Self-publishing is the hottest trend in books, as it provides creative thinkers turned authors with a fast and easy way to get their work on the market. With the added option of “print on demand”, and desktop publishing and design software, the initial cost to get your book out can be very minimal.

Self-publishing is also the most profitable since you get to keep all the profits for yourself. IF you are committed to the work it is going to take to sell your books that is.

One of the most difficult challenges a self-published author faces is getting their book into the hands of people that will appreciate it enough to pay their hard earned money. I recall reading an article on the self-publishing industry that reported the average number of self-published books sold per author is about 100 copies!

With that horrifying number in mind, you need to roll up your sleeves and prepare to launch a focused marketing and promotion program that will have you doing at least 3 things per day every day for the next 6 months to promote your book. Remember, no one can dream your dream but you, and ultimately, you are the only one responsible for the success or failure of your book.

Start by arming yourself with as much knowledge on the subject as possible. Check out these books and websites on marketing and promoting for self-published authors:

THE SELF-PUBLISHING MANUAL by Dan Poynter is I think hands down, the best promotional book and guide to successful self-publishing for a first time author. It is easy to read and understand, and organized in a fashion that make it a valuable reference as you go through the writing and publishing process.

GUERILLA MARKETING FOR WRITERS by Jay Conrad Levinson is another easy to follow guide with more than 100 ideas for marketing and promoting your book. There are like a zillion Guerilla Marketing books covering a wide range of markets.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING by Tom & Marilyn Ross guides authors through the entire self-publishing process from writing the first word to wildly creative ways to market the finished product.

1001 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BOOK by John Kremer is top notch. John Kremer is a legend in the book marketing field. But there are SO many ideas presented this 3″ thick book that I found it to be somewhat overwhelming. His websites are much easier to go through for people that are A.D.D. like me!

Leveraging the power and global reach of the Internet is the next step you must take.

Every author needs a web page. Do you have one set up for your book or books yet? This site will serve as the foundation of your marketing campaign and is a step you cannot afford to skip. Your website will be used as a vehicle to promote both yourself and your work 24 hours per day. It will also display or link to book reviews, to provide the media and press with an avenue for contacting you for interviews, and will of course help you sell your product.

Your website does not have to be fancy and expensive. As a matter of fact, it is better if it’s rather non-dynamic. You want the key focus to be on your book and YOU, not your fancy FLASH intro.

After that, you need to get your book reviewed. There are mainstream book reviewers, and there are many niche market reviewers as well. Check out John Kremer’s list of newspaper reviewers at BookMarket.Com.

Authors of Black books have many options available.

When seeking reviews, be prepared to send out a copy of your book along with a headshot photograph, author contact information, and information on where your book can be purchased. This is when you would mention your wonderful new website! Here is a list of Black book reviewers and sites:

QBR The Black Book Review
QBR is a reliable source for what is current in Black books. QBR also produces the Harlem Book Fair, the largest African American book Fair nationally, held annually in New York City.

Felicia Pride’s Black Books Blog – More Than Words
Felicia reviews and blogs about Black books on AOL’s Black Voices channel.

African American Literature Book Club (AALBC)
The largest site on the web focusing on Black books.

The RawSistaz
This group of ladies provides casual reviews of a wide variety of books, all written by African American authors.

Let’s Talk Honestly with George Cook
George provides free interviews with Black authors which are posted as pod casts each week on this popular website.

The Black Issues Book Review
This the only nationally distributed magazine devoted exclusively to covering the latest news and reviews on black books.

Now you have a published book and a couple of great reviews. It’s time to contact Black bookstores in your area. Go visit them with your book in hand, introduce yourself, and ask if they will either carry your book or allow you to have a book signing in their store.

Book retailers usually receive a rather large discount from the cover price (as much as 60%). Since each independent retailer has its own sales agreement and terms, all I can tell you is to be sure to read each carefully.

Make sure the terms regarding book returns, payment dates, and merchandise delivery are spelled out clearly and to your satisfaction before signing on the dotted line.

Writing, researching and editing your book is certainly a lot of hard work, but that is just the beginning. All that work pales in comparison to the long hours and the effort you must put into getting your name out there and your book noticed every single day until you reach your sales and financial goals.

I cannot describe with words the deep sense of satisfaction one gets when you open up a package from your publisher and find the first copy of a real book that has your name on it. And selling thousands of those books is certain validation that what you have to say has value and is important to others.

Get busy making it happen!

Deborrah is a relationships expert and self-published author of the hilarious guide to modern dating entitled: “Sucka Free Love – How to Avoid Dating The Dumb, The Deceitful, The Dastardly, The Dysfunctional & The Deranged.” Order your copy today at http://www.suckafreelove.com

Please answer these questions:
1) Would you pay someone to fill out an application for a credit card?
2) Do you want to make a simple process more complicated?
3) Are you lazy?

If you answered YES, to one or more of the above, then totally reconsider if you want to get SBA 8a certified, because you don’t have the right stuff to success in the business world even if you got certified.

Why spend the money to buy software, when you can just download the forms for FREE from the SBA’s web site and fill them out for nothing? The SBA provides all of the forms you need to use.

If you need to pay a middle man to provide you with free forms, you must have more money than sense! It is not logical to pay someone hundreds or THOUSANDS of dollars to fill out forms for you. Don’t let scare tactics fool you. This is just a series of forms, you can fill them out, it is not rocket science!

