Would you like to GET PAID to write a book?
If you're thinking this is plain fantasy, think again. All professional writers get paid to write their books.
How? They sell their books via proposals before they write the books.
What’s a book proposal?
A book proposal is a document which convinces a publisher to buy your book before you've written it. Your proposal says, in effect: "Hey, I've got a great idea for a book which lots of people will want to buy. Do you want to publish it?"
Think of it as a combination brochure and outline of your proposed book.
You CAN sell your book the easy way --- sell a proposal
It's easily possible to make a fast $10,000, or even a six figure amount. You could even make seven figures --- over a million dollars for twenty pages of text.
It sounds incredible, but a fast seven figures is certainly possible if you have a HOT, hot idea or have had an experience that hundreds of thousands of people want to read about.
In his 2001 book about writing non-fiction, Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?, author Marc McCutcheon says that it's not hard to make a good income writing non-fiction: "you can learn the trade and begin making a respectable income much faster than most people think possible".
Do you need experience to sell a book on proposal?
No! You just need a good proposal. :-)
"How to Write and Publish Your Own Books" shows you how to go from idea to completed book proposal in seven short days.
Imagine --- in seven days, you could be sending your proposal to agents and editors!
The ebook includes everything you need to know. Just follow the easy steps. It even includes a sample proposal, which got a contract from an agent immediately it was sent out.
You can do it too!
Here's what you'll discover in "How to Write and Publish Your Own Books"
TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Introduction . . . . . . 8
Sell your book the easy way --- sell a proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
You and your publisher: a partnership . . . . . 9
Why write a proposal first? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How do you write a book proposal? . . . . . . . 10
How to use this ebook . . . . . . 11
Work FAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Can't devote a week to writing your proposal? . . . . . . . . 11
Day One: What’s a book proposal? Get an idea for your book . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Day One Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Task One: Look over four non-fiction books . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Task Two: Work through the Idea Generator exercises in this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Task Three: Create a computer folder to hold your working files . 12
Task Three: Create a Work Log . . . . . . . . . 13
What’s a book proposal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Got an idea for your book? Great! . . . . . . . . . 14
Start here to develop an idea for your next book . . . . . . . . . 14
Idea Generator One: What you're good at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Idea Generator Two: Your past experiences . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Idea Generator Three: Your knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Idea Generator Four: What you enjoy most . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Idea Generator Five: From challenge to opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Checklist: Is this the right idea for you TODAY? . . . . . . . 17
Day Two: Develop your idea and assess the market . . . . . . . . 19
Day Two Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Task One: Keep studying non-fiction books . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Task Two: Develop your idea . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Dispelling myths and a word about confidence . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Myth One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Myth Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Myth Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Myth Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Today we'll develop your idea and assess the market . . 21
Note: your personal experience is valuable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Simple steps in developing your idea . . . . . 21
1. Write down everything you know about this idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Make a long list of possible book titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3. Create a list of contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Assess the market for your book . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1. Visit large bookstores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2. Visit your library . . . . . . 24
3. Amazon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Write a report on your discoveries . . . . . . . . . 24
Day Three: Write the blurb and outline your book . . . . . . . . . . 25
Day Three Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Task One: Write at least three blurbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Task Two: Collect sample blurbs . . . . . . . 25
Writing the blurb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Your blurb helps your agent and editor to get a contract for you . . 26
Sample blurbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Sample blurb from: LifeTime: Better Time Management in 21 Days by Angela
Booth ...........27
Sample blurb from: Making The Internet Work For Your Business by Angela
Booth ...........28
Write your blurb in easy steps . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
One: Make a list of the benefits to the reader................29
Two: Rank the benefits..........29
Three: Write several blurbs, in various lengths.............30
Essential blurb add-on: the testimonial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Outlining your book . . . . . . . . . 30
Start with a mind map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Create your outline . . . . . . . 31
Day Four: Research your book proposal, and flesh out your book's outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Day Four Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Task One: Create your research plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Task Two: Create a chapter outline for your book . . 32
Research: How much do you need to know? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Your research plan . . . . . . . 32
Work on your book's outline and the first chapter, as you research . . . 34
The Brain-Dead Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
What goes into your chapter outline? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Will you need graphics or photographs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Day Five: Write your proposal query letter, and submit it to agents and publishers . . . 39
Day Five Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Task One: Start a contact list of agents and publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Task Two: Send out ten query letters to agents and publishers . . . . . 39
Today you write your proposal query letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Do you need an agent? . . . . . 40
Online resources to help you in your agent-hunt . . . . 40
Sending your query letter directly to publishers . . . . . . . . . . 41
