Read the Idea Generators, and do at least three of them, even if you've already got an idea for your book. Working through this material is important because it will give you confidence that you it's easy for you to find as many ideas as you need.
Task Three: Create a computer folder to hold your working files
Create a folder on your computer to hold all the files for your book. As you work, you'll generate many files. Create sub-folders as you need them.
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Task Three: Create a Work Log
Create a file on your computer as a diary for this project. Paste all the information you gather while searching the Internet and while communicating with others in this log.
Date each entry. If you need to leave your project for a few days, you can read your log to get back into the groove of your project.
What’s a book proposal?
A book proposal is a business 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.
There's a standard format of material that your book proposal will need to
cover. This doesn’t mean that you need to hew completely to this format. It's just a guideline of topics your proposal must contain.
Your book proposal must contain:
A title page, with the title, subtitle, author, word count of the completed book, and estimated time frame for completion. You might state: "75,000 words, completion three months after agreement".
An overview: a description of the book. This can be as short as a paragraph, or several pages long.
The background of the author. Your biography, as it relates to your expertise for this book.
The competition in the marketplace. This is where you mention the top four or five titles which are your book's competitors. (Note: if there are dozens of
competitors for your book, this is a good thing, because it means that the
subject area is popular. Your book will need to take a new slant.)
Promotions. This is where you describe how you will promote your book, both before and after publication.
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A chapter outline.
A sample chapter, or two chapters. This is always the first chapter, and if you're sending two chapters, it's the Introduction and Chapter One, or if there's no Introduction, it's Chapters One and Two.
Attachments. Optional. You may want to attach articles you've written about the book's topic, or any relevant supporting material.
Got an idea for your book? Great!
If you already have an idea for your book, that's great. Please work through the material in this chapter using your current idea, or join us in developing new ideas.
Open a new computer file so that you can work through the exercises as we progress.
Start here to develop an idea for your next book
There's nothing mysterious about coming up with ideas. Within a page or two, you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with. Your ideas start with YOU. When you think about what you enjoy, about your past experiences and your knowledge, you're guaranteed a regular fountain of ideas. Let's turn on the fountain.
As you do the following exercises, work through them quickly. Don't allow
yourself to bog down. Do them as quickly as you can, and then go and do something else for a few hours, to let the ideas gestate and bubble in your subconscious mind.
When you come back, read through the ideas you generated, and add to them
as you read through your lists. Please don’t discard any ideas at this stage. This is because the way to a brilliant, fantastic idea is by twisting an idea slightly, reversing it, or by combining several ideas into a new one.
Searching for ideas alerts your subconscious mind that ideas are important to you. Over the next few days, you may get a nudge from an idea which says: "Write me down". Do that right away, even if you're in the middle of a shower or you're driving along the freeway. (If you’re driving, pull over.) Write that idea down, because even if you're one hundred per cent certain that you will never in this lifetime
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forget that amazing idea you just had, believe me, you will forget it. Write it down, always.
When you stay alert to the idea hovering at the corners of your consciousness you will never be without a book bubbling away. This is how you turn your first book into a long series of books.
First thing in the morning is a great time to generate ideas. Set your alarm ten minutes early, then sit up in bed and jot down 50 ideas.
Idea Generator One: What you're good at
Make a list of 20 things you're good at. Don't think too hard about this. Maybe you're good at buying presents for people—you've got a knack for choosing just the right gift. Maybe you're a good cook, or a good parent, or a good swimmer or a good tennis player. Or maybe you used to be good at one or more of these things. For example: I grew up with horses, and owned horses for many years. I'm good with horses, and a good rider. If I saw a gap in the market for a horse book, I'd feel comfortable writing the book.
You get the idea. List at least 20 things that you're good at, or have been good at in the past. For example, if you know you're an excellent gardener, even though you now live an apartment, list "gardening".
Idea Generator Two: Your past experiences
Experiences sell. If you've been abducted by little green men from Mars, it's a book. If you're a bigamist, it’s a book. People have written books about their illnesses (see from challenge to opportunity below), their addictions, and their pets. Browse through the bestseller lists to see what personal experiences people are writing about.
