Publication and Telemarketing

There was a time when becoming published consisted of a major publishing company reading your manuscript, liking what they read, and accepting it for publication. These days with the technological revolution, there are a number of ways to become published. The foremost manners are Traditional publishing and print on demand.

Both have their pros and cons, and both are extremely different from one another. There are several aspects lacking in both. Neither manner is perfect. The main issue that a writer faces when the writing process is complete. You have your manuscript, and you want to get it published, so what do you do now?

The process of traditional publication can take up to six months or more. All too often, the final decision in the publication process is the result of impatience. The writer is not patient enough to wait for an answer so he or she decides to go with print on demand publishing. In some cases, this can be a very bad mistake.

The Pros of Traditional Publication: Traditional publication takes a lot of responsibility and work out of the hands for the writer. There is less time spent in actual sales and marketing and more time available for promotion and planning the next book. There is also the aspect of the feeling of accomplishment. When one goes the self-publishing POD route, he or she often doesn't feel as if they are deserving of the title of published author. It simply doesn't feel as if it is a lofty accomplishment, as anyone with a computer and a little money can be self-published.

The Cons of Traditional Publication: Again there is the time between submission of the manuscript and actual publication. It can take weeks, and even months. The average publisher has a reading period between four to six weeks, sometimes one to six months, depending upon the popularity and work load of the publisher. Another con in traditional publishing is the financial end. Though you do not pay any fees, the publishing company gets an average fee per sale of fifteen percent. It doesn't seem like much, but it can add up after ten thousand books.

The Pros of self-publication: Print on Demand offers more on the actual control of your manuscript. You decide the content; cover art, and even the price that the book will be sold for. You decide who sells the book and where it is sold. Also, self-publishing means that you keep the final sale price of the book. However, when comparing to the fifteen percent that a traditional publisher gets, one tends to wonder if they are actually making more money.

How can we find top publisher services?

Go to writers’ forums and websites and quiz individuals on their publishing experiences. Then go to publisher websites and read the testimonials. But, remember, they will not print any of the critical author emails they’ve received. And, by all means, Google a publisher too. Don’t take all the positive reviews seriously and don’t believe all the cries of “Scam! Scam!” But thoughtfully consider all the reports and balance them out against each other.

You’re Not Just a Dollar Sign When it comes to great customer service, again, it pays to ask former authors about their experiences. Also, note carefully when you ask questions on a publishing site or mention interest in filling out an application---what kind of attention do they promise? Too many publishers are wonderfully attentive until you sign on the dotted line and send your money. Then, suddenly your manuscript is just an item on an assembly line. Will they offer you a real live author rep to accompany you patiently throughout the entire publishing process? Can you actually reach the rep by phone or email or do you have to wait hours or even days on end for a response?

They Offer Genuine Publicity Five hundred bookmarks and a few postcards does not a PR campaign make. Does the publisher help you get your manuscript out to book reviewers? Do they give you a custom book cover that will really grab readers? Do they help you advertise your book to targeted blogs, ezines, and directories that cater specifically to your topic or genre? Do they set up your book for Google searches and do they include benefits such as the “Search Inside” feature on Amazon? Do they have an active distribution program through a reputable distributor such as Baker & Taylor? Do they offer such features as the religious publisher that offers contact information to thousands of pastors and churches? These are truly valuable publicity methods that can really help.

They Coach Authors Long-Term the typical commercial publisher tends to push a book hard for 1-3 months. Then they have to move on to other books. Most print-on-demand publishers don’t individually publicize a book for much more than one week. They primarily set certain features in place that enable the author to help publicize it. However, there are a few publishers that truly assist authors for months or even years after they’ve published. One such publisher is Outskirts Press, which offers an email coaching program that continues for at least two years after publishing. This is invaluable to not only inform writers but also motivate them toward success in a very tough and competitive field.

Magazines Advertising Services

IQR is providing its research services to a big publishing house which has been providing the aviation industry with the most accurate and up-to-date airport / FBO directories. These directories provide the professional with the tools to find the aviation service providers they need. Users can find the most up-to-date listing of FBOs, fuel prices, fuel providers, airport diagrams, handlers, ground transportation, charter operators, and caterers

Magazines can be an excellent source of advertising, but you have to know which one. Besides choosing a magazine with readers that will be intrigued by your products and/or services, you most likely want to choose a magazine with a large readership. Determining the level of readership for the magazine should be one of the first aspects looked into, but sometimes the reports of readership can be misleading.

A magazine may tell you that over 100,000 people will be exposed to your add That sounds great but the magazine only prints about 60,000 copies. You have to consider that a decent proportion of the magazines they produce are going to dealers and newsstands meaning that a good number of magazines may never be opened at all. Also, publishers may conduct surveys to gain a sense of readership that could be misleading to the advertiser. For instance, a publisher may ask an office subscriber how many people work in the office, so the publisher will count all of the people working in that office as readers (though they may not be so). Publishers do the same with single subscriptions delivered to a library.

