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Dref Essay Research Paper (стр. 1 из 2)

Dref Essay, Research Paper

“CREATE YOUR OWN INFORMATION PRODUCTS!”

Millions and millions of full sized books and small booklets are

sold each year. Most are produced by the large publishing

houses. However, there are also several million books sold

every year by small, unassuming, one-person publishing

companies. Many of these one-person publishers operate from a

home-based office. And, surprisingly, some home-based publishers

earn excellent incomes. (What’s more, some are even becoming

very rich.)

In this report you’ll learn how to succeed as a home-based

publisher, producing books, booklets, reports and manuals on

nearly every subject imaginable. And, if you have no desire to

write your own material, you’ll learn how to get authors to

write for you.

Many authors have chosen to by-pass the usual publishing routes

and, instead, self-publish their own books. Admittedly, this

requires more work, but it could also mean more profits. There

are many reasons authors decide to self-publish, including:

1. It’s very difficult to get a manuscript accepted by the giant

publishing houses, unless you are a personality in some field,

or are already a successful author.

2. Often, the large publishing companies will want to edit a

manuscript in such a manner that is unacceptable to the author.

3. Often, the author can market his own book more effectively

than a large publisher will. This is especially true if the

material is of a non- fiction or of “how-to” nature.

4. Self publishing allows the author to keep all of the profits.

5. There is plenty of opportunity for the author/self- publisher

to set up other profit center products that are related to the

topic of the book.

So, as you can see, there are many compelling reasons why

thousands of authors have chosen to self-publish. Also, the

availability of low cost microcomputers have made

self-publishing much easier than in past years. This report will

give you a step- by- step approach to self-publishing your own

book.

Note: this report is not about writing. It is assumed that you

will write your own booklets, or hire a ghostwriter to do the

job for you. So the following information will focus only on

the steps you need to take to succeed (make money) as a self-

publisher.

HOW IT WORKS AND HOW TO DO IT STEP-BY-STEP

(1) Generate book ideas and proposals, either your own or by

hiring authors/ghostwriters.

(2) Evaluate these ideas and proposals as to the feasibility of

producing a valued book, and reaching a large group of

prospective customers.

(3) Evaluate the size of the market and determine how you’ll

reach that market. Also, research any competitive books.

(4) Consider various related products that you could sell to the

people who buy your book.

(5) Write and edit the book, pay royalties to an author, or hire

a ghostwriter to do it for you.

(6) Produce a camera-ready copy for the printer.

(7) Begin your marketing effort by designing ads and brochures.

(Often, this step comes before, or during, writing the book.

Your sales material can give you something to “live up to.”)

(8) Launch a full scale marketing and publicity campaign. (A

“full-scale” roll-out should follow a test marketing campaign.

You want to make certain you have a truly salable product, and

should spend little money to test the waters.)

(9) Get printing quotes and have the final version of the book

ready to print and bind as soon as you’re sure there will be

sufficient sales to warrant these costs.

(10) Sell follow-up products to your customers.

All of these steps can be carried out quickly. You could easily

have a fast-selling book on the market within 6 months, or less.

SELECTING A TOPIC

The best, and easiest, subjects for self-publishers to produce

are of the “how to” genre. Books, reports and manuals that tell

readers how to do something are among the liveliest sellers.

It’s very difficult for a small publisher to be successful with

novels, or poetry books. So this report will focus on “how to”

books. However, you can apply many of the techniques discussed

here to market other kinds of books as well.

To begin, you should publish material on topics which you are

most familiar. You should also have a market targeted and a plan

for reaching that market. Example: you may have in mind to

produce a book about how to make money with crafts — to be sold

in small craft shops, craft fairs, craft magazines and through

direct mail to people who make craft items.

It’s not necessary for you to be an expert on a topic if you

aren’t writing the book yourself. But you do need to be

knowledgeable enough to evaluate the book proposals that are

submitted to you. Otherwise, you’ll have to hire an expert to

evaluate the manuscript for you.

Most small publishers specialize in one general topic. For

example: crafts, income opportunities, computers, a particular

hobby, gardening, health and others. A home-based publisher,

like you, will then produce several books on the same subject.

Thus, greatly increasing sales because you’ll have related books

to offer to the same customer.

Once you have a few potential topics, these ideas must be

evaluated. The most crucial question is, “can I sell a book

like this and, if so, how will I sell it?” First, you need to

evaluate the size of the market. If there are only a few

thousand people who would be interested in your book, you may

want to reconsider.

Many small publishers recommend that you have a potential market

of at least 50,000 people who would be interested in your topic.

