Why Your Book Deserves a Business Plan

Why are you writing a book? You want it to be read, right? If that isn't your goal, then you can stop reading now. But if you do want to sell books, there is something you can do to help get them into the hands (or e-readers) of your target audience. Create a book business plan. While CreateSpace, the darling of Amazon, advises that a business plan be developed after the manuscript is written, you will be better served by working on a plan as soon as you come up with a book idea. If you have already begun writing the book, don’t give up on a business plan. The plan can be beneficial at any point, but the sooner you work on it, the better it can assist you.

The business plan enables you to look at your book as a business, and not just a creative exercise. No matter how you decide to publish, a book is a product that needs to be sold. The plan can help you determine if your book idea can actually sell. It will also help keep you focused on your reader and target market.

The key points of a book business plan include honing in on what your book is about; determining who your target market is; conducting market research; exploring publishing options; estimating resources needed to complete and market your book; and examining distribution, promotion and sales channels. Let's look at each of these.

1) What is your book about? You must be able to describe this succinctly.

2) Who is your target market? It is not “everybody”! Not a book has been written that absolutely everyone wants to read. Is your audience male, female, both? Children? What age range? Fiction or nonfiction? You need to know who you are writing for in order to appeal to them as buyers.

3) Market research will help you identify what competition exists for your book. What makes your book different from what is already out there?

4) How do you intend to get published? Will you approach a traditional publishing company? Does your subject matter lend itself to local or regional publishing houses, or university presses? Or are you going to set up an independent publishing company? How you answer this question may influence the way your book is written.

5) It is important to know how much it will cost to publish your book. While a traditional publisher may cover all of the expenses involved in getting a book into the marketplace, other options may require you to pay some or all of the expenses. You will need to think about the costs involved for editing, book design, printing and/or ebook development, and marketing expenses. These all add up quickly, and knowing what you will have to pay out of pocket can help you determine if the book makes sense from an economic standpoint.

6) What is the best way to get your book into the hands of your target audience? You need to have a plan for marketing and distributing the book. Where does your target market shop? Retail stores? Specialty stores? Online? This goes back to having a clearly defined answer to number 2 above. Don’t forget the power of your own networks - family, friends, co-workers, and all of your contacts on social media.

Once complete, have other people review your business plan. They may have suggestions and ideas you haven't considered. And remember that the plan isn't set in stone. It will evolve along the way. Give your book its best chance for success by developing a business plan!

A Little Bit of History

The Novel Neighbor

Yesterday a group from the Missouri History Museum took a bus tour in St. Louis, learning about the history of printing and publishing in this area. The tour ended at a local bookstore, The Novel Neighbor, which recently celebrated its one year anniversary. The tour organizer thought it would be interesting to add a segment on self-publishing, so she asked me to come and speak to the group at the bookstore. It was quite convenient for me as the store is located about a mile from my house.

There were 28 tour-goers crammed into a craft/meeting room in the back of the bookstore. Because my presentation was only 30 minutes, I did not need to use any audio-visual equipment fortunately. There would have been no room to set up a projector. I began my talk by asking if anyone knew what the following books had in common:

 A. A Time to Kill by John Grisham

B. What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles

C. In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

D. The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Morrow

E. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

F. The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

G. The Plant by Stephen King

H. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

J. The Martian by Andy Weir

Following suggestions that the authors were all from Missouri, or the books were all best sellers, someone correctly guessed that all of these books were originally self-published. And these authors were in good company, as Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Martin Luther and Walt Whitman also self-published their books. This sort of information certainly makes people think of self-publishing in a different light.

My talk covered the evolution of self-publishing, why authors self-publish, pros and cons of self-publishing, how to self-publish a book, and how I got my three books into print/ebook format. I wrapped things up by discussing the recent trends in publishing before taking questions, of which there were few. I think this topic is far removed from what the group usually encounters on their tours, but I hope some of them found it to be interesting.

It was good preparation for me as I get ready for the next community college class on November 7th. The St. Louis Publishers Association is again offering a four hour workshop on book publishing. This time instead of just being the organizer of the class and moderator for the day, I will be covering the section on getting your book into print and into the marketplace. The workshop is always very well-received, and I look forward to working with the students twice a year.

