Track and Prosper - Bitly Redirect Links

Harnessing the Power of UTM Parameters with Bitly - Bitly | Blog

You need to track which of your books is giving you link-love. Particularly, which ones are generating leads, which from from the Look Inside.

Yes, the primary reason for ebooks is Lead Generation (email subscriptions). They suck at generating income, which "conventional wisdom" is still cheering on. (That definition is commonly-accepted, but unexamined beliefs.)  Sure, the top 1% make 6-figures - for awhile. And as long as they keep cranking out popular books. But everyone else makes between $250 and $500 per year. That same old 95-5 or 95-3 or 99-1 percentile split - depending on the data you're looking at.

So you put a Lead Magnet in the front and back of your book so that anyone can find it and come straight to your website and sign up. But you have one Lead Magnet and a few dozen books. Use the UTM parameters (i.e. "http://yourdomain.com/.../?ref=bestseller01" ) to let you know which one is sending you the most leads. So you can somehow figure out how to duplicate that - or figure that you need to run some Facebook Ads to get more traffic to that ebook.

It can work in print books as well, but you have to make sure that your bitly link is memorable, like: bit.ly/bestseller001 or bit.ly/bookclubaaa (hyphens aren't the greatest, and numbers are probably better than letters.) Remember, they have to physically type it in. I imagine that a scan code would come in handy at this point.

[Of course, that led us down another rabbit-hole. Hope you got another beverage while I was gone. Now that we're back...]

You used to be able to get QR codes from bitly, but they quit over a year ago. Google is another recommended one, since they track the links - but don't have a way to download the image. You'd have to copy it, paste it into GIMP (or similar) and then save it, so you could upload it to your print book version. You can copy/paste it directly into LibreOffice, but it goes in at 72dpi and both Lulu and CreateSpace want 300 dpi images or they auto-alert on you.

So, I had to go looking. Found this: https://designmaz.net/best-free-online-qr-code-generator/ which gives you a few free QR code generators. I picked out https://forqrcode.com/ and am happy with it. You can download several versions of it, even upload your own logo as a watermark. Don't know how they make income to support it, but it's there.

Let's recap:
1. You need a redirect link with a UTM on it so that you can track your leads back to the book that sent it.
2. For print books you need a QR code generator that will give you a QR code that is printable.

Now, there is a added tip you can do to get your QR code onto the back cover (so if it winds up in an actual bookstore, someone could scan it there. I'd suggest putting it on the front cover, but it will always cause your designer fits as it's just an ugly box there - besides, you create your cover at around 1200x1800 so it is big enough for Amazon and iTunes, but will scale down for Lulu. The scaling then trashes the QR code. Also, you do one front cover for both ebook and print in my lineup. So your QR code goes on the back. Case settled. Look, it's inside first and last page already...)

You use Lulu to generate your cover for CreateSpace, as their cover generator is atrociously complicated. All you have to do is to use GIMP to cut off the ISBN that Lulu gave you and leave a big white space there.

Now, to get the QR code on the back of your book, you have to make a white background and put it into the lower left-hand corner high and inside enough to not be cut off by trimming. (You'll see how it looks in the preview.) ISBN's are always lower right.  You pick white to make it simple, and easy to read. Yes, you could do other colors, but black on white is the easiest to read - and it shows off your self-publishing roots. ;)

Now, note that this is all untested. Lulu and CS will tell me if I screwed up their cover system, and then I'll tell you. Otherwise, make sure your back cover text fits above the barcodes.

So, yes, I'm recommending you create your Lulu paperback first and then download and modify that cover for the CS version. Your CS version goes out through Amazon's systems, but only to Amazon itself. Your Lulu paperback (which is almost always more expensive than CS) gets the extended reach so it goes everywhere else. This is simply because you want to get the Amazon sales, the Prime delivery and all that. CS still is having reports of quality issues, so you don't want to bet the farm on them. Also, if B&N wouldn't accept Tim Ferriss' CS-printed book, then I'm not going to take chances with the independent booksellers who are even more prejudiced against anything Amazon.

(And that attitude has helped me leave a lot of money on the table over the past few years, a scene I'm just starting to rectify.)

[Update to this post: QR codes are a pain inside a book. 1-bit images need to be 600 dpi to work. You'll first find this in your Lulu rejects, having to wait as long as 24 hours for CS to get to your submission, another reason for Lulu to be first in your workflow. However, they could be useful on the outside - anyone at anytime in the future could find that book and scan it. See sample below. Still testing, though.]

