Exciting News!

You can publish your book on Amazon.com TODAY with my new step-by-step guide.

I have published quite a few books on Amazon.com and have found the most cost-effective, professional way to do this. And the fastest.

If you book is “ready to go” you can be published TODAY.

Get your copy of this eBook here

I’ve just been listening to the mp3 recordings that come with the Createspace Video Tutorial and they are really good. The videos are excellent too and I wrote a special eBook with step-by-step instructions on publishing your book with Createspace as a free bonus.

I use Createspace exclusively now and only print local copies for use in South Africa. Their service and quality is out-of-the-top drawer and your books get onto Amazon within hours.

I just put my first Kindle edition of “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” devotional on Amazon’s Kindle site as well. It was a mission getting it properly formatted, but I found a great video tutorial which I will put up on the www.webvideotraining.com site in the next few days. Definitely the way to go.

Check here for more information about  the Createspace video tutorial:

www.webvideotraining.com

Val

Did you know that Kindle e-books are outselling hardcover books by almost 50%, according to Amazon? For the past three months, Amazon has sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 dead-tree books.

“Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books—astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

This is a wonderful way to SHARE YOUR PASSION WITH THE WORLD. eBooks are inexpensive to write, publish and share and the demand is increasing every day.

You won’t have to write huge amounts of data either. Short eBooks or Reports are also much in demand.

If you would like to learn more, take a look at my new eBook Mentoring Course. I have had some really nice comments from students. Here’s one:  “User friendly -  thank you for all you have put into it.”

My unique 8-part eBook Mentoring Course will teach you how to create ebooks, publish, market and sell them on the internet. You will save a lot of time, money and effort and learn “the ropes” in an easy step-by-step method. PLUS you will learn how to turn your eBook into a paperback and publish it on Amazon.com and other online booksellers, giving you the best of both worlds.

As a subscriber to my Writer’s List, you are eligible for the 50% discount coupon. Please email me at vwaldeck@gmail.com and ask me for one.

To Your Success!

Val

Many great writers have only become successful because they persevered. They faced rejection, discouragement, and deterrents. But they persevered with their creative writing.

Margaret Mitchell got rejection letters from 38 different publishers before anyone finally deigned to publish her novel, Gone With The Wind. How many talented writers are there who gave up without ever making it into print because of misguided rejection?

Rudyard Kipling managed to sell one article to The San Francisco Examiner in 1889, but the paper then rejected any future submissions, saying, “You just don’t know how to use the English language.”

John Kennedy Toole, meanwhile, received so many rejection letters for his novel, A Confederacy Of Dunces, that he finally killed himself. Only the persistence of his bereaved mother led to the eventual publication of his novel and its receipt of the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.

Other famous authors whose works were initially rejected include Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (140), Stephen King – Carrie (30), Richard Adams – Watership Down (26), Thor Heyerdahl – The KonTiki Expedition,(18) Laurence J. Peter – The Peter Principle (16), JK Rowling – Harry Potter books (12) and even Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Peter Rabbit (8). She finally published it herself.

Kenneth Taylor’s idea for the Living Bible was rejected by Moody Publishing House. He published it himself from his own garage and within the first ten years over 50 million copies had been sold. It led to the establishment of Tyndale House, Publishers of the runaway successful “Left Behind” series.

So in the words of Winston Church, “Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never – in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

Source: Nico Bougas

Go here for information about the exciting Writing Seminars in Durban and Johannesburg, April 24 and 28 with Dan Poynter, author of the Self-Publishng Manual and myself.

Someone asked me a question recently about getting their book published without spending hundreds of  Rand or Dollars. They are unable to find a Publisher willing to take on their book.

I am delighted to be able to assist with some great advice about creative writing. Please feel free to send me your questions and I will do my best to help you.

If you are going to self-publish, the first thing is to get your manuscript typed. Use Microsoft Word and I suggest using the A5 page setup. (That’s half the size of the regular A4).  Use a nice font like Verdana, Bookman or Arial.  You will be able to see what your book looks like as you type. That will save you a lot of setup costs.

Next, get a stunning front cover. Contact Clive Thompson for a quote. He does a really nice professional job.  Remember, the cover sells the book. Tell him the size of your book and the number of pages so he can get the spine right.

Next, turn your book into a PDF.  Here’s a link to some free software that will easily do that for you – www.pdfill.com. Upload your book and cover picture to a Print-On-Demand Publishing Service.

