Great Advice from Alexander Stone

Thank you Alexander for allowing me to share this with my readers!

A Stone’s Throw

Thinking outside the box; this is a term that you will hear a lot from me. Unlike the big publishing houses that can simply drop the cost of their books, use their known distributors, and have dedicated artists; we as independent authors or authors under small publishing houses have to do things on our own. Wrong!

Lets break down how you sell a book to the lowest level.

1. You write, edit, make a cover, then print. The build the book stage for short.
2. You make sure people see it. The promotion phase.
3. You put the book where someone can buy it. The distribution phase.
4. The buyer buys the book. The buying phase.
5. The profit comes into your bank. The pay the bills phase.

Easier said than done but not impossible. Independent Authors no longer get rich. The eBook bubble has burst, so forget that thirty-five foot yacht and the summer house in the Bahamas for now.   

Whether you believe it or not you can have the same things that a Trad author has and you have more control over it.  Another thing is that you do not have to do it alone. Best of all you do not have to spend money to make money if you do it right. However, it is not a rose garden either and it takes work. You can do it all alone and good luck if you do. You will be spending your own money to get you started, most of the time what you get will not be worth it unless you pay some really large prices. You will also have to do some of the same things you still do now that cut back on your profit. Giving away hundreds if not thousands of eBooks, beg people to give you likes, and write stories for contests while you wait for those rejections letters from the publishers who never even looked at your pitch because they found someone a few hundred entries before your better story could be considered.

Think outside the box! Do not get stuck with what people say you have to do. Just because it worked for them, it may not work for you. I would love to do book signings, but as an American in Germany, writing in English only, no one would want my book even if I did.

First Stone: What things do the big publishers do that you can do?

1. Book signings. Get with local bookstores, coffee shops, and schools and do not be timid about it.
2. Radio spots. Call them up or start an internet station of your own or with friends. We will get back to this one.
3. Fan Pages, Twitter accounts, websites, blogs and TV spots. All of these take time to do but if you work as a Team, there is that word again; you can use each other’s strengths to cover each other’s weakness.
4. Cool Graphics for covers, Posters, and marketing items like t-shirts, coffee mugs and bookmarks. Guess what the cool graphics may be a strong point of one of your team members, everything else you can do to.
5. Distribution, everyone get away from the idea that you have to sell on the internet, and have to sell only eBooks. Make your own distribution channels and chain some Ebay stores, small book shops, webstores, and home stores into your Team.

Think outside the box.

I am not going to tell you about my team, that would be unfair but I will say that we are not your competition, the system is. We the authors have flooded the market with free books and driven the prices so low you have to work hard to make it. I have a real job that pays the bills and can bet most of you do to.

Take a look at all the other throws from me Alexander Stone and lets think outside the box together.

To Find out more about Alexander, please go to:

http://alexanderstone.jimdo.com/

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/alexanderstone1