- - - -

Is there a future for this Podcast?
As for podcast episodes, it looks like they are really over for this particular show. I am uncovering very few new tips and tricks to tell you about how to publish your books. Just not finding many. And this blog isn't about getting tips to newbies - there are plenty out ther. I'm not simply going to be regurgitating stuff in order to just have a podcast. Because, as you've been seeing, I'm into the business of publishing. And that is keeping me very, very busy. (After I published that first couple of hundred books, it's gotten pretty routine, you can imagine.) The tips above are about all I've found for the last month or so. This one on bitly came up tonight, and I needed a break, so...

The planning is to turn this blog over into one which is about "Classics You Should Know" - which will be simply reading off the short descriptions of the books I release. 4000 characters is about 500 words, which in turn is 2-3 minutes. 5 books a week, 5 podcasts M-F. 260 books in a year.

Just my kind of challenge.  The math on it is pretty wild, too. 6- figures and all that.

OK, another tip: 
Ebooks, especially, especially, especially on Amazon, are completely over-saturated. At least the broad categories. You have to find small profitable niches (and why I published that last short read about short reads) to generate any income at all. Steve Scott is into the habits niche, for example.

The continuing money is and continues to be in paperbacks. And that is, from my last work up, a great part of Scott's income. But I've always told everyone to have everything everywhere. (And like Scott, I'm working out how to get into translations, but not leave as much money on the table as Scott did.)

Amazon has gotten so bad for PD books, I'm even considering giving Kindle versions away for free on my site. At the very least, I'll bundle the .mobi, .epub, and PDF files together for one low price. The person will just have to learn how to side-load their own books, which isn't all that difficult (and I'll have downloadable instructions and also include these in the files for each purchase.) You can do this with Ganxy or Sellfy, but you pay a nice chunk when you sell on your own - which is why they take 10%, because Paypal very nearly does when you get below $10 or so. (Math it yourself - take off 30 cents and then take another 2.99% - it adds up.)

Other updates:
Now, the idea of porting your content into all sorts of formats mainly stopped with ebooks, print books, cover images, PDF's (Slideshare) and LinkedIn articles - oh, and podcasts. IFTTT makes sure the content goes out to Twitter and Facebook. It's even possible to get IFTTT to port to Buffer and so reach G+ (but it's iffy.) IFTTT also gives it over to five other platforms, which even includes Medium now. The only thing missing is video, and that's because it's huge time-burner with no record of getting any sales or email subscriptions (except, again, for the top 1%.) That should update you on how it's going. It's streamlined quite a bit, even if it doesn't sound like it. When I do an ebook in a single day and link in the existing podcast, that goes out the next day with me doing nothing but post it once. All those places get their version on automatic. My idea of efficient leverage.

Systems.

Use them.

By the end of March or so, I'll have 5 podcasts up regularly going based on audio of the 5 main books I'm marketing this way. Once these audios complete, they simply are started all over again. So they are evergreen. Yes, we'll scrutinize each episode and maybe remaster the audio as needed to update the ads and tweak it here or there. Essentially, though, it just became a marketing system with very little maintenance overhead needed.

So that system works well. I'm seeing some response in the books I offer on Amazon, mainly due to the amount of backlinks which are showing up, as well as all the new short reads I'm creating which all link back to the main book.

My main approach now is to get all possible existing books up on CS with the Lead Magnet in them, as well as QR codes front, back, and outside. That alone should rocket my income. Added to that, I'm planning to put up another hundred or so books.

So you can see that I don't have a lot of time for chit-chat.

Look, keep subscribing to this feed and you'll get a lot of great examples of how to do it. And join the Classics You Should Know book club while your at it. You'll get a free membership to LiveSensical.com when you do (if you don't already.)

Well, I'll let you go for now. Just thought you could use this tip on bitly codes (and the new stuff we just learned on QR codes for paperbacks.) Plus the updates.

See you around.

PS. Email me or leave any questions in the comments. Google usually tells me when there is something to handle in that area. I try to answer them all and my email to. In the otherwise idle minutes I have laying around...

PPS. What I am doing is to start a "Classics You Should Know" book club. Click that link and sign up today. No spam, just great books delivered weekly.

