Getting my work to the masses

Hi
OK, so during my work I became quite proficient in a certain Computer Graphics tool, and I was noticing how much of the online community moans there is a lack of training material. This is compounded by there not being a single book on the subject.

So I decided to embark on writing one myself, both to aid my own knowledge and of course to help others.

So I am 4 or 5 chapters in, and I need to think about getting my work published. I have tried a couple of computer book publishers, but they say the target audience is too small. So is self-publishing/POD the way to go?

How do I go about it? As I said before, I scared myself to death with all the POD horror stories, so any tips would be great.

I expect it to be a low volume seller - maybe 50 a month max.

Check the Bewares and Background Check board. A new thread with good info is called "Perfect bound copy" (or similar). Some of the older threads, particularly the long PA thread holds some nuggets about the pros and cons of self and vanity publishing.

How about an ebook? Less overhead and startup costs.

Hey! I ran into the same difficulty with a book I wrote.

I have a pretty well-defined target audience. I had my work copyrighted and then contacted DiscMakers and had it put on CD's. I put together a graphic label for the slipcover and had 1000 copies made. Came to $1,000 which was a flat-out expense.

My next step was to get a website. I teach in a high school so I had one of the students from the computer club put that together for me. Here's my website

My site includes a few sample pages, and a download-able chapter. I also included an FAQ's page and ordering information.

I set up a Paypal account which links to a checking account so that people can order on-line and the $ goes right into my account.

I ordered a bulk e-mail program and then signed up on-line with various companies that supply opt-in lists of e-mail addresses. I started sending out e-mails, posting on FFA's (Free For All's, = want ads).

I signed up with a company called Overture that listed my website on the major search engines, like Google and so forth.

The title of my book includes the names of the software which it addresses, and I included these terms in the 'search list' for the Search engines.

I was selling the CD's for $99 each, and quickly made my initial investment back. Word of mouth helps a lot.

I also placed a few ads in educational journals but these are exorbitantly expensive.

I found a website that contained a list of all the names and addresses of K-12 schools across the US. My next step is to put together a flier and do a bulk mailing.
We've got a folding machine and a postage machine at the school. I'm going to do one state at a time and see what happens!

Bottom line - if you know who your audience is, try and find a way to contact them directly. Spamming via e-mail is forbidden and will just turn people off and will probably get you sued. Don't do it.
You CAN e-mail people legitimately. Here are some services you might want to try out:
Business World List
Blast 4 trafficFFA Net
Lead Club
This one's good

Good luck! Remember, don't spam!!! Investigate trade journals. I wrote a few small articles for an educational technical journal and that helped get my name out there.

I'm trying to get them to write a review of my work. They've agreed to do so but I haven't seen it in print yet.....

Way to go! Just looked at your website and you did a good job of doing a straightforward no-nonsense sales page.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, there is a lot of good info in your post to help others who are thinking or preparing a book or CD.

Glad to hear you recouped your expenses and I know it must be very satisfying for you.

What great ideas for getting your product info out there! I would think emailing would save a whole lot of money compared to mass snail mail. How can a person draft an email to make it clear it isn't spam?

About the software program, who made the software in the first place? Would they be interested in your manual and promote it for you? I don't know how the intellectual property works for computers, but is it okay to make a manual for someone elses project?

I know if you can make the manual easy to read and follow, you'll get lots of buyers. Nothing bores non-computer people more than a thick computer manual. To answer your question about whether to go the self-publishing route, how are the other software manual writers publishingi their information? There is bound to be a shortcut without having to wonder into such a questionable medium. Getting on Amazon.com and other sites where people look for computer manuals will help you, but I think you can get listed there yourself without going through a self-publishing company.