 max. That is a must for a new author. Once you or an agent gets it into the hands of the producer and a deal is signed, it will be completely up to the studio or director to ask you to include more pages for another scene or two if they feel it will make a better visual in the movie.

Now a little about the 13 number ISBN some of you are asking me about.
Just as the letters tell you, this is an INTERNATIONAL standard book numbering system, and they are running out of 10 digit numbers worldwide. In a couple of months, (Jan 1st 2007) the new 13 digit system goes into effect. You will not be able to list your book on Amazon or Borders etc. without the 13 number IBSN. If you have just purchased a ten digit number from someone, you will need to convert it to the new system right away. What they have done is ad the 3 digit number as a prefix to the old system. My logbook number for the "Eternal Man" series is, 1-878431-06-4 I would convert that to the new system by adding the prefix of 978 to it. It would now be, 978-1-878431-06-4 to comply with the new rules. Everyone would know that is a converted number from a 10 digit issue because a newly issued number will be prefixed with 979.
NOTE: The check digit (Last number) will change because you added the new numbers. If you don't know how to find the new number for it, you should go to the link below to let them convert your ISBN.

Now I know ISBN numbers are expensive these days, and some of you will want to make sure that what I'm telling you is true. For those people you can go to the following link and let them convert your number for you. They will also do a barcode for you to put on your cover for ten dollars (USD).

Http://www.isbn-13.info


Lastly, same as the last post, open the "View all my friends"
section here and see all of the important contacts you
can get to and talk to one-on-one for help. You'll find
book publishers, magazines, film makers, comic book
publishers, editors, authors, agents, publicists,
producers, and artists to do illustrations for you.
Click on any of the pictures and look at their pages.

Until next time. All my best.
Sincerely
Elaine

http://www.kedcostudios.net

11:24 AM - 6 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

INBOX QUESTIONS ANSWERED FAQs
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Writing and Poetry

MY IN BOX QUESTIONS ANSWERED (FAQs)

Frequently Asked Questions (Part 1)

As you might expect from a page like this, I get many, many questions about getting started after a book is created. I will try to answer the ones I get the most in the next two or three articles. It will help some of you to read these answers here before you send out your hard work.

I'll start with an easy one. How to Format the manuscript to send to the publisher.
Publishers do NOT like FANCY or NEW. They like what HAS BEEN and WILL BE standard
On the first page you must include your contact information and word count.
All chapters start half to three fourths down the page.
A word or two of the title (Hyphen), and Authors name is at the top of every page.
The page number is at the top or bottom.
Use Courier or new courier Font. Font size 12.
Margins one inch all around.
All new chapters begin on a new page.
Use double lines and double spaces and only black ink on every page.
There you have it. Stay true to the industry standards and your chances are much better in being read

Now a quick word about paid editing from the last post. If the editor you choose is not of the same gender as you, you should check a few pages of the grammar punctuation they do right away. You want to make sure they are not changing your concept in error. The example is the next sentence.

"Woman without her man is nothing"
Most females will punctuate it,
"Woman - without her, man is nothing."
Men will write,
"Woman, without her man, is nothing."

Just do a quick check to make sure your original thoughts are not changed accidently before your editor gets too far. If they're doing things the way you have written them, you can let them finish. If they don't, let them know before they get too deep into it. Most of the time, they just don't realize they are changing it. Once you point it out, they will be fine to edit it the rest of the way.

Now. The question I get more than any other is from people that have just finished a novel and ask me what would be the best way to get started.

The first thing is to learn how the industry you're trying to go to work for functions. You should know what the publisher or editor or agent and publicist does for you. Just like looking for a job in the news paper, if it says experience required and you don't have it, you move on to the next listing. It's the same in publishing, if they say they don't read unsolicited manuscripts, you move on to the next. If they say they print textbooks and you have a young adult book, you go elsewhere. It doesn't pay to waste time and money sending your work to the wrong place. You'll also find it easier to find a smaller publishing house that needs to build their business willing to work with new authors than the big ones. They will also put in more quality time working with you and helping you market so the house will grow into a profitable one.
I know I've said some of these things before, but it really is the fastest way, other than self publishing or Print on demand, to find a publisher when you first start out. Search the web for "Dustbooks" publishing and get a copy of the directory of small presses and little magazines or use the library. Find a few listings that print what you write and get the details and editor's name for that section before sending a query or manuscript. Most of them also have web sites you can go straight to for information.

