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Certainly, you are reading this not because you want to fail, but in order to know what NOT to do. Take the opposite road from those presented below and you will have a much better chance at publishing success.

1: Sit down and write a book without giving one thought to its purpose, your reason for writing it and your audience.

2: Decide from the get-go that you will not waste any time at writers’ group meetings, writers’ conferences and the like.

3: Avoid information and material that might shed some light on the processes involved with successful publishing.

4: Do not hire an editor for your manuscript. After all, you prepare reports at work all the time, you know how to write.

5: Create your own cover design. It doesn’t really matter what the cover looks like, anyway.

6: Have unrealistic expectations. In other words, expect to see your book for sale at bookstores nationwide. Expect to appear on major TV shows. And expect to sell thousands of copies each week without really trying.

7: Go with the first pay-to-publish company that expresses an interest in your project (which will be the first one you approach).

8: Don’t read or understand the contract and don’t question the large sum of money the company wants up front. Take the attitude that all of these companies must be the same.

9: Avoid anything that resembles promotion. You don’t have time to promote your book and you probably don’t have to. Once people see it, they will buy it without question.

10: Blame everyone else when your book fails. And write another book for publication using this same “lack of” strategy.

If you would rather experience success, then order your copy of Publish Your Book: Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. Herein, you will learn what TO do, when, how, why and more. It’s on Kindle, Nook and other readers. It’s also in print at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, other online and downtown bookstore as well as the publisher’s and the author’s websites.
http://www.allworthpress.com

http://www.matilijapress.com

Producing book is like establishing a business. There are decisions to make and details to take care of. So what is the process? Here’s a list:

• Just as you would choose a business that is needed/wanted by a large customer base, you would choose a book topic/genre that has a large or solid niche audience.

• Before opening a business, you would know something about your customers, suppliers, distributors, competition, laws/rules/policies. Thus, an important first step in producing a book is to study the publishing industry. Among your library, be sure to read Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. And subscribe to the most useful newsletters—many of them are FREE. (I’ll repeat my list of best newsletters for authors in tomorrow’s blog post.)

• You would write a business plan for a business. A book proposal is a business plan for a book and an extremely important step. Not only do most traditional publishers now want to see a book proposal for fiction as well as nonfiction, the book proposal will teach you volumes about your project and how to successfully proceed with it.

• In business, you would make sure you have the right qualifications, skills, established customer base and connections related to your business of choice. As an author who will be responsible for promoting and marketing your book, you will need a strong platform (a following, connections and promotional skills, for example).

• An understanding of your responsibilities as the owner of a particular business is vital to the health of that business. In publishing, it is highly important that you understand and accept the fact that, no matter which publishing option you choose, you are responsible for promoting your book.

• A successful businessman/woman learns new skills and comes up with fresh ideas for enticing and serving customers. Authors, too, must be enterprising and flexible in order to adequately accommodate their audiences.

• In any business, there is always something to learn and new decisions to make. A successful published author keeps abreast of new developments within his/her industry/genre as well as the publishing industry and adjusts to use this new information to their advantage.

If you don’t view authorship as a serious business, you could be sabotaging your book’s success. Seriously, read my book, Publish Your Book, to get an overview of your role and your responsibilities as a published author and to gain clarity on how to navigate the fiercely competitive publishing industry. http://www.matilijapress.com Also available at amazon.com.

“What’s the best way to publish a book?”

This is a question I get fairly often from authors who are close to finishing a book manuscript and eager to get it out to their readers. Indeed, what is the best way to go about getting your book published? Here’s my pat answer:

“It depends on your book and it depends on you.”

Not exactly satisfying, as answers go, is it? In my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author, I give you all of your publishing options, the possible negative (and positive) consequences of your choices and I firmly remind you of your responsibilities as a published author.

Before choosing a publisher or even a type of publisher or publishing—traditional (major, fairly well known, small, niche), pay-to-publish or self publishing—I help you to determine the pros and cons of each with regard to your project.

