FROM: Alan R. Bechtold
author/editor/publisher/public speaker/publishing consultant

TO: All authors,publishers, and content creators, already producing content or just getting started

DATE: March 14, 2012

I’ve just launched a revolutionary new publishing company and I want to publish your books, audio programs, videos, and mobile apps. Yes -- I’m the founding publisher and editor and I’m announcing that I’m eager to publish your content.

I’ll even pay you a hefty 70% royalty on what is earned selling the books, audios, videos, courses and mobile apps you produce!

I’m so eager to build a solid stable of publisher/author success stories for my new publishing company that I’ll also personally train you, helping you easily and quickly meet my requirements for final approval -- so getting published is a breeze.

I know this is unheard of in the publishing industry, but I will personally train you to get published on this exciting new imprint, whether you currently write and publish or don’t even want to write at all.

I’m Alan R. Bechtold, the author of Will Work for Fun: 3 Simple Steps to Turning Any Interest or Hobby Into Cash, a best-selling book from John Wiley and Sons that’s still available in better bookstores and online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. That's me leering at you from the upper-right corner of this page.

I also regularly share my experience and knowledge on my blog, Uncle Alan’s Info-Publishing and Marketing Portal.

During my 35+ successful years of offline and online marketing and publishing, I’ve generated more than 35 million dollars in revenue for myself and for my clients. I’ve also managed to learn a thing or two about publishing along the way. My book and blog are devoted to showing ordinary people how to make real money creating information products that truly stand out and provide genuine value for people who buy them.

One thing I’ve learned after my decades of experience: the old publishing company model has to change.

I assume you’re still reading this because you’re interested in information publishing for profit. You should be. Opportunities for information publishers have multiplied tenfold in just the past few years.

Still, we all relish the possibility of publication by an established publishing company or audio/video recording label. Even though it’s now easier than ever for virtually anyone to publish in any medium, the traditional established publishers remain a pinnacle achievement.

I get that. However, I reached that pinnacle just a couple of years ago and, I have to tell you, getting your work published through an established “old-school” publisher might provide you with a nice ego-boost and it might even elevate your status a bit but, in reality, it almost always pays a lot better to self-publish!

Don’t get me wrong. The publisher who published my first "bookstore" book is a great company. I was thrilled when they contacted me to request that I submit a book for possible publication. I loved getting paid in advance, seeing my book in print and finding it on Amazon and in the book stores. They’re great people to work with.

But, I was already self-published profitably for decades when, thanks to a bit of gentle prodding, they finally tapped on my shoulder. Whenever I publish myself, however, I always get 100% of the profits. My traditional publisher pays me a royalty of 12%. That’s pretty much the industry standard.

It was nice having a professional publishing company help me edit the book, a professional graphics artist to design the cover and slip jacket, and all distribution and sales handled by someone else.

That’s a huge load off any writer’s shoulders!

But, a significant number of people still have to buy your book, if you’re ever going to see any royalties beyond your initial advance. Unfortunately, most publishers today -- mine included -- also expect you to do the lion’s share of the marketing to get people to buy.

I’ll say that again, because it’s very important -- most publishers today expect you to do the lion’s share of the marketing to get people to buy!

Thanks to some extremely helpful coaching from a good friend of mine who was already an established author, I discovered what all publishers look for in a proposal.

It really boiled down to one thing: the number of people I could influence to buy the book.

Of course, they wanted to see a marketable book idea that would appeal to a large enough segment of their typical audience and an outline of what I intended to write. They even got on the phones and told bookstores about my title and sent a couple of reporters and radio show hosts my way for interviews to help sell it.

But, a major portion of that proposal still also had to include details about how I intended to help sell a lot of books on my own. Even with a recommendation, my chances of getting a contract would be slim-to-none if I couldn’t help sell enough copies on my own.

