Information Products

Review of e-readers: WSJ likes the Nook (Is your ebook ready?)

6/28/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

Here’s one more reason to make sure your ebooks are available for the Nook (the Barnes & Noble e-reader) and Amazon’s Kindle.

In a review in today’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Katherine Boehret cautions against relying on the iPad if you’re planning to read ebooks at the beach. The iPad’s screen has a glare that’s accentuated in bright sun, even if you’re under an umbrella and wearing a hat and sunglasses.

She likes the Nook and the Kindle and says that “at least for now, the Nook is in the lead.”

The Nook, she points out, has something that the Kindle doesn’t: a touch screen.

“While Amazon’s Kindle has a physical keyboard for inputting text, and directional buttons for painfully sluggish navigation, users of the Nook can make their way around it using screen taps or swipes; its onscreen keyboard appears when needed.”

The popularity of both the Nook and the Kindle should be the nudge we need to make sure we offer our content as ebooks for customers of both brands. But formatting your content can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I hosted two free webinars recently with Daniel Hall, who explains how to format your content for those two readers:

Publish an Ebook Today Using Barnes and Noble’s Nook

Publish Your Ebook Today with Amazon’s Kindle

But of these webinars are very long, but Daniel explains within the first 90 minutes how to format your ebooks. Each webinar is offered as a series of smaller videos, so you can return and watch a certain segment if you need to review his instructions.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Information Products Tagged With: amazon, Barnes & Noble, ebooks, katherine boehret, kindle, nook, wall street journal

Inventory clearance on CDs, transcripts, booklets

6/15/2011 By Joan 4 Comments

Recruitment & Retention Tips Booklets

Information products can become out of date so quickly, particularly those dealing with social media sites or any type of technology.

For that reason, I’m cleaning out my massive inventory and practically giving away more than 20 titles.

CD and transcripts, regularly $39.95, are only $5 each, plus shipping. Tips booklets on employee recruitment and retention, regularly $5 each, are $1.35, and include shipping.

Even though many of the products are out of date, all of them include valuable tips that are still as good today as they were when I created the them. Topics include Facebook, how to get PR clients, press releases, nonprofit publicity, how to get your own TV show, special event planning and promotion, employee recruitment and retention, and more. Here’s the complete list of titles.

Some of the CD titles are gone already, and we aren’t reordering, but you can still order the transcripts. Grab them while you have the chance.

Questions? Contact my assistant, Christine Buffaloe, at 619-955-5772 or Chris (at) SerenityVA.com.

Filed Under: Information Products, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, TV Publicity, Twitter, Writing Articles Tagged With: how to use Facebook, inventory clearance, nonprofit promotion, press releases, publicity hound products, special event planning, special event promotion

Book not done yet? You can finish it in 90 days

6/12/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

Author coach Ann McIndoo

Many of my friends have written books, so I’ve heard one sob story after another on how long it takes.

One author I know spent four years writing her book, and another frustrating year rewriting, proofreading and doing all the other little things associated with finally getting it onto the shelves in bookstores.

If this sounds like you, or if you want to write a book and avoid these hassles, help is on the way.

You’re invited to a free webinar or telephone seminar on Thursday, June 16, with host Steve Harrison who will interview Ann McIndoo. Ann has developed a unique system for writing a quality non-fiction book in 90 days.

I’m promoting this call as a compensated affiliate because far too many authors spend far too much time producing books that, in many cases, don’t even sell. Ann’s system works best for authors who have written non-fiction books, particularly how-to, leadership, business, self-help, autobiography, etc. It doesn’t work very well for children’s books, novels or poetry.

Discover the speed writing system she’s used to help 268 authors get their books done quickly. Register here.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Information Products Tagged With: ann mcindoo, author coach, how to write a book, steve harrison

Publicists: Trade PR skills for Internet marketing training

6/10/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

Tom Antion, My Internet Marketing Mentor

Publicists, how many more clients do you think you can attract if your name comes up on the first page of Google every time someone searches for a PR person with your expertise?

Tom Antion, my Internet marketing mentor, can help.

Tom is looking for four select people who have expert skills in certain areas of PR and who are willing to work 10 to 15 hours a week in exchange for a scholarship to his new, licensed Internet Marketing certificate school.

Tom is the real deal, and you’d be crazy to pass up this offer. When he called me this week and asked me if I’d extend it to you, I said I would, but only if he promised to give my Publicity Hounds first crack at applying and being considered.

Hundreds of publicists and PR people follow me, so he could find exactly who he needs within a few days. Snooze, and you’ll lose.

