Are you thinking about self-publishing? Find out what you need to know and the questions you should be asking when working with Print on Demand (POD) publishers to avoid rip offs and scams.

Don’t miss this informative free tele-class when VIP Authors founder and publishing consultant Shelley Lieber reveals:

• How to pick a POD publisher
• Two questions POD publishers don’t want you to ask, and why you MUST know this information

This class can help you save hours of time and thousands of dollars. Here’s how to get on the call:

Free Class*: ”Don’t Get Ripped Off: How to Make Informed Decisions when Self-Publishing

When: Wednesday, May 6, 2008 at 2 pm ET (1pm CT, 12pm MT, 11am PT)

Call Info: Dial (641) 715-3300. Enter Access Code: 171279#

* The class is free to attend, but long distance charges may apply.

I’ll admit to using the title question as a play on words. The “one sheet” I’m referring to is a marketing tool, not a single page of manuscript. Speakers have been using one sheets for years, but it’s a relatively new item for writers who traditionally have relied on bios, summaries, reviews and press releases to promote their work. If you’re not getting the results you want from your promotional efforts, you may want to try a new format for presenting your material.

A one sheet can actually be two-sided, but essentially it’s a brief summary that encapsules the essence of the author, book and topic or message. It’s a handy-dandy item that can be faxed (least desirable), emailed or downloaded from your website. You can mail or email one sheets to introduce yourself to the media, bookstores and/or any audience that you want target.

The content you include in your one sheet will vary according to your specific purpose, but it should contain the following:

1. Book cover image, ISBN number, retail price and ordering information.
2. Short synopsis or summary of the book.
3. Your photo, brief bio relevant to the book and contact information (website, email, phone number, publicist’s or agent’s info, etc)
4. Quotes or excerpts from reviews, testimonials or endorsements.

Additionally, you can tailor the one sheet to represent your other functions. Are you a coach, speaker or consultant? Add a section with the titles and descriptions of services, seminars or presentations you offer.

One sheets can be created in Microsoft Word or in graphic programs such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign. The final document must be converted to pdf so it can be easily be read online, downloaded or emailed. Making a pdf also preserves your fonts so that even when the document is opened on someone else’s computer, it will still look the same as you intended. (A pdf is read online in Adobe Reader, a program that anyone can download for free and most people already have installed on their computers.)

Adair Cates, author of Live Your Intention: Ten Steps to Creating the Life of Your Dreams, has three one-sheets, each tailored to a specific audience. Adair has become a master at promotion on a shoe-string budget, doing much of the work herself. It’s paid off in a big way for her and the response she has garnered has paved the way to creating a video featuring her book and speaking. She has also posted video clip and photos from the many media interviews she has arranged.

Adair is not trained as a graphic designer or media specialist, so she invested the time to find out what other successful authors and speakers were doing and then did what she needed to do to get the same results. More often than not, publishing success requires learning new skills, stepping out of comfort zones and experimenting with new strategies. If you need assistance with the graphic presentation, hire a graphic designer to help you produce a document with a professional flair.

So, spice up your presentation with a new look. One sheets are a simple, inexpensive and effective way to transmit your message. And you may find that the new approach can make a big difference in the response you receive.

Who doesn’t like to hear the story of an individual succeeding in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds? Some like to call it The American Dream, but truly such accomplishments are examples of The Universal Dream, because the spirit that enables unlikely dreams to come true knows no geographical boundaries.

Next to author interviews, my favorite articles to clip and save (although today it’s more like print and save–or bookmark and save) are author success stories. I have real-time and virtual folders stuffed full of great things that have happened to writers and literature lovers.

Sometimes I flip through the articles and wonder, “Why them?” or “How are they different?” as I try to find the common denominator for success. I know from years of writing advertising and marketing copy that the key to success is tied to making yourself or your work stand out in the crowd.

One way to stand out is to start believing in your dream. Most people give up before they even begin. Don’t buy into the naysayer “wisdom” and “facts” that run rampant in publishing. Learn the difference between facts and truth.

Facts: Less people are reading books. Less people are buying books. Newspapers are eliminating book review sections. Small, independent booksellers are being swallowed up by the chains.

