Full-Time Freelancing

Publishers ask five key questions about every project they consider. Here’s how to make sure your proposal gives all the answers.

By Robert W. Bly

You have a great idea for a nonfiction book. Your wife thinks it’s a great idea. Your parents think it’s a great idea. Even your neighbor who hates to read thinks it’s a great idea.

But will a publisher think it’s a great idea-enough to pay you an advance, commission you to write it, and publish and sell it?

That will depend largely on your book proposal. Here’s where you demonstrate persuasively that your idea has merit. Of course, even a solid idea and a great book proposal can’t guarantee success, but they surely can tip the odds in your favor. But if either the idea or the proposal is weak, your chances of a sale are slim to none.

It’s no secret what book editors look for when reviewing book ideas and proposals. You’ll improve your chances of winning a publisher’s contract by testing your book proposal against the five key questions editors ask. Let’s look at those questions and the best ways to answer them.

Is there a large enough audience interested in this topic to justify publishing the book?

The major New York publishing houses aren’t interested in highly specialized books written for small, narrow interest audiences. If you want to write the definitive work on LAN/WAN internet working, for example, seek out a publisher of technical books.

Big publishers are primarily interested in “bookstore books” that is, books that appeal to a general audience or at least to a large segment of the general population. Examples of such audiences include parents, small business owners, corporate executives, fitness enthusiasts, movie buffs, users of personal computers, teenagers and other large affinity groups.

A book aimed at a major publisher must appeal to an audience of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. To sell your idea to the editor, you must demonstrate that such an audience exists. In our proposal for How to Promote Your Own Business (accepted and published by New American Library), Gary Blake and I cited statistics showing there are more than 10 million small businesses in the US and 250,000 new businesses started each year.

One excellent source of market data is Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS), a book listing US magazines that accept advertising and their circulation’s. SRDS is available at your local library or from the publisher (tel. 847/375-5000). If you’re proposing a book on freelance writing, for example, you could look up writers’ magazines and find that the two largest publications in the field have a combined circulation of more than 300,000; this is the potential market for your book.

But only a small percentage of the intended audience will actually buy your book. And a major publisher hopes to sell at least 5,000 copies of your book. So if you’re writing a book that appeals only to the 44,171 branch managers working at banks nationwide (say, How to Manage Your Branch More Efficiently), and 2% can be persuaded to buy the book, you’ve sold only 883 copies not nearly enough to make the project worthwhile for either you or a publisher.

Is this a book or a magazine article?

At the onset of the 1991 recession, I came up with an idea for a book I thought would be a strong seller Recession Proof Business Strategies: Winning Methods to Sell Any Product or Service in a Down Economy. It was timely. It had strong media appeal. And it contained vital information readers desperately needed.

But, as my agent pointed out, there were two problems with the book. First, its timely nature. From conception to bookstore, it can take 18 months to two years to write and publish a book. If the recession was over by the time Recession Proof Business Strategies came out, the book would bomb.

Second, my agent was concerned that there wasn’t enough material to fill a book. And he was right.

The average nonfiction book is about 200 pages in typeset, published form, with approximately 400 words a page. That’s 80,000 words; about 320 double-spaced typewritten manuscript pages. Your book might be longer or shorter, ranging from 35,000 words (a slim, 100 page volume) to 200,000 words or more.

Trouble was, when I finished writing everything I knew about recession proof business strategies, I had 5,000 words–too short for a book, too long for an article. The solution? I self published Recession Proof Business Strategies as a $7 booklet and sold several thousand copies. So a booklet not a book was the right vehicle for this material.

Many book ideas seem strong initially, but wilt under close examination.

For example, a (to me) wonderful book title popped into my head a while back: How to Survive a Midlife Crisis at Any Age. My co-author loved it and wanted to do the book. But when we sat down, we couldn’t think of anything to put in it! We soon abandoned the idea.

How do you know whether your idea is a book, article or booklet–and how do you convince a publisher that your concept is a big one? Here are some guidelines:

First, see if there are other books on the topic. The existence of a few similar titles indicates that this idea is big enough to deserve a book, since other publishers bought and published book length manuscripts on the topic.

Second, go to the library and see what else is written on the topic. If you feel overwhelmed by all the magazine articles, newspaper stories, booklets, pamphlets, surveys, reports and statistics on your topic, that’s a good indica­tion the topic is ‘meaty” enough to justify a full-length book.

