Lessons Learned from a Self Published Author
by Roger Ellerton
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
NLP Book: Live Your Dreams Let Reality Catch Up
I am the author of "Live Your Dreams Let Reality Catch Up: NLP and Common Sense for Coaches, Managers and You".
As an NLP coach and certified trainer, I was often asked to recommend a good book on the subject (here's where to learn more about NLP). Yet none fully met my needs or those of my clients. So I decided to write my own.
Right from the beginning, I knew that I would be a self published author:
* With a previous business partner, I had experienced a great deal of wasted time and frustration trying to find a publisher. Then if you do, you still have to marketing it yourself. So other than the publisher getting your book on store shelves, what value do they offer?
* I wanted my book out according to my schedule and I knew how it should be written - after all I knew what my clients were looking for.
* I also wanted my book to have a long shelf life and not go out of print due to slow sales or a change in approach at head office.
Never having written a book before, I decided to start with small steps ("How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.") and publish a monthly newsletter, which would contain an article written by me on NLP. This served several purposes:
* It kept me in touch with my students.
* It introduced me to people around the world.
* It gave me a pool of potential buyers once my book was published. By the time my book was available for sale, I had almost 1000 subscribers.
Writing my book and getting it published took almost three years. Time well spent. I took my time to find a good title - bouncing many different versions off friends until I had a title that resonated. The title also had to contain keywords - NLP, coaches, managers - words that I believed visitors to Amazon.com and other online stores would use to find the type of book that I was writing.
I spent a great deal of time looking for a Print on Demand (POD) Publisher and decided on Trafford Publishing, mainly because they have an international presence (Canada, USA and the UK) and they guaranteed making my book available to all regular bookstores and having it in stock at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Barnesandnoble.com and other online retailers. So far I am pleased with their services.
I also hired good help: Fiona Raven (www.fionaraven.com) for book interior and cover design and Arlene Prunkl (www.penultimateword.com) for editing and wordsmithing. Before selecting these two women, I searched the internet to obtain a short-list of possible candidates. Then I wrote to each one, describing my planned book, what I expected, asking if they were interested and asking them to provide me with a proposal including cost estimates, possible start dates and time to completion. Interestingly, Fiona and Arlene were selected independently and as it turned out, both live in Vancouver, BC and know each other, which made coordinating their activities much easier.
Once my book was published, I republished my NLP articles in article directories, one of the better ones is www.ideamarketers.com. I am sure this increased my exposure, as I continue to find my articles all over the internet (just go to Google.com and search on my name, Roger Ellerton). Occasionally, someone does republish one of my article without giving proper credit (and I follow-up with them), but I guess that is the cost of doing business.
Currently, I am exploring the use of Social Networking Groups such as www.facebook.com (if you are a member, invite me to be a friend) and www.bookmarket.ning.com.
I wish you success in publishing and reaping the rewards from your book.
Visit Roger's website.
