This is a composite article covering How to Submit Your Book to the Kindle E-Book Store and a Simplified Formatting Guide for Kindle.

Since I wrote my books Self Publishing for the Clueless® and E-Publishing for the Clueless® books, Amazon®, has changed and improved their system consequently the characteristics of the Kindle® system and how your book might look on the Kindle® reader might not loom like you want it to if you don’t follow the guidelines.

Here are some guidelines and things for you consider about putting your book on the Kindle® system

Kindle is Amazon.com’s eBook publishing platform available on the Kindle eBook reader, on computers, online, for Smartphones such as Android and iPhone, and for tablet devices such as the iPad.

• Not all E-Book readers are Kindles®. In fact, less than 10% of the pad, tablet, or e-book readers are actually a Kindle®.

• Because of Amazon’s advertising and promotion campaigns, Kindle® has become a branded term for e-book readers just like Sony’s Walkman® became the branded term for portable cassette players even though every other major electronics manufacturer made a portable tape player.
•  Remember that the Kindle® reader was designed to display textbooks. Period! Anybody who tells you otherwise is uninformed and if you follow their advice, you’ll end up with a crappy looking display of your work.
•  Kindle uses E-Ink®, a black and white display system that‘s made up of very small marble type dots that are black on one side and white on the other.
•  Kindle’s® computer causes the marbles to flip over and create either black or white dots.
•  With all of its features, there are pros and cons to the Kindle® system:
•  Since the display is a passive device, there isn’t a big power drain on the battery to light it up so you’ll get 30-45 days on a charge
•  Since there is no backlight, the unit works great in bright sunlight
• Since there’s no light, it doesn’t work in dim lighting or dark rooms
• Since it only displays black and white images, color photos and those that depend on half-tones of grey look weird and even abysmal

Anyone can publish a book through the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system, (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin) which then distributes the e-book via Amazon.com’s online network.

The KDP system is compatible with a variety of document files and requires you to include a cover image for your e-book that will be displayed on the Kindle store.

• Amazon.com account
• KDP-compatible e-book file
• E-book cover image

Step 1

Go to the KDP Web page on your computer and log in using your Amazon.com account details. If requested, read and agree to the KDP terms and conditions.

Step 2

Click the “Add a New Title” button in the upper-left corner of the KDP “Bookshelf” page.

Step 3

Enter the relevant details of your e-book in the “Book Basics” section, including a title, edition number and product description. The description is the synopsis people will see when browsing the Kindle store.

Step 4

Click the “Add Contributors” button and enter the details of the e-book’s author or authors. Click the “Save” button to finish adding contributors.

Step 5

Set the language of the e-book using the “Language” drop-down menu in the “Publishing Details” section and set a publication date using the calendar to determine when the e-book will go on sale. If you want it to go on sale immediately, leave this section blank.

Step 6

Click the “Add Categories” button in the “Browse and Search” section and select at least one relevant category for your e-book to be filed under.

Step 7

Click the “Browse for Image” button in the “Product Image” section and select the cover image from your computer. Click the “Upload Image” button to add the cover image to your e-book.

Step 8

Select your preferred option for adding copy protection to the e-book in the “Book Content” section using the two radio buttons. Click the “Browse for Book” button and select the e-book file on your computer followed by the “Open” button. Your e-book will now be uploaded to Amazon.com and its digital rights management (DRM) will be applied.

Step 9

Click the “Save and Continue” button and then select your preferred royalty option on the next page using the two radio buttons. Enter the price you want to sell your e-book for in the “List Price” box next to the royalty options.

Step 10

Tick the “Terms and Conditions” box at the bottom of the page followed by the “Save and Publish” button. Your e-book will appear for sale on the Amazon.com Kindle store within the next 24 hours.

Formatting you book for the Kindle®
I hadn’t really considered this to be a big deal since everything I publish for electronic distribution is converted to PDF format and when the reader looks at it, appears exactly like I wrote it.

Life would be a lot simpler if everything we read and write was set up on a standard format but unfortunately, it isn’t so if you want your book to look the way you want it to on the Kindler, you’re going to have to follow their guidelines for publishing.

Since most people use Microsoft Word, the following instructions show you how to go from whatever you’ve set up as you format to one that will display properly on the Kindle®.

Building your book

Word is a great tool to use because it’s extremely easy to format. We suggest writing your book in Word or converting an existing source file into Word (.doc) format before continuing.

Remember these important tips below to ensure an excellent eBook presentation.

• File Format: Save your content in DOC (or .doc) format, not RTF (.rtf) or DOCX (.docx) as the latter do not translate well to Kindle. Save your work periodically as you make changes to ensure all changes are recorded.
• Layout: Use indentations, bold characters, italics and headings, as they will translate into your Kindle book. However, bullet points, special fonts, headers, and footers will not be transferred, so be sure to avoid those.
• Page Breaks: Enter a page break at the end of every chapter to prevent the text from running together. To insert a page break in MS Word, click “Insert” at the top menu bar and select “Page Break.”
• Image Placement: Images should be inserted in JPEG (or .jpeg) format with center alignment (don’t copy and paste from another source). Select “Insert” > “Picture” > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, remember that images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for great contrast and clarity.
•  Spellcheck and Grammar: This tool is always your friend to ensure a professional presentation free of typos. Use this tool, but also manually proofread your file to ensure no errors are missed by the automated checker.
• Creating Front Matter

Front matter is the beginning pages of a book, which may include a Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Preface, and Prologue. For a stylish and professional presentation, you should add a Title Page at a minimum.

• Title Page: The title page should be centered with the title on top and Author Name underneath, like in the example below. Insert a page break.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

By Mark Twain

-Insert Page Break Here-
To insert a page break in Word, click “Insert” at the top menu bar and select “Page Break.”

• Copyright Page: This page normally follows the Title Page. Insert a page break after the Copyright details.

• Dedication: If you have a customized Dedication, it should follow the Copyright page. Be sure to Insert a page break.

• Preface: If you have a Preface, it should follow the Dedication. Be sure to Insert a page break.
•  Prologue: If your book includes a Prologue, it should follow the Preface. Be sure to insert a page break.
• Formatting Text

Once your front matter is complete, you’re ready to format the remainder of your text. The indentations, text spacing, and separate paragraphs should have been included when you built your book in Word.

The remaining step is to insert a page break after the last sentence of each chapter in the book to prevent chapters from running together. Depending on the number of chapters you have, this may be a time-consuming process but the effort is worth the improved reading experience.

