During this forty minute, unscripted conversation, Jon asks Morris about how he found success with eBook sales, whether eBook sales impacts his traditional book sales, and why he decided to publish eBooks without DRM. Morris also talks about the limitations of trendy digital reading gadgets like Kindle for self-publishers from a revenue standpoint.

Other topics covered in this podcast include:

- Why Morris embeds live URL links in his eBooks.

‘- Which eBook topics are “sellable” for self-publishers and which topics (e.g. fiction) should be avoided.

- How eBooks extend Morris’ books sales internationally.

- Different eBook business models, from the unethical to the naive to the most effective.

- How much content within the eBook Morris gives away and how to make judgements about “free content for traffic” versus giving your books away.

- The distinction between hard-selling tactics and building “virtual trust” with potential readers.

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Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.
——

After we taped this podcast, both of us felt that we can improve upon this one, so we look forward to your comments. But, there’s enough on here worth sharing, including:

- Why blog “traffic” is deceptive and why web sites structured like books tend to get much better Google “love.”

- Morris explains why his blog traffic is significantly lower than his “static” pages, and why “blogging is a curse.”

- The dangers of publishers skipping the text-based content lessons of “Web 1.0″ and heading directly to the sexy social media era of Web 2.0.

- The continued victory of content over aesthetics when it comes to web business, especially for content producers.

- A juxtaposition of lifestyles between the high traffic self-publisher and the overworked blogger/consultant, as well as unfair dismissals and mockery of “cool bloggers.”

- How Free From Corporate America’s concepts on building income-generating assets mix well with Morris’ views on lifestyle profitability and the value of having a income profit margin versus overworking yourself for top line revenue.

- Morris’s 100,000 plus YouTube visitors and why they have had no positive bottom line impact on his business due to their lack of text-based traffic generation. (as well as the inherent difficulties of making multi-media searchable).

- The value of “contextual links” and why Morris would much rather have a high quality contextual link from an obscure site in his industry than a non-contextual link from a hot blogger.

- The limitations of getting home page links from blogs versus more desirable “deep links” to reference pages on your site from well-regarded sites in your industry.

- A brief review of hot social media sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) and an insufficient discussion of their pros and cons (a topic to be returned to in future postings and podcasts)

- Victory for Jon’s Zoom H-2 Recorder over Morris’ weak Walmart recorder that crapped out 10 minutes into the podcast.

- Traffic stats are cited, as well as how Morris tracks the traffic of his site compares to others using free tools (Alexa, Google Trends, and Quantcast).

FACT CHECK: As stated in the podcast, Morris’ web site traffic does currently exceed (or equal, depending on the tool) the traffic on Amazon’s Mobi site.

SHOUTOUT: To the Enterprise Geeks and Bill Simmons of ESPN for providing further validation of the longer, unscripted podcast format.

——
Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.
——

While POD is a great avenue for entrepreneurs to explore, some “POD fanatics” fall into the hype that “POD is going to change everything.” The idea that new technologies level playing fields while large corporations tremble in fear is totally overblown. In a recent entry on this site, I write more about the realistic possibilities of POD and take a few shots at the POD-will-change-everything crowd.

POD is certainly relevant to the themes of my upcoming book Free From Corporate America, and that is why I am writing a bit on this theme here. Recently, I received an email from someone in my POD group that highlighted some misconceptions about book marketing that are relevant to consider here.

The argument between this other list member and myself was partially centered on the design and appearance issue. This person is a designer, and he has a very well-thought point of view on the importance of making books look professional and aesthetically pleasing. He feels that many POD publishers — especially those who design books in Microsoft Word – are releasing books that suffer enough in appearance that it hurts their marketability.

This leads to a fascinating debate that gets a little less fascinating the hundredth time you have it: how important is interior design and appearance to book sales? There is a secondary question, about whether or not you can achieve a professional look within Microsoft Word, and I’ll consider that question also.

