1. I didn’t recall contacting them offering them the book (or, if I had contacted them, it had been so long ago I couldn’t remember). Suffice it to say it was ‘out of the blue’.

2. Upon visiting their site, I noted that they did indeed review romance books, and many of them, but that they seemed to concentrate on what I will politely term ’spicy’ (one could also substitute the words, ‘erotic’, ‘exotic’ and ‘explicit’ if you get my drift). Here are a few examples of some of their recently reviewed titles:

• Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed by Lesli Richardson
• Naughty Fantasies by Jade James
• My Wicked Vampire by Nina Bangs

In short, the majority of their titles contain the words paranormal or erotic (if not both) in their genre descriptions. Not exactly the audience that I expected In the Brief Eternal Silence in particular nor Double Edge Press in general to garner.

However, I had been invited to submit, and I’ve never deemed myself a snob. So off I sent the book to be reviewed. But I do have to confess a certain curiousity as to what the results would be of my submission.

Friday, the results came in. Here is the official Night Owl Romance Reviews review:

Review: In the Brief Eternal Silence by Rebecca Melvin (Double Edge Press) Historical

The Duke of St. James is on a mission–to find the culprits who murdered his parents when he was but a boy of 10 years old. Along the way, he finds that the whole matter goes a lot deeper and contains more conspiracy than he could ever imagine–and might even involve the crown. Falling in love was the very last thing he wanted to do. 

Miss Elizabeth Murdock is as plain as the day is long–and she likes it that way. She doesn’t like attention and prefers to blend into the background. Then the Duke of St. James comes into her life and turns it upside down.

Love creeps up on both of them–but vengeance has to be dealt with first, as now it is not only the life of the Duke that is in danger, but Miss Murdock’s as well.

How can the Duke end his vengeance and get the murderers before anyone else gets killed? Or will the murderers succeed before he and Miss Murdock can find true love? Have to read to find out.

This book took me by surprise. It started out kind of slow but once it picked up I was definitely hooked. This wasn’t the type of book I usually like to read but I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. This kept me reading to the end–and it was a very satisfying ending at that.

Happy reading,
The Night Owl Romance Staff
Night Owl Romance
Stay Up Late With A Great Novel
http://www.NightOwlRomance.com

For a review, I’ll take that one. Considering it’s competition, I’m not complaining in the least.

Everyone have a great Sunday.

There is a common theme that runs among them:

• Writing is easy.
• Editing is easier still.
• And Publishing should only take a week, ten days at the most.
• My book will, of course, be a bestseller.

These are the new writers. They are full of enthusiasm and boundless optimism, and I stare at them with glazed eyes and wonder how I can break the news to them gently.

Here’s the reality check. I dug around on the now defunct PODdy-Mouth Blog in search of it as I recalled finding it there previously some time back (which that blog, if one has the time to read it, is a sobering look at publishing in and of itself. It’s demise was abrupt and telling: writers are a needy bunch, and this particular blogger, who had an incredibly popular review site, succumbed to the virtual limb by limb dismemberment as the pack devoured her).

Here’s the official numbers from Nielson’s Bookscan (on which the Best Seller list is comprised from) for the year 2004:

Regarding Neilsen Bookscan’s tracked sales of books for 2004 (1.2 million), here are the results:

• Of those 1.2 million, 950,000 sold fewer than 99 copies.
• Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies.
• Only 25,000 books sold more than 5,000 copies.
• Fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000 copies.
• Only 10 books sold more than a million copies each.
• The average book in the United States sells about 500 copies.

Got that? Here’s a chart with some percentages to help you get that more in to perspective:

Take a close look. Fully 78% of books printed never sell more than a 100 copies (trackable sales — that doesn’t count how many you manage to sell to family and friends in your livingroom). IF you manage to sell more than a 100 copies, you can proudly state that you are in the top 22% of sales. If your book sells more than 5,000 copies, you are in the elite 2%.

Notice that those books in the 100,000 and 1,000,000 categories are so miniscule a number that they don’t even rate a full percentage point.

So, unless you have a fantastic marketing plan (like, say, infomercials) it may be time to lower expectations.

The key to success in writing isn’t a single blockbuster, but a string of 22 percenters (preferably in the high-end of that category) with an occasional 2 percenter in the mix. If you manage to make it into the fraction of a percent category, you can truly look upon it as winning the publishing lottery. Otherwise, be prepared for a long, hard road and a LOT of writing.

