Getting In Touch with Your Publishing Dreams
Anyone who writes a book does it for very personal reasons, yet all
authors dream about what will happen after their books are published.
Maybe you dream your book will be discovered, you'll get calls from
Katie and Oprah, and your picture will appear on the cover of Inc. or Forbes or Time magazines.
1. How Do You Define Publishing Success?
Maybe you want to author a book so you will gain the credibility to
nail a big consulting assignment with Mattel. Maybe you want your book
to help other women avoid suffering as you did to achieve success.
Maybe you hope through a book to win recognition for your ideas and
jump start your own prime time career. Or maybe all you want is for
your father to say, "Good job." There's no right or wrong definition
for publishing success; all that matters is for you to know what
success means to you.
Different expectations lead to different publishing directions.
If your goal is to write a memoir your grandchildren will read, then
your budget, your sales expectations,
the kind and amount of work required, plus a host of other directions
will be different than if your goal is to make the New York
Times' Best Seller list. If your goal is to make a living as an
author, then you will need to consider different options than if you
plan to provide workbooks for your seminar business.
Our recommendations for your publishing success are geared to helping you achieve your dreams, not someone else's.
2. Letting go of the end result for a moment, how do envision the authoring/publishing/marketing process?
It's likely you already have some preconceived ideas about the
authoring/publishing/marketing process, even though you may not realize
it. The following questions are designed to help you bring those ideas
and expectations into focus.
Do you picture yourself in your own home, seated by a roaring fire,
writing for hours on your laptop while sipping tea? Or do you envision
a team of professionals interviewing you for a couple of hours each
week and then writing from your ideas?
Do you foresee an entire family business built around publishing,
warehousing, and shipping your book and other products? Or do you
imagine having someone else fully handle that part of the process?
Do you visualize yourself traveling to exotic locales around the world
to promote your book, or does your business (or your life) require you
to stay closer to home for your promotions efforts?
If you are a first-time author, what are your concerns about the process of authoring a book?
- Are you worried your ideas won't fill an entire book?
- Do you have ideas, but no evidence (such as case studies) to back them up?
- Do you have trouble organizing your thoughts in a way you think will make an interesting book?
- Is English your second language?
If you are self-publishing, are you concerned about:
- Producing a professional quality book?
- Getting wide distribution on web sites, in catalogs, and in bookstores?
- Knowing how many books to print and how to keep costs low?
When it comes to marketing your book, do you worry about:
- Spreading the word that your book exists?
- Being perceived as having a professional message?
- Hiring a competent publicist?
Finally, is there one thing you imagine will keep you from becoming a successful author? If so, what is it?
There are many options to consider when writing and publishing a book. Here are just a few:
Ghostwriters
If you have limited time, or if there are other reasons why you don't
want to write the book yourself, then ghostwriting can be a perfectly
acceptable solution. In ghostwriting, someone else writes your ideas,
but you are still considered the author
Editors
No matter how well you write, you will want to work with an editor.
It's difficult to see your own work clearly because we all read what we
meant to convey; not what the words on the page actually say. An editor
can strengthen your work and help make you a better writer.
Self Publishing
If you want to create an entire business around your book, then you may
want to self-publish. Self-publishing will enable you to retain the
rights to all your work and you will have the flexibility to change it
as your ideas evolve.
However you like to work, whatever your strengths are in the process,
we can help you find a publishing process that's best for you.
3. If you had the perfect publishing coach, what would she do for you?
Make an inventory of your unique strengths as an
author/publisher/marketer. Next, think about the challenges you face
and inventory those as well. Now you're ready to decide what kind of
help you want a publishing coach to provide in order to help you become
a successful author:
- Would she call you every morning to motivate you, give you feedback, and get you going?
- Would she spend an entire day with you every month and leave you to work in between?
- Would she just be available to answer questions whenever you had them?
Getting the help you need makes all the difference.
Making the determination to do it “your
way†can be very empowering, but too much
self-determination can bar the door to good advice. Experienced
professionals understand the process from beginning to end -and are
eager to help a budding author like you deliver your message
successfully. You can do it “your wayâ€
and still take advantage of the help that's available by working with
an expert whose style matches your own.
Let Us Help! eWomenPublishingNetwork is the #1 resource to
help women create and promote successful nonfiction books.
This article is from our extensive members-only Knowledge
Database. Become part of our growing author community and
make your book dreams a reality. We have guaranteed
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eMagazine reaching over 500,000 and much, much more
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