The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes said, “Of making many books there is no end” (Eccl. 12:12).

“Making them” is the first part of the journey. Selling and distributing your books is a major obstacle course, but it can be done with some planning, lots of prayer and much perseverance.

The only way to get people to buy your books is to make them aware they are available. Internet Marketing is a vast subject, but well worth researching because there are literally millions of buyers online at any one time.
The best way to learn how to succeed online is to learn from the experts. Patience, discipline and perseverance are the keys to succeeding online.

How to Effectively Market and Sell Your Product on the Internet
Available from Pilgrim Publications SA

How To Effectively Market and Sell Your Product On The Internet

Market Research

Identity your readers.  Are they young, old, rich, poor, educated, urban, rural, Christian?

Locate your readers.

Where do they congregate, shop, worship? What magazines, newspapers, literature do they read? What radio programmes do they listen to? Where will you find them on the internet? Are they computer-literate? Concentrate on these areas as you consider the best way to promote your book.

Pricing

When setting the retail price, it is important to take into consideration that bookshops normally require 35-40% discount, after which they add VAT. They do not take kindly to being undercut by the author.

Preparation of advertising material

• Catalogues – print in colour for distribution to bookshops.
• Extra cover copies – to use as advertisements, especially for bookshops. Keep in mind marketing agents do not carry loads of books into the bookshops, but sell from covers.
• Quick order forms.
• Posters.
• Collect testimonials and endorsements.
• Distribution.
• Christian bookshops.
• General bookshops.
• Specialty stores.
• Online bookstores (internet),
• Libraries.
• Non-traditional markets (places you don’t normally find books).
• Offer incentives.
• Consignment stock.
• Ask your friends to purchase their books from your outlets.
• Bookshops make books available, but rarely promote them.
  So … Advertise.
• Internet marketing.
• Web presence.
• Email lists, newsletters and ezines.
• Email to personal friends and contacts.
• Blogs.
• Social sites, e.g. Facebook.
• Press Releases.
• Newspapers and magazines.
• Local suburban papers.
• Radio and TV advertising and interviews.
• Book Reviews.
• Pre-Publication promotions.
• Special offers.
• Send review copies to magazines.
• Write magazine articles on topic of your book.
• Leaflets.
• Postal mailshots.
• Postcards – for “snail mail.”

Next time I’ll talk about online marketing in a little more detail and how to get noticed on the internet almost immediately.

Until then..

Let’s Reach Our Generation One Book at a Time!

Val

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
365-Day Devotional

1.      Self-publishing

Self-publishing is where the author bypasses all the intermediaries, deals directly with the editor, cover artist, book designer and printer, and then handles the marketing and distribution.

If you self-publish you take a greater risk, but you also get to press sooner, keep control of your book, and make more money. You are required to invest time and money, but the rewards are greater.

Should you choose the self-publishing route, you need to make decisions about:

• The size of your book (physical size and number of pages)
• The cover design – use a good artist.
• Layout and typesetting – use a professional typesetter.
• Additional pages – e.g. Dedication, Foreword, Introduction, Prologue (if appropriate), Acknowledgements, Advertisements, Copyright notice, Autobiographical sketch, and Disclaimer (example below).
• Obtaining ISBN and barcode information
• Printing – select a good professional printer and request quotes on an initial print run.
• Marketing of the finished product – where, when and how.

2. Print-on-Demand Publishing

Get your book published in the USA for international distribution without incurring enormous printing and distribution costs. You pay for initial layout and design. They make your books available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers, print and distribute them as and when ordered – without further cost to you – and handle the sales. You keep worldwide rights and watch your postbox for royalty cheques.  It is also in your interests to do some marketing and point people to the sites where they may order your books. The more people know about your books, the faster they will sell.

Check out these “print on demand” companies.

• CreateSpace
• Booksurge.com Very highly recommended
• iUniverse
• Authorhouse

3. Formal Publisher

Finding a Publisher is not easy. Publishing is a business and the expected financial return is the bottom line for Publishers. Publishers carry all costs and authors usually receive royalties of around 10% of net receipts (i.e. what the publisher receives for books sold.)

It is estimated that publishers receive about two million book-length manuscripts every year, so unsolicited manuscripts have little or no chance of being well received. It is, therefore, important to do extensive research in order to find a publisher who is interested in your type of manuscript.

It is highly recommended that aspiring writers purchase the “Writers’ & Artists” Yearbook” for information on publishers and their submission requirements.

4. Literary Agents

Literary Agents are specialists who work for both the writer and the publisher. They assist writers to find interested publishers. They also protect publishers from being overwhelmed by unsuitable manuscripts, which is why many overseas publishers only accept work submitted by Literary Agents.

There are two types of Literary Agents. Some simply evaluate your book and return unsuitable work. Others offer editorial services and assist to bring books with potential to their final stage. You may expect to pay around 15% of your royalties for their services, plus administration costs.

