Every author i know gets asked the same question: how do you write a book? its a simple question, but it causes unexpected problems. But on the other hand, the hand involving people who ask because they have an inkling to do it themselves, is that writing books is a topic so old and so well trod by so many famous people that anyone who asks hoping to discover secret advice is hard to take seriously. 20% of the people who ask me are hoping to hear this anyone can write a book. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources.

If voltaire and marquis de sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch, at work, or after your kids go to sleep. you will always find excuses if you want them and you probably do. Nothing is stopping you right now from collecting all of your elementary school book reports, or drunken napkin scribbles, binding them together at kinkos for $20, slapping a title on the cover, and qualifying as an author. Want to write a good book? ok, but get in line since most pro authors are still trying to figure that out too.

No one wants to hear this, but if you take two books off any shelf, ill bet my pants the author of the better book worked harder than the author of the other one. As if there wasnt a phone book or, say, an internet thingy where you can look this stuff up. Many publishers, being positive on the whole idea of communication, put information on how to submit material on their website. It takes effort to learn the ropes, send out smart queries, and do the research required to both craft the idea for a book, and then to propose it effectively.

So while writing is a rejection prone occupation, even for the rock stars, finding a publisher is not a mystery. In fact the whole game is self selective: people who arent willing to do the leg work of getting published are unlikely to be capable of the leg work required to finish a decent manuscript. But again, our tragically unpopular companion, work, is required so many prefer to keep asking writers how they got published instead of just doing it themselves. About 50% of the time the real thing people want to know is how to become a famous millionaire rock star author dude. As if a i qualified, b i could explain how it happened, or c id be willing to tell.

Im not sure how this lie started but writing, like most creative pursuits, has always been a less than lucrative lifestyle. Even if a book sells well, the $ to hour ratio will be well below your average corporate job, without the health benefits, sick days, nor the months where you can coast by without your boss noticing. And if the only books you read are bestsellers, well, you have a myopic view of the publishing world. What causes books to sell may have little to do with how good a book is, as weve all been mystified by the abysmal bestsellers and surprised by amazing books few seem to know about. I love the entire notion that people can make things up in their mind and then make them real on a page, for the pleasure or utility of someone else. If you like writing, if you enjoy the bittersweetness of chasing words into sentences, then you might love writing books too, despite, or even because of, everything i said above. If so, get to work now: total shares 511 1 figure out what you want to write about.

Dissertation In Law

four years ago i was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on youtube. remember this was 2008, and there were very few social media books at the time. i was really excited at the prospect of having my own book for about 5 mins, till i realized that i wasnt really interested in writing a book about marketing on youtube. i was pitched on a couple of other book ideas over the next couple of years, but i finally decided that think like a rock star was the only book i wanted to write. once you figure out the topic of your book, youre then going to realize that your books already been written several times. you need to figure out what you bring to the table that hasnt been discussed before.

For me, theres plenty of books on why companies should connect with brand advocates and evangelists. the rockstar analogy helped me differentiate think like a rock star, but even that didnt make the book completely unique, as theres been a few other books written on what companies can learn about branding and marketing from the music industry. i had to go deeper, and when i release the full outline of the book in a few weeks, youll see why think like a rock star is different. what are you going to bring to the table thats unique, but that will still have value for your readers? 3 find 3 5 books that you think are similar to your idea. for each book, you need to explain what your book offers that the competing title misses. if you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books that were all written in the mid 1990s, that tells the publisher that your idea is dead, otherwise someone would have written about it in the past 15 years! 4 you need to create an outline and table of contents for your book. this is where it starts to get serious, and we find out if you really want to write a book, or if you are just toying with the idea.

this will be a lot of work, but youll have to show this to a potential publisher, plus it will make the writing process much easier once you have a gameplan to follow. it will also be incredibly beneficial to you because it will force you to flesh out your idea into several chapters, which will help you better structure your books message. if you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1 3 solidly written chapters, youre making an excellent case for why your book needs to be published.

and writing those chapters will give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book. for example, if it takes you 3 months to write the first chapter, that could be a big red flag. thankfully, youve already done a lot of this by simply completing the first 5 steps.

youll need to tell publishers who the market is for this book, why you are the person to write it, what its about, competing titles, etc. youll also need to include the table of contents and any of the chapters you have written. this is where you want to mention any speaking you will be doing on this topic over the next year, as well as your online profile, your following. 7 having a killer idea trumps your online presence every single time. when i started talking to publishers about writing think like a rock star, i assumed that my online footprint would be a big plus for me. most of the publishers i and my agent talked to had no idea who i was, in fact most of the rejection letters we got started we think mark has a great idea, but if your idea is great and publishers think it will sell, thats far more important than how many twitter followers you have, so dont think you need x number of followers/friends before you can talk to a publisher.

8 figure out if you need a literary agent, or want to go it alone. for the first year, i didnt have an agent, then i realized that i was spinning my wheels and needed to get one. theres only a few publishers whose editors are actively trying to connect with potential writers in this space. first, youll have to pay an agent, typically a cut of any money you get from the book, including your advance, royalties, etc. the huge immediate benefit is that you get access to several dozen publishers and these are publishers that the agent works with regularly.