Paragraphs

Paragraph text displays with justified alignment by default. The first line of each paragraph is automatically indented.
To manually indent paragraphs in your content, do NOT use tab-spacing. This will not convert for the Kindle. Instead, use the Word-default Paragraph Formatting to indent paragraphs. There are two ways in which you can indent paragraphs:

1. Click on “Page Layout”, and specify the amount of indentation in the “Indent” option.
2. Use the ruler at the top of the page to change the indentation. If you don’t see a ruler in your Word document, click on “View” and check the Ruler option.
You can also follow the guide here: http://www.ehow.com/how_4714418_indent-paragraphs-word-documents.html
Creating an Active Table of Contents

For digital books, page numbers don’t really apply. This is due to the fact that Kindle content is resizable, and the number of pages within the book changes as the text scales. It is highly recommended that your book has an active Table of Contents for easy navigation.
You can use Microsoft Word’s in-built Table of Contents creator to create an active TOC for your book. More information can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285059
Guide Items

Kindle has the option to “Go To” the cover image, beginning and the Table of Contents of your book, anywhere from the content. These are defined by what is known as “Guide Items.” To define the Guide Items, follow the below steps:

For the Cover Image:

Click on the cover image, then click on “Insert > Bookmark.” In the ‘Bookmark name:” field, type “cover” (without the quotes) and click “Add.”

For the Beginning:

Place the cursor where you want the book to start, click on “Insert > Bookmark.” In the “Bookmark name:” field, type “Start” (without the quotes) and click “Add.”

For the Table of Contents:

Place the cursor at the beginning of the first entry in the Table of Contents. Click on “Insert > Bookmark.” In the “Bookmark name:” field, type “TOC” (without the quotes) and click “Add.”

Creating Back Matter

Back matter consists of the last pages in your book which provides additional information the reader should know about, such as Bibliographies,

Appendices, Notes or Glossaries.

There isn’t a specific order which back matter should be presented in, so use your judgment and be sure to insert page breaks after each section. Indexes are not recommended at this time.

Saving as Filtered HTML

Once you have inserted your page breaks and are confident with the layout of your book, save your Word file to your Documents folder or Desktop in Web Page, Filtered (*HTM & *HTML) format. This format is required to build a successful eBook.
When saving the Word file as HTML, all the images (if any) in the Word file will be extracted, and will be stored in a separate folder. This folder will be saved in the same location where the HTML file is saved.

Once this is done, you’re ready to import your book using MobiPocket Creator.

Using MobiPocket Creator to Build Your Book

MobiPocket Creator is an application that will convert your Web Page, Filtered (*HTM & *HTML) file into an eBbook. It can be downloaded by clicking the link above or by going to mobipocket.com.
Once installed, follow these steps to create your eBook:

1. Open Mobipocket Creator.
2. Select “HTML Document” from the section “Import from an Existing File”.
3. Browse to the HTML file and press “Import”.
4. This will open the book editing function. Click on “Cover Image.”
5. Click “Add a Cover Image” and browse your files to locate the book cover.
6. Select your book cover and click “Update” to save your cover.
7. Select “Build” from the Menu.
8. On the Build page, click “Build.”

Once complete, this message will appear: Build Finished. Next, click the circle next to “Open folder containing eBook” and select “OK.” The file will be in PRC (or .prc) format and open in your My Documents\My Publications folder. Your book will be located here for future reference.

This PRC file is what you will upload into the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

Now that you have an eBook of your file, the next steps are to verify how it will read on a Kindle Device.

Use Kindlegen to Convert HTML to Mobi

The MobiPocket Creator application is compatible only on Windows based computers. If you used MobiPocket Creator to build your ebook, you can skip this step. MAC users can use the KindleGen application to convert the HTML file to a Kindle-compatible format (MOBI/AZW/PRC). Follow the below instructions:
1. Download the KindleGen.zip to your Mac in a location such as your home (~) directory. KindleGen can be downloaded from http://www.amazon.com/kindlepublishing

2. Unzip it under “~/KindleGen” (you’ll have to create a new folder, and unzip the KindleGen application to this folder).

3. Open a command prompt and type “~/KindleGen/kindlegen.”

4. You will see instructions on how to run KindleGen.

5. To convert the HTML file, copy and paste the HTML file and the images folder in the same folder that KindleGen is extracted (the “KindleGen” folder).

6. In the command prompt, type “~/KindleGen/kindlegen filename.html” and if successful, you will see the converted file in the KindleGen folder. This file will be named as filename.mobi.

Using the Kindle Previewer to Read your eBook

Kindle Previewer is a tool which emulates how a book displays on the Kindle device and other Kindle enabled devices such as the iPad or iPod. Use it to view how your text will appear and to identify areas which may require further modification.

You can download a free Kindle® preview tool from http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000234621

Once installed, open the application, click “File” and then “Open Book” to browse and select your eBook
If you determine further changes to your book are required, re-open your Web Page, Filtered (*HTM & *HTML) file to make edits. Then re-save your file and follow the steps in Using MobiPocket Creator to build your eBook to re-build your eBook.

Save the new PRC file and then re-open it with the Kindle Previewer to confirm the changes.

Uploading Your eBook For Sale on Amazon

Once you’re satisfied with the quality and presentation of your book, upload the PRC file to KDP. Your book will appear for sale on the Kindle Store approximately 24 hours after clicking “Save and Publish.”

Within 48 to 72 hours, all other book features should be available on the detail page, such as the product description and links to related physical editions.

One way to get your business idea or project off the ground is to forget about bank loans and instead ask investors–people who actually want to see your idea succeed–for a little pocket money.

RaiseCapital™ (www.raisecapital.com)

• RaiseCapital™ is sort of a selective Craigslist for funding that allows people with business ideas to post text, photos, and videos about their projects to attract some money.
• Entrepreneurs can log in after paying a one-time $99 fee, and they receive a unique URL on the site as well as a visit counter to track how many people have viewed their posts.
• The network of investors who are interested in a particular category receive a daily update showing all the new businesses registered the day before.
• RaiseCapitalTV.com features new businesses in a video presentation.

Charities and nonprofits are allowed to post for funding, as well.

RaiseCapital™ also lets investors register with the site so that they can be in on the newest ideas that have the potential to make a lot of money.

Investors large and small register for free and anonymously.

Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com)

• Kickstarter allows you to solicit funding from strangers.
• Kickstarter™ allows people from all over the globe to peruse projects and contribute as little as a dollar or as much as the donor can afford.
• Kickstarter™ requires that you set up a page describing your project (audio and video pitches are encouraged so go gettm motor mouthJ) and set a time period for people to pledge money.
• For different donation amounts, the project creators owners usually offer gifts, such as a signed album or free downloads of the project when it’s finished.
• If your Kickstarter™ reaches its funding goal, you keep the money; if not, it goes back to the patrons.
• The great thing about the site is that 100 percent of the money you raise is yours–and Kickstarter™ will never keep any intellectual or property rights on your project.

