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Are You on a Mission?

April 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

I’d just like to mention today that if you are writing a proposal, you want to include a mission statement after your author’s bio. You’ve already worked on that. Remember this post?

Not every book on writing a book proposal includes the “Mission Statement” section; in fact, most don’t. It’s a fairly new section. However, my former agent, Mike Larsen, who wrote How to Write a Book Proposal, asks his authors to include a mission statement. I’m sure this will be in the upcoming new edition of his book as well, although I haven’t seen it yet.

I’ll reiterate: Knowing why you must write this book will help you focus your energy on this project. It will help you clarify your reasons for writing your book. It will help you decide if you must write this book, and it will help the people considering purchasing your book (publishers and readers) decide if they want to do so.

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Why You Are the Best Person to Write Your Book

April 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

Are you the type of writer who feels sure you possess the expertise to write your book or are you the type of writer who questions whether you are good enough to do so? Do you know you are the best person to author the book you have in mind, or do you wonder if someone better exists?

Either way, you must convince your readers you are the expert on your subject. Indeed, you must tell the world you are the only person who should write this particular book.

And now you must write down all the reasons why you, indeed, are the best person to write your blogged book. In a nonfiction book proposal, this section is called “About the Author.” Sounds pretty simply, right?

It can prove simple—or hard. That depends upon you. You write a biography of your expertise and experience, and you do this using the third person tense. You include the most important facts first, such as anything that makes you the expert on your topic, your educational degrees (if they apply to the topic), work experience, etc. Include all your achievements. See this as your resume in prose but written specifically for your book.

Obviously, an aspiring author who wants a deal with a traditional publisher needs to create an “About the Author” section for inclusion in a nonfiction proposal; the proposal is necessary to sell the book. However, a blogger needs a biography (bio) as well. Every blog should include an “About” or “About the Author” page. This allows readers to find out who you are and why you have the expertise to write your blog. This information gives your blog credibility.

So, write your bio and pace it on the “About” page of your blog. If you prefer to use a less formal bio for your blog, write it in the first person tense using “I.” If you write your blog in a more formal voice, though, stick to third person for your bio as well.

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What Do You Need to Complete Your Book?

April 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

As you get closer to beginning to blog your book, consider this question: What resources do you need to complete your book? The answer to this question completes the section of a book proposal actually called “Resources Needed to Complete the Book.”

This section may not pertain to many blogged books. You, the blogger, may find that you need very little besides your mind, your fingers, a computer, and an Internet connection to write your book. Well…every blogger needs a little bit of money to pay for an Internet connection and a hosted website (since you hopefully will eventually pay for a hosted blog). You also need a computer.

Primarily this section does, indeed, cover costs. Here are the types of costs that might be included in this section of a nonfiction proposal and which you might want to consider as well:

  • Photos—You might want to purchase a subscription to stock photo provider, for example or you might need a photographer for special needs.
  • Art—You might need a logo designed or a series of cartoons to illustrate your book, or you might want to purchase a subscription to a clip art service.)
  • Permissions—If you reproduce large sections of an exiting book, you must purchase the rights from the publisher.

In this section of a nonfiction book proposal an aspiring author also declares how long it will take them to complete their book. So, take a moment—or a few—to give yourself some deadlines. How much will you write each day, week, or month, and when will you “turn in” your finished book? In other words, how many blog posts will you commit to writing each week, and how many will it take you to compete your book? Given those figures, when will you complete your blogged book? Write that down. Make that part of your business plan.

(I covered this topic from another angle in this post.)

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Know Your Competition to Angle for Success

April 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Picking up where I left off, you now need to take long hard look at any other blogs that might compete with your blogged book. You do this to ensure not that you are the only one blogging on your topic but that you are blogging on the topic from a unique angle. You want to be different from the other blogs.

Actually, it’s great if lots of bloggers have chosen to write about your book’s topic. That means readers find it interesting. Just like a regular book, if publishers keep publishing books on a topic, that means they feel a market exists for books on that subject.

