Online readers love information, but be sure your information is crisp, clean, clear and concise.

1. Keep your paragraphs short, even a line or two. Online readers will ignore long batches of words in long paragraphs, whether in an ezine or at a Web site. That costs author a lot of book sales. Respect readers who want material short and sweet.

2. Write tips in their correct format. First, use a verb command, such as "do this." Follow this by benefits of doing it or by cost of not doing it. Then, end with a how-to, Web resource, book title, or recommended coach. Use this three-sentence formula to bring curious to you.

3. Make your heading compelling. If you haven't tested it on associates, or haven't edited it at least five times, it says "lackluster." People will delete it or click on to something new. Which one will you read? "How to Write an Article," or "Sell 300 Books in One Month by Writing a Short Article?"

Where is your book now? With a distributor? In a book store? Or, did it already die an early death after a few months?

New self-published authors often believe they need a distributor to sell a lot of books. They want to use Ingram or Baker & Taylor because they think they need to get their book into "brick and mortar" bookstores like Barnes and Noble.

Authors go through many hoops and snags to accomplish this-- what I call "traditional publishing nightmare" of inefficiency and lack of support for authors. Usually author only gets around 10% royalties and has to pay back all promotion expenses such as book signings. So many hoops, some give up. So many authors I speak with who have gone this route still have hundreds, even thousands of unsold copies littering up storage space. Talk about discouragement.

Distributors Can be Dangerous to Your Book's Health and Your Wallet

One author wrote, illustrated, and marketed six beautiful children's books. Her books were well reviewed and received. For some time, profits rolled in until her distributor went bankrupt, owing her $160,000. After she stopped crying, she decided to take her books on road—to local fairs and talks where she could KEEP all profits.

Distributors take quite a chunk of money from author's profits too. They charge author for storage, and when books are returned, author loses those sales, and has to pay distributor too. Authors lose from bookstores because their payment is late or unreliable. Some authors wait way beyond 90 days. In fact, many just don't get paid. Writers are not always good at collections either. These middlemen not only take most of author's profits, they cause much stress too.

How Can Self-Published Authors Distribute?