What do you mean by “selling your thoughts?”

Everyone has valid thoughts and ideas. I have learned something from everyone I have ever met.

Why can’t I sell an idea as a small e-book?

You can sell your idea as a small e-book.

In addition to creating e-books and posting them on Mightywords.com and creating CD-ROM e-books for Amazon.com, you can begin selling any file you choose off of your computer hard drive.

In other words, anything that you can dream up and save to your computer hard drive, you can sell over the Internet. You can “sell your thoughts.”

You may sell those documents as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, or as ASCII text files.

(ASCII text files are the same formatting that you use in the body of your e-mail messages. ASCII text can be read on all commercial computers)

Think of what this means in the big picture of life.

College students can create ideas, type them up on computers and offer to sell them to friends, associates and strangers. They can take those dreaded “term papers” that are assigned to them by college professors and sell them through Mightywords, Amazon.com or by just selling them via e-mail.

If you have to spend time creating it for someone, why not get paid for it?

Currently Amazon.com has a program through their Z-shops that allow you to sell products over the Internet and Amazon.com will do the credit card processing for you.

The cost of this program is only $39.95 per month and it allows you to list up to 5000 products. They also take a small amount out for credit card processing fees. You will keep over 90% however, of your selling price!

Amazon.com will deposit the funds directly into your bank account within two weeks of you delivering the product to your customer.

If you are delivering a $10.00 e-book via e-mail attachment, around $9.50 will be deposited to your account within two weeks of your delivery to your customer.

If each of your products represents an idea, you have a great deal of ideas to come up with to make fill up your Zshop.

You could spend time all day just coming up with great ideas and marketing them on the Amazon.com Z-shops.

You could still offer the products as CD-ROM ebooks or printed books, but you will have much more profit margin built in if you sell electronic files as e-mail attachments.

If your files represent 15 pages or less of printed matter, you may consider loading one of your free auto responders will the document and giving the customer the e-mail address once payment from the customer is collected.

If you can’t afford the $39.95 per month billed to a credit card to get on the Amazon.com Z-shop system, perhaps you can team up with fraternity brothers or sorority sisters.

If you are underage to posses a credit card, perhaps you can get your parents involved.

Many parents are afraid of the Internet. This would be a great way to educate them on how easy it is to create and market your e-books and e-thoughts on-line.

Almost everyone in the United States has free access to e-mail accounts and computers. Regardless of race or financial position, people can be selling their thoughts.

Everyone has something of value to say.

I would love to see people of limited means earning more money than Stephen King does just by working the ebook and e-thought system.

You do not need an established publisher to earn a living selling your e-books and your e-thoughts. Established publishers have no clue how to market your e-books.

Now you do!

Get excited and create something today! Remember that you can also overwrite or delete a file at any time. The information you are sharing today with someone may entertain, enlighten or inspire that person in ways that will bring you a lifetime of great joy and happiness.

Remember that the most effective marketing tools are absolutely free. By publishing and delivering product off of your own computer by e-mail, everyone has the opportunity of earning a great living by using these techniques.

We wish you success!

Back in late April of 2000, my wife and I were shopping for a back-up hard drive or tape drive to back up information for our computer.

We went to a large Fry’s Electronic superstore in Phoenix, Arizona.

We walked down each isle and all we could find to back-up our hard drive were little zip drives that plug into the computer.

We asked one of the salespeople, where are all the big tape back-up systems?

He said, “people don’t use those anymore.” They now use CD-rewritable drives.

The salesperson brought me over to a pile of neatly stacked CD-writers.

These are systems that allow you to “burn” or create your own CD-ROMS. An idea popped into my mind.

Why couldn’t I create CD-ROM versions of e-books? If I did, could I sell them on Internet bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com?

I investigate Amazon.com’s Advantage program and found that yes, I could offer CD-ROM e-books.

All I would need is an ISBN for each title I offer with that number printed on the back of the CD-ROM case.

ISBN numbers can be ordered through RR Bowker at:

www.bowker.com

I was in business.

Now, CD-ROM titles on Amazon.com are my largest profit center in E-books. That fact may change at some point, but that’s the way it is on October 1, 2000.

The following is a cheap and easy guide to self-publishing e-books on CD-ROM.

Question: What do I need to create my own CD-ROM E-books?
Answer: The following is a cheap and easy list of all the materials needed:

1. A CD Rewriter Drive:

This is a piece of hardware you can purchase that can fit inside of your computer (internal cd-writer) or it can an external drive that plugs into your equipment. This drive was designed also to back up your hard disk so you have an inexpensive way of protecting yourself from data loss. Tape drives and zip drives are also used to back up data but the cd-writer serves the additional purpose of becoming your new printing press!

Many CD-Rewriter drives are standard equipment on the new computers being purchases.

Most CD Rewriter drives cost between $199-300. I personally use a Hewlett Packard CD-Writer Plus. It costs $199.00 at Fry’s Electronics. It is not the fasted around, however with speed you give up accuracy. I choose accuracy.

Once you get the drive installed you want to read the directions. When you place your first blank CD-R into the drive slot, it will ask you if you wish to create an audio CD or data CD.

Choose “data” cd. It will also ask if it is to be used on just your computer or to be used on “various computers.” Choose “various computers.”

2. CD-R discs:

These are the actual discs that you are “burning in.” I purchase 50 individual discs at a time. They come on a spindle at Fry’s Electronics, Best Buy and other computer stores. Don’t buy the cheapest! I learned that the hard way. 50 in a package usually sells for $26-60. I bought some for $19.95 once and had to replace everyone because of customer complaints. I haven’t had a problem since I went back to the $26-60 price range. The same discs can be used for audio CDs as well as Data CDs.