Of course, you may find that no one else is blogging on your subject matter. That might prove a good thing—if anyone really has an interest in reading about it. You can make a name for yourself as the first and only one in that particular market. However, there may be no other blogs for a reason; no one may care about your topic.

It’s possible, though, that no one has yet thought of your topic besides you. If so, that’s great! Buy a domain name that relates to your topic, set up your blog, and start writing and publishing fast!

This exercise of looking for competing blogs relates to two sections of a book proposal:  Competing and Complementary Titles. Since you are blogging a book, it behooves you to also look at what books have been written on your topic. Make sure the book you are writing is different and adds something new to existing titles on bookstore shelves.

Also look at complementary titles. These are the related books someone interested in your book might purchase as well; however, these books do not represent competition per se. If there are many books on one complementary topic, you might want to see if your book fits nicely with, or parallels, these books, since obviously a readership exists for those books.

You can look at complementary blogs as well. These blogs might be great ones to try and develop reciprocal links with at some point. The readers on a complementary blog might be just as likely to read your blog as the other—or to purchase your books, products or services.

It’s easy to find information on competing and complementary blogs. Simply go to blog catalogues like Technorati.com or blogcatalog.com. Sometimes you can find a directory related to a certain subject area. Try doing a Google search for web or blog rings, blog networks, or blog directories on your topic. For instance, my blog, My Son Can Dance, is listed at DanceBloggers.com. If your blogged book involved a subject related to dance, you’d want to explore the blogs listed there. Another blog of mine, As the Spirit Moves Me, deals with both Jewish and secular spirituality as well as human potential and personal growth issues; it is listed at JewPI.Com under the Blogs category. If you were writing about Judaism, you’d want to check out the blogs at JewPI.com or at Jewishblogging.com. (As the Spirit Moves Me used to be listed there as well; for some reason, they dropped it, and I can’t get it back on the site—I’m not sure why.)

Look at the ranking of the blogs you find in the catalogues. Each catalogue will offer information on the popularity of a blog. You’ll want to examine the highest-ranked blogs as well as those lower down in the rankings.

Take all the information you gain from your research and take a second look at your blogged book idea. Does it still hold up? Does it need to be re-angled? Do you need to rethink the content to make it stand out from the pack of other blogs or books? Will you choose to compete with the top ranked blogs already being published or to compete with the ones ranked fifth or sixth or even tenth. (You might find those lower down the scale an easier niche to break into.)

Be really honest. Refocus your idea now—before you start blogging—for success in both the cyber and the traditional publishing marketplace.

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Promotion: This Means Getting Social

April 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

For a blogged book, promotion means, “What are you going to do to tell the cyber world your blog exists?” How will you sell your blog?

This is where you add your social hat to your business hat, because to gain readers you must promote yourself and your blog via social networking. Otherwise, how will anyone know your blog exists?

This does not just mean gaining friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter, the most powerful social networking sites, however. It also means getting out there and participating in forums and commenting on related blogs and on-line columns.  It also means posting your blog to Reddit.com and StumbleUpon.com, and forming networks of bloggers who will help you get your blog noticed by being on their blog roll and by reciprocal linking and agreements to submit each other’s posts to sites like StumbleUpon.com, which increases their ranking.

You’ll also need to set up your blog to “ping” to places like Technorati.com. (I’ll talk more about this later.)

All of this falls under the category of promotion. However, you can also do more traditional promotion. You can send press releases to the media. You can publish articles on your book’s topic. You can set up speaking engagements, workshops and tele-seminars. You can send out a newsletter.

You can create a website that hosts your blogged book, and that site can offer more features that attract visitors and readers. It can also have a media kit or author’s page to help you get more media attention.

You can create contests, give aways and gimmicks to attract attention to your blog. You can hire a publicist. All of this falls under the heading of promotion.

Here you must think and act outside the box. And you have to do this both to gain readers simple because you want people to read your blogged book and also to be found or to prove to a publisher that your blog deserves to be published.