The reality: if you don’t sell enough copies of your book yourself, you’ll never get enough sales to earn anything beyond the initial advance. In my case, that would have worked out to just around 2.3 cents per word for my book, Will Work for Fun.

It’s better than nothing, but that’s only roughly what writers for pulp science fiction magazines were paid for their stories -- in the 30s and 40s!

Most writers don’t have anywhere near the reach I already had when I put my proposal together. Their proposals would rarely get a serious look by a major publisher. Without a killer manuscript already written and a lot of patience passing it from publisher to publisher, until somebody finally says "yes" (if they ever do), the matter of marketing and royalties might never come up at all.

It gets better after you get your first few books published but, if the first one or two don’t sell well, you’re done.

Since most brick-and-mortar publishers expect their authors to do the bulk of the marketing anyway, It's clear I was better off sticking with self-publishing. I have a good-sized email list. I’m at my maximum number of friends on Facebook. A lot of people read my blog on a regular basis. I can sell almost as many copies of anything I publish as a traditional publisher could normally sell – and the 100% royalty usually more than makes up for lower sales numbers.

But, I’m not like most people who want and need a book, audio, video, course or app published today. I have a network of influence that’s been built over the span of a 35+-year career. Chances are, you don’t.

Meanwhile, a major revolution in self-publishing is taking place, making it easier than ever to publish your own work and reach a world-wide audience. Unfortunately, without that large circle of influence, you may not be able to tap it for the massive profits that are now flowing to those who do.

Even if you do have a large circle of influence, even if you’ve already been publishing, tapping all the new publishing platform options available today requires some technical abilities -- and a good deal of time spent on trial-and-error to get it all right.

Self-publishing’s definitely more profitable and easier today than ever before. But, it also comes with a long list of business steps and operations than most content creators would rather not have to deal with.

I don’t blame you. I happen to absolutely love every aspect of the publishing business. But, I also clearly see, first-hand, almost every day, why most sane people would never want to make it a part of their day-to-day existence like I do.

Instead, most people are like you. They'd rather focus their time and energy on creating even more great new information products -- what they do best.

That’s why I just opened a brand new publishing company.

This is what led me to the only logical solution I could think of. One that would help me build a reliable stable of quality content creators who are all truly rewarded for their efforts.

My new publishing company, Ink-U-Bator Media, was built from the ground up to fit the bill. It’s an idea whose time has definitely come.

It’s a hybrid of the best of the self-publishing and traditional established publishing models, eliminating as much of the needless distractions for the content creator and expanding their reach and sales and still receiving the lion’s share of the proceeds.

Ink-U-Bator Media is a truly modern publisher of books, audios, videos, training programs and mobile apps distributed through Kindle, Nook, iPad, other e-readers, online and in print. The company was intentionally designed to eliminate most of the time-consuming needless learning curve and technical issues self-publishers today face, enabling them to instead focus their primary resources on the creation of more unique information products.

To eliminate the technical hurdles all self-publishers face today, publishing with Ink-U-Bator Media will get your work produced so that it’s available on Kindle, Nook, the iPad, online and in print. Whatever medium best fits the information format. Any new publishing platforms that take the stage in the future will also automatically be added.  We’ll even retro-actively convert previous Ink-U-Bator Media releases to be available for any new formats that become available, as soon as their audience is at a profitable level and the system’s format specifications are stable.

To reduce that pesky “circle of influence” hurdle and help you build your circle of influence, from the ground up or expanding it exponentially, Ink-U-Bator Media will feature your published works on its own online catalog and blog. We’ll also promote them through all available media channels.

To properly compensate producers of excellent content, Ink-U-Bator Media also pays a whopping 70% of every dollar made from the sale of your work when it’s published – MONTHLY!

I’ve eliminated the advance on royalties most other publishers pay and turned my publishing company into a straight-up joint venture between you and the publisher, paying a lot more ongoing revenue directly to you much sooner in the process.

30 - 60 days from the day a dollar comes in, 70 cents is on its way to you.

