by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I’ve always said one of the best (and most frugal!) ways for an author to learn about book promotion is by reading books written by the pros. That’s why I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo and reviewed in this blog under Great Books).

Having said that, a new “Secrets of Book Promotion with Personal Guidance and Proven, Weekly Learning Opportunities” program from publishing expert Dan Poynter sounds like a perfect aid to any good book on book promotion. That’s because educators tell us we learn faster and retain better ideas we’ve already been introduced to.

Dan, author of more than 125 books, is often referred to as a “book futurist.” His new Para Promotion Program features a series of book promotion projects you can accomplish without leaving home. It’s is a collection of individual lessons with full instructions and personal guidance by successful industry experts. Its assignments show you what to do to reach your target audience—all over the world.

Each week, you’d receive a book promotion assignment from Dan. Each of the 42 book-promotion projects takes anywhere from five to 120 minutes to complete.

In effect, this program provides a crash course in book promotion that can be applied to both present and future books. Authors of one or more books may sign up for $497. Publishers may sign up several of their authors for just $397 each–less than $12 a week to reach buyers.

You can start the Para Promotion Program at any time. It runs for 42 weeks. For details, go to http://parapromotion.com and get started today.

***

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is author of how-to books for writers including The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won’t; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers.

Carolyn was named Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by members of the California Legislature. She’s an instructor of UCLA Extension’s renowned Writers’ Program.

By Patrice Rhoades-Baum

On the surface, a book/author one-sheet appears simple. After all, it’s one page of sales copy that promotes your book. Toss in a graphic of the book cover, your bio, and photo, and you’re done, right? Wrong!

Your book/author one-sheet is a hardworking marketing and sales tool. As such, it must—

• help you meet your business objectives to promote and sell your book
• clearly state the top benefit message for your target audience
• be professional, both in content and design.

Transforming your one-sheet from a shallow list of information into a strategic tool requires putting on your marketing hat. Use the following 7 steps to guide you.

Take these 7 steps

1. Write down the business objectives for your one-sheet. What do you want this marketing tool to accomplish? Here are some example objectives:

• “Create a professional-quality one-sheet that makes me shine as a professional.”
• “Use as a talking guide (like a script) to support my sales calls and visits with buyers.”
• “Leave with (or mail to) prospective book buyers as a reference sheet, so they have all the information to make a purchase decision, contact me, and buy my book.”
• “Give to bookstore managers, so they have all info to promote book-signing events.”
• “Give to media reps, so they have all info when deciding to schedule an interview.”
• “Position myself as a subject-matter expert who is available for speaking opportunities.”

2. Write down a description of your target audience:

• Clarify their demographics, needs/wants, and challenges/frustrations.

3. Identify and write down the top benefit your book delivers to your target audience:

• The buyer must clearly understand how your book will help or educate someone.

4. Identify the target audience who will be using your one-sheet (e.g., owners/managers at local bookstores, buyers at national chain bookstores, buyers for library districts, media reps, etc.).

5. Clarify the call-to-action for your one-sheet recipients. What action do you want them to take?

6. Write professional copy for your one-sheet:

• Select and hire an experienced copywriter.
• If you decide to write the one-sheet copy yourself, then hire a marketing copywriter to edit and finalize the copy.
• Start with writing the copy first, then meet with your designer to give it a professional design.

7. Select and hire a professional designer with one-sheet experience:

• Book buyers are professionals who expect to see professional-quality materials – both in design and content.

 Write or gather the following content

1. Brief introductory paragraph introducing the book topic and delivering a strong benefit message for the target audience (be clear, concise, and compelling!)

