Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I would greatly value your thoughts and opinions on this.

As you may know I mentor women business owners in marketing.  What a lot of people don`t know is that I`m also very skilled at helping people get their book together.  My forte is "how-to" and "self-help" type books.

(Remember, authoring a book can be an awesome marketing tool for your business.  If you really have something worthwhile to say it gives you great credibility.)

I help them get the book proposal together, develop the structure of the book and make it so the book in your head as it`s written is helpful, clear, gives real step by step direction, and it`s also marketable and reflects your uniqueness and your style as a person and a "brand."  Often for aspiring authors getting the book that`s in your head out onto the computer screen requires some real coaxing and massaging. 

For four years I taught a 4-week teleclass under the auspices of a best-selling author in his seminar program on this topic.  When I did my own book proposal and sent it out to agents - I got a literary agent in less than a week. Six weeks ago I took on a mentoring client who`s making great strides in getting all this together. 

I`m having a new site put together focused on the mentoring work I do - it should be together by the end of the week (fingers crossed).  I decided to include a page on "book mentoring" for people who might be interested.  But it would be helpful to get input on what you as an aspiring author might need answered or need help with. 

So, I`d really appreciate your thoughts if you`ve ever considered seriously writing a self-help or how-to book. 

What`s your most important question(s) about writing a book?

Thanks in advance,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing" 

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

I think the nuts and bolts of it are what stop people ... how to go about publishing, what it`s going to cost, how to market it, whatever.

Hi Nikole:

I agree.  I made some mistakes that I learned from.  And I also met people along the way that really got ripped off badly and it made me feel fortunate that I didn`t make the same mistakes. 

A lot of people are unaware that in most instances a publisher doesn`t market your book.  If you`re a big, well known author they`ll pump publicity dollars into your book - like Hillary Clinton or John Grisham and such.  Not if you`re an unknown - which really seems crazy - but it`s true.  However publishers put up the money to produce the books and have distribution that many self-published authors find difficult to get.  So basically I tell people the publisher`s job is to get your book ON the shelf and your job as the author (and marketer) is to get the job back OFF the shelf.

It can be challenging at times and if I had to do it over I would do some things differently - but being an author is great.  I wouldn`t trade that for the world.

All the best,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Among the many other things I am doing to get my business off the ground I am in the process of writing a book that I can use as a marketing tool for my business. I am still going back and forth as to whether or not to self-publish or go the traditional route with a agent and publisher.

At least for myself, I know what I want to say and I actually am not having a difficult time writing it down, (I actually completed chapter 4 today and I have completed a proposal that I could send to an agent). My questions have to do with what makes more sense for someone like me who wants to be a business owener first, author second or third. Because going the traditional route really does seem like a whole lot of additional work (researching agents, sending out proposals, etc.).

It would be great to receive advice about how to be an author who really isn`t trying to be an author!

 

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**College Application** **Scholarship Search** **Essay Editing** The Experts in College Admissions Counseling. CollegeStrategiesOnline.com Blog.CollegeStrategiesOnline.com

I have a book that I`d love to write - however, it would involve approaching a large multi-national company who`s headquarters are in Europe.  I am stumped at how to do that, how to get them to work with me on staging photos of their products being used in a certain application (short me me buying thousands of dollars of stuff) and how to find an appropriate publisher.   I`ve already worked with them locally, however, the local folks are a franchise and not part of the corporate chain.   

I know the book would be a hit in my industry and drive a lot of traffic to their business.  But, how to do it and how to make sure it`s a "win-win" situation?  I don`t think they are aware of the demand for their products in this particular application and may not "get it", not to mention I can`t seem to figure out how to work with them on it and who to contact.

I agree, I think most good ideas stop at ideas because of the lack of "how-to" knowledge. 

~Kim

 

 

Denise,

I`m hoping you`ll also accept input from a man on this :)

I`ve read a couple books on the process of writing books, but my particular struggle is creating the time to write the (two) books that I have in my head. My desires are a little different from CollegeCoach, in that my goal is to be an author, and my web site is really going to be a marketing tool for my writing, in addition to generating some income to someday afford me the time to write more.

What I`d love to know is: is there a way to convince a publisher to give me a book contract (and an "advance" to live on for a few months), based purely on articles that I publish on my website?