Here's where you walk down memory lane. If you're in your twenties, it'll be a short stroll. If you’re in your forties or older, it will be a hike. Don't get bogged down with this, list 20 experiences you've had that spring to mind.
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The easiest way to come up with experiences is to work backwards through
the stages of your life, or through decades. Again, don’t take a long time over this. Set yourself a time limit --- ten minutes is enough.
Idea Generator Three: Your knowledge
What do you know? Start by making a list of all the subjects you were good at in school. Then list all the jobs you've had – yes, part time work counts.
Also list:
Your hobbies. Are you a keen Chihuahua breeder? Do you quilt? Take
photographs?
Your current job. What are you learning in your job that other people
would pay to learn?
The places you've lived. Your hometown may be boring to you, but
guide books sell well.
Your family tree. What special knowledge do your nearest and dearest
have that you could write about?
Spend around ten minutes writing down as many subjects as you have knowledge
about.
Idea Generator Four: What you enjoy most
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson freely admits that she cooks because she loves to eat.
Nigella has turned her love of food into a career. She regularly produces bestselling books. (Her chocolate recipes are brilliant.) What do you love? People have written about garage sales, cosmetics, cars, vacations. If you love something, chances are that thousands or maybe millions of others will love it too.
Watch the newspapers and take note of current trends. Or better yet, listen to what your children are talking about, or asking you to buy for them. Children tend to be well up on what’s happening.
Remember that it will take around two years for your book to reach the
bookstores. Therefore, the currently hot topics on the bestselling lists may be old
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news before your book is in the stores. This doesn’t mean of course that you can’t write on perennial favourites like money, sex and exercise. These topics never go out of popularity, and a new twist on one of these is always a sure bet.
The idea of writing about what you enjoy is that you will be bringing passion and enthusiasm to your topic. Enthusiasm is a must.
Idea Generator Five: From challenge to opportunity
You face challenges every day. Most are minor, some are major challenges. If you've ever faced a large challenge, or if you're facing one right now, then consider that the things you learn could help other people. Whatever your challenge is, whether it’s moving house or confronting a life-threatening illness, other people face the same challenges, and in those challenges lie the seeds of books.
Make a list of 20 challenges you've faced in your life. Anything catastrophic qualifies: losing your job, facing bankruptcy, the betrayal of a spouse. If you've had a quiet life, then make a list of challenges that the people you know have faced.
Additional challenges you can consider include any habit you've broken, from
congenital lateness to overeating.
When you've finished brainstorming, you'll have dozens of book ideas. Winnow out the non-starters. Don't delete them, move them to another computer file. Call it "odds and ends" or "snippets".
Checklist: Is this the right idea for you TODAY?
You've worked through the idea generators, and you have one or more ideas which you feel would work as a book. The next step is to scrutinize your primary idea carefully.
Consider your idea and look at this list of questions. See if you can answer
"Yes" to all of them:
Am I enthusiastic enough about this subject and my ideas about it to
sell this proposal to an agent and an editor – and to readers?
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Will I retain my enthusiasm through the months it will take me to
complete the book?
Is there a market for my book? (I've checked Amazon.com and
bookshops for competing titles. I'm convinced there is a market for my
book.)
I can find people with expert knowledge to interview as I write my
book.
Does my book provide solutions to problems?
If you can answer YES to most of these questions, you're set. Great! We're going to start work on your proposal.
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Day Two: Develop your idea and assess the market
Day Two Tasks
Task One: Keep studying non-fiction books
The more you know about how non-fiction books are constructed the more easily you'll be able to work on your own book with confidence. Look at the books on your shelves at home, and at your local library. (Be sure to make a note of any editor or agent acknowledgements.)
Task Two: Develop your idea
Work through the various steps in developing your idea. (See "Simple Steps In Developing Your Idea" in this chapter.