Getting Your Book Published

book publishing class

Last weekend the St. Louis Publishers Association again offered the class "Getting Your Book Published: What You Need to Know" at the Meramec campus of St. Louis Community College. This is the fourth or fifth time we have done this, and the student reviews are quite positive. My role is pretty simple: I coordinate with the community college and moderate the four hour class, keeping things moving and offering comments as appropriate. After first having the students introduce themselves and tell what they are writing about, the following topics are covered: traditional publishing versus self-publishing, getting a book into print, book design, ebooks, and getting a book into the marketplace.

It is a lot of material to cover in four hours, but our goal is to get writers thinking about what they will do with their books once they are finished writing. We also offer resources on where they can find more information about publishing, including how to evaluate legitimate services versus the companies who are out to take advantage of new authors. As always, we had an interesting group of students who asked great questions, and it was a joy to take part in the class again this year. Hopefully a few of them will come to an upcoming St. Louis Publishers Association meeting, where they can find many people who are willing to share their own experiences in publishing or working with authors. If there is a similar organization in your town, I highly recommend checking them out.

Publishing Your Own Book

Kim Wolterman kicks off the class

The St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) offers a book publishing class through our local community college once or twice a year. I usually organize the class and then serve as the moderator, also throwing in my two cents worth when warranted. Our most recent class was a full house, with thirty writers signed up. I like to ask each person to give their name and a short sentence or two on what they are writing about before the class gets started. I think it is fun to see the genres people are writing about, and it also offers an opportunity for folks to connect with other attendees who might be writing about a similar topic.

Over the course of four hours we cover traditional versus independent publishing, getting your book into print, book design, ebooks and how to get your book into the marketplace. It is a lot of material to cover in the short amount of time we have, but the purpose is to give an overview of the whole process of what to do once you have written your book. From our perspective as an organization, we want to make sure that authors know about our monthly meetings. All of the topics covered in the class, and more, are discussed throughout the year. For all of us, the SLPA was the place where we learned what to do next and made the connections to get the steps done. If you are a writer, check to see if there is a publishers association in your area. The help and support you receive will be invaluable.

Who Inspired You to Write?

Writing is something that I have enjoyed doing for as long as I can remember. I liked the writing assignments in school, and usually thanked God for the essay questions on tests as they almost always brought my scores up. And I was one of those weird kids who actually loved to diagram sentences. The English programs in both my junior high and senior high schools were very strong, and I had some excellent teachers along the way.

Jerry Wadden

Most memorable, though, was Jerry Wadden. Mr. Wadden taught A.S.P. English, which I took my senior year in high school. It was an advanced placement class, and I will never forget the first day in his classroom. He laid down the law about how hard the class would be, the number and difficulty of the assignments we would be required to complete, and the rules of his classroom. A number of students immediately dropped the class, and I am not going to lie - I considered doing so myself. After all, it was senior year. Did I really want to work so hard for a class that was not even required for graduation? Obviously, I stuck with it, and it was one of the smartest decisions I ever made in my educational process.

While the class did require a lot of work, it truly made us think and question as young nearly-adults. And my writing skills grew exponentially in his class. Mr. Wadden was a fair teacher, but he pushed us to be critical thinkers and writers. And he was very supportive of those of us who were going on to college.

A year or so ago a classmate gave me Mr. Wadden's email address, and we have since been corresponding. He remembered an impressive amount of information about me, including where I had been planning to go to college and what I was going to major in. Surely he must have kept note cards on his students? I was grateful to have the opportunity to be able to thank him for the impact he has had on my life. He was not surprised that I have authored books and have my own publishing company.

My 40th class reunion is this summer, and I have invited Jerry (as he insists that I call him - it still feels awkward to do so) to join us. He is planning to attend, and I can't wait to see him. There are some things that are better expressed in person. My speech teacher Mr. Springer will be there as well. He is another man who shaped the type of college student and later employee that I would become. I owe him a thanks as well.

Who inspired you to write?

Thinking about Writing a Book?

Have you been thinking about writing a book? Most people that I talk to say, "I want to write a book!" when I tell them what I do. Having published three books, I would encourage you to look first at why you want to write a book. Because it is on your bucket list? Because you seek fame and fortune? Because no one else has written on the subject you are passionate about?