Now.

Since I get a few questions about them, I want to talk about movie scripts and screenplays for a minute here. I really enjoy reading a well crafted screenplay, simply because of all the years I was involved with filming documentaries etc. Because of that, I think every novelist should do at least one movie script for the following reasons that will make many of you like the idea of doing one and think. positively about them.

Our world is becoming more and more visually orientated every day. There are dozens of new sources to market film from almost every week. There are local as well as national and even global outlets including corporate presentations and documentaries forming daily trying to find agents to buy quality scripts from.

I've seen writers talking about 5 and 600 page screenplays they have done in various groups. No one will read that size script. That many pages should be broken down into a series or severely condensed.

The maximum screenplay is only to be 130 pages. The first 30 is to set your hook and introduce plot and characters.
The middle section is to show the director how each scene looks and tell your story from within the dialogue.
The last 30 pages is used to tie up loose ends and resolve all of the conflicts you have introduced to end the story.

The best reason to do a screenplay is that you are paid all at once, not dribbled out in payments as the publisher makes money.

The next best reason is because you will not have to tie up so much of your time and money going door-to-door signing books or doing your own promoting and selling them etc. that all publishers require from the authors today.

There are a number of helpful screenplay writing and marketing groups all over the web today to help you get started. You'll even find agent listings and auction or pitch conferences and so on by searching. You will also find many helpful tools like the "Screenplay outliner" that I like, by doing a web search.

Lastly open the "View all my friends" section here and see all of the important contacts you can get to and talk to one-on-one for help. You'll find book publishers, magazines, film makers, comic book publishers, editors, authors, agents, publicists, producers, and artists to do illustrations for you. Click on any of the pictures and look at their pages.

Until next time
All my best.

Sincerely
Elaine

http://www.KedcoStudios.net

4:20 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

SELF EDITING vs PAID FREELANCE EDITING SERVICES
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Writing and Poetry

SELF EDITING vs PAID FREELANCE CRITIQUE & EDITING

There are a number of reasons why it is so difficult for us to edit our own manuscripts. I'll give you a couple of quick examples here to help you become aware of them. Once you know what the human mind will do to keep you from seeing some of the most common errors, it will make it easier for you to recognize those mistakes as you edit your work in the future. The first problem for us as authors is that our mind has been involved in the creation of the script and has recorded it all in pictures, not separate letters and words the way you might think. Because of this, your brain is so familiar with each page it can read many, many sentences ahead of what your eyes can follow, causing it to skip over the same small error time and time again before you will see it. As a matter of fact, the human brain recording stored information in pictures is one of the main reasons for the success of the Apple and Windows operating systems. The mind is simply more comfortable using the little picture icons as opposed to text letters and words, so what your mind is most familiar with is what you'll use consistently and recommend to others. The best way to make sure you have done the best you can is to let someone else read the work that has had no part in the creation of it and is familiar with grammar and punctuation. You could even get an English or lit. student at your local community college to edit it for you for a few dollars as opposed to a few hundred for a paid editing service that may or may not be an expert at it unless you've taken the time to check them out through other authors they have done work for. I can assure you, the extra eyes you find to use will see these errors much faster than you can. You need not worry about them stealing your work once you get it down on paper or on a disk. As soon as it is in print this way it is under copyright these days. If you feel you have to make sure, just send a copy of it to yourself by mail. The date on the envelope delivered by a government agency will prove it is your work if it ever came up. You can also join a few writing news groups to get help. Yahoo groups has tons of them. Most of the members in them are friendly and will educate you and help with all kinds of advice on editing.

