Category Archives: publishing resources

In the Pilot Seat

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“If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy.”         ~ Miyamoto Murshashi
 
 People are choosing to independently publish books, films and music because they have more control in all facets of publishing process. http://bit.ly/94IUo4.  It is fulfilling when you are in command of the vehicle that you are steering. The vehicle is your media, powered by independent words, images and audio sounds.

As pilot of your publishing project, your responsibility lies in the take-off (pre-publication planning), the trip from destination to destination (producing the publication from start to finish) and the safe landing (getting the finished publication into the hands of the consumer). 

As an independent publisher, it is important to remember that each stage of the journey from take-off to landing is integral to the end result. Keeping the momentum going is a challenge that all independent publishers face. A co-pilot for different legs of the journey is helpful when your energy lags, for when you begin to loose steam or enter into unknown territory. 

There is no need to sojourn alone. Freelance vendors in every part of the publishing process can provide you with services to help you throughout the trip – from putting a solid, well rounded marketing plan into place, to selling your book on the internet and through other channels, to assisting you with reaching communities of people who are interested in knowing about the publishing project that you have been piloting.

Step into the pilot’s seat with confidence in knowing that in this day and age of publishing, there is plenty of help available for those who decide to take a non-traditional route.

 This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

How to Cook a Good Book

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“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns or the sharp stones on life’s path.” ~ Kahlil Gibran 

It is mid-March and the other day we adjusted our clocks ahead giving us more daylight. Along with spring comes an urge to begin to eat a little differently. Our diet of satisfying  hearty stews, soups and chili is gradually replaced with lighter fare. The clothing we wear has less bulk, too. Before I transition my diet from winter to spring, I am going to offer one last fulfilling, robust recipe that many independent publishers have been working on perfecting all winter long – “How to Cook a Good Book.” 

Step 1 –

Test the water first – make sure you have a hot and a unique idea.

Begin to stew on a pre-publication marketing plan.

Fill the pot with energy, insight, creativity and stick-to-itiveness.

  • Include the necessary base ingredients– a central theme, strong character development, story line that supports the theme, engaging plot, and cohesive writing.
  • Incorporate varied vocabulary with shades of meaning to support the base.
  • Make adjustments to the recipe – edit ingredients that provide no flavor.
  • Add more seasoning, if needed, to make a more fulfilling concoction.
  • Let it cook and stir, cook and stir some more.
  • Send your creation off to some taste testers.
  • Satisfied that the  ingredients are complete?
  • Add a “read hot” title and packaging to match. 

Step 2–

  • Consider branding the idea.
  • Place it for sale on-line and in other pre-determined markets.  
  • Ramp up all marketing efforts.
  • Promote yourself as the chef.
  • Advertise and promote the finished product.
  • Saturate the market.
  • Share “dribs and drabs” of the finished product with others.
  • If you need help with smokin’  “soup d’jour” e-marketing tactics – seek help!  

Way to go! You have cooked your book and now you can add “published author” to your Curriculum Vitae. What other recipes can you follow to make your life more fulfilling?

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

International Film Trivia

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“I really love it all: theatre, film, television.” ~ Charlotte Rae  

It’s been a busy, busy week! All kinds of fulfilling activities were on my business calendar for this past week. Since it is Film Friday, today we will play a little international film trivia, to mix things up.

If you can answer these two film trivia questions, without cheating, you can consider yourself really “in the know” and on top of the scene! The answers will be located at the very bottom of this page. Good luck! 

  1. Two short documentary films by Macedonian filmmaker Marija Makeska will be presented tonight in remembrance of the Macedonian WWII Holocaust. The names of the films are “Soul Mates” and “Getting to Know Us.” In what city in the United States will these films be screened and what is the non-profit organization that will be presenting these films?
  2. On February 13th, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts http://www.bafta.org/  honored this individual for his outstanding and exceptional contribution to film. Who was the actor? Hint – He played Saruman in Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Count Docku in Star Wars and Dracula in at least 10 films. Who is the actor that was honored with the BAcademy Fellowship at London’s Royal Opera House ? 

Curious? Go ahead and peek. I will not hold it against you! Or you can use your favorite search engine to find out the answers.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Answers: 1. Steamboat Springs, Co and Macedonian Mission for Humanity. More information: http://www.steamboattoday.com/events/2011/mar/11/9874/

                   2. Sir Christopher Lee

Yankee Writers Gathering!

