Logical Expressions Blog

Because we had at least one person who wanted to upgrade her SPOC pass today, but couldn't, we're leaving the registration link and site log-in open through May 31.

The third day of SPOC focused on turning your book into a business with a complete product line. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, and in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads or CDs.

The second day of SPOC was chock full of helpful ideas for promoting your book to the world. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, a preview of what's coming tomorrow, plus, in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads, CDs plus other must-have items for the soon-to-be author.

The first day of SPOC was a whirlwind of information. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, a preview of what's coming tomorrow on Promotion Day, plus, in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads, CDs plus other must-have items for the soon-to-be author.

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 3, which is all about turning your book into a business. Friday May 14, 2010

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 2 - Promotion Day, which is all about building a relationship with your target market and ideal readership. Thurday May 13, 2010

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 1 - Writing & Publishing Day, a day dedicated to showing you how to write and produce a finished book from your manuscript. Wednesday May 12, 2010

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We're happy because on today's dog walk through the forest, we found our first morel mushrooms of the season. We plan to invite them to dinner. I'm sending out this newsletter a week early because I may or may not get one out next week. Next Wednesday is the first day of the Self-Publishers Online Conference! As you might imagine, I'm a little nervous about SPOC. I'm quietly hoping everything will go the way it's supposed to and people will love it. But I'll be honest; putting on an event like this...

It's hard to believe, but after all this preparation, the Self-Publishers Online Conference is next week! All the excitement got me thinking about my own book-publishing journey. I like to joke that it only took 10 years to self-publish my first book. Maybe you can relate to this ;-) In 1996, I read a bunch of self-publishing books and became completely overwhelmed. I had piles of notes, no idea how to write the book, even less clue where to get it printed, and zero money for my first print run. A mere 10 years later in 2006,...

It's only 15 days and counting until the Self-Publishers Online Conference and there's been a lot going on! SPOC Behind the Scenes If this is your first time attending SPOC, I encourage you to check out our new "Behind the Login" page, which shows you how SPOC differs from a typical "telesummit." http://leiurl.com/?spocinside Whether you have opted for a Basic (no charge) pass or upgraded to a paid one, your login gives you access to the private area of the SPOC Web site. There you'll find pages for each seminar, so you can...

After the last newsletter, I received some nice comments saying, it was okay to switch Publishize to every other week. It's turned out to be a particularly good thing because the last couple weeks have been harsh for reasons unrelated to work. I'm exhausted. This week’s Publishize article answers the question, "What is a book packager?" Using a book packager can be a good option for busy self-publishers. Enjoy! What is a Book Packager? by Susan C. Daffron A book packager or book producer helps a publishing company with the...

This week's Publishize article is about a topic that I've been avoiding: discounts. I've had a number of people ask me loads of questions on this topic for one major reason: it's incredibly confusing. I tried to make it as clear as I could, but it's difficult to explain. If you have more questions, let me know. Enjoy! The Wacky World of Discounts by Susan C. Daffron Although it's confusing, understanding how discounts work is big part of the money matters in publishing. Technorati Tags: publishize,book publishing,discounts,amazon.com,lightning source,books,book store,susan daffron,logical expressions

Yesterday, amidst great fanfare, Steve Jobs released the iPad. You might think that as an author, avid reader, and book publisher, I'd be wildly excited about this new gadget. Do I view the iPad as the "future" of publishing? No. Like many techie devices, it has been saddled with an utterly stupid name. Yo Steve, what were you thinking? The feminine protection jokes made at least 79 circuits around the Internet mere hours after the announcement. Beyond the name, I find I have a problem with hoopla-laden technology launches. It feels like déjà vu all over...

When the temperature is in the single digits, the mantra on the daily hound walkie is "no dawdling." We are out there marching through the forest in the freezing cold to get something done, not to sniff random things, wander aimlessly, or goof off. When it's freezing, you gotta get the All Furry Team out there and get back inside as quickly as possible. I touch on this type of single-minded focus in this week's article. To write a book, sometimes you just need to get out there and get it done. Enjoy! How to...

November is my least favorite month of the year. It is the time of my "November Pout" which is my cranky way of welcoming (not!) the onset of winter. Although I do enjoy the change of seasons here, I like winter going into spring a lot better than fall going into winter. When it's gray and dreary, I find it more difficult to retain perspective. As this week's article points out, when you have the blues (or in my case a "November Pout") it's a good time to focus on what you have, instead of what you don't...

This week, I have been picking strawberries from my garden. Picking organically grown strawberries right from your very own patch is one of life's most joyful summer experiences. In much more nerdy news, we've updated the  Self-Publishers Online Conference Web site with information about how you can get the entire 2009 conference on CD or as individual downloadable audios. Check out the product information on the SPOC 2009 page at: http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/spoc2009.aspx I'd be the first one to tell you that putting on a conference like SPOC was a lot of work, much like publishing...

