Audiobooks can open up new markets and revenue streams for self-published authors. Bookstand Publishing does not create audio books, however, we can give you some recommendations on how you can do this yourself.

Here are the basic steps to create an audio edition of your book.

Create an Account on Amazon Audio Creation Exchange (ACX)

We recommend using Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). This service is an easy way to create and distribute your digital audiobook via Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes, as well as their global partners. You can read about the ACX service and set up a FREE account  here: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3CISEMGMV9KR5

Narrate the Book

The hardest (and often most expensive) part to create an audio edition is the narration of the book. You can either hire a narrator or narrate the book yourself.

• Hiring a Narrator
  Usually it is best if you use a professional narrator for your book. Narration is an art. It is difficult for most authors to consistently sound professional and avoid the small errors that make the recording sound unprofessional or hard to listen to.  ACX provides a selection of freelance narrators who can narrate your book in exchange for a per finished hour rate or in exchange for 50% of the royalties. You can view the profiles of the ACX narrators, including samples of their work, here: http://www.acx.com/help/narrators/200484550
• Narrate Your Own Book
  If you choose to narrate your own book, you will need audio editor and recorder software on your computer. If you have an Apple computer we have been told that Garageband  (which comes with an Apple Mac and iPad) works well. If you have a PC, we have been told that Audacity (Freeware) works well.
  You will need a microphone. We have been told that the Audio-Technica AT2035 and AKG 3000 are both good “budget” microphones to use to record a book.
  You will also need a quiet place to record.

You will also, likely, want to edit your recordings using your audio editor and recorder software to take out any distractions such as background noise and playing with volume.

Export and upload your files to ACX

You will want to be sure that your audio files are done to ACX specifications. In particular:
• You need to have a separate audio file for each chapter or section.
• Each chapter file must be 192kbps or higher 44.1kHz MP3 and be no longer than 120 minutes.
• Your audiobook must include opening and closing credits that match the title’s cover art.

Here is a complete list of the ACX audio submission requirements: http://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300

“The copyright page is where many publishers print disclaimers. Here are 6 examples and the books in which they could be used.”

Source: www.thebookdesigner.com

This article has sample disclaimers for your self published book.  It has disclaimers for memoirs, recent history, novels, how-to, health and sports training.

The first step in promoting your book is to develop a marketing plan to sell your book. If you don’t know where you are going, no road will take you there. If you want to sell books, you need to know where you are going; you need to have a plan on how you are going to sell your book.

To develop a basic marketing plan to sell your book, you need to ask yourself four basic questions:

1. Who is my most probable customer for this book?

2. Why should my most probable customer want to buy my book?

3. What do I have to say to my most probable customer to make them want to buy my book?

4. How do I reach my most probable customer?

Answering these questions will help you think like a marketer and will lay the groundwork for implementing your marketing strategies after your book is published. More importantly, answering these questions will help you better plan your book subject matter, your book title and your book description so that when the book is published you can sell it.

Let’s examine each of these fundamental marketing questions.

1. Who is my most probable customer for this book?

You need to identify the most probable customer for your book. You need to do this so you can then target these people in your marketing and promotional efforts. While it may be tempting to believe that the whole world will want your book, from a marketing perspective you need to focus on the people who will most likely actually buy your book. You need to identify the demographics (that is, the objective facts) about your most probable customer. These demographics need to include at least some of the following information:

• Age
• Occupation
• Employment Status
• Income
• Location
• Gender
• Education
• Race/Ethnicity
• Marital Status
• Family Status
• Religion

Once you have this information, you are ready to answer the second marketing question:

2. Why should my most probable customer want to buy my book?

Now you want to get into the head of your most probable customer. What motivates them? When they buy your book, what are they expecting to get out of it? Are they seeking information? If so, what kind of information? Are they seeking excitement? If so, what kind of excitement? Are they seeking escape? If so, how? You are attempting here to understand the emotional psychology, or the psychographic profile, of your most probable reader.

