An Inspirational Story

Once a month four young women met at Nordstrom’s café for lunch. In addition to talking about their careers and families, they talked about living with breast cancer.

Disappointed with the lack of information available to them—Patti, Kim, Jennifer, and Jana decided to write a book to share their experiences and help others.

Deterred by the lengthy process to get a publisher and a desire for the book to be available by Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, they chose to self-publish. When I met the “Nordie girls” we had two months to finalize editing, design, layout, proof, print, and deliver the books.

After hard work and remarkable collaboration, two thousand copies of Nordie’s at Noon: The Personal Stories of Four Women “Too Young” for Breast Cancer arrived in time so the Nordie girls could sell books at a flurry of book signings, presentations, and Breast Cancer Awareness events. Two weeks later a second order was placed to print two thousand more books.

With a completed book and impressive sales record, the Nordie girls attracted the interest of several publishers and, by February, just four months after self-publishing, Nordie’s at Noon publishing rights were sold to a major publisher. The second edition was published before Breast Cancer Awareness month the following October.

This past spring the four authors of Nordie's at Noon were presented with The Natalie Davis Spingarn Writer's Award at the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship's Rays of Hope® Awards Gala in Washington, D.C. by Elizabeth Edwards. Although Jana and Patti are no longer with us, Jennifer and Kim along with Jana and Patti’s families share their stories as they travel the country informing and inspiring.

Jennifer and Kim have written a short piece with advice on publishing. For a copy contact info@nordiesatnoon.com. For more information about Nordie’s at Noon visit www.nordiesatnoon.com.

Test Market Your Book Idea

Major publishers look for book projects with a successful track record. That is, there is proven interest in the subject and the author. You can increase the value of your book idea and your credibility to a publisher by taking a few steps to test the market. Here are some ways to get started:

1. Write articles for publication

Consider publications most open to your book idea. Find out submission guidelines by checking their website or contacting the publication. Give your idea an angle that will interest the editor. Concentrate your energies on three or four magazines. Feedback from editors and readers will help you decide if there is interest in your book idea.

Look through your magazine rack for publications that interest you and explore additional ones in Writer's Market 2007 published by Writer’s Digest Books.

2. Schedule presentations

Giving presentations is a more immediate and measurable way to test your book idea. Performance evaluations completed by participants at the end of each talk will provide specific feedback so you can continue to refine the content.

Learn more about becoming a public speaker from Speak and Grow Rich by Dottie Walters and Lilly Walters and by joining the National Speakers Association. (www.nsaspeaker.org)

3. Self-publish books, workbooks, and CDs

An impressive sales record from self-published books and other products will attract the attention of publishers who can republish and distribute them with little investment.

For creative ways to market your self-published books read 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer now in its sixth edition. Publisher’s Marketing Association offers co-op marketing opportunities as well as dozens of benefits to independent and self publishers. (www.pma-online.org)

By test marketing your book idea you will also build name recognition and increase the size of your audience. That will improve your chances for selling rights to a publisher and signing a more lucrative agreement.

Is Self-Publishing Right for You?

Publishing books can help you grow your business, educate your clients, and get established as an expert. However, deciding whether to find a publisher or self-publish can be daunting.

Here’s a list of some advantages and disadvantages of finding a publisher versus self-publishing. You may have others to add. Feel free to comment or send me your ideas and I’ll pass them on to readers.

ADVANTAGES OF SELLING RIGHTS TO A PUBLISHER
Publisher edits, designs, and prints the book
Publisher publicizes and promotes book
Publisher handles sales for the book
Publisher has national distribution to bookstores, book clubs, catalogs, etc.

DISADVANTAGES OF SELLING RIGHTS TO A PUBLISHER
Publisher controls editing, design, printing, and promotion
Amount of money paid to you in advance may be very low
Publisher of first time authors rarely invests in a lot of publicity and promotion
Author buys books from the publisher for re-sale

ADVANTAGES OF SELF-PUBLISHING
Author controls editing, design, printing, and promotion
Author can “find audience,” develop sales record and media experience
Author can make more profit by selling directly to audience
Self-publishing may be the only way the book gets published initially

DISADVANTAGES OF SELF-PUBLISHING
Author is responsible for all aspects of publishing and promoting books
Author commitment of time and money
Author shoulders all the risk
Hard to find national distribution to bookstores
Sometimes considered less valuable by media

Ask yourself who will be doing most of the selling—you or the publisher? Do you have an existing market, i.e. your client base, web site, or organizations where you can sell the books directly? If you intend to sell most of the books and have a direct market to do so, you may want to consider self-publishing.

If you believe that your book has a broad market and you have the name recognition to convince a publisher that your book will sell 25,000+ copies, you may want to consider finding a publisher.

Since catching the eye of a publisher is difficult for first time authors, some consider self-publishing first, developing a successful sales record, and then approaching a publisher.

Take time to explore both options for publishing. Talk to authors about their experiences.

These popular books can help you determine the publishing direction right for you:

The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter. No question, Dan Poynter is the “guru” of self-publishing. This book is now in its fifteenth edition, which should tell you something about how helpful it is.

Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents is published yearly so it’s hundreds of resources for writers are up-to-date. Herman explains the inner workings of the publishing industry plus literary agents give specific tips for what they want.

Plan Your Marketing First

There are two reasons why you should prepare your book’s marketing plan before it is published. One, if you want to sell your book idea to a publishing house you will impress them with a well thought out plan. Two, if you are self-publishing, you will have a road map for how you’re going to sell all those books.

Writing a book proposal is a practical and proven way to help plan your manuscript and determine the audience and markets for your book. I wish I had a penny for every time I’ve recommended Michael Larsen’s best-seller, How to Write a Book Proposal. Larsen, a literary agent, has written an easy-to-follow guide on writing a convincing proposal. Among the subjects he addresses are: writing the subject hook, choosing a title and subtitle, identifying markets for your book, developing your promotional plan, listing complementary and competitive books in the market, and writing your outline. Larsen includes proposals of books sold to publishers to show you what has worked.

I wholeheartedly recommend writing a book proposal for self-publishers. If you have to convince a publisher to publish your book, don’t you think it’s worth convincing yourself?

Do you have a tip for writing a book proposal?