PRIOR MISSIONS COMPLETED WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS

• Self-published book of previous blog’s essays
• Started new, mixed-purpose (social activism and platform for book sales) blog

MISSION 1: LEVERAGE INFORMATION PRODUCTS INTO A LOCATION-INDEPENDENT INCOME STREAM

CURRENT PHASE OF THE MISSION

• Roughly six months away from launching a separate, mainstream blog/platform to support sales of business-related information products

KEY ACTIVITIES CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS

Researching various traffic-generating and search engine optimization techniques, including but not limited to:

• Automated back-links by using article marketing
• Article marketing for immediate traffic
• Designing a resource box for articles that will generate increased clicks and visitors
• Have completed first draft of 3 articles

Planning various strategies for organically building a mailing list of blog subscribers:

• Creating freemium ebooks to offer additional value to blog subscribers (still in the research stage, and reading many, many books on my subject area)
• Planning regular “freemium” special reports and other content that will only be available to blog subscribers

Personal branding:

• Designing a personal brand
• Designing a unifying underlying theme for all content
• Visualizing my one, perfect customer

Information product creation

• Have completed 80% of the first draft of the first paid product

Creating a stockpile of future, evergreen blog posts

NEXT MAJOR MILESTONES

• Completion of first draft of (paid) product
• Completion of first draft of one freemium ebook

MISSION 2: TAKE AND PASS THE B2/HIGH-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF THE DELE EXAM (DIPLOMAS OF SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) is the official accreditation of the degree of fluency in the Spanish language. It’s issued and recognised by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain. The CEFRL and DELE certificates provide evidence of skills acquired in various European languages for personal, academic or professional purposes. I want to return to Spain on a regular basis in the future. Maybe start spending summers there.

CURRENT PHASE OF THE MISSION

• Roughly 1.5 years away from sitting for the DELE exam

KEY ACTIVITIES CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS

• Reading the Language Hacking Guide and listening to the related mp3 interviews
• Studying Spanish grammar and vocabulary
• Creating opportunities for passive exposure to Spanish by listening to local Spanish-language news-talk radio
• Creating more opportunities for passive exposure to Spanish by changing my iTunes store location from the US to Spain, and downloading podcasts from Spain (I want to learn the European dialect of Spanish)
• Speaking Spanish with 2 native speakers at work. Even though it’s recommended to begin speaking immediately, I had planned on starting in September (to give myself a chance to brush up). However, my secretary started speaking to me in Spanish today {chuckling}

NEXT MAJOR MILESTONE

• Learn the vocabulary needed so I can start conducting all of my normal work-related transactions with my secretary in Spanish

TALK IS CHEAP; WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSIONS?

NUTS & BOLTS RESOURCES

I would suggest that anyone considering some form of self-publishing check out Clea Saal’s site (beginning with the POD articles section). The following three books are also extremely helpful.

The Clearly Confusing World of Self-Publishing & POD, by Clea Saal (some of the book chapters are available as free essays on her site, with her comparisons of various “vanity” publishers).

The Fine Print of Self-Publishing:The Contracts and Services of 45 Self-Publishing Companies Analyzed, Ranked, and Exposed, by Mark Levine. He’s an intellectual property attorney who offers his ratings and critiques of the various publishing contracts offered by various “vanity” publishers. Including a listing of some vanity publishers to avoid at all costs.

Become a Real Self-Publisher by Michael N. Marcus. He’s fairly anti-vanity publishers, and he “names names” in his book about the disadvantages of dealing with various vanity publishers. He also gives detailed information about the mechanics of being a writer and a publisher who takes control of all aspects of creating a book.

THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE VARIOUS TYPES OF SELF-PUBLISHING AND TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING

Incidentally, even though it’s a pejorative term, I don’t have a problem with the term “vanity” publisher—I used one for my book. I think that some of the vanity publishing companies are good as long as the writer goes into the situation with their eyes wide open—and fully understands the difference between vanity publishers and traditional publishers. There are two main differences.

First, with vanity publishers, the writer is paying for book cover design, interior layout, editing, and other book production services.

Second, the vanity publisher is NOT going to market the author’s book. They don’t get their money from book sales. Unlike traditional publishers, vanity publishers get their money from selling book production services to writers, and not from selling the books. When using vanity publishers, writers need to have their own marketing plan for bringing attention to their book.

The bottom line is that most vanity publishers function as glorified printers. That’s all. Period. Overall, I’m pleased with my experience with my publisher because I had researched what to expect from them. And I went into the process with my own plans about book marketing and book cover design.