This year, I am happy to report, the sales were moving briskly. In fact, I ‘escaped’ my public speaking slot because, I’m sure, every time our coordinator glanced my way, I was busy talking to customers, and hence he would move to the next and the next until the day was at an end.

Yes, sales were very good. It was quite gratifying.

Part of this success was due to the advertising being ran in the local newspaper. As I had hoped for, I had many comments from people exclaiming, “Oh, I saw your ad in the paper and was meaning to call for a catalog, and here you are.”

Catalogs moved quite briskly also.

Another consequence of the ad is the connection with local authors that knew nothing of me, nor I of them. I’ve had several contact me, and as of yesterday was invited to an impromptu meeting with a local business man who has a few works cooking on his creative stove. The first is of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” variety, which instantly interested me as I know the Chicken Soup market is enourmous.

The meeting was so impromptu that I am ashamed to say I met him in sweat pants and a t-shirt. The reason behind this is I had spent the entire morning in two different meetings, complete in full suited skirt and heels, makeup hair, the whole regalia, which I utterly hate. Upon arriving home, I instantly tore off the dreaded formal wear and contrarily and thankfully changed into my oldest most comfy gear. When I returned the inviters’ call, my first thought was, Oh, no, I am not putting on the business clothes again!

I agreed to meet him at a local establishment and, after apologizing for my appearance, had a pleasant afternoon conversing on the rapidly changing publishing industry, where we are in God’s time-table, politics, the expresso book machine, and his work.

As I found on Sunday at Art in the Park, nothing beats being out amongst people and making personal connections. That’s true with customers, and I think it is also true with writers. You can gain more from a fifteen minute (well, in this particular case it was more like an hour and a half) face to face with someone than a month’s worth of emails.

I walked away with a very positive impression that this writer would fit my vision for Double Edge Press. Now it was just a matter of whether his writing would. He had given me a sample, and not long after I returned home, I sat down to take a quick glance, and found myself hard pressed to put his work down in order to do the things I was supposed to be doing. He had humbly disclaimed his writing ability, but from my quick taste of his work, I think he may have somewhat underrated himself.

As a result of several things, James Spurr’s work that I’m currently editing and am very excited about, the recent development of a writer with fantastic work that may be coming aboard this fall, encouraging sales at Art in the Park, and yesterday’s meeting with a talented local author (how nice to have another author in the immediate area!) I’m feeling as though the future of DEP is very bright indeed.

Everyone have a good, good day.

Despite having a full two weeks of pre-graduation activities, including track banquet, senior banquet, awards ceremony, baccalerate, and three practices (not to mention the eighth grade awards ceremony for our youngest), I still felt as though the event had somehow snuck up on us.

This morning, I feel as though I am nursing a graduation hang-over. Two weeks of frantic activity finally at an end and I slept in to the unheard hour of nine a.m. As yesterday was also the last day of school for our other three kids, they also slept in, with only one of them beating me out of bed. I drank coffee, read the newspaper, did my Bible study, ran the dishwasher, and began the ‘real’ day at 10:30, far behind my normal seven a.m. But it was with a great deal of relief that I am finally behind the keyboard and able to, once again, focus entirely on business.

And there is plenty to focus on. Not only do I have the on-going edit job of Jim Spurr’s latest title (which has been sadly neglected lately), but I had the results to the Grand Experiment to consider: three days of paid advertising in our local newspaper which commenced last Friday (a week ago) and ran through Saturday and Sunday. The results were not overwhelming, but we did get some interest. Enough so that I’ve renewed the ad, and this time for a full seven days, again beginning on Friday (today) and running through to Thursday of next week. After all, using the motto of “If a little’s good, a lot’s better” is a family tradition.

Which brings me to a case in point. In my extended family of two real brothers, one step-brother, one step-sister, and six half-brothers and sisters (yes, you counted correctly, that gives me a grand total of ten siblings in one manner or another — did I ever mention that my dad was one of 13 kids? So, there’s more than one family tradition going on here), I have a half-brother fondly referred to as ‘Wild Bill’. Part of this is because he sports a head of wavy dark hair (although as he is now pushing seventy, it is becoming more grey than brown) and has always marched to the beat of his own drum sometimes to the consternation and bewilderment of the surrounding community. But one thing Bill can be counted on to do is any construction job one cares to throw at him (which is also another family tradition. One of my full-blooded brothers, Mike, is currently completing his second house which he built nearly entirely himself with only occassional help from, you guressed it, one of our other brothers. His first one, done when he was younger and more energetic, was well over 2400 square foot, log, and a masterpiece of beauty. Now that he is getting older, he’s opted for a smaller, more conservative log cabin).