The second thing you need to consider quite seriously is who is your audience? Despite what you might think, the answer is not "Everybody!" Even the Bible is not read by everybody. If you intend to make money from your book, then it is important to know who will buy it. Because the reality is that writing a book takes an enormous investment of time and energy, not to mention expense. Yes, there are ways to minimize the cost of producing a book but there is no way to generate a quality book for free.

Because I write books that are geared towards a very specific, niche market I know that my books will not make me rich. Or get me on any best-seller list. And I am okay with that, because I think they contain information that is useful to the market for whom they are intended. But that also means I am going to be smarter about how I approach my books in the future. For example, I have been researching John Murdoch for several years, and have a sizable amount of information and documentation about his life in St. Louis from 1838 until 1880 when he died. But I have to ask myself a) is it enough for a book and, b) who is the audience for the book?

At this point I believe a print book is out of the question due to all of the expenses involved. An ebook might be a possibility, except that I would want to include the maps, deeds of trusts, plats and other documents that really help to tell the story of John Murdoch and early St. Louis history. Ebooks are not quite there yet, with the exception of those in PDF or Apple  product formats.

Gateway Magazine

What I am considering at this point is submitting a story for possible publication in Gateway, the magazine of the Missouri History Museum. On their website they offer submission guidelines, but I also wanted to see the actual magazine to get a feel for what their articles look like. Unfortunately they do not have any past issues online, so I went to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park yesterday to purchase a copy. What I found in looking at the magazine is that it is only published once per year. I suspect the 2014 issue will be chock full of articles about the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis, so it might be difficult to be published this year. But I believe I can put a spin on the article to make it fit. After all, Murdoch was an early settler in St. Louis.

So if you have a story but are not sure that it is ready to be told in a book, I would encourage you to look at newspapers or magazine as an option for publication. It gets your story out there, and you can gauge interest in your topic to help you determine if a book is something to consider down the road.

While I was at the Missouri History Museum, of course I had to photograph their Cakeway to the West (as well as a few others in Forest Park). If you are unfamiliar with the cake project or all of the other activities taking place in St. Louis this year, head on over to stl250.org.

Missouri History Museum

City Corner Update

The show that we taped about book writing and publishing has not aired yet. However they do have the YouTube video posted. Here is the City Corner episode. Enjoy!

Introduction to Publishing

Peggy Nehmen and Kim Wolterman

On Saturday the St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) held a four hour workshop on how to publish a book. Our first class was offered in March of this year and was so successful that we decided to have another one in the fall. Part of the mission of the SLPA is outreach, and we used to conduct mini-workshops at local Borders stores every Saturday in March during Small Press Month. With the demise of Borders, we looked for other opportunities to help authors understand their options when it comes time to publish their books. Working with the local community college seemed like a great alternative for us.

In addition to making arrangements for the class, I served as the moderator and of course added my two cents worth when appropriate. We began the class with Warren Martin of Little Elephant Publishing giving an overview of traditional publishing versus going the independent publishing route. Pros and cons of each were discussed. Linda Austin of Moonbridge Publications covered how to get books into print and into stores. Her presentation was followed up by Peggy Nehmen of Nehmen-Kodner Graphic Design. Peggy provided information on why it is important to make sure a book looks good inside and out. Because ebooks are such a large part of book consumption these days, Bob Baker discussed the most widely used ebook services and distributors. Last but certainly not least, Tim Hill provided an informational and entertaining look at how to get books into the marketplace. We wrapped the program up with personal stories on what marketing techniques have worked best for us in the past.

This was a lot of information to cover in four hours, but I think we provided a good overview of the publishing process and gave the attendees guidance on where they can go for help.

Writing Family History

Saturday I attended an all day workshop on writing your family history. The St. Louis Genealogical Society offered the class, and the woman who taught it expressed surprise when I arrived. "What are you doing here?" She is aware that I have authored other books, but as I said to her I have never written a family history. Unlike a memoir where you can draw upon your own experiences, memories and stories, writing about people you have never met presents a challenge for me. How do you take the mundane statistics of birth, marriage, death, etc. and turn it into something people will want to read? Because if no one wants to read it, then what is the point?