For example, if you are in a hurry to get 2,000 copies of your business book in your hands for an upcoming conference, you may want to go with a pay-to-publish company.

If you, your professional book editor, other credible writers and your friend’s agent believe that you have something really special to offer a large segment of readers, you may want to solicit an agent and have him/her approach the major publishers. You can always send your proposal to some of the many viable medium-size publishing houses if you don’t snag one of the big guys.

If you have written a niche book, a how-to, reference or informational book for a specific audience, and you want to go the traditional route, the reasonable tactic is to seek out niche publishers in your genre/topic. I mean, be reasonable, Harper Collins would not entertain the thought of publishing an ordinary yard sale manual or how to get your baby to burp book, now would they?

If you have received rejection letters from dozens and dozens of publishers, you might want to consider rethinking your project. Have you done the research necessary to determine its viability in the marketplace? Is there something you could change to make it more viable—add a how-to aspect to it, strengthen your characters and work on your dialog, etc.? You might start by working with a book editor.

The pay-to-publish scenario might be right for you and your book IF you will do your homework. Read Mark Levine’s book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, and learn which ones have the best contract and are most aboveboard in their dealings with authors. Take the time to compare several of them. Compare prices and promises. And if you decide to go with one, make sure all promises are in writing. I can’t tell you how many authors I meet who have lost practically everything because they did not understand that the publisher would not take responsibility for promoting and selling their books and who could not or would not take on this responsibility themselves.

The reason I have reservations about new authors choosing a pay-to-publish company is because so many of them go into publishing without looking out for themselves. They blindly follow the company wherever it wants to take them without even considering their alternatives—without doing their homework—without doing enough research. Then they are disappointed when their unrealistic expectations aren’t realized.

If you want to go with a pay-to-publish company (they call themselves self-publishing companies)—and some of them masquerade as traditional publishers—you’ll need to do tons and tons of research about the company, other such companies and the entire publishing industry. You’ll particularly want to have a complete understanding as to your responsibility as a published author.

In the case of a pay-to-publish company, you put up the money and they produce your book. Generally, you will receive a few books free and then you can purchase copies of your book at an agreed upon rate. The fee often prohibits authors from putting their books in bookstores paying for space at book festivals, etc.

The author is responsible for promoting his/her book no matter which publishing option he/she chooses.

Self-publishing means that you establish your own publishing company. You get a fictitious business name, you arrange for the ISBN, you have the cover designed, you hire the printer, etc. You are the publisher of record. You put up all of the money, and you get all of the profits.

I have self-published many of my books. I like having the control. I worked with a co-publishing company on one book project for a client. I went with a pay-to-publish company for one of my ebooks. And I have books published through traditional publishing companies. I choose the publishing option based on my expectations for the individual book. And this is what you should do, as long as your expectations are realistic.

To learn more about how to choose a publisher, what each publisher can bring to the table, etc. read my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at Amazon.com and other online bookstores, downtown bookstores and at my website: http://www.matilijapress.com

One of the most difficult parts of publishing is the decision-making process. Should you self-publish (establish your own publishing company), go with a pay-to-publish company or hold out for a traditional royalty publisher?

Should you follow your editor’s or potential publisher’s advice to do a rewrite, give your book a different slant, add (or remove) chapters, build in a stronger how-to aspect, tone down the dialect, insert expert quotes, etc.?

Perhaps you should just write the book the way you want and produce an ebook. Maybe traditional publishing isn’t for you, after all.

How do you make the right decision about your book project? Well, you’ve heard this before: Study the publishing industry. I wonder how many people actually follow this advice. They hear it from every expert and professional and even some newby authors. But do they—do you—actually follow through in any way that is meaningful—so that you actually gain an understanding of the industry and your potential role within it?

Anyone can sit down, write a series of paragraphs and call it a book manuscript. You don’t have to take classes and study in order to produce a manuscript. You don’t even have to study to publish that book. But if you want to produce a book that is coherent, useful, well-organized and at least relatively error-free, you are probably going to need to work hard, study and practice, practice, practice.

