HOW DO YOU RESEARCH THE FOLIO?
Make yourself an expert on the subject! Talk to friends and neighbors. Ask questions. Read books, newspapers, and magazines on the subject. Ask your librarian for suggestions. As you read, KEEP NOTES ON EVERYTHING. When you have read everything you could lay your hands on, sit down and study your notes. Read them over slowing and carefully. Then lay the notes aside and think about the whole subject for a day or two. You will be amazed at what your mind will do with the subject if you have research it thoroughly!
HOW DO YOU WRITE IT?
Here's a tip from a professional writer. Sit down and pretend that you are a person who knows absolutely nothing about the subject. Write down FIFTEEN QUESTIONS that such a person might ask you. Then write out, in your own words, the answers to the fifteen questions. Do not try to be literary! When you are finished, lay it aside for a day or two.
Then re-read it with a red pencil, crossing out all unnecessary words and sentences, inserting a new point here and there. REWRITE the whole thing, and you will be amazed to discover that your folio is ready to be published!
HOW DO YOU GET IT PRINTED?
Type it as neatly as possible on 8 1/2 x 11 WHITE typing paper. Single space it, leaving two lines between each paragraph. Take it to a local PHOTO-OFFSET printer who will make a few hundred copies for you, very reasonably, usually within 24 hours. If you have more than four pages, have it printed on both sides of the paper. It will lower your printing costs slightly, and it will save you extra postage in the future. To give your folio a professional touch, have it printed on canary yellow, pink, or light green paper.
HOW DO YOU SELL IT?
There are four ways:
1. DIRECT FROM ADS IN MAGAZINES AND TABLOID PAPERS. If economically possible, sell it for $1.00 or $2.00 per copy. (Occasionally $3.00.) Write a brief, eyecatching classified ad asking those interested to send their orders directly to you. If your ad is novel, believable, and of genuine interest, you will be surprised at how many people will do this. If your folio is about stamp collecting, advertise it in the stamp collecting papers. If it is about Astrology, advertise it in the Astrology magazines - to do otherwise is fatal. Be sure to run your ad in at least three issues. If you have never sold folios by mail, I sincerely suggest you use this method.
