Review: Self Publishing – Your complete business plan for creating a life without borders. By Gary Scott.

How to make a six figure income by starting your own self-publishing business.

Written by Gary Scott and published by the American Writers & Artists Institute, this 350+ page guide will show you how to become a successful self-publisher by taking you through an eleven-step product development process, complete with case histories, exercises, sample sales letter and more.

Before I go into any more detail about the contents, let me share some of my first impressions as I read through this guide.

He had me from the first page...

Gary Scott has been making a substantial living as a self-publisher for over 30 years. And you can tell, right away, he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

The Web is awash with dozens, if not hundreds of e-books and downloads written by self-appointed experts on the topic of self-publishing. I have read some of them, and they are light, flimsy and less than useful.

In contrast, as soon as you start reading Self Publishing by Gary Scott, you KNOW you are in the company of someone who not only knows exactly what he’s writing about, but also knows how to articulate and share the process behind his own success.

Maybe I’ll sound a littler age-ist...but those thirty years he has been working at this make a difference.

I have been a copywriter for thirty years myself. And after the first five years I started writing articles on the subject.

But when I compare the depth of my knowledge back then to what it is now, I cringe. Back then I was already successful, but my knowledge was relatively thin. It had to be. I had been copywriting for only five years. Today I have another twenty five years of experience behind me. It makes a huge difference.

Here what struck me first as I started reading this guide...

I thought to myself, “Here’s someone with a massive base of knowledge and understanding in this area. And he knows how to share that knowledge as a process that anyone can follow. This guy is worth reading.”

This is about building a business, not publishing a single e-book.

Gary breaks down his business approach into eleven steps.

He is clearly quite analytical in his thinking and his approach. He doesn’t guess, or just write stuff and then try to find buyers.

He is far more structured than that.

And he starts with a very basic premise: “Publishing is marketing.”

In fact, he writes his sales letters BEFORE he writes the book, guide, newsletter series or course.

That in itself is a profound lesson. By writing the promotional material first, you are helping yourself see your prospective buyers with enormous clarity.

You get to see who they are, what they need, what interests them, what attracts them...and how you can help them.

Also, by writing the promotion, you are also giving yourself clarity in terms of the channels you will use to reach your buyers. A mailing list? An email list? A web site? Radio advertising? Conferences?

The sales channels you use will help you optimize your promotions and, in turn...guide you as you write the product itself.

Just to repeat...publishing is marketing. So you put the marketing first, and then work forward from there.

This is not a quick read...

As I have mentioned, there is enormous depth in this guide. A lifetime of experience and lessons learned are hard to get into 350 pages.

As a result, this guide is very dense. Every page is filled with hard-won insights, examples, figures and recommendations.

- It covers self-publishing and marketing in print, and online. So this will work for you whether you plan on using offline media like direct mail, or online media like email and web sites.

 

- It includes exercises, to help you frame you own publishing plans within the proven framework of the program.

 

- It includes contact information for a host of companies and individuals you may want to contact for supplies, services and advice.

 

- Most important of all, it outlines the specific process Gary uses himself to generate his own, seven-figure income.

If you truly want to make a good income as a self-publisher, this is the kind of guide you will find yourself reading several times...and you’ll be book marking as you go.

You certainly won’t get all you need from this in a single reading.

Remember, this is about building a self-publishing business, not about writing a flash-in-the-pan e-book.

If you interested in building a profitable business as a self-publisher, you’ll find more information , in Gary Scott’s own words, here...