Related articles

• Getting Your Book Published and Marketed: Actions List - Case Study 03
• How to Build a Public Domain (Self) Publishing Assembly Line
• How to Post Your eBook to Multiple Distributors - Ease and Profit
• How to Edit a Book Into Shape and Stay Sane
• How to Publish a Dozen Books in an Afternoon.
• Getting Booksales on Amazon - and Everywhere Else

The Author as Producer - it's not just about ebooks anymore. Case Study 04

Becoming a Media Producer: Even Better Than an Author

The point I have to pause here is to tell you that you've just morphed into something more powerful and more creative than you've ever been before.

Books, especially ebooks, have become a new type of critter. They bring you people to your website and into your mailing list/membership so you can help them with improving their lives.

Books are a messenger, an invitation much like the one Harry Potter got to come to Hogwarts.

You as the author, when you start your self-publishing, are also beginning an incredible adventure. It's real, it's 3-D, and will keep you involved from here on out.

Fiction writers often fight this when they should embrace it (much as J. K. Rowlings has expanded her life into that famous series.)

Authors become Media Producers When they Self-Publish

It's true. I ran across this simple statement when studying up on Copyblogger's New Rainmaker.

As we continue explaining this spreadsheet of tested and proved promotional actions, this becomes painfully obvious.

People don't all want to experience their lives in hardcopy books. They also want video, audio, images as well as several formats of ebooks - and in different combinations.

Once you take on the mantle of Content Producer, you can convert your words to all these formats to reach the widest possible amount of audience.

You reach out to your friends the search engine bots and let them help you spread the word.

Those two paragraphs above encompass the bulk of what it means to promote your book these days.

The Spreadsheet Promotion Section

A/V
    Audio,   Presentation,   Video,  
Synnd Campaigns
    Video,   Bookmarking,   Social News,   Twitter
Doc-Sharing
    Slideshare,   Issuu,   Gdrive (public),   Scribd,   Doc-Stoc, 
Video
    Synnd
Audio 
    Archive.org,   Soundcloud
Cover Art
    Pinterest,   Flickr,   G+ (public)

You're probably familiar with several of these sites. Others are new. (We'll cover Synnd later.)

That just proves the point that no two people utilize the same resources to get their data the way they like it.

It may also have given you the idea that in order to get your content to all these sites, you are going to get into a lot of work. Yes and no. Lots of this is automated. And more of this automation isn't visible in the above. We'll get back to this shortly - let's keep talking about the broad strokes at this point.

Producing Varied Content (Media) From Your Book

You take your text, record it (audio), make a presentation from it (a new PDF), combine audio and presentation to make a video.

You can also take excerpts from it (cover, text) and create promotion pieces which link back to your landing page, as well as to all of the distributors.

The cover itself is content to use - which will promote your book on these sites, linking back to those landing pages.

One point I mentioned briefly last time was courses. This is yet another production, but is capable of being short versions as ecourses to get email opt-ins, and also long versions which are paid renditions of your book. Particularly useful in non-fiction.

If you record your audio for each chapter (such as you'd do in order to create lessons) then you now can combine these into an audiobook. More sales.

Each chapter can also go out as a podcast - linking back to where they can buy the book, which also has an opt-in to become members of your list (even join your membership and pay you monthly for the honor and privelege.) 

Courses can also apply to fiction works, particularly where you've done extensive background work (character studies, sketches, photos of the area it takes place in - if based in real locations, or even if inspired by real locations. In that way, you are taking fans through your concept art as they access each chapter.  Again, leverage your original work to get an extra income source.

All this sets you up as a media producer, no longer just an author. And no longer just dependent on whether a single version of your book sells.

You've just freed yourself from Amazon's chains

Having only published on one distributor, or only in hardcopy, or letting some traditional publisher govern how to produce and sell your book - these are all a form of slavery. Letting other people and corporations control your life - albeit, it allows you (if successful) to just sit down and write. (If you are in this scenario, look down and at the corner of your eye - not directly - and you may see a shadow of a shackle on your ankle...)

Amazon does one thing well - make income from your book.

What they don't do well is to reward the authors for their work. KDP Select makes sure you can't sell it anywhere else. Current surveys show that the sales in doing this aren't as high as they once were. And you can never know what sales you didn't get if you don't also put that book elsewhere. (Mine show that it's roughly 1/2 to 1/3 more on top of what you are making on Amazon for the same set of books.)

Amazon's new all-you-can-read buffet is even worse for authors. Great for Amazon, though.

