An epiphany, a cakewalk, your ebook strategy and why you should use a compass. Peter Bowerman from the Wellfed Writer and the Wellfed Self-Publisher shares his method of self-publishing and becoming a well-fed writer with AuthorShock’s Debbie Jenkins.

Listen to the audio with visuals here…

In 1993, after a 15-year career in sales and marketing, Bowerman turned his sights to freelance commercial writing. With no industry experience, no previous paid writing experience and no writing background, he built a commercial freelancing business in Atlanta, Georgia from fantasy to full-time in less than four months.

His corporate client list has included The Coca-Cola Company, MCI, BellSouth, IBM, UPS, Holiday Inn, Cingular Wireless, DuPont, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, The Discovery Channel, Junior Achievement, Georgia-Pacific, The Cartoon Network, the CDC, The American Heart Association and many others.

He has published over 250 articles and editorials, leads seminars on writing and is a professional coach on both commercial freelancing business start-up and self-publishing.

Transcript from audio interview between Peter Bowerman and Debbie Jenkins of AuthorShock.com

Your books are brilliant, down to earth, sensible and funny. Do you think it’s important to “be yourself” when you write? Why?

If you’re boring and dull then being yourself isn’t beneficial. If you have a fun personality make sure it comes out. As a result of injecting personality the readability of my books is a strong suit. Lots of readers have mentioned it over the years – they say my books are good and memorable. Be engaging, have fun and let it come out in your writing. There’s a tendency for people to write in a stilted or wooden way. People say they feel like they’re sitting across from me having a coffee with when they read my books, they feel connected. People have called me up over the years with questions, they say they feel like they know me because of the books. If you’re not able to inject a personality then you should find a ghost writer to help you with your tone. Writing with personality makes the process more fun. Helps you connect with your readership – be quirky, fun, interesting! When people read my books they get an insight into my personality and beliefs – a broader perspective.

Your books focus on helping people become professional freelance writers and self-publishers. What do you think is the biggest stumbling block on the way to becoming a professional?

It took me just 4.5 months to get established as a writer. And this is for someone who started out with no writing background, training nor experience. Writing was paying all my bills in less than 4 months

1. Must realise, this isn’t a cakewalk, it’s hard work. It’s a little difficult and people need to understand that any business that can make you upto $250 dollars an hour isn’t gonna be easy. If it were everyone would be doing it! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The arena of freelance commercial (companies who pay you to write for them) writing is one of the most accessible and lucrative arenas. There’s more money from companies than from publications like magazines.
2. People sometimes get intimidated by the big name companies. Don’t put them on a pedestal, respect them,but don’t be afraid. If you’re smart and can think strategically it’s not hard to write and make a difference for big companies.
3. Don’t think you don’t have the personality for this business. If you’re a creative person you may think you need to be all salesy. And there is an adjustment needed, but it’s not that difficult. Commercial freelancing or self-publishing successfully it’s far more about a process than an aptitude or a personality. It’s about the things you have to do, not have to be.

What are the 3 most important things a professional writer needs to understand about the business?

• Understand the vastness of the field. Writing for businesses has 3 arenas:

1. B2C – what we see, adverts, brochures etc
2. B2B – huge arena, getting a message out to customers, marketing materials
3. Internal – communication with employees – newsletters, training material, reports etc…

• Understand WHY companies hire freelancers. For example: hiring companies don’t have to pay salary and benefits, they buy the skills they need when they need them, they get a fresh outside perspective without assumptions, and access to a wide range of talent.

• Budding commercial freelancers need to understand the mindset of the person hiring them – they are probably overworked, overextended, they don’t want to spend time looking for a writer. Fortune favours those who get themselves out there. Make sure you leverage past experience – even if you don’t have a wide writing experience, you may know the industry, the vernacular etc.

You offer additional ebooks when people buy your books from your website. Why?

Ebook strategy, in particular for Peter’s Self-Publishing books:

1. I incentivise people with a free ebook from my website so they buy from my site instead of other sources (makes me a higher margin)
2. I created companion ebooks that go along with the hardcopy – the print book is $20, a toolbook is $20 if they buy with the book or $30 if they buy separately, also there’s a timeline tool $8 if they buy with the book or $15 separately. Also I offer the ebook version of the main book. 2/3 of people will buy one/more or all of the ebooks. This ups the profit margin by about 20-25%.
3. If you are considering writing a How To book what can you add that people will be prepared to pay more for?
4. For the print book 5000 units cost $12000-$13000, I broke even after 45 days of releasing the book due to the e-book strategy.

What one thing do you wish you knew when you started out in publishing?

Self-publishing is a lot of work, I have been told my The Well Fed Self Publisher http://www.wellfedsp.com book is a great game plan to follow. Go step by step and build the book, go through the processes. It takes time and money, if you have no money then doing self-publishing the way I describe isn’t for you.

I had an epiphany recently and wrote an article – contact me for it if you want to read more, it’s called: The Number 1 Book Marketing Strategy Of All Is… TO WRITE A REALLY GOOD BOOK!