For example, I heard a public service announcement describing a toll-free number you could call to get safety information about any car you were thinking of buying. I thought, “There seems to be a lot of these free consumer hotlines; why not organize them into a reference book?”

I researched the subject and discovered there were indeed hundreds of such hotlines. New American library bought the book and published it as Information Hotline USA. If I’d uncovered only a few such hotlines, New American Library would have rejected my proposal.

The third step to convincing a publisher that your topic is broad enough to warrant a book is to organize your information into chapters. Think about how you would logically explain your topic or present your information, and organize it into major categories. These will become chapter headings.

A full-length nonfiction book typically has 8-15 chapters. If your outline has fewer, the publisher may think there’s not enough information to fill a book on your topic. Shoot for an outline with at least nine chapters.

On index cards, organize all your research material by chapter. Then add the most important or interesting items as bullet points in your chapter outline to create a complete table of contents for your proposed book. Here’s how my co-author and I described Chapter 15 in our proposal for How to Promote Your Own Business:

Chapter 15: On With the Show-Trade Shows and Displays

• Why do people attend trade shows?
• How to select the shows at which you will exhibit
• Creating effective trade show displays
• Five things you can do to attract more prospects to your exhibit: demonstrations, product samples, free gifts, contests and entertainment
• Other uses for your display materi­als: retail point-of-purchase, malls, lobby displays

This type of detailed table of contents proves to the publisher that your topic is appropriate for a book, not just a magazine article.

What’s different or better-about your book?

The first page or two of your book proposal must contain an overview of your idea. This describes what the book is about who ifs written for and what’s in it.

Your overview must also tell the editor why and how your book is unique, different or better than other books already published on this topic. And you must do this within the first two paragraphs (if you don’t, the editor probably won’t read further).

The hook the angle that makes’ your book different-can take many forms: It might be a slant toward a different audience, a better way of organizing the material, or inclusion of topics not covered in other books. The key is to make your book seem both different and better.

For instance, if the other books aren’t illustrated, say that your book will be-and explain why that’s important. If the other books are lengthy, promise to write a more concise book. If the other books are incomplete, describe the topics they omit-and tell how you’ll cover them in your book.

When planning How to Promote Your Own Business, my co-author and I hoped to write a book on advertising that would appeal to small business owners rather than advertising agencies, PR firms and other advertising professionals. We used this as our hook; our proposal began:

How to Promote Your Own Business is not a book for the professional publicist, promoter or advertising professional. Rather, it is a practical working promotion guide for the 10.8 million Americans who own their own businesses, and the 250,000 entrepreneurs who start new businesses each year.

We wrote a previous book, Technical Writing. Structure, Standards and Style, because we believed the existing technical writing books were too lengthy and dull to be suitable as references for working technical writers. We wanted to create a handbook for technical writers that emulated the concise, to-the-point style and format of The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E.B. White’s popular style guide for general writers.

Our proposal called our book “the Strunk and White of technical writing,” which instantly communicated the key appeal of the concept. Our agent sold the book-within three weeks-to the first publisher who looked at it. Interestingly, McGraw-Hill also used the phrase “the Strunk and White of technical writing” in publicity and promotional materials describing the book.

Another section of your proposal that positions your book in relation to others on the same subject is the “Competition” section. Here you list and describe competing books; each listing should emphasize how your book is both different and better. Here is an example from our How to Promote Your Own Business proposal:

1. How to Advertise and Promote Your Small Business, by Connie McClung Siegel, John Wiley & Sons, 1978, 128 pages, $4.95 trade paperback.

This book is part of John Wiley’s “Small Business Series.” The author neglects several vital areas of small business promotion, including mail order, sales literature, trade shows, and displays, contests and newsletters. There are very few examples of actual promotions, and the author gives no indication of the costs involved or the results achieved. The book does not provide step-by-step instructions for selecting and implementing promotions.

Include in the “Competition” section those books that cover the same-or very similar-topics as your book; that are published by a major publishing house; and that are no more than five years old.

How many books you list in this section will be important. ‘Me presence of two to six competitive books shows there’s a market for this type of book, while still room for one more. On the other hand, if there are seven or more books a publisher may think the field is overcrowded, and you’ll probably have a difficult time making the sale.

Will people pay $22.95 for this book?

