Passing on exciting news that Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue has reached #71 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list for small business/entrepreneurship books about marketing.

This means that small businesses, the backbone of America’s economy, are going strong. It is invigorating to see people out there working hard, building value for themselves as well as the US economy. This is the real reason I wrote the Small Business Rocket Fuel books- to kickstart our economy and get people back to work and making money. Until everyone is earning a decent wage, society will be struggling. Forget about the 1%; share your knowledge and get everyone back to work.

Now you can launch your dream business- with the newly published “Small Business Rocket Fuel: Launch“!

Staring at your idea scribbled on a napkin or on your computer screen may feel overwhelming. But, by following a step-by-step method that focuses only on what is most critical to get a small business up and running, your dream can become a reality.

When I started my company almost 7 years ago, I had lots of questions. I spent many hours chasing down pieces of information, talking to people and reading books. This was despite my already having started-up a successful division for a venture capital backed former employer.

Now, many people are trying to find this same information, asking themselves, “How do I lauch?” “How do I go from paper to action?” I felt there had to be a better way where writers, entrepreneurs and small business owners could benefit from the experience of someone who had been in their shoes and succeeded in launching a profitable business (or two)! This “better way” become my newest book in the Small Business Rocket Fuel series: Launch. By focusing only on what is critical to know and cutting out all the excess nice-to-know fillers, this compact and easy to read book gets you started quickly.

The book includes key topics like insurance (including “errors and omissions” also called professional liability for writers), selecting a legal business form (LLC versus Inc), assessing your product’s competitiveness, financing, and more. The book is especially useful for medical writers and other writers as well as consultants.

The book is currently available on Amazon (link below) and will be available on Barnes and Noble within a week.

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Business-Rocket-Fuel-ebook/dp/B007N33QMG/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332363775&sr=1-4

For the next 3 months “Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue” will be available via KDP Select for borrowing for Amazon Prime members. This is a great way to try out the series and see how much it can benefit your small business, regardless of whether you’re a writer, consultant or other small business owner.

During this time period, the book will not be available on Barnes and Noble due to restrictions set by Amazon.

An interesting interview with Joe Konrath was just published (see link below). Here he further expounds on his results as a self-published author. He cites significantly better earnings by self-publishing books for a low price while at the same time devoting less time to marketing than he had for this traditionally published novel. He states that publishers take over 52% of the cover price while authors receive only a bit more than 17%.

The article is definitely worth reading. One caveat though is that nowhere in the article does Joe mention his release with Amazon’s new imprint Encore. This leaves me wondering, if self-publishing is so fantastic, why sign a deal with what is ostensibly another publisher? Sure Amazon isn’t a traditional publisher per se, yet it aspires to be one. That is one question I’m sure many writers would be interested in hearing the answer to.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/j-a-konrath-responds-our-interview-with-jamie-raab_b46413

http://elitzr.com/is-amazons-konrath-concession-a-sign-of-things-to-come/

Yes, the e-book has evolved from a mere pest underfoot or perhaps a curious novelty into a giant in only a few years.

In doing so, it has upset the entire apple cart that is the publishing industry. Authors can now publish and manage their own books and communicate more directly with readers. Even better, e-books are finally starting to wake up to their potential.

From the start, I envisioned a whole new world for e-books that would make them far different from paper books. With the power of electronics’ magic, e-books can become entertainment powerhouses melding many forms in one (images, video, audio, and so much more.) With all these exciting visions dancing in my head, it was somewhat of a let down to find that even inserting images into a Kindle e-book was challenging. At the time I published, the colorful photos I’d taken were only viewable in black and white. Now they are in full color (thanks, Kindle Fire!).

My hope for 2012 is that it becomes feasible for me to do even more than put some photos and web links in my books (without spending a fortune and thus driving up the price for readers).

While e-books have huge potential, challenges have grown as the number of authors has rapidly expanded. It has become much harder to identify quality writing from experienced and knowledgeable authors. On Kindle forums, I see readers complaining about this challenge. Authors must work even harder to demonstrate their skills and show readers why their books are worth the time to read.

Despite the challenges, it has been exciting riding the rising surge of a wave of change in publishing. In 2012, publishing promises to continue the fireworks show. Every author will need to navigate a world changing by the minute. I will be right there with my fellow authors, trying to decide what is best for my books in a shifting world.

Here’s a link to 2012 predicitions for publishing:

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/ten-bold-predictions-for-book-publishing-in-2012/

I’m well into the pre-Holiday crunch time. But just wanted to take a minute to point out an interesting (but rather long) post on author payments. In this post, the author argues that traditional publishers can afford to and should pay authors more for their work. This would then better compensate authors and discourage them from defecting to Amazon where pay is better. Will anyone take his advice? Time will tell…

http://www.idealog.com/blog/paying-authors-more-might-be-the-best-economics

The publishing community has responded with mixed feelings to Amazon’s latest move in buying up a line of children’s books from Marshall Cavendish. Amazon’s rationale is that the new Kindle Fire is an excellent tool for viewing color books as many children’s books are. (Lucky for my book, “Small Business Rocket Fuel”, I had already incorporated color photos and color flourishes throughout the book!)

While some were pleased that Amazon would offer good distribution of the books. Others felt it was further pushing publishing toward a monopoly. Independent book stores pointed out that there is no way Amazon can replace the personal touch and insightful comments they offer customers. A final comment was that Amazon’s dominance ends up devaluing books and training buyers of them to have a lowest-cost commodity mind-set.

So many tough issues here. While the broadest distribution possible is best for sellers/authors, a monopoly will reduce author power in their negotiations for the best payment for their work.

Here is a link to a useful article:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/49771-booksellers-unhappy-with-amazon–s-latest-moves.html

In September I launched a new social site, http://dudequote.me

This site lets visitors post their own original philosophical musings and share them with friends plus rate quotes from others. It’s another way to spur creativity and innovation. It’s also a way to look inside and find strength to overcome adversity- especially needed in this tough economy.

Visit Dudequote.me any time and post your unique quote. Hope you enjoy this recently published feature article that overviews my business ventures and writing projects (including the recently published e-book ”Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue”) as well. It’s always exciting see your business through someone else’s eyes.

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/wiltonbulletin/news/localnews/108643-the-business-of-writing-uplifting-quotes.html

No matter how crazy the economy gets, the things that can’t be taken away are aspects of your core personality. Creativity is one of these. Creativity is resilient, but there are still ways to feed it and grow it. One of these is through new and interesting experiences. These experiences can be used to build stories and spark new ideas.

My MBA program has been a tremendous idea sparker. As I look back on what I’ve learned over the past year plus, it’s been life-changing in many ways. It’s hard to believe that the end is growing ever closer.

Besides taking classes, new experiences can be gained through travel and meeting new people even at local conferences.

The new economy has given many of us a new perspective. Life isn’t all about what you can buy, but about what you can be.

In keeping with this philosophy, I’m hard at work on the next book in the “Small Business Rocket Fuel” series as well as finishing up novel 3 (really novel 4 except it jumped ahead and demanded to be worked on).

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Take a look at this interesting article on how experiences can benefit you more than be part of the “buy culture”.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-rethinking-prosperity-162216815.html

In another big shift towards digital publishing (e-books), the WSJ has just announced that it will work with Nielson BookScan to add e-book rankings to it’s bestseller list. This is an exciting change that will further increase the prestige of e-books. It also serves to better align the bestseller list with total books sales. The two were becoming increasingly misaligned as more and more e-books are being sold with e-book sales recently exceeding paper books.

Here is a link to the article:

http://news.yahoo.com/wsj-best-seller-lists-e-books-113928679.html