self publishing

Outskirts Press, Colorado Humanities, and TIE

I’ve been trying to avoid blogging about the “day-to-day” details because, frankly, that’s not very interesting. Strategic topics are great to discuss here, but when I find myself composing a blog about the minutiae of running a company, I usually end up erasing it. Why? Because the minutiae here is probably the same as the minutiae everywhere else.   Once companies reach a certain size, there’s a certain similarity to what is involved, and while the “big picture” might be different, many of the steps are often the same. 

But last week had a few exceptions. I met with the nice folks at Colorado Humanities to discuss what they were going to do with the donation Outskirts Press made to their non-profit organization last year.  We are sponsoring their Colorado Book Awards and Student Literary Awards and also discussed some other potential collaborations.

Last Thursday evening I also attended a TIE Association meeting. TIE stands for The Internet Entrepreneur and Thursday’s speaker was Steve Knopper, who was discussing his book, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age.

I don’t think I’m saying anything surprising when I say it has some similarities with what is happening now with the traditional publishing industry…

blogging

Changing the name of your blog

At some point during my previous blog postings I was discussing the process of picking a template for this blog and placing some of the widgets along the side.  In doing so, I think I’ve arrived upon the WordPress blog template that I like the most, although the one element I don’t like so much about it is the “Leave a comment” link at the top. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could actually leave a comment, but as I referred to in a previous post, I’m not positive I have time to do comments justice, so they are turned “off.” My Board of Directors keeps telling me I don’t even have time to do a blog justice, and they’re probably right.

 As a result, the “Leave a comment” link that is so inviting up there at the top but doesn’t actually do anything is kind of annoying.  As George Castanza said on Seinfeld, “Why must there always be a problem?”

I also referred to the fact that, when “naming” my blog, WordPress advised me I could change it any time I wanted. Of course, I further detailed my inability to find the procedure by which one changes the name and came to the conclusion that I was simply stuck with my original blog name, which, when I registered this blog with WordPress was: CEO Self Publishing Start-Up OutskirtsPress.com

Lots of keywords? Yes. Grammatically correct? No.

Well, by browsing the “help” and forums of WordPress (hence my stumbling upon that “Write a Book” link” which I mentioned in a previous post), I was able to learn about the General>Settings page, although I’m embarrassed to admit how long it took me to find it on the screen even when I knew precisely what I was looking for.

But I digress. The short story is that I simply added the word “of” to the name and now the name of my blog, at least today as I’m writing this,  is a more grammatically-correct, and still keyword-filled: CEO of Self Publishing Start-Up OutskirtsPress.com.

What does “keyword-filled” mean? It means those are the keywords I envision the intended target audience of this blog typing into a search engine and then finding my blog as a result.

For instance: CEOs and executives may be interested in some of the things I write because I’ll touch upon things like social media confidentiality, trade secrets, M&As, recession-proofing your business, and the like.

And people searching for “self publishing” may be interested in some of the things I write because there is a lot of confusion and misunderstandings about the term; savvy authors exploring all their publishing options are wise to get as many different perspectives as possible to make an informed decision.

And people searching for the phrase “start-up” may be interested in some of the things I write about because I’ll talk about running a company with a 3-year growth percentages of 1000%+, balancing work and a personal life – what personal life? – and managing the obstacles that presents themselves – and the solutions that are required – when you outgrow your credit card processor and your website hosting company all in the same quarter, for example.  

Although, on one hand, Outskirts Press was never in “start-up” mode, per se, because that implies angel investors, securing VC rounds, losing control and board seats, etc – and none of that applied to us, which makes us relatively unique and is also something, perhaps, people searching for “CEO” and “start-up” might find interesting. On the other hand, EVERY company should always view themselves in “start-up” mode to some extent — because every day should be an agressive struggle to improve and thrive.  On the first hand again, it may be selling ourselves “short” to refer to Outskirts Press as a “start-up,” because… well, for all those reasons I mentioned above.   I think maybe I will replace it with a reference to our Inc. 500 placement, which has the potential to attract the same keyword searches– and therefore the same audience– as “start-up” anyway, and is more accurate. And cooler, too.

