You own the copyright on anything you produce in South Africa. No one has the right to change your work in any way and claim it as his or her own. That is called “plagiarism” and is illegal.  Non-South Africans should Google for information in their respective countries.

When someone pays you to write a book for them – or produce a painting – the copyright remains with you. It is your primary right and you may do with it as you wish. The buyer purchases the right to own your work, never to change or copy it unless by prior wri

•    Suggestion: Send a dated registered copy of your original manuscript to yourself to assist in proving ownership, should the need ever arise.

Walk with Val Mitchell and myself for four months and we will show you how to start your own online business writing and selling small informational products.

Click HERE for more information.

VAL WALDECK’S BOOKS NOMINATED FOR A GLOBAL eBOOK AWARDS
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA – 11 July 2011 – Two of Val Waldeck’s books have been nominated for Global eBook Awards. Val’s “Kindle Publishing Made Easy” eGuide has been nominated in the Writing/Publishing – Non-Fiction category and her moving devotional “When The Storms Come” in the Christian eBook category.

“Kindle Publishing Made Easy” is the
Step-by-Step Guide To Turning Any Book
Or eBook Into A Kindle Edition and Publishing It With Amazon’s Popular Kindle Direct Publishing.

“When the Storms Come” is the account of one man’s faith in the midst of incredible trials, and his triumph over sin, sickness, and death. A 31-day Encouraging Devotional.

“Everyone is talking about eBooks,” said Dan Poynter, founder of the Global eBook Awards. “eBooks have reached the tipping point and are outselling books on paper in several categories. eBook are not replacing paper books; they are in addition to. The eReading devices such as the Kindle are increasing the amount of book reading.”

According to Joseph Dowdy, the Director of Awards, the category with the largest number of entries so far is Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal. The next largest number of entries is in Historical Literature, Autobiography/Memoirs, and Writing/Publishing Nonfiction.

The Awards have 79 categories in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, illustration, and multimedia. See http://awardsforebooks.com/categories/

The Global eBook winners will be honored at a star-studded ceremony on August 20 in Santa Barbara, California. USA.

Cape Town has never heard this seminar before. It is brand new and a MUST for anyone who wants to get their book published NOW in South Africa and globally.

Dan has the very latest information on the global scene and you will be able to publish your book in nine different formats and have people buying and reading them on their cellphones, ipads, Kindles, etc., as soon as you get back to your computer!

I will be sharing how to publish your book IN CAPE TOWN in a matter of days and without breaking the bank or having Publishers spurn your efforts. Technology is moving so fast, you have to BE THERE!

More information and registration form available here:

http://wp.me/pScGt-8E

Booking is essential for catering and notes purposes.

Val

Writers’ Seminar

Register now!

Presented by Pilgrim Publications SA

Saturday, March 12, 2011
Dros Willowbridge
Willowbridge Lifestyle CentreShop 17,
c/o Oak & Charl Cronje Street, Tygervalley, Cape Town
Phone: 031 914 9701 or Val 083 273 4700

8.30 for 9.00 am to 12.30 pm

Cost:

R400 per delegate (includes light refreshments)

“Early Bird” Special of R350 if paid by February 28, 2011

Nearly 47% of books are sold in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. This presentation shows authors how to approach these markets with confidence. DAN POYNTER describes and quantifies the potential markets in each country and shares quick and easy ways to wring more value out of your work by producing it in different forms – printed books (pBooks), eBooks, Audiobooks, LARGE PRINT books and more. He puts you in touch with distributors and retailers internationally for each edition. Then he shows you how to promote your book inexpensively and easily from home. Listen and learn today and start selling books abroad tomorrow. The handout is packed with valuable resources.

DAN POYNTER is an author of more than 120 books, has been a publisher since 1969 and is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). His seminars have been featured on CNN, his books have been pictured in The Wall Street Journal and his story has been told in US News & World Report. The media come to Dan because he is the leading authority on book publishing.

Dan knows and understands both international publishing and international authors and publishers.

Learn how to WRITE and PUBLISH your book locally. VAL WALDECK will be sharing practical tips and techniques that will help you start and finish your book. Touch your generation with the message burning in your heart and leave a legacy for the next generation. Learn about your publishing options in South Africa.

