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Writing feeds the soul; publishing keeps the lights on and the refrigerator stocked.
That's a truth I've recently found which put me on the road to real financial freedom.
I've found that I will generate more income by working as a publisher than a writer. I found that there are really tons (hundreds if not thousands) of decent quality, decent value books which are not easily found because they haven't been marketed.
This includes both public domain and private-licensed-rights (PLR) books. (The term "book" is really just a decent sized collection of text, with or without images, sound, video, etc.)
For public domain books, the fact that there is competition fighting over the sales of long-dead-authors' books shows how much they are still in demand.
There are 3 things which set any public domain book you re-publish apart, which is the same for modern books: Cover, Description, Price. Practically, people ignore reviews. Only Amazon makes a big deal of these things. On all other ebook distributors, it's primarily those three points.
The fourth point is to have more books in that series or by that author - or both.
All of this is compounded with my recent, and continuing, studies of the specific skill of copywriting. I have Bob Bly to thank for setting my head straight on the basics of this. Too many others are following a handful of "Magnetic" marketers who are essentially using a partial understanding of copywriting to pitch their wares. And many of these are simply using hacks from swipe files without understanding why those headlines and phrases work.
Fortunately, we are saved.
1) Human Nature hasn't changed since it was developed. (The Internet has only sped things up.)
2) Classic bestselling books about how to influence people to buy were based on substantial studies of hundreds of successes in order to derive the basic principles.
If you want to actually succeed in online marketing, you need to know copywriting, and you need to collect these masterworks for your own library.
A very interesting land-rush is on, where the bulk of the books out there have not been converted to quality ebooks - the epub version which is on the bulk of the smartphones and tablets out there (as well as ereaders.)
And if you really want to succeed in ebook publishing, you want to be in two certain marketplaces:
Why not Amazon?
Because these two distributors cover the lion's share of all the smartphones and tablets out there. When you go to load an app, what do you get? A suggested ebook that you'd probably like.
Amazon has started its own "app store" which does what - keep you Amazon-centric.
Go right ahead and publish everything to Amazon. I'll cry all the way to the bank as I get downloads and payments from 5 other distributors who are selling my books for me every month.
There's your secret tip for today.
OK, here's an Amazon tip: Want to sell more books? Make the printed version available as well. Since only 30% prefer ebooks, both a paperback and hardback edition of any book is vital - and makes your ebooks look like a great bargain. Just make sure these are all print-on-demand...
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Backwards from this, you create web presences for each book you publish - at least a page, if not a whole site. Classic books will give you tons to write about, since they've been around for a good while.
And each of these web-presences need to point to your own membership site, where you can create a "velvet rope" section to offer spccial discount versions to your loyal readers. This is called "building an audience."
E-mail continues to be the most trusted way to shop and get recommendations. So you need to be building your list and giving it great value on a continuing basis.
Those web pages you build need to be properly SEO'd (meta-tags, etc.), but otherwise, you'll spend your time getting tons more content out rather than worrying about any individual site's standings.
Because if you need more clients, you simply need to create an offer you can get joint-venture affiliates to join in on. They then send your offer to their list.
I only recently found out that this was the success of "The Secret" underground DVD. It never came out as an actual movie, because it didn't have to. And then Rhonda Byrne was able to have a couple of books jump to bestseller status because of the name and brand recognition.
While you don't have to have a runaway hit, the alternate strategy is to have a ton of books available which can be easily discovered.
The above is my strategy for that - and will keep me more than busy for a couple of years by my current reckoning - just in publishing alone.
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Separately, I've worked out an organizing chart for the subjects of Internet Marketing. Once I have these classic copywriting texts edited into shape and republished, look for this to get a release of it's own.
There is a very common-sense approach you can follow - a blueprint, you might say - to learn the data you need as you customize your own route to success.
And I've talked at you long enough.
See you soon.
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