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So,
Ya Wanna Write A Book?
By Fran Harris
I hear it nearly every day: "I wanna write a book." I hear it at
conferences. "I've got a great idea for a book." I hear it at the
grocery store. "Don't you think this would make a great book?" At the
beauty salon. "Check out this book I'm writing." The world is
full of people who say they want to write a book. Maybe you're one of those
people. My response is always the same: "Good for you. Write it."
You heard right. I tell people to 'write it.' If you want to write a book
there's probably nothing standing in your way. Open up your word processing
program and peck away. It's one of the most exhilarating and rewarding processes
in the world. And it's free!
You see, the world is full of good, even great, stories or ideas and if someone
is willing to put their thoughts down onto paper and create a little
immortality, why should I stand in their way?
The process of having a book published is fairly straightforward. Type it, print
it, bind it. That's it. That's a book. But that's not generally what people have
in mind when they say they want to be published. A more interesting question to
ask yourself might be, "What kind of writing career do I want?"
Maybe your dream is to be a small, independent author with a loyal following and
if so, that's terrific. Or perhaps you've tried the traditional publishing route
and have decided to test the e-publishing or POD (print on demand) waters.
That's great too. In either of these cases, you can literally write and publish
whatever you want. Why?
It's simple. There's not a lot of green at stake. It's fairly inexpensive to
self-publish. If it doesn't work out, what have you lost? A few hundred dollars
and time. But if your literary dreams include being on the bestseller's list and
million dollar advances, then there's much more to consider.
At the end of the night, traditional publishers don't care about sweat equity
and stories that come from the heart-- unless they can translate into sales--
preferably millions of dollars in sales.
The mistake a lot of new writers make is taking the publishing business personally.
It ain't personal. It's business. Ever heard someone say something like, "I
can't believe she (editor) didn't get excited about my story" or,
"Does that publisher realize what a good story this is?"
Here's the cold hard truth. In the book world, jobs are at stake, companies are
on the line and shareholders are watching. No traditional publisher can afford
to take a chance on a book whose only merit is that it's a 'good story.' Good
stories are a penny a dozen. They're everywhere.
So, what distinguishes the good stories from the 'saleable' good stories?
Nerves. No, not butterflies in your stomach. Interest. Will your story or topic
strike a nerve? Will the nation connect with it? Sometimes there's no way to
tell. Sometimes it's obvious.
Unconventional business books will always do well. Self-improvement titles are
mainstays. Celebrity news, universal topics or common subjects that affect
nearly all of us, remain sure bets. But look around; the bookstores are full of
other kinds of books, too. How did they get published?
Number one, they had audiences, and number two, they had persistent authors
behind them. The book industry, like other businesses, operates on that familiar
80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the book business comes from a small number of
books that do rrrrrrrrreally well.
So, your charge, if you're not creating one of those no-brainer bestsellers, is
to write a compelling book that a sizable number of people will buy. You don't
need a six-figure following to get a book published by Random House or
Doubleday. You just need to be able to convince an editor or publisher that
there's a market for your title and that you're the person to write the book.
Fran Harris is the
author of four books, a screenwriter,
national broadcaster and speaker. She specializes in
nonfiction writing and marketing-strategies for writers.
Her new e-book, "How I Sold My First Nonfiction
Book In A Week For Nearly $50,000," will go on sale
in November. For more info. visit www.franharris.com.
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