Meanwhile, the traditional publishers have renogitiated their contracts with Amazon so they can raise their prices. The results: lower income for authors, higher income for Amazon.

The point of this short rant is this: publish everywhere you can, in as many formats as possible - and leverage your original work to much higher incomes.

One sidebar to this sidebar - when you are only on Amazon, you only show up once in Google. If you are on 6 distributors for the same books, you have a chance of showing up in 6 places out of the top 10 or 20 rankings for that book. That's just distributors. Now put your book trailer out there on several video sites, and your promotional PDF on the doc-sharing sites (as well as the paid-for full versions), and your promotional presentation out there - and you have a chance to take most of the top 20 spots on Google for that book title.

If you do this for all your books, guess what happens when someone looks you up as an author - yes, you're everywhere. And all those links go to where they can buy your book.

Leverage.

More Book Income.

Financial Freedom.

See where we're going here?

Next: the pure promotion play - involving the reading communities

We've run a bit long again, so there's going to be one more installment about this spreadsheet.

You're overview will be complete.

At this point, we've converted and published all the content and media we need to. The next step is to tell the three main reading communities about your book.

After that we create bundles for promotion and for sale. This then set your audience up to make money from your book by recommending it to others. As well, you'll be able to get professional salespeople to start pitching your book for you. This means you are now going to be leveraging those people's lists - and getting sales you aren't able to on your own.

I'm chomping at the bit to get this next one out to you - so stay tuned...

- - - -

Make sure you're subscribed by email or newsreader to not miss a single issue!

Related articles

• Solving Distractions and Getting Your Book Ready - Case Study 02
• Getting Your Book Published and Marketed: Actions List - Case Study 03
• The new and streamlined assembly line for book publishing online.
• How to Sell Your Books Online, Old or New.
• Focus on Value Instead of Delivery
• The Great Amazon Suck - Why Other eBook Distributors Don't

How to Sell Your Books Online, Old or New.

Selling books online doesn't have to be hard,

...but you have to know what to do when in order to be successful.

(Photo: RIAN archive) 

Just because your book never sold well doesn't' mean it can't. 

Just because most books don't sell well, doesn't mean it can't.

Just because you don't know how to get your book(s) to sell well, doesn't mean you can't.

Just because most authors (self-published or not) never cover their expenses from their books (and have to keep their day job) doesn't mean they can't.

What's possible is that any author can make a living writing, publishing, and selling their books.

While there is no guarantee that any book can or will become a bestseller, any author can get their books to sell decently, or even sell well.

And yes, this is even despite being poorly edited, with a poor cover, and lousy description.

I had to work this up recently, as I'm about to do the same for a number of my books which aren't selling well. 

The main idea for most authors is that when they publish their book, it should be a set-and-forget situation. What drives most authors bonkers is that this is also the idea that almost all the big publishers have (and all of the distributors who sponsor self-publishing.)

It's always been that the author has to do their own marketing.

But writers just want to write.

The trick is to learn what you need to do and then automate it as much as possible.

And we are talking about doing this online, not in person - since most writers don't know how to "sell" and don't want to learn. Writers want to write. That's what their whole life revolves around.

What the indie author needs to have in order to successfully sell books online.

1. Books that are published online, or could be. (Yes, that's plural.)
2. A mailing list for their audience.
3. A blog. (On your own domain, not a freebie.)
4. Someone to edit their book, someone to make great covers, someone to write classy descriptions.
5. A daily schedule which allows you some time to manage your books daily, or weekly.

Once you have all these, you can follow the steps below to make your books sell well online.

Steps to get your books selling well online

(Disclaimer: While truly awful books are selling these days, it's also true that really good books aren't. Your mileage will vary depending on how well you implement what follows below. And you can see that I don't say how much you can make - or that you'll ever have a bestseller. You can get your books selling better, though. Rinse and repeat as often as necessary to get the results you want - and cleaner hair.)

We start with the fact that any author who has ever made real money online had two things:

1. a schedule for daily writing, daily business maintenance (emails, etc.), daily inspiration (reading other bestsellers - in their chosen genre or not.)
2. a backbench of books in series.

Those are undeniable, and are found with any bestseller, as well as those authors who simply make a quiet living from their books. Fact. I would be so bold to say that you can't find any author in history - who didn't die broke - that only had a single book which sold well. One-shot wonders, like the music industry, doesn't make for any continuing financial success.