Today, I drove down to our local organic farm and picked up our first CSA of the season. For those who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You buy a "share" of a farm's produce. I can report that the yummy food from our CSA is one of the best things about summer. Tonight, I'm lobbying for a salad made from some fine organically-grown leafies to accompany dinner. When you are a member of a CSA, you also learn where your food comes from and how much work it is to produce. It gives you a new...

This week, the weather has been beautiful. I love this time of year. The last two weekends we've taken our kayaks out on the "big lake" (Lake Pend Oreille), and it's been great fun paddling around, watching wildlife, and soaking up lots of sun. When it's this nice, I confess it is really challenging to sit down and write much of anything. Even now, I'd rather be sitting on the back screened-in deck sipping a cold drink and listening to forest sounds. In fact, that sounds so good, I think I'll just go do that after sending this out. ...

There was a small delay in writing this week's newsletter, since I just completed the canine "neat feet" program. For those who don't have hairy dogs, breeds like golden retrievers and Samoyeds have huge tufts of fur that grow out of the bottom of their feet. At this time of year, all that footie fur collects sticky cottonwood seed pods and pine tree pitch. Obviously, walking around with forest junk attached to your feet is uncomfortable for the dogs, so they spend a lot of time chewing on their feet. This afternoon, I decided it was time...

This week, we have been doing things related to the end of the Self-Publishers Online Conference. I've sent out many emails and am getting the artwork and audios together for the fulfillment house for those who purchased CDs. If you were able to attend, you know it was an amazing 3-day publishing education. If you were there, I'd appreciate it if you could fill out our quick survey when you get a chance. We'd like to know what you thought, since we do plan to run the conference again next year. In other news, on Friday I...

SPOC, the Self Publishers Online Conference, takes place next week and next Thursday May 14 brings another panel of publishing experts to the calls including Shel Horowitz, Brian Jud, Sandra Beckwith, Penny Sansevieri and Carol White & Debi Flora. It's free to attend the online conference-all you have to do is register here:  http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/ Click the Register button in the upper right-hand side. When you register, you can see that you can choose from several options. Attending live is free. If you want more...

Today, I'm working on a lot of stuff for the Self-Publishers Online Conference, which is next week. I've been busily setting up pages for the Exhibit Hall, testing conference call providers, and telling other people about it. I'll be honest, I'm really tired and I've had a sinus headache all day. Bleh. We all have bad days sometimes. Acknowledging that sometimes work and being in business can be difficult happens to be the subject of this week's article. Enjoy! Key to Success #10: Don't Give Up! by Susan C. Daffron Accept the fact that...

This week, once again I'm watching the snow fall. I told James that the big April Fool's joke here in Idaho is that it is spring. I'm still harboring hope that I really will see my garden again someday. In much better news, last week I found out that I will be leaving the snow at least for a few days in April. I won (yes, WON!) a contest to attend the Bliss Factor conference that will be held in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference focuses on how you can craft a business that helps you live a life...

Once again it is snowing. I have to say that at the end of March, I'm kind of done with snow. By April, I will have totally and completely lost my sense of humor about snow. In much better news, last week we finished the Web site for the Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC), which will be happening in May. We're recruiting speakers, so if there is someone you would like to hear, please let us know. You can read more about the conference and sign up for the SPOC newsletter here: http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/ Today's article answers another question...

Today, I'm not feeling well, so I'll be brief. I'm having one of those days where everything seems extra difficult, particularly writing, so typos are undoubtedly inevitable. My apologies. However, tomorrow after I've had a good night's sleep, I'll be ready for our first Publishize Teleseminar, which is called "How to Set Up a Book Launch Campaign for Your Book." This topic was the one most requested by all of you in our mini-survey. To get notification of our Teleseminars, sign up for the free Logical Expressions newsletter at http://newsletter.logicalexpressions.com. If you've got questions on what's...

A big "thank you" to everyone who answered last week's 2-question survey. The teleseminar topic winner is "How to Set Up a Book Launch Campaign for Your Book." The teleseminar will be held on Thursday March 19 at 10 am Pacific time, so mark your calendar. (We'll send out call in information before the call.) We also got some great feedback from Publishize readers on other topics that are troubling them. Since we're only going to do one teleseminar a month, I thought I'd address some of the topics as articles too. A couple of people had comments...

During the winter, it's incredibly quiet outside because most of the birds fly south or go into hiding. Whatever they do, they stop making noise. Over the last couple of days, even though it's been dreary and gray, I've been starting to think that the worst of winter may be behind us. The avian forest dwellers are starting to tweet and chirp again. When the birdies are happy, it makes me happy. This week's article is more about business than publishing, but something I'm constantly trying to explain to aspiring self-publishers is that publishing is not all about...