The average hardcover nonfiction book sells for $22.95 or more; the average trade paperback for $12.95. Your book must be interesting or valuable enough to make readers part not only with their money (remember, they can always read your book for free at the library), but with their time as well (many people would rather watch TV, go to the movies or nap than read a book).

When it comes to nonfiction, readers typically buy books to learn something, for reference or to be entertained.

A how-to or reference book proposal should stress the benefits readers will get when they buy the book. Will it help them save time and money? Make money? Look beautiful? Feel young? live longer? If your book will make readers’ fives better and easier, say so. In our proposal for How to Promote Your Own Business, we said:

How to Promote Your Own Business is unique because it goes right to the heart of the problem: How can the owner or manager of a small business-a person with little time, money and promotion expertise-promote his business as effectively as his bigger, wealthier competitors?

If your book is biography, journalism, history, or any other form of nonfiction written primarily to entertain, your proposal should highlight some of the more fascinating details of the book. Your aim is to make the editor want to read the whole story.

Why should the publisher hire you to write it?

Your proposal must show why you’re uniquely qualified to write the book. Such qualifications fall into two categories: writing credentials and expert credentials.

Writing credentials establish your expertise as an author. In an “About the Author” section of your book proposal, write a brief biographical sketch of yourself, being sure to include such information as:

• titles, publishers and dates of publication for any books you’ve written
• total number of books and articles written (if the number is impressive)
• names of major magazines and newspapers in which your work has appeared
• excerpts from favorable reviews about your work
• sales figures for your best-selling books (if they’re impressive)

Expert credentials establish your position as an authority in the topic of your proposed book.

Actually, you don’t have to be much of an expert The trick is to make yourself seem like an expert to the publisher.

For instance, author Wilbur Perry wanted to write about mail order. To make himself more appealing as a potential author for a book on the subject he started and operated a small part-time mail-order business from his home.  This gave him the credentials he needed to convince John Wiley & Sons to publish two books by him on the topic.

In my experience, your expert credentials don’t need to be in-depth. Editors understand you can research the topic, and they don’t require you to know everything about it before buying your book. They just want to convince their editorial board-and buyers-that you know what you’re talking about.

Of course, having a published book to your credit is one credential that always impresses publishers. And that’s a credential I’m sure you’ll soon have if you follow the five key points covered in this article.

Writer’s Digest correspondent Robert W. Bly is the author of hundreds of articles and more than 40 books. His newest title is Getting Your Book Published: Inside Secrets of a Successful Author (Roblin Press).

The Making of a Winning Book Proposal

A successful book proposal contains these sections:

Title Page

A cover sheet. The book’s title and the name of the author are centered in the middle of the page. In the upper left corner, type Book Proposal. In the bottom right, type your name, address and phone number (or, if you have one, your agent’s).

Overview

Summarize what your book is about: the topic, who will read it, why its important or interesting to your intended audience, and what makes your book different from others in the field.

Specifications

Specify approximate word length, number of chapters, types of illustrations or graphics to be included, and any unique organizational schemes or formats (for example, is your book divided into major sections or do you use sidebars?)

Market

Tell the editor who will buy your book, how many of these people exist, and why they need it or will want to read it. Use statistics to dramatize the size of the market. For example, if your book is about infertility, mention that one in six couples in the US is infertile.

Promotion

Is your book a natural for talk radio or Oprah (be realistic)? Can it be promoted through seminars or speeches to associations and clubs? Give the publisher some of your ideas on how the book can be marketed. (Note: Phrase these as suggestions, not demands. The publisher will be interested in your ideas but probably won’t use most of them.)

Competition

List books that compare with yours. Include the title, author, publisher, year of publication, number of pages, price, and format (hardcover, trade paperback or mass market paperback). Describe each book briefly, pointing out weaknesses and areas in which your book is different and superior.

Author’s Bio

A brief biography listing your writing credentials (books and articles published), qualifications to write about the book’s topic (for instance, for a book on popular psychology, it helps if you’re a therapist), and your media experience (previous appearances on TV and radio).

Table of Contents/Outline

A chapter-by-chapter outline showing the contents of your proposed book. Many editors tell me that a detailed, well thought-out table of contents in a proposal helps sway them in favor of a book.

This article appears courtesy of Bob Bly’s “Direct Response Newsletter”, www.bly.com

By Don Hauptman

Copywriters are hardly immune to the financial crisis. Current, and future, economic events threaten the livelihood of almost everyone – whether they’re employed, self-employed, or own a business.