Some other facts:

• Any book can be re-launched and made to start profiting you.
• Amazon needs reviews and sales. Everywhere else needs related books by the same author and/or series (and sales help.)
• In getting a previously published book to start selling, you'll either be creating a new edition, or a sequel.

NOTE: The following steps are only broad strokes - this would be a massive book or course on it's own (and I'll get around to it sooner or later.)  While this is easier to consider from a non-fiction POV, it can easily be done with any fiction series.

NOTE2: Some of these linked tools are affiliate links. 

0. Make sure your book is ported everywhere else as well. 

(List: Lulu, iTunes, Nook, Google Play/Books, Kobo, Amazon, Scribd, Doc-Stoc, Espresso Network, Leanpub - you can use an aggregator, but you'll profit more if you DIY.)

1. Re-do your marketing research:

Audience demographics
Avatar/First Customer
Verify Keywords (Market Samurai)
Similar Books recommended by Amazon
Verify your tags
Verify your categories (BISAC) - Amazon long-tail niches

2. Creat an ethical bribe (ecourse) and start building a list

Requires an autoresponder (AWeber or similar)

Might need a membership backend (Rainmaker, or roll your own)

Update your ebook to have a link to this opt-in landing page

3. Start blogging daily about something related to the book

Needs a domain and webhost - don't use free sites any longer than you have to. 

Then export/import when you have your backend ready (Rainmaker, again.)

Have your opt-in script show up just below each post, as well as in the sidebar

SEO these posts as you build them (Rainmaker built-in plugin's help.)

Include images, embedded PDF's/Videos.

PDF's are also ported to major doc-sharing sites with links to that post as well as book distributor buy-links.

Promote these posts with Pinterest, G+, LinkedIn, Flipboard

Bookmark and Social News campaigns via Synnd.

Buy traffic via Stumbleupon (optional)

4. Get surveys filled out by your list on what they want, like, and have questions regarding your book.

5. Re-edit the book.

Get feedback from your list on the improvements/additions

6. Redesign the cover.

7. Rewrite the description.

8. Create a hardcopy version

Set this for Global Distribution, getting proof(s) approved, etc. (Use Lulu, not CreateSpace.)

Note: The PDFs you get from Lulu for interior and cover are then ported to Espresso Network for their use on that network.

9. Work out a release date and pre-sell the new edition/sequel

10. Get your audience (list) involved in the re-release. 

Gift them free copies (iTunes, Ganxy) or discount coupons - get them to review it on Goodreads, which can happen prior to it going "live" on Amazon.

11. Use the profits to re-invest in additional versions of the book

• Audiobook
• Hardback
• Pocket Paperback

- - - -

Thanks for reading this far. You can see that this is just an overview - a set of points you should know if you want to move out of the $500 level of book payments annually.

I'll have another book coming out soon, once I do some additional testing and research. I'll flesh out all these steps when I do.

[Update: Been busy fleshing out these steps as part of a real-world case study. One point forgotten - make a BitTorrent bundle of promo clips for your book. Use IFTTT to update your social posts automatically. More later - stay tuned. With Twitter integrating back into Google, Synnd campaigns along this line become more key.]

So - subscribe above to make sure you keep in the loop. ;)

Related articles

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The Espresso Network - the 7th Book Distributor.

Found a new place for Indie Authors to Publish their books - the Espresso Network.

(Photo: Illinois.edu)

This was an interesting find - and wound up with another way for you to self-publish books. Yes, of course it's free.

The catch - only print, and only 25% royalty/commission.

But the upside - you can get sales you'd have missed otherwise.

Did I mention you can do it for free?!? (Sweat equity, I mean.)

Espresso has a nice network of machines internationally. They have a database for all these machines with somewhere more than  6 million books in it.

These machines are at colleges and bigger bookstores where there's enough traffic to support the cost. Meaning, you have a way to get books sold and more people looking for your book in new places.

The trick is to get into that database.

Now it's not an easy find. They've set up a self-publishing scene which will run you $59 per book setup to have your own copy of that masterpiece you've been slaving over - and anyone can order your book via EBM Network after that.

Or, you can publish to Lightning Source for $75 per setup - which gets you entered into the Espresso database as well as into their Global Reach.

Or, you can figure out how to do it for free.

Here's the shortcuts you've been waiting for.

Getting published via Espresso EBM network.

