What, you don’t know what the three publishing paths even are?

Don’t feel bad, few do. Until recently, there weren’t really more than one publishing path.

But as you know if you’ve been reading me at all, things in publishing have changed tremendously.

Now there are three pretty distinct paths of publishing, and if you don’t know what they are and which one you’re on, you could make some pretty bad mistakes.

Like you could even publish the wrong way, spending money you didn’t need to.

Or you could spend years of your life trying to get published one way when another way would save you time and prove much more profitable.

So, I am making available a class I taught awhile ago, at no cost to you. There’s even a Study/Resource Guide available for you to take notes on and refer to.

Go here and find your best publishing path!

Boy, you asked a big question! Just about everything I’ve written on my blog and various websites are geared toward answering your question.  Many of my teleseminars also talk about what it takes to get published, especially the one I did with Terry Whalin at www.askaboutpublishing.com.

So I suggest you poke around my sites, especially this blog. Also, get the Author Success Plan. That 5-part minicourse is packed with insider’s tips on publishing and being a successful author gleaned from my 30+ years in publishing. It answers your question and shows you where to start: With the A-B-C’s of becoming a successful author.

Basically, it boils down to: Having a great idea, and building a following of people who like you and your idea. If you have enough of a following, a traditional publisher will take the risk of publishing you. Or, you need to publish it yourself, and glean a following through marketing.

Publishing has been undergoing a massive sea change, especially in the past 3 years. These days it’s very difficult to take the traditional publishing path, in which you get a publisher to take on all the costs of publishing and pay you a royalty (percentage of sales–usually 7.5% of what they get after they give the bookstores their 55% discount). Publishers just don’t want to take the financial risk of publishing an author unless the author can practically guarantee they can sell a lot of books, because the author already has a large following (called an author “platform”).

But while that old way of publishing is crumbling, a lot of alternative ways of getting published are springing up. More publishers are offering “publishing services” in a sort of partnership model of publishing whereby publisher and author share the costs.  That’s one of the things Terry and I talked about in the interview I mentioned, which you can listen to after signing up at www.askaboutpublishing.com. (I send you to the Ask page to sign up just so you’ll see how a cool way to market books works. It’s call the Virtual Book Tour, and I do these for publishers and authors.)

So I suggest you do a little more research on my sites, and if you still have questions, ask! I have a form on this blog (upper right corner) where you can ask questions any time. I periodically hold FAQ teleseminar to answer questions; asking a question on the form assures you’ll be notified.

Seventeen-year-old Katherine asks, “Exactly what does it take to get published?”

First-time author Kevin sends me his manuscript and wants me to edit it so it can be publishable.

My response to all three people is, “The best thing to do right now is to create a blog and see if anyone is interested in what you have to say and the way you say it.”

Listen carefully, please: Being an author is not what it used to be!

It doesn’t have to necessarily mean having a print book. Not anymore.

Now it means establishing your authority in a credible way and gathering a following.

You can best do that, these days, by having a blog. One that you write regularly for. One that you drive eyeballs to through other means, such as Twitter, Facebook, articles, teleseminars, the media, and a myriad of other kinds of online and offline connections.

With a blog, you can publish for free.  Sorry, Kelsey, there is no such thing as publishing a book for free. Even if you get a publisher to pay you to publish, as in traditional publishing where they pay the publishing costs and give you an advance against royalties, you will have to invest something sometime in marketing and promotion. And it’s extremely difficult for first-time authors to get published in this way–unless they have a platform, that is, a following. So now we’re back to, How do you get a following? Answer: Create a very successful blog.

You can figure out how to create a decent blog by watching how others do it, and a couple I recommend are Jimmy D. Brown, Seth Godin, Michael Hyatt and Alex Mandossian.  If you have no idea how to start a good blog and want expert help, then I highly suggest you take the Wordpress Workshop with Cathy Perkins, The Wordpress Wizard. It starts TODAY, but sessions will be recorded. Cathy will actually give you a student blog to work on during the course, so by the time you’re done, you will have the kind of blog that will establish your credibility.