Your answer to this question should be no more than one or two sentences long. Answering it will help you to answer the third question:

3. What do I have to say to my most probable customer to make them want to buy my book?

Your focus here is to determine what you need to say to your customer with:

• Your Book Content: Does the content you are writing appeal to your most probable customer or are you trying to cover too much? Your book content should be focused on what your most probable customer wants. If your most probable customer wants paranormal romance, don’t give them French history. If they want to know how to white water river raft, don’t tell them about your personal struggles with alcoholism. Stay focused on what your customer wants. Many authors make the mistake of trying to say too much because it means something to them. Don’t focus on what you want to say, focus on what your most probable customer want to hear.

• Your Book Title: Your Title needs to appeal to your most probable customer. Ideally, your title should reflect what your most probable customer will use as Search Terms on Amazon and Google since that is the way most books are found today.

• Your Book Description: Your Book Description will, typically, go on the back of your book as well as appear on the websites of online retail stores across the country. It is this description that people will read first in deciding to buy your book. Thus, it needs to be complete and to appeal to your most probable customer. As with the title, your Book Description should include Search Terms that your most probable customer will use to find your book.

• Your Book Cover: While we have always been taught that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, the reality is that books are constantly being judged by their covers. As a result, you need to be sure that your cover strongly appeals to your most probable customer. Your book cover will be seen by anyone looking for your book, and so it needs to be compelling to your most probable customer.

• Reviews: It is great if you can get an advance review for your book before it is actually published. This review will be based upon your unpublished manuscript, and the review should be written by someone whom your probable customer looks up to. Once the book is published, of course, you should still seek reviews using the review copies of the book that come with your Book Publishing Package; but advance reviews will be very helpful in marketing your book right out the gate.

4. How do I reach my most probable customer?

After you have produced a book that appeals to your most probable customer, produced a title, book description and book cover compelling to your most probable customer, and obtained advance reviews, you need to make a list containing ways that you can reach your most probable customer. That is, you need to make a list of the websites they visit, the search terms they use, the book categories they browse, the magazines they read, the events they attend, the stores they go to, and the programs they watch and listen to. The demographic profile you produced with Question 1 and the psychographic profile with Question 2 will help you in compiling this list.

Here are some channels for you to consider in reaching your most probable customer:

A. Amazon Categories: What categories of books does your most probable customer look in? This is where you want your book to be posted in Amazon. For most authors the more specific the category the more likely your book is to be noticed (i.e. it is better to be listed under Historical French Romances than Romance).

B. Websites and Blogs: We recommend that you make a list of the top five websites and top five blogs or social networking sites that your most probable customer visits regularly. For each site, you should identify how that site might be able to help you. That is, you need to identify if the site does book reviews, allows article submissions, allows advertising, etc.

Google Search is your best tool for finding websites related to your book’s topic.

C. Facebook and Twitter: We recommend that you find friends on these two very popular social media sites who are interested in the topic of your book. You can search for groups and individuals within these social media sites who have interests related to your book’s topic.

D. Stores: We recommend that you compile a list of the top five brick-and-mortar stores that your most probable customer visits regularly. These can include local bookstores, local gift shops, and specialty stores. They can also include other businesses and community organizations that your target audience regularly frequents, such as gyms, churches, schools, and doctors’ offices.

E. Special Events: Make a list of the special events that your most probable customer is likely to attend. These can include trade shows, conferences, and speaking engagements.

F. Targeted Lists: Identify any lists of postal mailing addresses and/or e-mail addresses targeted to your most probable customer, which you can use to reach them.

G. Print Media: Make a list of the print magazines and newspapers that your most probable customer reads. For marketing purposes, the more targeted the media, the better. In other words, if you’ve written a mystery novel it is usually better to get a book review or place an ad in a mystery magazine than in the local metro paper.