Another thing that can sometimes cause you problems is repetition. A small example is the series of questions a therapist will give you for a predetermined response. They can ask you to solve math addition and subtraction questions perhaps 8 or 10 times that all come out at the answer 8, then they would ask you to name the first vegetable you can think of. In this example 75 percent of those tested will say carrot because of the repetition of the number 8. The therapist then knows that person is within a normal range of understanding the world around them. You won't run into anything like this enough to bother with it though.

Another example like the following is more common. Read the next sentence carefully.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Now count the letter F's in that sentence. Count only once, don't go back.
What you have done here is made the brain familiar with and record that sentence. The answer to the letter count is six. There are 6 letter F's in that line. The reason you didn't get all six is because your brain sometimes sees the word OF as a V and once recorded keeps skipping over it. Keep in mind that I'm only talking about these things in the English language. I have no way of knowing if there are words that do this in French, German or Russian etc. These are just interesting little tidbits of information to help you understand the need to be aware of the tricks of the mind when you edit your work.

PART 2

If you want to use paid freelance editing that you have seen on the Internet or in writing magazines and can afford to do it, there is no reason not to, other than using a little common sense and asking for references and all.
One of my authors used one a few years back and I thought it was pretty good for a hundred twenty-five dollars until I saw one from an old friend at Saint Martins Press that was done by another company in Florida, but by the same editor as mine. They had the normal margin notes and editing symbols that told me it had been properly edited but the general evaluation comments were identical on both. That told me part of the work was kind of like a form letter. Don't get me wrong here. The things he said were the same things I or any other person in this industry would have told you for free, so he didn't give anyone bad advice. It just looked bad that the critique was so general. I would also tell you to NEVER telegraph events just like he did.

You don't say a fantastic or amazing thing happened in the parking lot. You describe the event and let the reader determine fantastic or amazing. I would also agree that you should build your characters as close to real as you can from within the dialogue. After describing them, you can round them out and make them so visible as you go along that the reader can see them in their mind like,

Princess Willowfawn's smoldering grey eyes seemed to get darker and glittered dangerously before she barked at the guard "Remove her at once. Put her to work in the kitchens."

Even with all of this, and me telling you I agree with what he said for the money, at the end of the day, I would use the community college student that has all the whys and wherefores and rules of grammar fresh in their mind at lesser cost.

Now... I still want to help some of you set up a free web page that you can use to sell books or products from or just to have a web site of your own. I'll get into that next time. For now you should search for the free web space services and get started with the one you like best. They are all free because they sell advertising that is visible on the pages. You can get set up and replace the advertising with your dollars later. Look at as many as you can, but you should only sign up for the one that will allow commercial sales on it, like angelfire.com or bravenet.com.
I'll get into the rest of this next time.

If any of you would like to be a contributor in a new romance anthology you can find out the information for it on the main index of this link.
The only payment is in copies at this time.

http://www.KedcoStudios.net

Until next time
All by best.

Sincerely
Elaine

6:11 PM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

BARGAIN TABLE PART THREE
Current mood: busy

BARGAIN TABLE - Part Three

How not to end up on the bargain table as a remainder book. Help
methods for self publishers and first time author, standard print books as
well.

PART THREE OF THREE (or more)

I'm sorry for the delay in posting this part three of the bargain table
article. I have been extremely busy. I just finished a two week, eleven city
book promotion tour with a friend and am helping with the filming of a
documentary up in the Ojai valley and Carmel area of California with my
daughter. I'll finish that up in about another week and be back here to
update everything and answer your messages then.

