Book1Blog

Three Important Tips for Book Writing Beginners

If you are just beginning your first book project, here are three great tips regarding researching what your want to write about.

1. Research the internet. Online bookstore databases such as Amazon.com list books that are currently available or "in print" as well as out-of-print books. Make a subject search and print out the results. Try several alternative words as well. For example, for a book on parenting, try " parent", "mother", "father," etc.

Next make a search on your proposed or working title. This will tell you if such a title or something like it has recently been used.

Using the internet, see how much information is available on your subject. You'll want to gather details from every book, magazine article, database and resource you can find. Visit websites listed in appendices, and use search engines.

2. Obtain reference books. Even though your computer does a pretty fair job with spelling, grammar, and the thesaurus, every writer needs some reference books. The computer is not infallible when it comes to language use.

The least expensive places to buy dictionaries, style manuals and other reference books are used book stores. Some references may also be available in a digital format.

3. Attend writer's conference. Writer's conferences are markets that bring buyers and sellers together. These events inform, entertain and console. They are a venue for being inspired by successful authors and a place to meet editiors, agents and publishers. You will also meet other writers who are trying to figure out the secret of successful writing and getting published.

The end result is, the more research you do and the more material you find to reference, the better chance you have to successfully jump start your first book project.

[This post was create, with permission, from excerpts taken from Successful Nonfiction, authored by Dan Poynter.]

Writing Your Book - 4 Ways To Measure Your Progress

Writing a book is, in itself, a very big goal. Just the decision to write is a major step forward. Then you must write thousands of words organized into several chapters or sections. Book writing is a goal that cannot be accomplished in one or two afternoons. You will need several weeks, if not months, to finish the project.

To complete a goal of this size and complexity, the best idea is to break it down into parts - setting smaller goals along the way. As a first step, think about the process of writing - about the timing of your project and how to get it done. To keep the process part simple, here are four basic methods you can use to measure your progress.

1. Words written. Setting a goal of writing so many words, say 800, in a writing session can be an excellent way to measure progress. However, you won't get to 800 words unless you write word one. And if you get on a roll, keep writing. You don't have to stop when you reach 800. But if the last 100 words you write feel as if you are squeezing them out, give yourself permission to stop.

2. Sections or chapters. Another way to measure progress, and a way often used in technical writing, is to write by sections or chapters. There can be a rhythm to the chapter-writing process that can be comforting. Rewarding yourself for each chapter completed can be very satisfying.

3. Time writing. The third choice, time spent writing, is a little dicier. If you write 800 or 1000 words, at least they are on the page. And a chapter exists when you declare it "finished." Time, however, can pass with few or no words written. Many writers, to combat this, develop a discipline and structure of sitting down and writing at the same time of day, every day, for some number of hours. What is written at the end of that time is what they wrote for the day.

4. Deadlines. Journalists live by them. A book, however, is another thing altogether. It has to come to an end. Ask yourself, when is this book coming out? Then set your own deadline for achieving that objective.

The choice of process is yours. Try them all if you're not sure which will work for you. And if you find one that feels most natural to you, go with that.

[This post was created, with permission, from excerpts taken from Finish Your Book, A Time Management Guide for Writers, co-authored by Karen Hodges Miller and Lorette Pruden. To connect with either author, contact Open Door Publications, LLC.]

How to Put Eye Appeal Into Your Book Cover Design

[Nationally recognized book design professional, Karrie Ross, offers some great advice on how to use the visual aspects of your book cover design to create successful eye appeal.]

When creating eye appeal in your book cover, it is critical that you focus on three of the most significant visual aspects.

The first is color. Based on all the information you have gathered on your book's subject - things such as  industry and audience - you should be able to identify a color theme. For example, different audience age groups are attracted to certain color schemes based on the era they were born into and taught to react to. Just look at all the fast food chains out there...most of them are red, black and yellow.

The use of color is one of the parts used to form an immediate feeling of comfort, discomfort in your readers to evoke the action for them to take.

The second aspect is typeface. There is a feeling that your audience is subconsciously attracted to and that shows up in the typefaces that they are used to seeing - typefaces that gets their attention when buying. Also, the subject of your book has a lot to do with which typeface will project the feeling your want to project out to your readers.

The third aspect is photography or illustrative image. The image(s) you place on your cover is a partner to color. Each book subject has a metaphor, an image it produces in the viewers mind. The image is something that stirs their emotions and connects them to the book subject.

