How to Write a Book, Get Published and Become an Instant Authority

One of the best things you could do for your business is to build yourself into an authority figure under your niche. Writing a book comes with the promise of better sales, increased number of prospects knocking at your door and helps you to get what you want within a shorter time span. Even if it’s not for business, writing a book and getting it published has lots of benefits.

It wouldn’t be wise to expect the respect to just fall into your lap though. It requires actions to transform yourself into an authority and that’s exactly what this articles focuses on.

Why Becoming an Author Makes Big Differences

Becoming an author can do miracles. Writing a book itself is a very exciting journey and it has lots of ups and downs. Let’s check out some of the main reasons why you might be interested in writing a book.

1. To Make Money
It’s true that many writers do make a lot of money from their books. For instance, J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter series became a billionaire just by writing books! In every industry, there are people who make a lot of money and then there are also people who really struggle. It’s the same in case of books. Some authors make a lot of money and then there are some who don’t.

So if you want to write a book only for making money, be prepared for disappointment! Failure is natural. Book writing is a long journey and does not always guarantee a huge sum of profit, but there is a chance that you’ll make a lot of money indirectly.

2. Makes You Immortal
A book can make you immortal. This is something which becomes very important as you get older and don’t have much time left. Writing a book makes you live as a legacy for your children. Money does not last forever, honor does. It doesn’t matter if the book is selling well or not, you will always be remembered for your work. Your family will always be proud of you. The pages in the book represent your ideas and they will definitely live longer than you do.

3. Get Instant Authority
A book gives you the instant authority status. Becoming a book writer makes you a trustworthy person in your field. It’s an indicator that you know exactly what you’re doing and that you’re an expert in your niche. It’s almost like a big name card.

How the book is printed, how it is designed, how creative the book is, tells people all they need to know about you. Pass someone a book instead of a name card and he will definitely think differently about you.

4. Promote Business
Writing a book can indirectly boost your business and help to increase your income. When you position yourself as an instant authority, you can have a consultancy business, get invited as a trainer, a speaker, a coach etc. A book gives you credibility and authority. People will actually value your thoughts when they come across your book. It all makes a big difference while promoting your business.

The Easiest Research Method

Before you determine the topic of your book, it’s important to do some basic research. To sell well, you want to write on topics that are useful. For example, In Malaysia, people are more interested in books which help them to make money and increase productivity, books on health and improvement, entertainment (novels, comics) etc. Choosing the right topic can help you get lots of copies sold.

In order to determine the topic, focus on the following points: What is your strategy in business? What is your career about? Is the topic relevant to your business?

One of the easiest methods to search for the right topic is to check out the most popular and bestseller lists from Amazon. Just visit www.amazon.com and select the top seller books. If you have a target niche, you can refine the topics and check out the best seller books listed in your desired category. Look at the titles and you can get lots of ideas.

Don’t be worried that someone else has already written books under these titles. There will definitely be someone out there who has written on the same topic, but don’t worry about that. You can see that there are lots of books written by different authors same titles, so that’s not a big problem.

After you’re done choosing the topic, select some of the good rated books in that niche. Purchase 5 or 10 books. Now all you have to do is study these books thoroughly. You’ll come up with some good ideas soon enough. If you’re good in your industry, you’ve probably already gone through some of these stuffs. So although this might seem to be a very long process, it would probably turn out to be something very interesting.

The Systematic Ways to Plan an Outline

Before you actually start writing the book, it’s very important that you plan an outline. It makes the book writing process a lot easier. You have to learn how to do mind mapping. Take a big piece of paper and start scribbling out what you have inside your mind. You can also use a software like FreeMind to map out all the contents you want to write in your book.

If you’re not sure about the table of contents for your book, you need to check out the table of contents of books under similar niche. Go through the contents of four or five books and choose the topics you want. You need to have a very clear picture of what the topics are going to be.

When you have a properly designed and detailed outline, you can say that the book is half done! Because once you’ve got your outline ready, you know exactly what you need to do and what to write.

The 3 Most Effective Ways to Produce Useful Content

Writing a book might seem to be a very daunting task. It doesn’t really have to be so. There are some tips and tricks to effectively produce quality contents for your book. If you do it in the right way, it can be very easy. Here are the 3 most effective ways to produce useful content.

1. Self vs. Co-Write
You can write a book on your own, or you can find yourself a co-writer to help you write the book. The co-writer might be a better writer than you. In many cases, it might happen that someone has the information for the book and you have the tactical strategy.

Your co-writer can write 70% of the book and you can contribute the remaining 30%. The percentage of contribution doesn’t matter, because you’ll still become an author.

2. Self vs. Outsource
Instead of writing the book by yourself, you can hire a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter will do all the research for you, but his name will not go into the book, your name will. Although it costs a lot of money if you want a good quality ghostwriter, it’s still worth it.

Find someone who is reputable, someone who has already done this type of job before. You come up with the topics and the outline. The ghost-writer will prepare the contents. Once the contents are ready, you can just go through them, verify the information and maybe add some of your own flavor.

Give the ghostwriter a guideline or examples as to how the contents should be written. And in return for your investment, you’re getting a good book.

3. Self vs. Interview
You can actually get people to produce contents for your books. You’ll find lots of books which are filled with interviews inside. These are the interviews of experts answering different questions on the topic. You get the interview done and turn the conversation into words.

10 interviews can give you the contents for 50 pages. If it’s a book containing 100 pages, you can outsource 80% of the book and you’ll need to write just 10-20 pages on your own. In the end, the daunting task won’t seem so daunting anymore!

How to Get Published

Getting published is the whole point of writing a book. You would want your books to be printed and found on bookstores. Let’s check out how you can do it.

When To Approach Publisher
When is the best time to approach a publisher? Before starting the book? When an outline is ready? After the first chapter is finished? While approaching the last chapter? After the book is finished?

Well, any time is a good time. Even when you have just an idea in your mind, you can approach the publisher. However, if it’s your first book, it’s recommended that you have something to show to your publisher. Once you’ve got a few books done, you can approach before even starting the work.

Negotiating Agreements
It’s important to negotiate the contract details with your publisher. This includes:

Royalty

• Terms
• Restrictions
• Expectations

Royalty is what you’re getting paid for the book. Usually authors are paid 8% of the selling price. With the increase in sales, the royalty increases. You should be informed of the Terms of the publishing right of the publisher. Many publishers impose Restrictions on the contents of the book.

Sometimes, the publisher will expect you to help them promote the book for their sales in a book fair or book stalls. So make sure that you’re aware of all their restrictions, expectations and negotiate accordingly.

Becoming an author provides you credibility. It can take years to gain the trust of people which can be done just by writing a decent book. When you have written a book, people will look at you as a doer and not as a talker or a dreamer. This brings you a whole new level of respect.

You’ll attract a lot more clients than ever before with a book under your name. Most importantly, you will be remembered for your ideas and even when you’re gone, you will live forever in the hearts of people whose lives have been changed by your creation.

If you want more assistance to become a best-selling author, Azizi Ali and I are conducting an online course that provide the step-by-step guide to get your book done systematically. It is called Best Seller Made Easy. Check out program now!