Hello everyone,

I am in the process of starting my own e-book publishing business. What I have done so far:

Research
SCORE advisement
Found a Niche
Registered my Business name
Secured a Domain Name
Chosen a host company
Contracted with a web site designer

Now, my problem is that I haven?t a clue as to where to get quality submissions. According to my research a lot of print book publishers give tiny (7-15%) royalty percentages unless you are a best selling author. I will be giving a 30-40% royalty rate to my authors. I?m looking for manuscripts from authors and business owners alike. There will be no fees to the author, save the copyright. We are not a vanity press. I will be paying for ISBN?s, cover design, lay out etc..

I will initially be publishing and selling fiction and non fiction books geared toward inspiring female entrepreneurs and mompreneurs. In time I will expand my offerings to include other topics that will make a woman?s/mom?s life easier. Novels will have a protagonist that is either starting or growing a business. Non fiction will be ?How I Did It? style books following a woman from idea conception to success in her business.

I am working with my web designer to create the ?submissions? link first. Where else would you suggest I go to get submissions rolling in? Without content, all I will have is a website.

Thanks in advance,
Lyza R Rodriguez
http://www.bloggingmyownbusiness.blogspot.com/
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/

I am a writer and might be interested in publishing, especially on these topics. I am primarily a non-fiction writer. I could not, however, find your information on submission rules, etc. It only took me to your website design site.

If I were to publish in e-book format, are these e-books going to be published in the encrypted, copyright-protecting format that Adobe offers? I would want some way of making it less easy for people to steal my work. Thanks. Edie Wiske.

Hi,
I know a couple of people who may be interested in this. One writes essays and the other books and has had one published on hard copy. Do you have a limit in the average number of words required... how can they get in touch with you?
Good luck!

Hello Edie and African Girl,

Thanks for answering, I emailed both of you. I wanted to apologize for not posting without any contact information to send a submission or ask questions. The email is below:

submit@boutiquepublications.com

Thanks again,

Lyza R. Rodriguez

Hi Lyza, I received a message from the site that I had a private message from you, but have not received the message. Could you just re-send it to wiske@earthlink.net? Thanks. Edie Wiske.

>>Now, my problem is that I haven?t a clue as to where to get
>quality submissions. I will be giving a 30-40%
>royalty rate to my authors.
>I will initially be publishing and selling fiction and non
>fiction books geared toward inspiring female entrepreneurs and
>mompreneurs. In time I will expand my offerings to include
>other topics that will make a woman?s/mom?s life easier.
>Novels will have a protagonist that is either starting or
>growing a business. Non fiction will be ?How I Did It? style
>books following a woman from idea conception to success in her
>business.
Where else would you suggest I go to get
>submissions rolling in? >

Lyza your idea is fascinating. With a niche like you described, I would post on WAHM (work at home mom) or SAHM (stay at home mom) discussion forums and women entrepreneur discussion forums.

I believe you will very quickly be bombarded with submissions once word gets out (especially with such high royalties).

How will you be marketing and selling these ebooks?

Hello,

Thank you so much for the support:-) I will be marketing them through search engine submissions, reviews, my Blog, contests, fresh content on the website, banner ads and more.

When I have the first books completed and ready for sale I will also be contacting numerous Pod Cast shows for interview opportunities.

And I admit that I will be using my current position at a FOX affiliate to garner some local interest in the books with a local human interest angle.

I also plan to affiliate my company with various charitable organizations and will be promoted through them as well. I will be donating a percentage of our profits to them, as I believe in giving back.

Your suggestions are great I will work on them tonight, thanks a lot.

Lyza R. Rodriguez
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/

Well it certainly sounds like you've really thought this out. I would love to watch your progress and hope you post updates here.

One other question....what about editors? You mentioned you will handle the lay out and covers, but what about editing duties? Or will you publish the ebooks "as is"?

Hi,

I will definitely post updates as we progress. It will be on the "Submissions Page" of my web site that all works should be thoroughly self edited to the best of the authors? ability. I know it gets hard to edit your own work after you?ve read it a million times. When a submission is accepted, I will go through it before it goes to an editor. I will be working with a few select freelance editors.

Lyza R. Rodriguez
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/

Lyza,

There are far more authors than there are publishers. One good way to get to them is to simply do a search on writing. You'll find lots of different boards where authors are exchanging ideas etc.

On there you'll also see editors that will proof and edit a manuscript for a fee for an author before they submitt it. You could contact them and offer a small finders fee for submissions that you eventually use.

Go to writing.com...they have over half a million members.
Good luck

Thanks a lot. I actually did this after speaking with another publisher. I went to a few sites for writers and requested to be added to the e-publishers lists.

Again, thanks a lot.

Lyza R. Rodriguez
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/

Hi,
Hope you are making progress.
Regarding where to find authors, you might want to check out (and maybe post your request) on craigslist, discussion forums, literary & writing.
Again, good luck.

Thank you. AI friend of yours contacted me and has decided to work on something niche specific to submit. So thanks again for that.

Lyza R. Rodriguez
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/

Hey All,

It's been a while (over a year) and I am back on the saddle. I was set to "go live" with my publishing company last year. But family problems surfaced that commanded my total attention, and I had to shelf the opening of my business. I have been back at it full force for 2 months now and although I got a couple of nibbles from friends of some of the generous people that answered my initial question, they didn't pan out.

So I am back to square one. I've spent the last 2 months working on my site, because some of the pages had broken links and trying to find authors once again.

I reached out to my sister recently, who has a degree in Journalism from NYU and thankfully it helped. I am in the middle on contracting with my sister as well as another author (who has a following via her articles on Migente.com and sitv.com) for 2 non fiction Business Chick Lit novels.

My problem now, is how to get small and home based business owners contracted to write "How I Did It" non fiction for my company.

I am looking for business owners that have been in business at least 2 years and I don't know where to start looking for them. I have contacted several WAHM type site webmasters to ask if they would let their users know about this opportunity, and have yet to hear back from any of them.

Any ideas would be helpful and appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Lyza R Rodriguez
http://www.boutiquepublications.com/ http://www.bloggingmyownbusiness.blogspot.com/

Hello Lyza.

I am interested in writing for you. I am just starting my business, and I am keeping careful notes of the entire process. I would love to share my ideas with other women entrepreneurs about internet marketing, advertising, getting customers, money management, etc. I am recording the results of each idea I test. (Joining this site today is part of my research.)

I am married, have three children, and I attend college full-time. I was let go after my employer lost a very large client. If my business is successful, it will definately become a great "How I Did It".

Hi Pillar,

I emailed you yesterday, Thanks for replying and I can't wait to hear back from you. I am really excited to be going live in 6 months. So many people are behind me and anxiously awaiting my "grand opening" :)

Thanks everyone, and anyone else interested in submitting or if you know someone else who might be interest, you can always leave me a message here or email me at boutique@boutiquepublications.com. I got some feed back from an email I sent to Morris Rosenthal over at Foner Books and have decided to revive my blog to garner more interest in my business.


Thanks,
Lyza R Rodriguez
http://bloggingmyownbusiness.blogspot.com/
http://boutiquepublications.com/