You may want to consult Writers Market, a book released annually by Writers Digest magazine, which lists numerous book and magazine publishers, or www.writersmarket.com, for a list and description of all the specialized magazines that may be of interest to your target market.

H. Broadcast Media: Make a list of your most probable customer’s favorite radio and TV programs. As with print media, the more targeted the media, the better.

Armed with the answers to these four marketing questions, and with your lists of possible channels through which you can reach your target audience you have the foundation with which to build a powerful marketing plan to sell your book.

These self publishing guidelines for avoiding legal issues are particularly important to read if you are writing a memoir, expose or quoting extensively from other articles or books.

When Do I Need to Get Permissions? | Bookstand Publishing Read this if you quoting other books or articles in your book manuscript.

Guidelines on Using Photos in Your Self Published Book | Bookstand Publishing

 

Read this if you are using photographs or images in your self published book.

A Writer’s Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy | WritersDigest.com

Good article from Writers Digest on avoiding defamation and invasion of privacy in a memoir.

Copyright in General (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright Office

General answers to questions about Copyright. Please note that you do NOT need to have your book registered by the US Copyright Office to be protected by copyright law.

Defamation – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Definition of Defamation so you be sure you haven’t committed it in your book.

The ‘Fair Use’ Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable | Nolo.com

Good article on Fair Use which sometimes allows you to make limited use of another copyrighted work without asking permission.

The First Amendment Handbook | Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Guidelines on the web for writers on avoiding libel, defamation, privacy infringement and more.

Article: 10 Tips for Aspiring Authorpreneurs — The Book Designer

Books are generally divided into three parts: The frontmatter, the body of the book, and the backmatter.

Keep in mind that there is no book that has all of these parts. Use this list instead to make sure you have the right content in the right category, and that elements of your book appear in the sequence in which they are expected.

Normally, unless otherwise noted, each of these items should start on a right hand page.

Frontmatter

The Frontmatter are the pages at the beginning of a book before the body of the book. These pages are traditionally numbered with lowercase roman numerals.

Half title Page—Sometimes called the Bastard Title.  This page contains only the title of the book and is the first page you see when opening the cover.

Title Page—Contains the title, subtitle, author and publisher of the book.

Copyright Page—Is on the reverse of the Title Page, and contains the copyright notice, publisher information, the ISBN number, Library of Congress number, and printing information (usually “Printed in the United States of America”). Legal notices, credits for illustrations or cover design are also commonly listed on the page.

Dedication—Not every book carries a dedication but, for those that do, it is opposite the copyright page.  A dedication is always personal. Professional acknowledgements go on the Acknowledgements page or in the Preface.

Foreword—An introductory essay written by someone other than the author.  The Foreword is always signed, usually with the Foreword author’s name, and title.  Please note that the Foreword (literally meaning “the word before”) should never be spelled as Forward.

Preface—An introductory essay written by the author that tells how the book came into being, followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.  The Preface is usually signed with the author name, place and date. .

Acknowledgments—The author expresses their gratitude for help in the creation of the book.  The acknowledgement page should not be more than 1 page.  If you have a Preface page that includes acknowledgements, then you do not need a separate Acknowledgements page.

Introduction—Here the author introduces the material that is covered in the work.  Typically, an author tells the reader what will be revealed in greater detail if they continue reading.

Table of Contents—Also known as the Contents page, this page lists all the major divisions of the book including parts and chapters and their page numbers. Depending on the length of the book, a greater level of detail may be provided to help the reader navigate the book.

Please note, you should include all your Front Matter in your Table of Contents (with the exception of the Title and Copyright Pages), even though they come before the Table of Contents.

A Table of Contents should start on a right hand page, unless it requires the use of two pages, in which case it should start on the left hand side.

Prologue—In a work of fiction, the Prologue sets the scene for the story and is told in the voice of a character from the book, not the author’s voice.

Body

The Body is the main portion or body of the book.  These pages are traditionally numbered with Arabic numerals with page 1 beginning with the first text of the main body (which means page 1 is usually the first page of the first chapter).

