Everybody’s doing it. You can’t look at social media, industry journals or a magazine that you don’t see authors using their new books as a means of getting attention. Don’t be jealous! With the help of this article, a topic and a computer, you can do the very same thing.
It’s important to first organize your thoughts around your book. In order to clarify your topic and focus your message, answer the following questions. The more deeply you dig into your motives, the better prepared you will be to take your book idea to the next level.
Book description
Write a short synopsis of the book, just a few paragraphs will do. If you have pages and pages of the description, you haven’t clarified your book enough. Keep writing, rereading and editing to get to the heart of the book.
Why are you writing this book?
What is your motivation behind this undertaking? This is another question that requires you to get specific. Many people don’t take the time to explore this question and end up with a book that doesn’t grab the reader or help the author reach their personal and professional goals.
Why are you the right person to write this book?
What experiences, education, unique viewpoint, or successes regarding the topic do you have to share? Why are you the right person to deliver this message or address this topic?
What are you specifically bringing to the reader that they don’t already have?
Are you helping people save time, money, or effort? Are you offering a new way to do something? Are you helping your reader solve a problem, meet a challenge or overcome a roadblock? Maybe you’re just entertaining the reader and that’s okay too.
What are your ideas for marketing your book?
Are there any obvious channels that you can think of, off the top of your head that would help you sell your book? If you have access to lots of people, are a member of a large group or know people who are it’s a good idea to start creating a list.
What are your wildest dreams as a result of this book?
Many people focus so much on the possible that they under estimate their book and themselves. Don’t start the book writing process with a compromise. Dream big and you may reach some pretty lofty goals.
Congratulations!
Now that you’re well on your way to solidifying your message and initial ideas for your book, you’ll want to stay tuned for Step Two – Understanding Your Reader.
About the author
Speaker, author, TV host of Focus Forward, Lauri Flaquer has extensive entrepreneurial and media experience. As founder of Saltar Solutions, she guides her clientele of international business owners to excel as entrepreneurs. Formally in TV production at NBC, CNBC and Bloomberg LP, Lauri produces/ hosts Focus Forward, a show dedicated to helping entrepreneurs soar! Lauri has been the publicist and marketing director for several best-selling book campaigns. To learn more about marketing contact Lauri or Tweet her, @SaltarSolutions.
Are you in the process of writing a book, or have you just finished one? We’d love it if you left a comment below, or found us on Facebook or Twitter. And if you think others would find this series useful, go ahead and share :-)
I love the way Lauri make us think about the marketing piece of the book process.
As an author we are so enthusiastic about writing our book that we forget about the marketing process.
So many great book die on the vine because they are not marketed.
Lauri inspires me to believe that my book could fulfilled my “wildest dreams.”
I am eagerly waiting for step two.
Thanks so much Yudy. I really appreciate your thumbs up. I’m so happy that I hope this helps you in your process and wish you happy writing.
What we’ve found is that a lot of aspiring writers struggle with whether their idea has enough legs to sustain an entire book (and which of their ideas to choose).
If you’ve never written a book before its tough to know what the project entails.
Thanks for the insight, Brendan! I know what you mean, it is tough. Good for new writers to be aware of this issue. Thanks again for stopping by :-)
Sarah,
I’m really happy to be able to offer this series. Potentially great authors don’t understand the process of writing and therefor they aren’t able to realize their dream of writing a book. I hope these articles take some of the mystery out of this awesome experience. Thanks so much for this opportunity to help me, help a whole new crop of authors.
Hi Brendan,
That is very true. One of the best ways to decide what to write about is to first consider what you would like the result of the book to be. In other words, what is the big why? Why are you actually writing a book to begin with. The more pinpoint your answer, the more chance you will achieve that specific goal. And the easier it will be to write a great book.
Often people just sit down pound the keys, words go on paper, pages increase and when they are done, they have a book. The book lacks focus and it shows. These books rarely do well sales wise or help the author achieve any real goals.
Careful consideration, planning and strategy in the initial stages usually result in a good book. A great marketing plan can take that book to best selling status and dramatically increase the authors visibility, clout and opportunities.
Thanks so much for your comment. I’m looking forward to this series and more great comments from YOU, Brendan!
Writing a book sounds daunting but I like how Lauri breaks it down into bite size pieces.
Hi Cooper,
You are so right. Writing a book is a chore but the benefits are so amazingly great that it’s well worth the work. Also, your second book is a breeze and your third even easier. Jump in and if you need help there’s tons out there. Best of luck and thanks for reading and COMMENTING!
Lauri makes the writing a book process sound so easy. Thanks Lauri for this post.
My advice is dream big but don’t forget why you are writing the book in the first place. When the real purpose of writing is known to you, the author, writing becomes easier and you attract the attention of others.
Thumbs up!
Hannah,
You are so right! It’s imperative to keep the focus on why you are actually writing the book. Without a firm and grounded concept you will be lost.
I love writing and find it easy. The challenging part of writing a book for me are the details that I’ll be sharing in next week’s Step Four – Knowing the parts of the book.
I hope you will come back and offer more of your insights then.
Thank you, Hannah.