The Shocking Truth About Self-Publishing: Top Eleven Questions You Should Ask When Choosing a Self-Publishing Provider

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Assuanta

Trying to navigate the world of self-publishing can be difficult. Congratulations on accomplishing your goal of completing your book. Making the decision to self-publish is a serious one and it is important for you to educate yourself about the process. Writing a manuscript is only the beginning of your publishing your journey and not the end.

There are several publishing providers willing to assist you with self-publishing your book and the services provided are the same or similar. It can be difficult to decide on the right company to partner with you in bringing your book to your readers. To help you make an informed decision here are some important questions to ask when researching potential publishing companies or providers.

  1. What does it cost to produce a quality book?
  2. Do I have the final say on how my book will look?
  3. How much will it cost for me to purchase my own book?
  4. Will my book be fully returnable when purchased by a bookstore?
  5. Who sets the retail price of my book?
  6. What are the terms of your contract?
  7. How long will it take to produce my book?
  8. How often will I be compensated and are all sales reflected on my sales report
  9. Will I receive a physical or electronic proof copy? Does it cost extra?
  10. Who will guide me through this process?
  11. What additional benefits do you offer to self-publishing authors beyond your book publishing services?

Conducting research is the most important part of the publishing process. There is a lot of information out there and it is important that you do your due diligence in selecting the right company for you and your book. Do your research and ask the right questions!

Happy Publishing!

Assuanta Howard, Self-Publishing Expert, Educator, Strategist, Founder and Principal at Asta Publications
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Get Busy! The Formula to Successfully Achieving Your Goals

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Assuanta

One of the main reasons people fail to accomplish their goals is that they haven’t established them. When setting goals it is important that you are specific about what you want to achieve.  Once you have identified the goal, develop a plan and remember to be practical and realistic.

I have found developing a detailed list helps to put things in motion for me. Take action and hold yourself accountable to the list you have developed. Don’t wait for things to happen you are responsible for accomplishing your goals of becoming a published author.

Review your goals on a daily basis. This is an important part of achieving your goals, and it must become routine. Visualize that published book in your reader’s hands. Vision boards are really good in helping people to see their goals. A vision board is a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. Literally, a vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do,
or have in your life. Apply this same concept as you envision publishing your book.

Napoleon Hill stated it best, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” The most successful people in our society are the ones who have the strongest intent behind their actions. They are the best planners. They are visionaries. They have the ability to direct their intentions in ways that others are unfamiliar with. They can see a path from point A to point B and, although it may not be correct from step-to-step, they have the motivation and inspiration to start walking it. Create a timeline.  Using a timeline keeps you on track. If you know what you are going to do next it becomes easier to manage your efforts. Set milestones and plan to celebrate your success.

Don’t get discouraged. You will either achieve the publishing goals you imagined or receive the insights into what may be necessary to reach your goals. Remain focused on what you want to achieve and you will find ways to solve difficulties or break through barriers.

“Begin with the end in mind.” ~Stephen R. Covey, Author, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Developing the right mindset will help you realize your publishing goals sooner.

Assuanta Howard, Self-Publishing Expert, Educator, Strategist, Founder and Principal at Asta Publications.

ahoward@astapublications.com

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5 Mistakes You Don’t Know You Are Making When Writing Fiction

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Assuanta

Writing fiction, whether short or long, can daunting.  So many writers of fiction have different processes for achieving their writing goals. Writing is a process that requires
skill, determination, adaptability, and plenty of time.

Here are some suggestions for improving your fiction writing skills

  • Avoid Information Dumping. Info-Dumping is the process by which information is provided inappropriately or unnecessarily. The key to good fiction is giving your readers a reason to keep going.
  • Show Don’t, Tell- Telling rather, than showing is when the writer gives all the information. You are telling the reader what the outcome is going to be. Showing describes what is happening and allows the reader to reach his or her own conclusion.
  • Use Metaphors correctly- Incorrect usage of metaphors- metaphors are
    effective fiction writing tools if used correctly. They are one way to vary
    language and liven up prose. Also, like shorthand, they can convey a picture or
    a meaning instantly, with few words. When used incorrectly it can confuse the
    reader and draw to the writer’s lack of skill.
  • Avoid Using Clichés expressions like “the calm before the storm,” “keeping it real,” or “it’s just a matter of time,” have been used so often that they’re now
    considered clichés. Unless they’re important to the tone of your work, it’s
    usually better to avoid clichés. If you can’t come up with more original
    language, it’s better to forego the metaphor and opt for straightforward
    description.
  • Misuse of the passive voice produces a sentence in which the
    subject receives an action. An active voice produces a sentence in which the
    subject performs an action.  Passive voice often produces unclear, wordy sentences, whereas active voice produces more concise sentences.  To change a sentence from passive to active voice, determine who or what performs the action, and use that person or thing as the subject of the sentence.

The best way to  improve your writing is to read great writing. Read as much as you can.  Pay close attention not only to the content, but also to the style and  the mechanics.

