HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, is back in the glorious setting of Hay. It takes place in the first ten days of June including both the postponed May and Jubilee bank holidays. 410 events, 6 stages, 165 speakers, 10 days, 150 bands.

‘Six Billion Authors in Search of an Audience’

(Caroline Smailes, Ewan Morrison, Scott Pack. Gabriel Gbadamosi chairs)

In an age of self publishing and writers’ workshops, the idea that we all have a novel inside of us has become commonplace. But how essential is writing to individuality? Has the Internet facilitated one of our most deep-rooted desires, or has it opened up the false hope of a readership, a performance without meaning?

Critical theorist, writer and commentator Ewan Morrison, blogger and experimental novelist Caroline Smailes, and HarperCollins publicist and Me and My Big Mouth blogger Scott Pack consider the impact of the internet on a new generation of writers.

Tickets can be bought on the website.

I’m very much looking forward to spending the day at the festival.

It is essential that you have a solid copy editing track record and are comfortable working with fiction and non-fiction titles.

I am not talking about a mild annoyance, I am talking about people throwing the book in the bin, tearing out pages and even emailing Caroline to ask for their money back. I joke you not!

You see, Caroline left the ending of the book open. It was not clear if the main character lived or died, it was really up to the reader to decide.

When I asked her why she wrote an ending that left so much to the reader she said:

I have always been experimental with my writing. I want to engage with readers. I feel that, as a writer, you should be pushing the relationship between the reader, the written words and the narrator as far as possible. That’s what I was trying to do with In Search Of Adam I wanted the reader to be involved with the story.

99 Reasons

After Caroline’s last book, Like Bees To Honey, her publisher, Scott Pack from Harper Collins, suggested that she write a book that was a digital only project.

Caroline was excited about the project and immediately returned to the idea of interacting with the reader. Caroline explains:

Ebooks are an exciting new development in publishing and I wanted to make the most of this technology to engage with readers. My experience with the ending of In Search of Adam got me thinking and it was not long before I came up with the idea of multiple endings.

The result was 99 Reasons Why.

In short this is a novel with 11 different endings. Caroline wrote the first 95% of the book as usual, but then instead of writing just one ending she wrote eleven.

When asked if this was just a gimmick Caroline replied:

Most certainly not! If you think it’s hard writing one ending to a book you should try writing eleven. I worked as hard on this story as any other novel, perhaps harder. I really wanted to play with the idea of reader interaction, and what better way to engage the reader than to let them choose the ending of the book?

The limitations of the Amazon Kindle mean that there are two versions of the book.

The Kindle version presents the reader with a set of questions, answering these simple questions produces one of the eleven endings.

The iPad version is more sophisticated. This has a specially designed spinner embedded into the book. The reader spins the spinner and a random ending is given.

You can buy the Kindle version by going HERE or the iPad version HERE.

A Secret Ending

To give readers a taste of the novel, Caroline has released one of the endings for people who have not bought the book to read. The idea is to give you a taste of the novel…

99: the reason why I was only worth ninety-nine quid

It’s been six days since the little girl in
the pink coat went missing and me Uncle Phil’s in me bedroom.

We’ve been watching the little girl in the pink coat’s mam on the news. She was appealing to the public
for witnesses.

‘Didn’t realise she had a mam,’ I says, looking at me telly.

‘Everyone’s got a mam, pet,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

‘She sold her story to The Sun,’ I says, looking at me telly.

‘Got a few quid,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

I nod.

‘She wanted nowt to do with that bairn before all this,’ me Uncle Phil says, looking at me telly.

‘Do you know where she is?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

‘Belle?’ me Uncle Phil asks me.

I nod.

‘She’s safe,’ me Uncle Phil says to me. ‘Your mam’s keeping an eye on her.’

‘Can I be her mam?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

‘No, pet, you’re a filthy whore,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

I nod.

‘Can you make Andy Douglas come back, Uncle Phil?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

Me Uncle Phil shakes his head.

‘I love him,’ I tell me Uncle Phil.

‘Andy Douglas is your brother, pet. You didn’t seriously think Princess Di was your mam, did you?’ me
Uncle Phil asks me.

I nod.

