Introduction

“A good title is the title of a successful book.” –Somerset Maugham

$uccess is a work compiled of tips and essential truths discovered on our writing journey. Some of these nuggets are from our own experience and some are from the kindness of many well known and successful authors. $uccess is not meant to be a comprehensive text, but a companion that may give you some answers and encouragement along the way.

Before we began writing our first book, we attended many seminars and writing conferences. We found well known, best selling authors such as Ray Bradbury, Julia Child and Barnaby Conrad, who were most generous with their encouragement, praise and words of wisdom. They shared valuable information with us; we listened and heeded their advice. We learned other aspects of writing to research and incorporate in our work. Today, as seasoned writers of five published books, we continue on the educational upward path. We’ve learned what we could have done better with each book.

We hope this workbook will enable you to use our knowledge and add those tips you pick up along the way. This is one way to jump start your writing.

Although there are some aspects of life and writing that cannot be taught, our main goal is to pass on some of the intrinsic lessons that we learned on our journey to $uccess. This book is more the whys and hows of writing, marketing and publishing.

Despite the dollar sign we put on $uccess, it is not all about the money you will earn. The common denominator for fulfillment and success in the creative writing life is summed up in two words: Passion and integrity.



Table of Contents
Part I—Writing 1
1—Before You Begin 3
2—Fiction or Non-Fiction…Or That Fuzzy Line Between 13
3—Journaling 29
4—Writing in Tandem 47
5—Research 51
6—Editing, Grammar & Formatting 55
Part II—Marketing 69
7—Goals: Identifying Needs & Competition 75
8—Understanding Your Target Market & Sale of Books 87
9—The Promotional Campaign and Publicity 103
Part III—Publishing 115
10—Agents 117
11—Traditional Publishing 123
12—Print-On-Demand (POD) 129
13—Ebooks 139
14—Vanity Presses 143
Part IV—The Hill Team Hints 147
15—Creativity 150
16—The Ending is the Beginning 160
Additional Material 162
Contact Information 163
Maralyn Dennis Hill 164
Brenda Colley Hill 166
Additional Workbook Pages for Notes 168



Part II—Marketing
Marketing begins at your book’s conception.

Whether a traditional publishing house, self-publishing, vanity press, or print-on-demand publisher produces your book, it is up to you to develop and implement a marketing plan. This includes research, analyzing, and knowing your potential audience; securing endorsements and reviews; arranging book signings and workshops; obtaining radio and TV interviews, promoting via internet; and getting your book into bookstores, specialty stores, and catalogs. You have to be willing to invest time and funds into promoting your book.

$uccessful authors have learned that writing their book takes 10% of their time and marketing it takes 90%.

Marketing begins as soon as you have a concept. It is easy for a book to be your baby. To be saleable, your book needs to be viewed by you as a product.

You are targeting goals, identifying needs, competition, understanding your target market, identifying where your product can be sold, your promotional campaign, distribution, publicity, and resources. As you see, marketing impacts everything!

If your goals are to write your book and give it as a gift to family and friends, then, you can bypass marketing. Otherwise, it’s imperative.

You may think the publisher will do all of your marketing. Change that thought. You will have to submit a marketing plan with your book proposal.

The $uccess of your book is impacted by how much time you spend on marketing. It is an on-going process.


Marketing Sources
7—Goals: Identifying Needs & Competition

Many identify goals automatically. For others, it is a chore. We encourage you to read our suggestions and try to implement as many as you can. Writing your goals will help.

• Identify your long-term vision, and determine how you are going to get there with your short-term and long-term goals.
• What is unique about your topic so it stands out from others on the market today? Work on discovering the innovative hook. Both fiction and non-fiction are written to niche markets.
• Frequent bookstores and browse shelves to see what others are writing on your topic, what covers pop out, and what makes your project unique.
• Talk to others in the industry and discover if they would like more information on your topic.
• Cover design that attracts attention and makes you grab a book will cause buyers to pick up your book. Be sure the size of your book and the cover will fit on a shelf easily. The spine may be all that shows. So, title and author should be clear. Your book cover markets your book. More will be covered on this topic in publishing.
• Do a search on http://www.Amazon.com and determine how many books are listed in your category.
o When your topic covers more than one category, i.e., food and travel, pick the category that fits your book best for placement and be sure your title leads with that category.
o If your book falls into more than one category, the bookstores will not know where to place it.
 Brick and mortar bookstores account for approximately 20% of U.S. sales. This figure changes regularly. More than 7% are sold online.
 Bookstores will give books 30 to 60 days to remain on shelves before returning them to publishers.
 Bookstores and publishers are risk aversive.
 The best margin sales are those sold while speaking.
• Network, network, network and talk about your book.