There is a huge difference between readership figures and distribution figures, and to their own benefit, publishers will do their best to blur the difference to advertisers. An advertiser has to get a sense of how often a potential reader will generate a potential sale. You want to get a number of paid subscribers instead of distribution numbers because paid subscribers are most likely going to be your target market and the ones that are more likely to read the magazine all the way through (looking at the advertiser’s spread).

How to select a good Publisher

You may find a mainstream publisher who is willing to take a look at your book, but if you’ve ever tried to pitch a book you will realize that the rejections are extremely high and the possibility of having a publisher pick up the tab is not very likely. You must be able to market yourself and have a tough skin when it comes to rejection. Even if you do get lucky, you will still have to do a major portion of the marketing, so it helps to have some extra money to use for publicity. While mainstream commercial publishers and university presses have budgets for advertising and promotion, they tend to only use their resources to promote highly visible personalities whose books are easily sold by the power of that person's notoriety. These publishers will rarely risk a dime on the unknown author, and if they do, the window of time for the book to be deemed successful is roughly six weeks. If your book doesn't justify its costs in that time, it is back-listed and disappears from print. The author has little recourse, and can only wait out the time period until he can purchase back the rights to his book.

Publish it as an eBook. This is the least expensive way to publish, and people do actually buy eBooks. I had a graphic designer create my cover image to use for promotion of the book on my Web site. I set up a business account with PayPal and added my ISBN to my product list. They created an html code that I copied to my Web site. When someone makes a purchase, I receive an email notification. I respond to the email by attaching the pdf of my book and sending it to the customer. It would be better to have an auto responder email the eBook to the customer upon purchase but Godaddy, the company who sends my permission-based newsletter, does not offer an auto responder.

Since publishing my book in 2005 through Booksurge, I have found an independent press called Nightengale Press that combines the best of both worlds. A contractual fee covers the costs of artwork design fees, graphic design of the book, an author's website and affiliate program, uploading of files to a print-on-demand and off-set mass production through Lightning Source, the first press release about the title, and all the associated costs of registering the book in the proper agencies for cataloging the title and tracking sales.

What makes this company so different from the old world view of publishing is clear. Not only do they take care of order fulfillment and distribution, offer industry connectivity to all online and bricks and mortar bookstores reporting sales back to Ingram and Baker & Taylor, they also pay 70% net royalties to the author and even repay the author’s contractual fees through the sales of the author's books whether in bookstores, on the internet, or directly through back of the room sales, or through any other marketing means. Furthermore, the authors retain the rights to their books, and can at anytime request release from the contract with a simple letter and thirty days notice.

Directory database services for Publisher

Directories and databases have traditionally been a distinct and separate segment of the larger publishing industry. Initially built from the circulation database or by the publisher’s ability to attract classified advertisements, directories have usually been the 13th issue of the magazine and are now recognized as the most under-utilized assets within the publishing industry.

The content offering needs proprietary, in-depth content as well as aggregated ‘commodity’ content to make this an industry destination as well as develop granular distribution channels for this content.

What is needed to make a Sourcing Guide the indispensable tool for buyers, is to add enough data to enable the buyer to create an informed short list. The data will vary depending on the industry but will often include terms and conditions, geographic coverage, delivery times, resellers and other intermediaries.

Once buyers use the Sourcing Guide as their primary reference, vendors will be willing to pay for solutions that bring the buyer more intimately into their systems. These solutions include pricing catalogues, inventory search, and delivery tracking and so on.

Tools that provide an intuitive search on content is today a basic expectation and not considered as value add. The challenge for building subscription-based revenues is in providing additional content and technology value add to the subscriber against traditional competitors, as well as the high availability of public domain information on the Internet. There is also an increased user expectation for the quality, periodicity and depth of data.

The content offering needs proprietary, in-depth content as well as aggregated ‘commodity’ content to make this an industry destination as well as develop granular distribution channels for this content.

What is needed to make a Sourcing Guide the indispensable tool for buyers, is to add enough data to enable the buyer to create an informed short list. The data will vary depending on the industry but will often include terms and conditions, geographic coverage, delivery times, resellers and other intermediaries.

Once buyers use the Sourcing Guide as their primary reference, vendors will be willing to pay for solutions that bring the buyer more intimately into their systems. These solutions include pricing catalogues, inventory search, and delivery tracking and so on.

Tools that provide an intuitive search on content is today a basic expectation and not considered as value add. The challenge for building subscription-based revenues is in providing additional content and technology value add to the subscriber against traditional competitors, as well as the high availability of public domain information on the Internet. There is also an increased user expectation for the quality, periodicity and depth of data.

Of all the credentials desired by professional service providers, perhaps the most coveted is authorship, publishing a book under your own name. A book conveys solidity, credibility and expertise; in the mind of the marketplace, it often distinguishes the serious players from the also-rans.