3. CD-Stomper:

The CD-Stomper is a device that allows you to press on custom labels for each one of your CD-ROMS. You need access to a color printer in order to use the labels. You can use either a laser color printer or a color inkjet printer.

CD-Stomper can be used for audio and data CD-ROMs. You can purchase the CD-Stomper at any computer store.

You must first purchase the CD-Stomper Kit that includes:

1. A stomper device used for pressing on labels.
2. Labels. They come with 2 circular labels on a sheet.
3. J-Cards. J-Cards includes the art and text that you are going to display on your E-book package. There is one front and back J-card on each sheet.
4. Computer software that allows you to create designs and print these out in full color for your labels and your jcards.

You use this software to print your ISBN numbers on all of the back cover (J-cards).

If you own Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher, you may be able to use templates that allow you to create your own CD labels and J-cards.

The kit retails for around $24.99. When you deplete your supply of J-cards and labels, you can purchase a package of just labels and a package of just J-cards. It take 2 packages of J-cards for every package of labels.

Note: There are many other products that do this job and they are cheaper as well. I have no idea if they are good or not. If you do try them and like them, give me the feedback at:

wayne[at]wayneperkins.net

4. Empty CD Cases called Jewell Cases:

You need to Jewell cases for packaging. In order for any bookstore to pick them up this is a requirement. The cases make a very tight package. They house the J-card. The ISBN number and the price must be printed on the lower back of the J-card on the back of the CD. Look at CD-ROMs in stores and examine how they look.

Jewell cases will run between $3.00-5.00 for a package of 10. Keep them all the same color! Amazon.com and other booksellers want a consistent package. It usually costs less than $2.00 to ship them anywhere in the US.

Also you can purchase the bubble wrapped enveloped at any office supply store, grocery store, and Post Office.

For sending multiple CDs you can go to the corner shipping stores and places and private mailbox companies.

Remember to take into consideration your shipping costs when creating product. If you are selling CDs off of your website you will usually sell more if you do not charge shipping.

People will pay $10.00 or more in the price of the product to avoid a $4.25 shipping charge! Silly, but it is true. I have had people pay more than $50.00 for an item in order to avoid a shipping charge.

Many corporate buyers are instructed to never pay a shipping charge regardless of how badly they need the product. Follow this tip and you will make money!

5. Shrink Wrapping:

You must have your E-book on CD-ROM professionally shrink-wrapped in order to sell these products with on-line bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. It is nice to have them shrink wrapped when giving presentations to live audiences. You can hand each attendee a shrink-wrapped package. If a student hurls his Big Mac on it after lunch, the CD will be protected. You can easily wash off hurl and lung butter.

When you are fulfilling your E-book on CD-ROM order, you can take your E-book to a Kinkos, Office Max or other chain printing store. Usually for fifty cents each, you can have those professionally shrink-wrapped. You can even order just one at a time.

Most of the orders I receive from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are for only 6-12 at a time.

In the beginning you will get orders for only 1 or 2 at a time from the large Internet book retailers.

What does it cost for me to produce and ship each E-book in a CD-ROM version?

Once you have your computer, color printer CD-Stomper kit and CD-Writer. The costs brake down as follows.

1. Blank CD-ROMS $ .60
2. CD Label .20
3. J-Card .30
4. Plastic Jewell Cases .40
5. Bubble Wrap envelope .60
6. Shipping postage. (US) 1.75 each (You can ship up to 6 at a time for $4.25 US Priority Mail)

Total Costs to produce and ship one CD-ROM E-book product is $ 4.35 US

Question: How do I get my CD-ROM on Amazon.com?
Answer: Once you have your CD-ROM E-book completed you can obtain an ISBN number from RR. Bowker and follow the directions Amazon.com gives you in submitting E-book CD-ROMs to them.

RR. Bowker’s address is:

www.bowker.com

Amazon.com’s Advantage Program for Publishers is:

www.amazon.com/advantage

Now you get a real challenge!

Hold your hand out and make a fist. Think of your fist as the size of Barnes & Noble.com.

Now hold both of your arms out as wide as you can. Think of your arms outstretched as Amazon.com.

Its going to be a bigger job to become a best-selling author in any category on Amazon.com but you have a huge marketing tool that will absolutely guarantee that you get there.

That tool is called the Amazon.com Associates Program. This program is similar to Barnes & Noble.com’s Affiliate Program except Amazon.com’s is much larger in scope.

Search the Internet in any category and when you find websites that include libraries of information you will generally find a bookstore. That bookstore will be an Associate of Amazon.com.

You can get these Amazon.com Associate websites to feature your e-book by simply using the linking strategy
below.

Amazon.com Linking Strategy

In order to generate traffic to your e-book you will need to contact top Internet websites and use their association with Amazon.com to sell your books. Follow the four-step process.

A: Identify the Website

When you find a website that has an association with Amazon.com you will find that they are promoting books off of their site and then linking to Amazon.com for order fulfillment.

Click on any book cover you see on the popular website and you will see a new URL in the “address ” section of your browser.

You will be on the Amazon.com book-description page for that specific book.

For example my book “A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books” in CD-ROM format will return an URL in the address section that looks like this:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929695217/waynefperkinscer/01585464

B: Analyze the URL

You have garbage…. 01585464 or whatever number string appears at the end.

You want to chop that number string off the URL.

The string of letters “waynefperkinscer” is the Amazon.com associate ID number.

You need this!

