Writing for money

Common myths about how to publish a book and the book publishing industry

By special guest David Copeland, Author of the Prentice-Hall BestSelling Book "How to Succeed With Women" (over 250,000 copies sold and translated into seven languages)

o you have a book inside of you?

You probably do. You may have even researched how to publish a book.

But what to do about it?

I'm David Copeland, co-author of the best-selling book "How to Succeed with Women," which has sold more than 250,000 copies in seven languages worldwide.

And if you want to be a successful author, I've got some good news for you.

But first the bad news about how to publish a book

There are more than 200,000 books published each year in the US, and less than 5% of them ever sell more than 5,000 copies.

That means that of the new authors that do figure out how to publish a book very few of them make money.

The reason so many new authors fail is simple:

They all believe the same (false) myths,
They all fall into the same (avoidable) traps, and
They all do the same (unsuccessful) things

You see...

How to publish a book has changed a LOT in the last 30 years...

But the ways people think about how to publish a book and the publishing industry -- even the ways publishing companies think about publishing!-- has not changed to keep up.

Everyone is working from an 30-year-old game plan, acting like there are still only 3 TV networks, no internet, and that self-publishing is the same thing as failing.

But, as you'll see, none of that is true.

99.9% of authors and publishers still believe the "Myths of Publishing" I'm revealing here for the first time...

And that's why they fail.

And now the good news...

If you are willing to stop believing the old myths about how to publish a book and the publishing industry, and do things just a little bit differently than the "herd" does, your chances of success will go up exponentially.

In fact, you'll be able to run circles around 99.9% of other would-be authors. You'll be able to make more money, and have more prestige, with a LOT less work.

Let's get started.

First off, most people believe in the wrong model of publishing when thinking about how to publish a book.

Publishing has changed dramatically in the last 30 years, and noticably in the last five. What was true in 1970 about how to publish a book is no longer true now. And if you are going to be successful with your writing, you need to know the myths of modern-day publishing and the facts about how to publish a book.

And, as I've said, almost everyone who wants to know how to publish a book is thinking from a 1970 model of publishing - when being published by a major publisher assured promotion and an even shot at success.

But things have changed. What was true 30 years ago about how to publish a book is dead and buried now.

Myths about how to publish a book and the publishing industry

Myth number 1: Publishers are looking for good books to publish.

This is still a little bit true, but it is certainly NOT as true as it once was.

As publishers get bought by big companies and are increasingly consolidated, the bottom line--how much money they can make on a book, and how easily they can make it--becomes the ONLY criteria for whether or not a publisher buys your book.

Your book may be great, but if a publisher can't easily sell it and make money, they will pass on your manuscript.

Most authors are stopped by this, but the truth is this is a place where you can get ahead. Even if a publisher might not be able to make a million dollars on your book, much of the time you can make a nice living on it yourself by selling it directly into a "niche" that's too small for a publisher to be interested in.

Myth number 2: Get a big publisher, and they will promote you.

Once again, this was once true. It is still a little bit true: for three months after your book is released, a publisher normally provides a promoter who works on promoting the new release. When I've been published by major publishing house (Prentice Hall), my promoter set up radio appearances, and managed my book tours.

However, even that promotion was somewhat anemic. And worse, after that three months go by, you are functionally dead to most publishers. They've moved on to the next great thing, the next easy score, and are usually unwilling to lift a finger to promote you, even if some easy action--like sending ten copies of your book to a major TV show, who is interested in having you on--could sell thousands of copies of the book. They won't return your calls.

It's like the aftermath of a bad one-night stand. You no longer exist.

Even worse, publishers are famous for dropping the ball on books entirely. I wrote one book because the publisher came up with the idea and asked me to write it--only to have them drop it, not promote it at all, and put it out of print within months of its release.

The fact is that you have to be responsible for marketing your book.

Years ago that was terrible news... but now, in the age of the Internet, it's good news, because you CAN reach the people who are looking for a book just like yours.

But if you are doing the promotion, why should the publisher get to keep so much of the money? It's a good question. Read on, we'll get to why I think that self-publishing is almost always the way to go, and why starting with an "e-book"-- a downloadable book that you sell for real money but costs you next to nothing to create-- is the best way for most writers to start.

Myth number 3: Sell a lot of books through a major publisher, and you will make a lot of money.

