I recently met a man (I will call him Carlos) who told me, sadly, that he couldn’t sell the book he wrote. He was angry and gave me a pile of reasons why it was the case. He also looked at me in envy and disbelief hearing that I had a bunch of best sellers. He said I was lucky. I shook my head listening, with a sense of compassion. I want to offer you five keys in writing a Best selling book so you don’t become that poor guy who feels sorry for himself. First, you need to choose your side: Are you writing to sell or are you writing to keep your book to yourself? If you choose to write to sell, then you need to take care of these important elements: 1- Is the subject interesting to anyone but yourself? Carlos wrote the History of Africa in Spanish and was trying to sell it in Brasil… Does that sound coherent? He was passionate about his subject because he spent most of his life in Africa but could only write in Spanish. The problem is, that subject is absolutely not interesting to Portuguese speaking Brazilians…. Most authors want to write their autobiography and I am approached quasi daily by people who love for me to write their biography. But they get a ”no” in 99.99% of the cases. I write to sell books and stories. Most biographies won’t sell. It is great to start your career by writing your biography to get it out of the way and move on to the next. Unless you have had an out of this world experience (and really really really out of this world) worth reading and you know how to spin the story to make it thrilling and exiting, a biography won’t sell. 2- The marketing plan needs to be in place BEFORE you write your book. Carlos had the idea to sell a Spanish book about African history to Brazilians. I don’t think he had done much market research before proceeding. Here are some questions you have to ask: Who am I selling to: age, gender, complete personal profile, interests, problems I can solve with my book… Do I have a killer title? I spent 3 years as a book critic and I read more books than many people in a life time. Yet only a few really stuck in my mind. One of them called “How I ate my father?” from a Norwegian author. The title was so provocative that I couldn’t wait to read the story. Is my audience large enough? Who is my competition and how am I different? What is my Unique Selling Proposition (what makes me different from the rest) and what benefits do I offer (benefits not advantages – see my article on selling)? What is the market trend? Is this a subject that is on the rise or is the public interest moved on to something else? Will it last? What does my reader want? You write for him not you! How will I sell my book? You cannot rely on an agent or a publisher to sell your book as they will ask you to sell it with them. What is your plan? How will I increase my fan base of potential buyers? remember, buyers buy you before they buy from you. What image am I going to present? Your brand needs to be created before you start. How many followers do I have on social media? For example, a lady taking pictures of her dog had 400,000 followers on instagram. She got approached by a publishing company to write a book on dogs. She wasn’t an author, but she had the fan base to sell a book. 3- Why am I doing this? Did I just read about a book, a story or a movie that made it big and I think that if I do the same exact thing, I will also be successful even though I hate the entire process? If you answer even the sightliest “yes” to this, move away. If you want to sell your book, you need to be extremely passionate about it. You need to eat, sleep, breathe your book. A book is never the end. If it is a success, it is the beginning of a long series of promotional book tours, signing autographs, interviews… If you do not like what you are writing about, your life will become hell if you are successful and you will curse the day you started on this journey. Also, passion is contagious. The more passionate you feel about your project, the more you will attract interest. People love to hang around positive passionate people. It boosts our endorphine levels (the happiness hormone). 4- What else is there? You do not want to be a “one hit wonder”. Most publishers hate it and you need to be able to share what you will be working on after that and after that and… Also, you need to know what you can upsell your book with. Book sales rarely feed an author. You need to know what you will offer buyers of the book after. A movie? Consulting or speaking services…? You need to prepare for the after life of book publishing. 5- You need a truck load of confidence I believe persistence beats resistance because when you persevere, you outlive any resistance. But, in order to persevere, you need to be armed with a huge load of self confidence, and mega positive attitude. When I wrote my first book (a quasi autobiography
On Writing : 5 Tips on writing a best seller by Slavica Bogdanov
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Thank you for your Request to NETWORK...Slavica Bogdanov ...Yes...all so true ...many people dump not write...yes Dump their INSANITY...what? yes ...the ANGER and Pain...and they leave out the HOPE and Insight and Inspiration that people need to SURVIVE ...what? yes HOPE ...with words to help them SURVIVE...not HATE... so the reality is a great soul will know ...what can they write to HELP ..this World... So soon... MONEY WAR$ ~ INSANITY Vs SANITY ~ My Gift To Humanity...~ http://www.Sirtony.wix.com/MONEY
Why didn't he publish and sell his book under a pseudonym?
I always write for myself. If someone else finds it interesting/funny/heroic/emotional/connecting/life-changing then that just makes the whole process all the better. When I wrote my first book Access Denied, which as it turns out was a biography and was an out of this world experience (and really really really out of this world) worth reading, it was to document what I'd been through. I just wanted to get it down. It turned out to be extremely cathartic and after I just hoped that it might help others who were going through, or had been through, what I went through, to deal with similar situations. I think if you write with all of those five points in mind, then you're tailoring your work to fit an audience - I think that could be damaging to the creative process. Sure, it's fine if all you want to do is make money, but there's so much more to writing than that.