Assuanta Howard, Self-Publishing Expert, Educator, Strategist, Founder  and Principal at Asta Publications.

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Do You Recognize These 5 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Assuanta

Thinking creatively helps you to develop innovative ways of doing things. It is a process that is used to come up with concepts and ideas. Brainstorming is one way to creatively put your thoughts onto paper. Writer’s sometimes creative thoughts are hindered, better known as having writer’s block. The best way to overcome having writer’s block is to understand why you might have them in the first place.

Too logical

Thinking logically can sometimes hinder your innovative thinking. In logical thinking, there are certain rules of formal logic that is being followed. Logic helps you to make decisions and solve problems.

Lack creativity

Everyone is creative. Acknowledge that you are creative and allow your words to flow

Always searching for the correct answers

We are trained in school that there is only one correct answer to always obtain the right answer to questions on exams. This thought process interferes with the creative process. When writing it is important to develop your own voice and style. As you begin the writing process don’t think about spelling or grammar. It is important to get your thoughts down on paper first; you can always go back once you have completed your manuscript to make changes.

Too Serious

Creativity comes out in a fun and engaging environment. Creativity is at its best when you are inspired and passionate about a given topic or story.

Fear of making mistakes

In writing a book, you might be afraid to make mistakes. But don’t worry about it; that is what an editor is for. You will learn from your mistakes and become a better writer each time you write. The most important thing to remember is to never give up on your writing.

Assuanta Howard, Self-Publishing Expert, Educator, Strategist, Founder and Principal at Asta Publications.

www.astapublications.com

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Can’t Keep Up? 10 Ways to Simplify Your Writing

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Assuanta

Writing in general can be a daunting task, especially when you have all these wonderful ideas and/or stories in your head. When writing your manuscript it is important to consider your reader or the audience. A good rule of writing is to keep it simple. Basically, people will not buy what they don’t understand.

Before you begin to write, identify the one idea or main purpose for your book. It doesn’t matter if your book is non-fiction, fiction, or a book for children, there is basic information all readers want to know. Thinking about your audience before you write helps you to organize your thoughts.

Many people have asked me to provide them with tips on how to get started with their writing. I tell them to keep it simple and to just write. The fastest way to completing your goal is to get started.  Easier said than done perhaps, but is quite that simply.

It is important for you to not get caught up in being too verbose or use big words. Oftentimes authors want to give off the impression of being really smart when in fact, they have forgotten about their audience. A good writer uses words their readers can understand. Remember you are not writing for yourself. If the person who reads your writing doesn’t understand what you are trying to say then you have lost them as a repeat customer. Keep it simple, put away the fancy words and convoluted sentences.

Ten Tips to Simply Your Writing:

  1. Develop an outline
  2. Commit to writing 30-minutes each day
  3. Let the story develop
  4. Write what you know
  5. Don’t edit as you write
  6. Use an active voice
  7. Show don’t tell
  8. Be realistic
  9. Read your work out loud
  10. Don’t overdo it. Once you are done walk away and then come back to it later

Assuanta Howard, Self-Publishing Expert, Educator, Strategist, Founder and Principal at Asta Publications.com www.astapublications

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5 Little Known Factors That Can Affect Your Bottom-Line When Self-Publishing A Book

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Assuanta

There are many self-publishing companies out there to assist you with self-publishing a book, and they All claim to offer low prices, great quality, and excellent customer service. How do you decide which publishing company to use? Publishing is a business and with any business, it is important that you determine your bottom-line.Why have you decided to self-publish versus seeking a traditional publisher? What are your expectations about the book you hope someone will read? Is writing and publishing a hobby for you or do you expect to plan on making money? Do you know who will buy your book? How will your readers purchase copies of your book? Do you have a budget? Does this budget include how much it will cost to market and promote your book? Do you know the process of publishing a book? These are some of the many questions you need to answer before you spend a dime on publishing. Many self-published authors become disillusioned and are discontent with the publishing process after their book has been released, because they didn’t understand the complexities of running a business and did not properly prepare.Having an understanding about the factors that can affect your bottom-line will make you better equip to prepare for them. When starting any business it is important that you know how much money, time, and commitment is necessary to be successful.Whether you decide to use the services of a self-publishing provider or you hire your own contractors to assist with publishing your book, you need to consider the following:• Do you have the finances to properly fund your project?• Who will you hire to assist with producing your book? (Editor, Graphic Artist, Printer, Distributor, Publicist, Sales, etc.)• Do you have the necessary software?• How will your reader’s access your book? Distributor versus Wholesaler• Do you have the time to market and promote your book?Assuanta Howard, Publisher, Entrepreneur, Strategist-www.astapublications.com

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Why Social Media?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Assuanta