Parts—Both fiction and nonfiction books are often divided into parts when there is a large conceptual, historical or structural logic that suggests these divisions.

Chapters—Most fiction and almost all nonfiction books are divided into chapters for the sake of organizing the material.

Backmatter

The Backmatter are the pages after the body of the work.

Epilogue or Epilog—A short essay, in the voice of the author, that brings closure to the work.

Afterword—An Afterword either covers how the book was created (in which case you would not have a Preface) or it is written by someone other than the author, seeking to put work in some wider context (often done if the work is being reissued after many years)

Postscript— The postscript is a final “PS” note at the end of a book, providing additional information that doesn’t fit as part of the story or main point of the book.

Appendix —A supplement to the main work. An Appendix typically includes referenced documents cited in the text, or articles peripherally related to the subject of the book.

Notes—If your main text requires notes to amplify or document certain passages throughout the text, please arrange the notes by chapter in a notes section.Glossary—An alphabetical list of terms and their definitions, helpful in understanding the terms referenced frequently in the book. 

Bibliography—The bibliography section lists the sources for works used in your book. Be sure to arrange the sources alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Index—An alphabetical listing of people, places, events, and subjects cited along with page numbers.  This is typically done for a scholarly, non-fiction book.

About the Author—A brief biography, nor more than 1 page, about the author.  This is typically the last page of a book and is on the left hand side.  The author biography should either be on the last page of the book, or on the cover of the book (but not both).

A self published book can be a great way to get new prospects for your business, add value to your services and increase your revenue.   Here are just a few ways self publishing a book can help your business:

A book is the new business card

Nobody cares about your business card.  They will likely throw it away after they meet you.  A book on the other hand, seldom gets thrown away.    A business card just means you have access to a print shop.  A book differentiates you from your competitors (who are still passing out business cards).

A book gives you instant credibility

A book makes you an expert.  If you are consultant or someone who makes their money by selling their expertise, a book is about the best took you can have to establish your credentials and make you stand out among all the other consultants, counselors, and experts.

Speaking engagements, talk and radio show appearances and publicity are much more likely to happen if you have a book.  In our society being a published author equals being an expert.

A book is a lead generation tool

A book is an excellent way to generate leads and to make leads into likely customers.

If you are consultant, don’t just put a lead form on your website and wait for people to contact you.  Tell them if they register on your site, you will send them a free book with information of interest to them.  This will generate a lot more potential leads then no offer.

If you teach classes or offer a consultation service, give prospects a free book with the view that those that read the book will be more likely to pay the tuition for your classes.  You won’t make money on book sales if you give away your books, of course, but if doing so increases your sales conversions to your main business, then a book giveaway can still be a money maker for you.

Books can also be used in businesses we usually don’t associate with books.  For example, if you have a wine shop and you make your money from selling fine wines, you may want to consider offering a free book on evaluating fine wines.  An educated wine consumer is much more likely to spend money on a fine wine than someone who doesn’t know their Chardonnays from their Merlots.

A book can help educate your prospects and an educated prospect is more likely to see the value in what you offer.

A book offers added value 

Giving away a book in association with your service or class can add perceived value to your business services.

For example, you can require your clients to purchase your book as a part of the service you offer. For example, Bookstand Publishing had a doctor author who offered a weight loss service, who required all his clients to purchase his print on demand weight loss book (and he charged a lot for weight loss service too).

In another case, a consultant who published a print on demand book began including the book as a part of his speaker’s package so clients would receive something tangible when they attended his paid seminar (and, of course the book included his contact information and list of services so class participants could contact him again in the future).