1.  If you live in South Africa and are wanting to print just a few copies and you are not too worried about “bookshop quality” – contact Lithotech Digital Image Printing -  ids@lithotech.co.za.  You pay approx. ZAR twelve cents per page (or thereabouts) for a black-and-white interior and a full colour cover. The cost is the same whether you print one copy or one hundred copies. This is great for short runs.There are POD companies in the USA, but it costs quite a bit to get the books to South Africa. This is your cheapest option.

2. If you want a quality book, sign up with www.createspace.com in the USA. They are an Amazon.com company. Just upload your PDFs to their system (they will help you do that) and the company will prepare your book for sale.  They will also put it in the Amazon.com database so folk can buy it. They handle all sales, posting, finance (but not marketing)  and give you a 50% royalty. You set the price of the book upfront. This will give you a nice quality paperback, which you can import to South Africa at quite a good price.  The only cost to you is the initial copy you have to buy in order to authorise the publication. That will set you back about USA $12. Visit their site and take a look. They even give you a template for the cover, which you can send to your cover designer.

There are other companies that do similar work and a search on Google will help you find them. However, I work with these two and highly recommend them.

The sky is the limit!

You will find everything to you need to know about creative writing, publishing and marketing your book in Dan Poynter’s eLibrary.

Dan Poynter’s amazing eLibary CD includes the famous and popular “Self-Publishing Manual” (Volumes 1 & 2).

Valued at much more than $100 , Dan Poynter’s Book Writing/Publishing PDF eLibrary includes:

• Writing Nonfiction
• The Self-Publishing Manual (Volumes I & 2)
• Is There a Book Inside You
• Book Publishing Encyclopedia
• Successful Nonfiction

Plus:

• Poynter’s Secret List of Book Promotion Contacts
• Book Marketing Special Report
• Book Writing Information Kit
• A complete list of his other products.

Order your copy of this invaluable Library today

The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes said, “Of making many books there is no end” (Eccl. 12:12).

“Making them” is the first part of the creative writing journey. Selling and distributing your books is a major obstacle course, but it can be done with some planning, lots of prayer and much perseverance.

The only way to get people to buy your books is to make them aware they are available. Internet Marketing is a vast subject, but well worth researching because there are literally millions of buyers online at any one time.

The best way to learn how to succeed online is to learn from the experts. Patience, discipline and perseverance are the keys to succeeding online.

Click here for more info on How To Effectively Market and Sell Your Product On The Internet.

Market Research

• Identity your readers.  Are they young, old, rich, poor, educated, urban, rural, Christian?
• Locate your readers.  Where do they congregate, shop, worship? What magazines, newspapers, literature do they read? What radio programmes do they listen to? Where will you find them on the internet? Are they computer-literate?
• Concentrate on these areas as you consider the best way to promote your book.

Pricing

When setting the retail price, it is important to take into consideration that bookshops normally require 35-40% discount, after which they add VAT. They do not take kindly to being undercut by the author.

Preparation of advertising material

• Catalogues – print in colour for distribution to bookshops.
• Extra cover copies – to use as advertisements, especially for bookshops. Keep in mind marketing agents do not carry loads of books into the bookshops, but sell from covers.
• Quick order forms.
• Posters.
• Collect testimonials and endorsements.

Distribution

• Christian bookshops.
• General bookshops.
• Specialty stores
• Online bookstores (internet)
• Libraries
• Non-traditional markets (places you don’t normally find books)
• Offer incentives
• Consignment stock
• Ask your friends to purchase their books from your outlets

Bookshops make books available, but rarely promote them.
So …

Advertise

• Internet marketing.
• Web presence
• Email lists, newsletters and ezines
• Email to personal friends and contacts
• Blogs
• Social sites, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Press Releases
• Newspapers and magazines
• Local suburban papers
• Radio and TV advertising and interviews
• Book Reviews
• Pre-Publication promotions
• Special offers
• Send review copies to magazines
• Write magazine articles on topic of your book
• Leaflets
• Postal mailshots
• Postcards – for “snail mail”

Visit my online Bookshop for eBooks on these topics

Click here for more information on how to turn your manuscript into a digital (eBook) publication

Advice about Creative Writing

1. Self-publishing for Creative Writing

Self-publishing is where the author bypasses all the intermediaries, deals directly with the editor, cover artist, book designer and printer, and then handles the marketing and distribution.

If you self-publish you take a greater risk, but you also get to press sooner, keep control of your book, and make more money. You are required to invest time and money, but the rewards are greater.

