What will a publisher want?

When the phone rang and it was one of the UK's leading non-fiction publishers I was bouncing around for joy. And that evening as I told my family even my teenage son was impressed because of the name of the publisher. He said it was the make of most of their books at school!

I knew that it was the opportunity of a life time, thus I may not be an expert, however, I do know what a publisher is looking for. And you need to work out if you have those skills and attributes and if not are you prepared to discover them, learn them, and work at being awesome at them?

Part 1 - Creating a funnel leading to you.

TOP TIP; I always ask new coaching clients, event hosts and even my publishers "How did you find me?"

This is essential information no matter who you are. It tells you how people are finding you and what they are looking at that influenced their decision. (It then becomes powerful information on what you need to do more of!)

The reason the publishers say they called me is that they had found me on LinkedIn, followed the link to my website, watched a couple of my Youtube videos and liked what they saw and so read my articles. See how my marketing that I'd been working on for years to get me noticed had worked? We will look at this in more detail in a later lesson but for now notice the chain of events that were not accidental.

Part 2 - Creating your brand.

They could have started at my Facebook page, headed over to Instagram, then my site, then YouTube and then my blogs. But no matter what way they went they would find the same version of me.

Your brand and style MUST match up everywhere. While you may communicate more formally and perhaps with less puppy pictures on LinkedIn the style of communication and the subject matter doesn't change. (This makes it easier for people to get to know what you stand for and what you will do for them. So it's imperative to do.)

The publishers liked my style of writing and felt I was someone who spoke jargon-free, passionately in a way that you could really take action on the courses of action I was suggesting.

And if you check out many of the reviews on Amazon many people say that they felt like they were talking to a friend who wanted them to succeed. Reviews also say that the book is jargon free and easy to take real action on. This means that my goal from day one was being honoured and achieved.

Can you see why this is so important? (Therefore think about this for a moment and we will help you in greater detail in a later lesson to hone your skills.)

You have the knowledge now from earlier lessons where we looked at why you want to write a book and what you want the book to do. In this lesson we are going to flip this around and look at it from the viewpoint of the publisher. What do they want?

Part 3 - Skills you will need to engage with publishers and to sell books.

ACTION; Read the below list and tick all the skills you feel you already have. A publisher is highly like to want all of these;

(And as you read this list if you feel you can't tick these boxes don't panic and we will work on this in the next Lessons to help you hone your skills.) See below the lesson a PDF version you are welcome to print off too (Please do not share this content. Thank you.)

Be honest with yourself (no one will know what you tick) if you aren't convinced right no or maybe. It will help us work out areas that need improvement too.

So how many did you tick yes to?

An assumption is often made that the publisher will get the book sold for you. While they will do all they can to support you in that, the author still has to do the majority of the promotion of their book. So in many ways, you will have the same responsibilities and actions to carry out as the self-published route. The difference is that having a publisher adds kudos to your book. It say's that you are not proclaiming to be the expert on this subject (self-praise is no recommendation as the saying goes) however that someone else has recognised your expert status and is prepared to spend money on you to share your knowledge.

This is very good for business, brand promotion and raising your status as a thought leader in your field.

Without a publisher, I would not have had the opportunity to speak for WH Smith's (twice!), which has led to more high profile speaking engagements and many high profile large organisations that I now coach. It would also have meant that my book would not have been WH Smith's book of the month January 2017. And sold across the world in their stores and now stocked in UK airports. This has had so many benefits for me. So ultimately if you are looking for similar results to my own goal, a publisher is a powerful opportunity in anyone's book!

Showcasing the above skills to a publisher will be imperative.

As exciting as that initial phone call was, it took 3 months to create a book proposal that was put before the board of directors on the 23rd of December and approved. I will look at elements of this in later lesson so you can hone those skills too.

The elements to be aware of here are;

  1. They will want a clear proposal from you on how you intend to market the book?
  2. They will want to know in writing what your marketing strategy is? And saying what social media platforms you will post is not enough, it needs to be a detailed marketing plan.
  3. How will you engage with your target audience(s)?
  4. They won't want a copy of the manuscript, however, they are likely to want a brief overview of the book and possibly the first 3 chapters. (Different publishers have different preferences and it is imperative that you use their structure. When applying to publishers don't assume it's the same. Read their guidelines. One publisher told me that if people couldn't abide by their guidelines on submissions they didn't read another single word!. It was instantly dismissed!)
  5. Who is aimed at?
  6. What is it about?
  7. Why should someone read it?
  8. What are the results you will get from reading this book?
  9. Ensure your grammar and spelling is spot on. (As you've possibly guessed I may be good at words and results but my grammar is pretty shocking. (Be honest on what you aren't good at.) The power of my words overrode their concerns on my ability to put sentences together - I think too fast for my fingers! They loved the way I wrote like you were in conversation with me and could correct poor grammar or spelling mistakes. I get my very own grammar police to check what I write now, but you can still make mistakes so check, check and check again!

ACTION; Even if you choose to self publish this information is very important to the success of your book. So take the time to answer all of these questions and ask yourself how will you overcome the obstacles that may exist for you (like grammar for me). Remember you can always get additional support from on the INsiders.

The publisher will then want a more detailed proposal that includes the above details and the following;

  1. What will the title of each chapter be?
  2. What layout will the book have?
  3. How will you research the book?
  4. How many words will each chapter be?
  5. How long will the book be?

See below the lesson a PDF version you are welcome to print off too (Please do not share this content. Thank you.)

The list is long and you will need to know how to answer every question in detail the way they want it. My own proposal for Fight the Fear was 10,000 words. (As you can see deciding to put 3 months of effort and that level of work into my proposal is something you are also going to have to schedule the time to achieving too. Thus we are back to earlier lessons where I asked "What do you want to get from your book?" and "Why are you writing this book?" This will also be relevant when we next look at how "What are you prepared to sacrifice to get my book picked up by a publisher?"

The above questions are really important to answer now because it will help with every aspect of structuring, writing, editing, marketing, publishing and promoting your book. So take the time to complete these worksheets.

A useful book for you could be The Writers and Artists yearbook. It's published every year and it could help you work out who you send your proposal too. Click here to learn more

There are also a lot of companies that will help you publish your book, they aren't cheap but do get good results. It depends on whether you have the funds to invest, do you have the patience to go through the process and whether you feel you could self publish it if that fits your goals for writing a book.

 

Complete and Continue