I want to talk about using common sense in your book marketing. The
examples I'm using here go from good to best in the way to promote your
book and make a dent in the first printing sales numbers.
The first example was an author that got a three book deal for a series
similar to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books. The thing that
worried him the most was that the publisher had only printed one thousand
books. That is a pretty small number to print for the first run of any book.
He knew he was going to have to help get them sold to build a fan base for
selling the next books of the series and to make sure a second printing
would be done. He purchased 500 books himself for reviews and gifts with
the author discount to get things started. Unfortunately doing this the way he
did couldn't help him impress the publishers or make the sales numbers
guarantee a reprint because the publisher knew who bought the 500 books
and also knew the real sales numbers were very weak at the time. The
saving factor for him was a fan base began to build up as the other 500
books were beginning to be sold rapidly and people were asking the
bookstores when the next volume would be available. Since the booksellers
were asking for the next book and they were almost out of the original, a
second printing for that first one was done with another twenty-five
thousand copies printed.
My next example is the first book from Deepak Chopra. The publisher
printed a good first run for him because there was already a following and
fan base from seminars etc. so they knew the new age people would be
buying them up. It took a little longer than they thought to get them sold, but
they did manage to move them.
My last example is very unusual. This was a book by Wayne Dyer titled
"Your Erroneous Zones". After being told about helping to do the
marketing to move the first print run he began to arrange the book signing
of it on his own at smaller bookstores in the same cities that the publisher
had set up. He made these arrangements in advance keeping to the same
dates of the appearances that had been done by his publisher. He had other
booksellers order stock for him from these places and paid for them himself
in advance. Then he took those same books to the other signing to let the
small bookstore have another discount as he signed them. That way he
didn't lose but just a small amount on the discounts as opposed to ordering
at full price for gifts. After the prepaid books were gone they would take
additional orders sent to the publisher to be able to receive their own
discount for any more that were needed for customers that didn't get one.
For those customers that had to wait for their orders to come in, he simply
autographed the advertising flyer for the signing. That much activity is
bound to be noticed, and it was. He is now a success.
Now, not everyone needs to go through this kind of marketing. It's only
when your title is not selling well. If your first book takes off and produces a
steady stream of sales you are in luck, and you really only need to keep
selling yourself to the world so they can't forget who you are and what you
do.
Let me talk a little about newsletters. You can advertise inexpensively in
most of them and many, many others of them are free to subscribe and
advertise in. You'll see most have a huge number of subscriptions and you
can run an ad for ten to twenty dollars. The thing you should ask about here
is how they distribute their newsletter. If they mail to the entire list you'll
find it a great value for you. If on the other hand they only send a notice of
the new issue and post it on their web site in the hopes that their subscribers
stop by and read that issue, almost none will see your ad. It becomes no
better that a listing service that only advertises the list itself and nothing for
your book.

Let's get into a few things that are free for you to advertise your work or
books in and will work out better for you in promoting yourself. One of the
things that will help you keep track of your sales is to offer some little free
thing from your web-site when a buyer forwards a receipt to you after
buying your book. This can be anything from a few of your short stories or
poetry selections to a free cookbook you could get and offer from the Kedco
Studios site below. Just download the Kedco cookbook and add it to your
web pages so your visitors can get it directly from your secret page. Explain
to your site visitors that anyone who has bought your book can send you the
copy of the receipt or forward the e-mail one to you for the URL in return
that will enable them to download this wonderful thing you are offering for
free.

http://artvilla.com/kedco-ap

Simply put a page on your site that is not linked to the rest of it with a
download button to click on to get the free book or what-have-you. Then
when some person sends you a receipt showing they have purchased your
book you can e-mail them the page URL to download the free item.

I think this is a good place to end this section. In part four I will get into
the details of building your own free web sites that allow commercial sales
and advertising. One that will let you take orders for all of your products by
many payment methods and give you a chance of being a huge success in
your field. I'll show you how to design it to your needs start to finish and
give you all of the URLs needed. President Eisenhower said "Pull the string
and it will follow you anywhere. Push it, and it will go nowhere". These
articles are the string you can pull. If you can follow these ideas and put
them to work for your own successful self marketing campaign I've done
my job.
Sincerely
Elaine

2:41 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

BARGAIN TABLE - Part two
Current mood: mischievous

BARGAIN TABLE - Part Two

How not to end up on the bargain table as a remainder book. Help
methods for self publishers and first time author, standard print books as
well.