Can social media help your author business? Absolutely! In today’s landscape it is integral to where your readers are. Social media provides an opportunity for you to engage in a two-way conversation with your readers. Social media allows you to interact with your readers through conversations, providing new content/excerpts, respond to feedback in a instance, and to build and maintain relationships. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Goodreads, YouTube, etc. are just a few social media platforms you can use to communicate and listening to your readers.There is a lot of information about social media, which can make it difficult to comprehend it all. A few definitions to help you better understand the social media landscape:Facebook is a free social networking web site. User can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.Facts:• More than 250 million active users• More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once a dayTwitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter web site, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.Facts:• 72.5% of the 44 million Twitter uses joined during the first five months of 2009• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 peopleYouTube is a video sharing web site on which users can upload and share videos.Facts:• YouTube will serve 75 billion video streams to 375 million unique visitors in 2009• Every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTubeBlogs is a type of web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Readers can leave comments; which is an important part of many blogs.Fact:• There are 112 million blogs, with 120,000 new ones appearing each dayGoodReads is “social cataloging” website started in December 2006 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer and entrepreneur. The web site permits individuals to sign up and register books to create their library catalogs and reading lists. It also allows users to create their own groups of book suggestions and discussions.Facts:• In December 2007, the site had over 650,000 members, over 10,000,000 books were added• By January 2010, Goodreads reached 2,900,000 members and 78,000,000 books addedLinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking siteFacts:• As of January 2011, LinkedIn reports more than 90 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.• The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.• Quantcast reports Linkedin has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally.Social Media requires that you spend a lot of time interacting, updating, and informing, but the time you invest in it will be worth it. If you are looking to increase awareness, grow your brand, strengthen connection between you and your readers, it is imperative that you get involved in social media.Just a few sites you can connect with me on:Facebookwww.facebook.com/assuantaTwitterwww.twitter.com/astapublLinkedInwww.linkedin.com/in/asta833Until the Next Time,Assuantawww.astapublications.com

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Are You Financially Ready to Self-Publish?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Assuanta

Money and numbers are essential components of running a business. Before you decide to self-publish take into account your current financial situation. There are many opportunities available to authors to publish books at a reasonable cost or at a perceived no cost. There is more to publishing than a package at $199 or $10,000. Publishing is a business and with any start-up business it is important that you take stock of your current financial situation beforehand. You do not want to publish a book and not be able to aggressively market and promote your book or print enough copies to sell. Do some research and factor in all of your expenses so that you are not surprised. Proper planning will save you a lot of money and time in the long run.It is also critical that you have a system in place to track your expenses versus your profits and/or losses. How much money are you spending versus how much money is coming back in? Breaking even is good, but you didn’t go into business to only break even; you are in business to make a profit. Having a projected budget is helpful and will allow you to plan for most of your expenses.Until the next time,Assuantawww.astapublications.com

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A Little Note About Marketing…

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Assuanta

Marketing is essential to any business; especially when you are trying to sell books. Remember, just because you published a book doesn’t mean everyone is going to purchase it. A well-thought out marketing plan is vital. A successful marketing strategy must have the following attributes: it coincides with your target market; it repeats your name and message frequently; and it gives you a return on investment (ROI) from your marketing efforts.Before spending your marketing dollars, it is important that you know who you are marketing to. If you’ve written a book about sailing, it wouldn’t make sense to advertise in a magazine catering to cat lovers. Repeating your message over and over again is critical to potential readers recognizing your brand. Take a moment of your day and count the number of Burger King or Subway commercials you see a day. You can spend a lot of money and time on marketing and promoting your book or business, but is essential that you get a return on your investment. Plan and analyze the best places to spend your marketing dollars, so that you will reap the greatest reward.Until the Next Time,Assuantawww.astapublications.com

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Who is Your Competition?

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Assuanta

Authors are in the business of writing. Publishers are in the business of selling books. Self-published authors are in the business of writing and publishing. As writers we write because we are passionate about our God-given gift to put words onto paper. Some of us have this notion that others want to read what we’ve written, so we might seek out a publisher to publish us, or we may decide to publish ourselves. Which ever route selected, it is important to consider who are competitors are before the book is written. This is similar to finding out who are target audience is as well. I have a secret to share with you, but I don’t want you to tell anyone. (smiling) Everyone will not buy our books and we have steep competition. With that said, it is important to develop a publishing plan for your book business.Evaluating your competition enables you to know how to best distinguish yourself from other companies or authors. When researching your competition, you will also learn from them on how their customers behave and respond to them. Competitive Analysis is crucial to the success of any business and one way to begin your assessment is by considering the following:• Determine who your major competitors are (Authors visit the library, bookstore, or visit Amazon.com and check out the authors that write in your genre.)• On what basis do you compete?• How do you compare?• How much do they charge for their book?• Assess the quality of their book (Cover Design, Interior Layout, Editing, Print Quality, etc.)• If traditional published, what is the brand recognition?You can come up with a few other questions to compare your product/book with the competition. Another factor to consider when evaluating your competition is to get a sens of what your competitors customers say about them and their products. You can read blogs and Amazon.com to read their comments and reviews.Proper planning makes for a successful business.Until the Next Time,Assuantawww.astapublications.com

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