One of the small jobs thrown at Bill was the remodeling of a basement bathroom for a friend. He was at the point of putting new tile down on the floor and was using liquid nails, a strong adhesive. The directions clearly stated that a small bead of it on the back of the tile was sufficient, and that one should let it ’air’ for a moment before setting it into place. Bill subscribed to our old family motto of ‘If a little’s good, a lot’s better’ and generously applied a heaping portion of liquid nails to the back of the tile. Then, without waiting to ’air’ (sissy stuff, he must have been thinking), he dropped the tile into place, confident he was moving the job along at record pace. He never gave the hot water tank immediately outside the bathroom door a thought, but he quickly came to realize why the directions said to ‘air’ the liquid nails for a moment.

He dropped the tile into place. The large portion of adhesive emitted an equally large portion of fumes which burst up from beneath the tile like a small nuclear mushroom cloud. The gas flamed pilot light instantly ignited the fumes, and as our nephew, Bill’s son, was to report from the next room, “All I heard was a bang, and I looked over just in time to see Dad being blasted backwards out the bathroom door amidst a bunch of flames and smoke. His eyebrows were smoking and the top of his hair was sizzling.”

Bill landed sprawled on his butt. The fire dissipated as quickly as it had lit, and he gave his son a single look of disbelief before saying, “Wow. That was exciting.”

Anyone using liquid nails, use caution. And read the directions. And remember that sometimes, sometimes, a little’s good, but a lot isn’t.

But in the case of advertising, I’m going with the old motto. I’m going with a lot. I think it will be beneficial to the other item on my plate this weekend: which is again being at the local Art in the Park show on Sunday.

Last year was my first year participating, and I was flattered and surprised to have the coordinator of the show ask me to do an impromptu speaking spot on publishing, writing, and Double Edge Press. I complied, taking the microphone with a great deal of nervousness as I hadn’t prepared in any way. Evidently, I did well enough to be invited back again this year. And this year, I’ll be prepared.

So, the advertising will make us more ‘known’ to those coming to the event. And I’ll have plenty of free catalogs on hand for swag. Now, if we only have some nice weather. Southwestern PA has been a gloomy, depressing mess the last couple of days, and some sunshine for the event would be welcomed.

Everyone have a great day and a good weekend!

When he had called me on from his cell phone that day, asking me if I could use a copier, I instantly said yes. I said yes even more enthusiastically when I heard the price tag: free. I didn’t know what I would do with it, we already have a small copier on our printer, but like back at the beginning of this venture when I was ordering my computer on-line and my brother asked what I would do with the obscene amount of memory I wanted, I knew I was going to do something with it.

With the computer, the memory was put to use starting a pub house. I had no clue at the time that I was ordering it that this would be what I would use it for. With the copier, again I knew I would use it for something, I just didn’t know what, nor when.

So after a iniital try out, in which we established that the top 8.5″ x 11″ paper drawer didn’t draw, but that the reserve 8.5″ x 11″ did nicely, along with the 8.5″ x 14″ and 11″ x 17″ drawers as well, it sat in the corner and became a catch all, rather like the piano in our living-room.

I wasn’t particularly annoyed with the fact that the top drawer refused to draw paper. It was why we had gotten the machine for free. The business sharing the same building as my husband’s business office had become fed-up with this little quirk. They had few reasons to print anything but standard 8.5″ x 11″ and evidently printed enough that not only had they worn out the main draw drawer, but also missed the amount they could print without refilling when reduced to the reserve drawer only. They ordered a new copier. Pressed for space, they were busy hauling the old copier out of the building, wondering if they could reasonably expect the garbage men to haul it away when my husband happened upon them.

“Want a copier?” one of them asked, half joking, half desperate.

“Does it work?” my husband replied.

“All but the top drawer.” At which point my husband pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for me. And, that, my friends, is how we got a free $5000.00 copier. These things never happen to me. But they happen to my husband quite regularly.