Here in the backwoods, it's been cold. I know it's January and it's supposed to be cold, but I have to say that the ice situation on our driveway is getting me down. Yesterday, I drove down to the mailbox (which is about 1/2 mile away) because it was busy blizzarding. On my way back, I almost got stuck halfway up our driveway. How embarrassing. Our driveway is not steep or long. My car is all-wheel drive, so normally it can get through almost anything. However, yesterday about 4 inches of snow was sitting on top of a...

As some of you know, I've been doing a lot of teleseminars in these first few weeks of January. We did ones called: Get Your Book Done (with Donna Kozik) Sneak Peek into Book Coaching (with Lisa Manyon) Why Becoming a Book Author Can Change Your Life (with Gina Bell) All of them talk about our 90 Day Book Challenge which starts on Monday. If you are thinking about writing a book, this course is a great opportunity to make it happen. (If you have questions, don't be shy...ask me)...

Hi everyone... I wanted to let you know about a call I'm doing with Gina Bell today at 1 pm (Pacific time). You can sign up here:   http://www.logicalexpressions.com/Teleseminar_gina.htm Why Becoming a Book Author Can Change Your Life: Susan Daffron talks to Gina Bell about the many ways becoming a book author can have a huge impact on your business and your life. Susan is the author of 10 books, 9 of which she self-published over the past three years. Gina and Susan...

Right now, I am happily uploading a 9MB audio file. I am thrilled to be able to do this ostensibly boring task because for the last 3 weeks or so our satellite Internet has had a BIG problem. It has been somewhat agonizing to do things like send this newsletter on our backup 26.4 dial-up connection. Today, James installed a new transmitter on our satellite dish and it seems to have solved the problem. (Or at least helped a whole lot - cross your fingers!) In other news, I'm doing a call with Lisa Manyon on Friday. If you've...

I hope you all had a great holiday season. We mostly watched it snow. In fact, it has pretty much snowed non-stop for several weeks. Fortunately for us, we're snuggled up in our nice warm house which has a very pointy roof, so it won't collapse under the snow load. (The recent rain on top of the snow has caused a number of buildings to collapse in this area.) Since we haven't exactly been getting out much (except to snowshoe on our forest trails with our dogs), we've been busy plotting out plans for 2009. One of them...

Thanks to everyone who participated in the book launch for Publishize last week. We sold a bunch of books! In fact, we sold WAY more autographed copies that I was expecting, so I actually ran out of books here and had to wait for another order to arrive from the printer. Fortunately, people were incredibly nice when I wrote them and said their book might not make it to them by Christmas. I just mailed out a bunch today and am out again. So I'm waiting for yet another book order to arrive from Lightning Source (our printer)....

As promised, here's the information about the special book promotion that is happening today only - December 11, 2008. The book is my ninth book and it's called Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book that Promotes Your Expertise.  As many of you know, I self-published 8 books in less than 18 months. Publishize is filled with all my best self-publishing secrets and online book marketing tips. Today only we are offering free shipping on the book and a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. You'll find audio and print bonuses...

This week's article is about how we are doing the Publishize book launch. FYI, today is the big day. I'll be blogging later with more information, but basically, we'll be offering free shipping on the book and a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. I've collected audio and print bonuses from Marcia Yudkin, Shel Horowitz, Fern Reiss, Sheri McConnell, and a bunch of other people. Check out http://www.publishize.com/ today December 11 and you'll see the incredible list of freebies folks are offering for people who buy the book. I'd like to say a huge...

While I was at the PubWest publishing show in November, I was interviewed by Chris Kenneally about my book writing process, IdeaWeaver, and of course, our new book Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise. You can listen here: BTB #73: Advice for Accidental Authors Susan Daffron shares "provocative and insightful advice on what it takes to make a publisher out of an author during at break at the annual PubWest Conference. Technorati Tags: susan daffron,pubwest,ideaweaver,publishize,book publishing,self-publishing,authors,logical expressions

Today, we had a great preview call with our friend Donna Kozik for a new program we're offering together called "Promote a Book in a Weekend" on December 13 and 14. In one weekend, participants will get our help in creating a custom Web site for their book (or upcoming book), which they can later modify themselves, just like a blog. The "virtual" event combines our Self-Publisher Book Web Site with a lot of copywriting help, advice, and moral support, so people get the site DONE. Although we'll be talking books on the weekend of the...

On Monday, I mailed out copies of Publishize to all the great people who provided endorsements for the book, and of course, family and friends who get copies of all our books. (Yes, Dad, it's in the mail!) It was a big postal event, and it's a good thing a nice man held the door open for me as I lumbered in with my heavy bags full of books. In other news, I just found out that an Associated Press story that mentions our weird 1996 Thanksgiving is online. Here's a link from one of the papers that picked...

