CIPA Signature March 2015

Colorado Independent Publishers Association 1

An e-Publication of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association

Important Dates

Saturday, March 21 CIPAs March Meeting

Saturday, April 18 Building your Author Platform with Robin Colucci

Saturday, May 31 Last Day to Enter Book - CIPA EVVYs

Join our mailing list to keep up to date with all of CIPAs events!

Inside Presidents Letter CIPAs March Meeting Member Benefits! CIPA EVVY Registration Details Article: Creating Author One-Sheets Member News Upcoming Events 10 Reasons to Join CIPA 7 Ways to Make CIPA Pay for You CIPA Board Members

November 2010 March 2015

Presidents Letter The Value of Knowing

As I write this, Im hours away from signing the most amazing deal of my life.

About three weeks ago, I got a call from an author who wanted me to distribute his book. Its about a life insurance product. I know something about all that because once-upon-a-time, I was licensed to sell insurance so I could sell annuities. I failed mis-erablybut that failure set me on the path Im on today, so Im not too upset about it.

Anyway, I read the booka book that was about ready to come out through one of the major POD pub-lishers. It was a disaster. I told him I would have to rewrite it. He hired me. He also went back to the guy who recommended the writer who botched the book and talked about me. This guy is local and runs a very successful marketing organization for licensed insurance agents.

Well, come to find out, the writer who botched the job never took the time to learn about the types of in-surance that he was writing about. He was making $5,000 to $10,000 a book, and he lost that businessto me. He also never took the time to learn the publishing game, and left thousands more on the table because of it.

Serendipity is a beautiful thing. I get called in to discuss ghosting books.

Find us on:

www.CIPACatalog.com Colorado Independent Publishers Association

6142 W Pacific Cir Lakewood, CO 80227

Phone: 970-315-CIPA (2472) [email protected]

2015 Colorado Independent Publishers Association

Its how I built my publishing busi-ness. Its what I dono brainer on that one. But I also saw an incredible opportunity. Because of Brian Juds presentation, I had learned about direct sales. I applied all that I learned.and that leads me to where I am right now, hours away from the most amazing deal of my life.

CIPA teaches you how to win at the publishing game. I have learned so much about publishing because I attend meetings. (I know, I have to. Im the president.) But you know what? Even though Im pretty good at what I do as a publisher, I can al-ways learn more.

This months meeting is all about how to win. How can you take that book youve poured your heart into and let people know it exists?

Isnt that why we want to publish our work in the first place?

I encourage you to take the time to come to CIPAs monthly meetings. That is where you learn about how to make your publishing venture suc-cessful.

See you all Saturday!

Much love,

Dr. Patricia A. Ross CIPA President, 2013-2015


CIPAs March Meeting

Make a living as an author!

Publishing a bookwhich means both producing it and marketing it effectivelyis a tough game. You spend months, sometimes years, producing the best book possi-ble. Can you make a living of the proceeds from sales? Or is it just going to give you enough money to buy ice-cream on Friday nights?

CIPAs March meeting is going to be a frank discussion on whether or not you can make a living publishing books. Our expert panelists (all successful authors themselves) are going to give you the skinny on how theyve done itfrom how they have successfully sold books to offering related products and services. Youre going to learn their best tips for publishing longevity.

Our Stellar Panel

Kenn Amdahl Kenn Amdahl has been self publishing books since 1990 via his company Clearwater Publishing Company. He's published nine of his own titles, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He's written several other

books, but he keeps rejecting himself, proving how brutal this business can be. His books have been reviewed in doz-ens of national publications and have received blurbs from Clive Cussler, Dave Barry, Ray Bradbury, George Garrett,

Francine Mathews, and many other real authors. He's served on the board of directors of several book related organizations, including CIPA, primarily to provide comic relief. Learn more about Clearwater Publishing Company at http://www.clearwaterpublishing.com/2010/about/

Doris Baker

Doris Baker is publisher at Filter Press, a traditional pub-lishing company established in El Paso County in 1957.

Filter Press publishes middle grade and YA historical fiction, biographies of the heroes of the West, and books of general regional interest. Filter Press authors have received many awards including CIPA EVVY Awards, the Colorado Book Award, and West-ern Writers of America SPUR Awards.