According to their propaganda, a little under half of all Kickstarter™ projects are fully funded OnGreen (www.ongreen.com)

OnGreen–which focuses on business ideas and patents that are a part of the green economy–tries to bring inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors together by creating a “social marketplace” to connect startup businesses with the funding they need and the new technology that might help them move forward.

Investors can browse “Deals” in which entrepreneurs–pitching everything from energy-efficient window-pane-installation companies to urban-farming startups–list how much funding they need and describe the business’s model. Entrepreneurs can also browse patents to incorporate into their operations, so inventors have a way to market their products more efficiently.

Matching investors and entrepreneurs who are passionate about the environment and great inventions, OnGreen is a great place to mine increasing popular support for green projects.

Venture Hacks (www.venturehacks.com)

Run by two former entrepreneurs and investors who put money in Twitter in its early days, Venture Hacks is primarily a how-to site for the serious entrepreneur.

The advice that you can subscribe to on the site will help you learn how to pitch your idea, find investors, and turn your small startup into a bigger business.

The site sells eBooks that give you the rundown on practical concerns such as how to choose a cofounder, or how to break down who owns what in your company.

You can also join the site’s AngelList, a social network of large and small budding projects and businesses.

From the AngelList, you can search for investors, as well, narrowing down who you pitch by your company’s location and the market that you intend to serve.

ChubbyBrain (www.chubbybrain.com)

ChubbyBrain was will allow you to request an invitation code to gain free access to its first publicly released algorithm, the Funding Recommendation Engine.

The algorithm statistically breaks down the aspects of your company in order to match you with the appropriate sources of funding–from grant providers to venture-capitalist firms to well-known angel investors–based on the investors’ history of funding.

This way, you don’t waste time pitching people and grant institutions who aren’t interested in the kind of work you do.

Also, if you don’t have time to wait for an invitation to the newest features of ChubbyBrain, you can still use its free database of investors to narrow down which ones might be interested in your idea.

Or, just sign up for the site’s newsletter, which will send you funding tips.

Special note: No matter what the free or low-cost programs advertise, most of them recommend (or require) that you know and understand some degree of HTML programming to make them function the way you want them too. 

I’ll agree that the world of digital and tablet computing has created a meteoric rise in the number of e-books and readers but is paper really going away?

When radio was introduced, the demise of paper books was predicted.

Guess what? It didn’t nor did television, the internet nor the web.

Instead we now have a greater variety of ways to store, disseminate, and assimilate information with none of the previous methods actually disappearing.

With all of the computers in use in business and other ‘paper dependent areas’, the world had predicted the rise of the paperless office as computers started to proliferate .

And yet, there is 80 times more paper in use today than when that term was coined.

As an engineering major in college, I would have loved to have had all my books on a table computer so I didn’t have to lug around tonnage in the way of paper books but the marked up pages, margin notes, and scribbled revelations made the paper book a thing of value and one to be kept for reference.

What gives?

Why did I mention my old college experiences? Because the type of publication has a lot to do with whether or not an E-Book will be accepted by the end user and totally replace paper books.

The University of California has recognized the value of dual media by supplying new textbooks in both paper and E-Book formats together. This means that the E-Book gets carried to class for ready reference and easy reading while the heavy book stays at home for reference and markup.

Novels, poetry, history, humor, and a number of other categories will undoubtedly enjoy a rise in their transition to the E-book format but I’m skeptical about manuals, How-To-Books, and other types of reading that requires the book to be ‘open and available’.

Phonograph records were replaced by tapes, CDS and now MP3 downloads because of their convenience, quality, efficiency, cost and size and the same can be said of VHS tapes, DVDs and video-on-demand.

Books don’t have quite the same dynamic because for as “old fashioned” as the printed page may be, there are still a lot of people who prefer it to reading from a tablet or a monitor.

Keep an open mind and watch the market. In my self-publishing seminars, I admonish authors to think in terms of dual media to satisfy the needs of the buying public.

In the meantime, here’s an interesting article for you to read and think about.

The Future of Books: A Dystopian Timeline by John Biggs

Reprinted from TechCrunch blog-9/27/11

2013-EBook sales surpass all other book sales, even used books. EMagazines begin cutting into paper magazine sales.

 2014-Publishers begin subsidized e-reader trials. Newspapers, magazines, and book publishers will attempt to create hardware lockins for their wares. They will fail.

 2015-The death of the Mom and Pops. Smaller book stores will use the real estate to sell coffee and Wi-Fi. Collectable bookstores will still exist in the margins.

 2016-Lifestyle magazines as well as most popular Conde Nast titles will go tablet-only.

 2018-The last Barnes & Noble store converts to a cafe and digital access point.

 2019-B&N and Amazon’s publishing arms – including self-pub – will dwarf all other publishing.

 2019-The great culling of the publishers. Smaller houses may survive but not many of them.

The giants like Random House and Penguin will calve their smaller houses into e-only ventures. The last of the “publisher subsidized” tablet devices will falter.

 2020-Nearly every middle school to college student will have an e-reader. Textbooks will slowly disappear.

 2023-Epaper will make ereaders as thin as a few sheets of paper.

 2025-The transition is complete even in most of the developing world. The book is, at best, an artifact and at worst a nuisance.

Book collections won’t disappear – hold-outs will exist and a subset of readers will still print books – but generally all publishing will exist digitally.

A Library of Congress catalog card number is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to the catalog record created for each book in its cataloged collections.

Librarians use it to locate a specific Library of Congress catalog record in the national databases and to order catalog cards from the Library of Congress or from commercial suppliers.

The Library of Congress assigns this number while the book is being cataloged. Under certain circumstances, however, a card number can be assigned before the book is published through the Pre-assigned Card Number Program (PCN).

Without this data your book could sit in a library for several months before personnel know how to log it or where to put it. By participating in CIP, you will be provided pertinent information that can be printed right on the copyright page of your book.

If however, your material is in booklet form under fifty pages, light fiction or poetry, the CIP program is not for you: librarians don’t need CIP data for these.

If the CIP Program is appropriate for your material, you start the procedure rolling by writing to:

Library of Congress

Cataloging in Publication Division

COLL/CIP (4320)

Washington, DC 20450-4320

Contact their site: http://cip.loc.gov/pcn/

As a publisher you will be expected to submit a special Library of Congress Cataloging Data Sheet together with information on each book several months prior to its publication.