Do you need a Literary Agent?

1. Do you have a thorough understanding of the publishing market and its dynamics?
2. Do you know who are the best publishers for your books and why?
3. Are you financially numerate and confident of being able to negotiate the best commercial deal available in current market conditions? Agents collect monies due, take their commission and pay the balance to you.
4. Are you confident of being able to understand fully and negotiate a publishing or other media contract? e.g. retention for author’s benefit of motion picture rights.
5. Do you enjoy the process of selling yourself and your work?
6. Do you want to spend your creative time on these activities?

Literary Agents are not easy to find, as they will only work with authors of books they consider to be saleable before they invest their time and money in a project.

Where do you start looking for a Literary Agent? The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a good place to start. You may also join the South African Writers’ Circle for up-to-date information on local markets and agents. Address: Suite 522, Private Bag X4, Kloof, 3640.
Email: sawriters@webmail.co.za.
Web: www.sawc.co.za.

Well-known South African Literary Agent: Francis Bond.
Email: bondh@absamail.co.za.

Should you choose to use a Literary Agent, send a synopsis, your manuscript and a brief history of your background and achievements in writing. The Agent will evaluate your book and either accept it for submission to a publisher, suggest re-writes, or reject it. If accepted, it is usual to sign an agent/writer contract.

IMPORTANCE OF CONTRACTS

Whatever your choice of publishing route, make sure you have a valid, legal, written contract covering all details, financial and otherwise.

FINAL NOTE

The best Literary Agent of all is the Holy Spirit!

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and all your plans will succeed.”
– Proverbs 16:3

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
365-Day Devotional

Congratulations! It has taken a lot of time, effort and concentration to bring your book to this point.

Writing was the easy part! The next stage will take as much – if not more – concentration, discipline and “stickability”. There are thousands of manuscripts in cupboards around the world that did not reach the production stage and I want to help you get successfully get published.

First things first:

a. Proofreading. Has your manuscript been proofread and thoroughly checked for spelling and grammatical errors? Is your content logical, reasonable and Biblical? Is your manuscript easy to read and understand?

b. Acknowledgements. Have your quotations been acknowledged? Check the front pages of Bible translations for information about acknowledging scripture or visit the publishers via the Internet.

c.  Accuracy. Are your facts accurate? e.g. “During the time of St Jerome in AD 275, everyone believed in the laying on of hands by the Bishop or the elders for the baptism of Holy Spirit.” (Did “everyone”?)

d.    Editing. Finding a professional editor to give your book a good polish is the next stage in producing a book that will be saleable. Submit your completed manuscript to your copy editor on a rewritable CD or memory stick so they may make changes directly onto the disk and return it to you. If the corrections are made on a hard copy with ink, that leaves room for additional errors when updating your manuscript.

Choosing a Publishing Route:

Basically you have four choices – self-publishing, print-on-demand publishing, finding a formal publisher or using a literary agent. More about that next time.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Register for Kathleen Gage’s free Teleseminar on “How To Turn Books into Amazon.com Bestsellers while Increasing Your Visibility, Revenue and Credibility” – Thursday, October 29, 2009 10 – 11 a.m.  PST (Around 7 pm Thursday South African time). 
Click here for more information.

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
365-Day Devotional

The Truth About Nostradamus, Prophet or Clairvoyant?

Nostradamus said the world would end in AD 3797.  Was he right?

Some have called Nostradamus “the greatest prophet that ever lived”. Others view the prophecies of the 16th century author with much suspicion as they have questioned the source of his professed prophetic insight. The debate has raged for four hundred years.

The writings of this 16th century medical doctor, author and mystic have fascinated people for centuries and it is estimated that, on average, at least thirty translations or commentaries on his work have been published each century since his death four centuries ago. His writings were even used for propaganda purposes during the Second World War when both German and Allied pilots dropped “Nostradamus leaflets” from the air predicting victory for their countries.

Just lately the media, especially in South Africa and England, have given much attention to his work and movies are currently doing the rounds on our local circuits. Video cassettes are in great demand in homes around the country as details of fulfilled events are dramatized. So much so that even some Christians have wondered where he got his inspiration. Was Nostradamus inspired by the Spirit of God .. or was this a man who dabbled in the occult?

The prophecies of Nostradamus range from events in his own day to anticipated future events, including “the end of the world” .. which he dates at 3797 A.D. Four hundred years ago he wrote: “I have composed books of prophecies, each containing one hundred astronomical quatrains .. comprised of prophecies from today to the year 3797″. These books have never been out of print.