Fortunately, however, you have advantages as a copywriter that allow you to protect yourself. It’s an edge most people lack.

Trust me; I know. For more than 30 years, I was a freelance copywriter. I discovered a strategy that helped me survive and prosper in all sorts of markets and economic conditions.

You see, in addition to writing, I had several lucrative sidelines:

• Public speaking: I spoke at industry conferences, professional seminars, trade lunches, and similar events.
• Corporate training: I taught and coached at client companies, helping staffers sharpen their copywriting and marketing skills.
• Consulting: I showed publishers how to get better results from their direct-mail campaigns.
• Critiquing: I evaluated companies’ advertising and suggested ways it could be improved.

For each assignment – and most didn’t require a lot of time – I charged between $2,000 and $10,000.

You, too, possess knowledge about copywriting and marketing that is of potential value to others. You may be able to communicate it in any or all of the above ways – and make money in the process.

So what does all this have to do with protecting yourself in this painful climate? The answer is simple …

By diversifying, you can boast a wider portfolio of skills and services. You have not just one source of revenue, but multiple streams of income. If one declines, another can take its place. This strategy gives you an “insurance policy” of sorts against a recessionary economy.I confirmed this while researching The Versatile Freelancer, my new AWAI ebook. I wrote the book this year, during a period of economic gloom, unemployment, bank failures, foreclosures, plunging stock indexes, and fears of recession.

Yet all the people I interviewed, copywriters included, told me their businesses were unaffected and that they were doing as well as ever, or even better! Many attributed that happy situation to their versatility: their services and specialties include some or all of those cited above. 

The experience of Barbara Kaplowitz, a veteran copywriter, is typical. Her primary work keeps her busy in prosperous periods, while consulting and critiquing assignments pick up in bad times, such as those we’re living through now.

Just yesterday, October 23, I asked her how the most recent financial disasters were affecting her business. Here’s her response:

“Tough economic times are not necessarily bad for consultants who are proven performers. Although a number of my clients are holding off on new product launches, they’re still trying to make current marketing efforts as strong as possible. Surprisingly, in the past few weeks, inquiry calls have been more related to ‘old school’ direct-mail copy.

“On the consulting side, I’m seeing the focus on improving communications plans for an integrated, multi-channel world, and on retaining customers – whether through improving renewal series or creating value-added items.”

This helps explain why career diversification can work so well in a down economy.  

During tough periods, companies trim their staffs or don’t hire as they normally would. An outside consultant or trainer, a one-time project, a lower-priced service – these can be appealing options. You’re also in an ideal position to promote yourself by speaking at business conferences and other industry events. When people are desperate, they’re eager to hear solutions.

You say you’re not equipped with terrific public-speaking abilities? No problem. To do these things, you don’t need to be a spellbinding speaker. I’m not, yet my presentations are always well-received. What’s most important is the quality of the content you deliver.

How do you begin? Try this three-step procedure. For best results, do it in writing …

1. Take an inventory of your background, experience, skills, and achievements. Do you have a track record of proven accomplishments – for instance, writing copy that pulls and beats controls, increasing revenues and profits, cutting costs, solving problems, coming up with innovative ideas? These are all “bottom-line” benefits that companies value, even – or especially – in tough times.
2. Determine who might pay you for that knowledge. Consider firms or organizations where you have contacts, or others you can research. Hidden opportunities lurk in the most surprising places. Think creatively.
3. Match your expertise to the market’s needs and approach your targets. Submit a proposal. If you know the appropriate executives, you have an edge. Cold calls are more challenging, but not impossible.

Aside from money, these “presentation activities,” as I call them, bring you numerous other rewards. I can testify to that from my own experience.

First, don’t forget that whenever you speak, train, consult, or critique, you enhance your reputation and boost your credibility as an expert. That, in turn, helps you land new clients. In fact, speaking may be the single best self-promotional and business-building strategy.

In addition, you win applause and acclaim. You have the satisfaction of helping people, especially younger colleagues in your field. You’re stimulated and energized, especially if your regular work has become boring or routine. You might have opportunities for expense-paid travel, possibly worldwide. You benefit from all sorts of valuable contacts and synergies.