The ASIN number is the ISBN of the book featured on Amazon.com’s page.

C: Change the URL

1. Copy/paste the URL to the body of the e-mail message you are going to send to the webmaster of the popular website.
2. Chop of the number string at the end of the URL
3. Replace the ISBN in the URL with your book ISBN
4. Look at your new creation

For example let’s say your ISBN is 1929695268.

The name of your e-book is: Write Your Best Selling E-book

Your new URL will look like this:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929695268/waynefperkinscer/

Pretty easy huh? This technique will generate book sales immediately for you!

If you use the above example, you will generate immediate book sales for me!

D: E-mail the Webmaster

Now you need to e-mail the webmaster. Your e-mail will look something like this.

To: webmaster[at]yoursite.com
Subject: New Content
Body:

Dear Webmaster:
I would like to submit my e-book, “Write Your Best Selling E-book” for inclusion in your on-line bookstore.
My e-book ID with your Amazon.com Associate number is:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929695217/waynefperkinscer/

Conduct Internet searches every day looking for high-ranking websites that have Amazon.com Associations. Once you see the Amazon.com logo you will know that you have hit pay dirt.

Go to Ivillage.com and look over all of their offerings. Click on all the different channels and subscribe to e-zines that fit your topic. You will find many links to books and e-books selling on Amazon.com.

www.ivillage.com

Spend time writing e-mail to Webmasters or submitting the above information on-line when you see “feedback” forms.

Good luck. This is a great tool. Within 90 days you may have 100 or more websites silently endorsing your e-book.

Within 120 days if you follow the Amazon.com linking plan and send articles and sample chapters to high-ranking websites, you will find that you have a best selling e-book on Amazon.com!

You may ask, “how to I sell an e-book on Amazon.com? I just thought they take printed and bound books.”

My answer is, create e-books on your New Gutenberg Press!

Are you ready for the big time? Now that you have at least one e-book published on Mightywords.com, why not publish it on Barnes & Noble.com as well?

You already learned how to create hyperlinks from articles that you write for other websites and e-zines and then send the readers to your website or to Mightywords.com.

Now you will direct traffic from articles to Barnes & Noble.com.

From now on, anytime you see a Barnes & Noble.com logo on a website that your are surfing, make sure you send that site a sample chapter of your e-book.

Currently Barnes & Noble.com inventory three different types of e-books. They inventory the Rocketeditions by NuvoMedia and Gemstar, the Glassbook Reader and the Microsoft Reader with Cleartype. They will also list your e-books on CD-ROM. I will discuss the CD-ROM versions later.

The cheapest and easiest way of getting an e-book listed with Barnes & Noble.com is to have it sold as a Rocketedition.

Rocketeditions

If you do not have a publisher arrangement with NuvoMedia/Gemstar then you need to contact the 1stbooks Library. The phone number is: 1-800-839-8640. You can also send e-mail to 1stbooks@1stbooks.com.

Their website is at: www.1stbooks.com

Check on Chapter 10 in E-book 1 for more information.

Tell 1stbooks Library you want to offer Rocketeditions of your e-books.

Glassbook

Glassbook is software that encrypts a PDF file and allows you to sell it on Barnes & Noble.com.

If you already have your document formatted in Adobe Acrobat, go to the following link and read their contract. Ask them if they can still offer you distribution through Barnes & Noble.

cyberread.com

Microsoft Reader with Cleartype

The Microsoft Reader is another type of software that allows one to read e-books on desktops, laptops, and palm tops, but currently only big publishers are allowed to publish with Barnes & Noble.com using this software.

Check out Microsoft for their rules and regulations regarding publishing with Barnes & Noble.com

www.microsoft.com/reader

Getting traffic over to your e-book description page on Barnes & Noble.com

Use the techniques included in the Marketing Plan in E-book 1, A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing Ebooks.

Focus on writing articles for top ranking websites and writing articles for e-zines and newsletters. These marketing tools will bring you instant results on Barnes & Noble and will drive your rankings hire on the BN scorecard.

Whenever you find websites that promote the Barnes & Noble products, make sure you contact the websites via email and promote your sample chapters and articles.

If you have a website join the Barnes & Noble.com affiliates program. The main reason you wish to do that is to be able to create links from your articles to your e-book description on Barnes & Noble.com. You will also receive great Internet marketing information if you read all of the marketing resources located on the Barnes & Noble Affiliates Program Website.

The affiliates program is located at:

www.barnesandnoble.com/affiliate/

Other resources used to drive business over to Barnes & Noble.com are Northern Light, which is a search engine, and the online book reviews link located at the bottom of any Barnes & Noble page.

Write articles for websites listed in Northern Light and submit your e-book to Fore Word Magazine and others that review e-books online.

www.northernlight.com
www.bn.com

How many articles do I need to write?

That is a good question. Write one article between 200-800 words in length and make a goal of submitting the article to 3 websites, e-zines or newsletters each day.

Within two months you will have over 100 websites and newsletters promoting your article and your links back over to Barnes & Noble.com.

Keep track of your placements by setting up a folder in your Internet browser and then filing each submission page in that folder.

If you get just one e-book sale per article per month you will be well on your way to a best selling e-book. If you are driving two or three per website per month you will begin to earn some big money.

The 100 websites promoting your content should equate to having a traditional book in placed in a traditional bookstore.

The major differences are, your book will always be “facing outward” and it will be available to anyone in the world, 24 hours per day.

Being placed on 100 top ranking websites is much better than spending the time to drive business over to your website and then creating desire on the part of the reader to actually purchase products on your website.

