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Achieve Your Goal to be Published
by Ron Kurtus (revised 14 August 2015)
If you have a great idea for a book and are working on the manuscript, you probably have a goal to get your book published. Perhaps it could even become a best-seller.
One of the first things you should do is to write a short book proposal to help define your book to yourself, as well as to possible interested parties. Although you may have enthusiasm about your subject matter, you really need to have an idea of who else would want to read such a book.
Then examine the routes to get your book published.
Finally, you need to act to achieve your goal. You can try traditional publishers or decide to self-publish, which is the direction we are considering.
Questions you may have include:
- Why write a book proposal?
- How do you determine the best publishing route?
- How can you achieve your goal?
This lesson will answer those questions.
Write book proposal
The first thing you need to do in order to get your book published—even including publishing it yourself—is to write a book proposal. This will help define what your book is about, who would be interested in reading such a book,
Describe book
If you told someone your were writing a book, how would you describe it? This is the same thing you would tell a literary agent or publisher: "It is a book about...
- How three teenagers discover buried treasure and how it affects their lives."
- The history of lighthouses on the Eastern coast and how they saved lives."
- How to get a job in a bad economy, using social media."
You could go into more detail but not more that three or four paragraphs.
Define audience
You need to define for whom the book is intended and who your market is.
- Nancy M. wrote a book about her family history. It was mainly intended for her family.
- Al B. wrote a book about problems in the U.S. Postal system. I guess it was for other postal workers.
- A fiction book cannot be for everyone. Amanda Hocking wrote for your girls interested in mysteries. She carved a niche in the fiction market.
Examine routes to get published
In order to achieve your goal of getting your book published, you need to consider possible routes to take.
The routes you can take to get your book published are:
- Going through major publisher
- Hiring a small publisher to do the book
- Self-publishing the book
The routes to getting published include going through a publishing house that invests their money to print and distribute your book, paying a self-publishing or vanity book service to publish your book, or starting your own publishing business.
You can weigh the pros and cons of each and select your choice of a route to follow.
Act to achieve your goal
If you book idea has promise, you can try to achieve your goal of getting the book published.
Try agents and publishers
You may try to get a literary agent to handle your project or even go directly to some publishers. In many cases, it is worth the effort, even if you only get rejections. On the other hand, there may be enough interest in your book that a major publishing house will decide to publish it.
Select self-publishing route
If you decide to handle the publishing yourself, you must first set up a publishing business. Then you format your manuscript to make it ready for printing and e-book distribution.
You get your book printed and your e-book formatted and align with a distributor who will send it to online bookstores.
Market and promote
Whichever route you take, you will still need to market and promote your book yourself.
Summary
In order to achieve your goal of getting your book published, you must first do some marketing research to see possible interest in such a book. This includes writing a book proposal. Then you consider the various routes to get published and decide on the most promising one.
If you select self-publishing, you can decide whether to use a publishing service or to start up your own business.
Be courageous
Resources and references
Websites
Books
Top-rated books on Self-Publishing
Questions and comments
Do you have any questions, comments, or opinions on this subject? If so, send an email with your feedback. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
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achieve_goal_to_be_published.htm
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Achieve Your Goal to be Published