They prefer to receive the whole manuscript, but usually a copy of the table of contents and introduction, plus any promotional material, gives them what they need to draw from.

Your Library of Congress catalog card number will be assigned. It should appear on the copyright page of your book and in reviews. This number allows subscribers to the Library of Congress catalog service to order cards by number and eliminate a search fee. Approximately twenty thousand libraries belong. If you plan to sell to libraries, you must have an LOC number.

This isn’t exactly true although they’re not the easiest on-line e-book seller to work with.

To help stock the iBook store with plenty of titles, Apple has came up a way for you to sell your eBook in their iBook store!

They’ll list your e-book for FREE, but you MUST comply with their guidelines for listing in the Apple iBook store (Like mandating that you must use a Macintosh® computer).

NOTE: If you can’t comply (like if you don’t have a Macintosh computer) you can still sell your eBooks to IPod users in PDF of EPUB format – you just can’t list on the Apple iBook site.

In order to put your eBook into the iBook store, you need to meet the following requirements:

• An ISBN numbers for the book you want to sell
• The ability to deliver the book in ePub format (The software is 440 and available from:

http://www.ipad-transfer.com/epub-converters/best-pdf-to-epub-converter.html

• The book pass EpubCheck 1.0.5 9(http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/)
• A US Tax ID number
• An iTunes account backed up by a credit card
• An idea of where you’ll sell and how much you’ll sell for
• An Intel-based Mac running OS 10.5 or later

Before Selling a Book…

Make sure that you comply with the requirements set by iBook Store. In order to start selling your books, you will be asked to file an online application at their site. You will then be notified of the requirements for distributing books on the library.

They are divided into three: technical requirements, book content requirements, and financial requirements. If you do not meet any or all of the requirements stated, then you might as well complete them first before pursuing your application for a hassle-free transaction.

• Technical Requirements: You should have no problem if you are using a Mac with at least 1GB RAM, Quicktime 7.0.3, at least 10 GB free hard drive space, and a stable broadband internet connection.
• Book Content Requirements: The book you’re selling must have ISBN and must be in epub format. The book will be checked via the EpubCheck 1.0.5.

Financial Requirements: Before you can distribute books, you must have a US Tax ID and an account in iTunes store (You may also contact an iBookstore aggregator

After working with everything from the software that came with my webcam through some really exotic software packages, I discovered that there are a lot of inequities in the software/hardware combinations that results in poor picture quality including video lag, distorted audio and horrific sync problems between the audio and video.

Since failure was NOT an option, I started researching the solutions and it turns out that everything you need is available, on-line, for free.

I’m using a Logitech Orbit Webcam™ and a Yeti™ microphone, but you can use the built in components on your laptop or just about any webcam/microphone combination you want.

I’m using the FREE Microsoft Windows Live® software for editing, sound effects, titling, and other related tasks. If you have a Macintosh®, I recommend that you use the FREE video editing software that comes with your computer (I’m not a Mac user but I’m pretty sure that it does the same stuff!).

1. Capture the material using the your Logitech webcam and a separate external microphone
2. Use the FREE Debut Video Capture Software from NCH software to record both the audio and video material for lag proof video, clean audio and the best initial quality (www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html)
3. The default storage for the NCH software captures will be: desktop/(your user name)/myvideos/debut
4. Create a video editing file (E.G. Video Blog) file on the D drive
5. Edit the material with the Windows Live® software
6. Add royalty free music from your collection
7. To publish the video to YouTube™, you’ll find that the conversion is automatic with the Windows Live® software – just click and publish – it’ll convert the material to the YouTube™ flash format automatically.
8. For non-public viewing and searching, use an unlisted video

Unlisted videos

What is an unlisted video?

An unlisted video is a different type of private video. Unlisted means that only people who know the link to the video can view it (such as friends or family to whom you send the link). An unlisted video will not appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces (such as search results, your channel, or the Browse page). An unlisted video is different to a private video in these ways:

• You don’t need a YouTube account to watch the video (you can see an unlisted video if someone sends you the video’s link)
• There’s no 25 person sharing limit

Even though your video will not appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces, links to the video could still appear elsewhere on the web if anyone who knows the video’s URL shares it. It is therefore up to you to maintain the privacy of your video and the unlisted URL. You can further restrict the video at any time by returning to your account and marking the video as Private.

How do I create an unlisted video?

You can choose to make any of your uploads an unlisted video in your YouTube Account settings. Here’s how:

1. Sign into your YouTube Account
2. Click on your account name located in the top right of any page. Click on My Videos from the expanded menu.
3. Choose the video you want to edit and click the Edit button below the video thumbnail.
4. Scroll down to the Broadcasting and Sharing Options and find the Privacy section.
5. You’ll see the option to make the video Public, Unlisted, or Private.
6. Select Unlisted. Make sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

How do I share an unlisted video?

Once you’ve set your video as unlisted in your Account settings, you’re ready to share your video. In order to share your video, just send the video’s URL to the people with whom you’d like to have access to the video. They’ll then be able to view the video.

Who can access my unlisted video?

Initially, only the people with whom you share your unlisted video’s URL will have access to the video. That said, if one your contacts then shares the unlisted video URL on a blog / public website or with their friends, the video will be available and accessible to those people (and their friends) as well. It’s therefore important to communicate to your contacts that you wish to maintain limited access to your unlisted video and that you only share the video with people you trust.

Since the internet entered the mainstream in the 1990’s, on-line networking has helped to fuel its explosive growth to what we see it as today.

The original networking groups were called UseNet News Groups and consisted of simple typed text messages.

As technology advanced, these UseNet News Groups were replaced by more sophisticated tools like BLOGS that have allowed the addition of color, graphics, photos, audio and video.

Regardless of the technology being used, they were, and are, marvelous tools that allow people with a common interest, no matter where they are physically located, to interface with others who share their interests.

And yet, for as powerful as they are, they still lack the human interface element because the participants only ever meet in cyberspace.

Enter Meetup™

Meetup™ is the next logical step from on-line only interfacing. At its most simplistic level, it’s a gathering of people with mutual interests like writing, inventing, public speaking, and so on.

Initial contacts, connections, and announcements are made on-line and then the interested parties get together in a mutually agreed on location for face-to-face interchanges.

How does it work?

The process begins at the Meetup™ site at www.Meetup.com.

If you have an interest in communing with others who have a common interest, you can search for existing Meetup™ groups by title and zip code so that you’re interfacing with people are in a reasonably close physical proximity to you.