2. Your brief bio, written specifically for this marketing tool

3. Snippets of 2 to 3 book reviews

4. Contact information

• Publishing company, contact name, and title
• Phone number
• Website address (you should have a landing page, at minimum)
• Email address that corresponds with website address (not gmail or yahoo)

5. Specific book information

• Retail price for hard cover, soft cover, e-book
• Bulk discounts, if available
• ISBN number
• Book description (example: Business)
• Page count

6. Include a bold, compelling call-to-action that encourages the buyer to purchase your book!

Graphic elements to create or gather

• High-resolution image of book cover
• Thumbnail images of other books you have written, if applicable
• Your logo, if you have one
• Your brand colors, if you have them
• Your professional photo

Don’t cut corners with your one-sheet.  Make it a hardworking marketing and sales tool that shows you off as a pro!

Patrice Rhoades-Baum specializes in branding and copywriting for websites and one-sheets. Backed by 30 years of strategic marketing communications, Patrice teams with authors, speakers, and consultants to clarify their brand, write copy for their websites and one-sheets, and facilitate their logo, website, and one-sheet design/development. Learn more at www.BrandingAndWebsites.com.

by Bobbi Linkemer (used by permission)

Start promoting your book or ebook with the three most important questions:

1. What is your book about—its core message?
2. What is its “mission”—how it will benefit the reader?
3. Who is your ideal reader—the person you are writing for?

The answers to the questions are the heart of book promotion, which is all geared to getting your message across, achieving the book’s purpose, and reaching that ideal reader.

Strategies and Tactics
What are the three results you want from promoting your book? These are big-picture results—strategies. Do you want to position yourself as an expert in your subject area? Gain name recognition on the web? Sell books? Drive traffic to your website? Help you secure speaking engagements?

OK, now, what specific actions are you going to take to achieve those results? These are called tactics. Let’s look at the first strategy: to position yourself as an expert in your subject area. Here are some tactics you might consider:

1. Write articles on your subject and submit them to online article sites, e.g., http://www.ezinearticles.com.
2. Start a blog, write regularly, stick to your topic, provide useful information, respond to comments.
3. Put your book on Amazon and take advantage of all the promotional opportunities this very powerful site has to offer.
4. Start a newsletter, provide a way for people to subscribe on your Website, look for valuable information to pass along to subscribers, be generous, give away whatever you can share.

Develop a Marketing Mindset
The heart of marketing is identifying a need in the marketplace and finding a way to fill it with your product or service. The question is what does your ideal reader need and how can you provide it? If you have written a nonfiction book, your reader needs information or inspiration. If you know your subject, you should be an endless source of information.

Go beyond what you already know, and keep learning. The more you learn, the more you can share. If you have overcome a difficult situation or survived a tragedy, you are in a perfect position to provide encouragement and motivation. The point here is not to sell your book; it is to fill a need.

Tap Into the Power of the World Wide Web
The Internet has changed the world—certainly the world of book promotion. You must have a presence on the Web. It’s a non-negotiable reality. Your readers are everywhere, which is exactly where the Web reaches them. The flip side of that statement is if you do have a presence (a Website, for starters) and no one knows about it, it’s like having a billboard in the middle of the Sahara desert. Here are some ways to let people know about your Website and your book.

1. If you can afford it, hire a Website and Web-marketing consultant; it will save you loads of time and cut down on your learning curve.
2. Research and register with directories; learn about search engines; educate yourself about key words and search engine optimization (SEO).
3. Describe your book’s contents in short phrases or bullet points; explain your qualifications to write it; and display the cover and your photograph on your site.
4. Create name recognition by submitting articles on your subject to multiple article sites and starting a blog. Make sure your content is high quality and provides a benefit to readers. Inform, educate, inspire, motivate. Don’t lecture or proselytize.
5. Keep adding new content. Remember, search engines find your site by new material. Demonstrate your expertise. Show, don’t tell, that you know your subject.
6. Make your contact information obvious. People must be able to find you easily. Include your name, e-mail address, and phone number at the very least.
7. Join social networking groups—Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr—fill in your profile information, make friends and contacts, check in frequently.
8. Make it easy for people to buy and pay for your book. Set up a store through Shopsite.com or some other shopping cart service; sign up for PayPal or get a merchant’s account.
9. Set up a media page. Include a press release that announces your book in a copyable format (Word or a text file), links to previous interviews in print, and future commitments for book signings or presentations.