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“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”~  Thomas Edison

 New Englanders are hearty souls! I can attest to that after having lived in the State of Vermont for 35 years!  On March 25th and March 26th there will be a gathering of New England Writers focused on how to “Survive and Thrive” as independent publishers. The New England Publishing Conference will be held at Chapel Hill-Chauncey Hall School in Waltham, Massachusetts. 

Veteran publishers, industry experts and vendors to the independent publishing industry will be on hand fulfilling the need for knowledge for those who are starting out in book publishing. Book promotion and selling through e-marketing and other channels such as libraries, book fairs, bookstores and to non-profit organizations will be topics of discussion, too. 

Cevin Bryerman from Publishers Weekly Magazine www.publishersweekly.com will address the crowd. Don’t miss out on that! Cevin always has a lot of interesting things to share about the industry. There will be workshops focusing on e-books, blog writing, e-marketing, and other information on the business of publishing both domestically and globally. Another important speaker, Tim Brookes from Champlain College www.champlain.edu will be speaking about Publishing in the 21st Century – The Campus Revolution. The keynote speech will be given by publisher David R. Godine www.godine.com. 

For more information on this important educational conference, please visit www.ipne.org. For questions, e-mail talktous@ipne.org. There are special conference lodging rates at the Holiday Inn Express in Waltham, MA. Make your reservation now, so you can take advantage of this block of rooms set aside for the IPNE Publishing Conference. 

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Treasure Trove On-Line

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“When you are curious, you find lots of interesting things to do” ~ Walt Disney

I like visiting other blog sites as much as I enjoy being the author-in-residence for our company blog, All Things Fulfilling. What I find most interesting is the uniqueness in look and the independent thought, words and views that each blogger brings to their site. 

Popping in on other blog sites is like a visit to the thrift store! You never know what you are going to stumble upon that may be of great value to you in your life or to the life of someone else you know. There are all kinds of useful things you can find when you delve into the blogosphere. I enter without expectation of what I am going to find, ever mindful of the Irish proverb “better one good thing that is, rather than two good things that were, or three good things that might never come to pass.”

Trading blog site links is like sharing books, films and music. It is especially satisfying to share blog postings and blog sites with people who you know would relate and enjoy the content. I have my favorite sites that I return to frequently. http://bit.ly/ekghXc.   I revisit some that have been transformed from an earlier state and that is interesting, too. http://bit.ly/fVDoqu.

All bloggers, from time to time, struggle with how to provide content that is useful and valuable to others. If you are stuck in a rut with your blogging, sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes to evaluate and suggest what other treasures you can share with readers.

Keep your “treasure trove on-line” restocked creatively and regularly and you will have return visitors time and time again. 

 This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Writers, Rev Your Engines!

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“The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes. “ ~André Gide 

If you have a spark of an idea for a book and wish to rev up your knowledge on how to go about independently publishing, the Colorado Independent Publishers Association College is the place to be.  For those who are entrenched in the independent publishing scene, everyone knows what the arrival of March means. It means the Colorado Independent Publishers Association College is coming up. The hosts of the “College” The Colorado Independent Publishers Association http://bit.ly/hFVW1A  is one of the largest and most active independent publishing trade associations in the United States. 

This year, CIPA’s Publishing “College” is scheduled for March 18th and 19th and CIPA does a great job of fulfilling the need for educational opportunity for beginning and experienced independent publishers. They even have a program called YAL – Young Authors League, designed to get kids inspired to write and become published at a young age. 

Exhibitors will be present at the March 19 publishing college event. Consultants on internet selling (e-commerce) and internet marketing (e-marketing) will be on hand. Other providers such as book printers, editors, cover designers, graphic designers and video book trailer specialists will be available at the CIPA College to answer questions about their products and services. There are on-going educational seminars throughout the weekend. It is a great time to network with other independent publishers to learn how they are publishing as a means for personal fulfillment and for sharing ideas, wisdom, knowledge and expertise with others.

 Check out http://bit.ly/hFVW1A for full details of the event or go to the Colorado Independent Publishers Association Facebook page http://on.fb.me/hZjR1T for additional information.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Have you Launched your Kite?

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“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.” ~ Wilfred Peterson 

It is March 1st, and when I think of March, I think of my childhood days of growing up in the Mid-Atlantic section of the East Coast of the United States. March always still had a real chill in the air. Getting outside and flying kites in the stiff March winds always resulted in letting the kite go because my hands were too cold to continue to hold onto the string. When I finally released the kite, I found it fulfilling to dream about whether my kite was going to land in a country and climate much different than my own. 