Now its time to start a second and perhaps a third article and submit to the articles submission pages found in your article folder.

Keep up the process and you will find your Barnes & Noble scorecard showing you a “best selling” author. You can then publish news releases that talk about the local author that became a best selling author.

You will be selling e-books and competing with all of the traditional print books in stores. You will be selling more books on-line and spending no money on marketing expenses.

Congratulations.

Yes higher prices mean higher profits for you. Pricing can be fun as well as profitable.

What is really great about marketing e-books and handling the business end myself is that I can experiment and change prices as often as I wish.

Let’s go back to the first e-book you created at Mightywords.com. Are you still offering the e-book at the same price?

You may want to sell it for more.

When I first published A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books on Mightywords.com I priced it at $9.95.

After recording only 4 sales in 3 months I decided to raise the price to $19.95 per book.

In the month after I raised the price I received 12 sales and a great review from a reader.

It has been a featured book on Mightywords since that great review was included.

People expect to pay more for something of value.

Traditional books are priced by page counts and how other books are priced in the same genre.

Remember going to college? Introduction to Psychology textbooks are priced at $65-$75 a copy.

If an Introduction to Psychology or Introduction to English Literature will bring $65-$75.00 a copy from students with limited budgets, then why can’t your carefully prepared e-book bring more than the $12-15 trade paperbacks being purchased by working professionals and two income families?

Since you learned that you have accomplish all of the book marketing yourself, why not pay yourself for it with the increased price of the book?

E-books by nature should be updated and improved frequently. They should draw a higher price than trade outdated trade paperbacks and hardbound books.

Since your e-book is no longer evaluated on page count and by how much the industry charges for that “kind” of book, you hold all the cards in your pricing strategy.

Question: What price should I charge for my e-books?
Answer: The answer lies in what you wish to earn off of the royalties from your e-books.

“What if I want to earn $1,000,000 in royalties over the next two years? I want to earn $500,000 per year for the next two years and then retire.”

Wow, you have some lofty goals but that is good. You want to earn more money than most authors do and I am excited for you. Here is what you have to do to achieve your $1,000,000 goal.

Example A:

Goal $1,000,000 in two years.

Set the retail price of your e-book at $20.00

You have no website. You use Mightywords.com to store your documents and fulfill your orders 24 hours a day. Mightywords pays you a 50% royalty on your e-book.

You are writing articles for e-zines and websites with links over to the book description for your book titled My
Mystery Book.

For example: If your goal is to earn $1,000,000 in royalties over the next two calendar years, then your financial model might look like this:

Price $20.00
Royalty: $10.00
Total quantity of e-books to sell in order to make that goal = 100,000 e-books
Divide 100,000 e-books by 2 years and you only have to sell a total of 50,000

Example B

Goal $1,000,000 in two years.

Set the retail price of your e-books at $20.00 and discount a third e-book, which is a combination of both e-books plus character interviews.

Add a second e-book and create a third that is a series of E-book 1 and E-book 2 that you can bundle together and an interview with your major characters that you can add as a small e-book file to your series.

E-book 1: Price $20.00 for My Mystery Book
E-book 2: Price $20.00 for My Second Mystery Book
E-book 3: Price $35.00 for 2 Mystery Series plus Character Interviews
E-book 1: Royalties $10.00
E-book 2: Royalties $10.00
E-book 3: Royalties $17.50

Look at the example carefully. Since E-book 3 looks very attractive in that you save $5.00 over purchasing two ebooks plus you have the character interviews.

Most people will purchase E-book 1 and the next big seller will be E-books 3.

The royalty on E-book 3 is almost double the royalty of your other e-books!

E-book 3 will rank as your second best selling e-book even if no one has ever read your other books before.

So here is a typical financial model for how your sales will look.

Year One: Sales
E-book 1 20,000 books = $200,000
E-book 2 10,000 books = $100,000
E-book 3 15,000 books = $262,500
Total Sales 45,000 books = $562,500

Year Two: Sales
E-book 1 20,000 books = $200,000
E-book 2 10,000 books = $100,000
E-book 3 15,000 books = $262,500
Total 45,000 books = $562,500
Totals 90,000 books = $1,125,000

Now you can sell less total e-books than in example A. You are selling only 45,000 per year and earn much more money! You now have additional products to sell as well.

The print author will only be able to complete one book during this time and has to sell one million copies over two years to achieve the million dollar royalty as illustrated in A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books.

You also gain some valuable fans that will purchase your next mystery series.

Of course if you sell e-book s off of your own website and keep 90% or more of the selling price, you will reach your goal of $1,000,000 in royalties much quicker!

Remember to charge a strong price for your books. You are worth it and your readers will expect the quality that comes with the higher price.

The very best way to begin a successful e-book marketing campaign is to keep a scorecard. It is easy to know how many books and how many dollars you ring up from you own website but how does it compare with the book industry standards?

If you can somehow compare your e-book sales with e-book and traditional book sates with industry leaders, you will then be able to plan your next e-book offerings more wisely.

Let’s begin keeping a scorecard with one of the industry standards at this writing, Barnes & Noble.com at:

www.bn.com

Since I have e-books in the “self-publishing” category that I want to track, I am going to conduct a search using the word, “self-publishing” as a keyword.

Notice that I entered in the keyword “self-publishing” in the search box next to the quick search box labeled books.

I now click on the search button to search on all books that contain the keywords “self-publishing.

You will notice that there are 164 titles listed in best-selling order from highest to lowest.

My title, A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books in Rocketedition is the 2nd best-selling title. What is unique about that is it is compared with paperback and hardback books!