The funny part of the story is that less than two weeks later my husband, Neal, again ran into the same guy. He told him the new copier had quit working. “Any chance of getting our old one back?” he asked.

“I’ll sell it to you,” Neal replied with a devilish grin.

The point of the story is that I finally found a use for the copier: 2009 Double Edge Press catalogs.

I mentioned them yesterday in conjunction with an advertisement I was running in the local paper beginning today. I had done catalogs previously, but because I was printing each out on a printer they were both a) time consuming and b) costly. Both of these circumstance forced a very narrow and focused distribution of them and I concentrated only on small independent retailers in hand-picked regions.

What possessing the copier has done is enable me to print them a) relatively quickly, and b) cheaply: about 7 cents a catalog. Do they look as nice? no. They’re in black and white rather than color, and they do tend to have a skid mark occassionaly. But for mass consumption, they’ll do nicely, and it allows me to offer them for free to anyone interested responding to the ad. At approximately $70.00 per thousand, they fit into the budget. Unlike the old catalogs that I distributed in miserly fashion, this year’s catalog is free for the asking.

So the grand experiment started this morning with the first running of the ad. Very few people in the area know we’re here. Very few know that a pub house exists in their local area. With the running of today’s ad that will hopefully change, and some ‘buzz’ would be nice.

Everyone have a great day and a wonderful weekend.

However, it does cause traffic jams on my desk top, both the virtual and literal one.

Even in the midst of editing, marketing must go on. It is the one task that is never done. At no point can you wrap it up and say, “Well, done with marketing for a while.” It’s an ongoing, uphill battle to get our name out there in front of people.

Several months ago, I blogged about switching our distribution discount for most of our titles (not all, but most) to an astounding 70% off. This switch came after I was in contact with a regional book retailer who required this percentage off to even consider carrying our books. It caused to wonder if the old ’standard’ of 55% off to distributors was now obsolete, especially in today’s economy. Everyone, including retailers, maybe especially retailers, are looking for a bargain. Something they can pass on as a bargain to their customers and still make a profit at the end of the day.

It’s up to us, the suppliers, to tighten our belts even further and give them what they want. Painful, but necessary.

So in light of this line of thinking, I made the afore mentioned changes and sat back to wait on the results. I speculated it would be several months before I saw anything noteworthy, and as much as six months to a year before I could deem the experiement either a success or a failure.

Today, for the first time, I’ve seen some significant movement in sales pertaining to our distribution outlet. Not a flood, not by a long-shot, but a small up-tick that is encouraging. What I find most revealing is that this up-tick does not correspond with on-line sales numbers (i.e. Amazon) as the sales there for all of our titles, even the ones that are normally moving quite well, have been dismally slow since around the start of the year. No, this small up-tick is the result of brick and mortar stores testing the waters. They’ve seen a bargain, and they’re taking a chance that the bargain will sell.

In retrospect, years down the road, I may well look back on this moment and realize that if we hadn’t had an awful economy at the moment, these same book and mortars may have well stuck with the tried and true (the big pubs) no matter what discount we had on our books. But desperate circumstances call for desperate measures, and if they can pick up a title from a relatively unknown small publisher as a better discount, this one time they’re trying it.

In addition to this cautiously optimistic news is my dipping my toes into the waters of local newsprint advertising. I’ve advertised before,usually at the on-set of a new title, sometimes by paid Press Release services, sometimes with specific newspaper spots. All of these advertisements have been in the author’s area and not in my local region. They’ve always been focused on a single title (the one being newly released) and a single author (the one doing a book-signing in those instances). What I’ve never done is advertise the publishing house as a whole (other than on-line advertising back at the very beginning of this venture, which, from my experience, was nothing but a capital draining waste of money. I don’t recommend it).

But again, the economy is coming into play, this time in the form of GM axing a great percentage of their car dealerships on a nationwide level. A week ago, when I was reading in the paper of several local car dealerships being forced to close their doors (some after nearly a century in the business) I had no idea that this was going to effect my advertising plans. How could I? There is absolutely no obvious connection there.

Car dealerships advertise in the newspaper. They advertise in the newspaper A LOT. Take three major advertisers out of play for the local newspaper, who, like all newspapers across the country is already struggling, and they begin to come up with some interesting, and relatively cheap, ways to offer advertising. An ad with accompanying image that previously would have cost me a about $150.00 to run for one day in the main pages of the paper I can now run for three days at a thrid of the cost in the classified ads under their newly created ‘Home Businesses’ section.