Should you choose the self-publishing route, you need to make decisions about:

• The size of your book (physical size and number of pages)
• The cover design – use a good artist.
• Layout and typesetting – use a professional typesetter.
• Additional pages – e.g. Dedication, Foreword, Introduction, Prologue (if appropriate), Acknowledgements, Advertisements, Copyright notice, Autobiographical sketch, and Disclaimer (example below).
• Obtaining ISBN and barcode information
• Printing – select a good professional printer and request quotes on an initial print run. Obviously the more books you print, the less expensive it will be.
• I recommend LITHOTECH in South Africa for short print runs. Contact them at: Tel. +27 (021) 951 1400
  F: +27 (021) 951 1404
  E: elzabeb@ids.lithotech.co.za
• There are many excellent printers in South Africa. My personal recommendation is Pinetown Printers in Durban.
  
• Marketing of the finished product – where, when and how.

2. Print-on-Demand Publishing

Get your book published in the USA for international distribution without incurring enormous printing and distribution costs. You pay for initial layout and design. They make your books available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers, print and distribute them as and when ordered – without further cost to you – and handle the sales. You keep worldwide rights and watch your postbox for royalty cheques.  It is also in your interests to do some marketing and point people to the sites where they may order your books. The more people know about your books, the faster they will sell.

Check out these “print on demand” companies.

• Createspace.com. Very highly recommended & My Personal Choice.
• iUniverse
• Authorhouse

3. Formal Publisher

Finding a Publisher is not easy. Publishing is a business and the expected financial return is the bottom line for Publishers. Publishers carry all costs and authors usually receive royalties of around 10% of net receipts (i.e. what the publisher receives for books sold.)

It is estimated that publishers receive about two million book-length manuscripts every year, so unsolicited manuscripts have little or no chance of being well received. It is, therefore, important to do extensive research in order to find a publisher who is interested in your type of manuscript.

It is highly recommended that aspiring writers purchase the “Writers’ & Artists” Yearbook” for information on publishers and their submission requirements.

4. Literary Agents

Literary Agents are specialists who work for both the writer and the publisher. They assist writers to find interested publishers. They also protect publishers from being overwhelmed by unsuitable manuscripts, which is why many overseas publishers only accept work submitted by Literary Agents.

There are two types of Literary Agents. Some simply evaluate your book and return unsuitable work. Others offer editorial services and assist to bring books with potential to their final stage. You may expect to pay around 15% of your royalties for their services, plus administration costs.

Do you need a Literary Agent?

1. Do you have a thorough understanding of the publishing market and its dynamics?
2. Do you know who are the best publishers for your books and why?
3. Are you financially numerate and confident of being able to negotiate the best commercial deal available in current market conditions? Agents collect monies due, take their commission and pay the balance to you.
4. Are you confident of being able to understand fully and negotiate a publishing or other media contract? e.g. retention for author’s benefit of motion picture rights.
5. Do you enjoy the process of selling yourself and your work?
6. Do you want to spend your creative time on these activities?

Literary Agents are not easy to find, as they will only work with authors of books they consider to be saleable before they invest their time and money in a project.

Where do you start looking for a Literary Agent? The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a good place to start. You may also join the South African Writers’ Circle for up-to-date information on local markets and agents. Address: Suite 522, Private Bag X4, Kloof, 3640.
Email: sawriters@webmail.co.za.
Web: www.sawc.co.za.

Well-known South African Francis Bond Literary Agency

Should you choose to use a Literary Agent, send a synopsis, your manuscript and a brief history of your background and achievements in writing. The Agent will evaluate your book and either accept it for submission to a publisher, suggest re-writes, or reject it. If accepted, it is usual to sign an agent/writer contract.

Importance of Contracts

Whatever your choice of publishing route, make sure you have a valid, legal, written contract covering all details, financial and otherwise.

Final Note

The best Literary Agent of all is the Holy Spirit!

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and all your plans will succeed.”
– Proverbs 16:3

Click here for more information on how to market and sell your books

Congratulations! It has taken a lot of time, effort and concentration to bring your book to this point.

Writing was the easy part! The next stage will take as much – if not more – concentration, discipline and “stickability”. There are thousands of manuscripts in cupboards around the world that did not reach the production stage and we want to help you get successfully get published.

