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Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru 
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Cool Service For Publishing A Book and Product DevelopmentDecember 15th, 2010Hi All! I’m certainly behind on my blogging the past couple of weeks. My Father has been very sick so I’ve been away from work quite a bit to be with him. The good news is that it looks like he’ll be released from the hospital in time for Christmas! Go, Dad, go!!! OK…onto the topic of this post…a question I get a lot is,”How do I publish a book (or develop products)??”. There are many ways to do this, and here’s one solution that’s worth looking into. And, no, they don’t know that I’m writing a blog post about them! So I’m not receiving anything from them for posting this. The service is called FastPencil.com. They are ideal for self-publishers of ANY type of book. BUT, if you don’t want to write a book, they also create products like: ebooks, small how-to guides, picture books, etc. And they can be developed in printed and electronic formats. Plus, they offer a turnkey solution where they’ll upload to all the major online retailers for you, AND provide distribution services (meaning they’ll print and ship the orders for you). Another cool thing is that they provide templates, so you can design and layout your own book, guide, booklet, ebook, etc. This can save you money on having to hire a graphic designer. AND, they even offer book writing software to make the process easier for you! I also noticed on their website that they offer a service called “Premiere”, which appears to be a publishing imprint service for established authors. That’s worth looking into more for publishing your future books. Here’s a brief blurb from the About Us page on their website: FastPencil is book publishing without the pain. The traditional book publishing process can take many months of effort and more money than most writers anticipate. It’s no wonder authors get discouraged. You shouldn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to write and publish your own book! We have removed the hurdles inherent in traditional book publishing by combining amazing advances in print on demand technology with a sophisticated online workflow system. While powerful technology makes it possible for anyone to publish a high-quality book, our collaboration capabilities make FastPencil the easiest, fastest, and most exciting way to write and publish. Regardless of the type of book they’re writing, most writers need feedback as they create. When authors have ready access to friends and collaborators, the writing and editing process is faster and easier. At any point in the writing process you can connect with like-minded people, share knowledge, chat, gather feedback from reviewers and editors, and collaborate with other authors, all without leaving FastPencil. OKAY! Take a look at their website for more info…I’m interested in using them for e-books and short guide development, so I’ll be learning more about them soon, too! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa P.S. If you have used their service, please post a comment about your experience!  2 Responses to “Cool Service For Publishing A Book and Product Development”Leave a Reply |
FastPencil almost works. Like most self-publishing aids, they neglect to mention that the pricing in their examples makes some major assumptions, i.e. you have a book that will sell at adult trade paperback prices with ONLY 100 pages. Your printing costs go up, per page. In the ebook side they assume your book will sell at $9.99. Most ebooks sell for much less than that. $9.99 is bestseller pricing for ebooks.
I’d love to see someone advertise a service with realistic numbers.
Short of getting your books printed in China and getting a distributor the hard way, the best I’ve seen is still Lightning Source. Once you crunch through the numbers, you can make a modest profit and get the book distributed through their parent company, Ingram Books (the biggest book distributor in the US).
For ebooks, I recommend PubIt for the standard epub format with Barnes and Noble and Smashwords for all other formats. They both have free upload and translation and their margins are generous. Smashwords will even help you get an economical ISBN for your ebook(s).
educational research
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