Promoting our first book

Kids Show Kids How to Make Balloon Animals was really a practice book. I wasn't really going to make money on it. With a price tag of $9.99, the most I felt the market would bear for a short book, and 55% going to the bookstores, every bit of the rest went to printing and paying the authors. But I expected we'd sell a few copies here and there, have some fun with it, and it would hang out online as an example of our work.

The problem was the book is full color, which is expensive. But I didn't want to do a big print run overseas. So we planned a few events to sell them locally, thus getting the full price ourselves and at least covering the production costs.

With my connection through the Writers' League of Texas, we got a 2-hour spot at the Texas Book Festival, one of the biggest and best book festivals in the country. That was about all I felt the young authors could handle.

We made balloons of bats and ghosts in hornor of Halloween. We sold a few books, nothing crazy. Our time slot was early, and cold, but we were happy with how it went.

The next event was the one that would propel the book into the Amazon charts.

I was in love with book trailers and wanted to do something that would stand on its own, rather that just prmote the book.

Elizabeth was willing to give it a go, and we recorded her (with a point and shoot camera, no less) making a balloon animal bee. I bought a royalty-free song to put with it, and we had our first video for the press.

When Amazon makes a mistake on your book listing

I'm writing these blog posts well after the fact, and since my first experience with Amazon, I've had many others. And not all good. Amazon is such a machine, and they don't need me, the small publisher, and it's been pretty clear I'm more of a pesky mosquito than any sort of asset. But the behemoth is necessary to move books, and so I've persisted.

If Amazon messes up your book listing from the get go, as they did with our balloon book, calling it hard bound rather than paperback, realize that this mistake is going to get perpetuated all over the internet. And while Amazon will respond to your correction, the others will not.

First, make sure you know how to set up a Google Alert. This will save you so much time in clicking around. Google will email you every day letting you know any new instances of your search term that has occurred. This alert is better than searching, because the web site that is carrying your search term may actually be very buried in a regular Google search. Let the new listings come to you; don't go searching for the new listings.

The Google Alert showed me that on the day Amazon got the information from Ingram via Lightning Source, it incorrectly listed the book. Thankfully, on the same day, the online store for Barnes and Noble also listed it, correctly. So I knew the problem was Amazon's, not all the way back at the source. Unfortunately, quite a few alternate booksellers automatically monitor Amazon's new listings and crib the information from their database. So at least six more instances of the incorrect listing showed up simultaneously, matching or beating Amazon's price.

I instantly got on Amazon and clicked on the link "Update product info." It asked me to log in.

I already had an Amazon account as a regular human, but decided right then to create one as my publishing company. I already had a credit card for the company, thankfully, as I knew that Amazon will not allow a credit card be used for more than one account, apparently to prevent spam or flaming customer reviews. (Also why they never get rid of an old credit card in your acount.)

Once I had an account, I could send in a form to correct the listing. I waited all day for it to be corrected, but it wasn't. Nor the next day. I asked several friends to also send in the correction. Still not listed. It was clear the book, with such a low sales ranking, was not a priority.

I decided to take matters in my own hands and write a customer review that alerted anyone who clicked through that the book was softcover. I had visions of multiple returns dancing in my head if anyone bought it and was unhappy to find it was not the hardcover they had expected.

I clicked on "customer reviews" but was denied access. Apparently you have to make at least one purchase on Amazon with a new account before you can really do anything

So I did what anyone would do--bought my own book.

This actually was a two-fold benefit. Not only was I now able to post a review (as an "Amazon verified purchase" no less) but the purchase also boosted my sales rank, and got the change moved through. Of course, by then, I had already posted the review, but worded it carefully so that readers would know that this had been an initial mistake.

As I write this five months later, all the major online stores carry the book: BN.com, Powells, Indiebound, etc. and all have it listed correctly. Only minor secondary sites have it listed incorrectly, but those options don't really show up anywhere when you search for the book now that it is well established on the Internet, so I can live with it.

Whew.

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Links from this post:

Set up Google Alerts

How to correct content on Amazon

Using Lightning Source

I was very fortunate to have a friend with a master's degree in publishing who helped me get my first book done. The book was pretty design intensive, as you can see from the sample page, and I knew I was making a thousand amateur errors as I tried to set the text myself.

When Audrey Coulthurst took over the project, she instantly changed the font, as my Comic Sans was way too common and unprofessional, and fixed all the margins. She also adhered to many small rules about placement, eyelines, balance, and line length that I could not even fathom.

But most importantly, she shepherded my book through the submission to Lightning Source. Without her, I would certainly have given up.

Audrey made the books with InDesign, which is the standard program for graphic designers. And generated the PDFs for the book using the template Lightning Source had sent. The interior pages went through on the first try.

The cover was a different story. First they insisted we use their template even though we had set the InDesign files to match the specs exactly. They rejected it. Then we forgot to use the precise Adobe setting for PDF they has asked for, so they kicked it back again.

