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Soulati Media On The Street With More In Media

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dorien_fullsizeAt a conference where I presented and debuted my new book, Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey, available here on Amazon Kindle and via softcover here, I met some really amazing people.

The coolest woman I met, and I say that because she’s the owner of orange and I LOVE ORANGE (I have an orange Mini Cooper convertible…digress) and she’s got the best branding in the world is right here in the brief video below.

Meet Dorien Morin-van Dam, owner of More In Media. Watch why her branding knocks it outta the park…wait, do they have baseball in The Netherlands?

She’s a #RockHot business women in Myrtle Beach; please engage with her.

 

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Always Publish An E-Book, Too

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Self-publishing a book in whichever format comes first is a wonderfully tedious, exciting, disturbing, and mind-boggling experience. I know this to be true because I just did it — with many trials, tribs and nail-biting.

Today, I’m so pleased to present:

If you download the e-book, and find you just can’t live without the soft-cover to hold in your hand, you can get this .

There’s an entire system of pricing you have to consider when setting yours. Because I used a hybrid publisher, they get a portion of every sale and so does Amazon. Hopefully, your first book is an experiment in the discovery of the process and not a get-rich-quick scheme (‘cuz I hate to break it to ya, that ain’t gonna happen).

My Biggest Mistake

I was so hell bent on publishing the manuscript for the soft cover to debut mid-April at the that I neglected the e-book.

I was exhausted after writing the book, proofing, fixing, proofing, seeing comps, building a presentation deck, traveling, and ohmygosh where did the time go…that I put aside that e-book.

When I went to tackle it, apparently, I couldn’t add the hyperlinks to the hard copy template. Something about InDesign vs. Mobi files…?

So, I created a spreadsheet with 40 hyperlinks that needed to go into the document on a respective page on a respective line and for a respective word phrase.

After two weeks, I got a file to proof and check those 40 links, and then I got another file and then I got another file to check those 40 links. So, if your analytics shows me pinging  your blog for two seconds, you’ll know why — Jon Buscall, Danny Brown, Dino Dogan, Gini Dietrich, Adam Toporek, The Jack, New England Multimedia, Ralph Dopping, Kaarina Dillabough, Laura Click, Erica Allison, Fire Pole Marketing, 12Most.com., Steamfeed, and others.

My Best Move

Embarking on self-publishing is a mine field. Just hook into any thread on a LinkedIn Group or Google+ Community oriented to the topic, and your head will spin. There are about 24 gazillion pieces of software you can use to publish, and if you’re just an author/content marketer as I am, you’ll drown choosing the right fork in the river.

That’s why using was the best move I made. As a hybrid publisher, they help you with any aspect of the self-publishing journey from proofing/editing, designing the layout and cover, publishing the e-book, adding a QR code, and printing the hard copy. It even has a storefront on its website featuring a variety of little known authors writing on a breadth of topics.

Interested in working with a publisher like this? Try them; see my interview right here. David Braughler is top dog in my book.

And, speaking of “my book,” Thank you, world, for waiting patiently as I schooled myself in the self-publishing arena. A special shout out to who ALWAYS supports, shares and ‘raderies moi and Roho, aka , for that awesome review of this book.

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Book Review of APE By Guy Kawasaki

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Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and one of the original Apple Computer employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh in 1984. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Content marketing for business development purposes is critical. Businesses need to draft authentic and fresh content and make it available via calls to action on a website which turns into a landing page and then a thank you page and everyone’s happy.

My first e-book was written in December; a collection of blog articles I’ve written about blogging — one of my favorite topics.

And, then this monkey book came to my attention. I am screaming from the rooftops:

RUN AND BUY NOW!

If you don’t already know about APE, uhmm, well perhaps you’re under a rock? No offense…this book is everywhere on all the social media channels and being reviewed by everyone. I would be remiss not to join in and share the excitement for this book. If you have any designs whatsoever, even if it’s a germ of an idea, to become an author, then please, please go get this book.

I downloaded this book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch and read its 500+ pages over a few nights all the while highlighting and bookmarking pages for future reference on my Kindle  Fire.

I knew, prior to finishing the book, I had to go back to the drawing board with my e-book which I’ll share about in another post. This book is that good; it’s making me take the time to redo and do it right to become a self-published author.

Why You Should Read APE

This book is written in a friendly and easy-to-understand style and tone. It has a ton of detail about all aspects of publishing books. Although I am only interested in self-publishing, the book is a great resource for traditional publishing, too.

Each chapter addresses the basics about writing, formatting, designing selling, and working with publishers. What it does extremely well is tell the truth about the quagmire that is self-publishing.

This industry is nascent, and there are no real standards yet. People who self-publish should really consider using Adobe InDesign publishing software (used by professionals and $$), and they also need to learn and understand the various formats for the various booksellers. I never knew a thing about MOBI, EPUB or PDF file formats. I also never knew there are four major players with which you can work to sell your e-books (via Google Play, iBookstore, Kindle Direct Publishing, and Kobo).

How about pricing a book? Don’t forget how much it costs to design a cover, proof and edit a book, too!

APE-Book-CoverFor serious authors, this is probably a piece of cake; for first-timers like me, it’s a nightmare…time consuming and fraught with tech issues one can’t control. Did you know that each file format handles tables of contents differently? Don’t even think about having nice images, tables or bullets in your manuscript without ensuring they look decent in the final form…these don’t import well, either.

 

That’s why this book is worth every penny. Each and every one of the issues above are addressed in this book. Even if you merely want to publish a PDF book for downloading on your website, you still want to read this book. Who knows? That PDF book might become hugely popular, and then what should you do?

The other good news about this book is the website the authors built for the book, Upon going there, with one share on social media, you’re privy to tools and downloads that help you write and self-publish your own book. Guy and Shawn self-published APE, and it’s offered on Kindle Direct Publishing. How cool and clever is that?

You know what else is awesome? is featured in the book with her own chapter! She’s the and of 12Most.com, and she also manages a (by request only), too. It’s really wonderful when the people who have guest starred on this blog show up in nationally acclaimed books.

Run, as I said, and get this book. Its a top read for every would-be author.

 

 

 

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