Next, you need to determine if these people are easy to reach.

Are there magazines, trade associations, or mailing lists that

you can use?

Example: Book — HOW TO USE LOTUS 1-2-3 SOFTWARE Market — 2

million owners of Lotus 1-2-3. How to reach — mailing list of

Lotus owners, special magazines for Lotus users, computer

bookstores

You’ll find that most self-publishers suggest that you find a

market niche that is not being adequately covered. Here’s a

sampling of marketing model railroading, self-publishers,

writers, Apple computer owners, computer programmers, gardeners,

health enthusiasts and hundreds of other narrowly defined

interests. Each of these topics may only have a potential market

of 50,000 to 200,000. But this is often enough for you to be

successful. It’s especially true if you have a good way to reach

these people, and if you publish several books about the topic.

Most publishers are recommending that you stick to special

subject books rather than broad coverage books. It seems as if

the day of the high page count, broad topic books are about

over. There are also many groups of people who are interested in

all kinds of narrow, specialized topics.

Other factors to evaluate include: are there any similar books

already on the market, how is your book different (more

valuable), are there people who really want your book, is your

information up-to-date and can you produce exciting promotional

material to sell your book?

It’s important to consider your book’s selling points. If it’s

easy, write an ad for the book, that is, your material has many

selling points, the book will be easier to market. More about

book marketing later.

BOOK TITLES

The title of your book can have a big effect on sales. A good

title will often result in increased interest as well as higher

profits. Example:

HOW TO GET RICH IN MAIL ORDER is much better than HOW TO GET

STARTED IN MAIL ORDER.

Here are a few more good examples of lively book titles:

HOMEMADE CASH, CASH FROM YOUR COMPUTER, IS THERE A BOOK INSIDE

YOU, QUICK CASH — (129 WAYS ANYONE, ANYWHERE CAN MAKE $200

RIGHT AFTER DINNER), HOW TO WRITE A MILLION- DOLLAR OPPORTUNITY

BOOK, WHY S.O.B.’S SUCCEED AND NICE GUYS FAIL IN SMALL BUSINESS,

CASH COPY, I’LL BUY THAT!, HOW TO MAKE PVC FURNITURE FOR FUN AND

PROFIT, CASH IN BY CLEANING UP, $200 A DAY WITH YOUR PICKUP, ADS

THAT SELL, HOW TO MAKE YOUR ADVERTISING MAKE MONEY, HOW I MADE

$1,000,000 IN MAIL ORDER, HOW TO MAKE MAXIMUM MONEY IN MINIMUM

TIME, SECRETS OF HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL MAILING LIST BROKER,

HOW TO WRITE A HIT SONG … AND SELL IT!, HOW TO ADVERTISE FOR

LESS THAN THE COST OF A POSTAGE STAMP! And so on.

A good book title should: grab the attention of the customer,

clearly reveal the book’s subject, arouse interest, define the

area covered by the book and promise benefits to the

buyer/reader. Many books also have a subtitle. The subtitle is

usually about 6 to 15 words long and should reveal even more

about the book. For example:

QUICK CASH! How Anyone, At Any Time, Anywhere Can Make At Least

$200 Right After Dinner.

One more thing about book titles: If you’re planning to produce

ads or direct mail pieces to promote your book, you should

consider a snappy, upbeat title which can be also used as your

headline. The above book title, along with its sub-title, in

national full-page advertisements has sold thousands of copies

of the book, Quick Cash. It’s attention-getting, informative,

captures the imagination of the proper prospect and offers a

benefit.

BOOK LAYOUT

There are several basic decisions you must make concerning the

layout of your book. These decisions will influence the cost you

pay for printing. For example:

(1) Stick with standard sizes — 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches or 8 1/2 x

11 inches. (Some printers may have slightly different book

dimensions.) But just make sure that you request a standard size

that your printer can easily produce. Odd sizes will increase

the overall cost of printing.

(2) Number of pages — All book printers have optimum number of

pages that they can produce. These are usually increments of 4,

8, 16, or 32 pages. You’ll want to make sure your book falls on

these increments or you’ll pay extra for blank pages. The page

count does not include the cover. Example: It may cost 10% more

for a 161 page book than it does for a 160 page book. Therefore,

you’ll want to reduce your manuscript by one page.

(3) Typeface — This is the style and size of the letters that

make up the text. The most used typeface for books is Times

Roman at 10 point size. If you use 12 point size, more pages are

required, 8 point size will require less pages but will be

harder to read. Don’t use some offbeat, out of the ordinary

typeface. Make your book easy to read.