Doris is a past president of CIPA. Learn more about Fil-ter Press at http://www.filterpressbooks.com/

Teresa Funke

Teresa Funke embodies the modern artist/entrepreneur. She is the owner of Teresa Funke & Com-

pany and Victory House Press and the award-winning author of six novels for adults and children based on true sto-ries from WWII. Her articles, essays, and short stories have been featured in hundreds of publications. She is also a professional speaker offering key-notes and presentations, and a nation-

wide writers coach. She has 23 years of experience as an entrepreneur and community catalyst. Her innova-tive programs and boundary-pushing talks prove that she is a true thought leader, one who challenges us to change our view of how life and business should be led and how the arts and business can intersect. Learn more about Teresa Funke and Victory House Press at http://www.teresafunke.com/

RSVP via Meetup below and let your fellow CIPA peers know you will be there with them!!

Win the Publishing Game! Saturday, March 21, 2015 Free breakfast and coffee

8:30 a.m. - Noon


Member Benefits

CIPA Brigade

New service for our Author Members! Introducing the CIPA Brigade, our social media service to help our author members publicize their book signings, readings and oth-er events.

CIPA Member, Stan Moore, has volunteered to be our Brigade coordinator. He'll be in charge of posting mem-ber notices to CIPA's Facebook page, our CIPA Brigade Pinterest board, and forwarding event info to our email blasts and Signature newsletter. Send all content to [email protected]

If you want your event posted, here's what you do:

1. Authors must provide all copy and a photo for the post. Copy must be complete as is and under 100 words. Photos must be in jpg format. We strongly advise that copy be sent at least one week in advance of the event for posting on social media.

2. Events to be posted are defined as book signings, radio & TV interviews, guest blog posts and other media events. This doesn't include blog posts from an author's website.

3. To be included in a Monday morning eblast, event copy must be received by the Brigade Chair by the previ-ous Wednesday at noon. No special email blasts will be done for any author event.

4. Author events can also be included in the monthly Signature. Complete copy and photo should be sent to the Brigade Chair or directly to the CIPA admin within the normal deadlines.

Authors can also post events directly on CIPA's Brigade board on Pinterest. To do this, authors must follow CI-PA's boards and send a request to the Brigade chair to get posting permission to that board. This permission can be revoked if unsuitable content is posted.

1yr Free Subscript. Foreword Reviews

CIPA members get a FREE one year print subscription to Foreword Reviews magazine! You do have to create an account with your mailing address before you can Check-out on their site. (You will need to verify your email ad-dress as well.) Apply this discount code at check-out: forewordgiftCIPA when subscribing to their print version here. If you need assistance, they can be reached here.


CIPA EVVYs Now Open

CIPA with the CIPA ELF Announce the 21st Annual Book Competition

We are going strong after twenty-one years, annually receiving submissions from as far away as Dubai. But no matter where in this wide world you call home, it is important that your book you worked so hard to

write and produce has the chance to be recognized and awarded!

Step-by-Step Guide on the EVVY Award Registration Process

Step One: Read the Rules & Guidelines

Step Two: Read the Submission Process

Step Three: Enter your book for an award here

Step Four: Upload your digital book cover (front cover) here

Other Resources

Judging Criteria

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions? Email Patricia Ross here: [email protected]

Registration form or payment issues, email Veronica here: [email protected]


Creating Author One-Sheets

Your book/author one-sheet: How to ensure its a hardworking marketing and sales tool

By Patrice Rhoades-Baum

On the surface, a book/author one-sheet appears fairly simple. It is, after all, one page of sales copy intended to help you promote and sell your book. Toss in a graphic of the book cover, your bio, and photo and youre done, right? Wrong!

Your one-sheet is a strategic tool in your marketing toolkit

Your book/author one-sheet is a hardworking marketing and sales tool. It must help you meet your business objec-tives to promote and sell your book. It must clearly state the top benefit message for your readers your specific target audience. It must be professional, both in content and design, to ensure you shine as a professional, are tak-en seriously, and are offered every opportunity to pro-mote and sell your book.

How do you make it a hardworking tool?

When brainstorming this topic with CIPA President Dan Miller, EdD, for a round-table discussion, we tripped over an article listing 7 elements to include in a one-sheet. After I skimmed the article, one word resonated: shallow. Like a leaf floating on a pond, the list of 7 elements mere-ly touched the surface.

Transforming your one-sheet from a shallow list of infor-mation to a strategic tool requires some thought youll need to put on your marketing hat. The following check-list will guide you to create a hardworking marketing and sales tool that helps you promote and sell your book!

Start with this checklist of content and components:

1. Your marketing homework do this first!

Write down the business objectives for your one-sheet. In other words, what do you want this mar-keting tool to accomplish? Clarifying your objectives gives you a map, of sorts, to ensure you create a hardworking marketing and sales tool.

Write down a description of your target audience

Identify and write down the top benefit your book delivers to your target audience

Identify the target audience who will be using your one-sheet

Clarify the call-to-action for the one-sheet recipient. In other words, what do you want them to do? What action do you want them to take? (This is a key com-ponent in marketing tools.)