PART TWO OF THREE (or more)

Continuing as before with a bit of history I would like to tell you about a
query we received just before I retired that leads into the need to discuss an
author's attitude when contacting publishers.
This query was from a young lady in Indiana. It had only four or five
lines describing the manuscript, then a few paragraphs about her and how
much we needed her work to make lots of money. The second page was a
list of demands she had gathered from the Internet news groups. Some were
standard things a good publisher should tell you about or send after you get
a relationship started with them. Sample contracts, royalty payments and
percentages and other authors they work with are normal but not up front
with a query. This woman went a little too far by asking for copies of
bookkeeping pages and personal earnings etc. of other authors. Those thing
would have to come from the authors themselves. It would not be ethical for
us to give out numbers like that to strangers. The last part is what bothered
me the most. She asked that I send this information right away so she could
let me see her manuscript as she could not afford an attorney to sue us just
YET.
As you can imagine, I never saw this wonderful masterpiece.

What all this leads into is this, You are asking a complete stranger to
invest ten or twenty thousand dollars in you and your work without knowing
if they will get their money back. Go down on main street in your town or
your local mall and ask a hundred strangers to do that and come back and
tell me how many said they would. It's only fair that you treat the publishers
you contact with a little respect. They are professionals. They are making a
good living in the business every day while you are just starting out. They
are the ones that can help you the most, not the EXPERTS in the news
groups. This is the key to being successful. Do not go with the expert over
the professional. The professional is involved in working every day to
succeed in their field and they will be the ones to help you get started.
Publishing is not the best run kind of business in the world, but you are
not going to be the one to change things. Some of you might think I have
something against news groups. I don't. I only want you to choose wisely.
Here for example is one that I recommend for all. They bring 3 or 4 agents,
working authors, publicists, publishers, and editors on line in the group
every month that you can ask questions and get real answers from. These
are also the top people in those fields. They know the formatting, marketing,
people, procedures, contacts, costs, and most of all, the shortcuts to make a
full time living with writing. Look through some of the back posts and you'll
see that almost every question you might have is being answered for you
along with a little advertising of on-line helpful learning courses. If you can't
find your answers that way, ask the guest professionals yourself. They are
the best in the business.

Http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShalladedeGuzman

Let's get into a few things that are free for you to advertise your work or
books in and will work better for you than some of the high priced top listing
services that some tell you that are needed.
The first is signing guest books. Each and every time you visit a web site
be sure and sign the guest book. A guest book is a direct link to your book
or compact disk ordering page. Any person visiting that page with the same
interests as you will be able to click on your banner or URL and jump
straight to you for ordering. The main advantage of this is as follows. The
guest book is usually on another site away from the page you are visiting.
The web master can move all over the Internet and their guest book will
stay active from the new site with all of the messages intact. I use one based
in Germany. You can look at it here, and if you have your own web site, sign
up for your own if you wish.

Http://artvilla.com/kedco-ap/freepage.htm

I could use the same guest link on a hundred pages or sites and move as
much as I want from one ISP to another but my guest book would still list
every message and still be available from all my pages. It will only take a
minute to say a little "Nice page" or something in any of the sites you visit
and ad your ordering page link and banner of some sort or even an image of
your book or CD. This is a little known but very effective method of getting
free advertising that will follow you all over the Web. It works very well.

The next thing that works well is listings on free stuff sites. Hundreds of
people search through the free stuff sites each and every day. To get your
web site listed on them only requires you to have something available for
free. If you don't have anything free to download from your site you can go
back to the

http://artvilla.com/kedco-ap

site and download a How-to book or cookbook to put on your site that will
qualify you for the free stuff sites. Then you can search altavista.com or one
of the other search engines for the listings of hundreds of free stuff sites to
list your pages on.

I think this is a good place to end this section. In part three I will get into
the newsletters and other advertising ideas that will work very well for the
self publisher. If any of this information seem like it might be helpful to
others I would like to see you all start spreading the word to get others
involved.

Sincerely
Elaine

9:44 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

KEEP YOUR BOOK OFF OF THE BARGAIN TABLE
Current mood: creative

TODAY'S BOOK & SOFTWARE MARKETING

How not to end up on the bargain table as a remainder book.
Methods for self publishers and the first time author, along with standard print publisher books as well.