Likewise, anyone can publish a book. But many authors are stumped as to which option to choose. How does one decide? Do you go with the sure thing—the pay-to-publish company whose representative is so nice and friendly and seems to love your story? Do you jump through the hoops outlined by the editors at the specialty publishing company who wants your book, but only after a rewrite? Or do you take charge and self-publish?

These can be hard decisions for someone who doesn’t yet understand the publishing industry, all of the options available and his/her responsibilities as a published author.

The author must also know something about his genre/field, writing skill level, expectations, platform, audience and his down deep reasons for wanting this book published.

Publishing, you see, is not simply a means through which to have your self-expressions acknowledged and, perhaps, accepted. Publishing is more than an avenue of influence or a way to massage one’s ego. Publishing is a business and your book is a product. No matter how you publish, as the author, you are the marketing agent for your product. And this is the long and the short of it.

In order to make better decisions on behalf of your book project, study the publishing industry before ever sitting down to write that book. Start by reading the book I wrote expressly for you! Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. This book actually has exercises and provides prompts to help you make these tough decisions.

If you have started writing your book, you have finished it, you are trying to find a publisher or you are trying to promote this book, it is never too late to read Publish Your Book.

http://www.matilijapress.com
It’s also at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.

If you’re like many authors, you give your project 100 percent during the writing phase. You eat, sleep and drink your manuscript. You spend hours each week writing, researching and studying. When you finish it, you breathe a sigh of relief.

You send it to the first pay-to-publish company you connect with and go back to your life. I mean, there are things you’ve neglected these past months while working on the book. It’s about time you gave your garden some attention, not to mention your house and your family. And what about you? You need some pampering after what you’ve been through. Writing a book is an intense, time-consuming, sometimes overwhelming task. Now, after months or even years, you are free to do some reading or even take a trip.

But what about your book? Aren’t you going to complete your commitment to your project? Don’t you know there is much more to do? Or did you write this book just for family and friends?

If you expect to sell copies outside of your circle of friends, it’s going to take a whole lot more of your time. Maybe you haven’t heard, writing is the easy part of authorship. If you hope to sell copies of your book, you need to scrape up all of the time, energy and creativity that you can muster. How long will you have to promote your book? Only for as long as you want it to sell. Yes, publishing can be a long-term commitment.

It takes more than writing the book of your dreams. Here’s my formula for successful authorship:

• Study the publishing industry so you know exactly what to expect, what your publishing options are, the possible consequences of your choices and your responsibilities as a published author.

• Write a book proposal whether you are writing fiction, a children’s book or a nonfiction book. A book proposal is a business plan for your book. It will help you determine if you actually have a viable book at all—a book with a purpose. You’ll discover if you have an audience and who it is, what the competition for your book is and what you will need to do in order to promote it.

• Establish and continue building on your platform. This is your following (how well-known are you in your field?) and your way of reaching your particular audience. It’s also your skills, knowledge and expertise within the realm of your topic of genre.

Build on your platform by doing the following:

• Submit articles or stories to the publications that your audience reads, so they will become familiar with your work.
• Create a website. Don’t rely on your publisher to do that for you. Create your own website and make it easy for people to locate and connect with you.
• Establish a blog site and posting regularly.
• Continue adding to your email addressbook. An email list of several hundred or more readers is gold to an author.

For a nonfiction book, I advise some authors to design a workshop even before the book is a book and start presenting it locally. You’ll get a clear idea of what works and what doesn’t with your audience. And you’ll get tons of feedback that will help you in writing the book.

For more detailed information on all of these points and guidance through the extremely competitive and difficult publishing and book promotion processes, order my latest book today: Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. Available at Amazon.com and most other online bookstores as well as most downtown bookstores. Or order it from my website: http://www.matilijapress.com

I meet a lot of authors in all stages of publishing every year. Some of them are actually writing every chance they get, have saved up some money to hire an editor once they’ve done their best self-editing work, have studied the publishing industry and have adopted a business mindset. Others, not so much.

What are some of the things you can be doing NOW to give your book project the best chance possible?