Also, why provide all of your sensitive personal and professional data to an outside source, when they take that same information and fill in the blanks on the SBA forms for you? Do you want to give your social security number, your tax return information and all of your personal data to a total stranger?

My Story: In 2004, I decided to apply online for SBA 8a certification. There is plenty of explanation during each step of the process to guide you through the steps. (Note: If you have questions, you can even call the SBA office in Washington DC to get free guidance. They do answer the phone and they are very helpful.)

Before I attempted to apply for SBA 8a certification, I made sure I had all of the required registrations in place. For example, I registered with Dun & Bradstreet to get my DUNS. Again, this is a free service, you don’t have to pay someone. In the SBA 8a application, they provide a driect link to D&B.

The beauty of applying online is that you can complete a section, save it and then come back. But once you have completed the entire application, you submit the entire application electronically and it gets reviewed quickly.

There is one document you download to have notarized and send in via snail mail. Once that is received by the SBA, they review your application.

It took only a couple of weeks to hear back on my decision. I received an email requesting two more documents to complete. One was a simple form that required notarization. The other request was to complete a social disadavantage narrative.

Again, I spent some time researching the narrative and prepared one on my own. I submitted it and within a week, my company was certified.

How much money did I pay someone else to fill out SBA 8a forms or write my own social disadvantage life story? Zero, zip, nada.

Bottomline: If you can’t fill out a form on your own and you are intimidated to even try, you might want to consider NOT giving up your day job. Owning a business is hard work. Getting your certification is only the beginning. Once you are certified, then the real work begins as you market and move your business to profitability.

Design2Train, a SBA 8a certified company, was founded by Karen Miller in 2001, an award-winning instructional designer with 30+ years experience. Need help with writing your SBA 8a social disadvantage narrative? Visit http://www.design2train.com

Creating your own virtual team is a crucial step to doubling and tripling the income of your woman-owned business. For example, when I hired my first virtual assistant, Kathy, I quickly doubled my income. (I think I was initially so scared that I wouldn’t be able to pay her monthly fee that I gave myself a kick-in-the-pants and created more business!)

After hiring a second virtual assistant, Kristy, the income of my woman-owned business has skyrocketed to as much as $85,250.02 in a single month.

But hiring a virtual assistant will ONLY pay off if the woman business owner uses the assistants’ time to help create additional streams of income.

Which means you must be ready to both ask for and receive support. Women entrepreneurs admit that it is difficult to ask for help. But the more comfortable you are asking for and receiving support, the more you are valuing yourself. And the more you value yourself, the more money, time and freedom will begin to show up for you to enjoy!

Hiring a virtual assistant is not a cost; it’s an investment in YOU. It’s an investment in how much you believe in yourself and in the level of success that you will achieve. This isn’t just wishful thinking; it’s a fact, proven by women entrepreneurs who have found that adding support is pivotal to the core success strategies of their woman owned business.

Three important tips to help the woman business owner get the most from supporting relationships:

Tip #1: Give your assistant any task that drains your energy. (Yes, even the ones that seem “too small”! I started out by delegating all my email to Kathy. Believe me; it took a huge leap of faith on my part! Now she receives and answers all email that comes through the web site of my woman-owned business. Any questions that Kathy can’t answer, she batches up and forwards to me on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

My virtual team handles posting audio mp3 files and transcripts, maintaining shopping cart information, proofing and broadcasting email and newsletters, paying sub-contractors, processing monthly coaching charges, updating the website and more.

Tip #2: Allow your assistant to support the high-touch marketing that is so crucial to the woman small business. I love sending out cards but don’t like dealing with stamps, envelopes and address labels. So I signed up for “Send Out Cards.” I picked out a few dozen card designs and saved them in my favorites folder.

Now, I simply type the personalized message and recipient’s name in an email to my assistant, direct her to choose a card from my favorites, and she takes care of the rest. I now send out more cards than ever before. I feel good about connecting with my clients and I love how easily this important relationship task is accomplished!

Tip #3: Look at your assistants as in investment, not as an expense. If you think that hiring an assistant should be regulated to the expense category of your woman-owned business, then it’s too easy to delay hiring. And when you finally do, you will avoid assigning your “expense”-ive assistant many tasks.

Instead, write down the three main activities that YOU will focus on when you’re no longer buried under email, newsletter writing, etc. For example: If you had three more hours each week, in which business-building activity would you invest? You could easily offer a new teleseminar series, write an article or accept two more clients. Couldn’t you?

What if you had five extra hours a week? What about ten? Are you starting to see how lucrative hiring an assistant for your woman-owned, small business can be? I also hope you’re seeing that you can start small, get comfortable with asking for and receiving support, and then move up from there.

I’m clear that my “job” as a woman small business owner is to market, lead teleseminars, coach woman business owner clients and create new streams of income. When I find myself doing a task that is not in my “job description,” I send it to my team. The payoff has helped me leapfrog my business and triple my income this year. Now, THAT is a high-payoff investment that I’m glad I made!

Business coach Kendall SummerHawk, the “Horse Whisperer for Business” delivers savvy ways for entrepreneurs to turn hectic businesses into 6-figure successes. Get her “7 Quick and Simple Tips to Brand, Package and Price for More Money, Time and Freedom” at http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com.

Welcome to Money eNews : Financial, Economy, Stock Market Real Estate Stories.