Dispelling myths and a word about confidence
If you're feeling nervous now that you're about to start this project, relax. Tell yourself that you will take it step by step. All you need to do is work at it steadily, a word, sentence and paragraph at a time, and you will complete your proposal, and then when you've sold the proposal, you'll complete your book using the same easy-does-it method.
While we're at it, let's dispel a few myths.
Myth One
It takes a special talent to write books.
It takes persistence. There are as many different kinds of writers as there are people.
Some are young, some are elderly, many are in-between. You don’t need any special
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writing talent to write books, nor do you need to be highly educated. Many successful writers have never completed high school. If you can write well enough to write a letter, you can write a book.
Myth Two
Writers starve in garrets.
Many professional writers make incomes that would make doctors and lawyers
envious. Most make reasonable incomes. If you decide to make a career of writing non-fiction books, the major benefit is that if you choose your book's topic with care, your book can stay in print for many years. For each year that your book's in print, you get two royalty checks. Let's say that you write two books a year for five years.
At the end of the five years, if your books all stay in print, you'll be getting ten royalty checks a year. These ongoing royalties are your nest-egg, profitable investments in your future.
Myth Three
It's hard to sell a book.
As long as you research the market for each book before you write as much as a single word, it's easy to sell a book. Publishers need competent, reliable writers who can produce good books regularly. This myth got started because --- let's be blunt here--- 99 per cent of submissions to editors and publishers are not publishable.
Myth Four
You need to know someone to get a book published.
You need to write a good book to get a book published. That really is all you need to do. I started writing romance novels and they were published by an English publisher.
I certainly didn’t know anyone in UK publishing; I live in Australia. If you have a contact in publishing, by all means use that contact. However, it's not necessary.
Publishing is big business, and publishers need good books.
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Today we'll develop your idea and assess the market
Developing your idea and assessing the market go together. We'll work on both tasks today. The idea of working on both tasks together is that as you read through the outlines of books which cover a similar area to yours, you'll see what's already been published, and you'll get fresh ideas for material that you can cover in your own book.
Note: your personal experience is valuable
As you skim through other people's books, jot down any thoughts and ideas you get.
You should make a note of any experiences you remember which you could include in your book. This is because everyone loves a story, so no matter what subject area your book covers, include your own anecdotes. If you're writing a diet book, include funny/ informative stories about your own experiences with diets, or the experiences of your friends.
You may want to use fictitious names to protect people's privacy. You will
definitely need to use fictitious names if you can't contact people to ask for permission to use a story or if you think there's a chance that people will be able to recognize themselves from a story you tell that puts them in a bad light.
For example, perhaps you belonged to a group of dieters, and you tell a story about another person in the group. Even if this was 20 years ago, and you've given this person a fictitious name, disguise the story: change the person's sex, age, and occupation.
Simple steps in developing your idea
Work on developing your idea step by step. Here's how:
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1. Write down everything you know about this idea
Let's say you've decided to write a book on natural healthcare for pets. You own several dogs and a cat, and are an enthusiast for natural healthcare because it's worked for you and for your friends. Today you're going to make copious notes. You're going to write down everything you can think of which relates to your idea. It doesn’t matter whether you use a computer file, or a pen and paper, sit down and get ready.
Ask yourself: who, what, how, when, where and why. Make topic headings for
each question. Then answer each question. Don’t try to write in complete sentences, just make notes. For example, if you took one of your dogs to a doggie chiropractor for several years, note down the chiropractor's name, the dog's name, problems the dog had, the number of sessions --- anything and everything you can remember. Also write down what you don’t know, so you can find out. (One of the benefits of research is that you get to answer all the questions you have about a topic.)
Take as much time as you need. You may want to work in forty-minute
sessions, and then go and do something else for a while. Taking breaks is important.
It's during the breaks that your subconscious mind will go to work for you can scan your memory banks to come up with more ideas.