A book is an additional revenue stream

Often speakers who speak for “free” or who charge a low dollar amount for their seminars take a different approach and sell books in the back of the classroom.  This is an excellent way to sell books, as customers are most likely to buy your book after having been inspired by your speaking.   Almost every big name speaker sells books in the back of the room (or offers a book as a part of their speaking package)

As another example, if you offer counseling sessions, and your book is relevant to that field, put your book on a bookstand with pricing and ordering information so that all of your counseling clients see it.  You can even offer a book signing at your place of business.  The fact is that your existing clients are the best prospects to purchase your book.

Retail sales of your book on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and other online sites, can happen for your book as well, if you smart about how your market and promote your book.  And being smart about how you market and promote your book will usually also help you in marketing and promoting your business as well.

In honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I would publish this list of great poets who self published their books.   This is but a very small list, as thousands of famous poets have self-published.

American poet Walt Whitman self-published many editions of his collected poems, Leaves of Grass (first edition published on July 4, 1855). Leaves of Grass continues to sell thousands of copies each year — almost 120 years after his death!

T.S. Eliot, author of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land, paid for the publication of his first book.

British poet Alexander Pope, author of the satirical mock-epic poems The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, paid for the publication of his first book.

American poet and short story writer Edgar Allen Poe, author of the poem The Raven and short stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher, self-published some of his writings.

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, author of Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Adonais, and Prometheus Unbound, paid for the publication of his first book.

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, author of Sonnets from the Portuguese, paid for the publication of her first book.

American poet E. E. Cummings self-published No Thanks, a volume of poetry financed by his mother. On the half-title page, he listed the 13 publishers that had rejected the book, which became one of his classics.

Carl Sandburg self-published poems and essays with the financial assistance of his college professor. His work came to public notice when he began selling to Poetry magazine.

Oscar Wilde self-published a book of poetry in 1881.

If you are thinking about self-publishing your poetry, you’re in good company. If you want to add your name to this list of self-published poets, you should check out Bookstand Publishing’s affordable Paperback Book Publishing Packages.

• Be sure your book is in ONE electronic file.
• Set up your page size. The Directions below are for MS Word 7 and 10
• The most common and most economical trim sizes is 5.25 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall. To format to our other sizes, please change the “PAPER SIZE” per the following instructions. All other adjustments stay the same.
• In MICROSOFT WORD, open a NEW Document and click on PAGE SETUP under PAGE LAYOUT.

• Set your PAPER SIZE to Custom 5.25” x 8.25”.

• Set your MARGINS to Mirror Margins with the Inside Margins being .75″ and the outside margins being .5″. This creates space for the binding of the book. We recommend .7” for the top and bottom margins.

• Format your PARAGRAPHS to FULL Justified and Single Spaced. Indent the first sentence of the paragraph using the SPECIAL box and FIRST LINE by 0.5” as shown below. No spaces between paragraphs.

• You are now ready to put your book into this format. Close your existing book file. With the above described blank document open in Microsoft Word, go to the top Tool Bar; and the INSERT tab. Click OBJECT and then Text From File. Select your book and click INSERT. You have now put your book in the correct basic format.

• If your book is in separate files, for example each chapter in its own file, you must INSERT Chapter One, then place the cursor at the END of Chapter One and INSERT Chapter Two, and so on, into the main book file.

• Once the file has been inserted, view the page size on your as TWO PAGES. This will make the chapter location and the page numbering easier to visualize.

• Body Text should be set to 10 to 12 point Times New Roman text font. Actually, you may use any font you want; however, it is best to use an easy-to-read font. Also, keep the font and the font size consistent for a professional-looking book.
• Page Numbers should be positioned “Bottom of page (Footer)” On an even numbered page, the Page Number should be on the Outside Left. On an odd numbered page, the Page Number should be on the Outside Right.
• To begin page numbering you must first insert a SECTION BREAK on the last page prior to where you want page ONE to begin. In most cases page one is also the first page of Chapter One.
• You want page ONE and all other ODD-NUMBERED pages to be right-hand pages. Page ONE is always an ODD-NUMBERED and RIGHT-HAND page.  When working in Microsoft Word, this can be a bit confusing. A right-hand FACING page may appear on the left side of your screen when you are viewing the document as TWO PAGES. This will become clearer if you put page numbers on the OUTSIDE. Page ONE will then have the page number on the right side of the page, making it a right-hand page. If page ONE is a left-hand page, simply insert a PAGE BREAK before the SECTION BREAK. Remember, you are creating a book, so think as though you had the book lying open in front of you on the table.
• Here is how to set the Page Numbers in MS Word 7 and 10:
  • Go to Insert
  • Go to PAGE NUMBER
  • Go to Bottom of Page
  • Choose a Left Hand Page Number for an Even Numbered Page (For example Plain Number 1)
  • Choose a Right Hand Page Number for an Odd Numbered Page (For example Plain Number 3)