You want to be able to have your e-book stand up against all of the paperbound books collecting dust on store shelves.

This is the power of keeping a great scorecard.

You may ask, “well how do you stand up with your e-book selling on Amazon.com, the Mother of all Internet Bookstores?”

Yes, you do want to make Amazon.com the ultimate test of how you are doing.

Currently, the best way to sell your e-books is by creating CD-ROM titles and issuing unique ISBN numbers for each of them.

I will give you more information on self-publishing CD-ROMS in a later Step 5.

On Amazon.com, notice that I entered in “self-publishing” as the keyword.

Now let’s search on “self-publishing” and see what results.

The first screen shot shows the top two matches in best-selling order. The results include all books, tapes and CDROMS.

My title, A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books is listed number 12 out of 243 titles in best-selling order. Notice that the price of $22.95 is much higher than the titles located around it.

In the next step we will discuss pricing your e-books. You will be able to price your e-books higher than print and other media if you follow the marketing techniques from E-book 1, A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E-books.

Higher prices mean higher profits for you!

Here are links to Mightywords.com and Fatbrain.com

www.mightywords.com
www.fatbrain.com

Once you are published on the Internet check out Angela Adair-Hoy’s Booklocker. This is a great place to sell your eBooks. Angela is dedicated to the eBook publishing business. She has been offered to have her books printed and bound in exchange for giving up her electronic rights.

She said “No way.” Angela is earning more money and keeping more money by self-publishing her own eBooks.

www.booklocker.com

If you want to pay someone to create your eBooks and sell them on-line, then go to 1stbooks Library. I have my books selling on the 1stbooks Library Website and I am very pleased with their services.

They are located at:

www.1stbooks.com

The e-mail address for 1stbooks Library is:

1stbooks@1stbooks.com

Check out other eBook publishing and eBook selling sites to expand your market. You will find a ton of information at eBooknet.com including forums you may want to join.

Writerswrite.com and iuniverse.com are also great resources on eBook publishing and marketing.

www.ebooknet.com
www.writerswrite.com
www.iuniverse.com

What books do you recommend I purchase that will help me market with no marketing budget?

Every book that John Kremer creates about book publishing is something I personally buy and use. I have been to his workshops and I have learned a great deal from him. He is dedicated in helping you achieve your book publishing goals.

He has a book titled 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

Many of the “1001 Ways” can be used to market your eBooks.

1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer

ISBN 0-912411-48-1

John’s book is the best book you can purchase on book and eBook marketing. His website is more than just a catalog listing. He has more free marketing resources than anyone involved in any kind of marketing.

John’s website is located at:

www.bookmarket.com

You will find additional eBook marketing information on Angela Adair-Hoy’s Booklocker.com website.

Angela is a pioneer in the eBook publishing and eBook selling market place. She has a wonderful book titled, How to Write, Sell and Publish eBooks

You can purchase it right off of her site at:

www.booklocker.com/bookpages/aadair.htm

While you are at it, go back to her website when you are ready to e-publish your masterpiece. You can earn 70%
royalties by listing your eBook with her. Steven King will be jealous.

Where can I go to find discussion groups?

Here is one of the best!

www.liszt.com/

Try the following one on for size.

www.egroups.com

Yahoo clubs has many interest groups that would love to post a free chapter of your eBook. Search for an appropriate group.

clubs.yahoo.com/

Amazon.com hosts book reading and discussion groups. Check them out at:

www.amazon.com

Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.com also have book discussion groups.

www.bn.com
www.borders.com

Do you have a site that I can offer a recorded book reading?

Fay Zachary’s site called The Free Gallery of Author’s Voices is a great one.

Fay will link your eBook to your Mighty Words.com or your Amazon.com listing to take advantage of anyone wanting to purchase your eBook after they hear your voice.

fregalry.hispeed.com/wayneperkins.htm

Here is another great resource for you to cultivate.

www.listex.com/category.html

Where can I find a list of e-zines that may want to read a sample chapter of my eBook?

Learn how to create your own e-zines from the E-zine University at:

www.ezineuniversity.com/

Find tons of e-zine information here.

www.zinebook.com

Here is a place you can post your articles in exchange for links back to your website or other eBook ordering websites. You can also find free content here for your own e-zine.

www.ezinearticles.com/

The following directory is a great source.

www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/index.html

The following is a web-ring for e-zines.

ezinewebring.hypermart.net/

Where do I go to have my website hosted?

My first choice is Valueweb.

Valueweb is located at:

www.valueweb.net

I don’t have a second choice!

Ask people you know and trust “who hosts your website and are you satisfied with their customer service?” Remember to stay away from free web sites. You can create more marketing muscle through your own personal website than all of the free one’s put together.

The only time you should be using free websites are to host articles you have written for others.

Spend your time wisely on promoting your own website. If you have lots of time on your hands use the same promotional techniques to promote the URLs at Internet eBooksellers that are listing your eBook.

Domain name registration.

You will need to register your domain. If you don’t choose any of the above hosting companies, here is a direct link to registering your domain.

www.networksolutions.com/

Resource: Autoresponders

Websites that offer free autoresponders. First use your website hosting company. If you don’t have one yet you can still obtain these amazing marketing tools. The autoresponder is the greatest Internet marketing tool you will
ever find.

www.fastfacts.net/
www.smartbotpro.net/newsite2/features.html
www.infoback.net/
www.sendfree.com

Meta Tags For Your Website

How to create META tags. Use the following links to help you get this very important job done correctly.

www.searchenginewatch.com/

Credit Card Processing

Always use a back up system for credit card processing. I use CCSLIDE as my main back up system because there is no monthly minimum transactions and no monthly fees. Check them out.

www.ccslide.com

Clickbank.com is a great one I just heard about.

