Ten Tips To Get Started Writing Your Book

Judy Cullins ©2002

You are far more likely to successfully write and publish your book if you follow these tips before you write a single chapter.

1. Write your book's working title. It helps you focus and answer the readers' questions about the topic. Most non- fiction has subtitles as well. It's better to be clear than clever, but clever and clear are fine. Passion At Any Age: Twelve Ways to Unleash It, Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, Quadruple your book's Online Sales in Less Than One Month.

2. Write your book's thesis. A thesis is a sentence or so stating the audience's main problem and how your book will solve it. Knowing the thesis before you write the book keeps you on track. All chapters should support it. The thesis could be "Each of you has passion and you can unleash it through these twelve steps."

3. Test your book's significance. While most writers fear their book won't sell, it takes only two significances to write a book, and three for a great seller. Ask yourself, Is it relevant? Then write it! Does it present useful information? Does it have the potential to positively affect people's lives? Is it lively, humorous? Does it help answer important questions? Does it create a deeper understanding of human nature?

4. Pinpoint your target audience, all-important to your book's success. No, not everyone will want to read your book. How old are your prospective readers? Male? Female? Are they interested in personal growth, science fiction, mystery, how-to books? What challenges do they face? Are they business people? What magazines and Web sites do they like? Are they Internet savvy? What causes do they support?

Once you know them, write a letter and tell them why you are writing your book and what benefits it will bring them. Dear over-50 reader, "I'm writing Passion At Any Age to help you live life full throttle—with more abundance, joy, and meaning."

5. Write your reasons for writing this book. Your reader, the media, the television and radio talk show hosts all want to know why you wrote this book. Be prepared up front, so you will shine when opportunities come your way. For instance, "I wrote this book because so many of my clients and students asked me to. They didn't want theory; they wanted practical how to's to help them live life well. This audience, primarily over 50, wants and needs practical and spiritual tools to let their passion out.

6. Write down your publishing goals for this book. Do you want to give it away to members of your family or a particular group? Do you want to sell it? How many copies do you want to sell your first year? How much money do you want to make each month? What publishing format will you choose—self- publishing, traditional publishing, Print Quality Needed or Print on Demand, or eBook?

7. Organize the parts of your book. In one file, keep your introduction; in another, your index or resource section. Include your bibliography and keep a file of all people you will quote in your book who may give you a testimonial later. Keep each chapter in its own file labeled correctly so you can find it within minutes. Twenty percent of your papers are important. Be sure to file them vertically and in order to save you time and frustration as your book projects grows. Keep computer files also.

8. Write down your chapter's format. Readers expect a clear map to guide them. They like consistency. In non-fiction, each chapter should be approximately the same length and have the same sections. To make your chapters sparkle, use stories, anecdotes, headings, photos, maps, graphs, exercises, tips. Readers like easy-to-read side bars in boxes.

9. Write the back cover material before you write your book. This "outline" helps give your book direction and helps you focus only on what's important to your thesis or theme. Your back cover has around 8 seconds to impress your prospective buyer. Include what sells: reader and famous people's testimonials, a benefit-driven headline to hook the reader to open the book and read the table of contents, and bulleted benefits. Your bio and picture can go on the inside of the back cover to leave more room for your sales message on the back cover.

10. Mock up a front cover in your book's early stages. Keep it by your workstation to inspire you. To sell your books, your cover and title have around four seconds to hook your buyer. Covers are more important than what is inside. Browse the bookstore and copy a few ideas to get you started. Do you have color preferences? Is you title powerful and short enough to be read across the room?

Writing a book is so much easier when you approach it in small bites. As soon as you get these ten parts written you will be able to start asking more specific questions that become your chapter headings.

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Judy Cullins: author, publisher, book coach
Author of Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online and Write your eBook or Other Short Book-Fast!
http://www.bookcoaching.com
Email: Judy@bookcoaching.com

As books go online, publishers run for cover

By Carter Dougherty International Herald TribuneSUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2006-->Published: October 8, 2006

FRANKFURT When file-sharing services like Napster hit the scene, the music and film industries found that their awakening to the digital world was a rude one. The publishing industry, it seems, has taken heed of this experience.

Unlike record companies, which faced the double whammy of the iPod and illegal file sharing, the online market has given book publishers some breathing room.

There is no hit device for reading books electronically, nor is there a place to go online to browse or download an unbeatable selection of books. There is, however, a keen awareness among publishing executives that this day will come - and that they need to shape, rather than be shaped by, developments.

"We are facing all the same risks as the music industry," said Olaf Ernst, worldwide director of e-books for Springer, a German scientific publisher. "But if our reaction is like theirs was, we will have problems."

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ended Sunday, Springer introduced its pathbreaking system for managing digital rights for the scientific and professional literature that it puts out. Put simply, Springer's clients - mostly university libraries - will be able to access for a single fee more than 10,000 titles with minimal restrictions on sharing.

But the Springer model, as Ernst freely admitted, offers little guidance for how to manage the intellectual property issues surrounding best- selling novels and self-help books, which his company does not publish.