This article, again, David, is written for people who want to sell their book, as the first question asks. Not for people who write to write without the intention of earning money from their work,
I have completed my first novel and will soon approach publishers. Can you please guide me on the USP part. And the best way to write a crisp synopsis (Within 300 words that's what the criteria is).
BEing Tg, I invite you to see my free online webinar, it will give you A LOT of free insight on publishing. http://publishin90days.com/
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Thanx a lot for the help...
Slavica, I'd love to earn money from my writing... I really would. :-) The only sure way to get rich from writing is to write about getting rich. LOL.
Thankyou Slavica! Very inspiring post! Thankyou! I am persistent as I love the whole process of writing and rewriting. I know the way is long and difficult. Long especially. Difficult especially. :-) But I really love the process of rewriting the 8th draft of the same short story until a Story is built. And until it does not happen I keep on rewriting. Yes it is frustrating. But when you manage to have a Story... that is what I like the most. And it rarely happens with the first draft. For me at least. Your tips and your example are really motivating.
David, you definitely won't get rich with that mentality. And it is absolutely not true. People who have made fortunes writing have done it when writing about something that mattered to them and that people needed. Also were good at marketing themselves and sell their ideas.
Delia, i ampathise with you. Writing makes the writer better. I wroke hundreds of thousands of words. After a while, i guess i became better and do not need 8 drafts. My publishers that my second usually.
Slavica, I watched your free webinar. It's really just a sales pitch IMO. It is not particularly aimed at creative writers like myself and most of those on here who tell stories - I'd say it was aimed more at those people who have an idea to share - ie: Self-improvement, get-rich quick, lose weight, etc. It's aimed at people in certain lines of business - ie: Sales, real-estate, coaching, etc. And, to be honest, I think this forum is the wrong place for it but I guess that's part of your strategy of covering every outlet you can. If I started posting details of my horror books on your forums/sites, I'm sure you'd agree it's not the right marketplace too. :-) There's also a wealth of material that can offer what you're offering for a fraction of the price or even for free in a number of free eBooks and on the internet. Despite your offer of getting the package at a bargain price (RRP $5,000!) you're still asking people to part with almost $1,000!! for your advice etc. Not for me and, I doubt, for many others on this platform.
David, Thank you for your comment. We all have the right to our opinions. But that is your opinion only. I have created a free webinar because I have been very successful in writing and still am, but I had to learn the long hard way and that cost me way more than $1000 plus I hired experts and took trainings that amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. I only posted the webinar to answer someone's question. It is a free one hour full of pertinent information. Stuff I would have liked to know when I started and I force no one to buy more. But some people want to have the experts step by step full course, instead of spending about the same if not more in wasted time and a lot more researching and books. But that is not why am here. I came on Stage 32 to make friends with like minded positive people. Hopefully be able to help a bunch of people and hopefully get some partnerships either in publishing or production of my movies. I get a lot of frustration, negativity and sarcasm from your comments. If you don't what I write about, move on. I gave you pertinent information on how to be successful in writing. Take it and run with it. I humbly believe you need to change your mental attitude, become more positive and things will start changing for you. I do wish you the best.
If you don't want a response which you might not agree with, then don't post in a public forum with people who might disagree with you. It's my understanding that advertising on this site is not allowed and that is all I see your free webinar amounting to. It's a sales pitch for your product. Nothing much else and, as I said before, it actually contains very little information which is useful in the real world and is very generic with the aim of getting people to spend a grand on your full course. You didn't give me any "pertinent information" on how to be successful in writing that I didn't know already from other "experts". There's nothing wrong with my mental attitude. I don't need to become more positive because I already am positive. You'll be trying to tell us how we can all get rich by joining Amway next!
Hey, just wondering what's missing at the end. The article stops mid-sentence.
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Sorry Roxanne. I don't understand why it's cut off. Here it is below.... 5- You need a truck load of confidence I believe persistence beats resistance because when you persevere, you outlive any resistance. But, in order to persevere, you need to be armed with a huge load of self confidence, and mega positive attitude. When I wrote my first book (a quasi autobiography :-) ) I received 400 "no"s from agents. I was a newbie and didn't know much about anything then. Nowadays, "yes"es are coming from right and left because I made sure I am a best selling author. Even if you don't think it, you are in sales. Your job is to sell, sell, sell... your book or idea. And people smell confidence. We instinctively can tell who has it and who doesn't and confidence will outsell non confidence ever single time even if the better product is sold by someone who lacks confidence. Remember, people buy with their guts not their intellect. I will shortly write a post on selling to help you understand this concept better. I hope this helps. If it does (or doesn't) please comment and share.