In spite of the fact that much of his work was written in a deliberately obscure manner to avoid manipulation in its interpretation, some of his work is very detailed and even dated. Three hundred years before the event He prophesied the founding of the Pasteur Institute in 1889, speaking of Pasteur by name. Examples of other prophecies include the execution of Charles I, the dreadful plague of London, the rise of Napoleon, the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 and a number of detailed prophecies concerning Hitler (whom he calls Hisler), naming him as the “second antiChrist”.

Details of World War II are penned by him as he prophesied the German armies sweeping across the Rhine into France, the rise of Mussolini, the Nazi invasion of Belgium and occupation of Norway. He warned of “weapons heard in the sky” .. “machines of flying fire” – describing oxygen-masked pilots as “half-pig, half-man when battles are fought in the skies”. He predicted the destruction of Pearl Harbour and the dreadful events of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Nostradamus wrote about the invention of the air balloon, the development of safe air travel, nuclear warfare, Nixon and the Watergate Scandal, the deposition of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the rise and fall of Ayatollah Khomeni, plus many other world events.

He was so popular in his own day as stories of his prophetic powers circulated that Queen Medici, wife of Henry II of France, commissioned him to write horoscopes for her family. He did this most reluctantly. “The king’s eyes”, he predicted, “would be pierced in their golden cage”. Four years later King Henry was killed in a jousting accident.

He prophesied the date of his own death too, ordering that a plaque with the date 1700 be placed in his coffin. 134 years later, in the year 1700, his body was exhumed and placed in a more prominent resting place.

It is not generally known that Nostradamus was not 100% accurate with all his prophecies, as many claim. For example, he predicted that France would grow in power and be victorious in a struggle with Spain during the 16th century. In fact, the opposite happened and France was driven out of Italy by the Spanish in 1559. A family line in France that he predicted a great future for also died out.

However, his amazingly successful prophecies spanning the centuries have caused many to believe that he definitely had supernatural insight. What must be questioned is THE SOURCE OF THIS INSIGHT. Where and how did Nostradamus get his information? It is vital for the Christian to be sure about this because Nostradamus has much to say about “the end times”. Can these prophecies be trusted?

Nostradamus is very clear about his methods and declared open that he used the “aid of astronomy .. other methods .. and even the Holy Scriptures” to bring himself into the place where these revelations were available to him.

He wrote of his fascination with astrology and the occult since the age of nine years, and recorded that, after the death of his first wife and re-marriage to a lady of means, he spent much time along studying “secret forbidden books” and meditating. The literature that appears to have influenced him the most, and from which he quotes extensively, is an occult book “De Mysteriius Egyptorum” by a fourth-century Neo-Platonist name Tamblichus.

He wrote that he never predicted anything of his own accord but, following the methods of his occult masters, he would place a bowl of water on a brass tripod, touching it with a ceremonial occult wand engraved with hieroglyphics. Then, as he gazed intently into this water, it would mist over and clear and he would see pictures, names, dates and faces in the water.

At the same time, a “divine power .. a god” would inhabit his body, leaving him with a feeling of disembodiment and in a trance-like state. A voice would begin to tell him what he was seeing and he would write it all down.

This is none other than pure occult practice, very far removed from the scriptural methods of the Biblical prophets and Christians would do well to heed the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:9-12 where he emphasises that those who practice occultic methods “are an abomination unto the Lord”.

Moses said something else of interest in Deuteronomy 13:1-3 as well: “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, AND THE SIGN OR THE WONDER OF WHICH HE SPOKE TO YOU COMES TO PASS, saying ‘Let us go after others gods which you have not known, and let us serve them’, YOU SHALL NOT LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF THAT PROPHET or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul”.

In other words, “touch not the unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:17) – leave it strictly alone and have nothing whatsoever to do with it. Good advice for those who love to watch the “Nostradamus videos”!

Why would satan take so much trouble to share this kind of information with a man like Nostradamus? Simply because people who trust his prophecies will also trust his predictions for the future .. regardless of what the Bible says.

Instead of looking for the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ .. the most momentous event this world will ever experience – and completely ignored by Nostradamus – they will be looking for Nostradamus” “third antiChrist .. the man with the blue turban”. Satan’s world ruler – Scripture’s antiChrist – will take his place in world affairs and followers of Nostradamus will trust him completely while they scan the horizon for a prophesied Eastern leader.

Seven years of tribulation? Not so, says Nostradamus. He predicts 27 years of war, followed by world peace and the ushering in of the golden age lasting 1000 years – the longed for “age of Aquarius” – culminating in the end of the world in the year 3797 A.D. Does that sound familiar to those who know something about spiritism?

Speaking of His Second Coming and the end of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ emphasised that “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matt. 24:36). No one else has the correct date .. not Nostradamus or the devil himself!

Those who follow the teachings of Nostradamus not only find themselves at variance with Bible prophecy, but find their eyes focused far away from the Lord Jesus Christ, our coming King, Saviour, Lord and God – without a thought about His second coming.

