Best Blackhat Forum

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (AND READ THE ARTICLE!)
IF YOU MAKE $2K A MONTH OR MORE
FROM YOUR SELF-PUBLISHING PROJECTS

I got this email today from Dave Chesson (aka Dave at Kindlepreneur) with a subject line that stopped me in my tracks. It read:

"I've been SUED over copyright infringement."

Well, that's guaranteed to get the attention of most of his readers...

But thank goodness, he managed to get things straightened out.

Yes, according to Dave's story, he was actually sued by someone claiming that he STOLE their works to create one of his better-selling books!

And that claim alone prompted Amazon to shut him down. His account was frozen. His sales were in limbo.

Do yourself a favor and read the story for the full details.

The way he described it, he was a nervous wreck!

He ultimately got himself an attorney and learned to protect his assets (his writings) in the event something like this would happen again.

He had to prove that claimant wrong and he did.

But had he lost that suit, the claimant could be able to come behind his income, property, and any else of value that he owned.

In the end, it was only a competitor who wanted to shut him down and thus, filed a baseless claim.

But look how much it cost him in having to hire an attorney, deal with Amazon, lost revenue and the uncertainty that he'd ever recover his account -- not to mention the emotional distress of wondering how and why this happened and the embarrassment for his business when online customers couldn't order (due to the frozen account status).

Nobody should have to go through this if they aren't absolutely guilty of such an offense.

So, Dave's article (How to Start a Legitimate Publishing Company) goes into detail on what YOU need to do to keep this from happening to you.

SEE IT HERE:

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-start-a-publishing-company/
.

It talks about setting up a legal entity (like an Limited Liability Corporation or LLC) so that your valuable assets are off-limit to people who may try to sue you for copyright or other claims.

But there is some very specific "work" you need to do for this to happen. Some of it is legal-based but the rest is just common sense.

So, if you are a self-published writer (or plan to be) with at least $2,000 a month in book sales, BOOKMARK THAT PAGE and look into setting up a legal entity (unless you already have one).

It protects your assets now and into the future.

BUT WAIT! I CAN'T LET YOU GO
SO SOON...!

It's the holiday season, so here's a little extra in your stocking to get you ready for a prosperous New Year...

In the article above, Dave talked a lot about Joe Solari, the expert who tells you how to make your self-publishing enterprise more than just a profitable side hustle but a real business.

So, I found a few links to more Joe Solari stuff (just in case you're interested).


#1
HOW TO TREAT YOUR WRITING
LIKE A BUSINESS - and More (Joe Solari)

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://joesolari.com/
.

#2
MARK DAWSON'S SELF-PUBLISHING FORMULA
SPS-182: How to Run an Indie Author Business
(with Joe Solari and Barry Kernon)

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://selfpublishingformula.com/episode-182/
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SPECIAL NOTE: You can "sign up" for episode "extras" (PDFs) by giving a valid
email address on these podcasts but that's entirely up to you.
.

#3
SETTING UP A PUBLISHING COMPANY? DON'T MAKE
THESE TWO HUGE MISTAKES - Joe Solari

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://medium.com/@Jsolari/setting-up-a-publishing-company-dont-make-these-two-huge-mistakes-abe8a616e6aa
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#4
DRS EPISODE 552 - INCORPORATION? LLC? WTF?
Interview with Joe Solari (YouTube Video)

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2LhbwWFkW4
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#5
THE CAREER AUTHOR PODCAST - Joe Solari (YouTube Video)

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Cqdc5c0Og
.

And lastly, there's some Joe Solari stuff here, too:


#6
MIND YOUR BUSINESS FOR AUTHORS

Magic Button :

Code:

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https://www.owltail.com/podcast/7lS1U-Mind-Your-Business-for-Authors/best-episodes
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OR HERE:
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-your-business-for-authors/id1484685296
.
AND HERE:
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https://medium.com/@Jsolari/the-business-of-writing-cheet-sheet-38954edfce26
.

You can find more Joe Solari stuff by Googling his name with different file formats, like mp3, pdf, etc.

Don't forget to BOOKMARK the sites you like.

Enjoy the upcoming holidays!

If you're seeing this post anywhere other than bestblackhatforum.com or
being shared by anyone other than Layna61524, then that's where/who
THEY TOOK IT FROM!

for reading!
Layna61524

Thank you, Layna, for another great post.

During the past troublesome year your posts have helped to make life a lot more tolerable!

Thank you!

And again Layna,
You are The GOAT ( Greatest Of All Time )
Thank you ever so much for your outstanding share's
and FREE information.
A very Merry Christmas from my family to yours

Thank for the share. You continue to shine and achieve in outdoing yourself with your shares.

Layna's post here has inspired me to share my own story about self-publishing with Amazon.

I first got into it in I believe over 10 years ago... I had already begun THINKING about writing some kind of non-fiction book(s) and self-publishing them on the platform but I really didn't know what to write about.

I should also point out that I am already a Professional Writer i.e., I write screenplays.

Anyway, one day long ago, I stumbled on an article on the actual U.S. Copyright website that talked about cooking recipes and it said right there on the site that ALL recipes are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN except those recipes that utilize one or more brand name ingredient in the recipe.

