6 T H I N G S Y O U S H O U L D K N O W A B O U T G E T T I N G P U B L I S H E D

E D I TA K A Y E :

• The saying goes that every person has at least one great book or movie in them.

• So if you’re looking to write a book, then great, that’s awesome! However, just because you’ve got a great book in you doesn’t mean it’s easy to get it published.

• I recently came across an article by Mack Collier, where he shared the steps he took to getting his book “Think Like a Rock Star - How to Create Social Media and Marketing Strategies That Turn Customers Into Fans” published.

• While you might not be looking to make a book about marketing strategy, the article has some excellent tips…

F I G U R E O U T W H AT Y O U WA N T T O W R I T E A B O U T

• This might sound like a given, but it’s a lot more difficult than it sounds.

• You need to figure out the kind of book that you, not anybody else, were meant to write, and that nobody else could write.

# 1

• The author of the article uses an example, when in 2008 he was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on YouTube, when there were very few books out about social media.

• Collier turned it down, realizing that he wasn’t interested in writing about YouTube or touring across the country speaking about the topic.

F I G U R E O U T W H Y Y O U R B O O K I S

U N I Q U E

• Once you find out your book’s topic, you find out that your book has already been written several times.

# 2

• As the saying goes, there are no original ideas.

• You need to find out what your “hook” is; what you’re going to bring to the table that’s unique, but will still have value for readers.

F I N D 3 - 5 B O O K S T H AT Y O U T H I N K A R E S I M I L A R T O Y O U R I D E A

• Once you realize that your book isn’t as original as you originally thought, take a few books that are similar to your idea, and for each one explain what your book offers that the competing titles miss.

# 3

• Then try to pick a newer title for your book.

• For example, if you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books all written 20+ years ago, the publisher will think that your idea is dead, otherwise somebody would have written about it in the past 20 years.

W R I T E T H E F I R S T 1 - 3 C H A P T E R S

• This is another great test for preparing for the process.

• If you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1-3 well-written chapters, then you’ll make a great case for getting your book published.

# 4

• Writing those chapters will also give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book.

G E T T I N G A N A G E N T M E A N S A L O T M O R E R E J E C T I O N L E T T E R S

• When an agent is getting your book out there to a lot of publishing companies, it means that you’ll be hearing a lot more rejections than you were before.

# 5

• While this is disappointing, it also serves as a big help, since most publishers explain why they’re turning down your book.

• So long as publishers give this explanation, then you can work with it and make your book that much better when you offer it to the next publisher.

D O N ’ T E X P E C T T O G E T R I C H

• If your publisher accepts your book, you’ll likely get an advance of $5,000-$10,000.

# 6

• However, remember that this is an advance, meaning that you’ll have to pay the money back to the publisher in your royalties.