Val is the author of 12 paperback books and numerous eBooks available in local bookshops and on Amazon.com, including the original Faith Like Potatoes, What Do They Believe?, Rushing to Armageddon and When the Storms Come, Publish Your Books on Amazon.com, Publish For Amazon Kindle, How To Write eBooks That Sell and many more.

Download Registration Form here and email to vwaldeck@gmail.com

———–

At Last – A Complete eBook to Print Copy Guide

You Don’t Need To Be A Professional Author To Produce Mind-Blowing Publications!

* Create Outstanding eBooks That Meet A Need *
* Publish In PDF Format On Your Website or Blog *
* Publish For Amazon Kindle *
* Publish on Amazon.com As A Print Edition *

Step-by-Step Guides to take you from concept to eBook to Print Copy!

Get This 3 eBook Special TODAY!

Offer Ends Monday, February 7, at Midnight

Total Value – $40 / R300
Yours For Only $14.99 / R100

But you have to act now!
Offer expires Monday, Feb. 7 at midnight.

To take advantage of this great offer, go here right away:
http://valwaldeck.com/3_eBook_Special

Does that sound difficult?

Take a look at this video series that takes the “mystery” out of self-publishing with Amazon.com and get my step-by-step ebook “Publish With Amazon.com” as a bonus.

Make 2011 a Year Of Action – the year you fulfill your dream and become an international published author. Who knows, you may even reach the Amazon Best Seller List and make a major global impact!

Take a look HERE for more details.

To Your Success,

Val Waldeck

To the contrary, competition can be beneficial for a variety of reasons including –

* Researching.

If there IS a lot of competition, you can reasonably expect there this to be a lucrative marketplace. Generally speaking, a large product and service line means there is large consumer interest and demand. I encourage you to LOOK for markets with lots of competition as it’s a
shortcut to researching where revenue is available.

* Partnering.

The more competition there is, the more likely you can find other like-minded marketers to partner with in cross promotion efforts, co-op advertising, and other related joint ventures. This is especially true if your ebook is “related” to other ebooks without DIRECTLY competing with them. (I.E. Raising metabolism is “related” to cutting calories in that they are both agents of weight loss.)

* Educating.

Another reason why competition is good is simply because your target audience is educated, at least in part, on someone else’s dime. That is, the marketing materials of your competitors educates the market on why the products are necessary or beneficial. A good example is this: many
marketers “educated” consumers on the need for using audio and video on their web sites, opening the door to a variety of related products and services to be sold.

So, competition isn’t always a bad thing. It can be a good thing for these reasons and a handful of others.

But …

The challenge comes in when you want to stand out among the competition so YOU can get marketplace interest. There are many ways to stand out by creating your own “USP” (Unique sales proposition) that could be covered here, but I want to mention is this –

Create a demographical version of your ebook.

Let me give you an example –

Let’s suppose you are going to write an ebook entitled, “Weight Loss Secrets”. So, you write it and then you create a “demographical version” that is entitled, “Weight Loss For Christians”.

Other examples might include –

* Time Management For Homeschoolers
* The Internet Marketer’s Diet
* The Senior Citizen’s Guide To Investing
* How Ace Your First Teacher Interview
* How To Get A Hot Date: College Student Edition
* Fundraising For Youth Groups

All you would need to do in order to create this “demographical version” of your ebook is take the same exact ebook you’ve written (your “regular” version) and add some specific references and ideas that relate to the particular demographic you’ve chosen.

* If you decide to create “How to Get A Hot Date: College Student Edition”, then you’d add in a few references to specific places a college student can find a date that wouldn’t apply to your regular audience (I.E. Frat party), as well as pick-up lines, first-date ideas, practices and
other content that apply only to college students.

In other words, you share the same content, but you speak THEIR specific language and provide ideas that THEY can put into practice in their setting.

The PRINCIPLES of finding dates may be the same across the board, but the PRACTICES of finding dates are completely different for college students and widowed senior citizens!

And if you can get creative in your content, you can make your demographical version even more appealing.

