Posts Tagged ‘self publishing’

Self Publishing and Self Realization and The Depression Word

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

I have just finished the edit for my next book, Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement.  As I start the post production process and the cover generation I realized that I used the “D” word in the book.

That’s right, I said it.  Depression.

Back in our great-grandfathers or for some of us, grandfathers day, in the 1920s, there was what they called the Great Depression.  The problem back then was that banks had over-extended themselves because of bad investments in the stock market and speculation.  In this day and age, we are hearing daily of more and more financial problems due to the housing bubble popping.

This is the time to start looking to how to make money during a depression.  It may not be another Great Depression but with inflation rising, interest rates flat, Home Equity loans frozen and the next shoe to drop will be credit card companies freezing lines, it is time to get income and expectations in line for the immediate future.

What will sell?  Well, I suspect my book will have brisk sales if I keep the price at the market friendly $15-20 range (it will probably go for $15 retail before online bookstore discounting) and people continue to look for extra ways to make money, invest their money and work to get out of debt. The price point for non-fiction is generally between $12-25 depending on the book and content.

Did I have some other self-realizations? Of course! Let me share my realizations with you, dear reader.

Look for businesses you can start or continue that will help people save money, something that they can do that will save their homes, put food on their plates.  This is going to be a rough ride for all of us and if the economic forecasts look true, it may be two to four years for the U.S. to get out of the slump.

In terms of investments, I would watch very carefully what I would be putting my money into because for at least the next few months, there is going to be turmoil with looming military conflicts on the Russian border, uncertainty over the Presidential elections and the bottom of the financial markets meltdown may not be over yet. I invite you to do your own financial research and come to your own conclusions.

Here is an important reminder to people starting a business in the coming months or years. People will still pay for something that they think they will need, so marketing will still have some affect. The reality is that they will not be able to go into debt anymore to buy the item they want so they will have to wait patiently and longingly like a kid looking at a new video game in a store window.

From what I understand, in some of the hotels in Macau, the island off of China, the big casinos do get a lot of people but a lot of them just come over with their bagged lunch and sit and look at the slot machines and gaming tables. That is shockingly similar to state line casinos here in the United States between California and Nevada. It means that just because there is something marketed attractively to a customer – and there is nothing that screams marketing like a slot machine – that doesn’t mean that they will have the money to use it.

Maybe they need to have lower cost slot machines or table limits at some of the casinos in Macau to accommodate their poorer players. Maybe the casino builders and owners are discovering that even high rollers and whales go through their own financial depression and not have enough money to go play at the casinos. Time will tell and for now, that is outside of my pay grade, folks.

The take away from this is that personal depression may result from financial depression but if you are aware of what is happening you can plan accordingly for it by adjusting your income expectations and turn your depression into a great self-realization impression!

Good luck to you and may you be profitable, happy, healthy and safe in all your ventures.

Part of all my book proceeds go to research finding a cure for Rett Syndrom and reversal of symptoms.

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Kim Greenblatt, in his blog, profitable, dares to use the “D” word for the next few years financially-depression and changes it into a self-realization impression!

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He Who Pays The Piper Calls The Tune

Monday, August 18th, 2008

I received an interesting e-mail asking me about changing products to suit customer’s needs. I am all for it. The old cliche, “He Who Pays The Piper Calls The Tune”, should be the watchword of the future but sadly, some people just don’t get to pick the music they want to. Consider that if you buy a computer, the operating system that ships with it may have bugs. It is not a final product. That may not mean it is a bad product – far from it, but it is the voices of the people who pay for the machines and software that complain and they should get what they want.

Voting with your pocketbook is one of the greatest strengths in the international capitalistic market that we are in. Oil prices have dropped because people have dialed back on their driving in the United States and decided to save their money. When the want to spend money, they want to try and do it on their own terms. When it came to gasoline, however, it had to hit a market hurt point where people could just not afford to pay the high prices. Well, extra oil has been pumped and there is at least (for now) a little more out there. Basic economics of supply and demand kick in here.

