Gordon Burgett's Blog

Update of the postings of our new book sent to six publishers

The almost-daily blogs from April 7-13 that you read here have brought results! And I promised to share…

If you recall, my newest book is How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days and I was sending it to the ancillary publishers, in fact doing precisely what the book explains how to do! (It feels kind of incestuous.)

Let’s go through each of the publishers:

LSI. The ebook was out in a day. The bound book is in limbo, but seems to have been accepted by them and is being sold through their system. Awaiting clarification.

Lulu: The ebook (download of the bound book) is available. I got the bound book proof in a week, I OKed it, and it’s now for sale there. Did a nice job on the proof.

CreateSpace: Again, it took about a week until a dandy proof arrived, two days ago. I Oked it yesterday, and it should be on sale about now.

Kindle: It had a few of the usual goofy errors in it when I reviewed it upon submission, so I did most of what they said in their guide, sent it again–and it’s available, I’m told. Ebook, of course.

Smashwords: A bit slow here, but it must be OK or I would have heard, I think. They translate the book into about eight digital reader tongues. It’s all digital.

Scribd: The book appeared the moment I posted it. I just checked and it has been looked at by 129 people, and amazingly none of them found it so compelling they bought it. I think I opened it up for 15-20% of it to be reviewed. Maybe that’s all they needed! I like Scribd but I may actually throw a party if any of my books results in a sale. Lots of lookers there…

Blurb: Not the right readers there so I didn’t submit it. But I would if it was a travel or wedding book, a cookbook, or anything with a lot of art in it.

No money yet. It usually takes 90 days, about the time it takes writers to starve.

The bound book is en route, I’m told, from Saline, Michigan, to begin our own marketing. The digital version has been selling very well, mostly to my newsletter folk. I just sent off an ezine article to the major ezine magazine and newsletter editors.  I’ll discuss this later at the blog.

If all of this sounds a bit dull–no bands amarch at the book being salable!–it’s really quite typical. The best noise starts once we get our promotion afoot, and I don’t do that until the bound book is at hand: next week. In the meantime, we’re letting these publishers put their editions out and do any inside promotion they do, and we’re giving them time to let the major houses know the book exists and is ready to sell. 

I’ll provide reviews from time to time. Like at pay day.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

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Looking for something about writing or publishing?

You see that “search for…” box to the right of this blog?

I never paid any attention to it before.  What’s new?

But somebody asked me a while back if I hadn’t blogged about query letters and travel writing, and while I was sure I had, who knows what I said or when? So I typed “query letters” in there and up popped six or so blogs, and presto I found exactly what I vaguely remembered…

I was so amazed that I tried it at a friend’s blog, asked about a wee item she might have mentioned, and there were two blogs from a couple of years back, before I even knew how to spell blog. Good stuff too.

Some days it doesn’t take much to amaze me, particularly as I’m musing about going out for a good lunch and it’s raining! 

Try the searcher–and if the well is dry but you suspect I might know (or could invent) something I should blog about, tell me that too.

Incidentally, I just sent out a newsletter too, and one of its items tells how to post your book on Kindle, with a video to help. You might find some useful stuff at the newsletter archives too.

Enough. I’m hungry enough to brave the Icelandic volcano.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

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When does humor work best in seminars?

You need some of it somewhere or you will bore the poor attendees comatose.

Still, they really want content, substance, meat–and they will welcome humor in that context.

I’ve given at least 1500 seminars, most four hours long, and here’s where it works best for me:

(1) in stories, with the humor directed at a point. That may be 80% of the total. Often foibles I made when I was new–or even yesterday.

(2) if you have the participants introduce themselves, you can often delicately jest with them. Be alert because they will usually open the door.

(3) sometimes I have a “cousin Muldoon” story which is how never, ever to do something, like my cousin Muldoon (upon whom I can usually expand…) These are often (1) above.

(4) rarely, almost never, do I tell jokes, per se, but often there is some core material in a related joke that can be massaged into a point I’m making.

(5) Mostly, be sincere, smile, keep the content easy to grasp, and integrate funny visuals into your presentation.

Any nevers? No pratfall stuff, and I’m a foe of opening your program by banging pie tins or throwing things into the audience. Smile, be friendly, and let humor work its way through your message.

The oldest and best reply in professional speaking to the question: “Must you include humor?” is “Only if you want to get paid.”

They’ll pay you anyway, but they won’t invite you back.

Hope that helps. (It’s not very funny.)

Gordon Burgett

P.S. You may sometimes find humor in my newsletter.

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Sixth and final posting of our new book at a different publisher each day this week: this one at Kindle

I’ve just finished a step-by-step book about how seven solid publishing firms will publish your book almost free and immediately. You can use all seven, several of them, or just one.

It’s called How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days. (For specifics, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.)