Your “regular” version may have 5 main practices for time management. But in your “demographic version” those practices become 5 “Homeschooling Habits”.

So, what’s in this for YOU as the author?

Let’s take a look at a couple of noteworthy advantages -

Firstly, you STAND OUT among your competition. As a Christian, I can tell you that if 20 ebooks were available on weight loss and one of them specifically mentioned being for believers, I’d immediately take a look at that one.

Secondly, you EXPAND OUT among your competition. Now you can market your ebook to TWO entirely different audiences. For example: You can look for “weight loss” ezines and buy advertising in them. But, you can also look for “Christian” ezines (that have NOTHING to do with weight loss) and buy advertising in them. This allows you to reach audiences that you likely would have never been able to reach!

Then, it’s simple a matter of doing it again for other demographics.

Rinse. Repeat. Reprofit.

Start with ONE demographic and move on to many others …

* Christians
* Homemakers
* Senior citizens
* Students
* First-timers
* Newlyweds
* Office Workers
* Teachers
* WAHMs

The list could go on and on. Most information products can be custom-tailored for different demographic groups to STAND OUT among the
competitors … and open up the door to new contacts that might never be reached through other means.

If you want to STAND out and EXPAND out then create one or more “demographical versions” of your ebook.

Like a screaming child at the library, you’ll get attention!

Author: Jimmy Brown.
Published under PLR licence.

Val

Check out my eBook Mentoring Course

After visiting the world’s largest search engine and the world’s largest bookstore, it’s time to take a quick stop at the world’s largest periodical store, Magazines.com.

You’ll find every imaginable magazine listed at this site. The interesting part (and useful to you as a research tool) is this: you’ll also find the COVER of usually a recent copy of each magazine.

That is, you can search for “Parenting” and the engine will return a listing of magazines related to that topic. You can then click on the image of the magazine cover and you’ll be shown a larger copy of that cover where you can read the contents. (I.E. “How To Raise A Stubborn Child”,
“27 Ways Discipline In Public” and “The Real Key To Your Child Getting Better Grades”.)

Each of these “cover stories” represents an idea for your next ebook.

The best part about it is this: the publishers of these magazines have done the research for you! They’ve measured the level of interest for these ideas and found it high enough to warrant not only writing content about them, but referencing that content on the cover of the magazine!

That’s your hint. People want this information.

So, there you have it, 3 “idea hangouts” where you can find
ready-made, in-demand, red-hot topics for your next ebook.

1. Google.com

2. Amazon.com

3. Magazines.com

Happy hunting!

Author: Jimmy Brown.
Published under PLR licence.

Val

Check out my eBook Mentoring Course

People write for a variety of reasons. Some because it’s a deep, heartfelt passion and others because they enjoy the challenge. Still others write because they want to make a name for themselves.

And then, there are folks that write…
…to make some money!

No matter what the reason, writing is a talent, whether blessed with natural ability or developed through writing courses and workshops.
Looking back in history at some of the greatest writers known to man such as Shakespeare, or to the novice writer just starting to put pen to paper, all writers experience the same things:

• Every writer struggles at one time or another with writer’s Block.
• Every writer longs to find out what to write about in order to be successful as an author.
• Every writer must learn to be organized and take action to complete their assignment.
• Every writer needs to be motivated, inspired, and use unique methods for developing new ideas.
• Every writer wants their creativity to be tapped into and released for their readers to enjoy and learn from.
• Every writer has a goal of providing some kind of useful information for others to benefit from.

And the list could go on.

There are a LOT of eBooks available that explain “how to write an information product.” But, there are few that cover WRITING TIPS that actually aid eBook authors in WRITING THEIR MATERIALS and helping them through the common struggles and needs that all writers experience.

That is what I what I would like to achieve with this next series of articles. I want to provide writers, from all levels and writing styles, with some unique and traditional methods to become the best writer possible.

I will be focusing on eBooks (digital books), but these tips are just as useful for paper books.

Regardless of what your goals are for writing, these tips are guaranteed to make the WRITING of your eBook easier and better.

Next time we will look at WHAT to write about…

Val Waldeck

Recommended: My eBook Mentoring Course