After jumping through several hoops, I am excited to report that Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate is now part of the Search Inside The Book (SITB) program at Amazon.com. The process is slightly more complicated than you would expect, but once I understood the steps to take, it was relatively seamless:

1. Go to Amazon Seller Central and sign up for an account. Because of some of the verbiage, I was hesitant to do this because I thought I might end up having to pay some additional fees. After a brief exchange with the customer service rep, though, I was assured that this was indeed the appropriate procedure for uploading the files and no additional fees would be incurred.

2. Look for the Search Inside The Book category on the left hand side of the page and click on PDF and cover upload.

3. Carefully review all the guidelines for naming and uploading files and prepare the files on your end accordingly. I created a separate folder for Amazon amongst my book files on my computer so that I could keep these files separate and readily accessible.

4. Zip all the files and upload them via the uploader on the Seller Central site.

5. Click the submit button and wait and watch to see when the Search Inside The Book feature becomes active on your book page. I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly this process was completed (especially considering that I’ve been waiting for several weeks for a similar process over at Google Books – I’ll have to let you know once that one is up and running!).

For years I’ve loved studying and discussing business ideas and related issues. (In fact, if you’ve read my book, you know that when my sisters and I were little we eschewed traditional toys in favor of setting up offices and running imaginary businesses! 🙂 ) There are an overwhelming amount of resources related to business topics, but here are a couple that I’ve come across recently and thought I would share:

New Venture Lab – I became acquainted with this company last year when some friends of mine organized a Christian Family Entrepreneurship seminar with the founder, Wade Myers, as the featured speaker. I signed up for a free account at that time to gain access to all the great content on the website. This also adds your name to the e-newsletter list, which is a fabulous collection of success stories, blog posts, business profiles, and more! I enjoy skimming through the newsletter each month and reading the content that grabs my attention.

Pushing Kingdom Business – A guest blog post that was linked to in the New Venture Lab e-newsletter caught my attention because I presented a similarly titled workshop to a music teachers association a couple weeks ago: How to Build Your Brand Through Effective Marketing. The post was written by R.E. Plaskett. His byline was intriguing, so I clicked over to his website. Once there, you can sign up for 10 Must Know Kingdom Lifestyle Business Success Strategies and browse a collection of what appear to be insightful and helpful articles. I haven’t looked over it in depth yet, but at first glance it definitely looks promising!

Sarah Bolme, of the Marketing Christian Books blog, has just recently developed a Book Marketing Expertise Quiz. She will be placing it on her website, but has posted a preview on her blog. Just answer 10 simple questions and then evaluate the results to determine what category you fall into: Veteran, Amateur, or Novice.

I fall into the Amateur category, although several of the items are things I looked into doing but chose not to for various reasons. (Maybe that makes my marketing score even worse! Ack!) One thing that I’m really trying to get a handle on right now is actually drafting a written marketing plan with specific benchmarks and action items. I’m also in the process of organizing all my marketing files and trying to streamline them for better efficiency. I can be somewhat fanatical about developing functional and efficient organizational systems because I don’t function well when things are random and/or in disarray – which is pretty much how I would describe my marketing “plan” so far. 🙂 I keep feeling like surely once I get organized, the marketing efforts will get easier and will return better results. Right?!

Earlier this week I came across the Christian Book Videos website. I just finished submitting my information to them for Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate. This is a great, free service designed to help promote Christian books. Just download the PDF referenced on the FAQ page for a simple list of information items to include when you submit your book video.

One thing that you can never do too much of as a self-publisher is getting the word out about your book via every possible outlet. One of my friends recently told me that part of the success with her book has been the result of hours spent submitting links and book information to every internet directory and listing she could find. What a great idea! That’s something I’m hoping to do in the next couple of months.

It would be incredible if there was a master list somewhere of all the websites where you can post a free listing about your book – anyone know of such a thing? In the meantime, I’m planning to keep track of such websites and post about them here periodically. Para Publishing has a brief form you can fill out that will place a listing of your self-published book on their success story page. I listed my book, Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate, there a couple of months ago but just remembered it today as I was clearing out some old files.

For those of you who aren’t subscribed to my e-newsletter, I thought I’d share the exciting news that as of last week, we had sold 475 copies of my book, Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate. The book officially released on April 30 of this year, so that averages out to almost 80 copies a month. To be honest, that’s not as good as I expected the sales to be for the first 6 months, but I’m coming to grips with the fact that my expectations might have been a bit unrealistic.

So, as I stated in my newsletter, we are so close to hitting the 500 mark that I’ve decided to make a special offer – whoever places the order for the 500th book will receive their copy of the book entirely free, including shipping! So if you’ve been meaning to order a copy, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, or you want to order some additional gift copies for friends, now is the opportune time. 🙂 (If you order the 500th copy through our website, I’ll just issue a full refund after the order comes through.)

By the way, if you’d like to subscribe to the e-newsletter, just sign up using the form at the top of the Sibro Publishing website. I send the newsletter about once a month with a brief update about how things are going and announcements about any new endeavors in the works.