• Study the publishing industry. Read books on the topic. Subscribe to appropriate publications (and read them), attend writing conferences and lectures. Learn enough about the process of publishing, your publishing options and your responsibilities as a published author as you can before getting involved.

• Write a book proposal. Not only will you have what you need to approach the publisher of your choice, you will learn what you need to know about your book, the market for your book, your audience and how to promote to them. You’ll discover whether your book is such a good idea after all.

• Build your platform. This is your following, your connections… Who is interested in reading a book you wrote on this topic or in this genre? Who can help you to get the word out? How large is your emailing list? How widespread are you known in this field or genre? What can you do to gain additional credibility and reputation?

• Establish a creative and hard-hitting promotional plan. Where will you find members of your audience? How can you best reach them? What do they read? What events do they attend? Where do they hang out online?

• Approach your audience before your book is a book. For a nonfiction book on a teachable topic, start presenting workshops before finishing the book to test the content, the concept, the presentation. Pay attention to the feedback you receive, the questions students ask, etc. They can help you assemble the book they need or want.

• Hone your public speaking skills. Join a storytelling group and/or a Toastmasters Club.

• Take a crash course on Internet marketing for authors.

Start today by reading my latest book: Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. This book is also for the new, clueless, hopeful, in denial, ego-driven and over-eager author. http:www.matilijapress.com

Also available at amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other online and downtown bookstores.

I’d love to hear from you where you have purchased or where you have seen this book for sale. PLFry620@yahoo.com

How does one establish credibility as an expert? One way is to write a book. If it is a viable product and useful to a segment of readers, this is one good way to position yourself as an expert in your area of interest, industry or field. But you have to somehow reach your audience to let them know about your book.

One way is to write articles for magazines. If you are an author who is promoting a book or if you are writing a nonfiction book, you should be getting your name in front of your audience through your industry magazines, ezines and newsletters. Whether you want to be known in the area of kite-making, dog grooming, coupon-shopping, public speaking, business management, feral cat rescue, dressmaking, quilting, woodworking, writing, cooking, dieting, art, horseback riding, etc., start NOW submitting useful articles to publications in your field or area of expertise. This is how you get word out about your book. This is how you build credibility as an expert. This is how you establish a following—your customer base.

Start with the magazines and ezines you currently subscribe to or are familiar with. Study Writer’s Market for listings of additional magazines. Of course, do Internet searches to locate others. Look at listings under consumer magazines as well as trade magazines.

Build a useful website. On that note, let me invite you to my websites this week. These might be good examples for you on many levels. We’ve done some updates and revisions throughout, including revising and updating the Resource List.

If you haven’t checked out the Resource List at the Matilija Press website and, if you are seeking experts in the field, a publicist, warning sites, conferences, book reviewers, newspaper databases, legal help, books on various publishing topics, publishing statistics, grammar help, editors, etc., visit http://www.matilijapress.com/forwriters/resources.html

I also offer around 200 articles on writing and publishing at this site. And then there is this blog, which archives over 1,400 posts on the topics that interest you related to writing, publishing.

You’ll also find my articles in the following magazines and newsletters fairly regularly:
Publishing Basics
Book Promotion Newsletter
Book Marketing Matters
Freelance Writers Report
Perspiring Writer (archives)
Writer’s Journal (archives)

And occasionally in:
SLO Night Writers
Working Writer Newsletter
Writing for Dollars
Writing World
Vision Newsletter
Writer’s Magazette
New Writer’s Magazine
OC Writer
Pen Wheels
IBPA Independent Newsletter
Inkspotter, News
Cisco Writer’s Club Newsletter
Advanced Christian Writer
Arizona Authors Literary Magazine

Learn more about book promotion in my two latest books: Publish Your Book and Promote Your Book. Both available at Amazon and most other online and downtown bookstores. You can also order them from my website or the publisher’s website. Publisher is Allworth Press.
http://www.matilijapress.com

Visit the Patricia Fry website for information about me and my services. http://www.patriciafry.com