PART ONE OF THREE (or more)

I have been using various online services for well over twenty-five years.I can tell you right now, there is almost nothing from then that works the same today.The first computer systems we had were very, very slow and only had 64 or128 megabytes of RAM in them. Our storage devices were really small and expensive to upgrade. We did not have compact disks at all. There were drives for five and a quarter inch floppy disks and three and a half inch that held twice as much data as the bigger ones. I've even used some of the old, old eight inch floppies that were almost useless as a storage device because of the small amount of data they could hold. On some machines such as commodore we had to even hand punch, or notch the disks on both sides to double up on the storage space available on them. Like everyone else we would have boxes of floppy disks with programs stored on them everywhere. When the CD-ROM R/W drives were available later we could transfer 70 or80 of those onto a CD that took up much less space but then we still had the floppy disks taking up space. We pretty much only used them as notepads to transfer media and to write temporary reports and mail copies of our newsletters to others etc. We didn't use the windows operating system, OS2, or Apple browsers that are used today. We used a program to set up a terminal on our machines that enabled us to dial into a BBS (bulletin board system) direct.The SYSOP (system operator) Made the content such as games, small programs, pictures, message board, etc. available to everyone right from their hard drive. There were no crazy people out there writing a virus oranything to cause problems for anyone back then. As those BBS systems started working together the original FIDO NET was born that is still in use today as a smaller Internet that most people are not even aware of being out there and able to use just like they use the Web. This also was in effect the forerunner of the methods used to expand upon the usages and services of the original World Wide Web as you see it today. On the Internet today almost every page is a small BBS with a SYSOP or site administrator and they are linked in the millions and millions to each other enabling us to get to them all in a much more convenient way. That is a long way from dialing up and contacting one at a time. Now. If you are wondering what any of this has to do with marketing, I'll explain. If we wanted to sell a program or small e-book, the Sysop would let us upload it to their machine for advertising and distribution. As it was sold,the BBS would make a very small percentage of the sales and would let the buyer download it, then send the rest of the payment to us. It was simple and direct but there was no great volume of sales since each system only had a limited number of subscribers to sell anything to. There was no need for an e-commerce site or our own ordering system but there was always the fact that we had to trust others to keep their word and pay us. We didn't really know for sure how many were sold and downloaded so the entire idea of selling that way was undesirable and risky. The main thing for us was to make sure we were using the right type of BBS that had subscribers of a like mind and would be interested in our products. Then as now, there were many, adult and so forth sites. We had to make sure we were dealing with systems administrators that were catering to our target buyers and could betrusted. Obviously, a better way was needed.

There are a couple of reasons to do a bit of our history in front of each section of this article. First is to show you that I've seen first hand how rapidly the technology changes on the Internet. The second is to let you see the expensive advertising methods that you can avoid that do NOT work today. I'll leave the history for now and get into the mistakes first time authors almost always make to sometimes cause them to see their first published masterpiece end up on the bargain table after 6 or 8 months being sold as remainders. This includes the procedures of the main line larger printpublishers as well.

