Blogging, Writing, and Publishing

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...

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 in abundance. 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. 1.  As an author/publisher, you have already identified niches that...

I apologize. I am sorry for wasting your resources and time with my own selfish ambition. I don’t apologize for making my voice heard when mistreated by employees or when products don’t work as advertised, those are pretty realistic responses. What I do apologize for is taking advantage of “free” or “complimentary” items. This apology covers my former practice of taking too many napkins, straws, free refills, ketchup packets and food I wasn’t really hungry for at the buffet. Though I paid for my meal and possibly some of the costs of more than the average human needs of “complimentary” items, the sunken costs are still yours to bear. I also apologize for herding my travel weary family through your bathrooms even though we didn’t make any purchases in your stores, gas stations or restaurants. I’ve wrongly considered these items and services to be entitlements. I am now in your shoes, running a grass roots company with very few resources and employees. As the a sole provider of ...

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...

When websites, blogs and social media are set up correctly, niche authors can check marketing stats regularly and adjust techniques based on the data. That's because on line marketing venues provide traffic reports detailing the amount and type of visitors during a selected time frame. These statistics can help determine which articles or blog posts were more effective, where the visitors came from and how long they stayed. This information is very helpful to also determining the best keywords to use to drive traffic to your blogs. One way to get feed back on website and blog efforts is to track page visits with Google Analytics as outlined  in Chapter 7 of Get Rich in a Niche . Research results often and adjust your marketing efforts according to the best reports. Many social media, article and blog hosts including Facebook and ezinearticles.com  provide monthly reporting providing valuable information. Be sure to sign up for this service and check the facts often. ...

I received a phone call recently  asking if Red Bike Publishing could help her get her group's book printed. After a few minutes I understood that the potential customer wanted to print a specialty book for her small history club. She wanted the books, but did not want to make it available online. I quickly realized that the printing and distribution resource my company currently uses would not be a good match for her needs. This was a clue for me to check on other options. In this scenario, bar codes, ISBNs, PCNs and other numbers associated with cataloging and publishing were not needed. She wanted a do it yourself book printed whenever she needed it. Maybe your book project is not necessarily made to attract the masses more than just a short term need to train your small groups. Some specific uses include:       Very few copies for micro use-Members of exclusive clubs and organizations may only require a few copies and are not for the use by o...

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 ...