Self Publishing Suggestion (straight talk)

• To make money at self publishing,you must educate yourself. Go to seminars,join chat lines and associations. Learn from the experienced
• Find out what is out there to compete with your book by visiting ?books in Print Subject Guide and forthcoming books in print subject guide
• Write about what people want-personal history and deep felt opinions only appeal to friends and families.
• A planned marketing strategy must be implemented from the start. Identify your target markets
• Professional editing is important to get noticed by traditional publishing houses
• Create a snappy title with eye-catching cover design. Firstchoice Books will help
• Pages must be properly formatted with proper spacing and font style.
• Recycled paper may be considered but it adds costs to your book
• Avoid your local print shop! We see too many books from them to us for binding with inferior printing ,wrong paper grain direction and incorrect bind margins
• Firstchoice will offer important suggestions in preparation of your files to save you time and money

How To Market Your Self Published Book

Once your book is written, the tough work needs to get started, and that is marketing your book. Unfortunately, for most authors, you cannot just sit back and let fame and fortune find you, you need to go out and get it. The good news is that very often once you do all the marketing as a new author, it begin laying the groundwork for future works. To get your book to be bought and read by the widest audience possible, you have to let readers know that it's available, and that means marketing.
Most Publishers have departments whose sole purpose is to market books. The ways they promote books is through various advertising methods such as direct mail, conferences and trade shows, newspapers and magazines, and any other cost effective means. As a rule, Publishers will also arrange “bookstore signings” for authors. The people power behind a Publisher can be massive and include marketing managers, copywriters, publicists, and designers, all of whom are getting paid to market YOUR book. The good news with having a Publisher market your book is that they know the business and what it takes to sell your book, the disadvantage is that all this talent and knowledge costs money.
In order to become a “self-marketing” author, you need to learn how to market your book and the first step is to know who your audience is. This may be harder than you think, depending on the type of book you are marketing. The next step of course after knowing who you are going to sell to, is HOW are you going to sell your book to this market segment in the most cost and results effective means possible.
Marketing often begins with a promotional copy. It can be challenging to condensing a 200 - 300 or 400 page book down into 200 - 300 words, but it necessary. A promotional copy should be brief, descriptive, and engaging to the reader, after all it is your “best foot forward”. Make sure you revise, re-write and polish your work for accuracy, purpose and of course spelling and grammar. Your promotional copy is your reviewer of the book.
In order to put you promotional to work, include the promotional text on the jacket and back cover of your book. With the right copy and an attractive design, your book can become its own marketing tool.
One of the best ways to promote your book is to have it reviewed. This is the best form of free publicity an author can get. Although reviews are difficult to get, they are worth working hard to acquire. Find our who the reviewers are, and email or fax your promotional copy as a press release to any and all possible reviewers in the market sector for the book. Include information about yourself and how they can contact you. Try to target individual reviewers who might be particularly interested in your work.
Direct mail can be expensive, but there are other ways of distributing information with the massive costs of major distribution companies, explore what is in your area that you could utilize, including family, friends and any clubs or associations you may belong to. Make certain your flyer includes order information, the book's price and ISBN, and your web address (which should, of course, prominently feature your book).
Personal web sites are a great way to advertise your book. Include promotional copy, a cover image, and ordering information. Be sure to feature your web address on all promotional materials, both print and online. We offer Web site creation for Self Published Authors at a one-time special rate of $250, visit our self publishing marketing services page for more details.
Marketing your book can often be a challenge but it is necessary and needs to be taken seriously if you are going to become a famous author, and the more famous you become the less marketing you will have to do, but every author had to start somewhere, and marketing is necessary for all budding authors.

How To Get Reviews

The purpose for authors and publishers seeking reviews is quite simple, it is the reviews that sell books. A good review is one of the best ways to promote a book, and it's all (normally) free. What else could you ask for, a form to promote your works, and it costs nothing ... this is why reviews are so highly valued.
Book reviews can be difficult to obtain, even for well know authors. With larger firms and authors who can hire the services of a publicist, getting reviews is one of their main objectives in promoting a book. By understanding how a publicity agency achieves their goal is a good lesson for any author. One of the means used to attract attention and get review are press releases to appropriate sources ... with the emphasis being on “appropriate sources”. It is a good idea to learn the components of Press Releases if you are going to sending them out. Some up-front research and effort will help ensure your press releases are read. The press release should describe your book and highlight any factors that sets it apart, making it worthy of review. The press release MUST let the reviewers know who you are, where you can be reached, and how quickly you can get a copy to them.
To get local reviews from you local newspaper, call them to find out who reviews books. Many alternative weekly newspapers, special interest publications, literary magazines, newsletters, and web sites also feature book reviews. All of these are sources to explore.
Once your press release has been issued to carefully chosen reviewers there are only two alternatives, either the book will be reviewed ... or it won't be. The fact is, most books do not get reviewed so don't be discouraged if at first it seems like all is lost. If your book is reviewed, there is even more work to be done. Excerpt the most complimentary parts of the review, which can be a word, sentence, or entire paragraph, and use this text to further promote your book at your local bookstore, and other reviewers, and publishers.
If you want to sell copies of your book, you need to promote it, and reviews is one of best ways of getting your information out to your selected audience. It's worth taking the time to write an accurate, informative press release, and send it to those reviewers you believe would be most interested in writing about your book. Your ultimate goal as publicist is to let the world know your book is available, and having your book reviewed is a very important part of the process.

How To Write A Press Release

There is no magic in writing a Press Release, there is hard work, study and research and if you plan on getting noticed it is imperative that you take the time to understand what goes into making Press Releases that get noticed. The people you will be sending Press Releases to often receive dozens, sometimes hundreds of Press Releases a day ... what are you going to do to get yours noticed?
The main message hear is that the form that Press Releases takes changes over time. In order to get the most up-to-date information on how to create Press Releases you will need to research up to date information on them. To give you an example of how Press Releases are changing with time, they are often now referred to as “News Releases”, so if you go looking for information on the Internet, it's wise to use the most current terms.
The main point in creating News Releases is to catch the attention of the reader with a title that captures them, then the text of the News Release needs to be relatively short, to the point and with purpose. News Releases that take two pages, have half the chance of being read, and twice the chance of hitting the recycle bin. A News Release can accompany review copies of your book, or it can be faxed or mailed to simply generate interest.
In cases, do yourself (and your book) a favor and research proper methods of writing and issuing news releases, this is the best way to ensure your efforts are a fruitful as possible.