Jennifer Lancaster

December 5, 2016

Choosing a Self-Publishing Platform Ain’t Easy

If you’re in the process of finishing a book and wondering how to self-publish your book or eBook, you might have started doing some research online. Soon you realised that there are so many self-publishing author services, vanity presses, and Print on Demand that you cannot possibly make a clear decision. So it comes back to finding out the opinion of self-published authors who have been through it. CNet’s David Carnoy says: “Royalties are better (with an author services company e.g. CreateSpace) than what “real” publishers offer, but there are caveats, and true self-publishing pros prefer to cut out the subsidy press (which takes a cut) and go straight to a POD printer like Lightning Source to maximize profits.” Note that David chose BookSurge (now CreateSpace) and then shortly after securing an agent (and publicity), went on to get a traditional publisher to…

August 17, 2024

Book Marketing

Creating a Guide for New Clients/Prospects

For those growing their business through content, we mainly think of how writing a book can help us reach readers outside of our network. But what about helping clients and those considering our services? Creating a guide for prospective clients is great for that. Say you sell and customise a software suite that is useful for so many aspects of business — but the competitor marketplace is waffling on about complex features and functions. You can write or compile a guide that helps the business manager understand why the use of certain aspects are important and what results it may bring to their business (i.e. case studies). Another angle is to write about your general solutions to the rising tide of customer expectations… through faster response, instant bookings, service agent chat auto messaging, web lead auto response, etc. (One I wrote was…

November 28, 2016

Self-Publishing

Claim your Public Lending Rights in Australia

Many authors are getting their books into libraries, and so can make a claim to make up for lost royalties because of free lending under the Public Lending Rights Scheme 1997. Did you know… almost 18,000 individual lending right payments totalling over $21 million were paid in 2015-16. So, if you meet the criteria, registering for Public Lending Rights (or ELR, for educational libraries) can be worthwhile. If you can handle some online form-filling, there could be a little money in it for you. (They will survey where your book is found and it needs to be found in 50 libraries, which is quite a few, so this may take quite some time). Title claims for books published 2011 to 2016 are now being accepted until 31 March 2017. Creators can be authors, illustrators, editors or compilers of a work – and…

November 2, 2016

Personal finance and scams

How do you keep Positive when all your Income Streams turn to Custard…?

My dear bloglings, I am so qualified to write this post that it’s not even funny! Circa 2008 – 2010 was tough, tough, tough. Going backwards is never fun. Positive thinking is lambasted, but what I write about is positive psychology and ideas to keep you motivated. I know we’re all trying to put on a brave and successful public face, but at times do you feel like you’re one key client account away from closing shop… or are you royally pissed off at your expensive marketing going nowhere? Been there, wrote the handbook. So, here are four tips for those freakin’ out times (and beforehand). 1. Always have an emergency fund of preferably 3 months’ bills, and when that gets really low, only then look for a credit card with a low interest rate (e.g. 8.99% McGrath Community First…

August 14, 2020

Publicity

Publicity Planning for a Book Launch

Something that many of us non-professional authors struggle with is getting media attention for us and our book, i.e. book publicity planning. First of all, you will need to tick off the fundamentals: Is your book and ebook available in the usual places online: Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and big and bold on your website? Is your book cover professionally designed? Is your book edited to within an inch of its life? Do you have a good story around your book… is it a newsworthy topic right now? Planning some publicity might start with a good ‘book blurb’ and a press release tied in with a newsworthy angle. The book blurb need not be long for this purpose. The places to release or pitch your story to include: Digital magazines: at the bottom of a non-promotional article, e.g. Women in Focus community, BusinessBusinessBusiness.com.au,…

October 24, 2016

Self-Publishing

Why do I need an ISBN?

An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number, and it identifies a book format and title to all booksellers, readers and libraries. It is not a book cost which you should cut from your plans. While you can choose to publish privately for company profiles, client guides, etc, having an ISBN opens up your book to be ready for purchase through traditional book retailers, online bookstores, libraries and book finder tools. (See my favourite book price checker, https://booko.com.au/ – try a book search on your own book.) The Benefits of Using an ISBN Having an ISBN assigned to your title enables you to obtain a CiP (Catalogue in Publication) entry from the Australian National Library. This in turn means that your book can contain data helpful for librarians when cataloguing your book. ISBNs are the global standard for identifying titles. ISBN 13s are used worldwide…