We were very stressed out at this point, as if we didn't have books in time for the Texas Book Festival, I would have bought a spot there without any way to recoup the cost. We also feared the blacks were too rich, and if we got rejected again, as slow as the process had become, we wouldn't make it.

Once we knew we had the template correct we brought the cover into Photoshop and followed their instructions to the letter for setting the density of the blacks. We uploaded it a third time and crossed our fingers on the blacks. We knew it wasn't going to look perfect, as altering the density had created a ghosting effect between the flat black of the background and the black of the photograph. But we had to get it done.

And the cover was accepted.

Things moved very quickly from that point. I had a proof within a few days and felt the ghosting was minimal -- close enough. I instantly ordered 100 books to cover the book signings we had planned. Very quickly, the book was listed in Ingram, and a few days later, the book hit Amazon.

We had done it.

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Links from this post:

Lightning Source
Lightning Source File Creation Guide

Find a hole in the market, and run with it

So it was summer, I had a book idea I could sell, I had a company, but I didn't have $6K in start up funds. I worked on the book slowly, but did not involve any contractors other than to take bids, because I wasn't sure I'd ever even get the project rolling.

My daughters had been in a magic camp and took up balloon twisting in earnest. I decided to buy them another book on how to make balloon animals so we could play with their new talent.

But Amazon surprised me. Yes, there were balloon twisting books, but the reading levels were too high. I finally settled on one even though it was going to be too hard, figuring I could help them. But I started to have a glimmer of an idea of a book we could do together.

Sure enough, the book arrived, and the words were big, the descriptions long, and the drawings sometimes hard to follow. The girls had more tears than fun, and I decided, that's it, we're doing our own book.

The girls set to deciding on what twists were easy enough for kids.

I read Aaron Shepard's book Aiming at Amazon religiously. The twists and turns of the industry seemed impossible.

Following his advice, I applied for an account with Lightning Source to do the book print on demand. I decided against Shepard's recommendation of a 20% short discount, which would make it ineligible for bookstores. I instead stayed with the standard 55% trade discount for the wholesaler/bookstore combo, just to see if I couldn't get some local bookstores to stock it.

The project took about two weeks to photograph, all in full color, and I sent it to a book designer with a master's degree who wanted some practical experience. I'll go into my Lightning Source experience in another post, but in the end, I was able to get this book from concept to proof for less than $100 in about eight weeks.

I also seized a couple great opportunities. One was the Texas Book Festival, only a few weeks away. Our local writers' organization would let members buy a two-hour time slot at their booth. We could get the legitimacy of being at the book festival with a small enough window that my young authors could handle the appearance. That same week, Lightning Source ran a special on short runs, and I was able to get 100 copies of the book to sell at the fair for about $2 a copy. I set a list price of $9.99.

Then the magic camp itself was willing to back us. And they were having a week of demonstrations at a local Barnes & Noble, including a day of balloon twisting. As soon as our book hit Ingram through Lightning Source, I let the B&N know it was available, and they ordered 50 copies for their store. Amazon picked it up (and listed it incorrectly, another post), then BN.com got it online, and both ordered initial stock copies.

My company's first book was off and running.

The problem of start up funding

So, I had a good printing bid. I knew this company was legitimate. I had an idea for a book that didn't really exist and for which I had a market to sell. My LLC was set up and functional.

What I didn't have: $6,000 to get the business going and to print two thousand copies.

This was the tricky time in the summer of 2009 when credit card companies were tanking. The public was upset at the federal bailouts of banks. And places like Citibank were increasing their card rates and lowering card holders' maximums. One of the cards I held increased my rate from 8% to 18% on a whim. I truly did not want to go that direction.

I set up my account at my regular bank and talked to them about a loan. My bank rep was friendly and wonderful but not terribly optimistic about my chances of getting one. He suggested I put together a business plan and bring it in, along with my Operating Agreement (the one the state hadn't wanted when I filed.)

I spent about a week on the business plan, trying to predict how much money I would need, how much I would make. I Googled every business plan I could find, taking out sections.

Here was the table of contents of my final business plan:

• Company Summary
• Start Up Summary
• Table: Start Up
• Products
• Market Analysis Summary
• Table: Market 1 Analysis
• Table: Market 2 Analysis
• Strategy and Implementation Summary
• Table: Sales Forecast
• Milestones
• Table: Milestones
• Management Summary
• Financial Plan
• Table: Start Up Funding
• Table: Profit and Loss

I brought all this to the bank and got my verdict about a week later: no. The bank rep revised the request and another week later got another answer: no.

Now I wasn't sure what I would do. I couldn't float this on terribly bloated credit card rates: it would eat my profit and wreck my credit standing by filling up my cards.