A TIP FROM KHADIJA’S WRITING ADVENTURES

Here’s A Tip From Khadija’s Writing Adventures. A traditional problem with many vanity publishers is that they often design amateurish-looking book covers. If you use a vanity publisher, don’t let them design your book cover from scratch. It’s better to approach them with design ideas of your own, along with detailed, concrete examples. Best of all is to learn from the big-budget examples provided by traditionally published books. I spent an evening looking over dozens of book covers on Amazon.com. For my own cover, I selected design elements (typeface, subtitle on top and over the main title, and so on) from some book covers that I liked. Here’s part of one of the emails I sent to my publisher about the cover that I wanted for my book:

“Hi ________,

I’ve found examples for the book cover that I would like to have for my book . . . Here’s the link to Amazon.com.

Specifically:

(1) I like that the subtitle is at the top. I would like my subtitle to also be at the top similar to how it is on this cover. I would also like my subtitle “A Black Woman’s Guide To Having The Life And Love You Deserve” to be in the same all capitals type face as the _____________________ subtitle (and with the same sized font). I would like my subtitle to be in the same maroon color used for the 2nd subtitle for the _______________ book.

(2) I like the progression from a cream color to another color toward the bottom part of the __________ cover. I would like the same effect for my book cover. However, I don’t want the green that the ____________ cover uses. Instead of the green at the bottom that the __________________ cover uses, I would like the bottom part of my book cover to be the same maroon that I mentioned above regarding the subtitle. . .

. . . Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.”

The cover design techs suggested and added other elements to the book cover (such as the muted photograph of the woman—I instructed them to add a man walking beside her). But their starting point was based on my initial comments and examples.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

From what I can tell from reading comments on various blogs, many of the writers who are angry about their experiences with various vanity publishers didn’t do their research. Many of them had the mistaken belief the vanity publisher was going to market their books (like traditional publishers do). Many of them didn’t comparison shop or research the differences between the contracts offered by various vanity publishers. Many of them didn’t research which vanity publishers to avoid; and there are some terrible vanity publishing companies out there. Buyer beware!

The Writer Beware blog is another good resource for avoiding the various tricks, traps and scams involved in the writing biz.

MAKE SURE YOUR STRATEGY MATCHES YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR WRITING

On a slightly related note, from what I’ve read, another common source of bitterness for many self-published writers is the result of their lack of awareness of the widespread, heavy-duty stigma against self-published books within the book industry. See here for an example. See here for a less dismissive perspective from a literary agent about the difficulties involved with self-publishing (particularly regarding fiction).

All of this shows why aspiring writers need to be clear about their priorities. What are you looking to do with your writing? Earn a living? Become famous? Advance a social or political movement? Become a respected author within academic or literary circles? Some combination of the above? There are different strategies for achieving each of these goals.

In the nonfiction context, I don’t care about the stigma against self-published books. This is because of the particular goals I have with my nonfiction works. For those nonfiction works specifically addressing African-American women, I’m looking to advance a social movement (abundant life for African-American women and girls). For the business-related nonfiction books (and other information products) that I’m writing, I’m looking to make money while educating people. What “approved” insiders within the publishing industry think about these two types of products is not relevant to achieving these two goals. As I mentioned in this post, there are many ways of making good money with nonfiction that have nothing to do with gaining the approval of book industry insiders.

The business model that I’m considering is similar to the one used by many small criminal defense law firms. They use the relatively steady stream of “bread-and-butter” DUI and other traffic cases to subsidize their involvement in pro bono impact litigation (such as class action civil rights lawsuits). I’m considering forming a publishing company that will use the sales of various “how to” information products as a foundation for eventually expanding into self-publishing my fiction.

However, I plan to use different strategies for my fiction works. First, because it’s easier to market self-published nonfiction (especially “how to” books) than self-published fiction. Second, because I’m beginning to believe that already having at least minimal credibility with industry insiders is best when it comes to fiction works.

I haven’t finished my research on this issue, but it appears that having some sort of industry “stamp of approval” is an entry requirement for success with fiction. What form that stamp of approval takes might vary. Landing an agent, and being published by a traditional publisher is one stamp of approval. Winning at least one fiction-writing contest is another stamp of approval. Selling a screenplay to a major studio is another stamp of approval.

What all of this means for me is that I plan to work at getting at least one “stamp of approval” for my first few fiction works before self-publishing later novels. The strategy that I’m mapping out is based on my specific goals with my writing. Your “mileage may vary” and you need to consider your own specific writing goals.