Our unique joint venture relationship with you makes it possible for you to publish with Ink-U-Bator Media and reach a lot more people faster, generating more revenue without a lot of needless distractions. It also expands my ability to take the risk required to uncover, produce and introduce brand new and little-known creators of top-quality information products who “wow” the consumer, sending them eagerly back seeking more.

But – there was still one fly in the ointment: although I want my new publishing company to make it easy for literally anyone to publish and profit from the new explosion of publishing opportunities it brings to them, it wouldn’t work for anybody if I just published anything that comes through the door.

In the old-school publishing industry, that’s called vanity publishing. That’s not what Ink-U-Bator Media is about. Not at all.

Vanity publishing is little more than self-publishing in print. You get your name on a printed book, but you usually have to buy hundreds of copies and sell them yourself. It’s basically paying a printer to self-publish with ink and paper.

The new print-on-demand sources we utilize at Ink-U-Bator Media eliminate all that and still enable you to offer a quality printed book to buyers and bookstores, if you wish.

Instead, I want to build Ink-U-Bator Media into an established brand in today’s new media explosion, tapping that explosion to maximize the benefits for the creators of the content I publish.

This new brand will become known because of the quality of what it publishes. As one of my new content creators, you’ll benefit from that brand when I publish and distribute your work, because buyers will be pre-conditioned to trust the brand.

But – that simply won’t happen if I accept just any content someone passes my way and publish it.

The problem: creating a publishing brand focused on new and upcoming authors and content creators, making success possible for anyone who follows the steps – but making certain everything published is of the utmost quality, so the brand builds itself quickly.

Then, I realized the solution was staring me right in the face.

I’ve recently launched the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind -- a group of like-minded entrepreneural information publishers who all work with me and with one another to build their info-publishing businesses the right way.

Members of the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind receive weekly training modules from me and weekly live Q&A sessions where I go over new publishing industry developments and answer questions. I also do “hot seats” on the members’ latest works, pointing out fixes and providing ideas for improvement of their works and the entire membership contributes their ideas. Everything is fully self-paced and I work with all skill levels, from rank beginner to already-published.

Mastermind members also work together to share tips and resources, contribute to projects other members are currently working on, and helping each other with their marketing (cross-linking, guest posts…you get the picture).

Ink-U-Bator Media is, therefore, a product of the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind creative community!

If you’re a member of the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind, I’ll consider publishing your work on the Ink-U-Bator Media imprint and work with you to make sure it is accepted. If you’re looking for a publisher right now, join the Mastermind and submit your work. There’s no waiting period or requirement to take the training series. It’s there so that anyone – starting from bare-bones nothing – can roll up his or her sleeves, follow the steps and create work that will be ready to submit and get accepted.

So – my new publishing company is now officially integrated with the Mastermind. It’s your “inside” connection to getting published on the Ink-U-Bator Media imprint. As a member of the Mastermind, I’ll show you, step-by-step, how to create new information products that Ink-U-Bator Media will want to publish for you. And I’ll continue working with you until your work meets the criteria, even if you’re starting from square one and honestly don’t enjoy writing all that much.

The bottom line is clear. Self-publishing options have opened up at a dizzying pace while major publishers have lumbered along with the same tired model they’ve always followed. As the print and DVD markets continue to cool off in favor of Web-based markets, they’re slowly moving to new media -- but their publishing model remains unchanged.

Self-publishing is absolutely more lucrative, especially for new content creators. Unfortunately, self-publishing still requires a lengthy learning curve. Figuring everything out and keeping up can eat up a lot of time and energy, not to mention managing the business side of information product creation.

Either of these choices still involve you doing all or most of the marketing. The first one pays you pennies on the dollar for it.

All you have to do is join the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind. Follow the simple steps. Work with the group and lean on all of us to help you, and you will get published. We’re all in the group to help each other and I’m there to guide you, working with you until your work is accepted.