‘You’re a cradle snatcher just like your mam,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

I nod.

‘Your mam miscarried when she found out I’d been banging Betty Douglas. Betty was expecting you,’ me
Uncle Phil says to me.

I don’t speak.

‘When you was born, your mam went mad and I ended up buying you from Betty Douglas for ninety-
nine quid,’ me Uncle Phil says.

‘Ninety-nine quid?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

‘I paid a hundred but got a quid change for some chips for your mam and dad’s tea,’ me Uncle Phil says
to me.

‘You bought me?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

I’m a little bit sick in me mouth.

‘It was the right thing to do,’ me Uncle Phil says to me. ‘I got Betty Douglas pregnant straight away with
Andy.’

‘I’m pregnant,’ I says to me Uncle Phil. ‘I’m pregnant with me brother’s baby,’ I says, and then I throws
up on me purple carpet.

‘You’re a filthy whore,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

‘What am I going to do?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

‘You’re going to have the baby,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

‘Have me brother’s baby?’ I asks me Uncle Phil.

‘Then I’m giving it to Betty Douglas to bring up,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

‘You what?’ I says to me Uncle Phil.

‘It’s the right thing to do,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

‘I can’t—’ I says to me Uncle Phil.

‘It’s either that or I’ll make you disappear,’ me Uncle Phil says to me.

I don’t speak.

I’m thinking, they’re all a bunch of nutters.

If yes, then this is article is all for you.

If no, well this post is probably a waste of your time and it’s best you stop reading now…

Still with me?

Good.

OK – let’s just define Self-Publish a little more clearly.

This article is for writers who intend to sell their book in digital formats.

In short this means via Amazon or Apple onto eReaders such as the Kindle or iPad.

The goal of this article is to explain a little about the technical aspects of creating ebooks.

It’s not a full-blown technical guide.

It has been written to give you just enough information to be dangerous.

In other words, this article will help you decide on the next step forward.

By this I mean this article will give you enough information for you to make an informed choice about the best way to convert your Word/Pages/OpenOffice file into an ebook.

HINT – There’s more than one type of ebook format and not all eReaders will read each type.

Think VHS vs Betamax

What Are The Key Concepts Behind Digital Formats?

Let’s start at the start…

Ebooks are very different from documents created on word processors such as Office, Pages and OpenOffice.

At the most basic level documents created by word processors have the text and style mixed together.

This means that if you put a word in italics, it’s hardwired into the document as an italic word.

This means that no matter which version of the word processor opens the file, the word in italics will remain in italics.

In a digital ebook file this is different!

When a word document is converted to a format that can be read on an eReader, two very important things happen:

• 1. The text is separated from the style.
• 2. A ‘styling’ is stored in a separate file.

Let me explain.

Let’s say you write the following sentence in a Word document:

This sentence contains a word in italics.

If you then converted this to a format for an eReader you would get two things.

The first would be pure text that said:

This sentence contains a word in italics.

The second would be a separate file (called a CSS file), which tells the eReader that when rendering the word italics in this sentence, put it in an italic font.

When the eReader displayed the sentence it would initially render the text and then apply the CSS to make the word italics into italics.

The second thing to understand is that text is reflowable.

When using a word processor a page is a page.

A page contains a set number of words and when the page is full another is created.

This is NOT the case for eReaders.

To understand why you need to think of how ebooks are read.

The problem is that we don’t know what device a reader is going to use to read your book.

They could read it on a Kindle, but they could also read it on an iPhone, or any one of many different devices.

Most devices have very different screen sizes.

If we created ebooks with one set page size in mind, they would not fit correctly on any device but the one we had in mind when developing the ebook.

The solution is reflowable text.

This means that the eReader will fill the screen with your text and then just flow what remains into the next screen.

As far as an eReader is concerned there is no such thing as a page…

Just a screen to fill with text.

If the reader alters the screen size, no problem the text just flows to fit.

Magic!

This means that as an ebook creator you have to stop thinking about pages and just think about text.

What Are The Major Digital File Formats?

I am hoping that the last section demonstrated that digital formats are very different from word processor files (Word, Pages etc.).

This is a key point.

In short, a word processor file CAN’T work on an eReading device – it’s just not set up correctly (Word files are FIXED LAYOUT digital, while eReaders need REFLOWABLE text).

It’s like putting a vinyl LP in a DVD player and expecting it to work.

If you are going to make you book viewable on an eReader device you must convert it to a digital format.

Now…

There are a number of digital formats out there.

However, I want to just give you enough information to get started.

Since the two most popular reading devices are the Kindle and the iPad, I want to focus on just two formats: Epub and Mobi.

All digital files (Epub and Mobi included) are, in fact, a collection of files.

For those with a technical knowledge, they are just files zipped together, but instead of calling them .zip we call them .epub or .mobi.

A digital file is more like a website than a Word file. In fact, a digital file has a close cousin to the website and shares many common structural features. As a side note, many people believe that, ultimately, ebooks will be read in web browser, but we digress.

If you were to open up an Epub or Mobi file you would find lots of smaller files.

I don’t want to go into the technical side of things too much, but I do want you to understand the basics.

So…

All .epub and .mobi files contain:

• A file that contains JUST the plain, un-formatted text.
• A file that tells the eReader how to display elements of the text (this is the CSS, remember the italics?).
• Lots of other files that contain all sorts of other information, such as images, ISBN, your name etc..

So why is this important?

It’s important because some people will tell you that converting a word processor file to a digital format (epub/mobi) is simple.

IT IS NOT! If a digital file (Epub/Mobi) is not correctly prepared you will, potentially, face a huge problems when your book is read on a device you have not tested (think Kobo and Sony Reader).

In fact, even using the tools provided by Amazon to convert your files is not guaranteed to produce a ‘clean’ file.

What is Epub?

You should now understand that for a book to displayed correctly on multiple eReading devices you need a specific digital file.

The standard format, as recommended by the posh-sounding International Digital Publishing Forum is the Epub.

The Epub is an open format that means that is it not ‘owned’ by any one company or device.

Since Epub is the standard format, MOST eReaders will display an epub.

In fact, it is very easy to read an Epub with lots of free tools out there that will allow you to read an Epub on your computer.

It is even possible to read an Epub in a web browser, such as Firefox.

However, what really counts is eReaders and there are number of important devices that will reader Epub:

• Apple iPad and iPhone.
• Kobo eReader.
• Barnes & Noble Nook.
• Sony Reader.
• Android phones.

You might notice that there is one, very important eReader missing from the list – the Kindle.

The Kindle WILL NOT read epub files.

That’s correct, the Kindle chooses NOT to allow Epub files to be read.

It’s unclear if this choice of Amazon not to display epubs files will alter in the future. Some believe that it will; others feel that while the Amazon store remains dominant, Amazon eReaders will continue to ignore Epub.

We are on the verge of the release of the next generation of Epub, called Epub3. Below is a video showing what will be possible with Epub3.

So What Is Mobi?

If Epub is the universal ebook digital format, what’s Mobi?

The answer is that Mobi is Amazon’s version of Epub.

In essence, Amazon have tweaked the Epub format to create Mobi files that can only be displayed as Mobi files.

That means that if you want to read a book on your Kindle you have no choice but to buy the book from the Amazon store. It also means that if you buy a book in Mobi format you can’t read it on a device that is not able to read Mobi files.

This is called DRM.

So what does that mean for you as a self-publishing writer?

It means that you have no option but produce TWO digital formats of you book – Epub and Mobi.

The good news is that once you have an Epub file it’s a very simple process to convert it to Mobi.

God bless Amazon!

What should I do about converting?

I’m betting the reason you are reading this article is more about conversion than interest in technical formats.

By this point I am hoping that you now understand why you need to convert to a digital format, and you have no option but to create an Epub AND Mobi file.

The question is how?

When it comes to converting from a word processor file (Word/Pages/OpenOffice) to Epub/Mobi you have three options:

1. The Meat Grinder

If you are going to upload to digital readers such as the Kindle and iPad, it is possible to use tools they provide to convert your book.

Let’s start with all key devices, other then the Kindle.

Apple only allows a select number of third-party companies to upload books to the iBook store.

This means that you, as a self-publishing writer, can’t just upload your book to Apple.

There are a number of companies out there that will help you upload to Apple, but I suggest you start by checking out Smashwords.

This company will allow automatically upload your book to a number of devices.

Though they don’t charge for this service, they do take a small cut of each book that is sold.

The big bonus with Smashwords is that they have developed a ‘meat grinder’.

This is an online system that allows you to enter your text and then convert to Epub.

At this point I would say that for some books this is the perfect option.

I will say that again – for some books this is the perfect option.

It may be that using Smashword’s free meat grinder is the perfect solution for you and your book.

However, for complex books, especially those with images, the meat grinder can produce variable results.

In this case, you may be looking at a different answer.

I have spoken to a number of writers that feel the meat grinder is simply not good enough to produce consistently ‘clean’ conversion.

Smashwords solves the Epub problem but what about the Kindle? Kindle is the gorilla in the marketplace and is where you will make the most sales.

This means that even if you do use Smashwords to upload to Apple iPad and a number of other eReaders, you still need to crack the Kindle nut.

The good news is that Kindle actually offer its own ‘meatgrinder’ solution in the form of a similar service at the Kindle Direct Publishing website.

Amazon provides free tools that you can use to convert your Word/Pages/OpenOffice document to a Mobi file.

Once again the quality of the conversion can vary.

If your book is a simple text document then KDP might be the perfect solution.

However, if your book is complex you may be forced to look elsewhere.

One final option is Pressbooks.

This is a free online tool that allows you to create ebooks from scratch.

It’s a WordPress-powered free online application that allows you to simply create ebooks at the push of a button.

I suggest you check them out if considering the ‘meatgrinder’ option.

2. DIY

So what if you don’t want to take the meat grinder approach? If this is the case then you are into Do It Yourself territory.

There are many software solutions to creating Epub files, some free and some paid.

However, my advice here is to be cautious: it’s a very steep learning curve.

It is NOT a simple case of downloading some free software and pressing a button.

You will need a deeper understanding of the Epub design, as well as a passing knowledge of HTML and CSS.

This said, if you are considering producing a lot of Ebooks, then DIY may be a very viable option.

3.Professional Help

The final option is to pay someone to convert your book for you.

Like anything else this is buyer beware.

As we have learned creating an ebook from scratch is not an easy process.

My advice is to look for a professional who has come recommended and is prepared to show you a sample of their work.

The cost varies greatly depending on size and complexity of the book, but a figure of $100 would be a good starting point for an average novel.

We actually offer this service to our writers. If you want us to convert your book then fire over an email and we can discuss your needs.

Covers

The final point worthy of mention is book covers.

You will need a cover for your book.

You will need this cover to be of the correct size and resolution.

Once again we are in a situation where you will need to weigh up the cost of paying a professional and the cost in your time in learning to design a cover.

Again the pricing can vary greatly but a figure of $200 would not be unusual.

If you have any further questions, feel free to email me at garysmailes@bubblecow.co.uk.

This infographic was first posted at CopyBlogger.com

I think the school holidays should be a magical time for children. I can still remember those long lazy summers. Days of fun stretching out ahead and school nothing more than a distant memory. Of course, the cold weather is not helping but it is great to see the kids just enjoying themselves.

Anyway, here’s…

An Update On Our Book Promotion Program

Last week I sent out an email asking if there were any writers out there who’d be interested in a complimentary ‘Blueprint To Promoting And Selling Your Books Online’ that I’m THINKING about making.

I didn’t want to make this thing if you didn’t want it… so I made a list to gauge the interest. (If enough people joined the interest list, I promised myself I’d make the kit).

Well… um… enough people joined.

So I’m going to make the complimentary resource kit.

The Final Call

Starting tomorrow, only people on the ‘Interest List’ will receive insider information on my upcoming program and receive the free resource kit.

(Some people on our email list are only here for writing and publishing advice… so I want to be considerate of them and make sure that they don’t get bombarded with information they don’t want or need).

So if you want to get the resource kit that’s coming out, and the all the good stuff I’ve got coming your way, I highly suggest you join the ‘Interest List’ below now:

That’s It For Now

Well, I’m off to figure out how to entertain those kids!

But rest assured that if you’re on the ‘Interest List’ I’ll be hooking you up with lots of great help and information…

… and if you’re NOT potentially interested in promoting your book online (and aren’t on the list) then you’ll continue to receive the usual writing and publishing tips. And emails about online promotion training will die down.

Gary Smailes

Anyway, I received a stack full of emails in response to the mailing — nothing unusual there.

… But what was unusual was the amount of people saying that they hated Facebook. Hate is a strong word, but was used multiple times by a number of different writers. They also told me that they didn’t use Facebook and had no intention of starting.

To be honest I was pretty shocked.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not a huge personal user of Facebook. I think my Facebook status has been ‘updating my status’ for about a year.

This said I love our Facebook fan page. So much so that I try to visit and interact about once every hour during the work day (it is pretty addictive).

I know that you may well hate Facebook, but it really pains me to think of you missing out on all those juicy book sales.

I want to try and convince you that you have no choice but to embrace the social media platform that is Facebook.

The Three Reasons You MUST Use Facebook

My assumption is that you are either: a) a writer with a book that you are promoting, or b) a writer building a platform with one eye on promoting in the future.

In these two cases, here are the three reasons you can’t ignore Facebook

• 1.Facebook is the biggest social network in the world. In January 2012 Facebook accounted for 9% of all the online traffic. It is not only the most visited site on the web, but ‘facebook’ is the most searched term across all search engines. In short Facebook is the single most popular place on the web. Can you really afford to ignore it? [source]
• 2. Your future readers are using Facebook, and showing up there every day – without fail. Plus, they are spending on average 20 minutes a day on the site. Face it, this is a captive audience and you are harming your book sales by not trying to capture at least a tiny fraction of those eyeballs.
• 3. Facebook knows more about their users than any other site in the history of the Internet. When a user ‘likes’ your page Facebook knows just about everything you can imagine about that user from age to hobbies. What is even more exciting is that they will share this information with you — for free.

Points 1 and 2 are all fine and dandy, but take another look at point 3.

If you can get a significant number of people to ‘like’ your Facebook page, you can then use Facebook’s stats to learn about these people. This means that you will be able to work out the gender, age and location of the people who are that impressed with what you have written that they have chosen to ‘like’ your page.

Holy crap! This is marketing gold dust.

Not convinced?

Well here’s what we know about people who ‘like’ the BubbleCow fan page.

Take a close look…

From this information we know that the average fan is female and aged between 35-44.

So what?

Well big huge what is what.

We know that everything we do to promote and build BubbleCow needs to appeal to 35-44-year-old females first and foremost.

If we ignore this segment of the market we die. Don’t forget this is information we got for free from Facebook. (As a side note two years ago we paid a social media company to assess our mailing list and provide information about the people who had signed up. They drew pretty much the same conclusion, but that cost us hundreds!)

The success of any business relies on being able to think like your customer (or potential reader in your case). In our case a 35-44-year-old woman will have a set of shared experiences, common understanding and world view that we can tap into to communicate our products.

Let me explain further…

In our free guide to Writing a Book Proposal we talk about using tag lines. In the section where we examine tag lines I wanted to use the example of the film Alien. Keeping it short (you can read the full story by signing up), Alien was pitched to film studios as Jaws in space.

Now this is a great story and really illustrates tag lines.

My worry was that to ‘get’ the story you need to have a passing understanding of both Alien and Jaws.

Had our average reader been a 20-year-old male then we may well have been in trouble.

However, I suspect nearly every 35-44-year-old female has at least heard of the two films, if not seen them.

Three Tips To Make Your Facebook Fan Page a Success

The first thing I want to say before diving into the three tips is this: set up a Facebook fan page and keep your personal page personal.

Anyway, here’s the sugar:

• 1. Don’t be shy — Once you have your page set up, tell people. Add a link to your website/blog, put a link in your email signature, mention it on Twitter and simply use good old fashioned word of mouth to drive traffic. There is no short cut here but people will not come unless you ask them to.
• 2. Create a Facebook landing page — Use the free tool called Lujure to create a custom landing page for new visitors. You can get creative with the page, but the single most important thing to do is ask new visitors to ‘like’ your page. Be as bold as brass and come out and say it loud and clear before the visitor has a chance to bugger off. On our page we even provide a big pointy red arrow so people are left in no doubt what action we want them to take. We have worked hard to get them to our page, we don’t want them slipping away before they have hit that juicy like button.
• 3. Create conversation — Facebook is rubbish at a number of things. However, one thing it is very good at is creating conversation. If you only take one thing from this article please let it be this – ASK QUESTIONS. Create engagement by asking questions, and ask them often (once a week minimum). At first keep the questions simple, with one word answers if possible. This will encourage people to comment. Once you have an active community, you can add complexity to your questions.

If you enjoyed this article you can see these tips in action by visiting our Facebook page.

[Note #2: In case you’re wondering, this post is a FOLLOW UP TO THIS POST which received more than 100 comments from all around the world! I try my best to respond to as many comments as possible, BTW].

As most of you know I am not only the co-founder of BubbleCow, but also a published writer.

I actually write history books for children, well to be more precise I write the books I wanted to read when I was an 11-year-old boy.

But I digress . . .

How This Whole BubbleCow Thing Started

I remember the EXACT moment it all started.

Caroline (Mrs BubbleCow) and myself are both writers.

In 2006 we were both struggling to build our reputations as writers (Caroline is now a bestselling novelist BTW).

Money was tight as we fought to juggle writing and ‘real’ work. Though advances were bigger than they are today, they were still barely enough to live off.

To make ends meet we were both working as freelancers. Caroline as an editor and me as an editor, but also a researcher for the horribly successful Horrible Histories series.

Each month we would fight to find clients, constantly tapping into our ever dwindling list of contacts.

One Friday, after a frustrating week of searching for work, Caroline suddenly announced, “We should make this into a business. You know with a real website, name and business model.”

We mulled it over and realised that a business would give us the platform we needed to help writers to get published. After all, we were in the unique position of having insight into two worlds. On one hand we were writers, but on the other we had worked closely with publishers, agents and big writers for years.

Over the next two days we drew up a rough business plan, hacked together a website and debated endlessly over a name.

Now a question we get asked on a weekly basis is, ‘Were did the BubbleCow name come from?’ I always try to answer this honestly, but I have never told this story on the blog before, so here goes…

We wanted a name that did two things:

• 1. Had no competition on Google.
• 2. A domain name that was not already taken.

We also wanted to show that we were not the run-of-the-mill editors. We wanted to show we knew the internet and could help the new breed of internet savvy writers that were beginning to emerge. After all this was in the days before the Kindle. How did we survive?

We went through loads of names.. and I mean loads.

We tried traditional names, wacky names and downright stupid names. But we liked the idea of combining two words to make a new name (I know, very web 2.0).

We really liked the idea of bubble–something, and after rejecting rat, bull and cat we provisionally settled on cow.

The decision didn’t go firm at first. In fact, it was not until we found the logo (not the one at the top of this page) that the choice was made. This cute cow picture made up our minds and the name was decided (you can see that photo if you look at the avatar on our @bubblecow twitter account).

So come the following Monday morning BubbleCow was born. The website was up (thanks to WordPress!) and we were eager to change the world but…

No one knew about us!

Caroline was already running a blog and had a Twitter presence and this seemed to attract a few writers.

However, it was all pretty scary.

Days passed and writers didn’t flock to BubbleCow.

Now I would like to say that the next step was to spend loads on traditional advertising, but we didn’t for two very good reasons:

• 1. I knew magazine advertising was an expensive and unmeasurable way of attracting attention.
• 2. BubbleCow was skint! All the money BubbleCow was earning was going to pay bills.

Then…

Two things happened that changed BubbleCow (and me) forever.

The first was that I was lucky enough to stumble across of book called Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Well, it was a review copy sent from Wiley (and the well thumbed copy is still sitting on my desk BTW).

I am trying to keep this short, but this is important.

This book set out a blueprint on how to attract customers using the Internet. In essence it develops the idea that if you build a web platform, and then produce valuable, sharable content targeted at potential customers, they will come to you.

The second huge revelation was an interview I heard with Internet superstar Guy Kawasaki (NOT Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. as Caroline insists on calling him!) At the time Mike, sorry Guy Kawasaki was one of the key early adopters of Twitter, and he had built a huge following.

Anyway… in this interview he laid out his strategy for attracting followers. He explained that his approach was to send out 5 or 6 tweets each day with links to interesting articles.

A huge light went off in my head and I suddenly realised that I could use social media to build a business.

So I did…

The blog was born and I launched headlong into Twitter.

From that day to this, each working day morning I have sat down and found 5 or 6 links I can send out via Twitter. (No joke, I do this everyday!)

15,000 tweets later we have over 11,000 Twitter followers (the majority of which are writers) and a platform on which we can build a business and, most importantly, help writers.

In The End, And After Some Work…All My Passion and Drive Has Worked…And in a BIG Way.

Back then, when we were where arguing over names such as BubbleRat, StickHamster and JollyCat, I would never have believed that:

• We would have helped thousands of writers to take one step closer to their dreams.
• Had famous clients (that we had to keep secret).
• Had publishers and agents asking us for advice!
• We would be employing and training our own editors and proofreaders.

But In Addition To Being Humbled By The Impact I’ve had, I’ve Also Been Blessed to Have A Very Gratifying Lifestyle (My Friends Call It Amazing . . . I Just Enjoy Having Flexibility).

For example, I get to work FROM HOME with writers all over the world (thanks Skype), and know that I’m making real and meaningful connections with people (and that those connections and my advice can create dramatic changes for the better).

I never would have dreamed that I’d get to make my own schedule (so I can be more available for my children and family).

And I never would have imagined that I would NOT have to do ANY traditional marketing . . .

So Here’s What I’m Coming To . . . Here’s What’s Being Demanded Of Me . . . And Here’s What I Feel Compelled To Do . . .

Here’s the deal.

The demand for detailed, practical and most importantly WORKING training for writers to market and sell their books is overwhelming.

I have considered offering a consulting service where I help writers to build their own platform and market their books on a one-to-one basis.

But there is only one of me… I would never be able to help enough people. I’m finding over and over again that the need for training is so much bigger than I could ever fill in a thousand life times.

So I feel that our community is being compelled to step up to the plate. As one commenter in the last blog post wrote, “I would absolutely love to see this sort of advice coming from a successful business such as yours. I’m looking at putting my work out there in the professional world, and it would be invaluable to me to be armed with any knowledge that can help me along the way.”

In my heart of hearts, I want excellent marketing training to be readily available for all writers. I’ve wanted this for a long long time. And this is way overdue.

But the huge task of reaching the thousands that need to be reached CAN NOT be done alone.

But by providing down-in-the-trenches proven (over and over again) techniques that actually work. We can spread the knowledge and give all writers a head start.

I’m Thinking About Making A Free Resource Kit For You

I’ve been really humbled by the buzz surrounding my last blog post. There has been A LOT of interest in the training program that I’m POTENTIALLY developing.

But to test the waters . . . I’m thinking about making a value packed, 100% free “Blueprint To Promoting And Selling Your Books Online” for you.

IF you’re serious about learning to promote and market your book.

Here is what the free “Blueprint To Promoting And Selling Your Books Online” will include:

• Three recorded interviews one with a high level book publisher (the current MD and former Marketing Director of the Osprey Publishing Group), one with a successful self-published writer (this is a secret, I really can’t spill the beans), and one with myself. In these interviews we talk about the individual steps you can take to promote and sell your book online. This not only contains the blueprint we have used to promote BubbleCow, but also the systems used by self-published (and professional writers) to get their books noticed.
• A set of quick start videos and written guides. This set of videos (and ebooks) outlines set out the key principles behind selling your books online. These not only explain the principles behind building a online platform, but also outline a set of tips and tactics that you can immediately apply to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and your blog.
• A ebook called 101 Blog Titles That Will Get Shared. This ebook shows you how to construct blog titles that will entice people to click and visit when seen on social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

But Here’s The Catch

Because I’m a helpless perfectionist and will inevitably blog this thing way out of proportion and make it into a much bigger package than it needs to be (or you even want) . . .

