1. Do the moneymaking things first.
For an entrepreneur, generating income is the most important job. Without income, your business will cease to exist.

Picture books are only one small part of the enormous field of children’s literature. There are so many more opportunities for independent and small press publishers. The key to success in both creating and selling in this market is understanding the age and reading levels and the requirements of each category.

Once your book hits bookstore shelves, you’ve got approximately eight months to produce sales. If your book doesn’t prove itself after the eight months, it will almost certainly get pulled. So the time to do your marketing is way before your book even thinks about hitting the shelves.

Many independent publishers look at book clubs as the province of major publishers, and subsequently overlook them. The smaller firms think that the BookSpan clubs are too big for them.

Do you want to be quoted by the national press on a daily basis? (How much would that be worth to your business?)

John Kremer is an acknowledged expert on book publishing and marketing and the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers (5th Edition). John talked with me about why bookstore distribution should be low on your priority list and discussed two “OTHER” strategies you’ll want learn about fast.

Offering programs is easy. Offering programs that work is a bit harder. I am happy to announce that we have formalized an agreement with Emmy winning talk show host and radio personality, Errol Smith, to offer author interviews which will be broadcast through Reader Radio’s Network of over 10,000 websites.