Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Start Your Own Publishing Company and Still Have Bookstore Distribution!

Ellen Reid, book shepherd, is our guest author today. Ellen Reid is an expert in the publishing industry and works with authors to get their books published with their own independent publishing company.  We are interviewing Ellen on Tuesday, September 30 and invited you to join us...it's free! Registration details here.

Start Your Own Publishing Company and Still Have Bookstore Distribution!
By Ellen Reid

You've decided that, for a number of good reasons ranging from keeping control over your material to keeping a far bigger slice of the profit pie, you are going to publish your own book. How hard could it be? That will be up to you to decide. However, I really do question whether an author-any author-is the best person to tackle the various tasks involved in creating their own book alone.

You may be saying, oh sure, Ellen is saying that because if we did it on our own she would be out of business. Let me assure you that for every person who really thinks they can do it there are ten who don't want to try. So give me the benefit of the doubt and assume I'm the really nice person I am, and I'm trying to save you a little money, a lot of time, and a boatload of frustration.

Book Publishing Secrets: Get the Inside Scoop

What does book publishing have to do with Internet marketing, you ask? Everything! Just about every service professional we know, wants to publish a book. More often than not, it's not about being a published author and selling a gazillion books. It's about the credibility a book brings to the professional and their business. It's also about having a tangible product to give away or sell at speaking gigs and conferences. Oh yeah, and sell and promote online, too!

We also run the Blog to Book Project, helping professionals use a blog to write and market their book. To that end, we're always on the look out for experts to interview who can bring new insights and expertise to our author/clients.

Last month we met Ellen Reid, a book shepherd. We liked her so much that we invited her to speak to our Blog to Book authors and members of our Blogging and Beyond Mentor Program. Then, we decided to open the event up to everyone. So you're invited to learn...

The Inside Story on Book Publishing
Get the Scoop on What You Need to Know to Get Your Book Published

Twitter Comes Through Again

I'll say it again...Twitter is an amazing tool. If you're not using Twitter, then start now. Due to the growth of our business, we recently hired a Virtual Assistance firm to help us with customer service and scheduling the myriad requests we get for consults, speaking gigs and teleseminars. We're looking for a robust online scheduling tool.

I put my request out on Twitter and within minutes I had dozens of responses and suggestions. Amazing. The predominant suggestions were for TimeDriver, Appointment Quest and Google Calendar (which we use, but I'm not sure it can really do what we want). I'll be checking out these systems over the weekend and make a decision by Monday.

Tapping into the wisdom of the crowd and using Twitter as a research tool saved me a lot of time and as always, helped deepen my connection with followers.  NOTE: Always thank everyone who sends a response. You'll make even more friends that way!

If you're not on Twitter yet, go get The Twitter Handbook, just published and the ultimate guide to getting started and making the most of Twitter.

TweetStats Reveals Your Twitter Habits

Twitter was the tool of the weekend at BlogWorld and New Media Expo. EVERYONE was using Twitter to share what they were learning and hearing at the panel sessions, who they were meeting, where the tweetups were happening, and so much more. You can see the steady stream of BlogWorld tweets at Twitter Search.

That being said, do you know what you tweet about the most? Or how much you tweet? I was introduced to a new tool today by my pals Adam Urbanski and Mari Smith...TweetStats. You plug in your Twitter handle and a bunch of graphs and a tweet cloud are generated.  You can see your most commonly tweeted words.  Guess what my #1 word is...blog!

If you want to connect on Twitter, follow me!

 

T-Mobile G1 from Google Coming Soon

I'm a bit of a gadget geek. I admit it. Yesterday Google and T-Mobile announced the launch of Google's answer to the iPhone -- the G1. And, I ordered it! I don't usually adopt new stuff quite that fast, but after 3 days at BlogWorld Expo watching everyone play with their iPhones, tweeting and taking pictures that actually look good, I decided I wanted a new toy phone too.

Why not buy the iPhone? The only mobile plan currently offered with the iPhone is with AT&T and I don't really care for that company too much.  And, I'm already a happy T-Mobile user so it just makes sense to stick with a company I like.

After the NYC press conference, T-Mobile's site crashed from so many people trying to pre-order. I called customer service and was told they could only take orders online from current customers. All others have to get on waiting list. As soon as the site was back up I ordered my black G1 and it will be delivered by October 22. Whoo!