Publish a book > 10 Tips to Becoming an Author

10 Tips To Becoming An Author

Over 412,000 books were published in the past 12 months according to Books In Print, an authoritative publishing database.  That means over 1,100 new books are flooding the marketplace every single day – or almost one per every minute.  So how is one to break through the clutter to get their books published, promoted, and sold?

“The good news, is there is no better time in the history of publishing, for individuals seeking access to the marketplace,” says publishing veteran Brian Feinblum.  “You’re no longer at the mercy of the big publishing houses.  You can get a book published on your own with a minimal financial investment – and you can reap a greater percentage of the profits from what you sell.”

Feinblum, a former book editor and publicist, is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts, the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm, often helps self-published or first time authors promote their books.  PTA has helped many authors become best-sellers, as well as nurture thousands of unknowns to become household names. Their clients include: Wiley & Sons, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Random House, Penguin Putnam and McGraw-Hill.

His 10 tips to get published include the following:

1.      If you want a traditional publisher to publish your book you usually need to first find a literary agent to represent you.  An agent will take 15% of whatever money you make on the book-for-life.  Once a literary agent agrees to represent you and finds a publisher for you, it can take another 12-18 months to publish the book.  To locate an agent, consult the Literary Market Place, a directory available at most library reference desks.

2.      You can choose to self-publish.  This means you invest money to print your books.  But you also get to keep 100% of the profits this way amd retain 100% control of the editing, cover, and content. To self-publish, it’s best to find a distributor, someone who can sell your book to bookstores and libraries, and to generate special sales to corporations, associations, and organizations.  A distributor typically takes about 25-30% of the proceeds.

3.      If you want to get published quickly, and keep most of your profits, and layout very little money, consider using print-on-demand publishers such as iUnivese.com, Trafford, or Blurb.com.  Instead of printing thousands of books ahead of time, they only print a book when a consumer orders a  copy.

4.      Another way to get published is by doing an e-book.  No printing is involved.  People just order your book online and it’s downloaded or emailed to them.

5.      To convince a literary agent to represent you or a publisher to publish you, a book proposal needs to be created.  In this document you must identify, succinctly, what your book is about, why you’re qualified to write it, how big the marketplace is, what your competing titles are, how you plan to promote and market the book.  It’s not enough to just have a good idea for a book or to have a well-written tome.

6.      Publishers are looking for authors with a platform or following.  So create a website, blog regularly, build up an e-zine mailing list, podcast, speak at local groups, and network at linked in .com and other social networking sites.

7.      Study the news media.  See if they’re covering the topic your book covers.  If it’s fiction, check out other novels to see if you find books of a similar nature.  You want to follow a trend and tie into it.  However, uniqueness counts. If yours is the only book of its kind, you may have found an underserved niche that is ready to be exploited.

8.      Attend Book Expo America, the annual publishing event that features publishers, literary agents, editors, book sellers and publishing industry pros.  The best way to float your ideas and test the waters is to come to BEA.  Consult www.bookexpoamerica.com.

9.      Read up on the publishing industry.  Publishers Weekly is the magazine that covers book publishing.  They also have a free daily e-zine, PW Daily.  Consult www.publishersweekly.com.

10.  Tell everyone you know that you’re trying to get published.  Send sample chapters to friends, co-workers, family, etc.  You may just get lucky and get discovered.  At the very least, you’ll get useful feedback.

For additional tips on how to get your book published or promoted, email feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com. 

Brian Feinblum
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