Where to Look for Your Next Project when You’re Writing for Profit By Jim Green
When my first book “Starting Your Own Business” was published way back in 1995, I thought that was it. I reckoned I’d never write another one. But I was wrong. It has enjoyed many reprints, multiple editions, and proceeded over the years to generate another seven disparate titles from the same topic.
Towards the end of last year I completed the first draft manuscript for a commemorative fourth edition marking a decade in print. This has been accepted by the publisher and is due on world wide bookshelves in the autumn of 2005. The content has been updated, several topical new chapters have been added, and all in all it should start the ball rolling all over again by attracting a new breed of readers.
With that project out of the way, I was stumped where to look for the next.
I dug deep within myself and asked what else do I know about? I know how to start, manage and expand small businesses; I know about advising anyone on how to run an internet business from home, shop or office; I know how to instruct others on the subject of writing for profit, but what else do I know?
Then it dawned on me…
I also know how to enjoy a rewarding and fulfilling retirement.
And so I embarked on my new task, researched the topic, completed the text, submitted a proposal, and as a result “Your Retirement Masterplan” (ISBN 1857039874) was published in October 2004 and is already a bestseller - ranking at No.10 out of 3142 competitive titles on Amazon.co.uk.
But I didn’t let the matter rest there. I set about drafting a fresh proposal for a sequel “Your Retirement Cash Plan”. It too has been accepted for publication in the second quarter of 2005.
The Moral…
Dig deep within yourself. You know much more than you think you know.
PS: My youngest daughter reckons I should now give my early attention to something else I know about and start work on a project along the lines of ‘How to Become a Boring Old …’
Now there’s a thought…
Jim Green is a bestselling author with a string of niche non-fiction titles to his credit including ‘Starting Your Own Business’ (How To Books ISBN 1-85703-859-2) and ‘Starting an Internet Business at Home’ (Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8 – currently ranking No.3 at Amazon.com out of 27,376 competing titles). His tutorial is available at http://www.writing-for-profit.com
If you're just starting on your writing journey you'll often feel overwhelmed. There's so much to learn. However, if you're prepared to take a small step at a time, you can develop a successful writing career – guaranteed. After a lifetime's worth of writing, I can file these baby steps under the "wish I'd known when I started" category. They're vital. If you follow them, not only will you be successful at writing at some time in the future, you'll be successful right now.
One: Write every day Writers write. That's all. And they write every day, just like plumbers fix taps and electricians wire houses. Writers write. It's a process. You can outline and plan your writing all you want, but at some stage, every day, you must sit down and write.
Two: Pay attention to what you love You'll write best about what you love. So take note of the things you love. Make a list. Don't ever think that no one else is interested in what turns you on. Enthusiasm is contagious.
Three: It's the journey… Beware of fantasies like: "When this is published", "when I get an agent", "when I hold my first book in my hand". When your fantasies come true, and after the warm glow wears off, you won’t feel all that different (in fact, you won't feel any different) to the way you feel right now. (I hope I'm not trampling your favourite fantasy into dust.) Take comfort from this: the joy is in the journey, in the writing. When your fantasy comes true, the glow will last for a short time. What lasts longer, is your memory of the pleasure the writing brought you, while you were writing. So since the joy of writing is your takeaway, take that joy right now. It's yours already.
Four: Be courageous: submit your work The final baby step is submitting your work. Consider yourself a success as soon as you've submitted your work. You don’t have any control over whether someone buys it, but you do have control over the submission process. There's only one guarantee: if you keep writing and keep submitting, sooner or later you will sell your work. What happens then? You repeat Steps One, Two, Three, and Four. See? It's just baby steps. Start stepping! Turn words into money! Subscribe to copywriter and author Angela Booth's new free ezine, Write For Cash. Discover how to turn your own words, or someone else's into money. The new Web boom is upon us, so content has never been more important, or more valuable. Each issue contains a strategy and a product: information you can use immediately. If you want to build a global business from the comfort of your easy chair, subscribe today.