Still want to publish on your own? Go ahead! Mastermind members are never required to submit their works to Ink-U-Bator Media. I can’t possibly guarantee publication on the Ink-U-Bator Media imprint and maintain the quality of the brand. If you join, I can promise you step-by-step training designed specifically to get you published by Ink-U-Bator Media or anyone else, plus all the help you could ever need -- from myself and from the group -- to get it accepted and selling well.

Either way, we’ll help you get there.

All I ask you to do is prove you’re serious about getting published somewhere -- either on your own, through another publisher, or through Ink-U-Bator Media. My time is valuable. I want to be able to provide you all of my time that you need to successfully create and publish with my company. I can’t possibly waste too much of my time on people who aren’t serious about their goals, so I do charge a very small monthly fee while I’m working with you.

I also must limit membership in the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind to an absolute maximum of 250 participants. If you want to be one of them I suggest you hurry. With this extraordinary offer I expect to be at capacity quickly.

I don’t want you to tie up a seat if you’re not honestly planning to follow the steps and see what you can accomplish but, as long as there are seats open, you’re welcome to join us. You can always drop out any time. There’s no long-term commitment or contract involved – just a simple letter of agreement between you and Ink-U-Bator Media when you get your content ready for publication!

You could pay $47, $97, all the way up to $197 per month for your Ink-U-Bator Mastermind membership and it would be well worth it. The training, direct contact with me and interaction with the other members of the group is worth far more than that alone.

Add the fact that the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind is the central training ground for all future Ink-U-Bator Media content creators, and it sweetens the deal exponentially.

It’s no longer an “if” proposition. Profitable publication will become a matter of “when” – and the gears will be turning to kick you in that direction as quickly and painlessly as possible.

As I said, we’ll work with you for as long as it takes to get your information content ready to publish. It’s up to you and your ability to follow some very simple steps to make it happen quickly or over 6-12 months time. As long as you’re a member, we’ll be working with you to get published, and you can drop out any time if you so desire.

What price can you put on that?

I’ve priced membership in the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind so cost can’t possibly be a barrier to anyone who’s really serious enough to follow the simple steps. Membership is just $27 per month. It’s a tiny price to pay for getting on the ball and getting profitably published the right way, as soon as possible, on a name brand.

Forget the fact that this tiny fee barely covers the cost of my time and overhead to provide the training and assistance I’m providing to you when you join.

I have an incentive to make you successful. I make 30 cents for every 70 cents you make. This makes us partners in your success. If I don’t help you make money – I don’t make money and I don’t like to work for free, do you?

Consider the small monthly fee an elegant equalizer. It enables me to let everyone in, regardless of their current financial status (up to the strict top limit of 250). Everyone interested gets to take a spin without breaking the bank.

Stay in as long as you like. The longer you say, the longer you’ll have to get your work in shape for publication and released -- but that’s always up to you any way along the path. If you like the resulting sales and pay, stay forever and keep turning out more content we can publish together.

If it doesn’t work out – cancel any time and owe nothing more.

Either way, I’m paid a little bit of something for the extra time and work it takes to groom you and get you fully ready for publication and accepted – starting from ground zero, if necessary. Even if you drop out and there are no royalties down the road.

This enables me to justify the cost normally associated with working with new, untested creators of content – the people most established name publishers won’t even touch.

Does it get any better than that?

The Answer is...YES!

I’m not fooling around here. I know Ink-U-Bator Media is going to be huge, the most dynamic new force to hit the publishing industry in decades. And, the sooner I get at least 100 Mastermind members in and working with me, the sooner it will get there.

Imagine the power of 100-250 people, all producing top-notch books, audios, videos, training programs and apps faster than ever, all released on the Ink-U-Bator Media imprint, and all reflecting the same quality standards the current traditional publishers bring to the table.