With that context in mind, let’s take a look at the email interaction I had with this individual. In part, his email to me said:

“OK, lets talk marketing. I contend the following:

1. The most cost-effective marketing tool for many/most small and self-publishers is a review in one of the big prepub reviews.

2. A book that looks amateurish, e.g., laid out in MSWord, won’t get a review.

3. Therefore a mediocre layout with the tell-tale MSWord indicators is a detriment to effective marketing.

Is it possible to sell a book with mediocre layout? Of course. My wife bought a book laid out ragged right in Courier, just because it was in one of her favorite genres. But I believe in making every aspect as good as possible, and catching every sale possible. That means quality writing, careful editing, a good cover, indexing where that is appropriate, quality layout, seeking prepub reviews, working the Amazon review scene, creating a blog, and so on. Focusing on one aspect does not excuse neglecting the others.”

My email response focused mostly on the prepub review concept. I said:

“As for your assertion that the most cost-effective marketing tool for many/most small and self-publishers is a review in one of the big prepub reviews, I completely disagree. The best marketing tool is an effective, high traffic web site. One review, even a major one, will not sustain anything, nor does huge one time exposure lead to sales. A sustained marketing channel via the Internet, and a successful, high traffic web site, is best. There is such a thing as a “good enough” layout for a book that is well marketed and there are many arguments for not having your work stuck in a design program when it comes to making revisions and such.”

In many ways, this response was not detailed enough to address his points. Let’s take a step back and see what the key issues are in his argument.

First, his argument assumes that any book laid out in Microsoft Word is going to be perceived as amateurish in layout. I don’t agree with that. However, he is certainly right that laying out books in MSWord can lead inexperienced publishers into sloppy layouts if they are not well-versed on book design principles.

It is the lack of knowledge of book design, rather than inherent flaws in Microsoft Word, that lead to substandard book layouts. However, any startup publisher that takes the time to read Aaron Shepard’s book on laying out books in Microsoft Word, and also backs that knowledge up with mastery of other book design principles, can certainly issue a book that does not reveal itself to be unprofessional by a reviewer.

One of the problems with the “MSWord means no book reviews” perspective is that no one designs their book covers in Word. I would argue that an amateurish cover design is far more likely to have a negative impact on book reviewers than an MS Word interior.

The other thing that is missing from our discussion is the reality that most of the big prepub reviewers can tell that you are a small publisher based on your ISBN block. ISBNs are sold in blocks of 10, 100, and 1,000. Most POD publishers start with 10, or at most, 100. It’s those small ISBN blocks that reveal the size of the publishing house.

I have heard some difference in opinion in terms of how much you flag yourself as a small publisher through ISBN blocks, or how much reviewers notice this at all, but the bottom line is the book reviewers are biased towards reviewing books from presses they have heard of, from publishing houses that are generally respected, whether that reputation is deserved or not. It’s your market reputation as a publisher, more than anything, that wins you reviews.

There is a misconception that the fact that your book is a POD book hurts you with reviewers. What hurts you more is the name recognition (or lack thereof) of your publishing house, rather than how you print your books. Whether you print your books in groups of 1,000 or one a time does not impact your review chances as much as whether you are a small self-publisher or a large press.

Quality of print job is also a consideration. POD printing is still not up to the quality that we see from an “offset” print run. So this person’s warning about MSWord doesn’t take into account that no matter how good your layout program is, POD printing is still going to be of a lesser quality in most cases than a good offset printing job.

However, this is not something to be discouraged about. I am not convinced that prepub reviewers would rule your book out if your look and feel was a bit off the industry norm. I’ve seen some paperbacks from large publishers that didn’t look so hot either. I do think it’s important to lay your book out as well as you can, but my original point, that there is such a thing as a “good enough” layout, still stands.

While I don’t think that a book laid out in MSWord necessarily hurts you with the prepub gauntlet, I don’t believe prepub reviews are the key to sales for a small publisher anyhow. I would trade a full page spread in the New York Times Book Review for a high volume web site anyday.

