Storyboard: How Your Website Can Get You a Book Deal

      

Storyboard: How Your Website Can Get You a Book Deal 

My zackaryrichards.blogspot.com website just passed the 30,000 visitor mark. It receives a little over 100 visitors a day. Thank you all for stopping by. I know you’re busy so let’s get right down to it. I’m a writer so I automatically have an unfair advantage. I know how to write and how to engage my audience. But there’s also a trick to that and I’ll show you what it is. As a book publisher I am constantly asked what type of books am I looking to publish?

Simple.

 Books that will sell.

 How do you find a topic that will sell?

Start a blog. That’s what I did.

At first I wrote engaging stories, funny incidents and just about anything that I hoped would entertain my readers. I did this for over a year then one day noticed that when I wrote about certain topics the amount of visitors skyrocketed. Usually it was about writing tips, contacting agents, finding a publisher and all matters regarding writing. When I saw the increasing traffic I realized that if I wrote a book on how to write, how to get published and how to get that book out before the buying public it would likely do well. So I stopped writing my usual fiction and wrote The Best Book on How to Write, Publish and Market your Novel into a Best Seller. And sure enough it began selling immediately and received excellent reviews.

Another topic that brought a lot of traffic was how to start your own business and make money online. I felt this would benefit my readers because I had been downsized and had started my own business http://aripublishing.com so I knew what I was talking about. So I wrote The Best Book on How to Make Money Online. It too, took off right after being published.

 The next blog topic that garnered a lot of readers was How to Sell Products Online. BUT, these business oriented topics were annoying my readers who were interested in writing info.

And they had a point. The site is actually named The Author Zackary Richards.

But here is where many of my writing friends make a MASSIVE MISTAKE. They truly believe that if they write a great book and submit it to an agent or publisher, it will immediately be accepted and published, and rocket them to the top of the literary world. They believe this because they have read of incidents where people who submitted a rough draft of their first novel to an agent, were immediately signed, received a huge advance and their book became a best seller.

Does this actually happen?

On a very, very rare occasion, yes.

And when it does the media jumps all over it giving the impression that this can happen to anyone! However the odds of this actually happening are about the same as you becoming the next Powerball winner. But unfortunately, writers, because they deal in fantasy for the better part of their day, often fall victim into believing the fantasy, and delude themselves into thinking that all they have to do is write that one special book and all their dreams will come true.

And so they fritter away their lives, spending every waking moment working on that super-duper novel that will solve all their problems and while doing so, alienate their spouses, ignore their children, do a half-assed job at work and miss out on all the good and fun things life has to offer.

Why? Because that fantasy has become their religion, their belief system and any attempt to dissuade them from it will make you that person’s enemy!

However, if you will instead kindly step out of the coo-coo for cocoa puffs train for a moment, he’s an alternative method that will very likely succeed.

• You start a blog. 
• Go to amazon and find out what books are selling well and have been selling for a while in a genre that you think you could do well in. 
• Then start posting snippets of your story on your blog. 
• Use keyword tags that will attract the type of reader who is interested in what you’re writing. 
• Ask them to comment, offer suggestions, give critique. Develop a following.

Don’t worry about someone stealing your ideas or your story. Like Jay Leno once said, “Simply write faster than they can steal.”

Keep in touch with your followers by getting their email addresses with an auto responder. Offer autographed copies to the one who gives the most valuable critique and advice. Do a google hangout and develop a report with your followers. Write a book a month, charge $0.99 and ask for reviews. Read paperback books like The Best Book on How to Write, Publish and Market Your Novel into a Best Seller so you’ll actually know how to write and get great reviews instead of getting blasted for being a no-talented amateur.

 Learn everything you can about marketing, reach the biggest audience possible, establish yourself as an authority, get your name out there and… like Steve Martin once said, “It’s easy to become famous. Just become so good they can’t ignore you.”

Here’s one VERY important fact about marketing. Cold calling (meaning contacting agents and publishers to see if they would be interested in your book) has a horrifically poor rate of success. On the other hand when customers contact you (meaning agents and publishers have heard of you and see that you have 30,000 visitors to your blog, 5000 Facebook “Likes” 1000 Google+ followers and e book sales in the thousands,) will make getting a book deal damn near guaranteed.