When you sign up for the workshop, you’ll get two great bonuses from me: the “How to Choose Your Bestselling Title” Special Report (to help you title your blog and book), and a free 30-minute consultation at the end of the course to make sure your blog is also the most effective it can be for an author. Details and signup here.

Blogging is free, it’s a way to test your market and establish your authority. As I said in previous blog posts, it may be THE current way to become an author.

So get a blog, and get published! (Just remember, “author” is no longer limited to “publishing a print book.”)

How did I learn how to do Virtual Book Tours?

Through master trainer and inventor of Virtual Book Tours, Alex Mandossian.

Virtual Book Tours are only one kind of teleseminar Alex teaches. There are many other forms and purposes for teleseminars, all of which can help authors and business people build a platform, sell more books, stay in touch with their audience, and even create new products at the speed of sound. Not to mention, turn a very nice profit!

Alex will be teaching his premier course, Teleseminar Secrets, in December. Before the training begins, he will be holding a Preview Call. I got you a VIP discount for that call.

Here’s what I’d like you to do:

1. Read my new Publishing Coach Weekly article on “5 Ways to Use Teleseminars to Build an Author Platform–Before or After Your Book is Published.”

2. Ask your question about teleseminars. I’ll be answering them on next week’s Publishing Coach Weekly call.

3. Sign up for Alex Mandossian’s Teleseminar Secrets Preview call on December 4 at http://www.teleseminarsecretspreview.com. When you do, you will also be eligible for my 1-hour+ follow-up strategy call focusing specifically on what you learned from the Preview Call and how it relates to being (or becoming) an author. This will also prepare you to get the most out of the Teleseminar Secrets course itself, should you take it. (And I highly recommend you do.)

So go here now to read the article and get all the details.

There’s a reason some people get published and others don’t, and usually it has to do with the fact that published authors have put in the effort to gain expertise, build an audience, and actually write the book or get a good ghost writer to write it. They go through the work of putting together a good proposal, they don’t quit when they get rejected, or they self-publish intelligently.

My goal with this blog and my other resources is to give you the tools that can lead to your becoming a successful author. However, a hammer does no good in itself. Only in the hand of the carpenter does it hit the nail on the head.

Read Seth’s blog. To suggestion #2, I would amend, if you want to become a successful author, spend your 120 minutes:

• writing an article and posting it to article directories
• coming up with some free “Special Report” on your topic that you can give away to start relationships with people (ask them for their email addresses to get the report)
• setting up a blog and writing 2-3 times per week
• finding other people who are already talking about your topic (Ning groups, Yahoo groups, blogs) and enter the conversation by posting. Put your Special Report offer in your email signature line when you do post.

Everything else, listen to Seth!

“Get published in 6 weeks!”

“Become an Amazon best seller and rake in the publishing deals!”

“We’ll publish your book and get you in all the book store chains.”

“We think your book sounds promising. Forward your manuscript with a $25 (or $50 or $100 or …) reading fee.”

Perhaps you’ve seen these and other promises made to people whose dream has always been to write and publish a book, and even, perhaps, get on the bestseller list.

Promises like these make me angry. I hate it when people prey on other people’s dreams, just to make a buck.

If you are unsure of whether a company or resource you’re considering is credible, I invite you to submit your question here. I will respond if I can with a review of the resource or a private email (depending on whether I want to publicly say anything negative about the said resource).

Many, though not all, of the publishing scams have to do with getting your book published. If you’re considering self-publishing, I highly recommend the book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine. Here you’ll find in-depth advice on what to look for in a self-publishing company, as well as the contracts and services of 45 self-publishing companies analyzed, ranked, and exposed.

In my opinion, this book is an indispensable resource.

Also, if you have any information you would like to share, as in your own experience with a product/service, that would be most helpful. I promise you strict confidentiality. Either send me an email (diane at wordstoprofit.com) or submit your question/comment at www.askyourbookpublishingcoach1.com.

If you want to share your question or comment with the world, feel free to comment below.