The root page is OnDemandBooks.com - but that's not how you get your book published for free.

You have to wade through all these pages where they want you to pay to set up your book, as I've covered.

The trick is to recognize that you're your own publisher.

There's a link which says Publishers with less than 100 titles U.S. only. (And another link for everywhere else.)  If you go there, you'll have a nice little application to fill out.

And they'll ask you to send them a file which passes their standards.

Here's the trick: submit interior and cover PDFs from one of the books you published on Lulu.  That's all it took for me. That should get your application approved, and then you'll get a login - from there,  you upload as many books as you have ready.

Means you can simply re-publish your books which you've already published as a hardcopy on Lulu. 

Too simple.

That then makes yet another free distributor you can use to get your book out to the world.

The list of no-cost-to-you distributors:

eBooks:

Lulu, iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Amazon, GooglePlay, Overdrive (for prolific self-publishing authors, or indie publishers), Leanpub (for original books only.)

Print versions:

Lulu (ships everywhere else, including Amazon), Espresso Book Machine Network (recommended after you've already published with Lulu).

PDF's:

Lulu, Scribd (original works, or anything they don't already have), Doc-Stoc (limits unknown.)

Aggregators:

Lulu, Smashwords (both will only distribute original works.)

Assembly line for indie book (self)publishing is now:

1) Set up your book (LibreOffice, Calibre) and proof it as best you can. Build your cover with GIMP. Write a fascinating description, collect the meta-data, and store it in Calibre. Epubcheck your book with Calibre's editor (sidecheck with Sigil if it won't pass Lulu.)

2) Publish the ebook and print version via Lulu, getting the free ISBN's. Publish your PDF there was well. Order the hardcopy proof to get into their Global Reach. While you wait for your copy to get mailed...

3) If original, publish through Leanpub, and have Lulu distribute for you. (You can also do this with Smashwords, but Lulu pretty much goes everywhere Smashwords does now, and has an easier input line - if you submit a epubcheck-passed ebook, and a font-embedded PDF (LibreOffice does great at that - by default.)

3a) For public domain or PLR, submit ebooks on your own to GooglePlay, iTunes, Nook, Kobo,  Amazon (in roughly that order.)

4) When you approve your proof, Lulu distributes your print version pretty much everywhere. Take those PDF files and submit to Espresso Network.

5) Publish via Ganxy from your own blog as ebook (all formats, including PDF's)

5a) Bundle your Ganxy books for additional direct sales.

6) Research Scribd and Doc-Stoc to see if you can port your PDF ebook there.

OK? As usual - have fun with this...

Related articles

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• Market Your Company Using This Mystic Secret Guide
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Cracking the Lulu ebook Reject Problem

A faster way to clear up those cryptic Lulu ebook rejects.

Just a note in passing...

I was working away converting and uploading when I stumbled on a faster and surer way to get your book through that meatgrinder that Lulu uses to process it's ebooks.

This is when you submit an .epub file to them. (I long gave up on anything else. I test them locally and submit - much faster. Epubs are also faster on Smashwords, btw.)

All you get is a text file telling you where the problem is according to it's script. Unfortunately, these are less than useful in many cases. Some are really stupid (like naming your graphic wrong will show up as something like "'id' isn't a valid reference."

I used to export my files from LibreOffice with a plug-in called Writer2Epub. And that's a very nice tool, but I'd have to go back and fix the style sheet as it wasn't easy to read those files - space between paragraphs are what people are used to, and makes it easier to read. And on a smartphone, justified text will break up a book so it can't be read unless you turn your phone sideways.

Today, I ran across a reject which shouldn't have been a problem. I've been using Calibre's ebook editor as it has epubcheck built in. Yesterday, I found that "id" reject was caused by images when I ran something that passed Calibre through Sigil.

But I had this nice file all ready to go, but wouldn't fly on Lulu. In the past, I've shrugged it off and then ignored Lulu for it - I don't get all that many sales directly from Lulu, even though I get a higher royalty there than anywhere else, hands down.

This time, I had Calibre convert the epub from the original LibreOffice .odt file. I epubchecked that output file on the Calibre ebook editor and then with Sigil. Since Sigil passed it, I then uploaded it to Lulu and it now passed.

Nice.

Yes, I have more tests to go - and a lot of rejected files from a past batch to run through this.

Thought to give you a heads up, through.

Luck to us all...