If you write a really good book (topical, relevant, detailed, real world, information, spells things out, fun and lighthearted to make it easily and enjoyable, that’s packaged well) – you will recruit an army of unofficial sales people who will be singing your praises. Your goal is to make your book better than it has to be to make your marketing so much easier. Lots of people write books that just aren’t that good. They struggle to pump up the promotion. A book that just isn’t that good won’t get word of mouth. Do everything in your power to write a good book – you have 100% control over that outcome.

What’s next for you?

I never plan things out nor set goals.

I recommend a book called: Goal Free Living – this is how I live my life. A chapter called “Use a compass not a map” sums it up – know the general direction, but not the exact route. Using a compass you look up – using a map you look down and miss things along the way. Everything unfolds organically, at the right time for me.

I’m also doing more teleseminars and group coaching. I revamped my website http://www.wellfedwriter.com/ have a look at the cartoon.

I discovered something cool – commercial writing/self-publishing – it gives me the lifestyle I desire. I wrote the books because I thinks other people would love this lifestyle too. Take a first step and see where it leads.

Contact & Free Downloads

• The Well Fed Self Publisher by Peter Bowerman: http://www.wellfedsp.com
• The Well Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman: http://www.wellfedwriter.com

Peter has generously offered 2 ebooks, which you can claim for free here.

• The Big Banquet – Loads of excellent articles from The Well Fed Epublisher – 169 page download
• SelfPublishing TimeLine – Checklist that Peter uses for his publishing method

Through his direct “tell it like it is” approach, Matthew teaches CEOs, entrepreneurs, and high-achievers how to supercharge their business credentials, increase their stature, and leapfrog competitors using the independent publisher platform.

Your books are brilliant, direct and sensible. Do you think it’s important to “be yourself” when you write? Why?

I absolutely believe that every author should find “their writing voice”. One way to do that is to write as you might speak. Another way to do that is to allow your feelings and opinions to be known instead of being overly cautious and trying always to be politically correct. Being neutral is boring and doesn’t command respect or attention. Whether people agree with you or not, they want to know where you stand.

With the explosive growth of the Internet and published titles, it is extremely difficult to be “totally original”. The only thing we truly can call original is ourselves and the essence of who we are. Sharing that essence is absolutely necessary to earn credibility and respect especially if you are an unknown author.

Another important part of being yourself has to do with authenticity.  People are too smart and savvy today to listen to canned and highly-scripted messages.  In this age of political correctness, mistrust, and scripted messages, people are starving for authenticity.  They want “real information” from “real people”.

Your book focuses on helping people self-publish. What do you think is the biggest stumbling block on the way to becoming a self-published author?

It is very difficult for me to pin it down to on stumbling block so I am going to cheat the question and offer two big stumbling blocks.

1. The first one is sheer ignorance.  I don’t mean that in an insulting or derogatory way to people who have not yet learned to become educated about the truths and myths about today’s publishing.  I am more angered by the elitist attitudes and monopolistic tendencies of the traditional publishing industry.  The traditional publishing industry have and continue to generate propaganda that discourages people from entering into self-publishing or independent publishing.  The reason for that is the traditional publishing conglomerates are desperately trying to keep control of the industry from “upstarts” like you, me, and thousands of other independent publishers and self-publishers. They do not like the changes that will essentially put about 80% of them out of business within the next 10 years.
2. The other major stumbling block is they don’t focus on the “big picture”.  They focus so much on the mechanics of the “how do I self-publish”, they get lost and discouraged in the quagmire of technical information.  They think they have to have every technical skill to create a book when they really need to have a good, broad understanding of what needs to happen to get the end result you want. Let the experts be the experts. Unless they already have specific technical skills, self-published authors should simply focus on being a good project leader and manager and find good people to work with.

When I started out in publishing, I had very few of the technical or publishing skills I now have today.  However, what I had going for me was I had a clear objective on what I wanted to create at the end. I first educated myself on what the overall process was, broke it down into logical chunks I could digest, and then took each step as it came. As problems and challenges came up, I would solve or workaround the issues.

What are the 3 most important things a new author needs to understand about the business?

1. You have to be willing to take responsibility for your work and your message. It does not matter even if you hire a ghostwriter or editor to write and editor for you. Ultimately, you have to be clear on what your message is and what impact you want to have on your readers and, of course, what you want the work to do for you.
2. You have to be willing to be actively engaged in promoting yourself and your work. This can mean learning more about social media, publicity, media relations, speaking, internet marketing, TV, radio, and any number of other skills.  No one person can know all of this. But every author has to choose one or two venues they are attracted to and start there.  Even traditional publishers have moved into that model where they are pushing those responsibilities to the authors.
3. Every author needs to know that it is incredibly difficult to hit a home-run on the first attempt at publishing.  And yet so many beginning authors pour their entire soul, finances, energy, and self-worth into that first publishing project. That first publishing project, whatever it is, is only a warm-up for a much better publishing project down the road.  Love your first project passionately because it is your first one.  But just understand, your best works will likely be future ones as you get better.