That sector of the publishing industry is caught in what Dan Penny, market analysis manager for Electronic Publishing Services, a London consultancy, calls "its own chicken-and-the-egg problem."

"We're going to see an iTunes of books at some point here, and that will drive the market forward," Penny said. "But we need to see an established reader device first."

A blockbuster device could conceivably bring major names like Google into the online sales picture, Penny said, as platforms for distributing e-books, which are electronic versions of books. Google is already encouraging publishers to participate in its Google Book Search service, arguing that its searches bring publishers new customers by including information on where to buy or borrow books.

And Sony is offering a new solution. This month, it will begin selling the Sony Reader, an electronic device with a retail price of around $350, as well as a service for downloading books. The reader is larger than a typical hand-held device and uses so-called electronic ink technology to create a surface that is not backlit like a computer screen and hence easier on the eyes. A menu of books will be available through partnerships with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and other major publishers.

But the notion of electronic copies of books whizzing around the Internet still gives pause to some publishers, especially smaller ones, who want to see how copyrights can be protected.

"Once we can be assured that there will be security for our authors, then we can move forward," said Arnoud de Kemp, spokesman for the digital publishing working group of the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers.

De Kemp said that in time, new techniques for restricting access to copyrighted books - like dicing a single work into many PDF files and using digital watermarks - could solve this problem.

At the same time, some German publishers have formed an alliance to create an online service in German - "Volltextsuche Online," or "full-text search online." Like Google Book Search, users can search keywords across a range of works that participating companies decide to make available.

Users may see a few pages or a few paragraphs of a book, or possibly just a citation that popped up after a keyword search. They would have to buy the paper book to read the whole work. But the service is, crucially, a new conduit through which publishers can begin to reach out to consumers directly, and build a brand devoted to bringing content online, said Theodor Brüggemann, director of the project. Eventually, that content could also be delivered in electronic form, he said.

The fact that major music companies did not initially offer attractive download services helped feed the black market of illegal copying, but by developing their system upfront, publishers are poised to make their case, if and when a popular reading device emerges.

"This platform allows us to make an argument," Brüggemann said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/08/business/ebooks09.php

False Information about Tommy Hilfiger

I received this email in my inbox this morning and I feel there is a need to clear this up. If ever you receive this email. Please do not ... do not forward it out because the information is not true.

In a January 2001 press release, the Tommy Hilfiger company denies that their founder ever made such a statement:

"The facts remain simple and cannot be disputed. Tommy Hilfiger did not make the alleged comments, he has never appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and, in fact, Ms. Winfrey herself, on her January 11, 1999 program, stated Tommy Hilfiger has never been on her show nor has she ever met him.

"Most importantly, Tommy Hilfiger wants his clothing to be enjoyed by people of all backgrounds and his collections are put together with the broadest cross-section of individuals in mind. To reinforce this, he features models of all ethnic backgrounds in his fashion shows and advertisements."

So pervasive is this rumor that, by 2004, the company had set aside an entire section on their corporate web site to deny it, featuring statements from Hilfiger, Winfrey, the Anti-Defamation League and Hilfiger customers.

Tommy Hilfiger is not the first or last famous person to be falsely accused of publicly telling certain ethnic groups to not buy their products. Liz Claiborne, Lauren Hill and Shakira all stand accused. None of the accusations stand up to scrutiny. Some are based on misunderstandings, while others, like the one above, are complete fabrications built on favorite elements of urban legendry. Break this Chain.


SAMPLE CHAIN LETTER TEXT
Subject: Tommy Hilfiger on Oprah

Hello, please read.... and pass on if you haven't already! Everyone needs to see this.

Good for Oprah!!!! I'm sure many of you watched the recent taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show, where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. On the show, she asked him if the statements about race he was accused of saying were true. Statements like"...if I'd known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice. I wish these people would *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class white people."

His answer to Oprah was a simple "YES". Where after she immediately asked him to leave her show. My suggestion? Don't buy your next shirt or Perfume from Tommy Hilfiger. Let's give him what he asked for. Let's not buy His clothes, let's put him in a financial state where he himself will NOT be able to afford the ridiculous

prices he puts on his clothes.

BOYCOTT PLEASE...., & SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW

Nothing empowers people quite like their own survival!

END CHAIN LETTER TEXT

The Future of eBooks

By Stephen Cole, eBooks.com CEO
February 28, 2002

The key issues for industry development are range and functionality.

The available range is limited by two things, security and commercial imperatives.

With the advent of digital distribution, book publishers looked on with horror at what happened to music and software. Unlike music and software however, books are not already out there in digital form. It takes an act of will on the part of a book publisher to enter this realm. Obviously, caution is appropriate.

Adobe and Microsoft have worked tirelessly to develop and sustain the integrity of their digital rights management platforms, and this has given comfort and confidence to our publisher partners. Nevertheless, they are cautious. Who can blame them?

Furthermore, publishers have operated a very successful and orderly economic model for about 500 years now. You need a compelling commercial story to woo them into a different model. The slower-than-expected adoption of ebooks hasn't helped this transition. Publishers are very busy managing the exigencies of their businesses, in a climate of shrinking margins and fierce competition. To ask them to divert scarce internal resources into an unproven business model -- a model that carries a heightened risk of piracy -- is not trivial.