Is that it? Well, no, but it’s a very good beginning. If you do everything I have suggested, you are well on your way to a successful book launch. Then, if you want to do more, there are books and blogs and newsletters and courses out there to teach you every possible tactic. Good luck.

Bobbi Linkemer is a book coach, ghostwriter, editor, and the author of 16 books under her own name. She has been a professional writer for more than 40 years, a magazine editor, and a book-writing teacher. Her clients include Fortune 100 companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals who want to write books in order to enhance their credibility or build their businesses. Visit her website at: http://www.WriteANonfictionBook.com.

Please share your best ideas for book marketing here.

by Lynne Klippel (used with permission)There is a dirty little secret in the publishing industry. That secret is that the vast majority of authors don’t make enough money from their book sales and royalty payments to live on. Unless you write a string of smashing best-sellers like J.K. Rowling or Nora Roberts, you are going to need to supplement your income from your books, especially in the nonfiction genres.

However, this is actually really great news! When you write a nonfiction book, you are writing to entertain or educate your readers. You want to help them learn something, solve a problem, or transform their lives in some fashion. It often takes more than just reading a book to fully transform a life. Just think about all the books that have been written on money management, parenting, or weight loss: there are millions of pages written on those topics but many people are still struggling in those areas.

So how can you use your book to create a sustainable living for yourself and help your readers on an even deeper level?

These three mindset shifts will help you begin the process:

1. See your book as a first date. When a reader finishes your nonfiction book, she will want more from you if she loved your book.  Your book is just the beginning of a long-term relationship with your readers.  When you create additional opportunities for your readers to connect with you on your website, blog, social media presence, and through products and services, your readers have a reason to stay in your world after turning the final page of your book.
2. See your book as Step 1 in a transformational process. If you are helping your readers solve a problem in your book, they will most generally need additional support implementing all the things you taught them in your book.  Even readers with the best of intentions encounter obstacles, brush up against fears, and struggle with procrastination.  It can be challenging to change.
3. See your book as your curriculum. Nonfiction writers are teachers, using books to teach new concepts and ideas.  Your book holds many opportunities to expand on the concepts it contains when you view it as a textbook.  If you were sitting down with your perfect reader and teaching him the methods in your book, where would you begin?

Once you shift your mindset and open to the idea that your book is more than just a book, you can begin to create opportunities for your readers to learn from you in other ways, and opportunities to earn additional income from coaching programs, workshops, audios, courses, and presentations.

Then, you’ll have discovered the real gold in your book.

So, how does this information inspire you? Share your comments below. 

Lynne Klippel is a best-selling author, publisher, and book coach who specializes in helping non-fiction authors write books that build their business and transform the world. For a f.r.e.e. assessment that will help you see your author strengths and opportunities, visit http://www.BusinessBuildingBooks.com

I invited this person to go see my write-up on typos at  www.yudkin.com/typos.htm, which happens to be one of my more popular pages. The subject comes to life through true tales collected from the news and from clients.

So method #1 for enlivening dull topics is to search for news stories, legal cases and anecdotes involving the subject. Select stories containing surprises or high stakes.

Method #2: Unearth little-known facts about the topic from other cultures. For example, “If you think typos are pesky in English, imagine being a Torah scribe. One missing letter makes the entire Torah unusable. Let’s see how scribes attain 100 percent correctness.” 

Method #3: Find (or create) jokes related to the topic. A few typo jokes appear at http://jokediary.com/2009/08/typo-mistake.html, for instance.

Method #4: Collect humorous illustrations of the subject matter, like kookily misspelled road signs. 

Method #5: Create a quiz. Challenge your audience members to test their knowledge. Involvement triggers interest.

