According to a 2002 article in the New York Times by Joseph Epstein, author of over a dozen books, 81 percent of the adult population of America dreams of writing a book. “Beyond the obvious motivation for wanting to write a book – hoping to win fame or fortune – my guess is that many people who feel they have a book ”in them” doubtless see writing it as a way of establishing their own significance,” comments Epstein.
Sadly, most will never get their book completed. The great majority won’t even begin writing, and for those who start, the process is sporadic at best. And there are those who spend years and years just getting their first draft done. I have met some “authors” who have been working on their books for ten years. Ouch!
The following five points will help you to achieve your dream of becoming a successful author.
1. Develop the right mindset
What this means is you have to deal with your own personal demons. The demons can show up in any number of ways; negative self talk, lack of confidence in your writing, surrounding yourself with nay-sayers, and habits that do not serve you.
Rather, you need to surround yourself with possibility thinkers as well as other authors who are succeeding. In addition, read and listen to information that keeps you in the right state of mind.
2. Write a book readers want to read
It’s great to want to write but is what you write of interest to the reader? A great way to see what is popular is notice what books are making it to the top of the Amazon.com and B&N.com charts. This will indicate trends and popular themes.
3. Create a buzz before the book is done
Marketing your book needs to start BEFORE the book is done. You can do this through blogging, article writing, interviews, guest blogging and posting in your social networks. There are countless ways to market and create a buzz. All you need is your imagination and a willingness to do it.
4. Build an opt in subscriber list
You would be amazed at how many books can be sold by way of an opt in subscriber list. The key is to constantly build your list. You do this by having something of value people are willing to give their name and email address in exchange for; a report, an MP3, a video, a lesson from a course you teach, or any number of items that would be of interest to your market.
5. Guest blog about your book
Many blog owners are in desperate need of great content. Search out bloggers whose readers would be likely candidates to buy your book. The easiest way to secure guest blogging opportunities is to have great content on your blog. This takes the “unknown” factor out of the equation for those who may be interested in having you blog for them.
Here’s a bonus tip; realize it all takes time. The greatest challenge we face in our world of instant gratification is people want what they want right now. The fact is, success takes time, commitment, vision and persistence.
Writing a book is one of the most powerful ways you can establish your expert status, attract more clients, and garner media attention.
Another fact is, you’re going to need to learn a few new skills. Authors need to know how to build a platform, ace a media interview, sell books, and avoid a bunch of pitfalls that can costs time and money.
The challenge can be to know where to gain the right insights and information. One person who is committed to helping authors grow and succeed is my friend and colleague, Lynne Klippel.
Lynne has brought together an amazing group of teaches for a very special and unique teaching experience. Lynne has worked with authors from around the globe who have gone from unknowns to bestsellers faster than they dreamed possible.
Click here to learn more and register.
If you are serious about becoming a successful author, Lynne’s event
is your golden ticket! Check it out.
Oddly enough these are also the basic concepts toward making it in any business. Just replace book with widget and you still have your formula for success
So true. So true.
Developing the right mindset. You are so right, that it makes me laugh a bit. I think about one of the first books that most of us read, or had read to us, namely ; THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD. Turning “IThink I can,” into “I KNOW I can” is one of the most powerful forces in the “inner verse” (the space between our two ears)
Aghhhh yes! The Little Engine that Could. Fond memories. Amazing I can remember back that far. LOL
I’ve heard it said of book writing, or any Creative endeavor, that you have to get the first few” bad ones” out of you, before you start doing good. If this principle is true, then it follows that you must get the first few “bad books” out of you, before you finally get the hang of it.
I’m guessing that not everyone’s ego is prepared to be ” bad at something” especially if we look at someone else we feel equal to who seems to be having more success than we are.
Could this be a reason for some peoples hesitancy to start on the road to authorship?
I daresay that just about anything we do gets better with age, time and discipline.
I have to disagree a bit with this theory. While it is absolutely true that first, second, maybe even fourth or fifth drafts aren’t going to be stellar, I don’t think one needs to actually publish a bad book or two to have a good one later.
