How to Write a Book, Publish and Market it

   When I decided to make writing my career I had no idea how to go about doing it. The ‘How-To’ books of the time were horribly dull, dry and out of date. So I ventured into the publishing world like a blindfolded man stumbling into an ass kicking contest.

   I quickly discovered there are predators everywhere. These BS vanity presses and print on demand outfits reach out to the aspiring writer with promises of instant success as well as fame and fortune as a BEST SELLING NOVELIST!

   My friends that is NOT how it works regardless of the telling and retelling of how this author or that author became a bestselling novelist with their first book.

   Do you know who really becomes a bestselling novelist with their first novel? People who have been writing for years and whose files are filled with rejection letters.

   And yes I was a member of that club.

   Back then, more than anything I wanted, no, needed a book that would walk me through the ins and outs of how to successfully get a book published. Since I did not know what I did not know, I didn’t know what to ask.

   But I know now. And this isn’t just for aspiring writers; this is for writers at every level who is having trouble getting their book into the hands of the reading public.

   And I’m going to tell you how to do it for FREE.

   But here’s the catch. It’s going to be FREE for only one day and one day only. Here’s why. When I was starting out I was broke and could have used a leg up from those who had made it through. But to be fair successful people are not prone to tell their secrets, at least not for free.

   However, if they are going to be told, guys who are broke like I was and need this info but can’t afford to buy it or pay for a college course, well for one day they can have it at no cost.

   However, if you find it helpful and can use the ideas and methods detailed within, I would appreciate a positive review on Amazon.

   That seems fair, right?

   Then after the one free day, it reverts to its regular price of $4.99 which believe me is pretty reasonable considering how much information is packed inside.

   So if you are interested, mark your calendars and copy this site link to Amazon to use this coming Thursday, August 29^th where it will be free for 24 hours. Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Write-Publish-Market-Bestseller-ebook/dp/B00EHYIMCI/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377557544&sr=1-3&keywords=zackary+richards

AND if you don't have a KINDLE, Amazon provides a FREE reader so you can download and read any Kindle book here's the link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

Why Your Books Aren't Selling

   If you’re a writer who’s self published and can’t get more than a small group of people to read your novels, it’s probably driving you crazy, right?

   You’re doing all the social media things. You’re on Facebook and Twitter and Linked-in. You’ve gone the KDP route with at least one of your books with Amazon Kindle. (Results: 2000 downloads, no sales, 8 reviews, and 2 of them are from people whose reviews say something like: I started to read it and it seemed pretty good but then I kinda got side tracked and didn’t read any more of it but what I did read, I liked!

   You know it’s a damn good book (at least you and your friends and relatives think so) and if people just gave it a chance they’d probably like it very much.

   But they won’t give it a chance!

   So, what do you do?

   Well, this is the time to stop writing and start focusing on why your amazing novel is floundering. “But, I’m a writer, not an editor or a salesman,” you say. “My job is to write, an editor’s job is to edit and a salesman’s job is to sell.”

   If you agree with the above sentence; THAT is one of the reasons why your book isn’t selling.

   Welcome to the 21^st century, my friend. If you chose to become a writer because you liked the idea of living in some artist community, like NYC’s Greenwich Village, San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury or Taos, New Mexico, whilst waxing philosophical, cavorting with other free spirits and pondering what your literary masterpiece will be about as you squander your book advance…

   Spoiler Alert!

   Those days are long gone. The writing life that Hemingway, Virginia Wolff, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary notables of that era enjoyed has sailed off to Moonlight Bay.

  What replaced it has been lured into the shallows and is being eaten by cannibals.

   True, the printed book is holding its own against the e-book. But the product is changing. If you write fiction, your shelf space in book stores is dwindling. Non-Fiction is the new King and its heir is the celebrity novelist.

   Have a great children’s book? A guaranteed best seller?

   And it may be just that. It’s so good it lands you an agent, who gets you a meeting with a publisher. Looks like everything is finally going your way… But then…

   Uh-oh!

   Both Madonna and Jamie Lee Curtis have submitted manuscripts and the publishers are falling over each other to sign them for huge advances.

   But you’ve read their children’s books and yours are SO MUCH BETTER!

   You’d think that would make a difference, wouldn’t you?

   Alas! It does not! Besides, what makes you think you’re qualified to write a children’s book? Have you pranced around naked in movies, magazines and books like they have?

   No? Well then, get to the back of the line.

   But there could be other reasons. One of them is that the book is terrible and you don’t know it. Sure your friends and family will tell you it’s great but they love you and don’t want to hurt you…

   Book critics don’t and they do want to hurt you for wasting their time. Seriously, just because you can write doesn’t mean you’re a writer. It literally takes years of writing utter crap before you develop a unique voice and the skills necessary to be taken seriously as an author. So join a writers group and submit your work for critique. If it’s returned with massive grammatical corrections, pointed out plot holes, timeline inaccuracies and location errors, that only means you’re still at the bottom of the learning curve and have a way to go to perfect your craft.

   So… 

   If you want to save yourself a lot of time and rejection letters? Go to http://www.aripublishing.com/how_to_get_your_book_published and watch the free tutorials. If the free ones teach you a lot of things you didn’t know, then buy the set. 

   You going to need to know that stuff eventually so don’t put it off, just buy it now while it’s still affordable.

   Next, it could be the product itself. If you’ve gone the vanity press route, odds are your book looks just like the other thousands of cookie cutter template book covers. 

   

   Go to an Indie Book Fair and you’ll see hundreds of books that all look the same. And that, my friend, screams amateur!

   And if it’s an e-book uploaded to Kindle, was it formatted properly? If not, you may not be aware that from 23% to 34% there is only one sentence per page.

   And that’s only the tip of the iceberg!

   

   To learn more go to:

   Part 2 of ‘Why Your Books Aren’t Selling’ which continues this post, can be viewed on my marketing blog. Here’s the link: http://www.empowernetwork.com/writingguy/