  

• Each chapter should begin on its own RIGHT-HAND page. This often requires adding a blank page at the end of a chapter in order to make the next chapter begin on a RIGHT-HAND page. If you choose not to adhere to the right-hand Chapter starts, however, that is acceptable to us.

For more information on formatting your manuscript for publication you can request a FREE copy of Professional Self Publishing Made Easy published by Bookstand Publishing.  Registering will also give you access to our preformatted MS Word Templates that you can download to your computer.   To register, please go to www.bookstandpublishing.com and fill out your name and email address on our home page.

Ten years ago, if you could not interest a traditional publisher in your book, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars preparing your book and thousands of dollars more with a custom printer to fill your garage with boxes of books. Thanks to digital printing technology, however, it is now possible to obtain a professional quality copy of your book for under $1,500. With Bookstand Publishing, you normally receive 48 copies of your book in the initial printing. The initial printing is included in the publishing package price. Visit our web site at www.bookstandpublishing.com for a list of all the benefits of publishing with Bookstand Publishing.

Here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself:

1. What is your motivation and purpose for publishing your book?

Writing a book is a lot of work. Publishing one is even more work. Is your purpose clear and sufficiently well conceived to sustain you through the experience? If profit is a motive, then the venture must be treated as a business. Typically, from start to finish, a writer will spend 10% of his or her time writing the book, 15% publishing it, and 75% marketing and promoting the finished book. Keep your purpose clear!

2. Is your book written for a specific market niche or group of people?

It is more expensive to promote a book to a wide general audience. Marketing costs are less when the target audience is specific, definable, and accessible.

3. Do you have a way to sell books direct?

Selling books direct (at retail price to your target audience) is the most profitable way to recover your initial self-publishing investment. The standard heavy discounts to wholesalers and bookstores can be costly for slow-moving books. In fact, without a solid marketing plan, selling books to bookstores can be the least profitable way to distribute your book. Think of alternative ways to distribute your book: Organizations, associations, corporations, conventions, fundraisers, and back-of-the-room sales after lectures or workshops, to name but a few. These are known as special sales markets. 

4. Are you willing to go out and promote your book?

A general rule for authors: A book stops selling when the author does. No matter who publishes your book, you are responsible for creating the demand for it. A book will not sell well sitting on a bookstore’s shelf, unless interest is generated for your book. Don’t forget: Writing a book is about 10% of the effort, publishing it is about 15%, and marketing it is 75%!

5. How many copies do you think you will sell?

Beyond your friends and family, who will be interested in your book? Knowing your market and how to reach those people are important questions to answer before you invest in self-publishing. The fact is that 95% of all books published sell fewer than 7,500 copies. With Bookstand Publishing’s print-on-demand services, though, you will not incur the added expense of printing thousands of copies of your book, only to stockpile them in your garage.

6.  What is Print-on-Demand (POD)?

At its simplest, print-on-demand (POD) publishing means that whenever a book is demanded (ordered, bought, requested), a copy of the book is printed to fill that specific demand.

This article is excerpted from The Self-Publishing Checklist by Andy Baldwin.  You can request a FREE copy of this book be sent to you here: http://www.bookstandpublishing.com/pod4/