If you were to ask me what the biggest mistake made after the first time author's sale of a book to the agent or publisher is in one sentence, it would be sitting back thinking the big dollars will start coming in and nothing more is required but to start working on your next title. The reality is that more than half of your time will be spent in the business and marketing side of your book. You MUST promote yourself first and the book second. Right from the first day of printing you must understand the need to get the first small printing sold for the publisher to get them to begin thinking of the second large print run. If the first one is not sold there is no profit for anyone and you will not get a second chance. The numbers are also very discouraging. If the first run is only one to five thousand copies, which is a normal first run, and you only average a dollar a book in royalties, you have not done very well for a year or two of your time in writing the book and searching for someone to invest the time and money publishing it for you. That means you will need to hurry up and help market them yourself and get that first printing sold, then you will get into the big print runs because the publisher can now see their investment in you being returned and a nice profit right around the corner. So. How do you market something you can't take orders for yourself?You advertise and send orders to the order department or marketing people for the publisher. Can you use the Internet to do this? Absolutely. You only need a little knowledge of what works and what doesn't. You do NOT pay for listing services or use the mountain of erroneous information bouncing around in the news groups. The news groups will make you crazy. There is always an expert or two with an opinion on everything and a support group or entertaining comedy team of like minds to agree with them, but very little of it will be from someone who has made a complete success of it all. They are in fact searching for the very same things you are. The right way to do things and the information about what works. They will simply torment everyone they can until they find it. The listing services are even worse.They are time consuming and not one person ever reads your ad or information. Let me explain that. The trend in the last dozen years has been for hundreds and hundreds of people charging small amounts or sometime free listing services to gather e-mail addresses to send spam to. They are able to bypass the usual problems of sending advertising because you agreed to it by signing up. Since they are listing you on thousands of small search pages and FFA (free for all) pages, your ad drops off of the page within hours of your entry. The listing and the advertising is all set up on auto-responders. The listing is automatic and a return message to sell you something in return is as well. Not one person sees your ad, but you'll now be on a list for thousands of others to mail spam messages legally and try to sell their own products to you. I think this is a good place to end this section. If any of this information seems like it might be helpful to others I would like to see you all start spreading the word to get others involved by joining us here. We can all be of some help to one another I'm sure.

Sincerely
Elaine

2:29 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

CREATE YOUR OWN CD TO SELL ON THE WEB
Current mood: curious

MAKE YOUR OWN CD-ROM TO SELL

In my last article I mentioned making a cd product you could copyright with your own name and sell copies on the internet. This is a followup on that information.

Here is the latest on creating your own cd-rom of your poetry, photos, cookbook, music, etc. for very little cost to you.

This unique do-it-yourself package has been designed for anyone interested in
producing a quality CD that can be sold in retail outlets or on the Internet. It has
been written with the absolute beginner in mind with detailed, easy to follow
editing instructions for each style of fill-in-the-blanks pages and templates
included. There is nothing to install and everything you need for your production
is furnished completely royalty free.
With the package you can produce a first rate CD of,
1. Your entire, original novel, with fancy backgrounds, music, photographs
etc. in full color.
2. A poetry collection that includes both a linear text book, and spoken
recitals to make it a performance CD that you could offer at your next
performance at the coffee house or group get together.
3. A collection of video clips done with your computer camera that will run on
a computer or dvd player, or even a modeling portfolio of your best shots.
4. A book of short stories displayed with imaginative, original, design
features.
5. A music demo of your instrumentals or songs that will play in any CD or
DVD player as well as the computer in alphabetical order.
6. Your cookbook or Grandma's recipe collection in a real book format that
can be printed.
7. You can produce a CD of you or your friends singing to old copyright free
music converted to mp3 and share them with each other.
8. Make a photograph album of all your vacation snapshots as a backup to all
the bulky photo albums you have in the closet collecting dust.
9. A beautiful CD of your artwork and paintings, crafts, etc. you have done
over the years as a backup record that won't be damaged.
10. A fund raising product of material or recipes etc. contributed by members
of your group to have something original and unique to be sold by the members.
(Perfect for Scouts, Schools or Women's groups).
11. Perhaps simply a compact disk of video clips of the children as they grow
up to share with others. (Perfect for holidays and gift giving).


If none of these projects interests you, this construction kit package itself is
the perfect gift for others of a creative nature that might wish to publish
themselves. They will remember you for years to come for giving such a
remarkable gift that allows them to display their creative abilities to the world
at such a small cost...