Get ready for these two word: Deep Discount. Deep discounting is only one of the many ways that publisher screw authors out of money. It doesn't matter much if you sell thousands of copies of your book, if you only make seven cents per copy, as one author I know did on his book.

I co-authored one book called "the Sex Lover's Book of Lists." The publisher had great news-- we were picked up by a major book club! The downside, which I found out later, was I was only making ONE CENT per book sold.

Also, the contorted clauses of your contract may make it next to impossible--or actually impossible--to figure out how much money you will make when a copy of your book sells.

Myth number 4: Get on Oprah!

Get on national television, and your problems are solved! You are certain to sell a lot of products then. This was true when there were three networks. Now there are hundreds, each with a VERY TINY slice of the viewership pie.

Oh, and getting on Oprah is not easy.

Did you know that the Oprah show only has 525 segements a year? Well, according to a producer at the show, they are pitched ten thousand ideas each WEEK for the show. So while being on Oprah is a great idea, you have to compete with the other 519,999 ideas they are getting pitched each year for those 525 segments.

If you can get on Oprah, that's great. If that's your only strategy, you'd better think again, because the odds are LONG against you.

Myth number 5: Go on a book tour, and you're sure to make a lot of money.

By all means, go to bookstores and talk about your book if you want to, but it's NOT a way to make money.

I've been sent on "book tour" for 2 separate books, and as far as I can tell I'd have been MUCH better off staying home and spending just a few hours using simple techniques online to find the people who were already looking for a book like mine. There's nothing like traveling across the country to give a talk to 9 people about your book (which happened to me!) to make you realize that, in an internet age, it's not worth the hassle to go on book tour.

The book that is (as of this writing) number 1 on both the Wall Street Journal book list and the New York Times best-seller list is "the Four Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. He REFUSED to go on book tour, because he recognized how useless it was. But book publishers still send authors on book tour.

Myth number 6: Self-publishing is a black mark of amateurism, and self-publishing is the same as admitting that your book was not good enough for a "real" publisher or that you couldn't "really" figure out how to publish a book.

Like all these myths, this one used to be true! But the internet has changed that...dramatically.

About a year ago I self-published a new book, "How to Talk to Women," because I realized that I could make more money more easily using the internet to reach the people who were trying to find me.

I won't give you exact numbers, but I can tell you that it made me a LOT of money in the first month, and it still makes good money to this day. It made so much money because, instead of making 20 or 30 cents on each book sold, like most authors do, I made over FOURTEEN DOLLARS for each copy sold.

You don't have to be a genius to see that self-publishing, especially if you have a small audience for your book and/or don't want to do a lot of work promoting it, really makes sense in today's internet age.

Myth number 7: It's hard to promote your book on the internet.

Back in the early days of the internet, a friend of mine wrote a book and said to me, "Ok, it's time to promote my book. Is there a way to send an email to everyone on the internet about it, so I can sell it? Something like an email to '[email protected]'?"

The truth is, it is hard to promote books on the internet...if you don't know what you're doing.

It's also hard to promote books on the internet...if you are trying to spam people.

But the internet is big, and the odds are there are people right this minute looking for a book like yours.

And you can reach them if you understand a few simple techniques.

OK, so now that I've explained the myths of how to publish a book and the publishing industry, what do I suggest you do next?

Here's a better way to publish your book and make the money you deserve!

I had to learn this the hard way, and I want to save you that same trouble. I don't want you earning one cent per copy like I did!

You shouldn't spend your time and energy doing what every other "wanna-be" author does. Remember, those authors FAIL almost all of the time! Don't do what they do!

If the thought of making 1 penny per book sold makes you sick to your stomach, you might consider using the kind of system I finally figured out to make much more money with none of the publishing industry nonsense and ALOT less work.

I use a system very similar to the one that another author - Jim Edwards - lays out in his book

Jim has a system that can get your book in the world and potentially making money in seven days - appropriately named How to Write & Publish Your Own eBook In As Little As 7 Days.

Of course let's be realistic - it may take you longer...especially the first time - but I can tell you that his techniques do work, and get your around the traps and myths of publishing.

Jim has figured out how to leverage the fact that most people do NOT go about getting their book out there properly.

Using a system like the one in Jim Edward's 7DayEBook you can actually use the fact that other people are ignorant of how book success really works to succeed with your book -- faster than you probably thought possible.

Best,
David Copeland

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