Borders Going Out of Business

So I drive by my Borders going out of business sale this morning....after downloading the latest Time magazine and Amazon book instantly to my iPad last night.

And it really gets me thinking......

I'm creating a 6 DVD How to Increase Your Sales with Social Media home study course. These will be sold at the back of the room after my speaking events, on my website, and via affiliate partners.

I purchased 50 cases, which cost $30. Then the cover and blank screen printed CD's to go in the cases will cost about $150. With a $45 microphone, free screen recording software, and free video editing software, I'll have my entire DVD course created. This will retail for $995.

Interesting enough, I paid a designer $595 on 99designs.com to create the DVD case cover. Sure, I could have created it myself in Photoshop, but I paid the money because I wanted creativity and to save time.

I wrote all the sales copy myself, but if I hired a top notch copywriter, that would have cost me at least $2,000.

And that's what simply fascinates me.

The most expensive part of the whole process was the design (or my copywriting), not the manufacturing or distribution. That's essentially free now.

I can create all the content I want at low cost, and get it to anyone I want in the world instantly at essentially no cost (as long as I've earned their attention).

So the value lies in the creativity and value of the content itself.

And that's where the money is flowing...directly to the content creators.

I think of all the authors with published books who have their own websites, selling books directly to their audience - and adding value with videos, podcasts, speaking events, blogging, newsletters, etc to back up their product sale.

You don't need a middle man to get your product to market.

There's so much here to this I can't fully wrap my head around it.

But it's something to think about - the only thing holding you back from 'writing your book' is you. There's no barrier to entry. You can sell anything you want on Amazon. Computers are free at your local library. It costs only a few dollars to drive targeted traffic to your sales page on Google or Facebook.

Check out www.lulu.com.

The publishing game has changed, and it's exciting. More power to us.

Sad to see you go Borders. :(