Yesterday, I began to think about the analogy between finding fulfillment in building and flying kites and using blogging as a powerful internet marketing tool. When you build a blog site you want it to be a reflection of your own creativity, just like when you are hand crafting a kite. Create a blog site unique to your own interests and what it is you are trying to convey. The graphics must be attractive to the eye and the content needs to be catchy and of interest to the reader, otherwise, what is the point? 

Learning what content to use when attaching tails to your blog site is what will make it soar in cyberspace. There is a methodology and science behind e-marketing campaigns. You want to make sure you direct your “kite”, as best you can, to where you want it to land – in countries and climates that are rich with qualified leads. 

If you are inexperienced at setting up an attractive blog site and at the new science of blog writing, seek help from an e-marketing professional who understands the dynamics behind e-marketing for independent publishers. http://bit.ly/gDGQN8.  It will make a difference in how successful you are at attracting regular readers and fans to your site and where your “kite” lands on the world-wide-web.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Joint Interests

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“Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things.”  ~Author Unknown

February is International Friendship Month. If you had asked me years ago “whether I had many international friends?” in all truthfulness, I would have said none. Before the age of the world-wide-web, the options for finding friends, fans, customers and clients in far reaches of the world were very limited. The power of e-marketing has changed all that. 

By having a strong, easily found web-presence, I have made connections with people all over the world who are the kinds of friends that my company seeks. We all share, for various different reasons, a joint interest in the independent publishing industry and the types of services that my company offers. 

Knowing how to connect through the internet with communities of like minded people is so helpful when it comes to selling independently published books, films and music. When you look at the statistics alone of the number of households connected to the world-wide-web, the possibilities for finding “like minded” people are staggering. This chart helps us to realize just what the potential of reaching customers, fans, clients and friends outside of the United States can be.  http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.

Our collective world is strengthened when we have friends and allies on other continents. So, today, I would like to say Happy International Friendship Month to those who have connected through the power of digital communication with my company’s web-presence  or directly with me personally. I appreciate your friendship and your joint interests!

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Face the Book TV

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 “All television is educational television.  The question is:  what is it teaching?”  ~Nicholas Johnson

 The Independent Publishers of New England has a cable access TV show that is fulfilling the need for promoting regional independent publishers.  Face the Book, is similar to the concept of C-Span’s Book TV, only on a smaller level. It reaches 15,000 households through Verizon, RCN and Comcast public access TV cable channels. 

The aim of this TV show, broadcast out of Arlington, Massachusetts through Arlington Community Media, Inc. is “to bring the best of independent publishing to New England readers, authors and to publishers through their community media stations.” 

Right now, Face the Book is looking for children’s book authors who would like to appear as a panelist on the show to promote their independent publications. This is an excellent opportunity if you are a member of IPNE www.ipne.org and you have independently published a children’s book that you would like the public to learn about! 

For more information on this cable access TV show, Face the Book, please visit http://on.fb.me/es8nlr or visit the Independent Publishers of New England webpage by going to http://bit.ly/f3Pl4S.  

Being able to appear in front of 15,000 households on Face the Book TV is only one benefit to joining this non-profit trade association dedicated to educating the independent publisher. For more information on IPNE, please visit www.ipne.org.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Film Friday

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The other day, an article appeared in the Steamboat Pilot newspaper http://bit.ly/i2xphp that I wanted to explore and share with our readers.  

According to Van Stevenson, senior Vice President of the Motion Picture Association of America www.mpaa.org, the State of Colorado is lagging behind in the incentives that it offers to attract filmmakers to the State to produce motion pictures.  There are two Colorado State legislators that want to change all that. 

 There is a new State bill that if approved, will add a 10 cent fee to all tickets sold at movie theatres. This 10-cent fee would be first of it’s kind in any State. Rooms, meals, and other services for movie stars and their production crews bring money to States and boosts local economies. A ten-cent fee added to each movie ticket sold seems inconsequential when you consider the financial benefits of having more movies made in the State. When you consider the amount of money people spend on buying a coffee “for the road,” ten-cents added to the cost of a theatre ticket is merely pocket change. 

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “True Grit” and the television series “Perry Mason” were all filmed in Colorado. But in recent years, few filmmakers have chosen to use Colorado as a location from which to shoot their films. There are many other states that make their state more attractive for making movies by offering good incentives. 

We will follow this story to see just how committed others in the State of Colorado are to bringing  movie production, whether it is independent or not,  to the State and will let you know how it turns out.

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