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Hi there, this is some what connected to the thread on marketing a trick that I kind of hi-jacked not a moment ago, only a little more around my paticular questions.

My questions are, how would one go about setting up a pdf for purchase online? Where would I go about selling it, and how can I promote it easily? I am only interested because it's something that I've been interested in recently. I have got a fair few ideas that I have writen down in note books of some are effects that I perform when I go out to work, and others are more ideas that haven't had a chance to shine yet, but that someone else may be interested in still.

Since thinking of this, I have been doing my research to find whether the ideas I have got have already been published elsewhere, and if not, to credit people who deserve being mentioned. This will take some time, and after that, typing the pdf booklet up too, but the end result would hopefully be a fairly compact pdf booklet with a couple of my routines in that I'd maybe market for about £5, or there abouts. I know I'm not a great famous magical inventor, so I wouldn't expect people to pay throught the nose, but I like to think that there are items I use that others may love to take away.

Please if anyone has done this already, or has knowledge on this area, get in touch with me as I unfortunatly am not as skilled in this area. Also, to those who have published either books or pdf downloads, how do you go about the writing side of things? What are the best ways to edit something like this? Should I find another magician or magicians to proof read things before?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Anthony

When i wrote my first book i used a lulu template of the size i wanted. This was then converted to a PDF document using open office (other methods are available). I started selling it on lulu and via my website. I then approached unleash your dreams, lybrary and lebanon circle. I sent them a copy of the book to take a look. When they accepted it we worked out the royalty rate i would receive. After promoting it on facebook a couple of dealers asked me if they could also sell the PDF. As for proof reading, i asked some magician / entertainer friends who are members here.

For my scripting book i purchased a professional 6" x 9" template from Lulu, this had all the TOC and chapter sections set and ready to write.

You may want to take a look at this Sticky as well

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic14907.php&highlight=borrowing+loaning+books

You'll find similar articles at VISIONS eZine by Kenton Knepper as well as I and I seriously hope you'll weigh what we say and why.

Sorry Craig! i did not know about that source, i think i was still away from the forums when you wrote that.

Thanks for the pointers, any other help or advice would be greatly welcomed too.

Thanks for the link Craig, I've seen this topic before but didn't really read through it propperly until today. It does have some interesting points in there. I will say that although I've not had the chance to let others play with my ideas, I have been performing them myself for a good number of years and believe they are in great condition. My plan was that once I had writen my piece, I may then find a hand full of people who may read through, try out, give feed back and review the content. Oh, and have no fear, I'm not twelve, have no videos of me in my bedroom on youtube and didn't just buy a magic for dummies book. Hopefully that will put your mind at ease. However, if people aren't too happy with this, I'm not planning of making my fortune from it, so it won't be expencive, and if they don't want it, that's fine. I wouldn't be offended.

Still, this is going ahead so any more advice on things will be greatly appreciated.

I only hope you make it really clear that some of your ideas are theoretical and have never actually been used. I certainly would be very upset to pay for an effect which I assume would work only to find out it was out of somebody's head and has not been tried, and worse, possibly can't be done in any practicle way.

of course, if I was to put something in there that hadn't been tried and tested, I would of course make it clear up front. However, the majority of the routines I am planning on writing up are regularly used by myself and are tried and tested.

I would also be upset if this was the case in anything I had brought so I wouldn't inflict it onto others.

hds02115 wrote:Thanks for the pointers, any other help or advice would be greatly welcomed too.

Thanks for the link Craig, I've seen this topic before but didn't really read through it propperly until today. It does have some interesting points in there. I will say that although I've not had the chance to let others play with my ideas, I have been performing them myself for a good number of years and believe they are in great condition. My plan was that once I had writen my piece, I may then find a hand full of people who may read through, try out, give feed back and review the content. Oh, and have no fear, I'm not twelve, have no videos of me in my bedroom on youtube and didn't just buy a magic for dummies book. Hopefully that will put your mind at ease. However, if people aren't too happy with this, I'm not planning of making my fortune from it, so it won't be expencive, and if they don't want it, that's fine. I wouldn't be offended.

Still, this is going ahead so any more advice on things will be greatly appreciated.

As I believe I point out in that article, you would be wise to just hold off and make YOUR MATERIAL popular and of demand within the magic community. You do this through several paths starting with contributions to Magic related publications, preferably the traditional stand-by sources like GENII and MAGIC as well as the club rags like Linking Ring, MUM, etc. This will protect your material historically but likewise start getting your name out there and recognized by the movers & shakers of the biz.

See if you can do a lecture for your local Ring or magic club; video tape it and shoot off a copy to Lecturenet (Danny Archer). If he likes it he may be able to get you booked (in the States at least) with a lecture tour. Of course there are others both, here in the States as well as Europe such as Peter Nardi who, if you make a solid impression, can help you get places or, to be more accurate, to become more than another kid with a bunch of ideas writing another eBook.

Wisely, the consumer is becoming far more cynical when it comes to eBooks and unknown authors/personalities. So establish yourself within the establishment itself.

Sound advice, I'll have a good think about things, but, I am still going to keep moving forward with this. I know you've published some bits in the past, and well. we've all got to start somewhere, so I'm not holdning off. I will make sure that what I do it to the highest standards I can make it, and the content both be as well researched as possible and well explained. Apart from that, this is mearly dipping my toe in the water, if I don't really feel it, then I won't do it again. So I won't be just another kid with an ebook, I'll be another magician. This isn't a dig, but although you may be older, I've found being called kid quite patronising, I think that once you pass twenty six it's not needed anymore.

Anyway, thank you for your thoughts still, I will take them on board.

hds02115 wrote:we've all got to start somewhere,

Craig Browning wrote: Lots and lots of names and places to start.

hds02115 wrote:but, I am still going to keep moving forward with this.

Good luck with that kid.

I'm guessing the kid part was a joke right?