What Tom Has Taught Me

The training I’ve received from Tom has allowed me to enjoy a great income for many years from my home office. Much of it comes from my more than 150 products which I sell online, even on days when I don’t feel like working, or when I have a doctor’s appointment or other family obligations.

Tom taught me the secret of how to capture the Number 1 and Number 2 spots on Google for the phrase “publicity expert”:

He also taught me how to earn affiliate commission promoting other people’s top-quality products and services that I can stand behind. I’ve done it so well, that I couldn’t stop the commission checks from arriving in my mailbox even if I tried.

Tom showed me, step by step, how to publish a profitable electronic newsletter. As a result, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week has been going strong, for more than 10 years. You can learn what I learned and lots more. And if you’re chosen, you can spend a day with him at the Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center at his home in Virginia Beach. I’ve been there four or five times.

How to Apply for a Scholarship

Tom is looking for the following publicity experts:

A print specialist
A radio specialist
A TV specialist
An online specialist

As you can imagine, there will be fierce competition for these spots because people pay Tom $58,000.00 to work with him personally for a year and $9,100.00 for tuition to his school. He’s a cut-to-the-chase guy who doesn’t have time for busywork. And he knows you don’t either.

You don’t need a portfolio or even a resume. Just email him with a quick synopsis of your experience and publicity successes and explain what you want to accomplish on the Internet. He’ll follow up with you by phone.

Check out all the details.

But Is He a Good Media Interview?

Tom is an excellent media guest and has done more than 1,000 radio interviews and many for TV, newspapers and magazines. So if you know what you’re doing, generating publicity for him will be a piece of cake.

He’s also got the credentials. The Internet Marketing Training Center is currently the only licensed Internet marketing school in the United States.

If you aren’t interested, but you know a crackerjack publicist who is, let them know about this. And spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Filed Under: Information Products, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, PR Consultants/Publicists, TV Publicity Tagged With: internet marketing scholarship, licensed internet marketing certificate school, online publicity specialist, print publicity specialist, radio publicity specialist, the publicity hound's tips of the week, tom antion, TV publicity specialist

Lulu.com: You get what you pay for, says Book Shepherd

6/6/2011 By Joan 7 Comments

When I shared a link on my Facebook page to the replay of a webinar I hosted recently with Daniel Hall on how to format an ebook for the Nook, Barnes & Noble’s eReader, one of my fans wanted to know if formatting books individually for different eReaders was better than simply using a site like Lulu.com which offers diverse publishing services for self-publishers, including ebook publishing.

I forwarded the question to Judith Briles of The Book Shepherd, who has published 26 of her own books, including 18 with major publishers, and also has her own imprint. Here’s how she responded:

“Lulu is expanding its operations to the ebook world, and who isn’t?

“Lulu falls into the vanity press/subsidy publishing arena. Nothing is free, I don’t care what they say or promise. You pay for what you get.

“Designed for the person with limited money, the published book product that is produced reflects it. I’ve seen books fall apart, pages fall out, print slanted, back copy fuzzy—you name it.

“The ebook world uploading needs to be compared—apples to apples. Lulu charges a fee per book, which is higher than most, plus the various platforms pay a percentage. With Amazon, if you have a printed book, the percentage can be as high as 70 versus a low of 30 without a print book.

“The $1.49 fee on ebooks is a money grab. It sounds low, but it’s tough to find out what the charge is on the site.

“They say free ISBN numbers (some ebook platforms, like the Kindle, don’t need one, but the Nook and iPad do and some of the others do, so I think it’s smart to have one). You want your own ISBN. There are other choices.

“Lulu says that the author will make more. Its price example uses the normal prices of major publishers for ebooks, which is $13.99. It doesn’t represent that the real world is well under that—in the $6 to $9.99 range. Only the bestsellers are commanding the higher price. If you sell your book on Kindle, Nook, etc., it would mean you would have to literally tack on the additional fee–making your ebook more expensive than the others in your genre.

“Lulu will say the fee covers the ‘host’ costs. Nonsense. They’re basically the same files—once they are at the platform—for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Smashwords, etc., so there is no hosting expenses. Lulu becomes the receipent of any revenues from the online retailer, then to you.”

Authors, Share Your Own Stories

There you have it, authors. Now, share your own stories.

Have you had experience with Lulu? Did it meet your needs? What’s your advice to other authors who are thinking of using it to publishe hard-copy books or ebooks?

Have you published ebooks for the Nook or the Kindle? If so, how easy or difficult was it?

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Information Products Tagged With: book shepherd, ebook publishing, judith briles, lulu.com, self-publishing, the kindle, the nook