Blogging, Writing, and Publishing

  In a separate article I explained that some authors may decide to publish their books with a publishing company instead of using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. If you are an author, consider finding a small publisher to help you through the process. Keeping in mind that when I say publisher, I’m not talking about submitting a proposal letter to a major traditional publishing house. I’m talking about through a company that specializes in self-publishing business models. While you may not want to worry about the business of publishing with KDP, they may be well versed in using it to your benefit. When looking for such a publisher, I recommend keeping a few things in mind. Find a publisher who matches your niche. That way, you can take advantage of the marketing efforts they are already doing to further your book’s success. For example, my company, Red Bike Publishing does very well at publishing content for security professionals. All of my efforts are marketing to the industry. ...

I’m jeff bennett and I’ve created two book based businesses. One is for security professionals and the other is for authors. I’d like to share with you how I created a successful part time business based on my books About the training: Would you like to write a book? Do you have a book written? Do you have a desire to write but don’t know what to write? This training can get you there. Register for our book class. Classes begin soon. https://www.redbikepublishing.com/register-for-book-business-training/ That’s it, register and I’ll tell you more about: How to find your niche Write your book Market to your niche Build a book based on your expertise Make extra spending money or a side hustle with your creation This class discusses: Niche definition How to find your niche idea How to turn it into a book How to print with two major companies How to capture sales How to get customers before your book is written How to develop products and services based on your book Tools you should have f...

Publish On Your Schedule-Can't get that book done in time? Who cares, nobody's keeping count. Ahead of schedule, go ahead and print, nobody is stopping you. This is your time and place, you decide when is good. Self-publishing gives you incredible timeline flexibility. The only thing you have to do is preplan your book release for availability during book signing or other events. The control is completely in your capable hands. That also means you should work a schedule, in reverse order of when books should be available. If your plan is to have book signing event at the local book store 120 days from now, you have to plan to ensure the book is edited, formatted, designed, uploaded, printed and delivered in time for availability. Nothing is more embarrassing than to set up an event, draw a crowd and books not be available. The upside is there are no other schedules than what are self-imposed, hence no other stressors to influence your publishing decisions. No late ...

Here is an expansion of the reasons you should self-publish. The first reason: You own all the creative decisions. The boss makes the rules. So, if you self-publish, you get to decide. You decide book format, writing and publishing timeline, book and cover design, type of book, colors, page count, page type and on and on.  Many decisions are pretty mundane such as interior design and format. If people like your material, they'll buy it in whatever format it is available in. However, the cover and content are very important aspects to your book that you have to get right. For the cover, choosing the right colors, images and fonts is critical. The book has to look attractive to its audience and must be legible as a thumbnail while displayed in on line book stores. This decision is made easier if you study your niche and look for books that relate to your topic. What colors are favored, what types of images are popular, and what type font matches the competing books? Get t...

This step by step method helps me keep my sanity during the writing, editing process and self-publishing  process. It might help you too. Just give it a year and see what you can come up with. 1. Outline your book-I like to start with a blank page out of a journal or notebook. On that page, I write the book’s topic anywhere you’d like as long as you know it’s the focal point of the brainstorm. Then, write as many words as you can to support that topic. For example, in Get Rich in a Niche, I started with the topic “write, publish and market to a niche”. Then I plastered all the white space with phrases such as: marketing ideas, how to write, formatting, kindle, CreateSpace, Lightning Source, Amazon, internet marketing, social media, become an expert, spinoff, perpetuate, time management, etc. 2. Prioritize and categorize words and phrases. Some of the words and phrases may be related, have similar meanings or support different categories. These categories will become...

Publishing like a boss is an excellent experience. My company, Red Bike Publishing , provides technical books to small niches. We are small and we love it. No other publisher touches our material because the market is tiny. That leaves us meeting new expectations in a forgotten industry. The results, a reliable pay check and some new earned respect. Here's what I've learned about self-publishing during the last few years: Control Creativity-The publishing house owns the rules. You might have a story to tell, but it must fit within the editorial guidelines of the publisher. When you self-publish , you control the cover design, book content, price and distribution. You also own all the rights to reprints, print media and spin off items. Market Your Way-More and more publishing companies rely on the author to market books. Just look at the latest book covers and see which is larger the author's name or the book title? It's the author who sells books. As a nic...

Let's try something to discover the impact of your website. It's just a small exercise to capture a snapshot in time of your website's performance. To demonstrate this, perform a keyword search for words related to your books and information? Does your website show up in the results? The goal is to have your website featured on the first page of results. If it doesn't, you may need to do more work. Once you created your website, be sure to keep the content engaging. After a few months in business, you can discover new information about your book's impact and appeal. While learning about your book's status, put what you've learned on your website to draw even more customers. For example, you may have only received book reviews by a few friends, family and local book reviewers. Now, after being on the market for a while, new reviews are posted at the online book store pages. Include those reviews on your website and in your marketing plans. Also, ke...

