Mini-Course Participants Page

Welcome Mini-Course Participants!

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

Here are the Zoom login instructions:
Meeting ID: 522 480 955
Assignments
You will have assignments after each session. These are designed so that if you do the assignments, you should be ready (or very close to ready) to produce your product in a month. The assignments will likely take you 30-60 minutes, so schedule that in your week. If you don’t do the assignments, you won’t be able to produce your product quickly.
Learning Buddy
You’ll talk to your learning buddy after each session and offer feedback on each other’s ideas. Plan on 30 minutes for each of you each week, so an hour total. Past participants who have these meeting for the duration of the course get much more value from the course and produce their product within a month.

Pre-Work — complete before April 2

  • Brainstorm as many products as you think you can produce and sell before and after your presentation, or your comic show, or online. We’ll, most likely, expand this list, but I want you to come having given thought to this.
  • Then take a stab at determining which one will
    1) be quick and easy to produce and
    2) will sell the most.
    This may change during the course, but I want you to have an idea of what product to start with.
  • If you can’t make a session, please listen to the recording ASAP, as you’ll want to work on your assignment. A link to the recording will be posted on our private page as soon as it’s available, within a few hours of the live session.

Dates (mark all 3 on your calendar)

Session 1: Create a Product Your Target Audience Rushes to Buy
Thurs., April 2, 4:00-5:00 PST/7:00-8:00 EST

Too many people have garages full of unsold product. Even if your product is electronic, you want to uncover the needs of your target market — what they want and will pay for. You don’t want to waste time producing something no one buys. This first step is the foundation on which successful products are built. You will determine how you going to sell it. Even the most brilliant products languish if they aren’t promoted. We’ll cover key elements of your marketing/sales plan.

Session 2: Plan Your Product
Thurs., April 9, 4:00-5:00 PST/7:00-8:00 EST

We’ll go through the process of planning what you’ll create so you ensure you include what’s important to potential buyers. You’ll have a step-by-step roadmap to implement in week 3.

Session 3: Start to Create Your Product
Thurs., April 16, 4:00-5:00 PST/7:00-8:00 EST

We’ll walk through what you need to create your product. You’ll see how you can redeploy elements of previous work so this step will be easier than you think. Then this week you’ll start to create (or perhaps complete!) your product and get feedback. (Plan an extra hour to your homework allotment.)

Session Resources

April 2, Thurs.

The wonky recording, for what it’s worth. Sorry again! Start it at 1:15. I don’t think anything else could go wrong!
Download the recording

Assignment:

  1. Describe your peeps/fans
  2. What is their pain or desired outcome?
  3. List your already-established sales channels 
  4. Outline your product. What will you include?

April 9, Thurs.

Download the slides

Download the recording

Assignment:

Outline your process

    • What resources do you need to find?
    • What do you think you should charge?
    • Who can you ask to review your product?

Marcia’s book trailer

Title checker

April 16, Thurs.

Recording

My special for you:

If you’d like me to review your product before you producer, 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!

Imprinted & Loaded USB Drives

110 Media Services, Paul Kovacs, 110MediaServices@gmail.com http://www.110MediaServices,  949/981-1596