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Brian O`Keefe
Web Designer & Writer @ YiNZCO
Athlete & T-Shirt Guy @ STR!VE NATiON

I think a lot of people believe it`s the nuts & bolts of getting it published, but the fact (in my opinion) is that it`s the actual writing of the book that`s the issue. It takes some pretty solid concentration to get through all those pages and still make sense.

Too often someone starts a book, then goes back and reads what they`ve written. Then they ask themselves, "Who am I tryin` to kid? This isn`t any good. This isn`t interesting...I`m just a dope." And that`s where a professional editor can really help tremendously!

It`s like a lot of things. People get so into what they`re going to do AFTER they`ve finished an idea, product, startup, they don`t realize they`re mostly just "avoiding" taking the step-by-step path toward making the thing first.

Hi College Coach:

There`s no one-size fits-all answer to the question of to publish or to self-publish.  But I can give you a few guidelines. 

If you want to be the kind of book author that does book signings and gets on the bestseller list - go with a traditional publisher.  Traditional publishers have the distribution to be in the major stores and you must be in Borders, B&N and Booksamillion to get on the major bestseller lists.  Getting published by a traditional publishing house however can be s-l-o-w.  If you have a publisher lined up before you even finish your manuscript you can count on another year to 2.5 years before it is released. 

If you want to sell a book on a website and in the back of the room at your speaking engagements - go with self-publishing.  From the time you have a finished manuscript to an actual book in hand is more like 2-3 months.  I`m counting time for book editing, layout and cover design and about half of that time is in printing.  If you go with print on demand - it`s more expensive per book but you can cut that printing time down to a couple days and you can buy much smaller quantities - sometimes just one box of books - about 25-30.  Nothing unmanageable if you don`t want boxes of books piled up in your garage.

A good editor is a must.  If you don`t have one - I can refer you to my editor.  He was great. 

All the best,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Hi Kim:

I`m going to give you my best advice if the company was in the USA - because once you tell me the company is in Europe that adds a real monkey wrench into it.  I`m not going to pretend I know or understand international law.  My forte is marketing and how-to and self-help books in the USA.  I would imagine you`d do something similar with the company in Europe - but the paperwork and laws would be different.

If I wanted to do that with a US company I would first find the person who would be the decision maker.  Might be a Sr. VP of Marketing.  Might be something else.  I would tell him that you have this great idea - and just tease.  Tell him that you`d like to show it to him but first you need him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  What this means is that IF the company ripped you off they owe you money big time.  An attorney needs to draw this up - there are boilerplates out there - but I`d suggest at the very least have an attorney look it over. 

Then you go in and absolutely knock their socks off with your book proposal.  In this instance you may not need to find a publisher - if they like it and go with it they may pay for the costs of self-publishing and give the book away as a premium (gift with purchase sort of thing).  Big companies have been known to buy the rights to 100,000 or more books at a pop when there`s a promotional self interest for them to do so. 

So - when are you planning to take action on it, Kim?

All the best,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Hi Brian:

I`m an equal opportunity question answerer.  And even though I target my marketing mentoring for women - I have done and will continue to do marketing mentoring and book mentoring with both men and women.

I hate to say this Brian - but you`re sort of an unknown quantity in the book world and so most publishers would take a pass at an aspiring author hoping to get a contract based solely on your articles. 

Now the interesting question is - how many readers of those articles do you have?  If you have 10,000 readers to your articles (and you have their email addresses and send out an ezine for example) publishers will take you a little more seriously because you have the beginning of a very nice "platform."  Hopefully the topic of the book is in some way aligned with your articles so your readers will be standing in line ready to buy.

Once a publisher knows the premise of your book the first question he or she will ask about is your "platform."  That is - what kind of built in "fan base" do you have that will be ready and excited to buy your book on it`s release.  This is why big authors and celebrities get the big advances.  It`s a slam dunk for the publisher because the know they have a big, national platform. 

And the good news is - with a non-fiction book, you don`t have to have the entire manuscript finished to get a publisher`s attention.  Just the book proposal is fine.  If they`re REALLY interested they`ll probably ask you for two more chapters.  The whole process is exceedingly slow - from the time they say, "Hey, we like your proposal," to the time you have a signed contract can be three months.  Easy.  So you might as well keep writing.

Keep in mind folks - when you look for a publisher it`s like going and looking for VC capital.  You may be all emotional and excited about your book - but for a publisher this is a joint venture deal in your "product idea."  They want to know their investment in your book will pay off.  That`s why the book proposal is essential - it`s like a business plan for your book. 

All the best,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com