Writing off expenses is incredibly helpful way to decrease your tax burden. However, it's not a license to defraud the government. As a rule of thumb, you should claim all of your income and pay what you owe on taxes. The challenge of collecting and reporting taxes is difficult at first, but it is part of doing business, and is a must for maintaining that business. Fail to do so could result in fines or worse. Doing the right thing will help you better sleep at night, and increase your business savvy. Author situations differ. Some authors make a lot of money and writing is their only source of income. Some have full time jobs and writing provides some of the household income. Either way, the income made from writing must be claimed during tax time. The only difference is if you have a side from writing, your employer is withholding taxes. In your writing business, you should be paying estimated quarterly taxes based on your total income (just writing or income from writing ...

A word about taxes. When working on your business, make sure that you are prepared to conduct a lot of administrative tasks to include paying taxes. For federal taxes, this means filing quarterly estimated taxes. This quarterly estimated tax depends on your total income all your sources of income including full time jobs and businesses. This tax is also figuring FICA, Medicare and any profits your business earns (total sales minus expenses). Managing taxes is sometimes and easier endeavor when filing as a sole proprietary entity, especially where state jurisdictions are concerned. In these cases, tasks will pull you from your primary business roles to handle mundane but important administration. So, before you decide to form an LLC or other incorporated entity, do your research up front. For example, I just recently converted my business into an LLC. Red Bike Publishing, LLC has a new structure and is expected to maintain that structure according to the Alabama's State D...

What is your writing style? How do you get through your manuscript? I've heard testimony from many who write full length manuscripts and the methods are different. Some swear to working 18 hour days at the computer with a compelling need to get the novel or non-fiction book finished. I've heard it said that Stephen King felt as if a lady were waiting outside his room to do him harm should he slow progress on his finishing his books. For me, there's less of a sense of urgency. I'm a little more practical. Though I sell lot's of books, I still can't quit my day job, very few do. So for me, I've got the meet more pressing demands of my life while hacking out an existence as an author publisher. After putting in an honest day's work at the paying job, taking kids to their events, being a good husband and faithful church goer, I have very little time to write. Sometimes only one hour per day.  Many times, I have to share that time with marketing, co...

Learn to Self-Publish and Market While the internet marketing are great options for publishers to promote their books, ethical and legal lines can seem blurred. This is especially true for posted images and materials and how they are actually used. As an author, publisher, marketer or other web entrepreneur, you have access to several free metrics sources to track your products' sales performance and clue you into where and how to market.   Google Analytics, Blogger.com and other resource can help you track your books’ online presence and include information such as who is viewing, where they are viewing from, what they viewed, how long they viewed, and how they got there. It can also give insight into how many page views it takes before someone makes a purchase.   However, there is not much available (that I'm aware of) by way of technology to track the use of your proprietary information or intellectual data. Most of that stuff is protected by existing laws su...

Writing a book isn’t easy and shouldn’t be something an author rushes through, no matter what pop publishing culture tells us. What goes on paper is a result of tireless effort. Depending on your motivation and personality, it may seem easier to put together a course or write an article or two for a newsletter, blog or other publication. Here are four proven ways to help you write and publish in a specialized market and establish yourself as a niche expert. 1.   Writing takes time Writing a book length manuscript is difficult; but we make it look easy. Despite advice given in self-publishing books, writing is a commitment. It takes time, devotion and some solitude; much of which a full time professional does not have a lot of to begin with. This endeavor is not a sprint, but an endurance race. The difficulty of formatting a book may not be as tough as setting aside time and committing to writing words on paper. As an author/publisher, you have already identified niches...

Which works better, paid advertising or free internet opportunities? I still think (and have the numbers to back it up) that informative and attractive blogs provide the best marketing for your book. After all, you are the expert on your book and who else better to talk about your book than you. I recently ran an experiment with LinkedIn and Facebook. If you’ve read Get Rich in a Niche , you might remember that I loathe advertising. Against my better judgment I reluctantly decided to once again pay to advertise my books and publishing company. Using Facebook, I created four ads; three for books and one for Red Bike Publishing. Each ad is a pay per click ad and I set my limit to $10.00 a day. I gave each ad a max of a $100 limit before pausing it. I also limited my ads’ exposure to demographics likely to buy my book. For example, for my security clearance books, I set the ads to be visible for 22-55 years old and/or small business owners and/or professionals with technical backg...