Select and hire a ...

Download the full-length, in-depth article from Patrice for free at using THIS LINK.

About the Author

Patrice Rhoades-Baum, Branding & Website Expert

Specializing in Small-Biz Branding and Expert Copywriting for Websites and One-Sheets

Backed by 30 years of strategic marketing communica-tions, Patrice teams with authors, professional speakers, and consultants to clarify their brand, write copy for their new website and one-sheet, and facilitate the design and development of their logo, website, and one-sheet. An expert copywriter, Patrice has been published in Fortune magazine. Learn more here.


Member News

CIPA Member Finalist for INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Jeffrey B. Miller, publisher of Milbrown Press, is proud to announce that his new WWI nonfiction book, Behind the Lines, has been chosen as a finalist in the history category of Foreword Reviews 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards. Eight of the fifteen history final-ists are university presses. Winners will be an-nounced June 26 at a program during the American Li-brary Associations annual conference in San Francisco. On March 12, Miller was interviewed on the national Sirius radio show, Get it Right with Margaret Hoover. Miller wants to thank his entire book team for their hard work and dedication. Three members of the team are CIPA members: Tom Locke of Toms Touch, copy editor; Dan and Jim Pratt of Pratt Brothers Composition, back cover and interi-or design; Mike Daniels of Four Colour Print Group, print-er. The entire book team can be seen at www.WWIBehindTheLines.com

CIPA Associate Member Publishes Hollywood Book Al Fleming lives in a small mountain community in Southern California. His life has been one big ad-venture, from the swamps of Southern Florida to the bright lights of Hollywood. For over fifty years he has worked in the Hollywood film industry, becoming friends with many of its elites. His love of the old west led him down many differ-ent paths in the film industry, from tech-nical adviser to costume designer, makeup artist, and actor. In his book Following That Dream - From Elvis to Hollywood he tells his story, an inti-mate look behind the scenes at some of Hollywoods most famous or notorious characters. This new book,

published by BookCrafters contains many photos of famous people, from Elvis to Bob Hope, Betty Davis, and more. This 206pp, softcover book sells for $12.99 and will be available in print from Amazon and others.

CIPA Member Receives Review from Fresh Fiction Blog "A rescue mission crashlands - is it the end or a new beginning?" A review for The Blood: The Stone's Blade by Allynn Riggs has been published at Fresh Fiction. You may see this review here. The book can be pur-chased at Amazon here. Check out her 4 and 5 star reviews while you are on Amazon!

CIPA Member Gives Shout-out to CIPA in Colorado Country Life Magazine! I would like to compliment the co-op on the article The Love of Books (November '14). I enjoy learning about the works of other Colorado writ-ers. Your magazine is Did you know that Colorado has one the largest and most active independent publishing associations in the country? The Colorado Independent Publishers Association serves to educate and assist Colo-rado authors in their independent publishing projects. Many authors, including myself, have found that Colora-do is a perfect place to find inspiration and creativity for the writing process. -Sue Batton Leonard, Steamboat Springs.

A Call for Library Book Submissions

The City of Longmont library has a Colorado Author's col-lection. They are soliciting donations of Colorado au-

thors' books. These will not be in a hands off collection, rather they will be put into circulation.

Email Judith Anderson: [email protected]

She is looking forward to be hearing from CIPA members!

If you want to mail her your work:

Judith Anderson Attention: Colorado Author Collection

Longmont Public Library 409 4th Avenue

Longmont CO 80501


Upcoming Events

Womens Stories of Resilience Sunday, March 29, 2015 from 2-4pm

21c Library 1175 Chapel Hills Drive Colorado Springs, CO

How does a woman copewhen a devastating mental illness strikes, or when the phone rings and you learn that your entire family has died? How does a woman survive when her whole world is turned upside down? Some women write a book, hoping to inspire others to navigate a similar tragedy.

Three Pikes Peak womenKathy Brandt, author of Walks on the Margins; Sharon Gerdes, author of Back in Six Weeks; and Nancy Saltzman, author of Radical Survivor, used their adver-sity as a spring-board for activ-ism. These wom-en have teamed up to offer an afternoon of sto-rytelling and in-spiration. Kathy and Sharon are members of CIPA, and met at a CIPA meeting. Both agree that networking with other authors in your genre is a great benefit of CIPA membership.