The model I have in my mind is somebody’s aunt with a crab apple recipe book that is a family gem that would never, ever see print if she didn’t get the intermediate help, free, to take her words and photos and preserve them in print forever. Unheard of a few years back. Completely doable in about as much time as it takes her to write the book, take the photos, and get the book gathered, proofed, and submitted. 

If you doubt that, I’ve just taken a ready-to-go book and created eight different editions of that book, half selling right now, the rest up in a week or so. And being sold by the publishing houses and their distributors! I simply did what your aunt can do.

This is the sixth consecutive blog explaining the book posting at these houses, in this order: Scribd, Smashwords, LSI (LightningSource), Create Space, Lulu, and (today) Kindle. (The topic simply isn’t appropriate for Blurb.)

For the next month or two I will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. If anything unusual happens, I will share it with you.

One unusual happening came from CreateSpace today, where they accepted the interior (text) of the book but need a slightly modified cover (with a bit more bleed). So we will ask our cover genius to bleed a bit and we will send it to them, to get the bound version finalized.

Oddly, today, all went about as well as it usually does with Kindle, except that they too said no (refused to download) the front cover I submitted. I suspect it’s not within the 500-1200 pixel long-edge length dimension they want, so again I will ask the coverman to shrink or stretch it to fit, and I’ll send it too.

The usual difficulties with the Kindle interior. They want a .doc digital format so I took file #2 and subjected it to severe uglifying actions so it would fit on their machine and at least look readable if not dignified. That means removing numbers, footers or headers, most of the size differences in chapter heads, and any charts or graphs. (Thus three useful charts were pruned; readers were sent to special links to see the expunged info).

I saved and retitled this new file (now file#2kindle.doc). Then I posted it and held my breath. They sent back a sample of what the published book will look like. Not bad but a true plain Jane, with the odd indent and left margin deviations popping up to plague me. I wrote down the wincers, and was about to upgrade the file when, to my surprise, it disappeared–and when I found it again, it had been published, sans cover and with oddities! God knows what key I hit. Probably publish! (They also sent a note saying they’d be back in a day or two with their commentary!)   

Kindle uses its own software which means that nothing quite works there, and PDF can’t be used to lock the artwork in place.

Having said that, the submission process could not be easier. It took an hour to refashion the file so it would look less worse than if it hadn’t been done, and then only 20 minutes to get the rest up and ready to sell. Is something out of whack there? 

Where does Kindle hide? See https://dtp.amazon.com.

Thus ends what for some may have been the dullest six-set blog series every served!

Still, if you are eager to put your book out quickly, free, and looking good (as good as any bookstore book) without having to learn any publishing or incur the usual $500-5000 printing gamble, the whole thing is as close to a miracle as I’ve ever seen in publishing since movable type.

And you don’t need my book to do it. But it will sure shorten the path and help decipher the lingo at the respective websites. The trick is to have the files ready to go. Then it’s a breeze.

What do I have ready to be bought at the end of this six-day week? A bound book at LSI, Lulu, and CreateSpace and an e-book at LSI, Lulu, Smashwords, Scribd, and Kindle, plus my own bound and e-book, or 10 books all ready or about ready to be produced or printed and sold literally worldwide (and back-of-the-room).

If these blogs helped, great.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe free! You might check these sites for even greater wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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Fifth posting of a new book to be published six times in a week, this at Lulu

My files of my new book, about you publishing your book free and now, are ready for posting at Scribd, Lulu, CreateSpace, LSI, Smashwords, and Kindle. (It’s simply not suitable for Blurb.)

It has already been posted (copy and cover sent for publishing) at four publishers, in order: Scribd, Smashwords, LSI (LightningSource). and CreateSpace. Today it was sent to Lulu. (All that remains to be posted is Kindle, tomorrow.)

We will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. When each happens and what results.

The book in question is How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days. If you want more details, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

My earlier experiences with Lulu were slow and confusing, though the process itself is fairly simple. It seemed much easier this time (my third posting), in large part because I just read the book I am posting and it told me what to do in what order!

Still, it disappeared once (when I went to review the text file, #2, the PDF bound version). I had to find my account again, and pick up from there. (There’s no personal help at Lulu so if you are lost, boa sorte!)

Then there was the e-book issue again–but I think I figured it out, at last! I posted the bound version, and at the very end it asked if I also wanted to create a download copy (sold as an e-book, digitally). I said yes, it asked the price, and bingo, I’m up in two formats, the second based on the bound text. Hard to beat that.

My bound book costs $19.95 but I ordered my copy at $7.74, plus $3.99 to ship. No royalties on these copies, of course, but I can display it at seminars and speeches and send the interested to Lulu. (The download copy of my book is free to me. That’s kind of like getting to look at your own computer photo free.)