Thanks to the Google Alerts that I have set up so that I can track mentions of various book-related terms, I found out that someone had added my book, Pajama School, to the Goodreads website. I had never heard of it before, but after a brief perusal, I was able to submit a request to be listed as a Goodreads author so that I could edit and add content to my page. Within 24 hours, my request was granted, and I just finished setting up a Goodreads Author Page. This looks like another great way for authors and self-publishers to spread the word about their books! If you have a listing on Goodreads, you should let me know so we can connect!

One of the most frequent comments I get when people see my book, Pajama School, is that they LOVE the cover! In fact, I’ve had several people tell me that they purchased the book just because of the cover. And, truth be told, almost without exception in any case, it is the cover that prompts one to take a second look at a book or pick it up off the shelf. For that reason, I think it is absolutely essential that authors who self-publish have a professionally designed book. There is nothing that screams “self-published” louder than an unattractive, amateur cover – and unfortunately there are lots to go around. I freely admit that if I had designed my own cover, it would definitely be included in that category. (Even now, I am horrified to think of what would have happened if I had stuck with my pathetic attempt at designing my own book cover!)

Thankfully, the Lord providentially led me to reconnect with a friend who is an incredibly gifted designer. After a brief e-mail consultation, Hannah Gleghorn agreed to take on the task of designing my book cover. Just take one look at her website and I can guarantee that you will fall in love with her work! Not only are Hannah’s designs gorgeous, but she is absolutely wonderful to work with. She freely offered advice, helped me think through some important design issues, and even spared me from making some bad decisions. And on top of all that, her prices are incredibly reasonable, and worth every penny!

In the same vein, the interior design and layout of a book should not be overlooked. In fact, this is a whole art in itself, in my opinion. I was prepared to tackle this difficult aspect of publishing myself, but oh how glad I am that this is one adventure I opted not to take in my self-publishing journey. My talented and highly qualified friend, Tiffany Hiebert, undertook this job for me and spent hours designing, tweaking, adjusting, and formatting in order to produce a book that is every bit as beautiful on the inside as the outside. The interior is seamlessly integrated with the look and feel of the cover, which definitely makes it stand out beautifully! If you are looking for someone to whom you can contract this part of your book design, I whole-heartedly recommend that you contact Tiffany for a consultation/quote.

It’s certainly not cheap to hire professional designers for the cover and/or interior design of your book, but keep in mind that this is a one-time upfront expense that will last through years and years of book promotion and multiple book printings. This is not an area to “cut corners”! Of course, I haven’t found any area yet in self-publishing where I would advocate “cutting corners.” In my opinion, you must view publishing a book as a long-term investment. It will require a significant amount of money initially, but the return can far outweigh the cost if you make every effort to produce an excellent, professionally designed book (and I’d say it’s a more stable way to invest your money than the stock market right now anyway!).

One of the best pieces of advice I received prior to publishing my book, Pajama School, was that I should carry a box of books around in the trunk of my car. I have sold more books this way than almost any other single marketing initiative. Don’t worry, I’m not advocating setting up shop in your car on a street corner with a homemade sign advertising your books – although who knows, maybe that would work, too! The way this has worked for me is that when I’m at a gathering with friends, invariably someone will ask about my book and comment that they’ve been meaning to purchase a copy, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. So I mention that I just happen to have some out in the back of my car that are available. The person usually perks up at this and is eager to buy one right away!

I also make a point to say something about the new book I’ve released in any conversation with someone I’ve just met. Often this leads to further questions and conversation, and if they seem interested I’ll grab a copy from the car and show it to them. Sometimes this also results in an unexpected sale. So, I pass on this bit of sage advice to all other self-published authors – always be prepared with a box of books in the trunk of your car!

I almost titled my last post, The ABC’s and F of Marketing, because the number one thing that I have learned on a personal level through this whole process of writing and publishing my book, Pajama School, is the value of Failure. Like most people, I have always had an aversion to failure and would do [or not do] whatever was necessary to avoid experiencing it. In many ways, my self-worth was tied to my success in various endeavors. Well, come to find out, particularly in the marketing stage of things, it is absolutely essential to take risks with a high probability of failure – most on a small scale, but some on a large scale. The only thing worse than failure is failing in a very public way!

Here are just a few of the ways I have experienced failure while working on my book project:

• I failed to receive some of the endorsements that I was hopeful I would receive for my book.
• I failed to persuade a desired distributor to carry my book.
• I failed to garner the participation of a particular blogger to help spread the word about my book.
• I failed to get several catalog companies to carry my book.
• I failed to break even on booth space rental at a convention.
• I failed to sell the number of books I expected through a paid advertisement.
• I failed to interest a local bookstore in stocking copies of my book.
• I failed to secure a local book signing event that I proposed.
• I failed to generate the interest I expected in one of my biggest marketing initiatives.

And I’m sure I could come up with plenty more besides!

Although I have read the writings of numerous business leaders who advocate the benefits of failure, there is nothing quite like experiencing it first-hand. And in a convoluted sort of way, I am actually learning to accept and embrace failure because of the tremendous way it has helped me grow and instilled in me a drive and perseverance that I formerly lacked. It opens up a whole new world of ideas and possibilities if you approach each opportunity with an awareness of the risk, but the mindset that regardless of whether it is successful or not, experience will be gained and lessons learned. And maybe you’ll even sell a few books in the process!