But what about if you are entertainment for somebody’s wedding? What if the groom, who is writing the check for your band, asks to sit in on the drums? What do you do? If you are a shrewd business person as well as musician, you ask the drummer to sit out a set and let the groom sit in.

Putting ego aside you will be part of a lot of pictures and possibly the band to be called for all the social functions for this family. One would think this is common sense in business but so many individuals and companies like to force upon their customers what they want them to have. In some businesses, it may make no difference but if it is something that you or I can modify, sure, let me try and change it up.

The companies that offer the most versatility will make more money in the long run because people will pay for what they want. People will find money to spend for things they want. Isn’t it a great idea then to give the customer exactly what they want if you can? Remember, if you don’t, there is another website, blog or store down the block waiting to fill in the niche for you!

Part of all my book proceeds go to research finding a cure for Rett Syndrom and reversal of symptoms.

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Kim Greenblatt, in his blog, profitable, reminds people providing products or services that he (or she) who pays the piper, calls the tune.

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Profitable Or Practical Book Titles and Marketing and Recession Thinking

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

I have completed the secod draft of my next non-fiction book, tenatively entitled, “Practical Money Making-Surviving Recessions, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement”.  It is not quite as long as the longest pop song title in the world, but it is up there in terms of number of words.   When you are self-publishing, you are already swimming against the tide in the internet ocean.  You are competing with book chains, their websites, other authors, other bloggers and apathy.

One of the best ways to get your book noticed is to make it unique.  I’ve tried to do that with some of my other books on poker, on Rett Syndrome, tax preparation and dice and have had moderate success.  This new book is going to be interesting because the title is going to be so long.

The theory behind it is that the book will be easily picked up by search engines when readers like yourself try to find out information on making money.  As Morris Rosenthal had pointed out once, it is a lot easier to be found if you are in a unique enough niche but the problem is can you make a profit from writing a book in that niche?

RIght now we are in state of flux.  Some of the change is good and some of it isn’t so good.  There are a lot of people out in the United States who are losing their homes, their retirement, and don’t know what to do.  If they have special needs children or people that care in their house, it is even harder for them.  I hope that my book will at least give them direction, some inspiration and some pointers as to what they might be able to do to help extract them from their situation.

The problem I run into as a publisher, is that when it comes to money or savings or income, the internet is swollen with people trying to cash in on the words, pages or anything to get views.  A lot of it is spam, get rich quick schemes.  Some of it is legit and quite informative.   As others have stated, you have to get creative to become a clear signal from all the noise that is generated from the internet.

I tell people who are trying to self publish to try and come up with something unique but accurately defines their book if they are trying to market it. There is a lot of information on trying to find key words that are easily searched. If you tend to go with these words the risk you run into is that you will be caught in the blizzard of spam and other people trying to cash in the same way you are. One of Kim’s rules of being profitable is trying to do something different that the other person isn’t doing. Even if it is only slightly different because the market is so large, it still pays to try to do something to give it your brand.

In hard times, people really want honesty as well as money. A lot of people feel disgusted because their investment brokers, their former employers and their government have betrayed their trust. It pays to be honest if you are writing non-fiction and that in itself should help generate word-of-mouth sales and buzz to sell your book.

For fiction, I suggest you put up samples of your work. Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. There isn’t anything new under the sun and if you are worried, pay for a copyright before you post it. The only way that you will be discovered of creating the next Hobbit or Harry Potter or Dean Koontz book is for you to be out there. In keeping with my being brutally honest, fiction is A LOT harder to sell than non-fiction.

The reason is that fiction is very subjective in taste and what you find boring I might find exciting and original and vice versa. Non fiction is basically the facts and straight information. People usually don’t care who they get the information from.

Tying that back in from where we started, one way to stand out to shout “Hey I have the information you want at a moderate price” is to have a title that people can find or at the very least is unique.
The way I figure it, if they can’t remember the title, remembering “Kim Greenblatt” might be easier.

Don’t forget to post sample pages of your non-fiction on your website or blog. Listen to the feedback you get. Before you invest too heavily in your time and effort, make sure that there is a market – as well as an undogly long name-for what you are trying to do!

Kim

 

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

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