Your Questions About Doing Business Online Malaysia

Jere answers:

Hey there mate!

The Philippines’ Music Industry is quite active indeed. But be it be the most active…possibly but there are a lot of competition we have to win before being called the greatest.

Activeness in this line of business would vary based on a number of factors. It could be in terms of how the local artists’ produced records, performance, gigs, documentaries, public appearances, bookings, TV/Radio/Ad commercials, online exposure, downloads, culture, marketing to Local and International communities abroad, etc.

Aside from the local artists…the industry is contributed also by foreign artists that would do performances in the country.

Ratings would depend also with the music genre that is quite popular in the a particular location and a particular crowd.
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Now it seems that you are quite interested more into “Bands”. Basing it from you YA ID…it seems that we are referring it more on the Alternative Rock, and RAP/RnB genre.

With the Alternative Rock and RAP/RnB genre…yes we are quite active. We are actually competing for being the most active with countries like some of the Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia…to name a few), and Oriental countries (China, Japan, and Korea).

If there is a genre that we are quite famous for…its for Solo Artists who performs Easy Listening Music (Ballad, Mellow, Soft Pop, Smooth Jazz, Light RnB…). Believe it or not, Charisse Pempengco created a stir when she was featured in the US and UK. It made the country’s music industry active in search of talents and producing LPs for the said genre.

Hope this helps.

Jere answers:

That would be your second biggest mistake. Your first was purchasing a copyright. You should never never never do that. It shows publishers and agents you distrust them and they get very nasty about it sometime. It is an almost guaranteed slush pile move. You own the rights to your work automatically the minute you write it. The best protection is to just NOT spread it around on the internet. If and when you sell the book, your publisher will obtain a copyright as a part of a standard book contract. Purchasing a copyright tells publishers and agents you are not professional. Only amateurs do that.

And you have been given some bum information regarding the so called “poor man’s copyright” where you mail a copy to yourself. A copyright is only as good as the high priced attorney you pay to defend it. A “poor man’s copyright” does not stand up in court without major additional evidence to support it. No lawyer would take the case to defend one. There are literally dozens of ways to beat it. The latest is backdating your computer, stealing a story online and burning a disk with a date of a few years ago. Just like that, someone lost a story. And I hate to tell you, but it is possible for someone to plagiarize your work and you not even know it until it hits the book stores. And tell me what you do if someone in Malaysia plagiarizes you? Where do you hold the trial – here or Malaysia? Just don’t share your work online or pass around copies and your claim to the material will hold up.

I sure do wish people would skim through other questions before they ask. They would see all this information is archived to help them.

No, you do not send the manuscript to the publisher. You follow their submission guidelines to the letter. Usually that means sending a query letter with a synopsis. If they express interest, they will ask for a full or partial manuscript and a book proposal. You have to learn how to write a proposal. There are books that will help. It is a very important document. It is your #1 selling tool. Make sure it is a good one.

That being said, as a person with experience in children’s books – let me tell you the real deal about kids’ books.

The odds are heavily stacked against you. You have chosen the most difficult thing in the publishing business – getting a children’s book published.

Let me describe for you the current nature of the children’s book market. I just finished ghostwriting two children’s books for a very major sports figure – already sold to a very major NY publisher. The first is with artist now and due out in Spring. I am currently working on another one with others to follow. This information was given to me by a Senior Editor at the publisher I write for (one of the top 5 Publishers in the world) …

40% of children’s books published today are by celebs like Madonna, Jamie Lee Curtis etc.

40% are written by existing, established children’s authors like Eric Carle.

15-20% are reprints of children’s classics like Curious George.

That leaves at best 5% for new authors.

And that percentage is being cut into by adult authors like Carl Hiaasen and Mary Higgins Clark entering the children’s market recently.

As a result, most A list publishers aren’t even reading children’s books right now, which means agents arent either. Agents only read what they can sell.

There is very little room to break into the children’s market. Only books that are extremely exceptional and have huge appeal stand a chance. Forget any holiday related books – the selling season is too short to make money.

And most publishers have huge backlogs of children’s books they have purchased and are not published yet. It takes about a year for a children’s book to make it out – often MUCH MUCH More. It usually takes an artist about a month a page to illustrate. So most publishers have their production schedules for children’s books filled out for the next few years.

Take a walk through any major childrens’ book department and you will confirm what I am telling you. Getting a childrens’ book done is almost impossible – and getting an advance for it is virtually out of the question anymore. Unless you fall into one of those categories above. I am fortunate to have the backing of a very major sports star to get me in the door with kids books. I write adult novels, but believe me I have tried with kids books before and failed for exactly the reasons I list here.