Clickbank.com offers an extensive affiliate program. They have over 30000 merchants that may just refer their customers over to your website!

Check out the option for digital content with no merchant account status necessary. It is a good deal.

www.clickbank.com

Pay2SEE

Here is a neat concept. You can have these guys do your credit card fulfillment and even set up and store your download page with up to 10 eBooks for only $99.00!

You can use the Pay2SEE system of credit card acceptance and eBook fulfillment. You do not need to set up a secure Merchant Account. Pay2SEE will process the transactions and pay royalties on your work.

Pay2SEE’S Internet address is:

www.pay2see.com

Back up your data often using compact disc technology or tape back up systems. You want to back up and save everything you place on your website host’s server. In 5 years of using Value Web I have never lost any data but I don’t want any unpleasant surprises.

The BookZone

Mary Westheimer’s BookZone offers a total solution for eBooks. The BookZone can create secured ordering, encrypted eBooks and can design your website as well.

They have designed many publisher and author websites.

List of Electronic Publishers and eBooksellers To Contact.

Some Internet eBook publishers and eBook sellers charge fees and some do not. Read all contracts carefully!

Watch for the word “exclusive” and “non-exclusive.”

I personally would never assign my electronic rights on an “exclusive” basis because then I would be tied to the marketing efforts of only that one electronic eBook seller.

No one has a lock on the eBook selling market.

Think of each eBook publisher and eBook seller as individual brick and mortar bookstores.

As soon as you are 50 miles away, you begin to find new bookstores to purchase your books.

Would you offer your books at only one or two neighborhood stores?

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of websites selling books. Why not be listed on as many of them as possible?

Here are the Internet addresses of current Internet eBook sellers that will publish your eBooks.

www.booklocker.com
www.softlock.com
www.ebookcentral.com
www.epulp.com
www.fatbrain.com
www.mightywords.com
www.1stbooks.com
www.softbook.com
www.librius.com
www.rocketbook.com
www.sansip.com
www.treelesspress.com
www.netlibrary.com
www.bookzone.com

I know what you are thinking. “Boy this is a great deal of work for me to do, just to sell books.” “Maybe I can just get on Oprah’s television show and I will be set for life.”

The truth is that even if you get on Oprah’s television show, you are still going to have to work hard at selling and promoting your eBooks. The daily marketing plan I present will have you completing just three activities a day for five days each week.

You can still maintain a full-time job while you are completing these marketing activities.

All of the book marketing activities involve letting “your fingers do the talking” rather than requiring you to call or meet someone in person. Once you have your first eBook published on-line, you are ready to tackle a single source solution for eBook publishing that will increase your current eBook sales, give you additional eBook media to market, and turn your eBook into a printed and bound book.

The best total solution that I have found is the 1stbooks Library.

They are located at:

www.1stbooks.com

Address:

1stbooks Library
2511 West Third Street, Suite 1
Bloomington, IN 47404
Phone: (800)-839-8640
Fax: (812)-339-6554
E-mail: 1stbooks@1stbooks.com

The 1stbooks Library can help you in the following ten ways:

1. Publish your eBooks

For a reasonable fee they will turn your finished document into an eBook. They will assign their own ISBN number to it and have it listed in Books-In-Print. You can still offer your eBooks to be sold by the Booklocker, Mightywords.com or any other on-line eBook seller that sell non-exclusively. 1stbooks Library will allow you to retain your electronic and print rights. The 1stbooks Library publishing contract is non-exclusive.

2. List Your eBooks In the 1stbooks Library Bookstore

Yes, it is always nice to have another bookstore listing for your eBooks. I first discovered the 1stbooks Library by conducting a search for “eBooks” on the Yahoo search directory. Since 1stbooks came up first on the Yahoo listing, I knew the 1stbooks Library was expert in Internet marketing. They had the “post position” being the first eBook publisher listed. I felt that their bookstore would receive more page views than any other eBook seller would.

People get tired of scrolling down their computer screen and looking through many choices during an Internet search.

Always make note of which website is coming up first in your search results. You may want to join up with them later.

Now, over a year later, 1stbooks Library still has that “post position” on the Yahoo search directory. There are over 4000 eBooks listed on the 1stbooks Library and more to come. They want to be known as the Amazon.com of
Internet eBook Stores

3. Format and Sell Your Rocketbook Editions

Again, for a reasonable fee, 1stbooks Library will format and market your Rocketeditions. This will allow you to sell Rocketeditions even if you don’t have a publishing relationship with NuvoMedia.

Rocketeditions of books are selling like crazy. I personally sell more Rocketeditions on Barnes & Noble and Powells.com than just about any other eBook media. Don’t overlook this wonderful eBook selling opportunity!

I am predicting by the end of the year 2007, hundreds of thousands of people will own Rocketbooks. Many of these people will be looking for your eBook as a Rocketedition.

4. Print and Bind Your eBooks

1stbooks Library has a unique system of taking your eBooks, printing and binding them on demand. You are allowed to purchase as few or as many books as you need at a wholesale price.

Now you will have a printed and bound book that looks like all of the other perfect bound trade paperback books stocked in bookstores and libraries.

You will receive a unique ISBN number as well. Your new books will be listed in Books-In-Print, which is a major reference for bookstores and libraries.

Your book will be available at the 1stbooks Library. Your book will now have two listings, doubling its exposure at the 1stbooks Library on-line bookstore. You will be listed as an eBook for download and as a trade paperback to be shipped via mail or United Parcel Service to your customer.