You can see a screenshot of this package in the photos area here.
You can order this product from Kedco Studios at the url below.
http://artvilla.com/kedco-ap

5:44 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

MARKETING WITH A BOOK SIGNING
Current mood: busy

MARKETING WITH BOOK SIGNING SERVICES
(If they don't know you have it to sell they can't buy it)

Many folks have a mistaken idea that book stores will not schedule a book signing by self published
authors. That is not the case at all. It is true that the publisher usually will set up a book signing and
supply the store with the books at a discount, but the self published author can do the same with direct
contact and furnish the books or CDs as well.. The best time to contact a bookseller for this service is
right after the holiday season rush when store traffic slows down for them. January, February and
March are the months book stores need help drawing customers in the door. They have plenty of
established authors to do a signing over the holidays to sell the more expensive titles. When the walk in
traffic dies down in January, they will sometimes jump at a chance to do a signing for a good self
published book or CD product. There is still a problem for the print on demand authors. Unlike the
books you have had printed in a standard small print run, the POD author can not usually afford to
bring a pile of books in to sign. The best they can do is sign flyers with a photograph and ordering
information on them and take orders for the books. Since the store is not making anything on the
books, it is not likely they will do a signing unless you have a secondary product such as a CD they can
place on your table to sell. If you are able, you could try to come up with a secondary product like
mentioned here with a collection of your short stories, poetry or artwork on a multimedia CD-Rom.
The CDs would only cost you a dollar each to make copies yourself and sell them for $9.95. That
would allow you to offer the bookstore a 50 percent discount. You would not only make a profit
yourself, you would be taking orders for your POD book. This is a good way to help sell yourself and
talent while getting your name recognizable to as many people as you can. Don't be shy. Find out the
name and telephone number of the manager of that store and give them a call for an appointment or go
in with a sample of your product. Let them know what you have and most of all, what it will do for them
with more traffic to the store and a little profit. They will listen. I have only had a book signing set up
twice for a book on CD-ROM but it was profitable. You can bet this way of marketing will work for
you. It was funny getting a Borders store. The store in Connecticut set it all up and ordered 20 copies
in advance and took orders after they were sold, whereas the Borders in Phoenix told me these things
had to be approved by the corporate office and wouldn't set one up for me.

The detailed information for making your own CD can be found at this link for a Create your own fund
raiser or book on CD build kit of your own. Everything you need is included in it royalty free. There is
nothing else to install or buy. You get instructions music, thousands of bits of mix and match media and
templates to easily produce your own products.

http://artvilla.com/kedco-ap

There are also selections of all time classics from "The wizard of OZ" to "The works of Shakespeare"
you can include to make your CD sell better and give the reader weeks and weeks of great classic
entertainment.
Sincerely
Elaine

11:27 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

ABA (American Booksellers Association) Advantages
Current mood: cheerful

ABA (American Booksellers Association) and NABE (North American Book dealers Exchange) membership advantages.

Marketing your book is as hard on a person mentally as construction work is physically. You have all heard the saying, "It takes money to make money." In the case of marketing organizations, it only takes a little, for years of useful contacts and learning about accepted practices from book expositions and conferences. When people at an expo are familiar with your name and work, you will get orders for all of your titles. In other words, you are selling yourself, (The author), not just one book. They will be more likely to order because of your name more than from one book once they get to know you personally. You will find that to be a real advantage in years to come. I've always found it easier to market a book after building up the author as mysterious or controversial etc. before talking about the newest creation, than only advertising the latest book by itself. This is a simple thing that works, sell yourself first and people will buy your material. So how do you sell yourself? You do a little work and get out there where booksellers can see and learn about you, or you send out as much information as you can to as many distributors as you can find. Let's face it, selling books one at a time on the Internet is ten time more time consuming than joining a marketing group or two. You can join both the ABA and NABE mentioned above for a couple hundred dollars and soon be taking orders in bulk going straight into the walk-in bookstores. The benefits are obvious right from the start. With ABA you can get an invaluable CD-ROM of tens of thousands of listings for book dealers. These are not just listings of general information but rather detailed sections of people, procedures and addresses along with information about the types of books they handle, buyer's names and telephone numbers. Both of these organizations have conventions regularly in places like L.A., Chicago, New York etc. As a member you can go and pitch your book to some of the largest book chains in the world to convince them in person to stock your titles. You can even set up a table and sell if you like. Both of the ones mentioned here have web sites. You can search and visit them for more detailed information. It has been a dozen years since I've gone to an expo, but they all still work and do wonders for the small presses.

Elaine

5:51 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment