Print on Demand Publishing

Print on Demand Online Marketing for Independent Authors

Print on demand gives independent authors the power to get their works published, regardless of the interest of publishers and others in the book industry. However, that also means you are on your own when it comes to marketing your book. Your print on demand company may be able to offer some help and guidance, but ultimately, you determine the success of your book.

Below are five steps of a basic online book promotion plan:

1. Build a web page to promote the book.

2. Use keywords that people are using to search for your type of information to optimize your page.

3. Engage in a linking campaign to generate keyword links to your book web page.

4. Compile a list of social networking sites and article directories and create accounts at all of them.

5. Begin an article writing campaign, submitting articles systematically to the sites you set up in step 4. If possible, create some unique versions of your articles so that you are not always submitting duplicate content.

That’s it! There is a five step plan guaranteed to help you promote your book.

Easy, right?

Well, maybe not. There’s a lot to know about the above steps. If you are really serious about marketing your book online, you will make a study of search engine marketing and learn how to implement a plan like the one described above.

To learn more about the advantages of print on demand, check out http://lightningsource.com/podnow.aspx.

Trend Hopping for Fame and Fortune

You know by now that print on demand offers a great economic advantage over traditional printing techniques. But there is another major advantage you may not be aware of. Print on demand allows you to quickly create books based on whatever or whoever the public is infatuated with at the moment. I call this type of writing, where you write about what the public wants to read about, “trend hopping.”

Trends always change. Just because people are interested in something right now does not at all mean that they will be tomorrow. With traditional printing, you have to be able to accurately estimate how many copies of a trendy book will sell. You just don’t know when the trend will end. This is a high risk situation for the publisher.

POD eliminates the risk completely. Print on demand eliminates the risk of a trend quickly changing, rendering a book unsellable. Since books are only printed when people order them, you perfectly match supply to the demand. If 50 thousand people want to buy your book, then 50 thousand copies are printed; no more, no less.

If you are going to write books for the purpose of taking advantage of trends, then you have to write quickly. To trend hop, you have to be able to produce a work right when public interest is high. When it comes to writing fast, you’re on your own; but for printing the book and minimizing your risk, print on demand is the only way to go.

Check out these sites to learn more about print on demand publishing:

http://print-on-demand-publishing.tumblr.com

http://www.freewebs.com/printondemand

Why POD?

Business in the twenty-first century is all about efficiency, and making more with less. That is what print on demand does for publishing companies. Which of these scenarious seems like the highest risk?

You print 5,000 copies of a book, store those books in a warehouse, and hope they sell.

Or…

You use a print on demand company and only have copies printed as they are actually ordered.

The choice is clear. Go the route of efficiency and cost savings.