Paying close attention to how you manage color, typeface and image in your cover design will result not only in adding to the "pick-up" value of your book, but also the likeability in building a connection with the subconscious mind of your reader through stimulation. This is the beginning step in creating a know, like and trust value to the information you are about to give them.

[Among other services she offers, Karrie Ross is nationally recognized for her book cover design expertise she provides authors. She can be contacted at www.BookCoverDesign.com.]

The Role of an Agent in the Book Publishing Process

Once your manuscript is complete, it is time to decide how you wish to publish it. Here are your options:

1. approach a large publisher,
2. approach a mid-size publisher,
3. hire an literary agent,
4. contract with a vanity press (not a good choice), or
5. publish it yourself.

Everyone's situation is different, and the solution for one person may not be the best solution for another. If you are looking for an agent or a publisher, research and learn what types of books each have represented or published in the past.

Savvy authors, looking to attract a major audience, sell their idea for a book often before they have finished it. They draft a proposal and send it to agents and publishers. Even self-publishers should draft proposals to help them assess the size of their market, uncover the competition and plan the direction for their book. Use the proposal to sell both you and your idea - and make your proposal irresisitible.

Specifically regarding agents, here some things worth considering.

In some instances, agents can play a key role. Many larger publishers prefer to have manuscripts filtered through agents. This filtering improves the quality and reduces the quantity of proposals they receive. The agent, acting as a counselor, also provides a buffer between the author and the publisher.

Agents provide three primary services.

1. They find a publisher by matching your manuscript to the best fit.
2. They negotiate the contract.
3. In some instances, they may help develop the manuscript.

Most agents today will require you to draft a book proposal for submission to the publishers.

Finding the right agent is an important and critical decision. Some literary agents have a passion and a track record of success for certain kinds of books (i.e. cookbooks, travel, children's books, business, parenting, etc.). To connect with the right agent for you manuscript, you'll need to match it to the agent. Research various agent directories. Ask anyone you know who you think might know of a resource. Locate and call authors of works similar to yours and ask who their agent is. 

Once your manuscript is complete, how you approach the decision of how and who will publish your manuscript is the next critical hurdle.

[This post was created, with permission, from excerpts taken from Successful Nonfiction, written by Dan Poynter .]

10 Tips to Finish Your Book

by Karen Hodges Miller.

A recent survey showed over 80 percent of Americans would like to write a book - but most never will. Think you don't have the time? Here are a few tried and true techniques to help you find it.

1. Develop your vision. Ask yourself these questions. Why do you want to write a book? What do you want your book to do? To inspire others? To build your business? To build your reputation? There is no wrong answer.

2. Don't wait for inspiration. If you going to write that book, you must schedule regular writing time every week - and then make that time sacred.

3. Write about your passion. If you are not passionate about the subject of your book, you are not going to spend the time needed to write it.

4. Set your goals. A book is a big project, so set some interim goals for yourself - things like completing your outline by the end of the month, writing one chapter per week, etc.

5. Give yourself rewards. Now that you've set your goals, reward yourself when you accomplish them.

6. Manage priorities, not time. Make a list of your priorities, then divide these tasks into four categories: Urgent and Important, Urgent and unimportant, Not urgent and Important, Not urgent and unimportant. Using this quadrant will help you see just how you are using your time.

7. Block your time. Now that you know what your most important priorities are, take out your calendar and start blocking in times. Once you've blocked in your book writing times, make them sacrosanct. Only real emergencies should keep you from working on your book in those time periods.

8. Find the right place to write. Writing takes concentration. Find a quiet corner where you can keep your work organized and easily accessible. Make yourself a place where you can work without distraction.

9. Find an accountability partner. An accountability partner is someone who supports, nudges, and nags you into completing a difficult project. The relationship works best if each person has the opportunity to be both the naggee and the nagger. Just make sure that you and your partner have clear rules about the structure and type of nagging that will occur.

10. Why projects fail is failure to start. This is the number one reason why projects fail. So pick a topic. Pick a time. Pick a place. Pick up a pencil. Pick out a file name for your new document and write.

[Karen Hodges Miller is the founder of Open Door Publications and the co-author of Finish Your Book! A Time Management Guide for Writers. Her second book, Sell Your Book, Think Outside the Bookstore, will be available in mid-April 2012.]