Now that I think of it, I may want to add “Best-selling author” to the name of my blog, too, but that presents a whole host of considerations, which I’ll get into later…

blogging, self publishing

The trouble with blogging – part five

I think I already mentioned that as a writer, the disorganization of the “typical” blog bothers me, and that may be why, instinctively, I start doing things that “force” organization to blogs, like naming them “parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,” for instance.  But that very philosophy is somewhat contrary to blogs in general.  The disorganziation and immedicacy is what appeals to many people… and then “twitter” took that one step even further…

For example, blogs appear in reverse-chronological order, so writing a “series” requires new readers who come upon the blog in the middle to either miss the beginning or “scroll down” to the start.  But do they scroll down?  I would, because I like organization.  But that very requirement of having to scroll down just to get to the “start” of something troubles me. Perhaps it’s the writer in me… I know that novels begin on page one.  But blogs begin on the date they started, and that first blog isn’t at the top of the blog; it’s at the bottom.

It’s even more problematic since I’m writing many of these blogs in advance, and usually writing multiple blogs on the same day, and then scheduling them to appear on different days in the future. For example, I started this “Trouble With Blogging” series on January 3, but am scheduling them to appear throughout January, with the last posting in the series scheduled for the end of the month.   But if I keep having to worry about writing a “series” in order to force a particular organization, I am probably missing the point of blogs…

Speaking of which, I just saw a link in the WordPress help section called “Write a book” and of course, being president of Outskirts Press, that phrase intrigued me, so I read the tip in which WordPress outlined a process for organizing a blog in a more traditional, book-like manner.  Judging from the amount of blogs I’ve seen that offer any sort of organization like that (namely, none), I’d say that doesn’t seem to be too popular of a topic on WordPress.

Perhaps what people are expecting to see when they click on a “Write a book” link is a procedure by which they can take the content of their blog and publish a book out of it, and to that, all I have to say is… “We can help you with that.”

self publishing

FREE self-publishing e-book

This week we’re trying something new.   We’re giving away the e-book edition of Adventures in Publishing without first requiring an email address.  Giving away the e-book of Adventures in Publishing and Self-Publishing Simplified has been one of the successful ways we have acquired a pretty extensive email database.  But I’m sure an equal (or greater) number of writers don’t feel compelled enough to part with their email address just to read a free e-book. And, as a result, we are missing an opportunity to share the benefit and value of our services with them.

Yes, offering something for “free” in exchange for an email address, or some other contact information, is an effective and persuasive tool in the Internet age.  But if the “free product” is compelling in its own right, you may want to consider providing it even WITHOUT the email requirement.  Perhaps more people will read it as a result, and perhaps more people will find it a valuable solution to their particular situation, which may lead them to contacting you and volunteering their email address on their own.  And wouldn’t that be better for everyone?

That’s the logic of this little experiment, at any rate… So, without further ado, here is the free e-book edition of Adventures in Publishing…

blogging

The trouble with blogging – part four

Another trouble I have with blogging is that most of them just aren’t very interesting.

In one of my previous “trouble with blogging” postings, I referred to the dilemma I have about what sort of confidential information I should share because that would be directly proportional to the “interest” factor. It all seems like much ado about nothing. While publicly I say that blogging and “tweeting” is the next best thing to sliced bread, for the everyday Joe I’m just not so sure anyone cares. I would think that most people are too busy writing their own blogs to read anyone else’s. But then, ironically, when I’m reading some of the blogs out there and seeing the number of comments some of them generate, I’m proving myself wrong in multiple ways simultaneously, and that’s always good for the ol’ ego.

By the way, that same belief I have that “no one has time to care” extends to twitter, Facebook, myspace, and linked-in, too, all of which I publicly recommend and almost none of which I personally have time for.  Since “New Year’s Resolutions” are a big marketing push in my industry, I should touch upon one of my resolutions before January ends, and that is this: Making more time for the social media sites that I recommend. Time to practice what I preach, so to speak.