I had never seen this category before, but I noticed it after observing another local home business owner, of a beauty shop, running an ad with her rates, her address and phone number and an accompanying eye-catching photo of herself. I observed this ad for about two weeks straight, and I noticed it every single day. I couldn’t help but notice it. I go to the classifieds for various reasons, to look at the houses for sale, to check out the job market, the used autos, lost pets, found pets, and merchandise in general. Anything with an accompanying photo catches the eye. And it catches the eye better than the paid for advertisements that I (and probably everyone else) am used to skimming over and ignoring in the usual paid for advertising spots throughout the paper. I was intrigued.

So, finally, I call the number in the woman’s ad, the owner of the beauty shop. Basically, after introducing myself and assuring her that i don’t run a competing beauty shop, I asked her, “How’s that working for you?” in reference to the ad from where I had gotten her phone number.

“Great!” was her unabashed reply. She went on to tell me that she ran it once for ten days and was so impreseed with the results that she signed up for a further fifteen days straight. “I’ll probably keep running it,” she said. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook with new customers that never knew I was here before.”

There’s a big difference between beauty shops and publishing houses. But the one thing we have in common is that not very many people know I’m here. That’s about to change.

Starting Friday, I’ll have a three day ad in the same humble, nearly laughable section of the newspaper. Not where you would expect a publishing house to be advertising. But at the end of the day I only have one litmus test on where my advertising dollars go, and it isn’t what looks pretty or what looks dignified. It’s simply what works.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about what that advertisement will contain, and the catalogs that due to my much-loved and much-esteemed husband I am able to create for as little as seven cents (yes, that’s $.07) a copy and offer for free to those who respond to the ad.

Which brings me back around to editing. Creating an ad for the classifieds wasn’t too time consuming, but creating a catalog and working out the system in where I can print off and assemble two about every thirty seconds for mass production took a little more time than I would have wished when in the midst of an edit job. Let’s just say that perfecting the process required one total tantrum throwing meltdown including obsceneties over the persnicketyness of a particular copier, and an impatiently uttered prayer for patience. I don’t think the temper tantrum or the profanities worked, but the prayer did. Patience was granted, the process was completed allowing me to offer both a catalogue (which says very nicely that we’re ‘established’ in the ad readers mind, I hope) and because of the relative cheapness of the production, offer it for free (and who doesn’t like to read about getting something for free?).

So, I have on-going editing, on-going marketing through discounts established a few months back that finally seem to be seeing results, new advertising with a new catalog. What more could be throwin into the mix to make my days even more hectic? That brings us to our oldest son’s graduation from high-school.

Now maybe my memory is faltering the older I get (and there’s nothing like your first born graduating to remind you that the years are passing fast), but I don’t remember such a hoopla when I graduated as there is today. My calendar is completely filled for over a week with track photo sessions, track banquets, graduatiing class banquets, Baccalerate, practice, and finally Graduation. Add to that our youngest has her own class’s awards ceremony and you begin to see how filled up my coming week has suddenly become. Even an edit of a seasoned writer such as Jim Spurr with relatively minor issues has become challenging. Not in doing it, but in finding the time to do it.

But in the end, it is all very positive ‘busyness’ and far better than having nothing cooking on the stove at all. Soon, the graduation will be over, the advertising results will be in and the editing completed. At that point, I’ll take a breath, take a look around and see where we are.

Everyone have a good day.

First up: I received word from Martha Dougherty (Bits and Pieces, Thirty-Six Years Later, and If Only I Could Talk) that her one day art show on Saturday went spectacularly well. What was even nicer is the reporter she had previously been contacted by drove the hour south from Pittsburgh and spent much of the afternoon interviewing her. He already had done one article in general about some upcoming art shows. This interview was geared more specifically towards Martha, her photography, her books, and with a good bit of Double Edge Press weaved into the fabric. He left her with instructions to let him know the minute her next book came out (which will, hopefully, be shortly after James Spurr’s Reflections in the Wake which I am working on now).