If you find a group that’s close to you and offers what you like, follow the directions and join the group.

What happens if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the list of available Meetup™ groups

Since Meetup™ groups can cover virtually every subject you can think of, if your area of interest isn’t yet represented, you can be the originator of your own group.

You instantly become a Meetup™ Organizer who initiates that gathering and the person who makes it all happen.

What about business networking?

Although many of the Meetup™ groups are dedicated to social interaction and leisure pursuits, like knitting or bridge, many of them offer business opportunities.

If the Meetup™ business interest base is broad enough, you’ll have the opportunity to not only share your knowledge and expertise with others in the group, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from others and to demonstrate your competence and interest in the topic.

And this interaction can result in referral business from both the members and the people that they refer to you.

In this context, Meetup™ groups function similar to a combination of a mastermind group and a business sharing group where you can learn something, do something, and change something.

How big is it?

Meetup™ is currently the world’s largest network of local groups.

Let’s use Entrepreneur Meetup Groups as an example where you can meet a new network of local entrepreneurs to share tips and problem solving techniques, get advice on profitability and career and discuss mentoring and business models.

You can swap business cards and watch your personal business directory grow!

Incidentally, related topics include Executive and Business Coaching, Small Business Marketing Strategy, Internet Professionals, Web Technology, Internet Marketing, Working Women, Social Media Marketing, Startup Businesses, New Technology, Self-Improvement

In this broad category, they currently have 5,469 groups comprising 949, 563 members in 48 countries.

Get the Idea?

Although Meetup™ won’t guarantee that you’ll find that million dollar business deal at the first get together, it will provide an atmosphere of mutual interest that will eventually lead you to business relationships that are bound to be mutually beneficial.

Happy networking!

•  As a published author, you have now become a published expert on your topic.
• As a published author, you’d like to sell more books, wouldn’t you?

Since marketing is a numbers game, exposing yourself and your book on a talk radio show will help increase your visibility and reach large numbers of potential buyers.

Since every one of these shows depends on outside expertise on the subject, getting yourself booked on talk radio shows is a mechanical process.

There are hundreds of talk radio shows that broadcast constantly throughout the United States.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, states that this category contains American radio programs devoted to talk on any subject except religion or sports. (Religion and sports have categories all their own)

These talk radio programs may involve interviews, listener call-in, or monologues by the host. You can check out the stations and complte details about their formats at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_talk_radio_programs

Although there are a variety of different formats and criteria, they all have a few things in common like:

They comment on current issues

• They comment on critical issues
• They rely on outside callers who are experts on their topic of choice
• The call-in experts get to promote their book

So now comes the question: How do you get on talk radio shows so you can promote your book?

The process is a nine step mechanical process:

Before you do anything, (after you write and print your book, of course) you MUST have a web site – The web is a huge library of information and your web site becomes your press kit and promotional material archive. It’s available 24/7 and can also be a place to sell your books and e-books.

It’ll be the place where your author’s biography is placed, mechanical and marketing details about your book are available, and a place to offer sample chapters as free downloads.

You can take a couple of your best chapters or the most dramatic and dynamic sections and turn them into PDF files on your website and let people read and download them for free. Think of this as the equivalent of letting people browse through your book at a bookstore.

To be completely effective, you’ll need the web site itself plus the ability to accept credit cards, a shopping cart, and a pay-per-download capability to sell downloadable copies of your book in EBook format.

You’ll find all of the materials you’ll need to do this on my shopping cart at www.RMACart.com. Look for the book Fishin’ with a Net™ ISBN 978-1-891440-55-7, the CD on How to Create an Effective Web Site™   ISBN 978-1-891440-43-4 and the book E-Publishing for the Clueless® ISBN 978-1-8911440-72-4.

This trio of materials will show you how to set up everything you’ll need for less than $10 bucks a month.

Get the Radio Talk Show Mailing Lists from Joe Sabah (www.JoeSabah.com). There are a lot of free sites that will give you the station information but Joe’s program already has the stations set up in mailing list format PLUS he offers a FREE lifetime update guarantee so that when stations change, appear, or disappear, you’ll have the updated lists (You get a lot of information for $147).

Create 40 questions and answers – One of the most important elements of getting on talk radio show is for you to write down 40 of the most commonly asked questions about your book or the subject of the book.

You’ll also need to write down the answers to these 40 questions.

Why? There are several reasons why questions and answers are a critical component to you being booked on the talk radio shows:

•  First and foremost the talk radio host is going to want to know what they can expect in the way of questions and audience interaction. These questions give them a detailed overview of just what they’re likely to get in the way of call-in questions. It also lets the host know your actual depth of knowledge on the topic because they don’t want to book somebody who says they know a lot about the topic and really doesn’t.
•  The second reason is that there are times when talk radio shows experience what’s known as dead airtime. (That’s where nobody calls him). By having the questions and answers in front of them, the talk radio show host can go ahead and ask questions in lieu of waiting for a call.
•  The third reason is because not all talk radio shows provide call-in opportunities. For those that don’t, this will give the host material that they can use to fill up their air time.
•  The last reason won’t become apparent until the show airs and what it does is give the host the opportunity to be a co-expert along with you. Because they have the questions, and the answers, there may be an opportunity for you to say host, you probably know the answer to that question so why don’t you handle it.

Once they are complete and edited, post them to a dedicated page on your web site

Create a FREE giveaway from the web site using an auto responder feedback form that allows you to capture the email address of the person making the inquiry and automatically sends them the material or a link to where they can download the material.

What you probably don’t realize is that the most important thing that you’re going to get from the talk radio exposure is people’s e-mail address.

Although it would be great to have people hear you on the show and immediately go to the website and buy your book, you need to recognize that it’s probably not going to happen, at least not as fast as you’d like it to happen.

What you really want is an e-mail list of people who found the information that you gave on a show interesting enough to request the free giveaway information.

Since the information is about the book’s topic, you automatically have a qualified mailing list that you can send multiple reminders to over a period of time.

Experienced marketers will tell you that it usually takes several reminders, offers, or awareness presentations to get a buyer to commit to spending money. By having the caller’s e-mail address, and knowing that they have an interest in your topic due to the characteristics of the free giveaway, you have a perfect target audience to send multiple e-mail reminders.

Statistically, over time, this will result in more sales for not only the primary product [your book] plus any other materials on the topic that you decide to make available at a later date.

This free material can be a list of resources that an interested party would have to research themselves or a small, printable booklet of tips about the topic.

Create a promotional post card – Once you’ve readied the material on the web site, create a good looking post card that you can mail to the talk radio shows on the list.