Unfortunately that wasn't covered on Saturday. It was mostly about the physical structure of your family history book in terms of how it will look. I learned a bit about formatting, printing, building an audience, etc., so I am glad that I attended the workshop. But I need to know more about the actual writing process so that the book will be an enjoyable read. Most of the people at the meeting were only concerned about getting a book put together with all of their collected data so that they can share it with family members. I know how much work goes into getting a book into print, so I would like to make mine something more than so and so begat so and so. I think looking at examples of some family histories will be of benefit to me, so that is my next step.

What I learned Publishing My First Book

authors Tim Hill, Kim Wolterman & Warren Martin

Last night I participated in a panel discussion about the good, the bad and the ugly of publishing your own book at the monthly meeting of the St. Louis Publishers Association. I was joined by children's book author Tim Hill and fiction writer Warren Martin. Since I write non-fiction we had the most common genres covered. It was a lively discussion! There were many new faces in the audience, and they had a lot of questions. It is so fascinating to me to hear people talk about the topic of their books. So many stories...

We each discussed our experiences with the actual writing process of the book, editing, design, printing options and distribution channels we have used. All of us agreed that it is best to use a professional for the editing and design functions, and not do these things yourself or with the help of amatuers. Too much is riding on how your book will be viewed and accepted. Warren found out the hard way when he hired a cut-rate editor for his book, and negative reviews began appearing on Amazon due to grammatical errors. The blessing of using Amazon is that he was able to quickly take the book down, have it re-edited, and upload the revision. He didn't have 1,000 books sitting in his garage that he would not be able to sell.

The three of us have very different ways of getting our books sold. As a children's author, Tim spends a lot of time in schools and sells his books directly to his target audience. Warren finds that most of his book sales come from Internet sales, whether through Amazon or his own website. While I do sell some books online and through presentations, the majority of my sales come through specialty shops.

I still think the best advice I ever received was to write a book proposal. I know most writers balk at this, especially if they are going to go the independent publishing route. But creating a proposal forces you to really look at why you are writing the book in the first place. Who is your audience? What other books are your competition, and what makes your book different from the others in the market? Where will you find your audience? How will you sell to them? For more on why you should write a book proposal, check out my slide presentation on the topic.

Writing a Book - Who Cares?

Today I met with a woman who is considering writing a book about the history of her community. Because she knows that I have published several niche books, she asked me if I would share my experiences with her. One thing I firmly believe in as an author and a publisher is that we should help other writers out. So many wonderful people helped me along the way that I feel the least I can do is provide the same sort of support to others traveling the strange and sometimes scary path of putting a book together.

Who cares?

Those of us who write non-fiction have to ask ourselves a really hard question: Who cares? Does anyone care about the subject of our book? More than that, do enough people care so that the book will sell a sufficient number of copies to make the publication of it worthwhile? It is something I have struggled with since I came up with the idea for my first book. Because the topic was not just researching house history, but instead was specific to researching houses in St. Louis County, Missouri, I knew that I was severely limiting my potential audience. And I was asked more that once why I did not just do a generic book on house research. The answer was simple in my mind. There are already several books in the market on researching the history of your house, so there was no point in going generic. And more importantly, there was no guide for researching in St. Louis. To research a home in St. Louis County is a very painful, drawn out process. My book needed to be specific in order to really benefit researchers in my area. In the end I believed that just because I was not going to sell thousands of books did not mean my book should not be written.

The same was true of my second book about my dad's service in WWII. Is there a huge market for this book? No, but the historical photos and documents my dad left behind needed to be placed somewhere that people could enjoy and learn from them and not simply be left in an old cigar box.

My advice is that you need to ask yourself why you are writing the book, and who is your intended audience. Who cares? Once you know that, you can make the decision on whether to go forward or not. I leave you with this extremely funny video about writing a book.

Publishing University 2013

Friday and Saturday I attended Publishing University, a day and a half workshop sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association, which was held in Chicago. I previously attended Pub U in 2010 as a scholarship recipient. On that occasion it took place in New York. Since Chicago is an easy drive from St. Louis as well as a more economical city in general compared to New York, I decided to attend this year. Another woman from the St. Louis Publishers Association and I drove over together and shared a room. Additionally there were two other members of our organization who were there as well.