The scheduling for Jim Spurr’s work got crunched in the general preoccupation of the hospitalization of a family member, her subsequent death, funeral and then Easter immediately following. In fact, most of my scheduling for everything got crunched. Now I’m in the midst of trying to see exactly where I am and what time frames I can realistically expect to meet. Fortunately, although slowed consdierably, I was able to continue my Real Estate courses and am on the final course tests now (although what I anticipated taking about two weeks, easily turned into five). Which means I should be able to pick up where I left off on Jim’s work by the end of this week.

So, the question I have to ask myself is: can I pound out the editing and have it ready for review by the beginning of May as originally scheduled? I don’t think so. At this point, I’m hoping that I can have it to Jim for review by at least May 9th. What I will probably do is send him out what I have prior to that, allow him to review, comment, change, etc., then we’ll switch out the first half with the second, yada, yada, yada, and go from there.

I swear it seems as though we have had to use this scenario on every book of his we have done. And it is really quite ridiculous.

I posted a few blogs back that our family had seen three deaths in less than four years. My mother has since corrected me. Three deaths in less than three years, she reminded me. No wonder I’ve felt crunched. I really, sincerely, hope this is it for a while. Not only do I not like seeing members of our family taking the big dirt nap (pardon my gallows humor), but it makes it really hard to run a business in a professional manner. One could say that all these deaths are killing me.

The main priority is to have the book out by the beginning of June as Jim will be doing a presentation on a cruise and it would be nice to have his new title along with his two previous ones allowing his complete triology to be available. Then he has a further presentation scheduled for August.

But moving on: Just to show how much things are beginning to steamroll along, I recently received the final pdf of all the presenters of the Florida Writer’s Conference coming up in October of this year in Florida, of which I was invited, and accepted gladly, to present. There are some six pages, and it was fascinating reading to get a preview of who all besides myself will be doing workshops and interacting with their large membership. I’m very much looking forward to it. Then today, I received a newsletter about the upcoming event, and a Conference Blog link, which I immediately RSS’d.

This is going to be a huge event, and I can imagine the shadow of it will be deepening throughout my summer as I prepare.

Before that vaulted event, however, is the local Art in the Park in June, which I attended last year. Bill Faust, who organizes the event, has specifically asked I return, which was flattering and a little surprising. He had me do an impromptu presentation last year without prior warning, and although I felt it was passable, I was also well aware that it could have been much better. Evidently, he was still pleased, and this year I will be prepared with some real material instead of just sharing what was on the top of my head.  

Just as a wrap up, I want to mention that my brother had a conversation with a local real estate agent about some property he had had on the market for the past year (just a couple acre lots, no buildings). The first of these has finally sold as the couple interested in it obtained the financing, and the agent was out to clear out a last couple details. My brother, well aware that I’m on the final stages of my RE courses, asked how business was. “Booming,” was the reported response. The agent said he had been doing nothing but running his legs off showing houses to prospective buyers. The rates are low, the prices are low, and the first warm days of spring have brought the home buyers out in droves.

And in just a short few more weeks, I’ll be in the midst of that, happy to help them find what they are looking for.

Somewhere between showing houses, editing, getting out Martha’s book, and attending shows, I’m still hoping to finish the book I began on publishing in time for the Florida Writer’s Conference.

Never let it be said I had no goals in life.

Everyone have a good day! I’m going to take a deep breath, and dive in.

Reveiw Date: 04/13/2009

Rating:

Content Rich – Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web by Jon Wuebben, published by Encore Publishing Group (independent publisher), 270 pages (hardback edition)

Market Analysis:

Amazon sale price: $15.56. List Price: $19.95.

If this were a paperback printed on demand: cost per page: $0.013 = $3.51 to print + .90 per cover = Total print cost of $4.41. The List price is $19.95 – 55% wholesale discount = $8.98 – total print cost of 4.41 = $4.57 profit margin per book.

Book ranking as of today: 30,832. Approximate Amazon Sales between 50 to 70 books a month if this remains consistent in that ranking area. So the publisher net income is between $228.50 and $319.90 a month through Amazon. This of course would not include books sold through other outlets.

Review:

Jon Wuebben’s Content Rich – Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web is a small jewel in the world of self-help/how-to books on how to go about setting up a web-site that is found by searchers and utilized. It’s primary focus is on copywriting as an industry, but his advice is invaluable for anyone who is setting up a commercial web-site and is doing their own copywriting (writing the text for each page).

