Book Publishing Strategies

Many people are capable of writing a book, but will it be a book that has something significant to say, and will it be marketable—can it be profitably sold to a large enough audience?

It would take a crystal ball to answer this question right 100 percent of the time. Some books catch on that professional book-watchers would never predict, and others don’t. You can count on the bell curve: Write the most saleable book you can—given what you know about the audience and the book market—and then let the readers have their say. Revise as necessary.

Many authors have developed their ideas over time out of their work with individual or corporate clients. Other authors develop their ideas alone by writing them, thinking about them, and rewriting them.

Whatever your style, you really don’t know whether your ideas will be widely accepted or at least interest a large group of people until you test them. One of the critical mistakes made by authors is to think that because family, friends, and a small group of clients admire your work that such support will translate to a wide public acceptance.

One way to get used to writing and testing your ideas is to write short articles that can be submitted to ezine data banks. While the articles themselves are not a source of income, they are great practice in writing your ideas, they can create a following for your work, and they give you an opportunity to compose chapters of your ultimate book.

It can be hard for writers to see their ideas clearly, so starting with ezines is a good way to get some coaching and an outside perspective. You can write about more than one topic in a book, and some ideas may lend themselves better to shorter articles than books. Go with your strongest ideas first, and write what you are passionate about. Sometimes these questions will sort themselves out as you actually begin the writing process.

Another simple way to test your ideas and get feedback (positive and negative) is to make audio recordings. Depending on your material, you might consider putting together a short workbook as a companion piece for the audio or as a stand-alone. If you wish to avoid the cost of inventory, create a downloadable audio product and a downloadable eBook for sale on your Web site.

Testing your ideas with your audience is a great way to make sure you are on the path to your best selling book.

One of my persistent concerns as I coach people through the book development process is wanting more for the author than the author does. A coaching relationship, almost by definition, starts out this way, before the client or author knows what is possible. I often see great opportunities for my clients - based on their subject matter expertise or their experience or their new viewpoints - before they can.

But at some time during the process, the tables must turn. Unless the author can fully commit to the book and all of what that means, the book will never be as successful as it might.

If the coach does a good job painting the picture of the opportunity and the client decides that the possible outcome is worth the time, energy and commitment, then the partnership between the coach and the “student” can be productive, exciting and ultimately rewarding for both. There is nothing more rewarding for me than to open a package with a new book in it, a book that is now a reality because we, the author and I, gave it everything we had.

But a lot can get lost in between painting the picture and that as-close-to-perfect-as-we-could-make-it book. The point of the collaboration is to pool our expertise, but more importantly to pool our collective energy about making this possibility a reality.

If I’m not very excited about a project or I’m unable to really convince the author that she does have what it takes, and that she can make this happen, then not enough energy is accumulated to take this project to its most successful conclusion.

If the author does not really commit herself to the possibilities, suspending lots of doubt, and if she doesn’t decide she is going to do all the work she really knows is needed, then again, the book will only be a fraction of what it could be.

Do you think the audience can’t tell the difference? They might not know what didn’t happen that should have, but if there wasn’t the author’s full presence in the creation of the book, then the audience will feel that in the words. A book is read between the lines.

I believe in full force collaboration. I bring everything I know to a book project and I expect the author to bring her full commitment as well. I will tell her what she needs to hear and we will solve the inevitable problems together - if she wants to.

What saddens me most is when I hear an aspiring author say, “I just want to do a little book.” or “I don’t think it has to be more than 100 pages, do you?” or “I need to get this out for a conference in six weeks and I just have to do something, it doesn’t have to be great.”

Are you planning to tell that to the readers in the opening? “I would have done more but I didn’t have enough time,” or “I just had to have something to sell to you for this speaking engagement?” Are you planning to tell them that the book would normally be sold at $18.95, but since I didn’t really do my best work, I’m going to sell it to you for $9.95?

This is your message out to the world. You won’t be there to fill in the blanks when someone who needs you anxiously opens the book for the first time and is open to your wisdom.

Your legacy doesn’t have a deadline. If you aren’t fully ready to finish the book, keep working on it. Work on it as it pulls you in. Don’t force things that aren’t ready to happen. Immerse yourself in the subject, help others as much and as often as you can, and fill yourself up with the energy you need to get excited and take you and your book to the places you know you were meant to go.

Becoming an author is hard - for many reasons. I’m so sorry when I hear people, and I have to say particularly my women clients, say that they feel so stupid about the process. As if they should already know how to do this. If this were a natural skill, we would have better books in our bookstores!

Taking what you know, asking the right questions of yourself, and knowing how to read the answers are big parts of the internal piece of book development.

Then there is the knowing what to do with the information when you get it. It isn’t usually delivered fully developed as “The six great strategies to living a better life” - even if that is what you finally decide it should become.

Your first job is to get clear on what you know and what you think you know and be willing to test it against reality, with no judgment about the outcome. And reality, by the way, is not what your family or your best friend thinks. They are generally biased - either for you doing what you want or completely against you doing what you want.

Then it is time to get strategic. It is up to you how you are going to present these thoughts. What is your viewpoint, what is your passion, what message are you going to give to and live in the world?

Who are the people who will naturally be receptive to these messages? Not the people you so wish you could “fix”, but the people who are ready for change and want help and support in making those changes. The point of a book or a speech or a class is to transform, to give new perspective - to help people develop into the people they want to become.

Clear thinking leads to clear writing. But we virtually never start with clear thinking. We start with the question: “I wonder what would happen if…” Clarity of thinking usually requires writing, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting as you develop your thoughts. The average number of rewrites of any paragraph, page or chapter is eleven. If you are on rewrite number seven and wondering what’s wrong with you, the answer is nothing - you still have a few rewrites to go.

Practice makes perfect. Not really. Only more and more practice at a higher and higher level makes perfect. Why is it we are willing to practice playing tennis for hours and hours yet we think we should create a perfect thought, a perfect paragraph, a perfect book the first time out?

Rewriting is about rethinking and it is about smoothing, shaping, deepening, connecting and tightening. It is a noble pursuit and should be honored as a chemist who keeps tinkering with a formula is honored for all the time in the lab before the breakthrough that saves lives.

Honor what you are doing, give yourself the time and mental freedom to make mistakes over and over and over. No one can see it - only you (and maybe me if you share it). This is what it means to “do your best” in the book process. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Do it until you enjoy it!

If you’d like to learn the craft of writing, to really understand how to develop your thoughts into a great book, please consider joining us for the Writing the Nonfiction Bestseller three-session teleclass series, starting October 4, 2007. If you are an eWomenPublishingNetwork member, there is a substantial discount for you to take the class. Log into the Members Private Section for details.