Sometimes, no matter how good your story, publishers might not be willing to take the risk to publish it. Perhaps it’s too controversial, or they are concerned there may not be enough potential buyers in the targeted niche. In the case of Jennifer Lawler, the story was just too damn sad for any publisher to back it.

“Many of you have also asked why I don’t write a book about my experiences with Jessica. I have. My agent, the indomitable Neil Salkind, has been trying to find a publisher for it since last August. We have received many rejections, mostly on the grounds of ‘it’s too painful; it won’t find an audience.’ ”

“I have never believed that, and your response to ‘For Jessica’ is my validation. People want to read the truth, even if it is raw and makes them cry. They want to be moved, to feel that there is more to life than just another bathroom to clean or a new pair of shoes to buy.”

So she put the manuscript up on e-junkie.

More and more, ebooks are becoming a popular alternative to the long, drawn out process of finding an agent, shopping your book around, and hoping your publishing house sets aside enough cash for decent promotion. In the case of ebooks, you do your promotion yourself, but you eliminate the middleman costs – no 10% to the agent, no paybacks to the publisher. It’s all yours – or maybe you share a little with affiliates who help you with your marketing.

If you are a writer struggling to have your story read, frustrated with the whole agent/publisher setup, why not go it alone? It’s really a lot less scary than the daily rejections from agents and publishers that the average writer receives, and the marketplace will tell you how good your book is.

The Sticky eBook Formula will help you get the book written, formatted, published and marketed in record time. Like Jennifer Lawler, take matters into your own hands and tell your story, no matter how timid the publishing houses might be. They care about their own bottom line – shouldn’t you care about yours?

Totally ignore the price on the banner – Darren is taking $5 off for the next two weeks and selling it for $9.97, just like he did with 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, which I and many of my readers benefited from.

The Scorecard will help make your blog posts more compelling, plus give you the skinny on SEO to better monetize your blog.

Whether you’re new to the blogging world (Welcome!) or an old hand at it, getting your blog ducks in a row is essential to building the traffic and creating the income you desire from your blog.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger has this to say about Darren’s Latest:

“I’ve built a multimillion dollar business not only by teaching the intersection of blogging and copywriting, but by using it. The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers provides clear guidance on how to put this powerful combination to work for you, too.”

Try The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers and see the difference it can make for your blog.

Opening a business is always tricky. In Ontario, entrepreneurs and small business owners can turn to the federal, provincial and municipal governments for financial assistance. Governments at all levels understand that small businesses drive local economies, and do all they can to support these businesses, helping to ensure they have a strong foundation on which to build.

Now Kindle is coming to Canada, and book lovers and gadget whores are salivating to get their hands on one. Plus there’s the Sony reader, and Chapters/Indigo has their own version, too.

Ebooks have become big business, as there is little overhead and lots of solid profit. It’s starting to make the big publishing houses nervous that authors are choosing to self-publish and self-promote instead of giving everything over to them.

An article in the Guardian last week caught my eye. Author Ray Connolly has decided to serialize his new book, The Sandman, on his website. Readers who become hooked on the story and want to read the whole thing at once have the option of downloading the book immediately for £5. That same book through a publishing house would be sold in stores for around £12, to cover printing, promotion and profit. In Connolly’s case, he gets all the profit and it costs almost nothing to distribute and promote.

Most of the how-to business manuals I’ve bought in the last few years have been ebooks, too. They’re so convenient – instant gratification, easy to store (no messes – my nightstand is a testament to what happens when there are too many books in the house!), and dirt cheap.

Ray Connolly and Kindle have shown us that books don’t have to be non-fic to have an e-market.

So if you’re one of the millions who have a story built up inside them just busting to be told, this is the right time to tell it. Whether you want to impart knowledge in a non-fiction book, or pull us into a world of your making with a work of fiction, get started writing. Publish online, use your blog, Twitter, Facebook and email to promote it, and keep the profits to yourself. Publishing ebooks no longer has the stigma of “vanity publishing” that it once had – the big guys are paying attention to online publishers who are pulling big numbers.

Sticky eBooks can help you get started with writing, publishing and marketing your ebook. Naturally it’s an ebook, and therefore inexpensive and immediate. See how convenient that is??

As with any kind of book, article or essay, the hardest part is sitting down and just writing the damn thing. All that information, floating around you head, not making any sense… it’s tough. But just sit your ass down and get started. You’ll be amazed at the market out there on the internet, just waiting to download your opus.

Consider it a sign of the times, or even just success that Twitter now has a policy in place to handle ownership of a user’s account once they’ve died.

As expected, interested parties need to send in several pieces of information about how they relate to that person before Twitter will take action.

Once the proper credentials have been sent to the company (via e-mail or snail mail), Twitter is then able to do one of two things: either remove a deceased user’s account entirely, or provide an archive of all that user’s tweets so family members can access them offline.

However, when it happens it’s undeniable.

* Your success online in your own two hands

* Cut the cord to the gurus once and for all

* Use free tools to get traffic, signups and sales in one fell swoop!

What other method can offer this except Rapid Video Blogging?

Seriously, I don’t think there are any!

* If you’re a blogger, this is the logical next step.

* If you have a business online, this will boost everything.

* If you’re starting from scratch, perfect!

Even if you’re not interested in money, this will get you
unparalleled, massive exposure for whatever you do.

Let me remind you of something important.

This is 2010, and even the newspapers are waking up to the
money making potential of content (New York Times just went
subscription-only, many more will follow).

So why would You blog just for fun, or make YouTube videos
just for fun, when you can do what you’re already doing
and build massive lists and make an income on a monthly basis!

Alright. That’s all the pep talk I have left in me.

Go and see Gideon Shalwick lay it all out for you.

I’ve had a sneak peek at what he’s been up to, and it’s astonishing. It involves going viral on YouTube and helping people monetize their video popularity.

Stay tuned. I’ll be offering FREE PRODUCT on August 3rd that will help you get started with Gideon’s Rapid Video Blogging. If you’re not already subscribing to this blog’s RSS feed, do so now, and make sure you get the free report and video on August 3.

We are looking for a writer who can make total of two posts per day (20 days a month) about luxury real estate, cars, boats, clothes and other high-end luxury products and properties.

The posts can be between 150 to 300 words each and must include one photo.

This is a long term blogger work so please be dedicated to commit to at least for a year.

The pay is fixed @ $250 per month. Payment via paypal at month end.

No blogger could live in luxury making $6 per post.

Then while I was perusing their site yesterday, I noticed that they have regularly scheduled webinars (I hate that word, but whatever). I signed up for one this afternoon, about building your list. There’s still time to sign up – you don’t even have to be a customer (yet!).

Use this form to sign up for the 30-day, $1 trial. Totally worth it! And like I said, the service is top-notch.

Brass Balls Radio may be off the air, but I learned so much in the almost two years that my co-host and I did our weekly show. Learn more at Working Naked.