You’ll find everything you need to know about creating effective post cards from Nancy Miller’s DVD called Marketing with Postcards™. It’s available from www.RMACart.com and it has everything you’ll need including some great sources for having your postcards designed and printed at low costs.

Joe Sabah swears by the 5 ½” x 8 ½” goldenrod card but we’ve found that having a full color card in standard postcard size work just as well – maybe even better.

If you want the best designer we’ve found, check out Leslie Sears at leslie@LesIsMore.us or her website at www.LesIsMore.us. She’s done a lot of these and knows how to create a dramatic promotional piece of information in a small space.

Mail the Post Cards – You’ll need to mail the cards in a quantity that does NOT exceed what you can do telephone follow up on each week. If you’re only going to have time to call and follow up on ten stations per week, then only mail that many because without a timely telephone follow up program, most of your effort will end up in the junk mail bin.

Telephone follow-up-This is the part that separates the winners from losers when it comes to getting booked on talk radio shows and I can speak from experience – if you don’t do telephone follow up immediately, you’re wasting the whole effort.

The talk show hosts, and their producers, have a great many things to worry about including booking new guests for the show. When you couple this with the fact that they’re not in the studios all the time, it makes it difficult to actually get a hold of and pin down the people who can book you.

Somebody needs to stay on top of calling the radio stations on a regular basis and at the times that they specify for you to call back when the host and/or producer is actually there.

I found that when I was doing the shows, that having somebody call and schedule an appointment time for me to call worked best. The person I hire to do the follow-up would get the information, pass it along to me, and then I could call back in honestly say that I was returning the phone call of the host and/or producer.

I know this process works because I booked almost 300 talk radio shows.

Book the shows – As you schedule the dates and times for the interviews, keep close track of the specific logistics including:

The time and date you are to be on the show *** Remember to take into account time zone and daylight saving time differentials!

• How much time you will be allotted
• If it’s a call-in show or not
• Do they call you or do you call them?

Do the shows and pitch the book

That’s it in and for a simple as it seems, it actually works and works well.

One last thing about this process and that is once you’ve done the show, calendar that show for about 90 days into the future and contact the host/producer again to see if it’s something that they want talk about a second time.

#   #   #

Don’t Die With Books In Your Garage!

 The Ten Best Ways to Market Your Self Published Book!

• Are you an author with a lot of unsold books in your garage?
• Would you like to swap these dead trees for spending cash?
• Would you like to do this without incurring a lot of debt?

If you’re one of the glut of people who have written a book, self-published it, and now can’t seem to give it away, let alone sell it, I’ve got the answers for you.

This is NOT a get rich quick scheme but it does explain the 10 best ways I’ve found to profit from your writing skills without investing big bucks on something that might not work.

First, my definition of the ‘best’ is making money so let’s start by dispelling the myths about authors, publishers, distribution, and making money: The three most prevalent that do not work or make any sense are:

Myth #1: The best place to sell books is in bookstores. Wanna bet? Although bookstores sell books, they are not the best place at all. The fact is, only one out of seven people go to a bookstore to buy a book each year!

For a lot of books, including mine, bookstores are often the worst place to sell them. Plus, with the discounts (60% for Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc. Yecch!), hassles and delay in payment, it’s usually not worth it.

Myth #2: You have to be a great writer to have a successful book. Malarkey! Publishing is the business that makes money from the written word. Publishing can be a very profitable business but it has little to do with being a great writer.

Besides, who determines what a great writing style is? Your English teacher? Doubtful since your teachers have probably never had much of anything published and have never made any money from their writings.

Myth #3: A good publisher will market your book for you. This has got to be the number one myth because it’s completely false.

Conventional publishers only distribute books. They do little or nothing to market them effectively. You, the author, must promote and market the book yourself. That’s precisely why you should at least explore self-publishing and self-promotion.

Since you have to market it yourself anyway, by self publishing, you get to keep 100% of the revenue rather than the 5-15% royalty a publisher will pay you, if you can find one at all.

I wrote the book “Common Sense Project Management™” for Prentice/Hall, one of the largest publishers in the world. It looks great on my resume’ but it doesn’t put enough money in my bank account to pay my phone bill.

On the other hand, every book I’ve self published has been profitable. I’ll admit that some weren’t very lucrative but I NEVER lost money on any of them.

Why? Because I marketed them myself and made a profit rather than deciding that they were not ‘best sellers’ and dumping them into a recycle bin for the tax write-off.

Do it yourself or hire someone?

Great question and here’s the answer – it depends!

If you don’t like that answer, read on before you stop reading this report.

• Every marketing and advertising technique described requires time, money, and expertise.
• The current catch phrase (which incidentally has been around for a long time) is: Do what you’re good at and hire the rest!
• Can you write a good press release? If yes, and you have the time, why pay someone?
• On the other hand, if writing marketing copy isn’t your thing, it makes sense to pay a writer to create the material for you.
• How about your finances? Can you afford to hire someone or would you be better off getting a book and learning how to write good press release yourself?
• What about hiring a publicist or an agent? Can they do a better job of promoting your book than you can? Can you afford their fees?

These, and other targeted question like them, are what all authors struggle with to become successful.

For my own career, I’ve found that investigating what’s involved and then assessing my own skill set works best. That way I’m in a position to decide if I have the time and expertise to accomplish the task

If I don’t have the skills, or the time, I look into what it’ll cost to hire someone to do it for me.

At this point, I’m in a position to decide if I can afford it or if I should skip over it completely.

OK, so what’s the REAL answer to making money with your books?

ADVERTISING! Period!

No matter what you do, it all has to center around advertising your book because advertising, by definition, is creating the awareness that your book exists, and it’s critical because if you don’t tell by advertising, you’re not going to sell.

Consider that your book and whatever notoriety you create about it, as a billboard that tells people about your book and where they can buy it.

Marketing, which includes advertising, is a matter of numbers and statistics prove that the more people you advertise or expose your book to, the more books you’re going to sell.

One thing you’re going to have to realize is that your book itself is one of the best and most cost effective things you can give to people to promote your book.

That’s right boys and girls. I said GIVE, NOT SELL!

If this seems counterproductive, remember that an advertising brochure costs too, and it’s not nearly as effective a sales tool as the book itself. (Why do you think authors and publishers have sent sample copies of books to prospective distributors for over 100 years?)

Your book is a form of sample selling which is the most effective sales technique there is. (Think about a test drive for a car or a free cookie from Mrs. Fields® – all forms of sample sellingJ)

For some markets, you can skip shipping the book as an initial sample and send ‘em to your web site for a free download (see the section below) but be prepared to ship some of that paper to potential buyers.