A high traffic web site is the key to long term book sales. I learned this the hard way. Resumes from Hell, my second book, has gotten some awesome media exposure. But it did not lead to enormous sales because it was not sitting in the front of every bookstore, ready to capitalize on the “stumble factor” of those who had heard of the book from our publicity.

On the other hand, my first book, The SAP Consultant Handbook, has done very well in sales, without ever having national publicity. The key to sales? Sustained sales volume based on exposure of my work on high traffic web sites. The SAP Consultant Handbook was laid out in MSWord, and its cover was designed in PowerPoint. For the business readers I am targeting, the book is attractive enough. It wouldn’t win any design awards, but that’s not the point. The point is that the book has been a profit center for years and continues to be so.

I always knew that Resumes from Hell needed a better book design than I could get from MSWord. A better way of expressing it might be to say that it needed a better look and feel than I could give it. We hired a professional designer for this one, and the book has illustrations and a fantastic cover design to boot.

Resumes from Hell is a great looking book. It looks far better than the SAP book, which looks fine also. But Resumes from Hell just looks really, really good. However, the SAP book continues to outsell Resumes from Hell, despite its inferior design. There are loads of business lessons here that apply to all kinds of contexts, and I won’t insult the reader by spelling them all out here.

Obviously, there is a time and a place for a beautifully designed book interior. I think the real issue is that every book has a different need in terms of design and marketing. Publicity and reviews can be a help, but only if they are leveraged properly. That means putting all the exposure in the context of an Internet-based marketing strategy.

Talk show appearances might be part of the marketing plan also. But getting the web site active first is the key to taking the best advantage of further exposure. Time spent fussing to make a book look perfect might be better spent fussing over finding a readership. Without a readership, a great looking book is just a coffee table showpiece for the holiday party. And I can think of a lot cheaper ways to put something nice on a coffee table than to waste time and resources on a publishing venture that turns out to be a vanity project.

In my upcoming book Free From Corporate America, I talk a lot about the importance of marketing and identifying your audience. The idea is not to diminish other key tasks, but to put sales and marketing at the center. The same is true of a publishing venture. I would never dismiss a commitment to quality and attention to detail. But I would say that too many of us focus on the wrong things.

When we prioritize things the wrong way, we end up with pretty things we can’t sell. A lot of times, the things that sell best are a little bit ugly. My dreamiest and most elegant writing has never sold as well as my practical business commentary. I don’t like this any more than any other sensitive artist, but itâ’s a fact we can either face or go broke running away from.

Interestingly enough, right after I finished this entry, I read an update from Timothy Sykes on how his major publicity campaign was going. Timothy Sykes, as you’ll recall, was the subject of my “good and bad aspects of POD publishing” piece I posted a couple months ago. In that piece, I wrote that “I think Timothy will be shocked at how few book sales he gets on Amazon after major interviews and publicity pushes.”

In another self-publishing blog comment, Timothy recently noted exactly that. Looking back on his successful, high-profile campaigns, Timothy said, “For my book ‘An American Hedge Fund,’ I was shocked to discover that the 200+ pre-release blurbs, the 100 blog reviews and 3 mainstream reviews have done little to help sales.”

As I’ve noted, this does not mean that there isn’t a time and place for a savvy publicity campaign. But if we treat each book as a profit center, which I believe we should, then a big campaign can set us back $10,000 or more – and it takes a lot of book sales to make that kind of money up. For true profitability, for most POD book titles, an Internet-based marketing strategy is the only one that usually makes sense.

The book publishing business can be very rewarding, whether or not you move a lot of titles. But I believe the most successful self-publishers worry less about looking good and getting huge PR, and more about connecting to their target market online and presenting their books as part of some kind of Internet-based value proposition they have already developed in collaboration with their intended audience.

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.

Hello – I enjoyed your podcast interview on POD publishing and thought it was thought-provoking. As the moderator of Yahoo’s POD group, as well as an experienced POD publisher who has put out both profitable and non-profitable titles, I’d like to offer my response to the podcast.

I thought some of the information in the interview, and the post-interview wrap, was very much on track. I also thought there were some misconceptions that should be cleared up.