Don’t discard any of your ideas. And write down every idea, no matter how
tangential. Your mind works via associations. Therefore, if you get a notion to write down "Phips --- broken leg" write this down, even if it seems that it has nothing to do with natural healthcare for pets. Phips was your first dog, and was hit by a car. This was 30 years ago, and you don’t remember much about the incident. However, after writing it down, you ask your mother about Phips, and she tells you that the little Corgi was bred by a woman who was into natural healthcare (you didn’t remember this --- you may not even have known it, but somehow your subconscious got you to write it down). You contact the woman, who's elderly, but who's a fountain of useful information, and she provides almost a chapter of information for your book. You'll find that you have many serendipitous incidents like this as you write your proposal and your book.
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2. Make a long list of possible book titles
At this stage, you don’t need the perfect title, Healthcare for Pets will do as your working title. Make a list of 20 title ideas as quickly as you can. (And save the list.) Don't sweat a title. You'll often find that the perfect title doesn't occur to you until you book is completely written. Or, your publisher may come up with a title they want to use.
3. Create a list of contacts
Who could help you with information for this book? Write down the name of
everyone you can think of. Do this quickly, you can look up their email address or postal address when the time comes to contact them. At this stage, you just want a list of all those people who will be able to help you.
Is there an association of people who might help? In our Healthcare for Pets example, there will be numerous veterinary associations and kennel club associations of people who could provide valuable information.
Create an Acknowledgements computer file. Whenever someone helps you
with information for the book, type their name into the Acknowledgements file.
People get a kick out of helping an author with a book, and the best way to thank them is to make sure that their name appears on the Acknowledgements page in the book.
Assess the market for your book
1. Visit large bookstores
Start by visiting some large bookstores. Take your notebook and a pen. Copy the Tables of Contents of books that treat the same subject matter that your book does.
You will want to make your book significantly different from other books which cover the same topic. If your book is exactly the same as other books on the topic, no publisher will be interested in buying it. However, you shouldn’t be discouraged if there are many books covering the area which you intend to cover. Lots of books
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mean that this area is very popular. For example, publishers bring out dozens of diet books each year. And there's room for yours, too!
Aim for at least three to five points of difference. This doesn’t mean that you have to come up with all new information. In fact, presenting completely new
information is impossible. Sticking with our diet book example, there's only one way to lose weight, and that's to take in fewer calories than you expend. Authors reveal this ghastly news to their readers in many ways. Therefore, it's how you present the material that counts. If you can show readers a new way to diet, and you can prove that your method works, you're in, with a hot seller on your hands.
2. Visit your library
Next, drive to the library. Ask the librarian for Books In Print. This is a multi-volume set of reference books which lists all the books currently available by author, subject and title. Your library may have the books, or it may have the BIP CDs. If your library's BIP is on CD, get a printout of all the books in your subject area.
Don't faint if you see an ultra-lengthy list! Several years ago when I was
assessing the market for a book on time management, BIP spat out ten-plus pages. I got all the books which sounded as though they might be similar via inter-library loan, and none resembled my book at all. So the fact that there are lots and lots of books means little other than that this subject is popular. This is a good thing!
Next check out Forthcoming Books. FC should be available at your library right near BIP. FC lists all those books which will be released in the next six months.
You'll want to have the books which are the main competition for your book
on hand if possible. You don't have to buy them all. You can borrow them from the library, or if they’re listed on Amazon.com, you can use Amazon.com's clever "Look Inside" technology, so that you can scan the contents pages of competing titles.
3. Amazon.com
Amazon.com is your next port of call. Type the subject of your book into the search query box, and you'll get a list of all those books which touch on your subject area.
Print out this list. Having the list handy helps you when the time comes to pick a title.
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Read the descriptions, and all the reviews of any books which sound as if they might be similar to yours.
Write a report on your discoveries
Now you've finished surveying the marketplace as it stands for your idea, take the time to write a brief report on what you've discovered. This report is for your own use. Do this right away when it's all still fresh in your mind. It's important to do this, because when you talk to your editor or agent, you'll want to have all the information on the market situation handy. Your report doesn’t have to be long. A page will do.
Day Three: Write the blurb and outline your book
Day Three Tasks
Task One: Write at leas