Excellent advice, reprinted with permission from Marcia Yudkin’s free weekly Marketing Minute newsletter. I encourage you to sign up at www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm

What methods do you advocate for spicing up boring subjects? Leave your comments here.

Platform Building Webinar – Update

from Wendy Keller, Literary Agent www.KellerMedia.com

To jump on the platform-building bandwagon 

http://wkeller.c.topica.com/maaowd2ab2Knga3GfFib/ 

by Wendy Keller  

How would you like to be getting media, growing your audience, selling products (or your self-published book), and creating the kind of buzz your content deserves – in just six weeks? 

For the first time ever, I’m about to offer a “build your platform” webinar series designed to help you conceptualize greater success for yourself and your content, and turn it into a REAL audience. 

This class is right for you if: 

* You can’t get an agent for your FICTION or NONFICTION book 

* You self-published and your book isn’t selling well 

* You aren’t sure if you have the kind of message that would be a good book, so you want to test it. 

* Your book was published by a real publisher in the last five years and you’d like to leverage it into more book sales, paid speaking, more of a media presence, etc. 

If any of those apply to you, please click the link below to find out about this exciting course. We’ll work together, you’ll have a chance to ask me questions and get personalized answers. 

Best of all, the course starts on February 1 and is ONLY $79! That’s right. This is my inaugural class, so you can be part of the first-ever platform building coaching series for almost nothing! 

If you get even one idea, you’ll be miles ahead of where you are now! You deserve a lucky break this year. I’d like to help you get it. 

Click below to read more or register for the course  starting Feb 1: 

http://wkeller.c.topica.com/maaoux3ab2iKUa3GfFibaeQx4Y/ 

If it’s too late for you to register for this webinar, please contact Wendy about future webinars at wkeller@kellermedia.com.  

by Sam Henrie (used with permission)

People no longer respond to advertising the way they used to, especially the usual “interruption-based” advertising. You’re watching a program and you’re interrupted by a commercial. The ad itself isn’t relevant to you—you didn’t ask or look for it. You’re annoyed and can’t wait to get back to the program. It’s similar with magazine and newspaper ads. However, your book can be an effective ad without interrupting your prospects; in fact, they won’t even view it as advertising!

Let me explain. The most frequently visited site for researching a product is Google and the most frequently visited site for shopping for a product is Amazon. If I’m interested in getting the air inside my house or office cleaner and greener, I may go to Google and type in cleaner greener indoor air to find out how. (If I’m interested in finding more in-depth information, especially information I can purchase, I type those same words into Amazon.)

Want to be found on Google without having to advertise or spend a lot of time and/or money on search engine optimization? Have a book listed on Amazon. Of all the websites out there, Amazon is the largest single source of information indexed on Google. What this means is that Google respects your book’s page on Amazon more than some other page someone put together on the same topic. You’ll rank higher in the search results because of your book’s listing on Amazon.

I’ll prove it to you. Type cleaner greener indoor air into Google and see what you get. The very first search result is a link to a book on Amazon, above even the website dedicated to that very topic. Because I’m looking for information on this subject, this link is a free ad for the author, Mark R. Sneller, and his book. I have the opportunity to buy it, but, perhaps more importantly, I now view Dr. Sneller as an authority on the subject.

When have your book on Amazon you get, in essence, a free and permanent ad for you and your goods or services. It’s the best kind of ad because it isn’t perceived as advertising. Your audience doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to. And every time someone buys your book, you get a royalty, but more importantly, you begin the process of convincing potential customers of your expertise, authority, and credibility … the first step toward making more sales.

In this digital age, a book on Amazon is the most effective ad you can have.

Sam Henrie is president and founder of Wheatmark, Inc., an author service firm focused on helping authors achieve publishing success. A frequent speaker on the subjects of book marketing, book publicity, and independent publishing, Sam’s expertise includes new directions in production, distribution, publicity, and marketing in the world of book publishing. Sam is past president of the Arizona Book Publishing Association.