Guy Kawasaki

The opening speaker on Friday was Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist for Apple computers as well as a published author. His new book Ape (subtitled Author Publisher Entrepreneur) was released recently, so he shared his experiences in getting it ready to go to the printer. He had hundreds of beta readers go through the book before turning it over to a couple of trusted reviewers. Then he gave it to an editor. She came back with over 1,400 errors! As they say, you can never have too many eyes looking at your book. He joked that the name of his book can be a noun or a verb. "I aped my book!" He was very entertaining as well as full of helpful suggestions, so that certainly started the conference off on a good note.

Publishing University vendors

Up next was a general session on publishing trends and best practices, followed by one on eBook sales and their buyers. The last general session was Inventory on Demand, and the public's expectation to buy it and get it now. Your book needs to be listed In Stock and available for shipment, or you will lose the sale. I followed those up with a breakout session on meta data that was over my head, but then attended one on secrets to selling more books on Amazon. That speaker was awesome, and offered up solid numbers on book pricing and return on investment. The day wrapped up with a reception in the exhibit hall.

Dan Poynter

Saturday began bright and early with a book promotion session with Dan Poynter at 7:00 a.m. I was thrilled to meet Dan back in 2010 at Publishing University. His book on self-publishing got me through the process of setting up my publishing company and producing my books. I refer to Dan as my book's birthing coach. My favorite quote from Dan this year was, "I never said promoting your books would be easy. I just said it would be worth it." Dan was followed by an eBook production and distribution panel, and we learned that eBooks account for 30% of book sales today. Online retailers want to carry every book that is available, so the problem is no longer one of distribution but rather one of discoverability. Amen to that!

My first breakout session was on marketing strategies for finding new readers, and I didn't pick up too much there. Next I went to one on promoting your books to online communities. Key takeaway is that the average Facebook user has 133 friends, so use your friends to get them to spread the word about your books to their friends. Following the luncheon I listened to marketing strategies for reaching a niche market. Find out what the reader's problem is and tell them how you can solve it. For the last session of the day I went to the panel discussion on tips from authors who are with small publishers but have large sales. It was an inspirational hour and fifteen minutes. And who doesn't love a cowboy writing historical western romance novels?

Reid Lance Rosenthal

We were on the road back home by 5:00, making for a very long day. I met some very interesting people, learned a lot of new tips, and feel re-energized about my company and my writing. A winner all the way around.

Getting Your Book Published

Kim Wolterman, Getting Your Book Published

On Saturday the St. Louis Publishers Association held a four hour workshop on what authors need to know about publishing. Held at the St. Louis Community College Meramec Campus, the course covered traditional versus self-publishing, getting your book into print and the marketplace, making your book look good from a design standpoint, eBooks and book marketing. We had 27 attendees of all ages and writing backgrounds, and they certainly had a lot of wonderful questions. It is always fun to hear what other people are writing about, and this group was no exception. I am hoping that we see some of them at future St. Louis Publishers Association meetings!

Questions to Ask a Book Coach or Ghost Writer

Kim Wolterman & Bobbi Linkemer

Today I am excited to share a guest post by Bobbi Linkemer discussing things to consider when approaching a book coach or ghost writer for your book. Bobbi and I met in 2007 when I took her class on writing and publishing non-fiction books at the community college. She became my mentor as I wrote and published my first book, and she has some great advice for writers.

What to Do Before You Meet with a Book Coach or Ghostwriter

by Bobbi Linkemer

Thinking about writing a book is romantic. You have a message to convey, or you know a lot about a particular subject, or you are certain your own life story would inspire others. Maybe people have been telling you for years, "Oh, you really should write a book!"  

Perhaps you have also read that publishing a book is easier now than it has ever been, which is good news for fledgling authors. If you are really excited about writing a book, you may just sit down and begin. On the other hand, you may realize that you could use a little direction. 

 

So, you surf the Web, looking for a book-writing coach or ghostwriter; the search engine provides you with many choices. You explore, choose one, and call or email that person with your idea.  Everything I have just described is almost intuitive. You have an idea, you need help, you Google the kind of help you need, and you follow up.   