That reminds me: one of the reviews I received on Amazon for my book Sell Your Book on Amazon mentioned that very aspect —  that I didn’t appear to do many of the very Amazon tactics I was recommending.  That reviewer was right; a lot of the marketing tactics I suggest in my book are time-consuming, and I didn’t — or don’t — have time to do a lot of them.  So my only response to that is, don’t let my personal short-comings prevent YOU from being successful. Or, as a parent might say to a child, “Do what I say, not what I do.”  But, ultimately, every leader — and every parent for that matter — knows that you should lead by example.

And I’ve discovered that just because I don’t have time for that stuff doesn’t mean nobody does. In fact, internet stats seem to indicate quite the opposite. Most people seem to have nothing but time for social networking sites, so as an author, entrepreneur, etc, etc, you owe it to yourself to be out there on all those platforms in as consistent and professional a manner as you can muster. And… in spite of all my troubles with blogging, here I am.

self publishing

The difference between “self publishing” and a “self publishing company”

I would like to address a point of contention and misunderstanding facing the author-supported self-publishing industry today, and that is the chasm between “self-publishing” and “self-publishing companies” or what some call “vanity” publishing.  Authors who have traditionally published books or independently published their own books by doing all the work themselves often denounce “self-publishing companies” as either “vanity” publishers if they’re being nice, or “scams” if they’re feeling particularly hostile.   Neither term is accurate; although I can appreciate their point of view–they’ve worked hard to accomplish something that self-publishing companies make relatively easy, so you can’t blame them for being mad.   

Ultimately, much of the confusion comes down to semantics, and a misunderstanding of what differentiates “self-publishing” from a “self-publishing company.”  I imagine “self-publishing companies” may use the term “self-publishing” in their marketing efforts, not to anger independent self-publishers, but rather to SET THE EXPECTATIONS of their own authors.   

By labeling services as “self-publishing” there is an attempt to make it clear to the authors who use such services that their success rests largely on their own shoulders, just as it does for authors who independently self-publish. The difference is that with self-publishing companies, instead of incurring the time and effort of establishing a DBA or LLC or C-Corp or S-Corp or sole-proprietorship with the state, reviewing cover designers, seeking interior formatters, getting bids from printers, acquiring ISBNs, dealing with Ingram, dealing with fulfillment, dealing with returns, dealing with accounts receivables, dealing with taxes, etc., etc., etc., the author is incurring a service charge and having all those details taken care of for them. It’s not right for everyone, but it is right for a lot of people.

There are a growing number of companies in the “self publishing” industry.  And why not? As the traditional publishing industry continues to struggle, the self-publishing industry is growing at a steady pace and is earning more respectability daily.  The internet has made it possible for anyone to sell a book globally (on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble) and has also improved the book marketing reach of authors who leverage popular sites like YouTube and twitter. 

Very soon, traditional and bestselling authors with established names (Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, etc.) will realize they no longer need traditional publishers and will turn to “self publishing companies” for a greater stake of the profits.

“Self-publishing companies” are service companies who provide valuable (and convenient) services to writers for a fee. This is no different from any other service industry.  For example, I can either choose to do my own taxes, or I can pay H&R Block to do them for me.  I can either build my own house, or I can buy one that has been built by professionals, so I’m confident it won’t fall apart.  I can either milk my own cow, or I can go to 7-11 and buy a gallon of milk that is ready to drink.  Are people surprised that 7-11 charges money for milk? Do they get upset that 7-11 charges more money for a gallon of milk than King Soopers does?  Rational people realize that convenience costs money and that industry know-how costs money.   To suggest that a company cannot help you self-publish is like saying H&R Block cannot help you do your personal taxes. 

