Kathy's ConnectionCAREER FACILITATOR NEEDS TO KEEP LEARNING

Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a four-hour seminar on "On-demand Publishing of Books." It was fascinating to hear veteran writer, Hal Zina Bennett, talk about his 30 years experience publishing 25 plus books in all kinds of formats.

One of the woman in the room listened in amazement when she learned how a book is prepared for printing now verses her experience over 10 years ago. The most glaring difference was the cost -- it has gone down so much to design, typeset and publish a book.

Some interesting facts:

Success is considered achieved if 10,000 books are sold. When you go through a publisher your royalty is $1 if it is not discounted, then it is cut to $.50. Think about what that means per hour--not much. Remember you have to help promote the book too.

If you self-publish, the profit turns out to be about $4 a book on average. Yet, remember like when you work with a publisher, you have to do promotional tours/presentations; and, this time you have to do all the advertising.

Mr. Bennett's Point of View: "Bottom line is that the new electronic venues are democratizing publishing, giving us more choices and encouraging diversity."



BUSINESS COMMUNICATION TIP:
First we had sound bites. Now we have eye bites. That means it is imperative that you have economy of words. People tend not to read a paragraph on internet if it is over 4.5 lines long.