by: Paulette Ensign
You've been thinking about writing a tips booklet. After all, it's shorter, faster, and easier than writing an entire book. A single tips booklet manuscript can be recycled over and over again, developing a new income stream with each deal you make. The booklet can be distilled from a hard copy or electronically published book you've already written, an electronic newsletter you distribute, or from sound bites you continually share with clients, audiences and anyone who will listen.
When that booklet is done is when the fun really begins. You can sell it as electronic or hard copies one at a time or for large quantity usage by your clients. Or, you can sell the rights to the contents, on a non-exclusive basis, in many ways. Think about all the languages in the world. That can be a starting point. Find someone who is interested in licensing the right to your material to translate into another language, reaching a non-English speaking population in your own country or in a different country. Online connections can be made with such licensees, worldwide, every day of the week.
Once you strike a deal with them, you will send them your content as an email attachment. They get to do the translating, editing, production, marketing and distribution, and pay you for that right! You could also license the rights to your information to a company who wants to purchase 10,000 or more copies of your booklet. They can generally buy print less expensively than you can sell it to them. You will once again license them the right to do all the work, and pay you for it.
You may also find other venues interested in your manuscript. What about an audio CD publishing company? You can hire yourself out to record the program as part of the licensing deal or the audio publisher can bring in their own speaking talent.
What about licensing the use of your content to a catalog company to pepper their website or hard copy catalog pages with your tips? Or a public relations firm can bring your booklet manuscript to a client of theirs to use as a radio, television or print commercial: 'This organizing moment has been brought to you by XYZ Office Supply Company.' Do your tips work individually on posters, coffee mugs, tee shirts, screen savers, or computer mouse pads as advertising specialty items? What about a tip a day on a calendar or as a CD or even as the premise of a board game? Would some tips work as a needlepoint design?
These are just some of the many ways one single tips booklet manuscript in your area of expertise can be recycled over and over again, reaching a larger audience and generating thousands of dollars for you, with your client doing all the production. Think of what other ways you can license your booklet content. The possibilities are endless, especially with the access you now have online!
Copyright 2005 Paulette Ensign