Let’s start with what was right on target: what everyone said about fiction not being a good option for self-publishing is absolutely correct. Self-publishing works much better for non-fiction topics, and those non-fiction topics should be marketable “niches” focused around a platform that the author is developing that might include consulting and speaking engagements and most certainly includes a content-rich web site at the heart of the marketing effort.

You touched on the importance of platform in your interview wrap and that’s absolutely spot-on. Also, Timothy smartly mentioned Lightning Source, which is far and away the best POD option for a number of reasons, primarily because it’s a powerful inroad into Amazon and allows you to control your own discount. However, you must be a publisher with your own ISBN block, not an author publishing an individual title, to work with Lightning Source.

Now let me touch on some misconceptions in the interview. I think some of the misconceptions come down to some evangelical zeal about POD as some kind of “disruptive technology” that is going to revolutionize publishing and put power in author’s hands. It’s true that POD lowers the overhead and barriers to entry into publishing, but publishing is still a tough business.

It’s important to understand that just because a distribution channel changes doesn’t mean that the deep-pocketed players of the existing industry won’t be on the inside track. For example, just because music ends up being delivered online doesn’t mean that the major record labels that exist today won’t get the lion’s share of the profits from that medium.

I think Timothy will end up regretting his decision to turn down his five figure book deal, but with a couple of disclaimers. His motivations for publishing aren’t always clear to me in the interview. If making money on this one individual book is his primary motivation, then he should have gone with the book deal he turned down. On the other hand, if he truly has a passion for publishing and wants to roll out a serious of books and make it a life’s work, then he may love his decision.

Self-publishing is a great business for those who have a passion for publishing, who are incorporating publishing into an existing consulting/Internet business, and/or who like to “live lean” and have a “lifestyle business” that gives them a lot of creative control over what they publish and how they live. But if I was a millionaire looking to make money, and that was my prime motivation, I’d be in real estate, or financing initial public offerings, or some other more lucrative business for upstarts with money than publishing. Publishing is a business with a vanishing middle class, and I don’t believe POD will change that fundamentally.

POD will boost the “lower classes” in publishing though, and that can make a difference for people who know how to live with a lower operating cost, where a modest income somewhere on the long tail is good enough for them. Another appealing scenario: self-publishing helps someone solidify their “expert brand” and generates lucrative consulting engagements. The wealthiest self-publishers I know all fit that description, and leverage their book sales for their bigger ticket sales in something else. This was not discussed in the podcast.

Here’s a major challenge that did not get fully addressed in the podcast: getting into bookstores. I have experienced first-hand, and have seen many other examples, of major national publicity awarded to a book that is self-published and available on Amazon, but not available in bookstores. I think Timothy will be shocked at how few book sales he gets on Amazon after major interviews and publicity pushes.

In order to capitalize on publicity, you need your book in bookstores, and not just in the back somewhere, but up front, where there is a “stumble factor.” This is something that self-publishers cannot accomplish unless they become major publishing companies. Perhaps Timothy will pull that off. But he is likely to lose a lot of money paying a marketing firm to get huge exposure and then find that the books he sells off the exposure from Amazon don’t come anywhere near to justifying the cost.

That’s why all the successful self-publishers I know either have a more lucrative option for some of their PR exposure (like turning web visitors into high-paying consulting gigs), or have a more affordable, Internet-based marketing strategy that doesn’t involve paying a PR firm huge money for great ego-feeding publicity that doesn’t result in sustained book sales.

Successful self-publishing is not about big splashes but sustained, search-engine-driven sales momentum, year in, year out. And if a title starts to really take off, it often makes sense to work with a big player to really drive it across the airport bookstores and wherever else volume sales can happen. Sure, maybe you make less per book, but you sell a whole lot more books. And don’t forget, the branding value of that high volume exposure is a major market advantage also – another point that was not touched on in the discussion.

