However, I think there is money to be made if you can find an ebook niche that fills a need. I buy ebooks all the time for my cottage school. But it usually isn’t fiction.

When it came time for one on one’s I just kept in mind that I was laying myself down before God as an instrument. If He chose to pick me up through an editor or agent, then I was there, otherwise I’d wait on Him. The decision was His, and He is the master craftsman. This helped me.

After the first full day of the conference, I was blown away by how “easy” it was to gain interest and momentum - but I believe that was not because of what I did. God was the one who “gave the increase”.

With respect to self-publishing. I have done this, had a platform, and successfully sold all the books I ordered. Recently I’ve went this route again for a very specific purpose, a very specific event, and for a project that needed to be done quickly.

I used a POD. With the POD I didn’t have to worry about the books stored in boxes. I get paid royalties on what is ordered, and I put out substantially less than $100 to get it done (not including paying for an editor @ $.01 cents per word). The book I published is a ministry, written for the express purpose of sharing the Gospel, and it is unique. I’ve only had it “released” for a week, and I’ve already earned enough royalties to more than cover the production costs — and this is before the original intended events have taken place.

I’m sure POD is not for everyone. I can’t imagine trying to promote this without having specific channels in mind before it went to print. However, I think some POD companies can give you a terrific, fast, inexpensive way to meet a specific need.

I’ve also done e-books. Again, you need to have the platform, and you can’t ignore the benefits of marketing off-line. E-books are unique, new, and a difficult sale, in my opinion. Your topic has to be very specific, unique, and desirable, and you need to communicate to individuals why they would want to risk paying money over the Internet, risk downloading something, and be willing to spend long hours reading off a screen or the additional cost of printing it out (even if it is on their own printer).

These are just my experiences. I wish that Randy had done this series on One Sheets before the last conference, but I managed - by the way I did have one editor ask if I had one. When I said I didn’t, she just asked me to email a one page synopsis.

Ann Isik

The funny thing is, while talking to live people, I discovered what part of the story I needed to get to in order to pique their interest… and it wasn’t what I had on my one-sheet or my summary. It was actually something I never covered in those items. Then of course they ALL said they would buy the book when it came out, but I suspect that’s the standard, safe response. In fact, I think that was the topic of one of the workshops offered at that conference: Preventing A Manical New Writer From Turning Suicidal When No One Gets Their Work.

Ann Isik