EAN: 9780938497431
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Should I buy the Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Books for Profit with Print on Demand by Lightning Source and Book Marketing on Amazon.com?
Mayra Calvani--Midwest Book Review
In his latest book, Aiming at Amazon, Aaron Shepard proposes a revolutionary way to easily self publish your non-fiction work and market it successfully.
No, this is not one of those books that will teach you how to become an instant Amazon Bestseller. What Shepard suggests is much more ingenious. While becoming an instant bestseller may appear glamorous, the effect of this marketing trick lasts little compared to a real bestseller with good steady sales over a long period of time. Furthermore, the author's innovative technique includes ignoring--yes, totally disregarding--bookstores. With this plan, your aim will be selling your book via Amazon only. While this method may appear a little extreme, there's a beautiful simplicity to it.
Shepard demystifies distributors and wholesalers and offers you a practical, step-by-step plan on how to become your own small press, print your book, and sell it to the public via Amazon. He explains why it's important to stay away from subsidy companies that use print on demand, and he takes you right to the POD printer itself--Lightning Source--saving you an infinite amount of money in the process.
Some of the topics discussed include: choosing POD for printing your books, researching the market, designing and layout, cover design, setting up accounts with Lightning Source and Amazon, Amazon marketing tactics, and getting reviews, among others. In sum, everything you need to know to become your own press and start selling your book online.
Whether you live in the US or in another part of the world, this is an important book to read if you plan on self publishing a non-fiction book, as Shepard also offers valuable information for those living abroad. Written in Shepard's friendly style, Aiming at Amazon is a must read for anybody who is considering self publishing without too much hassle or expenses.
A story about the whole new world of print on demand and online bookselling which is an alternative to traditional publishing.
What a story! What a book! It used to be that a consultant or coach would seek out a publisher to put his "credibility piece" before the masses to see and read. Now a consultant or coach can still do that, but they would be foolish to do it often after reading the instant book. By reading this book you will hear the author's story regarding how he became successful (and what he did) as a self publisher using print on demand resources and focusing his efforts at using Amazon's Web site as a key marketing tool. He recommends that bricks and mortar bookstores should not be sought as distribution channels for his (or your) texts. And after reading the book I understand why.
The instant book is an example of what a print on demand (POD) book looks like since it was written, produced and sold using the very techniques described in it. It's not like the reader of the book is reading about theory - he is holding an example of what he is reading about.
The book is divided into four parts:
1. Publishing for Profit
2. Building Your Book
3. Meeting the Market
4. Finessing the Future
I cannot say I had a favorite part. I liked them all equally because I am not well-versed on the publishing industry. Therefore, I learned a great deal about putting together a book not intended to be sold in digital format. I also learned that it is not all that hard to put together a great self published book and have it be successful. The author seems to want to publish his works in order to profit primarily from them. I think that is great, but I highly recommend anyone who wants to publish their works to boost their consulting or coaching practice get a copy of this book and study it. In many ways it is easier to create and market a book for a consulting practice than to market the practice itself. And a successful book or books tied to a consulting practice can make that practice very lucrative. I'm going to have to read it at least one more time for it all to sink in. The book was packed full of content. 5 stars!
What? Only five stars?
My husband originally bought this book for me via Amazon, so the author must be doing something right ;) We got it because we're always looking for resources to improve the small publisher we write and work for, and Amazon is an excellent venue for small press books.
"Aiming at Amazon" advocates putting all your eggs in one basket--in this case, Amazon sales. And it is true that Amazon is a bookselling powerhouse. This book shows how to tailor publishing books, using Lightning source as a POD printer, specifically towards maximizing Amazon's potential.
However, even if you want to work within more traditional methods of bookselling, there's still plenty of valuable material here. And it's also an invaluable guide to self-publishers, too, for whom Amazon may be a key point of sales.
The writing style is easy to read and conveys the information with little confusion. And, contrary to POD stereotypes, it's pretty well free of typos. Additionally, the author has obviously put his own advice into use, and in the very few cases where he has deviated from it he explains why.
Overall, this book is quite worthy of the confident air with which it's written. Whether you're small press or self-published, if you utilize POD and you want to amp up your Amazon sales, you need this book!