As I mentioned last week, I went to the PubWest publishing conference in Portland. On the first day, the keynote speaker was John Ingram. As many of you know, Ingram is the largest book wholesaler in the world, and John is the Vice Chairman of Ingram Industries Inc. and serves as Chairman of Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source Inc., and Ingram Digital Group. Anyway, Lightning Source (aka LSI) is the printer I use. LSI is also John Ingram's "baby." In the early days, he says LSI was referred to as "John's Cute Idea." Of course, now many years and...

Today I'm headed down to the PubWest publishing conference which is being held in Portland, Oregon. I'll also get to see two of my cousins, which is great because they are extremely cool women. Of course, I'll have some of the very first copies of my new Publishize book on hand too ;-) At this point, I'm really looking forward to driving far far away from my computer, because yesterday, I spent an extraordinary amount of time dealing with problem Word documents for a client. Let's just say that today's article is extremely appropriate for these folks. Big...

Today, I was hoping to receive the proof copy of my Publishize book, but it turns out it's somewhere between here and La Vergne, Tennessee. Big sigh. They say patience is a virtue, right? Anyway, the good news is that apparently my files worked perfectly, so all is well with the printer. We like that!  Although I generally hate working on the weekend, I did spend quite a bit of my Sunday dealing with final printouts and changes to the book so I can attest to the fact that really getting a book out the door requires focus.  ...

At long last, it appears I have moved into the necessary Zen mental indexing space and am rapidly cruising along furiously adding index entries to my Publishize book. Because I'm taking it to a publishing conference in mid-November, the book has to go to the printer this week. I have received some really great endorsements for the book and I just finalized the cover. It's all looking really good. Speaking of the book, this week's article expands on a section toward the end that I wrote recently. If you would like to read the article, please use this link:...

This week, amidst quite a bit of client work, I've also been finishing the last pieces of the Publishize book puzzle. I wrote the back cover copy and spent a ton of time fiddling with the cover artwork. I made some strides, but sometimes the creative gods are not willing. It was time to just close the file and try again tomorrow. The good news is that the text of the book is complete and currently in final spousal review. It's headed to Lightning Source next week, and as you authors out there might imagine, I'm really excited....

Today was a good day. I got stopped for speeding and found out my dog has blown out her knee. Yes, it's been one of those "it's all in your perspective" days. I've been worried about my fuzzy black dog Leia. She's 12 now, so she's a bit of an oldster and when she started limping, I worried that it might be cancer. However, today I took her to the vet and learned that the problem is a torn cruciate ligament, which although not good, isn't life threatening. I'm hoping for more years with my gimpy black dog. ...

I've been so busy working on the Publishize BOOK, that I haven't had time to post here about some of the recent articles that have appeared in the Publishize newsletter. Here's the latest with lots of good information for all you self-publishers out there: Do a Blog Tour or Virtual Author Tour - Unlike a traditional book signing, which is generally used to increase sales, a virtual blog tour is about increasing online "buzz" about your book Enhance Your Book's Listing on Amazon - Get your book listing correct on Amazon and take advantage of the extra tools...

In a great flurry of writing activity this week, I finally wrote down the basics of our Publishize Book publishing system. The result is: "7 Steps to Self Publishing Success: Create a Print Book that Establishes Your Credibility and Positions You as an Expert (But Doesn't Cost You a Fortune!)" This report explains the seven steps you need to take to self-publish a print book. It's the same process we went through to produce 8 books in less than 18 months. I also updated our other special report: "The 9 Lives of Content: How to Turn Just One...

I have been sort of lax in my blogging efforts lately, but I wanted to point out that we've written a bunch of nifty Publishize articles late. Plus, my husband James Byrd has been contributing, which is great. He is the co-author of two of our books (Vegan Success and Web Business Success) and brings a different voice and perspective to the whole book writing process. Evaluating Your Print Options for Your Book Project by Susan Daffron Whether you plan to lay out the book yourself or hire out the task, take the...

As usual, we've been busy writing articles. Here are the latest ones from the Publishize newsletter. Anatomy of a Book Layout As a self-publisher, you should learn a few conventions before you lay out your book Six Key Elements of a Book Web Site To market a book online, the first thing you must have is a Web site Which Tasks Should Self-Publishers Outsource? Sometimes the best person for the job is not you, so save your sanity by outsourcing tasks you don't like or...

We've been getting a lot of subscribes to our Publishize newsletter lately. I'm finally writing down a lot of the stuff that has been in my head for the last few years about book publishing, and our Publishize readers benefit from all this hard-won knowledge. Plus, the price is right, since hey, it's a free newsletter ;-) In the last month, I've written these articles: Recycle Your Book into Multiple Products Once you have gone through the effort to develop enough knowledge and expertise to actually write a book, think about how you can reuse...