Having said that... All one has to do is substitute the brand name ingredient for the generic name of the ingredient to protect themselves from copyright and possibly trademark infringement.

In other words...

If a recipe calls for one 8 ounch can of Hunt's tomato sauce? Just modify the recipe to say one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce.

Pretty simple... After reading that article? I was inspired to perform some research and come up with my own cookbook. I won't go into the actual research... There's plenty of information on HOW to perform it but suffice to say, after I did the research at the time? I found out that Italian cookbooks and crockpot cookbooks were extremely popular and selling well on Amazon.

So I filled the empty niche... i.e., there were NO Italian Crockpot cookbooks on Amazon at all. I also need to point out that AT THE TIME? I did very detailed keyword research with Amazon's search engine and while there were certainly slow cooker cookbooks being searched for? My research led me to believe that the majority of people were at the time, searching for crockpot recipes and not slow cooker recipes.

Anyway... Before I decided to write, I went ahead and performed some trademark research and found that Hamilton Beach owned the trademark:

Crock-Pot

Spelled EXACTLY the way I've typed it out above. They did NOT own the following trademarks:

crock pot
crockpot
crock-pot

In fact? Nobody owned those trademarks so without consulting an attorney, I decided to use the wordL

crockpot

in my title and throughout my book.

I approached writing this cookbook like I approach writing screenplays and fiction books... I came up with a character to write the book AROUND. I came up with a nice, older, Italian lady. I went to fakenamegenerator.com and kept reloading female Italian names until one just HIT me.

I then gave her a backstory... She was older. A widow. Three grown children -- one in college -- two working professionals.

When her husband died? She could no longer stay home and be a homemaker... She had to go to work to support her and her three children.

I won't get into specifics but I came up with that backstory (I ADMIT IT) in order to ELICIT both sympathy and empathy from the book's prospective readers.

So basically... Along with the Italian recipes I came up with? Every 10 or so pages, the book went into the Italian lady's background and family. I did this so readers could IDENTIFY with the author and hence? Possibly give the book some decent reviews.

It was all a hunch on my part but because I've been an Internet Marketer since the early 90s and have always written my own sales copy along with writing screenplays and fiction? I felt qualified to make and play that hunch.

My first problem was with the recipes... LOL. I knew I wanted at least 101 recipes. At the time? I knew this would exceed any other crockpot or Italian cookbook people were buying off Amazon. Unfortunately, at the time? I could only find 67 authentic Italian crockpot recipes online.

Then it hit me...

Just find some other regular crockpot recipes and then use Google Translate to translate the title of the recipe into Italian. LOL.

Worked like a charm and no one was ever the wiser...

I wrote the book in Jutoh... Which I found out there on the Internet for FREE. I just typed it right into the Jutoh platform. I really didn't know of all the other ways to create an eBook for sale on Amazon.

Once I finished the book? I uploaded it to Amazon. Within 3 days, it began getting sales. In its first month on Amazon? It NET me over $7K. The following two months were approximately the same and I was getting a LOT of great reviews.

I was already beginning a second cookbook when I get an email from Amazon one day.

Hamilton Beach was threatening a lawsuit against Amazon AND myself for trademark infringement. Why? They said me using "crockpot" in the title and throughout the book was too close to their tradmark: Crock-Pot

It didn't matter if I agreed or not and in this instance? Even Amazon backed down because their attorneys told ME in confidence in a telephone call that they didn't think WE (them and I) could win a trademark infringement lawsuit because my use of the word 'crockpot' was too close to the way Hamilton Beach uses the word.

It took a week of three-way calls with just ME on my end, Amazon's attorneys and Hamilton Beach's attorneys to finally settle the problem. Amazon would take the book DOWN and if I wanted to put it back up? I could but I would have to change the word, 'crockpot' to the words, 'slow cooker' EVERYWHERE the word, 'crockpot' is mentioned.

Again at the time? I decided against doing that because slow cooker simply wasn't being searched for so I decided that I'd learned a huge lesson from the experience... Don't even come close to any kind of trademark others are using.

I should also point out that AT THE TIME? There were HUNDREDS of other titles on Amazon with 'crockpot' in the title and scattered throughout the book which is why I chose to use 'crockpot' instead of the other iterations.

But as I've pointed out? This didn't save me... LOL.

So the lesson here is that even if you think you can't get sued? YOU CAN. I lucked out in this instance but Hamilton Beach was ready to go after both Amazon and myself. I have pockets but NOT nearly as deep as Hamilton Beach or Amazon and when Amazon's attorneys consulted with me PRIVATELY? I figured if they weren't willing to fight it out, I shouldn't be either.

We'll never know of course but I simply couldn't take the chance at the time...

These days? I have several LLCs to protect my assets and use them all the time. You may not be able to create these legal entities at the beginning of your endeavor but as Layna and her post points out? You really need to be thinking ahead if you plan on being successful with ANY of this Internet and Digital Marketing stuff.

If this post just gets ONE of YOU out there to PROCEED with EXTREME CAUTION? I will be happy.

Good luck!

jack

Thank you, Layna's interesting articles and great story from jackpinion legend. I given reputation to all of you. Thank you very much.