Here are my ten best ways to advertise, promote and sell your books that don’t involve putting yourself into hock up to your eyeballs.

NOTE: All of them work but NOT for everybody, all the time.

For example, if you’re NOT a skilled public speaker, you might not do as well promoting your book from the platform as you might by writing a creative BLOG each week.

You’ll need to pick one or more methods that you believe will work for you factoring in your lifestyle, market, skill set, budget, and pursue them as hard as you can.

Before you do anything, (after you write and print your book, of course) you MUST have a web site – The web is a huge library of information and your web site becomes your press kit and promotional material archive. It’s available 24/7 and can also be a place to sell your books and e-books.

It’ll be the place where your author’s biography is placed, mechanical and marketing details about your book are available, and a place to offer sample chapters as free downloads. You can take a couple of your best chapters or the most dramatic and dynamic sections and turn them into PDF files on your website and let people read and download them for free. Think of this as the equivalent of letting people browse through your book at a bookstore.

To be completely effective, you’ll need the web site itself plus the ability to accept credit cards, a shopping cart, and a pay-per-download capability to sell downloadable copies of your book in EBook format.

You’ll find all of the materials you’ll need to do this on my shopping cart at www.RMACart.com. Look for the book Fishin’ with a Net™ ISBN 978-1-891440-55-7, the CD on How to Create an Effective Web Site™   ISBN 978-1-891440-43-4 and the book E-Publishing for the Clueless® ISBN 978-1-8911440-72-4.

This trio of materials will show you how to set up everything you’ll need for less than $10 bucks a month.

#1 Create and maintain a BLOG

A BLOG is basically a bulletin board or newsletter (whatever that means to you) where you can write your musings and accept feedback and critique about your writing skills.

Remember that you’re a writer, so write already. Create a BLOG about your book’s topic and let people know how proficient and passionate you are about it.

You can set up a FREE BLOG at www.wordpress.com and you can get a Dummies® book to walk you through the subtleties of using and promoting it.

Once you’ve created the BLOG, make regular entries and updates and promote it to anybody and everybody you can find. It’s a great way to establish your credibility and get people excited about the book’s topic.

#2 Book Signings, Seminars, and Talks at Local Bookstores

 I know I said bookstores suck but people still go to bookstores to buy books (At least I think they do. Based on the Borders® model, most of them went to drink coffee and read the books and magazines without paying for themJ).

The catch is that the bookstore will probably have to be shelving your book and that’s the tough part – getting them to actually dedicate shelf space for you.

You may have to give a stack of books to your local bookstore to sell cheap – or even give away to their best customers.

This builds great goodwill with your local bookstores at the same time as you’re solving your overstock problem.

The neat thing about all these giveaway opportunities is that you are building word-of-mouth for your books (and your publishing company) that can result in increased sales down the road.

These book signings, seminars, and talks are great opportunities for you to sell your book.

No one knows your book better than you do, and giving a mini-seminar affords you the opportunity to really sell it to potential readers. In order to have an event at a local bookstore, you’ll need to speak with the store’s community relations manager (CRM).

You and the CRM together can decide where and when to have the event. It is important to mention once again that your books are available at a standard industry discount and are returnable.

Remember: bookstores hold in-store events like book signings or talks to bring customers into their stores, so you should be prepared to promote the event and invite lots of guests. You may wish to use postcards or invitations to ensure a good turnout to your event.

#3 Speak for local libraries and local organizations like Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, and Chambers of Commerce

This is an inexpensive and tremendously powerful way to get a lot of positive notoriety but only for those who are skilled at, and comfortable with, speaking in public.

I’m not saying don’t do it but you need to recognize that I’ve had clients who managed to get themselves booked into some great opportunities and did more harm than good because they weren’t skilled at speaking.

As a professional speaker and author who’s been doing it for over 25 years, I speak with some authority on this point because you’re going to be exposing yourself, and your book, in front of a live audience and they expect you to be both knowledgeable about your book’s topic and skilled at delivering a verbal message in an entertaining manner.

If you ’blow it’ you’ll damage your credibility and diminish the value of your book.

On the other hand, if you’re good at speaking, you’ll get yourself more acceptance than all the written notoriety ever could.

4. Donate some books

NOTE: Just donating books is NOT a good idea for a lot of reasons that I can name including the perceived value of something FREE.

Donating books is a great idea if it gives you positive exposure to people who are potential buyers of your book or who can and will recommend it to others for purchase.

Other than that, donating books is simply a waste of time and money.

To increase the giveaway value, insert some reply cards or sticker your web site number on the cover with a special ‘deal code’ to encourage readers to purchase their own discounted copy from you. You could have them pick the copies up from your office, or order on-line and you can ship copies to them.

• There are some great ways to donate including Local Charities.  Check to see if your local PBS or NPR station is running a fundraising campaign (they do it 2 to 4 times a year). You’ll get great publicity during their on-air campaigns if your book becomes a premium for them to give away with donations. Generally they have to pay something for those premiums, so your offer would be very welcome.

• Donate to United Way, high school fundraising groups, church fundraising groups, Boy Scouts, 4-H groups, etc. You would need to allow them to sell the books at a low price as part of their annual or semi-annual fundraising efforts.

• Donate to Waiting Rooms. Donate copies to your local doctor office, dentist, lawyer, accountant, auto repair shops, therapists, chiropractors, hospitals, hair salons, etc. – wherever people have to sit and wait. These offices will welcome such gifts.
• Donate to Library Sales. Local libraries hold book sales 2 to 4 times a year where they sell worn copies, books they don’t want to stock, duplicate copies, etc. They would undoubtedly welcome unworn copies to sell during these sales.

5. Stand on a Corner and Sell Your Books.

Some authors have been successful selling books on street corners, roadside stands, subways, buses, noontime downtown crowds, roadside stops, street fairs and swap meets.

We have a client that’ll do a signing if she spots a traffic accident.

In other words, any place where she can get a crowd she’ll promote her books and guess what, she sells a LOT of books.

If you find someone credible like a reporter, talk show host, etc., it can be a great opportunity to give them a book.

Be sure to get their card and insist that the price they’re paying is feedback (and maybe a plug) for your book.

6. Offer yourself for interview on radio stations.

Most talk radio stations are looking for interesting interviews and the author of a newly published book has a good chance of getting on air.

I personally did over 300 talk radio shows as a call-in guest and sold over $87,000 worth of books and audios.

The process is purely mechanical and the BEST way to learn how to do it right the first time is to purchase a course from Joe Sabah (like I did) at www.joesabah.com.