Generally an order placed to 1stbooks Library’s website will just take a few days to process and your printed and bound version will be sent out to the customer.

By the way, the packaging of your book will be quality packaging, just like Amazon.com. Your customer will receive the book in tiptop shape.

1stbooks Library will handle the credit card transactions and give you reports on what you have sold through their system.

They will also pay you royalties that are much greater than standard book publishing royalties.

Now you will have a “real book” to impress your friends and neighbors. Hey and maybe even Oprah!

5. Place Your Printed and Bound Version in the Ingram Database.

One solid fact about getting a bookstore to carry your books is that you need to have a working relationship with a large book distributor or book wholesaler.

Librarians and bookstores want and need the services of large distributors and wholesalers.

They do not want to write thousands of checks to authors and small publishers each month, but they do want to carry their titles.

Wholesalers and distributors enable bookstores to carry thousands of books and only a few checks have to be written. They also help control the inventory costs of each store.

Ingram is one of best known and reliable wholesalers in the bookstore and library acquisition world. Along with a standard Books-In Print reference book that most bookstores and libraries use, Ingram provides their own version of Books-In-Print.

Once you are in Ingram’s database, you can approach bookstores for signings and libraries to purchase your books.

Also, when Ingram gets an order from a library or bookstore, they will have your book printed on demand and shipped to the store within three to five days. Lightning Print is the name of Ingram’s service that provides such a fast turnaround on small book orders.

This is much quicker than the two weeks or four weeks quote you will receive when a bookstore has to deal directly with a standard book publisher.

1stbooks provides the electronic files including the book covers to Ingram’s Lightning Print system and the books are printed on-demand. The probability of handling costly returns is very minimal.

This print-on-demand technology will help bookstores and libraries carry more books and reduce storage and inventory costs.

6. Get Your Book Printed on Demand at Store Locations throughout the United States!

This is really exciting. Sprout, a digital printing company out of Atlanta, Georgia, is involved in providing digital printing systems to bookstores.

Current stores that will be using Sprout’s Print-On-Demand system are selected Borders, Waldenbooks, Follett, and other selected bookstores in the United States.

Once you are in the 1stbooks family, you will be able to have your book distributed as an electronic file to a bookstore serviced with the Sprout digital publishing system. On location and right at the bookstore, your book will be printed out while the customer waits.

The turn around time is only 15 minutes!

7. Availability on Amazon.com and Other Internet Bookstores

Everyone that publishes a book wants to be listed on Amazon.com. Amazon.com is the King of Internet bookstores. They have a great reputation for customer service and delivery of products. They are around to stay. By having your printed and bound version published by the 1stbooks Library your book will be sold on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, borders.com, fatbrain.com and other Canadian Internet bookstores like Indiago.ca and Chapters.ca.

This is all because of the fact that Ingram entered my 1stbooks trade paper back in the foreign marketplace.

If your eBooks and print on demand books are listed on the Internet bookstore websites readers will perceive you as a genuine author.

8. Special Market Sales Print Runs.

One way an author can sell thousands of copies of paperback books without having to worry about returns is by selling in special markets.

Special markets include selling to book clubs and selling books to multi-level marketing organizations. Special markets also include selling books as premiums to associations and corporations.

Many times when a special market or premium sale is made, the quantity of books ordered can amount in the tens of thousands.

A typical print-on-demand publisher will not be able to offer competitive enough prices to accommodate such an order since POD works with copy machines rather than true printing presses.

1stbook Library, however, will work through their resources and help you put a competitive deal together for your special market and premium sales clients.

Many self-published authors earn their living from special market book sales. Having access to a full service publisher is a very important benefit for you to consider when choosing a print-on-demand resource.

9. Audiobooks or books-on-tape production and distribution.

Yes, 1stbooks has a program that will take your book and turn it into a book on tape or an audiobook.

People love to listen to books on tape while commuting to and from work. Many listen to books while exercising. As people are living longer and with their eyesight failing with age, audiobooks allow them to continue enjoying books.

1stbook library has an option for authors and publishers to create books-on-tape. They will set up distribution through the Ingram database that will facilitate sales to bookstores and libraries.

10. Publicity and promotional help.

There is another publishing package option offered by the 1stbooks Library that can get the author off to a great start.

This option focuses on sending targeted press releases about your new books. When your new softcover book or book on tape is ready, 1stbooks Library will send hundreds of press releases to media in your region.

From news releases you may receive requests for review copies of your books and possibly radio and TV interviews. 1stbooks library will help you work with these new adventures.

Media interviews can really help all of your book sales increase dramatically.

When you begin telling all of your friends and family about the fact that you are now a “published” author you are going to hear a response like, “when are you going to publish a real book?”

Some individuals will never get over the fact that publishing is changing very quickly. Electronic books are taking over.

Now you can publish your bound books on-demand and never have to worry about getting stuck with a garage full of excess inventory.

This is the next best thing to publishing an eBook!

Books-on-demand are the digital files taken from your eBooks that are converted and turned into trade paperback books. In the publishing industry when books are published on demand the publisher of that style of book is called a POD. He is a Print-On-Demand publisher.

Print-On-Demand books look exactly like any 5″x7,” 6″x9″ or 8 1/2″ x11″ books, that you find selling in any traditional brick and mortar bookstore.

The major difference is that the POD books were printed one at a time. Instead of using an offset printing press, the book pages were digitized and stored in a high quality copy machine, collated and then perfect bound on another machine.