As a book coach and ghostwriter, I meet with many aspiring authors whom, at first, are overwhelmed by the whole writing-publishing-promoting process. Trying to grasp all the steps involved in bringing a book to fruition can be daunting. My advice: Be prepared. Before you meet (by phone, on Skype, or in person) with the book expert you have chosen, do your homework. 

Then, you can participate in a two-way conversation about your book and your goals instead of swimming around in a sea of confusion. If you invest your time and energy on the front end, you are more likely to find your first meeting not only educational but also energizing.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:  

1. Am I really committed to this project?

It's no exaggeration to say you have to be in love with your idea, because it takes real love, not to mention a long attention span, to see this through to the end. Pick up any book you like and think about what went into creating it. 

 

2. What kind of help do I need? 

Here, the answer is fairly straightforward. If you want to write your own book or have written it and want it polished and readied for print, you need an editor. If you want to write your own book but want someone to hold your hand all the way through it, you need a book coach. If you have a solid idea but don't want to write it, for whatever reason, you need a ghostwriter.

  

3. Is my idea solid enough for a book?

There is a way to find out, short of writing a full-blown book proposal: Answer ten basic questions. If you give them serious thought and research the ones you don't know, you should have a pretty good idea of whether you have a viable book idea. It is better know up front than after you have written the whole thing. 

 

4. Do I understand the book-writing process?

There are six steps involved in taking a book from concept to completion. Each one is important—a link in the chain. If you are unfamiliar with these steps, read a book on the subject. There are many books on Amazon and in the public library. Here is one suggestion: How to Write a Nonfiction Book: From planning to promotion in 6 simple steps.  

5. Where am I in that process?

Once you have a sense of the six steps, you will be able to identify where you are and whether you have missed any steps along the way. Many new authors begin on the second step, which is writing. That means you haven't worked your way through planning, which is essential. Read up on planning to see why you should do it first.  

6. How do I want to publish my book?

This question may seem premature if you are at the beginning of the process, but it is something to think about. As you may have read, you do have several options. The two main ones are traditional publishing and self-publishing. Within each, there are more choices, but it's a good idea to choose one of these alternatives for starters. 

 

7. Do I have a budget? How much can I afford to spend?

If you have no idea of the costs associated with book coaching, ghostwriting, or editing, this can be a difficult area for you; but if you have a ballpark figure in mind, it will help. Suggestion: Start at $5,000, just to be on the safe side, though ghostwriting fees will be higher.  

8. Am I willing to spend months of time marketing my book?

Writing a book is only half the equation; the other half is publishing and promotion. No matter how you publish your book—traditionally or by yourself—you are responsible for promotion. A traditional publisher may provide some marketing assistance, but ultimately, either you get the word out or your book remains a well-kept secret. 

These questions are important for your own understanding, as well as to prepare you for meeting with the expert you have selected. A book coach, ghostwriter, or editor would ask the same questions. Without advanced preparation, you probably wouldn't be able to answer them. Now, you can; and even if you don't end up working with this person, you will both gain something from your conversation.   

About Bobbi Linkemer

Bobbi Linkemer is a ghostwriter, editor, and the author of 16 books under her own name. She has been a professional writer for 40 years, a magazine editor and journalist, and a book-writing teacher. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies to individuals who want to write books to enhance their credibility and build their businesses.

http://www.WriteANonfictionBook.com

bobbi@writeanonfictionbook.com

314-968-8661

Working with CreateSpace

In a previous post I talked about the fact that Amazon does not always play nicely with others in the publishing sandbox. Take my book Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? Researching a St. Louis County, Missouri Home as an example. I published this book in 2009, using a local printer in St. Louis. While Amazon.com is aware that the book exists, it shows up as follows:

Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? Amazon page

The page indicates that two copies of the book are available from third-party sellers for $99.35 each! And they are used copies at that!

If you want to sell books on Amazon, there are ways to get around this issue. You can set up your own store on Amazon to sell the books, or you can go through their Advantage program and have them sell and ship the books for you. There are pros and cons to both of these options, which you can read about here. Since I don't want to get involved in shipping books, either directly to the buyer or to Amazon itself, I elected to go through their CreateSpace option to get Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? available on Amazon. In this scenario you set up a CreateSpace account, upload your book and its cover, and the books are printed and shipped by Amazon as they are ordered. There are no fees involved for creating an account or setting up your title unless you opt to use any of their services.