First things first

a. Proofreading. Has your manuscript been proofread and thoroughly checked for spelling and grammatical errors? Is your content logical, reasonable and Biblical? Is your manuscript easy to read and understand?

b. Acknowledgements. Have your quotations been acknowledged? Check the front pages of Bible translations for information about acknowledging scripture or visit the publishers via the Internet.

c. Accuracy. Are your facts accurate? e.g. “During the time of St Jerome in AD 275, everyone believed in the laying on of hands by the Bishop or the elders for the baptism of Holy Spirit.” (Everyone?)

d. Editing. Finding a professional editor to give your book a good polish is the next stage in producing a book that will be saleable. Submit your completed manuscript to your copy editor on a rewritable CD or memory stick so they may make changes directly onto the disk and return it to you. If the corrections are made on a hard copy with ink, that leaves room for additional errors when updating your manuscript.

Choosing a Publishing Route

Basically you have four choices – self-publishing, print-on-demand publishing, finding a formal publisher or using a literary agent.

Click here for more information about choosing a publishing route

The Internet or Worldwide Web is a collection of electronic (digital) documents that are read on a computer screen. To obtain a physical copy, it is necessary to print the required document on your printer.

Being published on the Internet makes it possible for your creative writing to become accessible to the world, without great expense on your part. The only limit is your ability to market your work and bring it to the attention of the millions of people “surfing the web” every hour of the day.

Millions of online readers are waiting for your book

There are millions of online readers around the world who do not have access to libraries or bookstores. Why not make your book available to them?

We are not just in the “information age”; we are in the “electronic information age” or, better yet, the “communication age”. The world of knowledge is going from a paper culture to an electronic culture.

Publishing E-books on the Internet

E-books are electronic or digital books. Instead of investing money in physical print runs, books may now be written and delivered electronically to a computer near you. Readers see the advertisement on the web, pay online, and receive a private web address in their email that allows them to download the e-book to their computer. As easy as that! The question is: how do you publish your book on the Internet as an e-book?

Electronic publishing allows you to write, store, sell and read your book without printing it.

There is an increasing demand for instant information and electronic or digital books are becoming very popular. They may be downloaded from the Internet instantly and are searchable and less expensive than regular books. Online readers need just click on an address in the e-book to instantly go to the referenced web site. They cost nothing to write and publish in full colour and can be distributed electronically without sacrificing trees!

“If book publishers can’t see the writing on the wall,
it’s because the writing is not on the wall. It’s on a computer screen.”
– Dan Poynter

Once you have transformed your manuscript into an electronic book, it may be uploaded (sent electronically via the Internet as a file) to the websites of online booksellers with whom you have an agreement, or your own website, or some other website so that it becomes available for downloading by readers. Online booksellers handle all the financial aspects and pay very generous royalties. Amazon.com, for e.g., pays 50% of your advertised retail price for books hosted on their edocs site. Contact mobipocket.com in this connection.

Selling your ebooks online

ClickBank is the Internet’s leading retailer of digital products and the Internet’s largest digital marketplace, where thousands of the web’s most popular products are sold every day. Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, or promote digital products, ClickBank is for you.

CLICK HERE for more information

Your e-book may also be copied to a CD or emailed as an attachment and distributed globally. It can be read on IPods (electronic device for listening to audio sound).  It is a very versatile product in our electronic age. All you need to access it is an electronic screen. It may also be printed out via your printer for bedtime reading!

“Books are going electronic. Some bound books will soon be as dead
as the trees they are printed on.” — Dan Poynter.

“The breakthroughs are leading authors to bypass publishers,
retailers to become publishers and publishers to become bookstores”
– Don Clark, Wall Street Journal.

How to turn your manuscript into an ebook

How do you do brain surgery? Obviously it takes some training and research to gain the expertise, but producing e-books is a simple operation once you know how.

There are many programmes that produce e-books, but I would recommend the following using Microsoft Word and turning your document into a PDF.

If you do not possess Adobe Acrobat, get PDFILL – super free PDF programme that allows you to secure your ebooks.

Obviously, there are some finer details to be aware of concerning the preparation of the document if you are using Microsoft Word.  e.g. The preferred page size is 6 x 9 inches and the book is set out in a “book layout format” so your manuscript looks like a book page. A book like “Adobe Acrobat for Dummies” will tell you all you need to know.

Remember that each edition of your e-book also requires a unique ISBN number and is treated the same way as a regular book in this regard. You will be required to send the National Library a copy on CD.

In your search for a regular publisher, you will be able to send the e-book to literary agents and publishers and offer to sell the electronic, print, translation, movie or other subsidiary rights. Recommended reading: “The Self-Publishing Manual” by Dan Poyner and the “Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook”.

Click here for information on making great ebook covers.