The distribution through Lulu is limited to their world if you use your own ISBN. Lulu does promote you fairly widely at the search engines. And since, by using many of the ancillary publishers I describe in the book (plus your own channels if you also self-publish), you are already getting a huge selling spread, it’s better to use the large Lulu marketing world than not.

Where does Lulu hide? In plain sight, at www.lulu.com.

Again, it’s all fast once you have the book done and the files ready. Even with wee glitches, the whole thing took about 35 minutes. (This blog takes longer.)

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe, free! You might also check one of these sites for even more wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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Fourth posting of a new book to be published six times in a week, this at Create Space

My new book, about you publishing your book free and now, is ready for posting at Lulu, CreateSpace, LSI, Smashwords, Scribd, and Kindle. (It’s simply not suitable for Blurb.)

The first posting was at Scribd, the second, at Smashwords, yesterday it was posted at LSI (LightningSource), and today, at Amazon.com’s CreateSpace.

We will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. When each happens and what results.

The book in question is How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days. If you want more details, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

This posting was fairly easy. I just followed my own book’s instructions and sent them file #2, the .pdf full-book format! Yet nothing’s real easy in “ancillary publishing.” I was almost done typing and pasting in the key section. I needed to copy a short bio to insert where it directed, and as I reduced the CS file, it disappeared! So I had to do it all again. (If I’d just believed my comment to continually save what you post!)

Also, it asks you to categorize the book, but it failed to say to do it just once. So I got in a goofy loop. And it wanted keywords. I put down about 20. It wants five!

Oh well, the rest was sensible and fairly quick. They now have the book to review, and the reviewer will be back in a day or so. What remains is for them to print the book proof, mail it, and await my blessing before they foist my magic, ink-on-paper words on a hungry public. Maybe the book will see light in a week or so.

CreateSpace doesn’t sell e-books; their sister, Kindle, does that for Amazon.com. So I will visit Kindle (the most enigmatic) this coming Tuesday, after Lulu on Monday.

Incidentally, I was musing how long it took LSI to get their e-books up for sale in the “third posting” yesterday. They told me today: in 1-2 weeks the digital version will be up at the retail websites.

And I put the wrong price down at Scribd for the e-book. So it took two minutes to go in and add 95 cents to the list price. (I want it uniform at all the postings so we all sell it for the same amount.)

Where do they hide? See www.createspace.com.

I was asked; the postings take me 60-90 minutes each. It will probably take you longer the first time at bat. That presumes the files are ready to insert.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe, free! You might also check one of these sites for even more wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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Third posting of a new book to be published six times in a week, this at Lightning Source

My new book, about you publishing your book free and now, is ready for posting at Lulu, CreateSpace, LSI, Smashwords, Scribd, and Kindle. (It’s simply not suitable for Blurb.)

The first posting was at Scribd, the second, at Smashwords—and today I am publishing at LSI (LightningSource).

We will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. When each happens and what results.

The book in question is How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days. If you want more details, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

The task at LSI is the most complex of all the postings—and it’s not helped by their confusing website format.

There are four things I want to do with LightningSource. One is so new it’s not in the book we are posting: it’s the submission of a contract addendum that adds my book(s) to those sold in the new Express Book Machines. I have the addendum signed but LSI doesn’t tell where or how to return it! (See my newsletters of April 6 and April 20 [to come] for details here.)

The second item: I just sent the e-book file (file #4) and cover image to be sold through the LSI e-book division. But since they don’t sell to the public, we can’t see it. Trust me. (As I trust them since in fact I have no idea how long it takes them to distribute it to their sellers. But it must be promptly since income returns on schedule some 90 days later.)

The third is the bound book and full cover submission, with my ISBN. This usually incurs set-up fees ($75) but they are waived at present. So I just posted here too: file #2, in PDF. I also requested that the bound book be included in their major distribution program, which costs me $1 a month. So that is in motion. The book takes about a week to get created in POD format, and much longer to get posted in the selling catalogs.

LSI is the major exception to my book’s “free” clause—it is slower than promised too. It also requires me to provide an ISBN number and my own cover. Except for the e-book inclusion: which is free and fast, I think. (But not very profitable.)

The fourth is their ability to send me POD copies of the book within days after I OK the book proof. No additional set-up charges. That means that in addition to selling my book as an “ancillary published” book, I can use the PODs as an in-house stock from which to build my own self-publishing company or perhaps have a quick back-of-the-room stock of my book at presentations, while I’m waiting for a larger rotary press run to arrive (if ever). I’m not ordering the PODs now since my bound book will arrive by May 1 from another printer.

That’s it for now. LSI is a major player and the $1-a-month bound book inclusion is a major ticket to much wider promotion and sales. Two book formats posted today, the EBM (available through LightningSource) almost in process, and back-up POD supplies less than a week away. Whew!

Where do they hide? See www.lightningsource.com.