. . . I want to get a list of everyone who is interested in having this free “Blueprint To Promoting And Selling Your Books Online”.

So Here’s What I Want You To Do

I’m making a list of everyone potentially interested in getting my free resource kit AND getting in at the start of all this.

Anyway, if you’re interested, then: (1) enter your email address below, and if I end up making it I’ll send it to you at the email address you list below (leaving a comment with any suggestions on what you’d like get from the kit would also help).

If enough people get on this “interest list” (I’m thinking 500 or more) then I’ll make this free thing and send it to EVERYONE on the interest list.

If no one wants the free “Blueprint To Promoting And Selling Your Books Online” then no worries.

Gary

Ok…so I’m getting a LOT of emails/comments from readers upset with me about that cliff hanger in my previous email and blog post.

Sorry about that…

Anyway, as I suggested in the last post I’ve been feeling reluctant to talk about something.

But it’s *niggling away* so here goes…

As you may or may not know, this whole ‘helping writers’ thing we do has gotten WAY out of control (in the best possible way).

When we first started BubbleCow over 5 years ago . . . We never in a million years DREAMED we would have the opportunity to positively impact so many writers.

We have been blessed to have helped thousands of people starting on their writing career.

And I’ve been deeply touched by all the emails and letters you’ve sent us over the years (and from all over the world).

Perhaps the best thing for me is the amount I have learned. Each day I speak and chat to writers and each day I learn something new about your needs, problems and possible solutions.

For example, only last week a writer talked me through the process of how she had tested ‘tags’ for her Amazon listed self-published books. She explained that including the word ‘wolverine’ (her books are fiction about wolves), significantly increased the ranking of her books!

So here’s the thing…

Writer’s have:

• Nicely asked.
• Strongly encouraged.
• Begged.
• Pleaded with me . . .

…To share the accumulation of what we have learned over the last years (and to share and teach the art of writing your own books and then selling enough to make it worth your while).

I am in a unique position, since I not only have an agent and published books (giving me insight into the way the traditional publishing world create and sell books), but also have tonnes of experience with self-published books and how to sell them online.

And then there’s BubbleCow. After all, BubbleCow lives on the internet!

We have never paid ANYTHING for traditional advertising. Instead, we have used the internet 100% to grow our business (I know numbers can be meaningless but we have 11K Twitter followers for @bubblecow and 700+ Facebook followers).

For YEARS I’ve resisted teaching this stuff.

I made the usual mundane excuses like, “I don’t have enough time” and “I’m too busy with editing writer’s books.”

I also wondered if I was even capable of teaching everything we had learned over years of doing this. Concepts and big ideas are great, but you need practical step-by-step guides that will REALLY help you to take the actions you need to sell books. (Day in and day out, now, I’m realizing just how small this kind of thinking was).

Oh. And I’m also a bit of a 100% guy.

Ok “a bit” is a understatement . . . I’m a FULL BLOWN perfectionist.

I have realized that I simply cannot go half-way with this. As far as I am concerned – its **all the way** or not at all.

If we are going to put BubbleCow at risk, then I need to provide the ‘perfect’ solution to writers.

So… I’m Seriously Considering Doing This

Despite my fears I am seriously considering pulling back the curtain and showing you just about everything I know about how to market and sell your books in a way that will bring you success.

And sharing stuff I’ve never publicly shared with ANYONE about how we have used Twitter, Facebook, blogging and emails to build an online presence.

These are techniques that really work… (BubbleCow is proof of this, remember we have never spent anything on advertising).

(I would have LOVED to have had this training years ago when we were just getting started).

If I Do This, It Will Be A LOT Of Work.

I’m excited about sharing stuff with you, but I’ve been around long enough to know that my small projects quickly get out of hand and turn into big ones (I am the big 40 remember!)

So I only want to do this if there’s enough interest.

So I want to know . . .

• What do you think?
• Should I do this?
• Would you be interested?

Your feedback and thoughts are gold dust to me at this point. They will either throw fuel on this idea or kill it dead in its tracks.

And I don’t want to even think about doing this unless there’s enough potential interest.

Anyway, if you have a second, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

It would mean a lot to me, and I’ll do my best to respond to each and every comment.

Gary