A Better Way To Author Travel Guides - Let Your Customers Do It

======================================================
A NEW WAY TO WRITE BOOKS - GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO DO IT
NICHE TRAVEL GUIDE AUTHORS GIVE THEIR CONTENT AWAY
FOR FREE AND LET READERS CHANGE WHATEVER THEY WANT
======================================================

COLLABORATIVE BOOK PUBLISHING has already seen some success
in computing but now it's set to shake up the travel guide
market too as the book's readers become the new experts.

A NICHE THE BIG PUBLISHERS IGNORED
----------------------------------
Self-published authors, Debbie Jenkins and her husband
Marcus, first wrote their book, "Going Native in Murcia" to
solve a problem they had when it came to getting solid,
reliable and comprehensive information on the Murcia region
- there wasn't any!

Debbie says, "Making the decision to self-publish a book on
a subject the big publishers seemed to ignore was really
scary. But we figured that we weren't alone and that we'd
spotted a genuine gap in the market. We weren't wrong."

Sales of the first edition exceeded their expectations and
demand was so great that they decided to release a second
edition which has been selling even better than the first
since July of this year.

FORCED TO WRITE THEIR OWN TRAVEL GUIDE
--------------------------------------
After a successful start for their second edition
Debbie and Marcus realised they would need a little
help in the future.

Debbie says, "We were forced to write this book because
nobody else had published much on the Murcia region. But the
demand we're getting to release a new edition every 12-18
months, to keep the content fresh, would take up all of our
time. Plus, we can't possibly know EVERYTHING there is to
know about Murcia and we want the third edition to be even
bigger and better than this one when we release it next
Winter."

Paying professional writers and journalists was out of the
question. Not only due to the cost involved but also
because they wanted the book to retain the real love and
passion that only people who live in the region and visit
often could bring to the project.

Marcus says, "So we thought, wouldn't it be cool if our
readers could get together and write their own travel guide
- just like us?"

WRITTEN BY THE PEOPLE - FOR THE PEOPLE
--------------------------------------
And so, they decided to give their book to the readers who
holiday and live in Murcia and let them add to, amend and
update the content themselves.

Despite some people in the industry thinking that giving
everything away for free on a website will harm book sales,
Debbie (who has since published 32 books with 4 best-
sellers) and Marcus think otherwise.

Debbie explains, "Even if all this information is on the web
- there is no substitute for a book that can be taken to the
beach, left in your car, stuffed in a bag and read on the
plane. There will always be demand for information packaged
in such a convenient format and we're going to prove it."

She continues, "We're very confident that by giving the
electronic information away for free we'll sell even more
copies when the third edition is released because we're
constantly building a hungry database of buyers who have
a personal stake in the project and an interest in the
subject. Who wouldn't want to a buy a book with their
name on it?"

######### SIDEBAR ##########

HOW COLLABORATIVE BOOK PUBLISHING WORKS
---------------------------------------

1. Publisher provides free content and book structure to
target market

2. Target market register (join database) to gain access

3. Registered users create the content, keep it fresh and
report/fix errors within the pre-set book structure set by
the publisher. The content is self-healing.

4. Publisher edits content, creates cover art and (aided by
the site's software) creates a print ready file with credit
to all contributors

5. Publisher sells book directly to the people who
contributed to the content (either individually or by the
box) as well as via traditional channels

########## SIDEBAR ENDS ##########

BOOK BUYERS ARE THE NEW EXPERTS
--------------------------------
This collaborative publishing model is a world first in
the travel guide industry and although similar success has
been achieved with some highly technical computing guides,
the big difference is that readers aren't being told what
to do by the experts.

The reader is becoming the AUTHOR and the BUYER of the
book all at once.

Debbie concludes, "While there are already a few online
community travel guides none, until now, have bridged the
cyber-gap to actually publish a printed book in this way.
NativeSpain.com has been created with this very goal in mind
and the book's structure was set right from the word go."

ENDS
WORDCOUNT 729 (with sidebar)

NOTES FOR EDITORS
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A Brit's Scrapbook: Going Native In Murcia (second edition)

Authors: Debbie Jenkins & Marcus Jenkins
Price: £14.99
Pages: 232
ISBN: 1905430213
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 2005

Review Copies can be requested via:
http://www.bookshaker.com
Call: 0870 005 6250
Email: mailto:reviews@bookshaker.com

3rd edition (based on the collaborative publishing model)
due to be released October 2007.

About The Authors
---------------------------------------
Marcus and Debbie Jenkins live with their
dogs (Dani and Fuggles) in the mountains above a
village with a population of just 101 people.
They both left behind their big city lives in
the UK while taking their jobs with them. Marcus,
who also took the photographs, is a software
consultant. Debbie is an entrepreneur, best-selling
publisher (with her brother Joe) and marketer.

Websites:
http://www.NativeSpain.com
http://www.bookshaker.com

INTERVIEWS/FEATURES
-------------------
If you'd like to interview the authors or publishers
to get their opinion for a feature, or have them do
live phone-ins on your show then email...
mailto:interviews@bookshaker.com