Truth: This is the best time to open an independent book store. As reported in The New York Times, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo graduated with an English degree from New York University in 2001 and went to work for a publishing company. Not feeling the joy she hoped the publishing position would bring, she went back to work part-time at an indie bookstore in the West Village where she had worked during college. Realizing that she was happier there than in her full-time position, Jessica decided to open her own bookstore.

But, in addition to all the facts stated above, Jessica also had no funds or connections that could help her raise the money she would need. So she took a class from the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation. While researching how to write business plans at the Brooklyn Public Library, Jessica saw a Citibank-sponsored contest for business plans. She entered and took first prize–$15,000.

Unbeknownst to Jessica, a business group in another part of Brooklyn surveyed their residents and discovered what people wanted most in their neighborhood was a bookstore. When the group read of Jessica’s contest win in The Daily News, they contacted her and the meeting led to a fundraising party in the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Food and drink were donated by local merchants and the party was staffed by volunteers from the neighborhood as well as celebrities who read about the event and wanted to offer support. During the celebration, Jessica announced that she had a new business partner, a sales rep for Random House, who was making a sizable personal donation to the cause.

Perhaps Jessica was referring to “the facts” when she said, “Maybe I’m an optimist, but I see the other side of it. Which is that only a bookstore can inspire this kind of passion.”

Why does everyone love a bookstore? Because it’s filled with good stories! Love stories, adventure stories, how-to stories, fantasy stories, life stories and success stories. Support your local bookstore. Attend a book signing and buy the book. Then go home and write. Read in your genre and take time to learn about publishing. And if you believe (remember Tinker Bell), before long I’ll be cutting out the article about you and putting it my success folder.

Sometime back when you were in middle school or high school, some English teacher probably taught you about the concept of the main idea and how to use it to develop a paragraph and ultimately, an essay or composition. Like everything else in today’s fast-paced techno-society, the main idea has been abbreviated to single words or short phrases now known as “key words.”

Your attention to this detail may have begun when some techie told you that no one would find your website without good key words. SEO (search engine optimization) experts seemed to have developed a whole industry around the use of key words. While I’ve yet to master the concepts of SEO, I have found one great use for key words, thanks to Google.

Just like being able to identify the main idea or key phrases to bring your audience to your website, you can use these same words to bring your audience to your email box with Google Key Word Alerts. By setting up a free account and identifying a series of words or phrases, you can register to receive hourly, daily or weekly notification about articles or blog posts on the Internet that contain your key words. The “alerts” are delivered directly to your email box, for you to read at your leisure.

For example, my key words for the Alerts are book publishing, self-publishing, book marketing, my name, my book title, my publishing company’s authors’ names and book titles and my husband’s name and company. I receive my alerts daily (hourly was too intense and distracting and weekly was too overwhelming). I know when someone mentions our names or books/products in a blog, article or press release posted on the Internet. I’m also informed when someone writes about any of the topics I’ve identified.

Why would I want this information? In the case of the industry-related key words, it helps keep me current on trends and important events and relieves me of the task of having to scour dozens of publications for the information. If I’m following a story in the news, I receive timely updates.

By receiving alerts for name, book title and company as well as key words, I know when someone is talking or writing about people and/or subjects relevant to me. It gives me an opportunity to review the information, and in the case of blogs, comment if it is appropriate.

For example, I recently received an alert for Adair Cates‘ Live with Intention, a book published by my company, Visual Impressions Publishing. The alert linked to a discussion board called Live with Intention, and all the members were people seeking the kind of information that Cates covers in her book. I forwarded her the information so that she could join the discussion group and talk with her potential audience. (See previous post that mentioned how Jeff Rivera built his readership through discussion groups, and eventually landed a publishing contract?)

Blogs are heavily monitored by the search engines, and posts and comments to posts show up almost immediately. I have found my name turn up in a search for a key word simply because I made a comment on someone else’s blog post–so you don’t even have to have your own blog or website for this to work for you. Of course, it is better to have somewhere to link your name so you can take advantage of the traffic, but having just your name in print in the subject area helps to build your platform.

If you haven’t identified your key words yet, do it now. Then sign up for Google Key Word Alerts and try it out. The beauty of it is that besides being free, you can add and delete words and phrases at any time and the changes are effective immediately. You may have to experiment until you find the right combination of words, but it’s fun and illuminating. And so cool.