What if you come up with a great book idea? You receive encouragement from friends, continue to nurture your idea and become very attached to it. Then you do some research—even write a book proposal—and the results don’t look so good. You discover that your great idea maybe isn’t so great. There seem to be a few flaws—even red flags. But you really, really want to write and produce this book. It’s your dream. Maybe you can make it work, despite the obvious obstacles, such as there being no real evidence that there is a market for this book.
Thousands of authors go ahead and produce their dream books even though there is little hope that it will come anywhere close to fulfilling their dreams. I suppose we should celebrate and congratulate those authors who demonstrate a strong sense of commitment to their projects. But I have a problem doing so when the author obviously harbors unrealistic expectations. The author who does impress me is the author who has the courage NOT to write or produce a book that is not wanted or needed—that is not a good business prospect.
I know such an author. She came up recently with an idea for a book and became excited about the possibilities. She told friends about it and they encouraged her 100 percent and even offered to contribute. At that point, she contacted me asking how to start the process. I said, “First, do a little preliminary research and see if there’s anything else out there like your book idea. If so, consider what your book could bring to the table—what would make it different, better?”
This hopeful author did the research and discovered that there were quite a few books on this topic—really a perceived glut of them. She could not come up with an angle that she thought was unique enough and still marketable, so she decided not to pursue it at all.
While some people would say that she is a quitter, I say that she made a smart business move.
It’s hard to stop the forward motion on a project that your heart is in. But it would be harder to go ahead with it and fail because it was the wrong book at the wrong time.
Folks, be realistic when you decide you want to write a book or that you want to publish the book you’ve been writing. How are you going to sell your run-of-the-mill book on dieting or healthy eating when you are not known in the field and there are hundreds of other books to choose from? How many people will actually be interested in reading your memoirs? If your book isn’t likely to be a big crowd-pleaser, you probably won’t be able to interest an agent or a publisher. If you decide to go the pay-to-publish route, you will have a very difficult time making sales on your own. Bookselling is tremendously intense and difficult work.
So, fellow author, if you have a book in mind. Stop the forward motion on it immediately. Sit down and spend the next few days writing a book proposal. This process will help you to determine whether you have a legitimate audience for your book or not. It will introduce you to your potential audience and show you where and how to locate them and approach them. You’ll discover what you need to do in order to establish a strong enough platform to represent your book to publishers, agents and readers. It will also help you to more appropriately focus your book idea.
If you need help writing a book proposal, it is available through my online, on-demand book proposal course.
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm
What if you have a published book, but it is just not doing well in the marketplace? I wrote a book for you. It’s called, The Author’s Repair Kit: Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html
Contact me for editorial assistance with your book proposal or your book manuscript. PLFry620@yahoo.com. Learn more about me and my work at http://www.patriciafry.com While there, be sure to sign up for the FREE booklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book.