One of the largest book wholesalers, Ingram, provides books on demand to bookstores and distributors throughout the world.

What this means is that if you can somehow get your eBook printed on demand and placed into the Ingram data base, people can order your book from almost any bookstore and have it delivered within a day or two.

The book does not sit in a warehouse collecting dust and becoming a warehousing problem. The book is printed as it is ordered.

Since publishing on-demand realizes huge savings for bookstores and distributors everywhere, books on demand printed by the POD’s are becoming very popular.

Internet bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble cut into the sales of traditional bookstores.

The major reason is that they can carry many more titles. A typical brick and mortar bookstore cannot afford to invest and inventory every book in print.

Internet bookstores can order from one centralized location and make special ordering of books very efficient for their customers.

As book wholesalers like Ingram carry more POD titles, they will be able to service bookstores in a much more efficient manner. Book wholesalers will be able to carry a greater variety of books as well as providing publishing and delivery of books within a day or two.

Soon Print-On-Demand books will be available at the bookstore level as well.

Make sure you follow this industry very closely!

So, how can you participate in getting your eBook sold in a printed-on-demand environment? Where can you get it produced for a reasonable cost and at the same time get national distribution?

How can you keep your print and electronic publishing rights to capitalize on opportunities that will present themselves very soon?

Your questions will be answered in the next article.

Did you realize that thousands of people are reading their eBooks on dedicated eBook reading devices? These devices simulate the traditional book reading environment and allow the reader an enhanced experience.

The reader can download several eBooks to a book reader, make notes in margins and read from a back lit screen while in bed at night.

In addition, eBook readers allow you to change the print fonts and character size, allowing you to facilitate the reading experience.

I am only going to mention the top three eBook reading devices but will include more in updates when I find it necessary.

The three dedicated eBook-reading devices are the Rocketbook, Everybook and the Softbook.

Note: Update: September 26, 2000 The Rocketbook and Softbook are combining forces and will look different then the specifications given in this chapter. I am still including this chapter to give you a little historical perspective on eBooks and eBook readers.

Rocketbook:

Rocketbook by NuvoMedia is fantastic!

A Rocket Book is an eBook-reading device that can hold 40 or more complete books. It is available now and you can order a Rocketbook from Barnes & Noble and Powells.com Internet bookstores.

The Rocketbook is the true leader in the industry.

Rocketbook by NuvoMedia is very user friendly for the eBook publisher.

For example, as soon as I complete writing an eBook and send the files to the NuvoMedia’s Rocket Press, my book will be ready for international distribution within 24-48 hours!

I can update my books as often as I wish enabling the Rocketbook customer a rich and new reading experience. Currently an author must have an established relationship as a “publisher” with NuvoMedia to take advantage of selling eBooks as Rocket Editions. There are many eBook publishers, however, that will take your eBook, format it for the Rocketbook eBook Reader, and then send you the royalties when your Rocket Editions are downloaded from eBook sellers.

1stbooks.com is a great company that will format your eBook for a Rocket Edition and make it available to sell on
Barnes & Noble and Powells.com.

1stbooks is located at:

www.1stbooks.com

I personally sell more Rocket Editions of my eBooks than with any other eBook seller or publisher.

If you are a single title author, you will need to contact a publisher that will format the Rocket Editions for you. I
have indicated publishers that will do that for you in other articles.

If you have published 10 titles or more and issue your own ISBN numbers, you can contact the Director of Content of NuvoMedia at:

www.nuvomedia.com

NuvoMedia’s address is:

310 Villa Street
Mt. View, CA 94041
(650) 314-1200
(650) 314-1201 (fax)

Everybook:

Everybook represents the future of eBook reading devices. It has everything!

The Everybook can hold 260 Megabytes of storage on a single card. Since most books you find at the bookstore translate into less than one Megabyte, you can see that each Everybook eBook Reader can hold hundreds of books.

Each Everybook eBook Reader includes two full color screens that simulate an 8 1/2 by 11-inch book.

Turning of pages is also simulated to remind the user of a traditional book reading experience.

Both screens are in full color!

My personal feeling is that the Everybook will be a wonderful asset for college students.

Imagine registering for college courses. Your advisor gives you a class schedule for your freshman year.

You go to the college bookstore where you pay for your Everybook and then download all of your textbooks. You will also download monographs and required readings for those courses at kiosks located in the bookstore.

During the school year you will be able to read your assignments and print out questions and answers at the end of each chapter. You will have room to store additional books and documents as well.

College textbooks will be priced much cheaper because of the savings over traditional print runs, storage and distribution costs.

Professors will be encouraged to write updated books and will be able to have a shorter turnaround time in book production.

Full motion audio and video will be included which will make this eBook-reading device a fantastic reading experience.

Everybook may become a top player in the eBook market.

Contact them and see if they want to include your eBook in their catalog.

Everybook is located out of Middletown, PA which is near the state capital of Pennsylvania.

Everybook’s Internet address is:

www.everybook.net

Softbook:

The Softbook eBook Reader is one of the pioneers in the industry.

All you need is a telephone line to hook up as each device includes a modem to download books directly into the reader.

Currently thousands of eBook as well as magazines are included for the Softbook eBook Reader.

Each device includes sophisticated searching, bookmarking, hyperlinking, text markup and a stylus for marking and highlighting.

Contact the director of content and find out how you can include your new eBook in their bookstore.

Softbook Press is located at:

www.softbook.com

Headquarters

Softbook Press
900 Island Drive
Redwood City, California
94065-5150
(650) 620-4100 telephone
(650) 632-1807 fax