When I was in college, textbooks were expensive, and when my son went to college, the prices were even more incredible.
Because I was living on my own and trying to save money while in college, I visited a used bookstore nearby to see if I could purchase any of the textbooks used, and was able to save this way for some of my books, but the supply was often limited because there was so much competition for the same book.
Now you can purchase used textbooks online, and post textbooks that you are finished with to sell. I visited a site called Stubex.com that has well over 13,000 textbooks available. This service has been available since 1998, so they have about 12 years of experience and the best part, listing your textbooks is FREE.
To help narrow down your buying experience, you can search books by school and state so that you get titles for courses being offered at a particular school.
College is expensive, and every little bit that you can save can be put toward other school and living expenses. Buying used textbooks is a great way to pinch pennies and get a return on books for courses you or your children have completed.
Many are quite familiar with Twitter, and probably don’t need much on an introduction, but just in case it’s new to you, Twitter can be a great way to find people talking about just about anything you’re interested in. It can also be a way for you to share your latest book or publication with others.
After you’ve joined Twitter, which is easy to do, along the right side of the page there is a search box. Just now I put “author” in the box, and you can click here to see the search results for author.
You can search for anything, then start “following” people that seem to share the same interests as you, and reply to what they are saying using the “reply” feature. Before you know it people will be following you if you actively participate, set aside a little time each day to send out a few “tweets” it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time, and is another way to promote yourself and connect with like-minded people.
If you have read my earlier post about Squidoo, you’ll know what a “lens” is, it’s a single page web site focused on a single topic using a large variety of “modules” supplied to you by Squidoo…you can do them quickly, and by choosing your “tags” or keywords carefully, can bring a nice number of visitors, and promote your book. If your book is on Amazon, you would do well to use the “Amazon Spotlight” module as one of a number you can chose from, and search for your book through the module feature, and once you find it, “add” it, that’s all there is too it. Then if anyone buys the book through your lens, you get a bit of money for it, and anything else they happen to buy while at the Amazon site.
This week, a lens entitled “The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection” won the annual award offered by Squidoo to what they call “Giant Squids” (I know, it sounds a bit silly unless you visit and see what Squidoo is all about), an exceptional job done by a man who goes by username “Laddoo”, and when you’re there, be sure to click on his user id in the upper right of the page and view his other exceptional lenses.
But this gives you an idea of how you, a writer, author, publisher, or just anyone, can promote your interest.
Related Lens - the following is a “how to” on how to use the SquidLit lens which is designed just for promoting or sharing about books, includes a video on how to get started with Squidoo:
While this site is a resource with help for authors and writers, as well as reviews, The Authors Show is a place to listen to, or watch book reviews…they also have a newsletter that will help you if you are interested in information about publishing a book.
I am listening to a review right now as I type this…I don’t necessarily agree with what the author is presenting in his book, and it may be an entirely different book when you visit the site, by the way…but it is interesting to be able to hear the voice of the authors as they explain their books, and more. I haven’t watched a review yet, but it can be done from this site.
You can also complete a form at the site if you would like to be interviewed.
Books and eBooks aren’t the only things that are “in print” that people find useful, or enjoy. There’s many ways that the written word can benefit us, here’s just a few obvious ones:
Birthday Greetings (today is my sister’s birthday!)
You can make each of these items a promotional piece by adding your logo, or something that matches the cover of the latest book that you have written. Then personalize them to your liking. This can be done for business purposes or your own personal needs.
I visited the link above, and loved the pricing, and had some fun trying to design a few things of my own. There’s a very large selection of ways to promote yourself, your book or ebook, or your business.
Authors, you may or may not be aware that Squidoo is a wonderful way to promote your books…it’s something that you can put together in a very short time to bring attention to your book, your website, your blog and more.
First, you must register. Squidoo is so easy, and provides you with many modules to make your page, and if you use good “tags”, choose your words carefully when you make your url - that means your “http”, or the “address” to your web page. Here is the address to my Squidoo Lensmasters page. If you aren’t a member, you can join using appropriate links there or at any one of my lenses that you might visit - http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/happynutritionist
If the terms “Squidoo” and “Lens” are confusing you, just think of it as a single-page blog. Squidoo provides a special lens template for books called “SquidLit”. Here is an example of a SquidLit I did recently: http://www.squidoo.com/heaven-by-randy-alcorn. You may prefer to use just the basic Squidoo lens if you prefer a brighter look, I’m going to use some of my html knowledge to brighten this one up later.
There are many tutorials available at the site, and I found the video below to be a quick explanation to give you and idea of how to get started…the same person that made this video made others, you can also visit YouTube and search “Squidoo Tutorials”. But like I said, there are MANY tutorials at Squidoo’s site.