By Jerry D. Simmons (used by permission)

Ask anyone and that person will tell you book publishing is about printed copies. It has been the standard for decades and even though eBooks have been around for more than ten years, they only represent two percent of total book sales.

So why should authors seriously consider having an eBook version of their work?

The print book business is handicapped for the small publisher and independent author. The marketplace is not equal competitively because the largest companies have all the advantages and will continue to dominate as long as they can afford to subsidize falling unit sales. In addition, most small publishers and independent authors do not have direct access to booksellers and even when they do, placement fees are prohibitive. These are the key problems with the print book business. 

The digital or eBook market is a different. Here are the seven reasons why every author should have an eBook edition.  

(1)  The biggest hurdle for the burgeoning digital market is lack of availability of titles. The largest publishers have decided to delay release of major books from bestselling authors to avoid damaging sales of their hardcover editions. They also have refused to release their entire backlist catalog of older titles for fear the lower-priced eBook will cut sales of the printed versions. These are reasons for eBook market placement by small publishers and independent authors as quickly as possible. It’s not always best to be the first to market, but it’s best to get in when the opportunity exists, and that is now.

(2) The cost of an eBook’s entry into the market is a fraction of the cost for a printed book. Industry analysts have said that the average cost of getting a manuscript printed from one of the large print-on-demand (POD) companies is $2,300. That includes all fees, services, products, marketing packages, and any other item they can sell the author. To avoid print and “go digital,” you can convert a Word document with a manuscript into eBook format, compatible with all major eReading devices for a fraction of the cost of print. This includes any necessary changes from a printed to digital cover. 

(3) In the print business, merchandising a book within a retail book setting is key to sales. Publishers know that placement in key areas within a store is critical to success. However, the placement fee for prime space within a store is astronomical and well beyond the capability of the average small publisher. For eBooks, merchandising consists of titles being grouped within categories beside all other titles published within the same genre. There are no current merchandising or placement fees associated with eBooks. That doesn’t mean there won’t be such fees in the future. Right now, the print industry grandfathers titles already on the market, which would exempt titles placed in eBook online catalogs from having to pay any possible future placement fee. That’s another reason to get into the market quickly.

(4) Content size is meaningless in eBooks that are viable as a product with as few as 5,000 words. Such short manuscripts are absolutely not possible in print. This opens up all kinds of possibilities for short fiction, such as short stories and quality content in non-fiction from individuals not inclined to write a 50,000-word manuscript. Anthologies were never popular in printed editions for a variety of reasons, yet today with an eBook, the market for anthologies is wide open. Another soft category for sales was poetry, yet with eBooks, the length of the content is not important; it’s the quality of the writing. Poetry is now seen as another possibility within the wide range of content applicable on an eBook.

(5) Pricing of eBooks provides the small publisher and independent author with advantages over their larger New York competitors. That’s because the big houses have tremendous overhead that has to be accounted for, in addition to healthy royalties for digital editions, to authors and agents. Not so in the eBook market where small companies can price aggressively and undercut major competitors without impacting margins like those found in print editions. It’s virtually impossible to price well under competitive titles in print, but eBooks are like unchartered territory where you can do what you want with pricing and make up for it in volume.

(6) Access to sellers of eBooks is open to any small publisher on equal terms with all other publishing companies. In a nutshell, distribution for the printed book is controlled by distribution companies who work almost exclusively with the large New York publishers. This is not so with eBooks where most of the distributors are “‘tech people” interested in distributing a product that has the potential to sell. Certainly Amazon is grounded in the print side of publishing and will continue to make it difficult for small publishers. Barnes & Noble is struggling and Borders Bookstores is strapped for cash and sales. The bookstore experience is fading much the same way of the eight-track tape and Beta for videos. As the market changes, so must we. Right now, the eBook is the most attractive way to publish.