I think the impact of what we create together is going to create buzz in the publishing industry all on its own, but I’ll also be pouring all my marketing muscle into letting the world know about Ink-U-Bator Media, the mastermind – and you.

So – to help me to keep new members coming in FAST and get this company growing quickly, I’ve decided to temporarily lower the barrier -- and I’ll even sweeten the deal -- for the first 50 people who sign up for the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind and grab this special offer:

I’d love to see Ink-U-Bator Media deliver a sucker punch the publishing industry at large didn’t see coming and make some serious waves, along with boatloads of money for you and for me! To make that happen, I need a minimum of 100 members working with me in the Mastermind as soon as possible.

So -- I’m throwing caution to the wind and, if you’re one of the first 50 people to respond to this special offer while it’s still open, I’ll also throw in a free copy of Think Like A Publisher – and Live Like A King!

This is a DVD of a live presentation I made at a marketing seminar in Orlando, Florida a couple of years ago. On the DVD, I explain my entire philosophy of self-publishing. I also show you numerous paths you can take when you decide to become an information publisher, easily turning what you already know into life-altering money for your expertise – whether you write or not!

There’s also special bonus audio CD inside the DVD case. It’s about Benjamin Franklin, featuring content-creation wizards Jeff Wark and Lori Stefen plus me. We discuss old Ben’s groundbreaking use of publishing to get what he wanted, and how so much of what he did so long ago works just as well today.

So -- I’ll sweeten the deal and mail you a physical copy of this DVD/CD set – a $59.95 value – if you’re one of the first 50 people who say “yes” to this special limited offer.

Believe me – 90 days is plenty of time to get far enough along to know if you want to keep working with me and the rest of the group. Depending on your skill level and how quickly you learn, and the action steps you take with my guidance, you could be easily ready for submission in 90 days.

If you’ve already got something ready that you’d like to submit for publication, sign up and submit it. I’ll work with you as a Mastermind member to get it accepted, and get it straight into publication.

Remember, the FREE DVD/CD set AND the “Three Months For The Price of One” are available for the first 50 who purchase.

The ball’s in your court. I’m making it about as painless for you as I can. There isn’t time for you to sit around thinking about it for days.

Just 50 spots will NOT last long!

SPECIAL UPDATE -- March 28, 2012, 4:45 p.m. Eastern:
ONLY 42 Remaining!

You can always dive into the complexities and figure out the formatting and submission rules for Kindle, Nook, iPad and all the others. You can get set up with a print-on-demand system, set up a Website and sell online and in print. And you can do all the marketing on your own.

It’s a lot of time and effort you could put into creating even more profitable quality content, but you’ll get 100% of the profits for your efforts.

Or, you can continue submitting manuscripts and proposals to the major publishing houses. With luck and persistence on your side, one day, they might decide to sign you up to do most of the marketing and sales of your own book for them -- in return for a 12% royalty.

Or, you can join the Ink-U-Bator Mastermind, work directly with the publisher at Ink-U-Bator Media and with dozens of other active members, and create your information products so they’re tailor-made for publication on the Ink-U-Bator Media imprint.

I’m giving you three full months for the price of one – plus a tasty bonus DVD/CD combo set mailed to your door, all for the mere pittance of only $27. That’s 30 cents a day!

If you’re serious about being published you’d have to be insane to pass up this offer!

All you have to do is grab a position while one is still available -- then I’ll see you on the inside. We’ll get started creating quality content faster than you ever imagined possible and selling more of what you create – paying you the lion’s share of the revenue your content generates.

Those 50 spots will go fast whether you get one or not. This ship’s taking off now, either way you choose to go.

If you’ve ever felt information publishing might be for you, or if you’re now seeing some success with it, but you’re ready to take it to the next level fast, most definitely get on board!

I hope I’ll be working with you soon!

Remember, if you’re one of the next 50 subscribers…

SPECIAL UPDATE -- March 28, 2012, 4:45 p.m. Eastern:
ONLY 42 Remaining!