Let’s say it again: Whether from your copywriting work, or the career you had before you made that transition, you have a great deal of valuable knowledge and experience. You can share what you know – and get paid for it. In the process, you create a form of insurance against difficult times.

Of course, limits exist. According to a Wall Street Journal article, no industry or profession is 100% recession proof. But expanding the range of skills and services you provide may come as close as possible to the perfect strategy for protecting yourself in all types of economic climate.

____________________________

This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread

by Robert W. Bly

The journey of a thousand manuscript pages (or even 150) begins with a single idea. Here’s how to find one.

Many people who attend my book-publishing semi­nars already have a book idea in mind. Others, however, have a strong desire to write a book, but are stuck on coming up with a suitable topic. If you fall into this category, here are 10 sources of ideas for books you may want to write:

1. Job Experience

An obvious but often overlooked source of book ideas is your job. Thousands of excellent books have been written by authors about a skill, expertise or career experience gained on the job.

This is how I came to write my first book, Technical Writing: Structure, Standards and Style (McGraw-Hill). My first job after graduating college was as a technical writer for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Baltimore. After several months writing technical materials, I began to feel the need for a writing guide to assist technical writers with matters of style, usage, punctuation and grammar. (For example, does one write 1/4 or 0.25 or one fourth in technical documents?) Being book-minded, I went to the bookstores and found nothing appropriate.

My idea was to compile a style guide for technical writers modeled after the best-selling general writing style guide, The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. I wrote a content outline and book proposal, and began to pursue agents and publishers. I was extremely lucky: The first agent who saw Technical Writing agreed to represent the book, and within three weeks, he sold it to the first publisher to look at it, McGraw-Hill. The advance was $8,500 – not bad for a first-time author in 1981 for a short (100-page) book.

Not every book I’ve written since has sold so quickly and easily. But subsequently, I have written a number of books based on skills and experiences gained in various careers and jobs.

Do you hold a highly desirable position or work in a glamorous industry? Then you can write a book telling others how to get into your line of work.

Have you developed specific and valuable skills such as computer skills selling, marketing, finance, negotiating or programming – skills that others need to master? There’s a need for abook telling them how to do it.

2. A Course You’ve Taught

There are many opportunities for you to design and teach courses to other people at work, at adult education evening classes at the local high school or college, at community colleges, at association meetings and even on the university level.

If you get the opportunity to teach a course, keep in mind that the topic and content outline you develop for the course may have appeal to a publisher as the outline for a potential book on the same subject.

In 1981, a private seminar company offering low-cost public seminars in New York City asked me to do an evening program on marketing and promotion for small business. The pay was lousy, but I accepted. A year or so later, I tool the course title and outline, turned it into a book proposal, and sold my second book, How to Promote Your Own Business, to New American Library.

If you want to write nonfiction books, there are two advantages to teaching a class or seminar. First, in developing and teaching the course, you will simultaneously be doing most of the legwork necessary to produce a book on the subject. Therefore, once you’ve presented the course, transforming it into a book is a relatively quick and easy next step (or at least quicker and easier than doing a book from scratch).

Second, teaching the course positions you as an expert in the subject, making you more attractive to book publishers. They figure that anyone who can lead a course on the topic must have a substantial amount of information and expertise to share. If you taught the course at a prestigious, well-known institution, that further boosts your credibility.

3. A Course You’ve Taken

Taking courses can also give you a fresh infusion of ideas and information that can become the basis for a book.

The same private seminar company I was teaching small business promotion seminars for offered a number of courses in different career areas, which as an instructor, I could take for free. After taking several, I came up with the idea of doing a career book on how to break into some of the more exciting, glamorous industries and professions, such as music, film, advertising, travel and television. The book, Creative Careers: Real Jobs in Glamour Fields, was published by John Wiley & Sons.

Warning: When you take the course, don’t steal or plagiarize the instructor’s seminar, reprinting it word for word as your book. Consider it a starting point and supplement it with additional research from many other sources (book articles, interviews, other seminars, etc.).

If the instructor does have good information you want to reprint (such as lists of contacts and resources), get his permission in writing. You can also ask the instructor if he or she will agree to be interviewed by you for inclusion in the book.

4. Life Experience

“It is in the totality of experience reckoned with, filed and forgotten, that each man is truly different from all others in the world,” writes Ray Bradbury in Zen in the Art of Writing. Every person and every life is unique, and this is why they say that everyone has at least one book inside them. What has happened to you has not happened to other people, and your experiences will make for a book that is either instructive, entertaining, moving or any combination of these.