Yes, you can multiple-submit your query letter, and even your proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Sample Query Letter . . . . . . . . 43
Another sample query letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Write your query letter! . . . . 47
Here's a quick outline for your letter:...............47
"Don'ts" for your query letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1. Don't make unsupported claims for yourself or your book....47
2. Don't mention that you're unpublished.........48
3. Don't mention that your partner, your best friend, or the milkman think that
you’re a good writer or that you've got a brilliant idea for a book..........48
4. Don't be specific.................49
Day Six: Write the proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Day Six Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Task One: Write the initial draft of your book proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Relax! You'll write your draft in stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Let's write the proposal . . . . 52
Your chapter outline . . . . . 52
Your background—why you're the person to write this book . . . . . . . 52
Write the Overview . . . . . . 54
Sample Overview Writing To Sell In The Internet Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Internet gives writers unlimited new opportunities.............55
A how-to plus a how-they-did-it.........56
What I won't be including......56
Don’t hype, BUT DO INCLUDE EVERYTHING RELEVANT...........57
Your Overview's length..........57
Write the Promotions section . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Promoting with money...........57
Promoting with time...............58
Sample Promotions section Writing To Sell In The Internet Age . 58
My plan outline . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Write the Competition section . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Day Seven: Write the sample chapter and revise your proposal . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Day Seven Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Task One: Write the sample chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Task Two: Revision . . . . . 60
Today you write your sample chapter . . . . 60
A fast chapter-writing method . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
1. Reread your notes...............60
2. Talk to yourself on paper................60
3. When you're ready, write................61
Revising your proposal . . . . . 62
How to revise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
1. Read the entire proposal..................62
2. Slash and burn.......62
3. Add material..........63
4. Read for coherency.............63
5. Revise for style...................63
6. Copyedit................63
You're done! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Resource: Sample Book Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7 Days To Easy-Money: Copywriting Success........64
by Angela Booth ...............64
Proposal...............64
Angela Booth........64
Overview . . . . . . . . 65
The business writing market is invisible to most writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Writers need this book . . . . . . 66
The book's structure . . . . . . . . . 67
What's not in the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Angela Booth's Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Quick Bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Partial list of publication credits . . . . . . . . . 68
Web site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Why this author for this book? . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
1. The Elements of Copywriting: The Essential Guide to Creating Copy That
Gets the Results You Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2. Teach Yourself Copywriting . . . . . . . . . . 70
3. The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six
Months or Less . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Who will buy 7 Days To Easy Money: Copywriting Success and why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
My promotions plan for 7 Days To Easy Money: Copywriting Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
My plan outline . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
How to get the most out of this book . . . . . 75
Week One: Start Your New Business In Just Seven Days! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Introduction & Day One: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Day Two: your portfolio, prospecting and marketing . . 75
Day Three: Writing Longer Copy . . . . . . . . . 76
Day Four: Public Relations Copywriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Day Five: Specialist Copywriting . . . . . . . . . . 77
Day Six: Focus on Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Day Seven: Copywriting for performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Week Two: Your copywriting services marketing plan and more . . . . . 79
Week Three: Copywriting for the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Week Four: Writing bios (biographies) and creating your own media kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Sample Chapters: Introduction and Day One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Can YOU make money freelance copywriting? . . . . . . . 81
First must-do: get your client's message across . . . . . . . 82
Second must-do: market your copywriting services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
How much can you earn? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Day One: Getting Started . . . . . 84
Your Day One Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The brief, and your Writing Services Agreement . . . . . . . . 84
Your briefing sheet . . . . . . . 85
Your Writing Services Agreement . . . . . 86
(Sidebar) The copywriter's formula: AIDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Writing copy step by step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Step One: Research . . . . . 87
Step Two: Prepare by getting a conversation down on paper or on the computer
screen . . . . . . 88
Step Three: Brainstorm with word associations . . . . . . . 88
Step Four: First draft: write it fast . . . . . . 89
Copywriter's How –To: Five Easy Tips To Write A Perfect, Selling Ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Tip One: who's the reader? (Or viewer, or listener if you're writing for
broadcast.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Tip Two: Write an attention-grabbing headline . . . . . . . 90
Tip Three: Write the features first, then work out what the benefits are . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Tip Four: Don’t forget the response! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Tip Five: Read it out loud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Day One Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Exercise One: Write a brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Exercise Two: Getting (conversational) words on paper: Tell me about your
favorite pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Exercise Three: Write ad headlines from the brief you created . . . . . 93
Exercise Four: Create the ad from the brief and headlines you wrote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
|
How to Write and Sell your own Books - become a writer!