But until publishers fully embrace the medium and commit all of their new books to digital editions, the value proposition for the digital shopper is diluted.

It is happening, though. From where we stand the future is great. New publishers are signing up every month, loading their titles onto our repository. Every month there are thousands of newcomers to www.ebooks.com, and the numbers just keep growing.

Functionality is the second key driver of ebook adoption. There are many benefits in using ebooks -- you can search 500 pages in a few seconds, you can carry a thousand books in a lightweight laptop; ebooks are typically cheaper than printed books, you can buy an ebook any time of the night or day and have it almost immediately, and so on.

But the functionality of the reading platform is another matter. There is a convoluted chain of interdependencies that falls between the time when the consumer forms the desire to buy an ebook and their finally being able to settle down and read their ebook. Support issues can arise at almost every link in this chain. And they do. Each technical hoop that a consumer has to jump through represents a disincentive to their coming back again.

The process of acquiring a book (and getting the thing to work once you've downloaded it) can be daunting. The Microsoft solution does not currently handle images and tables well. These rudimentary design elements are critical in publishing professional and educational books.

It's early days, quite clearly. The downloading process needs to be simplified. The reading platforms have to be stable. Oddly, consumers don't voluntarily repeat disappointing shopping experiences. And it's repeat customers that the industry needs, in order to grow and be real.

I have been involved in the ebook space for 5 years and have seen a great deal of courage, brilliance, hubris and chaos. Out of all of this, the simple fact remains that ebooks are, and will continue to be, cheaper and more useful for specific applications. They will not replace paper books. Nobody claimed they would. The cell phone didn't replace the home phone. People have car radios and Walkmans (Walkmen?), but they still have a radio on the bedside table or the kitchen bench. So it is with ebooks.

As the range grows and the buying and reading experiences improve, the low-cost channel will come into its own.

eBooks.com Promotion

eBooks.com Buy One, Get One Free!

Symphony of Love
Let Us Spread Love Wherever We Go!

The Power of Positive Habits

"Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically!"

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–Jack Canfield - #1 NY Times Best-selling author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul"

"Wherever you are in life, your habits determine 95% of your thoughts, feelings and actions. This program shows you how to develop the lifelong habits for great success."

–Brian Tracy, Motivation Expert and Author of “Create Your Own Future"

"Every aspect of our life is determined by our habits, including relationships with those we love. This book teaches you how to acquire new habits that can help improve your relationships...automatically!"

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New Google Book Search Partner Program

Good news for large book publisher or small press! Now you can sign up for the Google Books Partner Program and help users discover your book on Google.

Click here to find out more!

A Tribute to Those Who Lost Their Lifes During 911

Success Is The Quality Of Your Days
by Dr. Philip E. Humbert

If the events of this week have taught us anything, they have reminded us to live each day to the fullest. We were never promised our full "four score and ten."

Even before the attack this week, I was reminded that our lives are too often cut short. My wife is a nurse, and she told me about a young man, age 44, who recently went to his doctor with a summer cold. He had a cough and couldn't get rid of it, so the doctor gave him some pills and told him to come back if it didn't get better.

It didn't get better, so the man went back. They ran some tests, and discovered that the man has been walking around with lung cancer for months, perhaps years. He is married, with three small children, and now knows that he has only two or perhaps three, weeks to live.

There is a wonderful quote that urges us to make plans as if we'll live forever, but to live as if we'll die tomorrow. The truth is that today - this one day - is the only one we really have. Let us use it well!

The rubble of lower Manhattan sends a wake-up call to live with enthusiasm and to do the things you must do in this life! It sends a challenge to love with gusto and to tell the people you love how much you treasure them! Out of the dust comes challenge to say the words, take the risks, make the investments, and experience the richness of life!

It reminds us that life is short, and we often get on advance notice when our ticket expires,

True success is combination of "having" and "being." Success includes earning money and buying nice things, having a home we are proud of, and leaving something to our children and those who follow.

But success is also about "being." It's about being a person others can love and respect. It's about living and loving every moment of our lives, and being honest with ourselves, and with others. It's about being silly, being in love, being proud, and about grieving when it is our turn to grieve.

There is a huge lie in modern culture that claims, "He who dies with the most toys wins." It is NOT true, my friends!

The truth is that "Those who die with some nice toys, lots of friends, fond memories, a few embarrassments, and a smile on their face, are the true winners in life."

There will be many ways to honor those who were killed and injured this week. It is vital that we support them and their families in very tangible ways, and it will be important that we come together for memorials and times of remembrance.

But I propose that an even greater way to honor their memory is to commit ourselves to living up to our fullest potential. In this moment of sorrow and tragedy, challenge yourself to care, to live, and to love with renewed and outrageous enthusiasm. Pursue your dreams as if you could not possible fail! We can not turn back the clock, but we can live our lives with passion, with honor, with integrity and vigor!

Let us truly live every moment of our lives.

Symphony of Love
Let Us Spread Love Wherever We Go!