An essential read for anyone having to market a self-published or POD published book
Amazon.com is the 800 pound gorilla of online bookselling. There are a large and growing number of other online booksellers (some are independent 'virtual' stores, while others, like Borders.com, are affiliated with traditional 'brick-and-morter' bookstores, and still others are specific to a particular publisher, like iUniverse.com) , but Amazon.com is by far the oldest, largest, best known, successful, and most important of them all. Amazon.com can (and often does) make the difference between a self-published author, a print-on-demand (POD) published author, a small-press author, or a major press mid-list published author being able to make a profit on their books. No small press publisher can afford to not list their titles with Amazon.com for the same reason - connecting with the reading public. In "Aiming At Amazon: The New Business of Self Publishing", an experienced writer of children's books for major publishing houses, as well as a successful self-publisher, Aaron Shepard draws upon his considerable expertise to teach novice authors who have (or are contemplating) self-publishing just how to utilize Amazon.com as a marketing resource for selling their book(s). The first major section, 'Publishing for Profit' begins with a basic introduction to the value of (and preparation for) online bookselling. The next section, 'Building Your Book', covers everything from title selection factors, to creating spin-offs, to crafting a marketable cover, to portability, to reprinting. Next is 'Meeting the Marketing' where Shepard covers data collection, publishing dates, pricing, book returns, book classification and description, publicity/promotion, and keeping track of book sales. "Aiming at Amazon' is specific to getting the book registered on Amazon.com, maximizing the benefits of being listed on Amazon.com, the various relevant features of Amazon.com, and 'the other Amazons'. The final section, 'Finessing the Future' addresses the issues of fine tuning a book, 'keeping it fresh', publishing more books, and how to deal successfully with a publishing industry and marketplace that is in a steady state of flux, change, and technological evolution. "Aiming At Amazon" is an essential read for anyone having to market a self-published or POD published book - and has a wealth of very practical and valuable information for small press publishers, novice free-lance book publicists, and mid-list authors of the larger publishing houses who find themselves having a major responsibility for promoting and publicizing their titles.
Aaron hits a grand slam
[Please note: my name is not really _x, and I don't really live in Anytown, USA. I just have this thing about phony personalization of websites: I don't like the psychological manipulation of making a piece of software act like your long lost friend. To eliminate any suspicion that this review is coming from Aaron Shepard (or a shill), my name is actually Jon Pastor, and I actually live in Wynnewood, PA. If you're curious (or suspicious) enough, you can Google me to verify that I really exist (and am not Aaron Shepard)].
First, many kudos and immeasurable gratitude to Aaron Shepard for writing (and, of course, publishing) AIMING AT AMAZON: my copy currently has more tape flags in it than it has pages, and I am referring to it for every detail of my soon-to-be publishing company [*really* soon-to-be: I just ordered my first batch of ISBNs!].
His book is worth twice the price just for the collection of indispensable URLs - the rest of the information is a thick layer of luscious butter-cream frosting, capped by two scoops of lovingly softened Häagen-Dazs vanilla, smothered with dark Belgian chocolate fudge, a dollop of crème fraiche, and a fresh Queen Anne cherry, all sitting atop an already irresistible, meltingly-moist, velvety cake.
[Okay, that was a bit over the top -- but did I mention that I just ordered my first set of ISBNs? I can say with 100% certainty that this would never have happened if Aaron hadn't given me a badly-needed kick-start, and all the information I needed to make fantasy into reality. I'm grateful, and I'm *stoked*!]
Second, more kudos for the comprehensiveness of the text and his almost-fanatical attention to detail. The fact that he anticipated virtually every question that occurred to me as I read along makes it immediately and undeniably clear that he knows what he's talking about, and can be trusted implicitly. I'm a skeptic at heart, but I can tell BS from nutrient-rich manure (to switch metaphors in mid-stream).
Finally, Aaron writes in a way that an aspiring author/publisher can emulate with pride: clear, concise, well-structured, professional but colloquial without being cute or overly chatty - and, most importantly, *correct*: it's rare that I don't find a typo in a newspaper article, let alone an entire book, and I can't recall a single one in AIMING AT AMAZON. No un-parallel constructions; no slip-ups in usage; no grammatical faux-pas.
This may not impress you in these days of universal spelling- and grammar-checkers, but software is unreliable, and careful visual/manual checking appears to be a custom honored more in the breach than the observance: only visual checking would catch the two blatant errors in the sentence "I never trust an author whose talking about writing, but who's own writing is lackluster, awkward, ungrammatical, and/or full of errors in spelling, usage, or mechanics."
In short: if you are considering self-publishing, do yourself a big favor and make sure that this is one of the first books you read. You'll probably want to buy it, rather than borrow it, because once you've finished, the odds are that you'll want to refer to it constantly as you navigate the course from "Gee, if only..." to setting your first pub date.
Even if you decide to go with a more conventional distribution channel than the one Aaron describes, there is a rich trove of essential information here - and I started with a pretty good working knowledge of the publishing industry, because I worked in bookstores for many years. If AIMING AT AMAZON was able to teach *me* things I needed to know about publishing, but didn't know to ask, it'll do the same for you.
P.S. If you decide to become a publisher, take heed of Aaron's guidance on ethics and professionalism. Aside from ruining things for people who play the game by the rules, sleazy marketing practices and unprofessional behavior will hurt you in the long run in the publishing industry (witness several recent high-profile scandals).
Producing and publishing books is not a way to make a quick, easy buck: it's a labor of love. AIMING AT AMAZON will not eliminate the myriad challenges standing between you and your listing on Amazon, but it *will* show you a path by which you can navigate through, around, and between them smoothly - a path whose potential for success is demonstrated by the very product you hold in your hands.
