Publishing Entrepreneur

Ninety-five percent of all books of poetry are sold at poetry readings, and that is where you will sell most of yours. For a poet, self-published or otherwise, readings are not only desirable, they are essential. Readings are—or should be—full-scale, carefully planned performances at which you and your work are the stars. Unfortunately, these powerful marketing events are often poorly planned or not planned at all, and that is a great waste.

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I started a new publishing business some years ago with a Mac Plus, a Laser Writer and two used desks. Just four years laser my company was grossing nearly $800,000 a year.

I was publishing NCEast, a regional magazine; the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Guide, Welcome to Wilmington, a slick four-color newcomer'sguide to this major metropolitan area; Homebuyer's Handbook, a real estate buyer's guide; Washington and Beaufort County Magazine, a city magazine; and Renter's Helper apartment directories in nine mid-Atlantic cities. Earlier I had published the Mecklenburg Gazette, a weekly newspaper, and Dollarsworth, a free circulation shopper.

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Sometimes I do things just because I want to. That’s pretty much why I am publishing my new magazine, Literary Savannah, starting in September. I know there is a readership, but is there an advertising market? Maybe, maybe not. A stroll through the Yellow Pages tells me that I will have to sell a good third of likely advertisers, plus bring on board some sponsors – people and companies who will buy space just to support the magazine. Since the magazine will be great promotion for other parts of my business (book design, editing, typography, and consulting) it will only have to break even to meet my needs.

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My new Self Publishers Bible: A Handbook for Publishing Entrepreneurs is now out and available. I have worked on this book for years and crammed it full of writing and publishing trade secrets learned over a lifetime in the business.

The Self Publisher’s Bible: A Handbook for Publishing Entrepreneurs answers completely and authoritatively the questions posed almost daily by newcomers to the business of publishing.
But this book does much more than that.

• Arranged in encyclopedic format for easy use, the personal and anecdotal style of this book, growing out of the author’s own experience, invites browsing into areas that many readers may not even know enough to ask about.
  Especially useful are the lengthy entries on secondary profit centers that can spell the difference between success and failure in home-based, entrepreneurial publishing. This discussion is unique to this book
  Also unique are the entries on specialty book projects with fast turnaround and very high potential for substantial, quick profit and the discussion of the profitability of advertising-based periodicals well within the capabilities of self-publishers.
  The Self-Publisher’s Bible targets not only those readers who want to publish a single book but those who want to convert their publishing enterprise into a sustainable, income-producing, home-based business.

Read sample pages in a free download by clicking here.

To own this book call 912-352-0404 for a $5 discount and free mailing,  or click here to buy from Amazon.

Part 2 of a Two Part Article:

To find  a niche in your own city or town, start with what I call a “census of niches.” This is a technique for identifying all the niche market possibilities that exist there. After you do this, you evaluate each niche to see how it matches the seven-point checklist.

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Targeting a viable niche market with an advertising-centered publication can be an almost certain formula for profit so long as you understand what a viable niche is and recognize one when you see it.

A viable niche for the home-based entrepreneurial publisher is one which matches this seven-point checklist:

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Publishing is a crazy business that few of us would be in if we did not simply love it. Still, even lovers have to put food on the table and buy new school clothes for the kids. So here are some things I have learned about generating income in this business.

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Never neglect to profit from secondary profit centers. They can bring in big bucks with no increase in overhead and often underlie real success in your niche market, home-based publishing company.

Below is the wording of a half inch display ad I run in the Yellow Pages (the real ones) of my telephone directory. The cost is $38.50 per month:

WILLIAMS & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
Trade Books • Private editions
Book Packagers • Family and Regional History
www.Pubmart.com  www.PublishingEntrepreneur.com
1317 Pine Ridge Drive Savannah, GA 352-0404

This half inch ad is quite visible, since the yellow is dropped out and, unlike the ads around it, it appears white against a the yellow background. This single ad generates a net income of thirty to forty thousand dollars a year from my secondary profit centers of editing and publishing private editions, memoirs not meant for the trade, personal poetry collections, and consulting for other self-publishers. Many inquirers want me lead them through the process of book editing, design, and publication.

The revenue generated by this little ad makes it possible for me to live my life solely on my words-and-books work without having to rely on income from some other job to buy groceries and pay the rent. The same is true of many other publishers of my acquaintance. A cross listing appears under “book printers.” I have found that most people who need and want the services I list in my ad have little idealittle idea where to get them. My ad solves the problem for them.

I answer every call personally and am happy to explain the steps involved in getting a book edited and produced, sometime spending fifteen or twenty minutes answering a call. I give lots of what some might consider free advice. A large number of these calls are converted into sales.

Of niches there is no end. Just when you think that you have exhausted the possibilities in your city or town a new and totally unexpected niche emerges.

This is what happened when Dye Scott-Rhodan, of Hilton Head Island, SC, and owner of Dye’s Gullah Fixin’s restaurant, decided that the time was right for a digest-size publication to celebrate the Gullah heritage. Her niche: the rapidly-growing interest in the island culture of the Gullah people.

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Think you know what POD means? Maybe. Maybe not. There is a good deal of confusion here, and it is important that prospective self-publishers sort it out.

POD stands for “print on demand,” and is a digital printing technology enabling a publisher to print as few as two or three dozen copies of a book at an affordable price, something that was never before possible by any means. This technology has had a major impact on the publishing business. Because of it the publisher no longer needs to print several thousand books before discovering whether on nor his book will sell. The phrase, however, has come to be used in two very different ways, and it is important to distinguish between them.

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