Self Publishing Nonfiction Books

Well, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Let's get 'er done!"

TIP 1: Differentiate between print-on-demand publishers and print-on-demand printers. You've seen ads for POD publishers on Google whenever you search anything related to self publishing. These companies offer to self publish your book for a fee. I don't really consider this self publishing: I think of it as assisted self publishing. Fees can range anywhere from about $199 to as much as $1,500 depending on the package you select.

A few caveats are in order. If going with a POD publisher, they will often sell you copies of your book at around a 30% discount. But if you are planning on selling your book on-line, you will never turn a profit if you have to buy your books with such a low discount. Furthermore, if you plan on getting your book into catalogs of mail order book companies, they will want a 50% discount and you won't be able to give that to them if you are getting only a 30% discount yourself.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of bigger bookstore chains will not carry books produced by print-on-demand publishers because they will not allow returns of unsold books.

Now, many POD publishers will entice you in to their service by saying that they will make your book available to over 20,000 bookstores if you publish with them. Well, I am "available" to run for president of the United States, but it is unlikely the Democrats or Republicans will be beating my door down to get me to do so.

What they are talking about is getting your book indexed into Ingram's system. Ingram is the largest book wholesaler in the U.S. But Ingram doesn't promote books--they simply make them available to the bookstore chains. You can contact Ingram yourself at www.ingrambook.com.

Okay, now what about POD printers? These are basically book printers that can produce short runs of perfect bound books and will often print quantities as small as 24 books. They don't promote books, they just print them digitally. They can produce trade paperbacks just like you would find in bookstores with color laminated covers. If you are considering a run of anywhere less than 500 books, a POD printer is a viable options. Runs of over 500 copies may be less expensive going through a commercial offset printer.

TIP 2: Consider doing radio author interviews to promote your book. What? Not me! Yeah you! Here's the skinny on how to get started.

There are about 10,000 radio stations in the U.S. Get a copy of Bacon's Directory of Radio Stations at your public library. You'll have to look through it a bit to see how it's laid out. But stations, formats, program directors, hosts, Arbitron ratings, etc. are all given for most stations.

It will tell whether programs do author interviews and who and how to contact them. Before you call, have a 20 second pitch ready. You need to be perky, lively, well-spoken, and quick on your toes. You will want to call the program director and give them your pitch. The best time to call is usually about 5-10 minutes after their show is over.

You should have a publicity kit! It must include your book, a list of questions the host can ask you, a bio page about yourself, and your contact info. I have created all of this in a PDF file they can download from my site. You could have mp3 files of past interviews too if you want. Talk radio hosts don't interview fiction writers--they want authors of how-to type books.

Now, remember this: You are not going to be put on the air to inform--your job is to entertain. Don't give a lecture! Especially FM hosts like to poke fun at you and joke around. Keep it light. Mention the host by name several times; they dig that. I've done well over 100 radio interviews and a number of TV interviews including one on ABC World News. You will get to give you web site and ordering info.

A good friend, Alex Carroll, has sold well over 100,000 copies of his book, Beat The Cops, soley by doing 3-4 radio interviews a day! His book is about how to get out of traffic tickets.

Now, there is one other option: The Radio/TV Interview Report. Check it out at http://www.rtir.com/index.html. You can run an ad in their magazine for a few hundred bucks and every three weeks or so an issue goes out to thousands of radio and television stations. People get books on Oprah doing this! I've run ads many times and usually get calls from 20-30 stations from each ad. It works!

TIP 3: If you are just getting started trying to sell an e-book on-line they you want to minimize the frustrations and costs of getting your feet wet. You can set up your own merchant account, shopping cart, and gateway access--but that can be both time consuming and expensive.

The easiest way to go about selling e-books you have written is to go to either Clickbank and set up a free account. They will handle all of the credit card transactions for you, but you will need to host your own site promoting the e-books. ClickBank can put your product in front of 100,000 affiliates who want digital products to sell on line.

TIP 4: Visit my site and download whatever free bonus I'm giving away this week. Click on the Self Publishing link below to visit my site. Hey, sign up for my free newsletter while you are there as well.

Self Publishing