Should you decide to write a book proposal, the promotion section can make or break you. The publishing house will rely on you to come up with a great promotion plan; it will become their promotion plan. Yes, a publisher will add to your plan a bit, but primarily they will rely on you to promote your own book in your own way.

Most writers don’t want t do this work. Their eyes glaze over, and they simple say, “No. Won’t do it.” If you want your book to sell, which in this case means to be found by readers, you must promote it. Period.

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Subsidiary Rights and Spin-Offs

March 31, 2010 By 1 Comment

If you were submitting to an agent or publisher, the next part of a proposal you would write would be the one called subsidiary rights. When you sell your book to a publishing house, the publisher acquires primary rights. This enables them to sell the book as is or in adapted or condensed form. To see a list of primary rights, see Michael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal.

Subsidiary rights include things like first-serial rights to excerpt the book before publication, British and translation rights, rights to produce abridged, unabridged and dramatized audio and video versions of your book, etc.  A more complete list is included in How to Write a Book Proposal.

While you are wearing your business hat, you might consider if your book has potential for subsidiary rights. However, this section is not really necessary to the blog-a-book process. I’ve just included it here so you’d be aware of it; if you plan on approaching a publisher, the addition of subsidiary rights to your proposal can prove attractive.

A more pertinent section of the proposal, but also one that is not really necessary to consider prior to beginning to blog your book, is the spin-offs section. Acquisition editors and agents like to know that you aren’t a one book author. The spin-off section of a proposal is where you look at your first book idea and consider what other books you might write as follow-ups.

Could your book be a series? Is there a way for you to entice a publisher into a multi-book deal?  Does your book naturally lead you to write books on similar or related topics?

If you want to be found by an agent or publisher, or if you plan on approaching them yourself, it might be a good idea to be prepared to answer the question, “Do you have other books you plan to write after this one?” Your answer could make the difference between getting a contract and being turned down.

Additionally, while you have your business hat on consider what you will do when you finish your blogged book. How you will capitalize upon that success? Having your next book idea lined up and ready to go, means you don’t lose any readers. That’s key to becoming a successful author long term.

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Markets: Who Will Read Your Blogged Book?

March 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

 

On to the next proposal section included under the “Introduction” heading: Markets. As I mentioned in my last post, you now need to make sure you are wearing your business person hat. No writer’s hats allowed.

It’s time to meet your readers or to discover how many readers your blog might be able to gain. In general, discovering your readers represents an exercise in researching if your blog has a market.

Again, even though you are blogging a book, you need to know this information for two reasons: First, since you will be the one primarily responsible for promoting your blog, you’ll want to know in what markets to place your promotional efforts. In other words, you want to promote to the right readers—the right markets. Thus, you must take time to find out who those readers are. Second, and more importantly, you must find out if you even have readers. If no market exists for your blog, you’ll be lucky to garner even a few readers for your blog. (If this is the case, forget about your blog getting “found” by an agent and published as a physical book.)

Knowing if you have a market for your blogged book helps you discern if a reason exists to bother writing and publishing your work. Is there anybody out there that will read your work? Since you are blogging a book, you want to ask, “Is there anyone out there in cyberspace who will subscribe to my blog or come back every few days to see if I’ve published a new post?” In blogging or website terms, you want to know if you can build up a large number of unique visitors (those that come back more than once—hopefully repeatedly).

To discover if you have a market, start with this step: Describe the audience for your blogged book. Who is your average blog reader? Who would be interested in your topic? Who will subscribe to your blog?  Include demographic information if you can. (Do your research!)

Now describe large groups of people (actual markets) that will subscribe to your blog. (Again…do your research! Go out on the Internet and find statistics and information on the size of these groups.) Don’t be lazy. Answer the question, “Who is the market for my blog?”  (Wrong answer: People like me. People who like cats. Right answer: The 1.3 million cat owners in the U.S. The 80,000 veterinarians licensed in the U.S. today.)