April 18 Workshop in Fort Collins: That Book Inside You: How to Write It, Publish It, Sell It

Author/Speaker/Writers Coach Teresa R. Funke is one of the March CIPA speakers. She is also taking registrations

for her popular all-day class. Teresa will take you from book idea through the writing, revising, publishing, and mar-keting processes, all in one day. The workshop includes lunch, her highly rat-ed workbook, and a one-on-one coach-

ing session. The class will be held April 18 in Fort Collins from 9:00am 4:00pm. Space is limited to 10 to allow for personal attention. To register, learn more, or read testi-monials, please click: . If you know of anyone who could benefit from this class, please pass the information on. Details here.

Book Signing on April 25, 2015, 1-3pm Barnes & Noble, Denver West

Stan Moore will be signing his book Mister Moffat's Road at Barnes & Noble Denver West on April 25 from 1 to 3pm. The historical novel chronicles the early efforts of David Moffat. He overcame many attempts to stop the Denver Northwestern and Pacific Railway as it built west from Denver to-wards Salt Lake City. The author taps pre-viously private diaries as he describes daily life in the construction camps.

JOIN CIPA

Regular Membership (Authors, Publishers) $75 Indi-viduals who support the purpose of CIPA, including au-thors, publishers. Associate Membership (Service pro-viders, Publishers with multiple authors) $120 Indi-viduals or companies who support the purpose of CIPA and who desire to directly offer products and services to other members.


10 Reasons to Join CIPA (as a Regular Member)

1. Monthly meetingsOur monthly meetings offer expert industry professionals geared to jump start your writing, publishing, or book sales.

2. Free adviceEach monthly meeting starts with a series of roundtable hosts to help answer your most pressing publishing questions.

3. Early bird sign-up discounts for CIPA meetings and events.

4. The annual CIPA EVVY AwardsA book competition program that honors the best of our members' books by providing an independently judged competition in vari-ous genres and technical categories.

5. Access to Associate Service Providers where you can find the best of the best in editing, book cover design, layout, marketing, printing, and more.

6. Trade show opportunitiesCIPA members can promote their books at such industry trade shows as Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL), and others.

7. Vote at membership meetingsMembers voices count with CIPA!

8. Eligibility to participate in the Douglas County Libraries eBook Submission Program.

9. Network with your PeersMeet and greet like-minded writers, authors, and industry professionals.

10. FREE marketing for your book by submitting your news to the CIPA Signature, which is distributed to members and non-members alike!

Successful publishers and authors belong in CIPA!

1. Attend monthly meetingsComing to CIPA's monthly meetings puts you in direct contact with members and guests. You'll meet prospective customers and learn more about book publishing from high-caliber speakers.

2. Do a presentation at a monthly meetingSpeaking of high-caliber speakers - be one! Are you an authority in your field? If you are interested in giving an information-based presentation, contact the Program Chair with your idea. The goal is not to advertise your specific business, but to educate the members in your specialized field.

3. Volunteer on committees and/or CIPA's BoardYou know it's true: the more you put in, the more you'll get out of your membership. Email us here to see where you can volunteer your time and talents. Try it, you'll like it!

4. Submit an article to CIPA SignatureWrite an infor-mation-filled article in your area of expertise and submit it to the newsletter editor here for inclusion in the CIPA newsletter. Keep it informational. Better yet, place an eye-popping advertisement in the Signature!

5. Host a meeting roundtableCIPA roundtables are de-signed to help anyone with any genre, with any question, simple or complex, for new writers and publishers as well as experienced authors and publishers. Are you an expert in your field? Contact our Program Chair for consideration to host a roundtable.

6. Prominently display your marketing materialsA desig-nated Associate Service Provider table is set up at each meeting where you can display your flyers, one sheets, business cards, or other marketing materials. That's nine chances to get your company in front of our members. The more members that see your information, the more business you attract. Think Law of Numbers!

7. Showcase your servicesA designated Associate Service Provider Directory is hosted on the CIPA Catalog website, not only for our members to see, but for anyone doing a web search. Our analytics show that 50 percent of our web visitors come from search engine results. Get listed, get seen, get business!

7 Ways to Make CIPA Pay for You (as an Associate Member)


CIPA Board 2014-2015

Patricia Ross President &

CIPA EVVYs Coordinator

Mike Daniels Immediate Past President & CIPA Brigade Chair; CIPA ELF President

Ann Nye West Treasurer

Kathy Mason Marketing Chair

Karen Douglass Secretary & Focus Forums Chair

Mary Walewski Program Chair &

Marketing Committee

Grady T. Birdsong Membership, Mentoring, &

Community Liaison Chair

Ingrid Pyka

Veronica Yager Director of Internal Affairs

Signature Editor

Documents

CIPA Signature March 2015