Selfpublish Home-Made Booklets and Make Money in Your Sparetime!

Self-publishing home-made booklets and/or manuals is probably
the easiest way to break into your own small home business. Even
if you do not have training as a writer, you still can research
information on an interesting subject and report its statistics.

Have you been afraid to self-publish because you thought you had
to send drafts to publishers for acceptance? There is nothing
further from the truth. You can self-publish just by typing your
book or manual and having a competent typesetter place it in
camera-ready format for you. (One typesetter we highly recommend
is Much more Marketing, PO Box 50027, Reno NV 89513.) Or, do it
yourself and save a lot of money! This is the 1990's - the age
of computers. We don't have to have a minimum of 10,000 books
printed and hire an agent to sell them for us anymore. In fact -
the computer has made publishing affordable and easy for
everyone!

Once the book or manual is ready for printing, ask your
typesetter to print out 10 or 15 copies on their laser
printer.You'll probably have to pay extra for the copies, but
it's cheaper in the long run. If you want 50 or 100 copies, take
the master the typesetter sends you and have them printed at the
local copy shop.

A competent mail order printer will print them for you when you
need 250 or more done; but keep in mind that the more you order,
the more money you'll save. But once several copies are made and
bound, you can begin marketing them. Advertise the book or
manual in the 100's of mail order publications (if your book
appeals to the mail order folk) or other publications geared
toward the target market you are attempting to sell to. (In
other words, don't sell a book about collecting dolls in Sports
Illustrated.) Send sample copies to publishers who offer reviews
and write-ups to take advantage of free advertising. You could
even send a free sample to the publisher of a well-known tabloid
and ask for a plug if they enjoyed the book.

Or perhaps you may want to try selling the book locally by
taking it to flea markets or placing copies in convenient
stores. Most mom-and-pop operations will allow you to place your
book in their store for 40% to 50% of the cover price. This way,
copies that don't sell won't cost you anything. All you have to
do is check up on them once or twice per week and make sure they
are easy to find on the rack to attract the eye of the potential
customer. And if your booklet is filled with recipes or local
folklore - local businesses will be thrilled to promote and
carry your book on their shelves. Local people love to read
books about their community and keep them as collectors items.

By marketing your own product - orders will come directly to you
or be controlled by you. If you sell through the mail, you
simply mail a copy of your book or manual with a cover letter
thanking the customer for their order. Believe it or not - It's
that simple! And best of all - you keep all the profits which is
better than sharing the money with another publisher who
dropships for you.

Yes, there will be some costs involved in advertising, printing
and mailing to promote your self-published book or manual; but
do you know the costs involved in sending drafts out to
publishers for acceptance? Believe me, it runs into the
$1,000's! And big companies who will publish your book for you
start out with costs of $10,000 or more without the guarantee
that you will even make one sell!

One of the easiest types of books to publish and sell through
the mail are 5x8" booklets. To get a sample of one of mail
order's most popular 5x8" publications, send $2 to Graphico
Publishing, PO Box 488, Bluff City TN 37618 and request a sample
copy of "The Grape-Vine Journal". Examine how it is put together
and how it is printed.

If you really want to save money and put your own books
together, simply have them printed and shipped to you. Then, you
will collate the pages in the proper sequence, staple them in
the middle (called saddle stitching), fold in half and you're
done. The only office tool you need to invest in is a long-armed
stapler. One can be purchased at your local office supply store
or through Quill or Viking (two main mail order office supply
companies.) The current price is around $40. A printer, Kem's
Graphics, 549 Friendship Rd, Seneca SC 29678 specializes in
low-cost printing of booklets but if you want to
do-it-all-yourself, any good mailorder printer will print them
and ship back to you. All you pay for is the 2-sided printing
price.

Plan your next book, manual or other publication and enjoy the
benefits of keeping all the proceeds. It's really a fantastic
way to make some extra money while still keeping your job and
your steady income.