Posts tagged: non-fiction book

Don’t pick a “must-use” title before writing your book

Never start writing a book with some title in mind that you aren’t willing to improve, change, or totally replace. When I taught college journalism, an early assignment was to have the students write a 500-word newspaper feature piece. I’d tell them to write it, then see what they had to put in print, then [...]

List 3-5 benefits or needs to attract your book readers

Why would anybody actually pay for your book, or even read it free, if it doesn’t bring them some benefit or meet their need(s)? Granted, some folks have to at least look at what you publish, like your mate (if they want to eat), maybe your kids and folks, and anybody else who will fan [...]

(#9 of 10) Let’s publish your new ebook at Kindle

Our goal in this series is to help you compose a book and get it published in both paperback and ebook (digital) form in a bit over a week. If the book is ready to go—final proofing is done and corrected, the Word layout has been modified from its paperback and pdf format into the [...]

Don’t write dumb: read five more books very similar to yours

Here are seven very important things to do before you write (and publish) your own book. (1) Find and read all five of these books that are very similar to yours. In fact, read each book twice. (If you can’t read, don’t write a book. If you can, do.) Get reading now and write your [...]

#8 Converting your original book layout to an ebook format

Once you have completed your book and had it proofed, you can go ahead and offer your book for sale as a digital book. You needn’t wait for the bound copy to be printed or even sent to the printer. You will be doing the latter while you set up the digital versions and get [...]

Your book’s cover is its own best salesperson!

Your book only needs three kinds of covers, but they can all be designed from the same model. 1. Your bound books will require a full cover, meaning a front, a spine, and a back. (In the rare case you produce a cloth-covered book–a hardcover book–the needs are the same except that you might also [...]

(#7 of 10) Publish your book as a paperback, almost free

The purpose of this 10-unit series of blogs is to answer the working question, “How can I publish a just-finished book six times, all within a couple of weeks?” This unit will discuss publishing your book as a paperback, with the publishing part nearly free. In earlier blogs we read of getting the book in [...]

What must you have in your book?

Take an hour, for starters. Go some place where you won’t be disturbed and write down your book’s purpose statement. It may be easier to start with a working question, like “What will your book be about?” The answer is the “purpose statement.” Your book will help realize that purpose. The statement might be: “The [...]

Landing pages help sell your books (#6 of 10)

If you’re writing a book to sell, you need some launching pad where the potential buyer can see the book cover, the title, the copy on the title, the copy on the back cover (if it’s a paperback)–or the copy that would go there if it’s an ebook, some selling prose that would be on [...]

How many book pages a day should you write?

A hard reminder: if you really want to write a book (even better, get it published), the whole writing issue is up to you. Novelists often write two to five pages a day, unedited. Old veterans can plunk out 10-20. Nonfictionfolk pretty much write once they have the facts. Somebody wrote the story of the [...]