Do I really want to spend my valuable time doing taxes, building a house or milking a cow–all of which first requires me to LEARN how to properly do all those things?  Or would I rather calculate my own hourly rate and determine that it is more cost-effective to pay an expert to do it for me so I can spend my time doing things that are more important to me–like going to work and spending time with my family?   Self-publishing companies don’t do anything that someone who is very motivated cannot do themselves with a lot of industry knowledge, effort, resources, time, and money.   But much like doing taxes, building a house, and yes, even milking a cow, what seems easy at first is actually more complicated than you might expect — I would imagine. Personally, I don’t do my own taxes, build my own homes, OR milk cows for my own milk.  Like most people, I pay professionals to do all those things for me.

For those authors out there who have already invested their time and energy on the steep learning curve that is “self-publishing,” naturally they don’t see the benefit of using a “self-publishing company.”   But most people have better things to do, or at least, their interests lie elsewhere — most people just want to be published authors, not publishers.   

You know what they say about the lawyer who represents himself, or the doctor who has herself as a patient, right?  The same could be said for most authors. Sure, there are exceptions, but the services of “self publishing companies” are intended for the majority of writers, entrepreneurs and professionals out there who would find value in having a published book, but also value their time enough to let the professionals do it for them. And there’s nothing wrong with that.  What is wrong is wanting desperately to be published and not doing anything about it — out of fear of failure or fear of someone else telling you that you made “a wrong choice.”  The only truly wrong choice is not doing anything.  As Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

blogging

The trouble with blogging – part three

Another trouble I have, personally, with blogging (and with social media in general) is that I simply don’t have the time to invest in many of the elements that are required for any such endeavor in this arena to be successful — and that is the “social interaction” part. 

For blogging, that involves reader comments.  I think many blogs are popular because readers have the opportunity to voice their own thoughts and participate in the discussion.   And that, in turn, breeds more readers because the blog becomes more three-dimensional in nature as readers get a chance to a) read the original post and then b) participate by adding their own two-cents worth.

Currently, I have the comments disabled because, honestly, I’m still deciding what to do.  Am I deciding whether I think comments are good or bad? No; of course they are “good.”  But I’m trying to determine if I can “do them justice.”   I don’t want to allow comments and then come across as a “jerk” when I don’t have the time to respond to them. It all comes down to time and resources.  I’m writing this particular posting on December 17 at 2:01 in the morning.  By the time it appears on my blog a month later, my mind will be well onto other things.  Part of the advantage of WordPress (and one of the reasons I didn’t stick with my blog on blogger) is because this platform allows one to schedule blogs in advance. 

But if I then have to “revisit” this blog on January 18th, 19th, and 20th, to read and respond to comments that have been posted, that kind of defeats the efficiency I’m going for.

One could argue that means I’m not a good candidate for blogging at all, and there’s a lot of validity in that argument.  All three of my “the trouble with blogging” posts support that very argument.

But, here I am doing it… nonetheless… for as long as I can… Will my lack of comments “kill” the blog? Or will I turn comments on at some point and either bite that time-bullet myself or delegate the process of comment-moderation to someone else? Only time with tell. Speaking of time, it is in short supply.  And now it’s 2:04 am.

self publishing, writing tips

The importance of editing

I underestimated how long the revision to Sell Your Book on Amazon would take. I had hoped to have it done and available by now, however the editor had quite a few suggestions, which I’m now implementing.  This allows me an opportunity to stress the importance of professional copyediting when publishing a book.

A misconception that most authors who are pursuing conventional publishing have is that they don’t need to edit their work, and as a result, feel that paid copyediting services offered by publishing service companies represent another example of “money flowing the wrong way.”

Their feeling is, if they get published traditionally,  “the publisher will edit it.”

It is true that IF your work gets accepted by a traditional publisher, they will edit it without any cost to you.  But it’s not true that means you can submit a non-edited book for consideration.

That may be true for Stephanie Meyer, or Dan Brown, but it’s not true for you.  If you are submitting an unsolicited–or even a solicited–manuscript to a publisher or literary agent, it is in your best interest to pay to have it professionally copyedited before submission. 

Why?  Because this is an extremely competitive industry and if your cover letter and/or query letter and/or book proposal and/or manuscript is littered with mistakes — or even contains just a few — that makes it all the easier to reject. 