Let Christians be warned. Jesus said that false prophets would abound in the “last days” (Matt. 24) and would deceive many.

JESUS IS COMING SOON! Let’s keep our minds stayed on Him and our eyes focused on His Word – our only reliable guide for this life and the next!

Click here to get the ebook

Val Waldeck

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
365-Day Devotional

Creativity is a gift of God (Exodus 31:2-4) and it makes good sense to ask Him  for wisdom and the anointing that will cause your book to touch nations. Pray earnestly for vision, revelation, strength, perseverance, a sense of direction, and release from frustrating circumstances and distractions, as well as wisdom, anointing and the ability to complete the project. We need to lean on the Lord every step of the way.

Practical preparation

Before beginning the book, there is some practical preparation to take care of.  Much like a building project, we need to know what we are trying to achieve and what the finished product will look like.

Start with the title and back copy. Before the book reaches completion, the title may change many times, but choosing a title helps to focus our thinking. What is the general purpose of the book? What is its specific purpose? What do we want people to feel, think, or do as a result of reading our book? It is a good idea to write down your specific purpose in seventy words or less and use it as copy for the back cover.

The Importance of a great cover

You can’t tell a book by its cover, but you certainly SELL a book by its cover! Once your title is definite, hire a good artist. The front cover is your best advertisement. Research has shown that most people are drawn to a book by the cover. They spend eight or less seconds looking at it before turning to the back cover, where they tend to spend about fourteen seconds. The front cover must say, “Pick me up.” The back cover says, “Read me.”

Collecting information.

While refining the title and back cover, the next step is to collect the information you will require for the book. Keep notes, quotations, items of information and research material together in a file. This simple step will save you much time and frustration.

A word about copyright

Copyright law is very strict. This is a right granted to creators under law. Copyright in all artistic works is established from the moment of creation. The only qualification required is that the work must be original. No one has the right to change an author’s work in any way and claim it as their own. This is called plagiarism and is illegal. Remember, therefore, to always give due credit for quotations by other authors. Put the copyright symbol, your name and date in your work to draw attention to its copyright status: e.g. Your name (c) 2008.

Disclaimer

Some useful wording:

“This book is designed to provide condensed information. It is not intended to reprint all the information that is otherwise available, but instead to complement, amplify and supplement other texts. You are urged to read all the available material, learn as much as possible and tailor the information to your individual needs.Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible. However, there may be mistakes, both typographical and in content. Therefore, this text should be used only as a general guide and not as the ultimate source of information.The purpose of this book is to educate. The author shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book.”

Use a model

Visit a local bookshop and choose a book that appeals to you. Follow the format and take note of the extra pages required to complete your book. Start working on a short biographical sketch and consider who may be suitable for the foreword.

Careful planning

Plan the book carefully. How many pages will it have? How many chapters? Having a rough idea of where you are going will help immensely once you start writing. If you plan 200 pages with 20 chapters, you will know a chapter is nearing completion when you reach ten pages. One A4 page is roughly equivalent to two pages of an average size book. Save the chapters in separate files on your computer. This will enable you to work on them at random.

Rough notes

Another excellent tip is to make rough notes of the planned contents of each chapter before you start the serious business of writing the book. You will find this an invaluable aid. These notes ensure that all points are covered without duplication. Keep your notebook with you at all times and write your thoughts on the appropriate pages. Eventually you will organize these notes into a rough skeleton from which to write the various chapters of your book. Writing from notes is so much easier than composing from thin air.

Just do it

Then “just do it” – start writing and sharing those wonderful gems that have impacted your life. Remember, you can always change what you have written. The important thing is to begin.

Target your reader

A useful tip is to target someone you know and write for them. Catch attention with the opening sentence and link it to the closing sentence. Write simply and enjoy sharing what life has taught you, knowing you are obeying the principle of sharing with future generations and leaving a legacy that will impact people for years to come.

Proofreading

Once your book is complete, select a few good friends and people who love reading to proofread the manuscript. If they tell you it was hard going .. rewrite!  Don’t rest until you have a vibrant easy-to-understand  book that is readable.

Publishing

Find a good editor to polish and prepare it for publication and decide whether to self-publish or submit to a regular publisher. Purchase the latest copy of the Artists’ and Writers’ Yearbook for more information about publishing.

Recommended Resource

Imagine how life would change if you knew you would make money on virtually any book you take to market AND you could do so with no out of pocket expense. What about the people you would impact through your written words?

Take a look at Kathleen Gage’s report “How to Write, Publish and Market a Book with No Out of Pocket Expense.” You will learn exactly what to do. Not only do you get the report, you also receive a learning guide and an audio recording on how this is done.

To get your copy now go to
How to Write, Publish and Market a Book with No Out of Pocket Expense

From His Eye Is On The Sparrow
365-Day Devotional