I’m hoping to get back on track with the book this week after a lengthy period in which I’ve just been focusing on the day-to-day work with my blogging clients. On Wednesday, I’m meeting with a friend and colleague, Randy Jennings (aka Randoph Jennings), a fellow Northfielder with book publishing experience. He and his family recently returned from a two-year stint in Thailand. His wife, Mary Griep, is Associate Professor of Art at St. Olaf. He had been Director of Corporate Foundation Relations at St. Olaf prior to their trip but his publishing experience goes back to his days at Graywolf Press. There seems to a trend where authors have made the transition from a weblog to a self-published ebook to an Amazon-distributed ebook to a self-published print book to a book deal with an established print publisher. I’m hoping to learn more about this process with Randy and engage him somehow in helping me getting Small Business Blogging out the door. USA Weekend ran a piece yesterday titled Can’t get published? Then just do it yourself but the article didn’t include about the earlier stages of weblogs and ebooks. I Googled the terms “self-publishing” weblogs and found a site called Knowledge Download where, among other things, the founder has a Blog for eBook Self-Publishers. It’s not quite a real weblog because individual posts can’t be linked to but his May 5 post on self-publishing is interesting:
… Today, I received B.L. Ochman’s latest ezine. You simply have to go to Expertizing — How To Become Known As An Expert — On Anything. If I’m to believe B.L. and her guest expert, Fern Reiss, you simply have to have a print book if you’re going to build your brand, a consulting and speaking business. And I do believe them. Since starting Knowledge Download, and especially the last year, I too have seen the need to have a print book (as compared to only an ebook) in order to be taken seriously by the press. And since the press can influence prospects to call you or seek you out as an expert, it’s worthwhile. From a strategy standpoint, you can and should still write your text and create your ebook. You can get it up for sale with a live website. Meanwhile, once your text is done, you can start shopping for Print on Demand printers without worrying about having SOMETHING to offer your prospects that will demonstrate your expertise.
His link to Ochman’s ezine won’t bring up the edition as it’s now in the pay-archives but you can get an idea from the overview on Fern Reiss’ book The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days.
