Slook Mini-Course Participants Page

Welcome Slook Mini-Course Participants!

Please bookmark this page so you have easy access to the assignments, recordings and resources during and after our course.

Dates (mark all 3 on your calendar):
Aug. 15, Thurs.

Overview, what constitutes a great a slook, or any product
Insider tips for creating your slook for maximum revenue and impact
Outline your slook
Your slides

Aug. 22, Thurs.

Your slook’s size, format, cover, title
Incorporating affiliate links
Royalty-free images

Aug. 29, Thurs.

Print resources
Pre-selling
Other products from your slides

Time:
4:00 pm PT (7:00 pm ET)

Pre-Work — complete before Aug. 15

  • Determine which presentation you’ll use for your slook. It should be a popular one for which you don’t already have a book.
  • Ensure your slide deck is in good shape. If you’ve wanted to redesign the deck, do so before we begin.
  • The slide fonts need to be large — really. The image in your slook will be about the size of a business card. Don’t make readers squint.
  • Make sure you have commercial rights to all images. If not, reach out to the copyright holder and get permission.
  • Take a first stab at an outline for your slook. Use your slides as the guide. Where will you make chapter breaks?
  • Download and skim Leadership Lessons from Silicon Valley: How to Survive and Thrive in Disruptive Times. No need to read it. Just get a flavor for how the slides are integrated.

Session Resources

Aug.15 

  • SpeakerNet News’ “Book Marketing Report—What Really Works“
  • Link to the private page for Leadership Lessons from Silicon Valley book buyers: http://wp.me/P1BtvM-CN
  • To export your files from PPT, choose”Save as Pictures”, choose Tiff. Choose Options, Save every slide (series of graphics files). Put these in a folder you’ll send to the page layout professional. In your draft, you’ll note the name of the individual graphic file under each slide. Tip: I found it easiest to save all the slides as a tiff, as then the individual graphic documents matched the slide numbers.
  • Download Sue Balcer from JustYourType’s guide to submitting a Word doc for page layout.
  • Here’s the video from today’s session

Aug. 22

Aug. 29

My special for you:

If you’d like me to review your slides or your slook before you send it to the printer, or to consult with you on how to turn your intellectual property into products, consider this offer. I will offer you 1/2-hour consultation for $125, or 1 hour for $200. This is half of my normal rate. We can get a lot done in an hour!

Vetted Vendors

Before you do business with anyone, do your due diligence. Even though I’ve worked with the following vendors doesn’t mean they will work for you. So talk to them, make certain they can do what you want at a reasonable price and compare them to others before moving forward. And if anyone on this list doesn’t meet your expectations, please let me know.

(Please see my article on this.) I have affiliate relationships with some of the following, but believe me they wouldn’t be on the list if I didn’t have personal excellent experience with them. But you should still do what you need to do to feel comfortable doing business with them.

Transcription

  • If you don’t want to type the text of your talk, have it transcribed. Or dictate it using speech to text. Try the Otter.ai app or Trint.com.

Photo editing

Slide designer/doctor

Ava combines her skills as a speaker and an artist to create kick-ass slide decks that increase retention and reinforce learning. Don’t settle for boring slides. Your audiences and your readers deserve better.

Graphic artists

Kimb is a very fast and reasonably priced. She’s in Winnipeg so if you call her, she’ll call you back. She can do logos, one-sheets, web page design (the look, not the implementation), book covers, bookmarks, DVD/CD labels/covers, postcards, business cards, magalogs, etc.

For 10 years, Bill was the in-house graphic designer for NSA, producing Speaker magazine, all convention materials, flyers, etc. He has a MFA, so has a refined eye. He’s great to work with, is $60/hour, and creates elegant designs.

You launch a graphic “contest” for $69, write a detailed description of what you want and don’t want. Graphic artists from around the world will enter the “contest” to try to win the monetary prize you’ve offered (the site gives you prize guidelines). You can do this for a logo, business card, book cover, web site (look and feel), ad, etc. You MUST give feedback on every entry or they stop submitting. After 7-10 days the contest closes and you award a winner and send them the prize award. They sign a work-for-hire agreement and give you the electronic files for you to do with what you want.

Editor and Proofreader

Barbara can edit your manuscript. When I last asked, she was around $80/hour, with lower rates for bigger projects.

Fast, thorough and cost effective. Email him 10 pages and he’ll give you an estimate for the whole manuscript.

Interior Book Design/Layout

Sue created a great template I’ve now used for 19 books. She offers professional interior book design and typesetting for print and downloadable PDF ebooks. Specializing in non-fiction books of all genres. Extensive experience with IngramSpark, LightningSource, CreateSpace, KindleDirect and traditional printers. Can provide epub and mobi upon request.

Book Creation Help

  • Susan Friedmann, Aviva Publishing, susan@avivapubs.com
    Susan provides full-services for self-publishers, from help creating your manuscript, editing, ISBN numbers, bar codes, to printing. Free 30-minute consultation.
  • Kelly Notaras, KN Literary Arts, www.knliterary.com, 917/757-3466
    Kelly offers a full-service book studio, providing manuscript editing, production, and consultation. Free 30-minute consultation.
  • Bonnie Mattick, Bonnie@BonnieMattick.com
    Bonnie can make your slook more interactive, integrating questions the reader can answer in the slook, quizzes, and other ways to make it engaging.

Book Printers

  • Ingram Spark, printer for small-publisher, self-published books.

In addition to having great customer service, and the lowest prices I could find, they are owned by Ingram, which means your slook will automatically be in the Ingram catalog for a $12/yr. fee. This means any book store can order your slook and it will be printed the next day for a small fee to you ($1.99) plus the price of the printing, and sent to they customer without you doing a thing. Your book is automatically listed on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

You decide how much you want to earn (45-60% typically) and the retailers discount from their share. Also, for no extra fee, you can get your eBook listed and they populate 5 eBook (PDF) sites with your info.

Their site makes it very easy to generate a cover template that you can then give your designer, including the ISBN bar code — for no extra cost. All files are uploaded. $49 setup fee/title; $25 change fee, $30 for a printed proof.

It takes a few weeks to get set up as a publisher in their system, so start now.

Snowfall is great for very short runs. You can get a proof for a few dollars (my 238-page book was $3.55 plus a $5 for postage). Or you can print larger runs. They don’t list you in Ingram, nor do they give you all the tools that Ingram Spark does, but this is great for proofs. Also, this is fabulous if you want to convince a client to buy customized books with their logo on the cover and a letter from their president inside. Do a quick mock up and have one made to send the client. Much more convincing than a PDF!