Related articles

• How to Build a Public Domain (Self) Publishing Assembly Line
• Summary of Getting Started: Lists and Sequences
• How to Post Your eBook to Multiple Distributors - Ease and Profit
• How to Set Up a MAC for Self-Publishing to Itunes
• How to Publish a Dozen Books in an Afternoon.
• How to Drive Yourself Sane - Checklist for Self-Publlshing

Your Next Challenge in Publishing - Finish What You Started

Editing Great Books Doesn't Get Them Selling or Sold - Publishing Does.

(Photo credit: Kev)

It's an easy trap to get into. Many niches have lots of books hanging around which beg you to bring them back to life.

And just in research alone, you can stumble onto fascinating projects which lend to even more interesting work.

The trick is to narrow your focus to the job at hand, and trust your research that you are working on the right product for the right niche.

I say this as now I'm in the middle of several incomplete publishing projects. Luckily, the changes at Lulu now force me to simply complete some of these shorter ones. Since all my PD/PLR books now have to be hand-submitted, it forces some choices. (A back-handed thanks, I guess.)

Some of the profitable approaches worth noting

• Finding overpriced textbooks and simply republishing at a slightly or much lower price can be profitable. (Just watch for where they added additional material to the original PD work.)
• Finding and publishing an out-of-print set of books with a new set of covers which binds them into a series - particularly where no one publisher has all of them, and most have been out of print for years.
• Finding books which have not been ported over as ebooks - or only to a single distributor (like Amazon).
• Building collections of books - very useful on Amazon, but they'll sell well on all the distributors.
• Really doing the market research before you start and then sticking to the keywords and successful actions you found.
• Evergreen launches.
• Memberships with private links to discount versions in the paid area, but plenty of free material in the free area.
• Finishing the marketing of one project before you start editing the next batch.
• Getting your membership to buy discounted new releases and leave honest reviews. (The "instant bestseller" strategy.)
• Surveying your email lists to find out what they actually want - and then publish that type of book.

Errors in publishing

• Too many projects started, even published, and nothing marketed. You'll make some money, but are leaving tons on the table. 
• Exclusive publishing on Amazon or any single distributor - same resul
• Publishing only ebooks and not making the hardcopy available (from POD like Lulu.)
• Getting dispersed with all the great books you can edit into shape. (Start with the highest quality digital files you can find.)
• Buying conventional wisdom about spending a huge amount of time on social media "building your platform." (Get your reading audience to join your membership and interact with them by email.)
• Only publishing a few books or spending an extreme amount of time "getting the marketing just right." Publish, Market. Then: publish, market. Then: publish, market. Some of your projects can overlap, since it takes time to proof hardcopy books. The solution to publishing income is to publish regularly and market when you aren't publishing.

- - - -

The end result for any home-business publisher isn't a lot of published books that sell well. That's just the whipped cream topping on top of that dessert.

A regular income from selling books just frees you up to really follow your bliss. This is also known as a "funded proposal." It pays for itself as it goes.

Your bliss-progress is gained only by helping other people find and follow theirs.

All this is designed around that central idea. That is also where you'll get your inspiration just before you dive into another editing-publishing-marketing project.

P. S. The reason for this post is to say - finish what you start. If you have a lot of incomplete projects, line them up by which is the quickest to finish and wrap them up on that order. Work on one project at a time from then on. Sure, download and file away books you want to work on, but get things completed. Review what you did earlier and do it better next time - don't go backwards, but simply do better with your next one. "Plan your work, work your plan."

Luck to us all.

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Choosing Your eBook Package Distributor - A Review

Distribly vs. JVZoo vs. BlueSnap vs. DigiResults vs. MyCommerce, etc.

(Your choice of dancing affiliates...)

When Leanpub showed me they weren't publishing anything but original works, I was left finding other options for creating binders and packages - as well as getting affiliates to sell your books for you.

As I noted, the major ebook distributors don't have any option like this. Even their "boxed sets" are simply multiple books packaged into one big ebook.

People want entire series or sets of books. And in various formats. Packages are a logical and necessary step in any ebook marketing.

This really brings us to Internet marketers who have been dealing with digital products well before the ebook formats took over book publishing.

I'd pretty much settled on Distribly, but still had a nagging question, so did this review to compare what the other possible options could be.