Ghostwriting has gotten me in through the back door, and now I will be able to sell some of the children’s books that have my name on them. For now, someone else’s name is on the cover. Someone whose name sells books – big time. Don’t ask me how you can get a ghostwriting deal for a major sports star … I really backed into this. It was a gift from Heaven really and it is a blast working with this person too!!! My mantle is now covered with sports memorabilia worth a fortune!! Presents. (I am watching out for OJ to invade my house and steal it LOL)

That is the nature of the beast. You might get a copy of Writers Market and search for some small publishers who are reading childrens’ books, but searching through the agents section, you will see that almost NO agents are reading childrens’ books. Try for some small publishers that read without going through an agent. Expect a lot of rejection. Develop a really thick skin and learn to advocate for yourself.

Always remember that before you send anything to anyone, check them out. Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write Water Cooler’s Bewares and Background Checks, Writers Weekly.com and Writers Wall are all great sources and totally free – although if they help you, it is nice to contribute a donation. Someone has to pay for running the sites. If you do not see information on the publisher or agent in question, write to Dave K at Preditors and Editors, Victoria Strauss or James Macdonald at Absolute Write or Angela Hoy at Writers Weekly. They are happy to pass along any info they have to help you.

As for self publishing it – it will get you nowhere. Self published books dont make it to bookstores. Childrens’ books are impulse buys. What is out on the tables for kids to see is what sells. Kids don’t shop at websites for things like books. They have to hold them in their hand and nag Mom to buy it. The only way to achieve that is through a good traditional publisher. I recently read an article in the paper about a woman who self published a childrens’ book. She refinanced her house for over 60 thousand dollars and invested it in self publishing. She has recouped less than 10% of her money and is in danger of having her house foreclosed on.

I have starred a lot of great Q and A regarding writing on my profile. You can access it and print out the pages. Start a notebook you can refer to. There s a lot of good information here and I add more as I see good ones. I am doing it to help others. Feel free to use it. Add me as a fan and get the regular updates. Keep writing. Remember you have to need to grow a hide as thick as a herd of elephants. There will be rejection letters and plenty of them. Most authors save theirs. I recently came across my very first. I may have it bronzed.

Just keep writing. Be exceptional!!

Good luck. Pax – C

Jere answers:

Enrich members can claim Malaysia Airlines award flights online with dynamic pricing, which means the price in miles will go down or up depending on demand. The program does not have an award chart online. Members must input their desired departure airport and destination online to receive the amount of miles that will need to be redeemed.

Jere answers:

Hello,

(ANS) I would be highly dubious about ANY University that offered a PHd course via the internet. 99% of such courses are just a scam, a con, a rip off. Any such qualification will more than likely be completely bogus DON’T be naive here.

**YES! Of course there are real distance learning courses such as the famous Open University here in the UK.

**Have you checked out how real (if at all?) Atlantic Int University in Hawaii is? Is there such a University? Do they have a phone number, do they have a real bricks & mortar office, do they have a website, how long have they existed? How long has this PHd been going. How long is the course, what are the qualifications needed to undertake this course.

**Most real PH’d courses require a student to have at least a first degree to even begin such a course.

ITS PROBABLY A SCAM !! You pay your money & get a bogus PH’d certificate which is not worth the paper its printed on.

Ivan

Jere answers:

An online business is a business that is run via the internet. These businesses may include retailing, outsourcing of services, reselling of items of your own or other companies/people’s products, being an infopreneur and many others. Finding an online business that you can make money from may require you to create a website that advertises your business and items, registering yourself on certain websites or forums where you can advertise your services and finding clients from the rather huge world of the internet.

Identify your area of expertise. Do you have any information that others will benefit from?
Write down some keywords that you will be using on your website and check out the demand for your keywords using the many keyword tools available.
Use to determine the Google supply(the number of websites that are built around those keywords) for your keywords.
Determine profitability of your keywords using the formula ‘Demand number/Supply number’.
Research what people are looking for and buying online by going to different forums, Google Trends, Ebay.com and www.amazon.com and places like www.ezinearticles.com and look at their top sellers or articles. Find a niche that looks interesting and do more research. Think about what and why people buy things online.
The goal of all of your research is to come up with a business idea that people are interested as compared to just starting a business that you want to create.
Knowing what you can easily offer people online and what business you can successfully run and make money out of is the first step in running an online business.
Create a list of keywords and plan your pages according to what people are looking for.