And finally…

(7) It’s the right way to launch new material into the marketplace for consumers of reading material. For writers who are still deciding how to publish or launch their careers, consider this fact: there were more than 760,000 new titles being published in print last year. The best guess on new eBooks is only about 50,000. Now go back and read again all previous six reasons why you should publish an eBook and I’ll even add this one: in publishing, the more you can blaze your own trail and separate yourself as a writer from all the other writers in the world, the better chance you have of finding an audience and making a name for yourself as an author. Even though the market for the eBook is still small, I’d much rather take my chances against 49,999 other eBooks than I would against 759,999 other print books especially when I cannot price aggressively, gain access to booksellers, and pay 75 percent more for a print book than an eBook.  

It would be unfair to make you think that an eBook edition of your writing is suddenly going to be a huge success and sell tens of thousands of copies. However, you have a much better chance of that happening in an eBook than you do a printed version for all the reasons mentioned above.

This digital market is just getting started; there will be nothing but more opportunities ahead. Recently an author asked me for the negative side of publishing an eBook and, to be honest, I couldn’t think of one disadvantage!

Writers need to find a market for their writing, a place to share their story or message with readers. The digital market is not the perfect answer to the dilemma of selling books, but it provides a legitimate opportunity not available in the print side of publishing.

As eReading devices with new and enhanced technology enter the market, the number of eBook readers will grow. It’s predicted that by the end of 2010 with the launch of the iPad, there will be more than 15 million consumers of eBooks. That represents a three-fold increase over 2009.

Make no mistake, this is a profound event in publishing. The big companies are going through major internal changes that quite possibly will shake them to their foundations and change the way they publish books forever.

We are entering a new phase in the history of the printed word, one that may start the demise of the printed book. Not the total elimination of printed books but the continual decline of the print side of publishing.

The future is digital in the form of eBooks. Print will remain a part of, but will not be in the dominant position it has held up to now. This change will take years but it is coming. The time to capitalize on the opportunity is now—today.

Jerry D. Simmons is a 32-year veteran of publishing, 25 in New York with Random House and the former Time Warner Book Group as Vice President, Director Field Sales. His sales division generated hundreds of millions of dollars in book sales across the United States and Canada.

Jerry is the founder of www.WritersReaders.com, a resource for information about publishing. His eNewsletter TIPS for WRITERS from the PUBLISHING INSIDER is read by writers in over 24 foreign countries. He can be reached at Jerry@WritersReaders.com

By Cathleen Fillmore

So you thought WRITING your book and finding a publisher was hard!

Your work is just beginning. Welcome to the wild world of selling and marketing your book. It’s a journey to a foreign land for many writers, but it’s so worthwhile.

Learning your way around the marketing/sales world is a great way to recession proof yourself no matter how the economy fluctuates.

Some writers are more comfortable behind their computers than on the platform addressing an audience. Don’t think you need to be an extrovert to be a good speaker, introverts can be very compelling speakers.

As a writer, you have an edge on the platform because you’ve developed something to say. That’s not true of all speakers.

What’s the main message of your book? Who will benefit from hearing that message? Where can you find these people? Are there associations or other groups they belong to or certain places where they work? You need to know your demographic well; then it’s not hard to find groups of “your people.”

Create a list of groups in your own area and then branch out. I recommend a list of 50 to 100 groups. If you’ve created a narrow demographic profile, you may need to expand it in order to create a good list.

Are you going after paid or unpaid engagements? If paid, you’ll need to create the right marketing materials (more about that in my book The Six Figure Speaker). Even if engagements not paid, take them seriously and answer these questions:

• How will people in the audience benefit from hearing your talk?
• How will the organization who has booked you benefit from having you speak?

Remember, you may need to meet the needs of both the meeting planner and the audience members; those needs won’t necessarily be the same.

Now get on the phone. (I hire a virtual assistant to make that initial call.) Tell the receptionist you’d like to speak to the person who arranges meetings for that group or company. When you’ve reached the right person, ask whether the organization has any events where your message might be a good fit. Now ask whether they have a budget for speakers. It’s worth your while to get out there promoting your book.