I’ll be the first to admit that every book I’ve published has contained at least one error — and that’s WITH editing! Imagine if I didn’t have them edited.   The beauty of print-on-demand is that those mistakes are much easier to correct than a 5,000-10,0000 print-run containing errors.  A number of my readers have been kind enough to politely point out small things I or my editor overlooked, and presto-done, POD makes post-publication changes a snap!  That’s why pencils have erasers, keyboards have “Backspace” and why Outskirts Press has its revision option. — Why? Because we’re all human.

blogging, ceo, start-up

The trouble with blogging – part two

Another reason I’ve personally been reticent about blogging is due to the dilemma I have with preserving confidentiality, and this is probably something any CEO, or company employee can understand.   In other words, what is okay to say, and what isn’t?

On one hand, the more personal, confidential, or private something is, the more “interesting” it is, so part of me wants to divulge stuff that will make this blog popular, or at the very least, interesting.

On the other hand, I have a responsibility to our authors, our people, and our board of directors to avoid saying anything that would jeopardize them (and by that, I mean, anything that could “cost them money”).  In my position I learn things about the industry that isn’t common knowledge. I know about deals before they happen. I have an intimate knowledge of our own trade secrets and unique competitive advantages – the things that make Outskirts Press the fastest-growing self-publishing company and the only Inc. 500 company in our industry.   Revealing ‘insider-y” information on those topics would make this blog fascinating to other entrepreneurs and CEOs, and certainly our competitors, and maybe even our authors, but revealing them could also jeopardize our value proposition.

If a CEO doesn’t reveal SOME of that stuff, what’s the point of reading the blog? I mean, the whole point of reading a blog by a CEO is that you expect SOME level of details not attainable elsewhere, right?  But, on the other hand, how does a CEO blogger reveal interesting things that aren’t TOO confidential?

I’m not saying I have the answer. I’m just saying it’s something about blogging that troubles me…

blogging, self publishing

The trouble with blogging – part one

Even though, officially, I’m a “fan” of blogging and I suggest that all entrepreneurs, professionals, and writers partake in the exercise of blogging on a consistent basis, for a variety of reasons, I have some basic difficulties with the whole thing. I can appreciate the philosophy behind blogging, the concept, but when the logistics, the reality, start to unfold, it just really isn’t all that it is supposed to be cracked up to be.

There – that previous sentence is a perfect example of one of my troubles with blogging. The writing can be … sloppy. Let’s face it, the majority of blogs out there are hard to read because they contain spelling and grammatical errors. If you can filter through the majority of blogs and arrive upon the minority that are professionally written, you are still, more often than not, presented with a level of writing that is redundant and messy, not fully fleshed-out, or not organized in any manner.

For example, I run each of my blog posts through a spell checker before I hit the “publish” button, but there are those out there who are cutting their teeth on the instant-gratification-world of blogs, twitter, and youtube, who would argue that “spell checking” a blog misses the whole point!  And then after I spell check it, I paste it back into the WordPress box, and then re-read it for grammar and, for lack of a better term, “user-friendliness.”  

But, in many cases, I may want to add a sentence or two of clarification to my previously spell-checked work and no matter how careful I believe I am, a typo may sometimes slip through. Do I have time to spell-check it again? Or do I have time to drastically re-write sentences or even paragraphs in an attempt to make the writing “better” or more organized?  Personally, I don’t and judging from the blogs in existence, few bloggers do. Now as the president of a self-publishing company, I’m hardly in a position to say “Blogging is fundamentally evil because it makes it easy to be a sloppy writer.”

No, I wouldn’t say it’s evil. But blogging does make it easier to be a sloppy writer, at least for me. And as a writer, I need things to motivate me to be a stronger writer, not things that allow me to be a weaker one.

Of course, the other side of the argument is that blogging, and self-publishing for that matter, at least encourages, and in many cases rewards, the act of writing itself — and in this day and age of movies, video games, and Iphones, that’s a small miracle that perhaps grants it some slack.