Maybe, just maybe I could put out a very inexpensive Print on Demand book, get it out there, and use the money from it to finance this more expensive book that required printing up front. I had another idea for a book, one I could do myself, and I knew a book designer who owed me a favor. I also was aware of a pretty big audience I might could tap locally, if I handled it just right.

I went immediately to look at a book I knew would help: Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon. I felt very poor, very worried about my prospects with this company, and wasn't sure I could even buy the book right then. I tooled around Aaron's site a bit for advice and found the most amazing thing. I literally wanted to cry when I saw it. Aaron had posted his entire book in electronic format for free.

His generosity in doing this changed just about everything.
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Links related to this post:
Aaron Shepard's website
The Small Business Administration's guide to writing a business plan
More advice on business plans
And more advice on business plans

Month Two: Getting legitimate

76So I had a project I knew I could sell via a web site I owned, and now I had a bid for the project that allowed me to price the book the way I wanted.

But I didn't even have a business name.

I looked around at other publishing company names. Some were clear about what they published by using the subject matter in the title. Others were clever phrases or literary references. But when I thought about what made sense, what wouldn't cause me to get pigeonholed, and also would make sure my name was easy to find in search engines, I knew I wanted to use a proper noun. You know: Knopf; Little, Brown; Harper Collins; Whitman.

I also knew that many publishers opted to use their own name. I didn't find this wise. Sure, you didn't need a DBA filing or a separate bank account, but it was the mark of a self-publisher, and not a positive mark. When I would walk through the stalls at a book festival, even as a young person who knew nothing of publishing, I always noticed a company called "Lucy DoesIt Press" and all the books were by Lucy DoesIt. And generally Lucy herself was sitting there. I didn't want to be Lucy.

Because all my initial books would be on the same topic, I chose a title that went along with it, that wouldn't be obvious in and of itself, but would work well for anyone who wanted to know where the name came from. I also Googled it to see what sort of competing listings might be out there. There's no use choosing a name that is shared by a famous sports player or actor. Your site will be buried in the listings when people try to find you.

And so I chose Casey Shay Press. I could see a baseball player with the name, but overall, it worked. And the story behind it was perfect. Currently, even if you only type in "Casey Shay," four of the first 10 listings are mine. Good enough.

So here were the next steps:

I chose my business structure. I already owned a Sole Proprietorship, but I wanted for this one a separation between my name and my business. Unless you know me first, and I tell you this company is mine, it's very hard to figure out who owns Casey Shay Press just by web surfing. That's what I wanted.

I looked at the Corporation, and the S-Corp. I might have done one of those but the Limited Liability Corporation seemed the right fit as the best balance between paperwork and ease of filing a tax return.

In Texas, I had to go down to the secretary of state's office and file the forms and pay a $300 fee. I knew that in some states I had to create an Operating Agreement, and this was a step that was highly advised, so I looked around for samples to personalize. After doing this for a couple of days, copying and pasting and not understanding half of what the text was about, I went ahead and bought one from MedLawPlus. It was very easy to personalize that one and didn't cost much at all.

Of course, when I showed up at the Secretary of State office with it, the clerk immediately passed it back to me. "We don't need this," she said. Great. Already running an inefficient operation.

And then...I got rejected. I had referred to the Operating Agreement on the forms, and since they weren't there, they kicked it back.

By this time I was actively accepting the bid and signing paperwork, and felt a little frantic about getting the backend paperwork done. I was, let's say, a little angry. But I mailed in the corrected version and about a week later, had my shiny new company legally formed in the State of Texas.

Next steps:

1. Filed for a Federal Tax ID number (also known as an EIN, or Employer Identification Number). This was given to me instantly online by filing here. You need it for bank accounts, credit apps, distributors, everything. Get one even if you don't have employees.
2. Filed for a Texas state sales tax permit. This took a couple weeks to come in, but it wasn't critical to have right away, as I wasn't selling anything yet.
3. Opened a bank account. I chose the same bank as my other accounts, for simplicity. They just needed my letter from the state and my Federal ID number.

Whew!

I owned a publishing company. And I had my first vendor who would contract my book to a printer in Hong Kong.

It was time to finish the project and format it correctly. And to figure out how to pay for it.

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Links from this post:

MedLawPlus was the most affordable and easy way to get the legal forms for starting my LLC (they have legal forms for EVERYTHING). While I didn't end up needing an Operating Agreement to file in Texas, many states do require it, and investors, including banks, also want to see it. It shows you actually know what you're doing as you start your business, and what will happen if you go bankrupt, or die, and who owns the company, its assets, and its liabilities.

Google. Seems obvious, eh? But do not neglect this step when you're naming your business. If you are going to get buried in web results, find a different name.

Forming your LLC in Texas like I did? Here are the Secretary of State Forms. They do not cash your check if they reject you. And don't forget to apply for a Texas sales tax permit.

Get your company's Federal ID Number. You need it for everything, even if you don't have employees.