You have lots of videos on your websites. Why?

Using videos is a relatively new part of my internet marketing.  However, the videos serve multiple purposes. First, I want the practice of being in front of a video camera. It can open doors to additional publicity such as traditional TV. Second, I can more directly reach, speak, and impact my audience in a way no written article or audio recording can.  Third, I view videos as the third leg of my media publishing triad.  That triad being: books/ebooks (text), audio publishing, and now videos which will lead to full-blown video courses, seminars, and the like.  Essentially, with the growing availability of high-speed broadband connections, video is becoming more important in so many ways.

What one thing do you wish you knew when you started out in publishing?

This is a great question and one that truly stumped me. I had to think about it for a few minutes.  Believe it or not, what I wish I knew has little to do with publishing than knowing myself better and where I wanted to go in life. The reason I say that is that publishing is simply an extension of myself. Publishing is a message and communication platform for me. Hence, the more clarity I have of myself and my goals, the more powerful my publishing efforts will be.  I love the publishing business (book, audio, video) and understand how powerful it can be in changing the world but also myself.  I should have phased into the publishing business quicker and sooner instead of treating it like a “part-time” business.

What’s next for you?

Another great question.  During these challenging economic times, I have had to make major adjustments in my business. However, going forward, I see myself pushing the envelope of what publishing is all about.  I will share and spread my media publishing triad model (book, audio, video).  I intend to live what I teach and write about.  I will likely find another niche that I want to pursue then build another publishing brand around it.  I view my life as an ongoing journey. As my interests and goals changes and evolves, you will see that reflected in my publishing projects.

Is there anything else you want to tell people?

I would tell people to Get Started and finish that first book, audio, or video project, then release it.  Too many people are stuck in the wishing, creation, and production process.  They take years when it only takes months to complete.  People have to get committed and move their projects to completion not get caught up in this perfectionist attitude that is so prevalent in the publishing industry.

There is no question that these early stages are important but you have to eventually move past that and not have projects be in gestation for so long. Every baby must eventually be birthed and be allowed to grow.  This is where the action, learning, and excitement happens.

Contact Details & Discounts

Matthew is generously offering all readers a 30% discount for direct orders. Just use the Coupon Code: wealthyauthor at checkout.

• Websites: http://www.ascendbeyond.com/ & http://turnkeypublisher.com/ & http://ceopublishinguniversity.com
• Book(s): TurnKey Publishing: How to Create a Profitable Self-Publishing Business Without Any Help From Publishers, Bookstores, or Literary Agents!
• The Turnkey Publisher’s Audio Publishing Handbook: How to Create & Self-Publish Profitable Audio Books & Audio Programs Without Any Help From Publishers or Recording Studios!

There are only really 3 publishing models but lots of different names for vanity publishing…

1. Paid For Publishing aka “Vanity Publishing”: If you pay someone else to publish your book it could be called collaborative publishing, cooperative publishing, subsidy publishing or (most misleadingly of all) self publishing but it’s really just vanity publishing with a more acceptable title. Some big-sounding New York and London publishers are offering “deals” to new authors with a high cost attached. These “deals” are really nothing more than an attempt to cash in on their name and sell an overpriced vanity package.
2. Self Publishing: No matter what the vanity press says – it’s not self publishing unless you’re doing it all yourself. Obviously you may employ people to provide certain skills but you are still the publisher and the buck (or should that be book) stops with the author and only the author. This is further split into two main approaches:
   1. Print-On-Demand Self Publishing – Low Risk with Good Distribution Built In (providers include LightningSource, Lulu, CreateSpace and BookSurge)
   2. Print-Then-Sell Self Publishing – High Risk with No Distribution Built In (there’s no longer a good reason to publish this way unless you only plan to sell books direct)
3. Mainstream Publishing: These organisations pay you for your book. There’s a lot of competition from authors here so fewer and fewer publishers are offering big (or any) advances anymore and many still insist you apply via an agent. However – they won’t expect you to pay them a penny for your book and they will expect to be sending you royalties. Mainstream publishers really fall into 3 main categories:
   1. Big Publishing Houses – New York Publishers, London Publishers etc. – most aspiring authors dream of getting a huge advance from these companies. First timers should expect tiny royalties and dwindling advances.
   2. Independent Publishers – usually smaller publishers that only publish a few titles per year. These companies are often specialist in nature and can provide a good start for many authors. However, they’re still crippled by the old print-then-sell rules and aggressive terms from bookshops so don’t expect to earn a big royalty,
   3. Publishing 2.0 Publishers – again, usually smaller publishers that have embraced new technology for both production, distribution and sales. Good publishers embracing the new rules of the publishing game are able to pay much higher royalties because they no longer rely on bricks-and-mortar bookstores for their sales.

Here’s a quick matrix from Publishing Academy that plots some of the main differences…