One last little trick. 30,000 visitors has given this website a PR of 2 and bordering on 3 So if you were to leave a comment along with your website URL then copy and paste my link  http://zackaryrichards.blogspot.com/ on your blog post you would get link juice from my site that would increase your ranking and popularity.

I’m so surprised that so few people do that.Check out our site at http://aripublishing.com

10 Things Traditional Publishers DON’T Want You to Know.

10 Things Traditional Publishers DON’T Want You to Know.

1)    Your FIRST Book Needs to be a Breakout Success: You’ve likely read stories from the big publishing houses stating that the publishing industry is as robust as ever.

It isn’t. Readership has consistently dropped over the last decade due to the increased competition for the entertainment dollar. Production costs have sky-rocketed, and Kindle, iPad, nook & others versions make whatever books that are being made, inexpensive and easy to access on line for considerably less. So your book needs to show some real legs sales wise early on, or there won’t be a second.

2)    Access is dwindling. There used to be a bookstore in every town and city. No More. Amazon and the big box stores are mostly responsible for that. Why buy a book at the suggested retail price at a bookstore when you can easily go online to Amazon, get it for nearly half the price and have it delivered to your door?

3)    You have better odds at winning the lottery: Sure you read stories about some unknown scoring a publishing contract but you’re only reading those stories because that event is so rare. In today’s publishing business contracts are generally only offered to those who already have a substantial readership or are celebrities or whose subject is at the opening gate of some new book trend. 

4)    You’re book’s fate will likely be decided by some college intern:

Because of the staggering amount of submissions, literary agents and publishers don’t have the time to read each title. So college kids looking to break into the industry are assigned that task. Since that are looking to impress possible future employers, they are particularly strict about spelling a proper grammar. Don’t know the difference between they’ve, their and there? Or that you only use the word BETWEEN when comparing TWO topics? If that’s the case expect a quick rejection letter.

5)    You’re book’s title will likely be rejected: Ignore that old saw “You can’t judge a book by its cover. That is EXACTLY how a book is chosen. That and by its title. The title is especially important because when a person is looking to buy a book, but doesn’t know exactly what he or she wants they go to both Google’s and Amazon’s search boxes and type in a word that reflects their interest. Take “spy books” for example. If you title your book something exotic like The Dark Letter Conundrum, your book won’t appear anywhere under a “spy books” search. However, John le Carre title Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy would have generated thousands of results based on the “spy book” keyword. So expect your book to be given a title that will result in the most Search ‘hits’.

6)     Advances are at an all-time low:   Again you’ve likely read a story about some new author being offered a six and sometimes a seven figure advance. Again the odds of that and winning the lottery are exactly the same. Most advances, if any, are usually in the low four figures. And should you receive any advance, plow it into advertising your book. Remember, Your writing career lives and dies by the amount of books sold. NOT by the number of 5 Star reviews!

7)    Advertising money is also at an all-time low. As mentioned the industry has been forced to tighten its belt. And so advertising dollars are funneled directly into the books that show the strongest likelihood of being a success. Got a book coming out and have been promised a substantial advertising budget? Just remember that if someone like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie writes a book, and your publisher buys it, that advertising money you were promised will quickly be transferred over to their advertising budget.

8)    Royalties are not what you think. Keep in mind you don’t see a dime until the advance is covered and your agent gets his share. It is a fact that MOST authors receive the majority of their income from speaking engagements, not from royalties.

9)     Most successful novelists write 5 to 8 full length books before getting published. Of course there are exceptions BUT if you read the biographies of most of the top selling authors you will see that the majority had written 5 to 8 books before being offered a contract. And by writing all those books they showed the publishers that they could provide consistent and timely product.

10)The First 5 Pages of your book will decide whether will be published or not. Most professional agents and publishers can tell if you’re good enough to be published after reading the first five pages. And to get most book buyers to read past the first 5 pages your book had to have captured their undivided attention. So put the best part of your book on the first five. If the best part of your books starts on page 23, it will likely never be read.

If you’re serious about becoming a published author and want to know more, pick up a copy or download How the Write, Publish and Market Your Novel into a Best Seller   Here’s the link: http://amzn.to/1hBQpJH 

(originally posted at http://aripublishing.com )