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TM
I'm ready to publish, now what?
by Beth Barany
Your first draft is completed. You’ve said what you wanted to say. The book is being edited, either by you, a professional editor, critique group, or a combination, and you’re ready to rock-n-roll to the next level. Welcome to the publishing adventure.
My clients come to me, a completed or near-completed manuscript in tow, and wonder what to do next. What’s next is to sell your book either to an agent, who then pitches it to an editor at a publishing house, or you decide to be your own publisher and print, market and distribute on your own. Either way you need to know the answers to these questions.
Use these Quick Tips to orient you and help you make informed choices.
1. Know your market: who will read your book and
why?
One client writes for college students on how to make their dorm rooms more livable by using feng shui. Her readers will be college students, their parents, and perhaps dorm administrators. Think beyond your immediate readers and see who in their support groups would also benefit from reading, or at least, buying your book, for your ideal reader.
2. Know your competition: what other books are out there like yours?
One client wrote a coming of age novel. When she writes her query, she can compare her unique twist on the college days with other books and show how hers is different and fresh.
3. Know the pain or problem you are addressing: what is your solution?
What do you do to protect your identity from identity thieves? That is the question my client, Karen Lodrick, has asked, and answered on her site and in her upcoming book.
4. State your hook, problem, solution in 30-60 words and in a compelling way.
A fiction hook:
of the Kingdom of Bleu, can’t stomach the thought of one more kill. In order to save her dying mentor, she must go on one last quest. But will the quest for the healing dracontias be derailed by misfit companions, seasickness and an egomaniacal king? And will she or won’t she kill the dragon?
Yes, that’s my short pitch for my first fantasy novel, Henrietta, the Dragon Slayer. I’ve pitched this verbally to agents and in written form in my query letter.
A nonfiction hook:
Is sitting down to write a painful process? Could your creativity use a boost? You can break through your writer's block and ignite your creativity today! This unique writing guide will show you how!
Yes, this is my written pitch for my e-book, Overcome Writer’s Block: 10 Writing Sparks to Ignite Your Creativity.
Use these four tips -- know your market/readers, know your competition, know your pain/problem you’re addressing and state that in a compelling way – to take your next steps in your publishing adventure.
c. 2008 Beth Barany
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For Nonfiction Publishing Resources, click here.
For Writing Associations, click here.
For Social Networking for Writers, click here.
For Recommended Books on Writing and Copyright, click here.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
-- Douglas Adams, author to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Writing is not a genteel profession; it's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty."
-- Rosemary Mahoney, travel writer
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."
-- Anais Nin, author
QUOTE ACTION
Choose one quote and its action per day for the next few days.
Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
-- Anna Freud
Whatever your past may have been, take one creative step toward your big dream today.
It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever -- the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it.
-- Vincent Lombardi
Name your greatest challenge today, and spend 10 minutes addressing it.
To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.
-- George Kneller
Today, take a second look at your assumptions about your current creative project, and wonder about it from an opposite perspective.
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