Because I had already printed my book in the past, I had PDFs of both the cover design and the interior of the book readily available. It was extremely easy to walk through the steps provided on the CreateSpace website to upload the book and the cover. Their system advised me of two possible problems with my book's interior (both involving low photo resolution) and gave me the option to fix those before continuing. At this point the ball is in their court as I await their review. Following approval, they will send me a printed copy of the book for my review. Assuming it looks good, the book will go live on their website. I am not anticipating huge sales due to the narrow scope of the book, but it is nice to have an alternative place for people to be able to buy the book.

The most interesting thing about the whole process this morning? When I completed the uploading I was immediately taken to a page to set the book up on Kindle Direct Publishing as an ebook. Another great marketing strategy by Amazon! Because I have already published the ebook Keys to Unlocking House History, I probably will not set Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? up as an ebook as well. But it certainly seems like it would be simple to accomplish.

For now I wait to see what the folks at CreateSpace come back with - hopefully I won't be eating my words about how easy this has been!

My Next Book?

1868 Map of St. Louis County

Over on my personal blog I have been writing about the fact that I am researching a house in Shrewsbury, Missouri. The land that the house is located on, and in fact all of Shrewsbury itself, was once Murdock (or Murdoch) Farm. What little has been written about John J. Murdock always states that he was a general in the Civil War. This, of course, makes for a good story. But being a genealogist first and a house researcher second, I have been trying to find records that prove Murdock was indeed a general. So far, after thorough research, I can't even find him fighting in the Civil War at all much less as an officer. I am now on a mission to debunk the "general" theory.

So why I am talking about this over on this blog? Well, John Murdock has kind of grabbed me by the throat. He is mine now, and his family tree sits beside my own on my ancestry.com site. I have found that he was quite an influential man in early St. Louis history. He has a fascinating story, even without the "general" status. Is there enough for a book, or will there be when I am done with my research? And more importantly as a publisher, will anyone care enough to buy the book? Can I sell enough copies to recoup my costs? All good questions that require answers.

Show Me the Blogged Book

A while back I was asked by Danyelle Little, aka The Cubicle Chick, to be a speaker at the Show Me the Blog conference in October. I can't believe I have not blogged about this before now. I think it is because speakers were offered a badge to put on their websites to show that they are speaking at this event, and I have yet to be able to figure out how to get Blogger to accept the badge. Techy, I am not! Obviously I was able to figure out how to copy and paste the image here, but it's not quite the same thing.

At any rate, as someone who has attended the past two Show Me the Blog meetings (you can find my review of last year's sessions here) and been blown away by all the great information imparted, I was thrilled to be asked to present. Danyelle would like for me to talk about how to turn a blog into a book. While I haven't precisely taken what I have blogged about and published it into a book, I did begin to blog about my book's topic (how to research the history of a house) before my first book was written. And I certainly know a lot about book publishing by this point. I think I have a lot to share, and am excited for this wonderful opportunity.

You can find my Featured Speaker interview with Danyelle here.

Amazon Follow-up

Keys to Unlocking House History

Once the red haze cleared from my eyes over Amazon implying that I had either a) stolen another author's work and put my own name on it, or b) gathered up a bunch of free material on the Internet and placed it in a book to call my own, I turned to Google to see who else had been put in a similar situation. As it turns out I had plenty of company. In fact in the Kindle Direct Publishing forum there was quite a lively discussion that had taken place. I had to sort out the responders who were throwing around comments about KDP Select (another program entirely where you do agree to have your book listed ONLY with Amazon for a set period of time) but I finally found a couple of authors who explained what they had successfully done to satisfy Amazon that they were, indeed, the authors of the books in question.

