Billy Fire LLC

An introduction to Internet marketing and planning

After several months of work I finally finished my book and put out a press release through PRWeb. The book described Internet marketing in a way which should be of interest to small businesses wanting to explore how they can market their businesses using the Web.

The book can be purchased here.

I orginally wrote the book using OpenOffice and then transferred it to Quark Xpress where I created each chapter as a separate file. By working on it this way I was able to create the look I wanted without incurring costs for a professional typesetter.

I wanted the book to be available as both a hard copy and as a downloadable version. Sometimes it is nice to be able to sit down with a book rather than reading everything on a computer screen. Therefore, I published the book through Lulu. Lulu produces professionally printed paperbacks and hard cover books using print on demand technology. This meant I was able to print a book, proof read it check the design and then reprint, fairly inexpensively. Once completed, books can be purchased through Lulu (as either a hard copy or pdf download) who literally print a copy after someone orders it.

I also got an ISBN number through Lulu which means that the book is available for order through regular book sellers and Amazon.com.

The whole process took me longer than expected. Every proof reading generated yet more corrections.

Ultimately, I think the whole prublishing indsurty will move towards print on demand (POD). The current economics of printing masses of books results in the pulping many books every year. This is wasteful and expensive. POD means that more niche titles can be produced and hence improves customer choice.