One thing I really disagree with is that idea that authors with an established following are ideally cut out for self-publishing. Actually, the reverse is true. It’s authors who have an emerging niche but not a huge following who are ideal candidates to break into publishing via self-publishing.

Once you have a nice following and an agent who actually returns your phone calls, you are in a much better position to leverage a good deal with the bigger publishing houses, and the real way to make money in publishing is through high volume sales. Timothy seems to have an appetite for the big bucks. You get there by doing Harry Potter or by being a Dr. Phil type of non-fiction person, and that is about selling a ton of books for less royalty rather than selling a much smaller amount on your own, albeit at a higher percentage.

Another misconception of your podcast is that the “long tail” is some kind of amazing opportunity for an entrepreneur. POD’s ability to extend the long tail by keeping thousands of books in print means great business for Amazon, and for big publishers who own thousands of titles, but for a small publisher, having a few books somewhere on the long tail is not a big money proposition, nor is it some kind of publishing revolution. It’s merely a new business opportunity – a great one for those who have a passion for creative control and doing things “their way,” but not for the next Bill Gates. If that’s what you want, you’re better off starting a software company.

I couldn’t disagree more about the comments regarding disrupting the music industry. I agree that the delivery of music will change more dramatically than books, it already has – simply because iPods are a lot more fun that portable electronic book readers. But the music industry is as “locked up corporate” as you can get. I have known a lot of promising local bands who tried to “do it yourself” and attempted to sell songs themselves without a label.

Very very tough road. Music is so subjective — you have to get your music out to a ton of listeners to build your percentage of loyal followers. At least book marketing can be driven by keywords, a more objective assessment. If you’re interested in SAP consulting, for example, there’s a pretty decent chance you might be interested in my book on that topic, but it’s much more difficult to establish a direct relevance through a musical description. People like what they like, and they won’t know it until they hear it. That takes marketing skill and muscle. The former can be learned, the latter takes big bucks.

The idea that there aren’t many big recording artists today is crazy. True, rock is struggling, but that’s not because the music business isn’t making money. Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Jack Johnson — the list of hugely successful recording artists goes on, and I haven’t even mentioned the American Idol success stories. Success in music requires big time marketing muscle. It’s hard for artists to do that themselves.

The scenario you described of an artist breaking away from labels to do it themselves was tried by Prince, and it was a recipe for obscurity. Without the marketing muscle of a label, his music died on the vine. And don’t think for a minute that a big artist can divorce their label and still get all the lucrative tour money as you suggested.

Labels control tours through their exclusives with companies like TicketMaster. Pearl Jam valiantly tried to fight this system and lost. I’m sure they have no regrets, but if Pearl Jam with all their power and conviction couldn’t change the system, we should at least respect the ferocity of entrenched corporate interests, rather than assuming that technical innovations will easily bowl them over.

Ironically, of the three entertainment industries you touched on, the one you mentioned the least, film, may be the one with the biggest financial upside in the short term — though the upfront investment is still the highest of the three. There are far more “break outâ” independent film success stories of films put out on a budget using new technology than we have seen in publishing and music combined. True, these successful films were picked up by established distributors, but technology does level some playing fields in film for those with creative vision, while at the same time promising a bigger financial upside to the creators who are successful.

I am all in favor of folks taking up new technology to change their world. I chose to get involved in POD precisely because of that. I believe in independent media and do believe we can have an impact on our world through such a commitment. I hope that Timothy has that same passion, because being a pioneer in an industry rarely means cashing out.

If you look at the history of the modern high-tech and Internet booms, many of the earliest and most important innovators did not cash out. Their ideas were leveraged by those with deep pockets who understood mass marketing. The same is likely to be true for many of these publishing and POD innovations.

It can be very rewarding and challenging, in a good sense, to be on the cutting edge, as long as you realize what you are up against. I know Timothy will find success as he has too many resources and skills not to. But I do hope he will come back and do a podcast in a year or two to share what he has learned. And I hope folks without Timothy’s resources who are thinking about POD will go into it appreciating its potential, but also with their eyes wide open.

Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews.

You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.