(4) Type of cover — You can decide to use a plain, one- color

cover or a glossy, 4-color cover. If you’re planning to sell

through bookstores, you’ll need to design a fancier, eye-

catching cover. For mail order sales, customers are buying

information, not a pretty cover; so you can put less emphasis on

cover design.

(5) Other factors that you may need to consider are: pictures,

photos, an index, size of chapter headings and subheadings.

You can explore various book layouts simply by examining

different books. Pick one that you like and discuss it with your

printer.

TYPESETTING

Once the book, or booklet, is written and edited, your first

concern is to prepare a “camera ready” copy for the printer. The

printer must have a good master copy of your book in order to

prepare plates for the printing press. The pages of this master

copy must appear exactly as you want the final copy of the book

to look. In other words, it should contain: headlines, subheads,

margins, justified text, any graphics or pictures and, ideally,

proportionally spaced letters (typesetting).

The only way to get all of the above features is by having your

book typeset. Unfortunately, typesetting can be expensive. You

may pay $20, or more, per page if you hire a commercial

typesetter. However, microcomputers can reduce the cost of

typesetting. Here’s what I mean:

(1) Produce the book on computer and deliver a floppy disk to a

typesetter who can typeset from your disk. This saves the cost

of having the typesetter key in your book’s text, word by word.

(2) Send the disk to a computer owner who has a laser printer

and desktop publishing software and have him/her typeset the

book for you. They will often do this for a reasonable fee of $1

to $3 per page.

(3) Use a modem to transfer the text of your book via a

telephone to a typesetter who can handle modem transmissions.

(4) Buy your own laser printer and desktop publishing software

and typeset the book yourself.

If you already own a computer and are going to publish several

books, then option #4 is the best way to go. This gives you

complete control over the typesetting. It also allows you to

perform editing changes quickly.

There are two other options for typesetting your book. The first

is to use a high quality typewriter to produce the text. You can

also use the rub-on headline type that can be purchased from any

office supply store. Unfortunately, this will not produce a very

good looking book. And, with today’s competition and readily

available desktop publishing systems, this approach will leave

you a step behind other publishers.

A slightly better option is a computer system together with a

high quality (24 pin) multi-mode dot matrix printer. This will

produce near letter quality text, justified margins, columns and

proportionally spaced text. These are features you cannot get

with a typewriter. So you’ll end up with a fair quality book

(but not near as good as that produced with a laser printer).

My advice is to get, or rent, a full desktop publishing system

to produce several books. However, if you just want to

self-publish just one book, then consider using the services of

a commercial typesetter. Or hire someone who owns a desktop

publishing system. This will allow you to produce the best

master copy for your printer. And will result in a professional

looking book. At a minimum, you’ll want the book’s cover to be

professionally typeset.

BOOK EDITING

There are two phases of book editing. The first step is to edit

the book before typesetting, and before a printing master is

produced. This step is designed to eliminate the majority of

errors.

The second phase is to complete a final editing of the book

after a master copy has been typeset. The purpose of the second

phase is to eliminate any remaining errors. A second purpose of

this step is to cut out or add material and to adjust the length

of the book, if necessary.

You may also wish to adjust the length of a chapter so that each

chapter will begin on a right hand page. You may wish to adjust

the length of the book to save printing costs. For example: as I

mentioned earlier, most book printers operate in set increments

of pages. Many offer 16 page signatures. Therefore, a 160 page

book would take 10 signatures. A 164 page book would take 11

signatures and cost extra because of those additional pages. So

if you can eliminate 4 pages, you’ll save printing costs.

Editing a book takes a considerable amount of time. There are

many things to check for, including: spelling errors, sentences

that are too long, misuse of words, punctuation errors, capital

letters, nonsense sentences, factual errors, omissions of vital

material and so forth. Eliminating spelling errors is usually

the easy part. If you have a computer, you can use a spell

checker program to catch most mistakes.

I usually make about three passes through the entire book

looking for errors. When an error is found, I’ll mark it with a

red pen so it is easy to find. When the entire book has been

edited I return to the computer and make the necessary changes.

Then I’ll print the book one final time and again check for

errors. Finally, I’ll have another person make a last check for

me. Having another person make a final check of the book can be

beneficial. They will look at the book with a fresh view and

catch errors that you may have overlooked.

One of the most important parts of editing is to check the

book’s facts, and its completeness. You must make certain that

the book contains no factual errors and that it adequately

covers the topic. If your book falls short in these two areas,

it will most likely be a failure and a waste of your time and