Once you’ve done this, you will know if you have a market or not. If you have a large numbers of people who potentially could be interested in your blog, great! Your blog gets the green light. If you can’t think of any markets, or if your markets are very small, you might want to reconsider your topic or re-angle it to target a bigger market.

Of course, nothing stops you from blogging your book for your own enjoyment. You might find one or two readers show up. You can always tell your friends and family to come read your blog. Without a real market, however, you won’t gain many unique visitors, subscribers or readers.

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Overview: The Features and Benefits of Your Book

March 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

Now that you have a pitch, it’s time to actually write the overview of your book. Typically, an overview begins with a paragraph or two that hook the reader. This isn’t much different from an article; the beginning of the overview could be considered your “lead.”

Next, insert your pitch. This is followed by a statement that includes how many pages your book will have and how much back matter it will include. Since your book’s “form” is comprised of blog posts, think of your pages as posts. How many posts will you write? Each posts will be 200-500 words in length. A short book has about 25,000 words. If you assume the average post will be 350 words in length, that means you will have to write about 72 blog posts. Your back matter might be some extra blog pages with resources or something like that.

Next, you must write a page and a half or two pages that describe the features and benefits of your book. In other words, what will the reader gain by reading your blog each time you write a post? Once they finish reading the book, what will they have learned? Why should they read the book?

The overview should read like a short synopsis of your book. Consider this your promise to your readers, and as you write the book, you deliver on that promise.

In my next post, we go on to the next part of the proposal: Markets. Be read to wear your business hat.

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Overview: Write a Pitch for Your Book

March 18, 2010 By 2 Comments

Now that you have a title for your book and you know what your book is about, it’s time to write a pitch. This is your “elevator speech,” the one you’d give to an agent or an acquisition editor if you happened to meet them in an elevator or at a conference.

Writing a pitch shouldn’t be too difficult after going through the steps I’ve outlined previously. If you know what your book is about and you know why someone should want to read your book—what benefits it will provide and why it is unique*—you should be able to write something pithy in 50 words or less that describes your book perfectly.

Why the word limit? If you can’t tell someone what your book is about in fifty words or less, then you don’t know what you are writing about.

So, try your hand at a pitch. Include your book’s benefits, its unique qualities, why someone would want to read it, the problem you are going to solve, the value it will add. What makes your book special? At its very core, what is it about? What is its message? What is its purpose? Fit all this information into the most creative 25-50-word sentence you can write.

(Okay…I know you can’t get all of that into one 25-50-word sentence; just get the most important points into the pitch—the ones that tell someone the main things you want them to know about your book’s subject. You’ll include the rest of it into an overview, which you’ll learn about tomorrow.)

 

If you don’t plan on pitching your book to an agent, write a pitch anyway. It will help you hone your idea to the max. And once you’ve written the pitch, your book will naturally flow out if it. You’ll find writing it much easier.

The pitch also provides you with a great marketing tool. You’ll use this pitch to tell people what your book’s about…to convince them to buy it.

*If you don’t know exactly why your book is unique, no worries…yet. In the near future, I’ll show you exactly how to figure this out. Hint: It involves knowing your competition.

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Overview: Create a Title for Your Book

March 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

Your blogged book (or any book) needs a title, and possibly a subtitle, that entices readers into its pages or posts. Sometimes books have creative titles; however, many nonfiction books have tell-it-like-it-is titles that let readers know exactly what they will find within a book’s pages.

To come up with a great title, you need to be clear about your book’s subject matter. That’s why we previously spent time honing your subject, theme, and message. If you go back to these sections and study how you have described your book, you will find phrases and words that might work in a title.

Often titles use a play-on-words, alliteration, the actual name of the subject being written about, or a popular phrase. Sometimes titles evoke emotion. The title of a self-help and how-to book should identify or solve a problem, give a reader hope, be easy to remember, or be clear and specific to the topic.

Short titles are more memorable. Numbers works well, too, as in “7 Steps to…” or “10 Ways to…” and “The 8 Places You Should…” Consider using keywords in your title and subtitle to make your book and blog easier to find by search engines.

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