Let me introduce myself. I am an online marketing and book marketing consultant. I am also a ghostwriter and the published author of the book Hands That Touch, Hands That Heal, and a contributing writer to a number of books, including Online Marketing Heroes, Dear Success Seeker and For This I Am Grateful. I have been involved in all aspects of publishing and self publishing including book design, editing, book proposal development, branding and positioning of books, and much more.

Books are my passion. An avid reader of primarily nonfiction, I estimate that I have easily read well over 5,000 books. My idea of heaven is a never ending library of books with the wisdom of the ages. And all the time in the world to spend savoring the written word.

My categories of interest are biography, inspiration, spiritual, self-help, psychology, business, technology, metaphysics, art, women’s issues, and of course, everything about the Internet and online and offline marketing.

With self publishing flourishing, I encourage people to think about writing their own book. It has been stated that over 80% of Americans would like to write a book.

Although the average sale of a self-published book is only 75 copies, there are still those great success stories of best-selling books that were originally self-published. This includes such books as The One Minute Manager, The Celestine Prophecy, The South Beach Diet,  What Color Is Your Parachute, Legally Blonde, Life’s Little Instruction Book,  The Joy of Cooking, and You Can Heal Your Life.

The key to success for your book is marketing. However, you must also have something that people will want to read. I suggest to my clients that they test market their manuscripts and get honest feedback and make changes if necessary.  If no one really enjoys or sees value in your book, how can you expect anyone to purchase your book or to get a publisher to be interested in your book.

Today publishers want authors to have a “platform.” Your platform is the way you reach people who will read your book. This can be people you have on your mailing list, people who hear you give speeches, people who read your popular blog or newspaper or magazine column, or listen to your radio show. To prepare the field for marketing your book, you should start building a platform.

Study what books have been successful and what the trends are today in publishing. If you start right from the beginning with the goal of writing a book that has appeal to an audience, you have a much better chance of being successful as an author. So many people write a book just to please themselves and then don’t understand why their book just is not marketable. There is nothing wrong with writing a book to please yourself, but then you may be the only one who ever reads it.

For success in publishing, be focused on giving something of interest or value to others through the written word.

e-mail Joan at:  joan at holman.com

Visit Joan’s web site at: www.holman.com