Where other books I have read cover a large gambit of web marketing in its entirety, Jon Wuebben covers what he knows best with laser sharp clarity. And as SEO (search engine optimization) is a primary, basic and absolute crucial element to any web site business, I can not stress how primary, basic and absolutely crucial it is to read a book that presents a comprehensive guide on how to go about it. The surprise is that it is neither hard nor particularly time consuming. SEO may be the best kept secret in the entire web industry, not due to how complicated it is, but due to how prevalent the misconception is that it is complicated.

Jon Wuebben brushes away all the mystery surrounding SEO and lists the steps to take, the reasons behind them, and the results you can well expect. He adds other elements that are both useful and fascinating, from Press Release Writing, Blogging and even Twittering, but this is all mere bonus material as one gets more than the worth of the book in the SEO aspect alone.

A must have for those serious about e-commerce.

Now, the good news: remember my thinking that perhaps the 70% discount that Choice Books requested to even consider carrying us may be what other retailers/wholesalers were looking for? It was the second half of my post teasing that my book was on the Amazon #1 Bestseller page (which, coincidentally, it still is, see referenced post for explanation).

Anywho, to briefly recap, on a hunch or a whim or the fumes of too much nail-polish, (not sure which) I went into our Ingram account and changed the discount to 70% non-returnable for the majority of our titles (in the US only. I haven’t gone through the number crunching to see if there were a profit margin to do the same with UK distribution, so it remains at 55%).

I mentioned yesterday that April 9 marked the first day the discounts were in effect, and that I expected it to be a month before I saw any results, and a full six months before I could come to any conclusions as to whether the higher discount helped.

Lo and behold, this morning I log in to check our numbers and find that in ONE DAY of the new discount being in effect, we’ve already outsold the entire month of March (which, admittedly, the sales so far this year have been lousy, especially compared to last year’s numbers, but even so. . .). Is it premature to draw conclusions? Obscenely so. But am I feeling encouraged? You better believe it.

Maybe, maybe, after five years of fumbling around I have finally stumbled across the elusive and mythological silver bullet. But, shhhh, don’t tell anyone.   

One of the little perks of being a publisher/author/blogger, I am finding, is being contacted on occassion by other authors to take a look at their work. This phenomenon first began with Souls of Steel by Philip Garrow (submitted not by the author, but by a friend of the author), which should in itself be a cautionary tale that although asked to review and receiving a free copy to do so is not going to sway me on my opinion. It continued with a contact from Andy Sernovitz requesting that I read his upcoming book after discovering my review of his first (and although I took him up on this offer, I have as yet to receive the book. Perhaps he took the cautionary tale of Souls of Steel to heart).

The latest request has come from Jon Wuebben, President and CEO of both Telegent Media, LLC and Custom Copywriting for his book Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web. As his book appears to be selling well without my review, I was flattered to be contacted with the offer.

The book arrived yesterday (with a nice autograph in it, as I always ask for one in these situations. After all, if nothing else at the end of the day, I should have a nice collection of original autographed titles in my library to impress my grandchildren with — see, kiddies, I once tried to create a family empire for all of you, but, alas, it wasn’t to be. I do however have these nice autographed books! At which point, my grandchildren still to be born at some point in the future will say, “What’s a book?”) and I began reading last night. So far my notes include the words, undeniable enthusiasm, excitement and fun. Although I only read through the introduction and the first chapter, I already have the distinct impression that Mr. Wuebben is utterly sincere. He has found a way to make a profit on what he is passionate about and has no qualms in sharing his knowledge. A rarity, I have found, when it comes to business ‘how-to’ books, the main objective seemingly to be how to give enough information to entice sales without actually creating competition in the field that one is knowledgable in. I know my first thought upon picking up a ‘how-to’ is: if the author’s making so much money doing what they are doing, why do they need to write a book and sell how to do it?

The exception, I’m thinking, may be when it comes to the very field I am in: writing. Writers like to write, and invariably they like to write to the point that they get around to writing about writing, and if that includes how to make money from writing, that will be written about also. Witness my own blog. There is absolutely no earthly reason for me to blog about my failures and successes other than like a person who talks too much and doesn’t know when to shut up, I write too much and don’t know when to take my hands off the keyboard. Diahrea of the fingers, if you will.

But, in regards to Mr. Wuebben’s work, I’m enjoying it very much, and if the practical advice he offers matches his enthusiasm in presenting it, I’m anticipating a great read. And a far from dry one.

Everyone have a great day!