Enjoy the video, and be sure to visit one or more of my lenses through one of the links above, and join if you aren’t a member already. Don’t miss this approach to promoting your book, yourself, or whatever you want to write about! It’s a great outlet for the writer in you, and each lens can bring traffic to your main site or blog. Now here’s the video:
I enjoy writing, but have never published a book…for now, I express myself and my interests through a website, and blogs…like this one. I have always loved books and have adjusted to reading ebooks, though giving up turning pages one by one has taken a bit of getting used to.
If you are an author, whether you have been writing for years, or are new, a website is a must…and by the way, when you do put up your site, please contact me so that I can write a post about you and put your site in my blogroll.
There are many web hosting services, may I suggest that if you want to appear professional you don’t use a free hosting service, but consider paying for your web hosting service. Find one with a good a price so you can build a site that doesn’t have advertising banners on it unless you chose to add them for your own purposes. You also have much more freedom, and can often put up several sites for the annual price you pay for dedicated server hosting. For example, take a look at webhostinggeeks.com, spend a little time there learning about dedicated servers. They have a blog at the site that was helpful, you may want to read the post about what to look out for if you’re considering very inexpensive service.
Another thing you want to take some time to consider is whether you would like to do a blog or a website. Blogs are good if you want to write a post quite regularly…this keeps them active and they generally get more recognition by search engines. You can actually combine the two by having a site with a main page with your information, and a blog as part of the site.
If you have any questions or comments to add, please feel free to do so.
I came across an article written by a gentleman who seems to have an understanding of publishing companies, what they offer and how they operate. I am sharing one of his articles with you, and leaving his links in the article as requested so that you can look into help he may have to offer.
More About Publishing and Publishing Companies
By: David H.
Publishing is a process of distributing and producing books or forms of literature. There are numerous varieties of publishing such as self publishing, vanity publishing and so much more.
Publishing is a process of producing and distributing forms of literature or books. Publishing includes the stages of the acquisition, development, graphic design, copy and editing, and printing. It also involves marketing, production and distribution of magazines, book, newspapers as well as software, musical works, literary works and other works associated with information. With the arrival of internet and some digital information systems, the scope of publishing is expanded to electronic resources like the electronic versions of periodicals and books as well as video games, blogs and websites.
Technically, television, radio, cinemas, DVDs, VCDs, games, music systems, mobile telephony and computer hardware publish some information to their consumers. Indeed, the advertising of a major film regularly includes a comic version or graphic novel, novelization, a model toy, a game, the soundtrack album and never ending promotional publications.
Numerous companies of major publishers have full divisions dedicated to a single franchise. This would include the likes of Ballantine Del Ray Lucasbooks which has the rights to Star Wars in the US, the Random House in UK and Century Lucasbooks that has the same rights in the UK. BBC also owns publishing divisions that perform very well with a long series like Doctor Who.
It is the publisher that commonly controls the marketing and other advertising tasks but it can subcontract various features of the process in order to expert publisher marketing agencies. In several companies, layout designs, proofreading, editing and other features of production processes are made by freelancers.
Dedicated in home salespeople are rarely replaced by some companies that concentrate in sales up to chain stores, wholesalers and bookshops for a fee. This style is accelerating as supermarkets and book chains have centralized their selling techniques.
Vanity publishing is referred to as one that constricts with authors, despite the marketability and quality of their work. Vanity presses also call themselves subsidy or joint venture presses. However, in these vanity press agreements, the author undertakes all the risks and pays all the costs of publication.
There are lots of publishing companies that can be found around the world. One example is the Whitston Publishing Company. Whitston focuses on publishing fiction, non-fiction, classic re issues, reference materials and anthology works. The company publishes the best quality products for researchers, scholars, students, libraries and individuals who have interest in the subject areas covered.
This company currently has subject areas that cover several literatures like African American, African, American, Children’s and Contemporary Friction, French and English Literature, Irish Literature, Native American Studies and so much more. The Whistons Publishing company is located in Albany, New York.
John Benjamins Publishing Company is an academic publisher’s headquarters in Amsterdam. The company developed two online Bibliography sites such as the electronic Translation Studies Bibliography and the electronic Bibliography of Pragmatics. This publishing company appears in several international academic areas and trade fair conferences as well as worldwide networks of appointed agents and distributors. John Benjamins Publishing Company also has headquarters in Philadelphia.
Code Publishing Company is a full service and innovative publishing company. The company uses the current technology that provides high quality print publication along with an electronic version of all papers published. This company provides legal and technical editing services as well as data alteration to some organizations. It also provides all of the binding, storage, printing and delivery services. This is for the supplements and codes. The company can provide Internet hosting of public codes; plus, other documents and hosts that create small public websites.