Basically you need to relay to Amazon all places on the Internet where you have the book listed for sale and/or have published excerpts from your book. One author went above and beyond and just gave them the urls to all of her online social media. That seemed like a good plan to me - if they wanted urls, they were going to get urls. So here is my response back to Amazon:

Hello,

In response to your inquiry regarding Keys to Unlocking House History, I am the author of this ebook, which is an original work. The book is sold and/or mentioned at the following websites:
http://myhousehistory.net/
http://writeformation.blogspot.com/
http://kimwolterman.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=hb_tab_pro_top
https://twitter.com/#!/compostqueen
http://www.facebook.com/kimwolterman
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Kim_Wolterman
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/62244
http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/kim-wolterman/keys-to-unlocking-house-history/_/R- 400000000000000444927
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Keys-to-Unlocking-House-History/book-RVvhhafv9EqIvA_fb4KoiA/page1.html?s=zf4QceoyoUmJgTHJ-WQbwg&r=1
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/SW00000062244/Wolterman-Kim-Keys-to-Unlocking-House-History/1.html
http://provenancepublishing.com/provenance-publishing-store.php
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keys-to-unlocking-house-history-kim-wolterman/1104223740?ean=2940011387999

Please let me know if you have any further concerns about this title.

Kim Wolterman
Owner of Provenance Publishing LLC
Author of Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)?
Researching a St. Louis County, Missouri Home;
Keys to Unlocking House History; and
From Buckeye to G.I. LeRoy C. Kubler The War Years, 1942-1945

From what I have read it can take one to two weeks to receive a reply back from Amazon. In the meantime you just pray that they don't take your book down until they make their decision. Amazon will have you believe that they are doing this to protect the rights of authors, and to make sure that people aren't just scraping up wiki material on the web and turning it into a book for profit. The Amazon conspiracy theorists believe that this is another attempt by Amazon to try to get authors to only lists their books for sale on Amazon. I suspect there is some truth in both opinions. Another lesson learned in this new world of publishing. Stay tuned for how I make out with the Goliath.
 

Amazon is at it Again!

As I have mentioned in the past, I wrote an ebook entitled Keys to Unlocking House History, and it is available through smashwords.com and on Amazon through their Kindle Direct Publishing subsidiary. The ebook sells much better, relatively speaking, on Amazon. When I got home from the St. Louis Publishers Association meeting tonight, which was a great discussion about social media, I found this waiting to ambush me in my email inbox.

Hello,

During a review of your catalog, we found that one or more of your titles contain content that is freely available on the web.  Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright holder has their work claimed and sold by anyone else.

Keys to Unlocking House History (ASIN:B005UD7UWI)

If, in fact, you are the sole owner of the publishing rights for the books listed above, please provide the URLs for all websites where you have previously published this or any other Kindle content. Please respond within five business days with the requested URLs so we can verify you have the sole publishing rights, or the books will be removed from sale in the Kindle Store. If the content of your book(s) are in the public domain, please confirm this and include the information you used to make this determination.

If you have already unpublished the books listed above, please reply with that information.  We ask that you unpublish any other book that closely matches content that is freely available on the web for which you do not hold the sole publishing rights, or whose content is not in the public domain.  If we discover any other titles you have submitted fail to comply with these conditions or do not meet our Content Guidelines in any other way, your account may be terminated.

Instructions on how to unpublish your books can be found here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A36BYK5S7AJ2NQ#3-2_Can_I_remove_content_unpublish

If you have any questions regarding the review process, you can write to us at kdp-quality@amazon.com. To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/contact-us

Best Regards,
Amazon KDP

I don't even know how to respond to this. First of all, I must do so within five days, so the pressure is on. Second, I haven't published this information anywhere else on the web. Why would I have written a book if I had already put it all out on the Internet? So how do I prove I wrote this ebook if I cannot provide any urls to them? It reminds me of that old joke "When did you stop beating your wife?" There is no good way to answer the question. Time to Google the problem and see what other authors say. I can't believe I am the first to receive this email. I will report back with the resolution.

Can You Make Money Self-Publishing?

Self-Published Books

There is still a lot debate about whether an author should go the traditional route with publishing, or should instead self-publish. One of the arguments against self-publishing is that you incur all the expenses of writing, editing, designing, printing and distributing your book. That is all true. But you also get to keep most if not all of the book sales, depending on your method of distribution. Here is a compelling post by Joe Konrath about how he has done after leaving the traditional publishing world and embarking on the path to self-publishing. Works for me!