There are so many ways for someone that is inexperienced to create a first book worth selling. Kathleen mentions one, make sure it’s something an audience wants if your goal is to sell it. In addition, most people need a team of reviewers/editors, a combination of friends and professionals, around them to make a book the best it can be. It is totally do-able, in my opinion, to make a first book excellent. I’ve done it and so have others.
Will later books be better? There’s a good possibility, as Kathleen pointed out improvement usually comes with more experience. That doesn’t mean though that the first ones weren’t also good.
I humbly say my first was rather good. . Not a earthshaking masterpiece but one that I am very proud of. It’s called, Message of Hope written in the late 90s.
I would say, that knowing this is part of the necessary mindset. Most peoples fears are over exaggerated. Some feel they must “sond like a writer” whatever they visualize that sound to be. I had difficulty with writing in high school. And was released when a wise teacher told me that writing was just “speaking on paper”. She then told me to “speak to my paper” and I’ve been writing with clarity ever since. If I’m not experiencing the level of success I want… It’s other factors……..arrrrgh….(did somebody say opt in list?)
Here is my “Super Secret #1 for Becoming a Best-Selling Author”
Do It Badly — But at Least Do It!
I wrote my first book and self-published it 22 years ago. It didn’t do all that well although it sold over 5,000 copies (which is better than 95% of books will ever do.) If you had suggested that I change something when I finished the book, I would likely have said, “Who am I to tamper with a masterpiece?” Today, I am embarrassed when I look at the cover and the inside of the book. Not very well done.
The point is that I got it done. That’s what counts. I jumped in not knowing anything about writing or publishing, expecting that I would learn along the way. I did. “Doing it badly” got me started on the road to becoming a best-selling author. My books have now sold over 675,000 copies worldwide.
Best-selling author Richard Bach once stated, “A professional writer is an amateur who refused to quit.” That’s me! I was that stubborn amateur who refused to quit.
In short, you don’t have to do things perfect. Far from it.
But Point 2 of the 5 points is most important. You have to write a book that readers want to read. If you have that, you can have spelling mistakes and a mediocre cover and still sell tens of thousands of copies. I know this is true because my first edition of “The Joy of Not Working” had 150 spelling errors and sold 30,000 copies through word of mouth before I found the spelling errors
So again,
Do It Badly — But at Least Do It!
Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”
(Over 140,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and “The Joy of Not Working”
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)
Thanks for your comments Ernie. I love what you quoted from Richard Bach. Persistence in anything is 99% of the battle.
Even when we have a highly edited work there are bound to be some mistakes. The best part of all is there are plenty of folks who will edit for free. Just wish they would do it before the book goes to print. LOL
If you’re writing a non-fiction book, you’ll need a strong book proposal to get the attention of agents and/or publishers (assuming you’re looking for a traditional publisher). I used The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published by Sheree Bykofsky – very helpful and specific.
My first book, The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life was chosen as a book club selection by The Washington Post (by Michelle Singletary, “Color of Money” columnist). Without a strong book proposal (again, my book is non-fiction), I’m pretty sure the book wouldn’t have been picked up by Rodale. It sold (and is still selling) very well. And, I am very happy with Rodale as my publisher.
Jan Cullinane
The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life (Rodale)
Thanks for your comments Jan. And congratulations on your book success. It’s so wonderful to learn from others.
This is great advice! I have been thinking of writing a book for quite some time and just didn’t really know where to get started, but this is a great jumping off point. Thanks! 🙂
Natasha
This is a great article Kathleen – and I am one such writer currently finishing my first novel. Timely even being able to read your great article here. Cheers!
Cassy
Excellent. Something you may be interested is Book Marketing Made Easy available on Kindle for only $2.99. Well worth the investment. http://bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/kindle
Hi Kathleen,
The event advertised was in July 2011. Is there a similar event planned in the near future?
Look forward to hearing from you,
Shravan
Shravan. Thanks for your inquiry. The original blog post you read was from July. Here is another that has a current event you can attend. http://www.kathleengage.com/2011/09/learn-book-marketing.html