It’s all fast once you have the book done and the files ready.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe, free! You might also check one of these sites for even more wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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Second posting of a new book to be published six times in a week: now at Smashwords

My new book, about you publishing your book free and now, is ready for posting at Scribd, Lulu, CreateSpace, LSI, Smashwords, and Kindle. (It’s simply not suitable for Blurb.) The first posting was at Scribd, this is at Smashwords.

We will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. When that happens and what results.

The book in question is How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days.” If you want more details, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

The task here is different. Smashwords takes the book in .doc (my #2 file, here modified for Smashwords) and saves it in seven digital languages. So it is very fussy about style, and as usual I failed in my first pass. It found four grievous shortcomings: a copyright page error [mostly I forgot to put in "Smashwords Edition"], a tab error [I knew better but inserted two tabs], a mystical “printed in…” error [that comes four times in the book's context; that can't be changed], and a font size issue [I guess they want even the title page in 12 point].

I sent it through again after changing the problems as best I could, and now it sits in limbo for a week, if they decide to review it at all. So much for fast, but it was free!

Worse yet, there is a new premium catalog at Smashwords that speaks of 90 days or so to get my book listed in their marketing book that big distributors use. The selling part is always a mystery at the ancillary publishers, except when it comes from their own direct sales, which can indeed happen quickly.

Interesting too that if I charge $15 (my standard ebook cost) and it’s bought straight from Smashwords, I earn 81% ($12.13); if it’s sold by one of their affiliates, 67% ($10.06), and if it’s bought from the premium catalog, 42% ($6.38).

That’s it for now. We can’t see it until the magic wand of approval is waved. How could they not accept a gem like this? Especially since I spoke so highly in it of the Smashwords’ honcho! And it tells how and why to use Smashwords.

Stay tuned: www.smashwords.com.

Eager buyers in Bhutan, Borneo, and Boston are on hold here.

It’s still a great new publishing world!

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe, free! You might also check one of these sites for even more wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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First posting of a new book to be published six times in a week: this at Scribd

My new book, about you publishing your book free and now, is ready for posting at Scribd, Lulu, CreateSpace, LSI, Smashwords, and Kindle. (It’s simply not suitable for Blurb.) So up it went yesterday at Scribd, which is the easiest to use but, if history repeats, will sell the least.

We will keep track of all six postings here at the blog. When that happens and what results.

To see the posted book, go to “Gordon Burgett” or “How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days” at www.scribd.com. If you want more details, go to www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

Scribd shows that 45 people viewed the book in about 16 hours. Several were me!

If you open the book up, you can preview an odd assortment of 15 pages of the text, one of them the list of the details of the seven AP sites! Bingo. (My book mostly shows you how to decipher and submit through those sites.)

Was the posting easy? You bet. Except that, duh, I first posted the book at the free site. If you were there for the two minutes it took me to delete that and get it on the store site (meaning paid), you may have lucked out!

All I did was post the text file (I put the cover as the first page), a bit of info, and a description. The last is the most important, so I began with a flattering testimonial by Dan Poynter, a self-publishing guru–so the first thing a potential buyer sees, before the contents and all–is a directive to buy! If that doesn’t scare buyers away, then what the book is about follows.

Incidentally, I used File #4 here, the e-book pdf file designed just for this use, as I explain in the book.

This is a perfect example of my book’s title in action. Here’s a full book available to buy in maybe two minutes after I found the bookstore posting link. It cost me nada, nothing, and I will receive 80% or so in royalties per sale. The moment it was on the site, the book was being sold in the farthest corners of Bhutan and Bulgaria, plus Boise.

It’s a great new publishing world!

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. I talk a lot more about this at my newsletter. Take a look, or do the daring and subscribe, free! You might also check one of these sites for even more wonders: www.gordonburgett.com or www.ancillarypublishing.com.

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Seven things that will help your book sell well…

1. The book’s title must make its potential buyers eager to read its contents,

2. Its title and cover must at least imply the benefits the book’s contents will bring—or the needs it will meet,

3. Its cover must look professional and clearly display the title and those benefits/needs,

4. The book must be thick enough to at least suggest that it is worth its price, but not so thick it will scare off those who must read it,

5. The book’s price must be in line with its perceived or imagined content and benefits,

6. The book must be well written, fully proofed, reliably researched, look like other bookstore books inside and out, and contain information, a story, or a supported theme, and

7. The experience of reading the book must be positive and worth the time, energy, and cost required.

Said differently, if you are writing a book that you want others to buy, you must create a book that shouts to be bought. It must be printed in a professional-looking manner. Find something worth saying, and say it well. Never underestimate the value of a title that captures all in “let-me-at-it” prose, and make the cover exude class and provoke irresistible curiosity.
________

This is an excerpt from my free newsletter, coming out on April 6. It is from my new book now out digitally. The bound books will sell about April 20. Called How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days, there is more information at www.mybookpublishedinminutes.com.

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