The complete course is $147 bucks including shipping, and includes an updated list of talk radio shows that are looking for call in guests. Once you’re on the show, you’ll be given the opportunity to ‘pitch’ your book in return for the interview.

You need a publicity letter, post card, or a promotional email which says something interesting or controversial about the book and off you go. Of course, you’ll be sending the talk show hosts and their producers to your web site (remember kiddies, you’ve got have one of ‘emJ) to get all the information they need in advance of booking you on their show.

7. Get your book reviewed in magazines that evaluate books in your genre.

Your book has a genre or targeted area of interest which means that people who are interested in the topic are potential readers of magazines that addresses the topic on which you’ve written.

Send the editors or topic manager a copy of your book with a 1-2 page synopsis and ask them for a review. Don’t forget the many online sites that review books.

Check with the latest copy of Standard Rate and Data™, which you’ll find at your local library.

Ask the reference librarian to show you how to get an up to date list of all the places you need to send a copy of your book for review.

8. Throw a party

Hold a book signing party. It could be at a bookstore, but why not try someplace different?

If your book is about animals, hold it at a pet store or the gift shop at the zoo. For a beauty book, why not try a salon? Invite everyone you know, get the shop owner to help promote it, send press releases, etc., to get lots of people there.

And guess what, restaurants are a great place too especially if the owner identifies with the topic. (Don’t forget to get the owner a nice gift in addition to an autographed copy of the book to say thanks)

At the party, talk about the book and offer it to the attendees at a discounted price and encourage them to buy multiple copies for people that think would be interested.

Of course, if they buy multiple copies, you give them an even better discount and offer to dedicate and autograph the book for them

9. Get listed in catalogs

Most of us receive hundreds of catalogs with all kinds of things in them. When you find one that seems to fit your book, contact the catalog company and ask about submitting your book.

There are literally thousands of catalogs, with millions of readers, already in distribution, that offer merchandise manufactured by other firms.

As such, they are totally dependent on products like books, audio, and video products to fill the pages of their publications.

While there will probably never be a totally comprehensive index of all of the catalogs available, there is a master index for most of the more popular catalogs called “The Directory of Mail Order Catalogs.”

You’ll find it at the reference section of your local public library. This directory contains over 12,000 mail order companies selling consumer products throughout the U.S. The companies are arranged in over 40 chapters by product area.

This book includes a variety of catalogs you’ve probably never heard of plus all of the major ones that you are familiar with like Harriet Carter™, Fingerhut®, Walter Drake®, Franklin Mint™, Shoppers Advantage™, and Lillian Vernon™.

Check out the different sections and you’ll find firms listed that are definitely viable candidates for your products.

Each of these catalogs should be contacted to find out their specific procedure for the submission and consideration of new products.

Most of them will have their own forms and procedures, either in written format or on a web site, and you MUST follow their procedure for review or you will probably be rejected automatically for not following their proscribed procedure.

Each of the catalog companies has their own specific way of handling sub-contract vendor relationships so be prepared for a variety of billing methods, payment cycles, inventory requirements, and shipping procedures.

10. Send out Press Releases

A mention, article, or review in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, radio, or TV show that has a viewership or listenership of thousands to millions is worth its weight in gold.

Before you crack open the champagne, you need to know the true story on press releases.

Whether you get a mailing list and do it yourself or pay a PR service to distribute your press releases for you, remember that the magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and websites that you send them to are not being paid for the release.

What this means is that running your press release is strictly editor’s choice and the fact that you send out a press release does not mean that they will run it.

This is not meant to be discouraging but it is important that you understand the reality of how press releases actually work.

Some of the reasons that people don’t run press releases are:

• improperly formatted press releases
• poorly written press releases
• verbose press releases
• press releases that don’t make sense
• And most importantly, press releases that they don’t care about because they don’t think that their readership will be interested.

These reasons may not seem fair or equitable, but since we’re not paying for the release, we are at their mercy.

I don’t have any problem writing good press releases but what I’m not good at figuring out is what the editors are currently looking for in terms of topics-you’ll need a crystal ball and a lot of luck for that.

I’ve written a lot of press releases in my career and some of them have created spectacular results while others have gotten virtually zero response both in terms of the editors actually running the press release and then from the public in terms of responding (or not responding) to the release.

The short form is this: it’s a crapshoot and a numbers game so the more press releases you put out, the more likely you are to get them printed and more people are likely to see and respond to them.

As far as sending out press releases, I think this is one of those areas where you’re much better off paying an established firm.

Looking up the contact information for the project is a time killer so it’s better to go with a firm that already has them loaded into their database.

You’ll have to decide how much you can afford to spend on this part of the project because it’s not free and the responses and returns might not happen after the first release-it may take several ‘imprinting’s’ on people to get them to react and respond.

Plan on spending anywhere from $75 to $400 per release (Depending on the company and the coverage) If you’re really dedicated, plan on at least seven releases (Maybe a year’s worth).

I recently investigated several firms and the three that I’ll recommend to you, in no particular order, are:

• Bostick Communications

http://www.bostickcommunications.com/about.html

Businesswire (Berkshire-Hathaway)

www.businesswire.com

PR Web

http://www.prweb.com

A Checklist for Formatting Your Release

How you present your news is just as important as your content.

Follow these formatting guidelines to best use the PR distribution platform and search engine optimization.

First and foremost – if you don’t know how to write good press release get a professional to do it for you.

You still only get one chance at making a good first impression so don’t squander the opportunity but putting out an amateurish effort – it’ll just be rejected and leave you with the reputation of an uninformed beginner.

 Use “Title Case” for headlines. The first letter of each word capitalized. Exceptions to this include words less than three characters and prepositions.

 Don’t use ALL CAPS. It is considered bad form to submit a press release entirely in upper case letters.

 Have your Dateline look like this: City, State, Day, Month and Year. Including the city and town related to your news is optional, but helpful for readers. The date should reflect the date of distribution for your release.

 Keep even spacing and avoid special characters. Each paragraph should have natural line wraps, not forced line breaks. Leave one line break between each paragraph. It’s not necessary to include dashes, asterisks or other symbols to separate sections in your release.

 Limit in text links to one link per 100 words. These links include both anchor text links and active URL hyperlinks.

Convert charts and graphs to images or PDFs. Attach graphs and charts to your release by converting them to images or PDFs as they will not display properly if they are cut and pasted into the text of your news release.

 Keep your release within 300–800 words. It is nearly impossible to announce your news in a few sentences. If you do not have more than a few sentences, you may not have an item worth announcing.

Include your email address in your contact information.