How to Pick a Digital Distributor

We want to follow the same tenets that set us up for successful (and profitable) ebook publishing:

• Start from scratch (or less) - using only online resources with no required upfront fees.
• Work smart, not hard - build your package once and leverage it as far as you can.

This means that these distributors should also follow the ebook publishing model, where the hosting is on them. There should be no reason to have to set up special hosting for digital downloads - which is additional monthly expense.

We also want to have integrated affiliate capabilities to enable your audience to become evangelists for your book packages.

The candidates:
All these host files and have affiliate capabilities.

Clickbank - Alexa Rank: 280 - cost: numerous fees
JVZoo - Alexa Rank: 309 - cost: 5% of sales
e-Junkie - Alexa Rank: 1999 - cost: $5 per month for up to 10 products
MyCommerce - Alexa: 10069 - cost: 2.9% + $1
Payloadz - Alexa: 13506 - cost: Basic - 20%, Premium - $14.95/mo. and 4.89% + .49
DigiResults - Alexa:21467 - cost: 7.5% + .25  or 5% + .50
BlueSnap - Alexa: 22206 - cost: "as low as 2.9% + .30"
Distribly - Alexa: 460281 - cost: 10%, reducing on volume
Scubbly - Alexa: 711525 - cost: 5% + .30

Discussion:

I've included the Alexa traffic rank so you can see what kind of leverage these sites will bring to you. This drops out Scubbly, since you'd essentially have to be bringing your own traffic to them to get sales (and they don't pay you for 45 days.) Distribly stays in, simply because it is so simple to use - but with their higher fees, this is offset by the fact that their reviews integrate with Google search - plus they have instant payments to both you and your affiliates.

Anything with a monthly cost drops out, or a hosting cost of any kind. Like ebook distributors, they should be free to use and then paid from sales. There is simply no sense in paying for something which may never earn enough back in return.

So, Clickbank and e-Junkie drop out, as well as Payloadz.

The short list is then:
JVZoo, MyCommerce, DigiResults, BlueSnap, and Distribly.

How to use Digital Product Distributors

There are some possibility of interlinking these (DigiResults and JVZoo) but that actually just gives us a better idea on how to put them to use. We don't need the extra work, but can leverage that same idea.

Like ebooks, this gives us the Lowest Common Denominator approach.

1. You make a package and compress it into a ZIP file. This would be a series of books in multiple formats, plus video clips, extra PDF files, etc.
2. Then import this into Calibre as a ZIP file, and write your description there.
3. Post this to each in turn, working out the sequence of greatest meta-data to least - copy/paste from Calibre.

Simple - like ebook publishing. Same model. It just follows on the heels of your batch publishing.

And you can make several sets up - one for each book with extra's, then a package of the whole series.

You'll batch post the ebooks themselves, and then batch post their packages. Much like the ebooks, you'd post logos for each vendor on the book's landing page so that they had their choice of where to get the package - or sign up as an affiliate. You may also decide to simply make a landing page for the package and link from each ebook landing page to that one.

The point in reverse is to engage the already-existing affiliates on these sites to sell your packages of books for you. Each digital distributor above has their own set of affiliates, much as the ebook distributors have their own regular users. By getting on as many of these as possible, you leave the least money on the table while getting the best discovery you can.

End Result - More Eyeballs, More Profit

This follows the More Eyeballs theory of ebook sales. In this case, we are also reaching out to professional affiliate salespeople.

In each of these five sites, you'll find various opportunities for special offers in addition to just a series of packages for sale. On some sites, you can give special percentages for a select group of JV affiliates.

Once you build a mailing list of some trusted affiliated associates, you'll then be able to leverage ebook launches with pre-sale dates and so on.

What we've done by searching down this line is to line up a marketing base for you which will leverage those books into a much higher income range. As well, it will drive people to buy your Amazon versions.

Some of these also have physical fulfillment capabilities. This brings in Kunaki for DVD's and perhaps Lulu or other POD delivery options - if they'll drop-ship for you.

It's now up to you to make a fortune with your book - over and above simply getting financial freedom. It also means that you can potentially out-source your marketing so you can concentrate on more ebooks and more binders/packages for sale.

Good Hunting!

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• How to Post Your eBook to Multiple Distributors - Ease and Profit
• Falling in Love with Leanpub for Self-Publishing Ease
• The "Eyeball" Marketing Strategy for Self-Published eBooks
• How to Build a Public Domain (Self) Publishing Assembly Line
• How to Make Higher Royalties From Your Books