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Get Rich Writing Fiction by Michael LaRocca
GET RICH WRITING FICTION Copyright 2005, Michael LaRocca
Some of us write simply because we can't not write. Ideas grab us, move us, and demand to be written. We strive to make it as real as we possibly can, to improve at our craft every day, hopefully to make it into the realm of literature as well as entertainment. We want to craft an entire world where the places and people are so real that the reader doesn't feel like he's reading a book as much as he is going to another place. In the lofty world of literature that we strive for, the reader will still think about the book after reading that last page. It's our gift to the reader, something to take with him. Given sufficient skill, this can even happen long after we are dead.
Then we learn that doesn't sell. Oh, there are exceptions. Some novelists make a living by consistently writing quality literature. But, there are quite a few best sellers who have no such goals. They write for money, and they make it.
Even the writer who has written great literature has trouble marketing it that way. We have to look at our "target audience." Who will buy this book? Let me see, our heroine survived spousal abuse, so there's an audience. There's a suicide, so we can get the bereavement crowd. Where's the setting? We can get a local audience. The hero's a cop. Maybe the teen boys will go for that. Nah, too light on action. But there's a romance. Maybe we'll market to the romance readers. Give the hero bedroom eyes and pass him off as a romantic hero. Yeah, that might work.
But if you want to write to get rich, even that's not enough. Nah, the time to think about your reader is before you write the book, not after.
Throw in lots of gratuitous sex, preferably extramarital. One (and only one) character who flirts and is sorely tempted and walks away from "love" to remain true to his wife.
Use taboo words for shock value. Ram, hump, scream, oral sex, voluptuous, female orgasm (the great revelation). Make sure a lot of your leads enjoy sex. Horny women are a good way to pull in the readers you want. We all know men are horny, but most of your readers haven't discovered that some women enjoy sex too. Tell them this. Give the female readers a balm for their consciences and the male readers someone to dream about.
Your heroine should be tough, sweet, sensitive, and very horny, and has to think she's not attractive even though every guy in the book except her husband falls off his chair with a tent in his pants.
Don't let the length of a novel faze you. Just throw some people on the stage, move them around a bit, and get them into bed. Then, change the rules so they have to move around a bit again and get them back into bed. (It doesn't always have to be a bed. Office desks and car seats work too.) When the book's long enough, stop. Don't worry about the "climax," because people are climaxing all over the place.
Exotic locales. Foreign countries with beaches. Lots of rich people. Remember that you're writing for the lowest common denominator, because they spend most of the money that you're trying to reel in. Make it sleazy. No one ever went broke underestimating the public.
How to publish? To do it right, write the sales pitch before you write the book. Make sure the book follows the pitch and the formula. If your cover letter alone has eight typos, no problem. Nobody cares. The publisher will wanna rush this baby to print and get you, or an attractive stand-in, doing as many TV appearances as possible before the book reviewers have time to draw breath. Heck, your target market doesn't read book reviews anyway! Also keep in mind that once that reader buys your book, you've won. They won't get a refund just because you're illiterate. So don't worry about hiring an editor. Hire a publicist!
Think Hollywood. You want your book to become a movie. It doesn't have to be a good movie, because most of them aren't. It just has to sell, baby, sell! Write parts for all the hottest stars. True, today's hottest stars will have faded by the time they start filming your movie, but no matter. Someone just like them will replace them.
I've been doing it wrong for all these years. I started writing over 20 years ago, and the five books I have on the shelves are enough to make it a hobby that barely pays for itself. Meanwhile, I work at a job for my money. But if you follow my advice, you won't make the same mistakes I have. You'll get rich!
Michael LaRocca's website at http://www.chinarice.org was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response was to throw it out and start over again because he's insane. He teaches English at a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter WHO MOVED MY RICE?
