If predictions for 2012 eBook sales come true, self published authors will need to ensure their books stand out as the diamonds amongst the electronic bookshelves full of cubic zirconia. In order to garner a good chunk of this ever growing electronic pie, authors could face an exhausting hourly grind to ensure their material is devoured by readers in the coming year.

Here are 5 keys to ensuring your diamonds shine brightly:

1. Write a good book, have it edited, rewrite it, have it edited again...repeat...(and take these pieces of advice from Seth Godin to heart!)
   
2. Use Review Blogs - Find a few in your chosen genre, then follow their submission requirements.  Search for more review blogs, and repeat...
3. Create your online Author Home - Blog, Website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. see our Helpful Hints for details and free information.  Be sure to be yourself, because your readers will want to engage with you and buy from you if they connect with you!
   
4. Use Social Media regularly and authentically! Here are some tips to help you "Tweet as you Speak", and another for finding quality followers.  A future post will talk about the difference between Facebook and Twitter, and your need to change your communication style when connecting through each.
   
5. Participate in the social media of the publishing company(ies) you chose.  Kindle Direct Publishing, pubit, iBooks, Smashwords, etc., all have their own facebook, twitter and publishing communities with which you can engage possible readers and author/publisher networks.  Don't forget Goodreads - an amazing community of readers and authors through which you can personally offer your work for sale and connect with your audience.

As you can see, this will require a major time investment for any author wishing to take on Self Publishing of their work.  But, as Seth Godin says, "Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually."  Let's just hope we can make it pay off monetarily at least a little bit!

Mary Kathryn Johnson

Author ~ Entrepreneur ~ Mom

Everything MommyLoves
Mary's Blog
Say Bump and Take a Left

Okay, I have a friend (no really, it's not me) who self published her book a few years back before it was all the rage, and then got picked up by Barnes & Noble Publishing - every self published author's dream come true, right?!

At the time, I had just started writing my book, Say Bump and Take a Left. How I Birthed a Baby and a Business after a Huge Bump in the Road, and I was imagining all the wonderful success that awaited me: my pick of Agents offering Publishers who fight over the right to publish my manuscript through a six figure advance bidding war...

Now a word from our Reality...

My friend started emailing me asking for my opinion on "the new book cover the publishers are using".  Frankly, I liked her cover better, and was confused as to why B&N wanted to change it.  Didn't they choose her book because it already had success with a brand?  Why would they throw that away?  And that was just the beginning as my friend  emailed often with changes being made to her book (along with her disappointment).  But, at least she had her advance, and the publishers would be taking over the marketing, distribution and sales, right?

WRONG!

She still markets her book, even today, and she still distributes and sells the version of her book she already self published and printed in bulk (prior to the advent of POD), because, of course she isn't going to just throw them away!

Lessons:

3.  You accept that advance and sign your name on the dotted line, and you lose all control!
2.  You are still totally responsible for marketing your own book (aka sales)!
1.  Who's baby is this anyway?

I thought, "This won't happen to me...(eyes glazed over slipping back into the pick of agents, 6 figure bidding war dream) they will love my book just as I've written it!)  So, I finished my book, and started sending out query letters.

And more query letters...

And more query letters...

Sound familiar?

I was despondent.  I really, really didn't want to learn another profession all over again - I did that with MommyLoves - and I readily and gladly told everyone so when they suggested self publishing.  Oh, how bitter my words tasted.  If I really wanted my book to go out into the world proclaiming my little, '2 broken legs while 8 months pregnant' life lessons, I was going to have to self publish.

Enter stage left, big sigh, and dig in...

I did it...Had a wonderful friend (who also happened to be a professional copy editor) edit my manuscript...Made changes, and edited again...Made more changes, including the title, and had a cover created with one of my own pictures...Learned how to format for all online readers.  I self published, and never looked back.

Back to the Number One Lesson I learned above ~ It's My Baby!

Three months ago, I had an amazing experience with one of my readers.  A gentleman who read my book, contacted me to tell me how profoundly my words had touched him and his wife.  He thanked me, tearfully, for writing my experiences, and said that he and his wife were rearranging their life goals to have one of them stay home with their infant son and raise him, rather than working to pay a nanny to do so.

I cannot express how touched I was by the knowledge that my words had so greatly impacted another life - three lives, actually.  I wonder, would the impact be the same had a publisher taken control of my baby and sent it out into the world with their message?

Who will determine the message your baby tells the world?

Mary Kathryn Johnson
Author ~ Entrepreneur ~ Mom

Say Bump and Take a Left
Mary's Blog