Sometimes you’re not allowed to directly sell your book at a paid speaking engagement. Big speaking stars like Dan Kennedy have written right into their speaking contract the ability to sell products and books from the platform, but most speakers can’t get away with that.

However, If it’s a paid engagement, you can offer the planner a discount for bulk orders so that each person in the audience receives a book. If it’s unpaid, let the organizer know you’d like to sell copies of your book after the event. In most cases, that’s fine. It is, after all, an added benefit to attendees.

Writing a book is just one piece of the whole puzzle. Getting the word out about it and then getting sales is a giant piece of the puzzle—and critical to your success. Writers used to leave sales to publishers, but think about it—who will be more passionate about getting your message out there?

Exactly! The (marketing) buck starts and stops with you.

Cathleen Fillmore runs Speakers Gold bureau and an annual Speaker Talent Search. Her most recent book is The Six Figure Speaker. Sign up for her complimentary teleconference call on August 18^th 7 p.m. EST on what makes an extraordinary speaker at http://soyouthinkyoucanspeak.eventbrite.com

What Makes A Book “Good”? by Wendy Keller (used by permission)

For lo these many years I’ve tried to explain to my dear readers the two reasons why 99% of everything presented to agents or publishers just cannot be published. It comes down to this:

1. Most of the time, it’s because the author has NO proven ability to aid the publisher in marketing and promoting the book. If you’re volunteering to sit at home and wait for the limo to come get you for your appearance on Oprah, you’ll be waiting a long time!   Especially now, having no “platform” completely ends the conversation right there. If you want to sell a book and you don’t want to self-publish, begin to transform yourself today into the sort of person who can sell the book. Give paid speeches, start a popular blog or radio show, do something. Anything. Just get started now.

2. The other reason is just as dire: the content is not good. It could be Not Good because it is common – there are too many books like it out there; it could be Not Good because you are a lousy writer (most people are) or you have no credentials related to your topic; it could be Not Good because very few people besides you and maybe your mom are interested in the topic; or perhaps agents deem it Not Good because it will garner the dreaded rejection phrase “This would be better as a magazine article.” We all hate it when editors say that. 

This morning, I got a proposal from an author whose last advance was six figures. But his new idea is little more than a glorified magazine article, spun out ad nauseum. No chance of selling it, certainly not for the kind of money he’s angling for. I had to pass, and he was very unhappy with me. Wait until 20 other agents pass, and he’ll know there’s truth in what I told him. Agents work on commission. If we know we can sell it, we’ll take it on. If we doubt, we don’t.

How do you KNOW if your content is good? Go to Amazon.com and see if there’s anything like your book out there. If so, how many books? Are they selling? How is your proposed book new, different, better, or offering something more to the reader?

After Eat, Pray, Love, many women thought that writing the memoir of their post-divorce life was a great idea. (I disliked that book, BTW.) But truly, that book is about something so much more than a post-divorce sojourn. It’s about a spiritual seeking, an interpersonal struggle, a loss and a finding and a strengthening.   And it’s fairly well written. You’ll have to pull back and get some perspective on your book. Think it through. If you can help promote your book AND you have something valuable to add to the million books published, invest your energy in a proposal. But stop to think it through first. It’s not an act of derring-do to waste your time writing an ill-conceived proposal. Build up your strength as a writer – perfect is better than OK when it comes to a proposal.

When I teach writing classes, I always tell authors “Cogitation is the birth of publication.” 

Reflect on your book. Don’t just dash off a few thousand carefree words – that’s not writing, that’s journaling. Find your voice. Perfect your craft. Hone your content. Develop your concept. Spend time, invest in your book. And sure enough, it will be good when it’s “done” – whether you get a traditional deal or end up self-publishing. That way, it will be worth your time.

Wendy Keller has been an agent for +22 years. She and her team have sold more than 1,000 books and related rights, including 9 international best sellers. www.KellerMedia.com