This applies to everyone. For example, if you have chosen to remain single, you can write Living Alone and Loving It or a similar book on the joys of being single. If you are married with children, you have unique experiences as a parent, and can share your knowledge and experiences with others in an entertaining or informative book. If you are married but have been unable to have children, you have credibility to write a book on infertility. If you and your spouse have not had children by choice, you can write a book on Choosing to Live Child-Free. If you have only one child, you can write Raising the Single Child. If you’re a single parent, you can write Straight Talk and Advice for Single Parents.

In 1982, the New York City engineering firm employing me told me I would have to relocate. My fiancee did not want to leave Manhattan, so I resigned and started a new career as a self-employed industrial writer, producing brochures and data sheets for chemical companies and industrial equipment manufacturers.

The transition from employee to freelancer was an educational experience, one I knew many others would go through (or would hope to, someday). This became the topic of my book, Out on Your Own: From Corporate to Self-Employment, also published by Wiley.

5. A Process Or Task You Know How to Do

Through work, leisure or life experience, we all have done things that many other people have not done, and therefore know a good deal more about these things than they do. The inexperienced would like to learn from your experiences and avoid your mistakes, and a book is the ideal vehicle for this.

For instance, after resigning from the engineering firm and becoming a self-employed industrial writer in 1982, I was forced to learn how to succeed in the commercial writing field on my own; there was no book to guide me. I made many expensive mistakes and learned from experience.

To help other writers speed the learning curve and avoid these mistakes, I wrote Secrets of a Freelance Writer, published by Henry Holt & Co. The book is about the process of running a freelance writing business, covering everything from getting started and finding clients to setting fees and negotiating contracts.

6. A Hobby

Hobbies that fascinate you no doubt fascinate a lot of other people. As a hobbyist, you have much more knowledge than a journalist or other outsider who would have to research the field from scratch. Why not turn your hobby into a profit center by writing a book about it?

One of my hobbies is collecting comic books. I love Superman, Batman, Wolverine, and the other DC and Marvel superheroes.

When I graduated college in 1979, I burned with the desire to write a book and get it published. I started two book projects. One was a Harlequin romance novel, which I started not because I enjoy Harlequin romance novels – I’ve never even read one – but because I figured it would be easy to do.

I was wrong. I wrote 40 pages of the worst Harlequin romance novel of all time before abandoning the project.

But writing those pages taught me an important lesson: Don’t select a topic or form for your book just because you think it is commercially viable and will make you a lot of money. If you do, your lack of enthusiasm will show through in your writing.

On the other hand, if you are passionate about your topic, your enthusiasm will show through in your writing. The book will be easier and more fun to write, and the final product will be much better in quality.

The second book project I started working on was a trivia book on comic book superheroes, written in quiz form. For example: What are the six types of kryptonite? (Green, red, blue, white, gold, jewel.) What was Spider-Man’s major in college? (Physics.)

I wrote a short manuscript and, having no contacts in publishing, and no knowledge of the publishing business, sent it to editors at various paperback publishers with a cover letter. It was rejected by all. I gave up and put it in a drawer.

Years later, when I was cleaning out some files, I came across the manuscript. I was going to throw it out, but instead mailed it to my literary agent with a note saying, “Do you think you can do anything with this?”

Six weeks later, she called and said she’d sold the book. I was speechless, The book, Comic Book Heroes: 1,101 Trivia Questions About America’s Favorite Superheroes From the Atom to the X-Men, was published by Citadel Press.

The second lesson I learned from this experience was: A book idea that doesn’t sell now might sell later. If you get rejected by publishers, don’t throw away or forget about the book proposal. File it and make a note to take another look at it in six or 12 months. Sometimes you have success on the second or third try because the timing is right. Other times, you see the idea from a fresh perspective, rewrite it, and make the sale with the revised book proposal. When asked to address the graduating class at Oxford, Winston Churchill, a great writer, stood up, and said only, “Never give up,” and sat back down. These three words are good advice for authors who want to sell book proposals to publishers.

Eventually, a third lesson revealed itself: Every book published gives you credibility that can lead to more book contracts in the same field.

I enjoyed writing the comic book trivia book. After it came out, I thought about doing trivia books on other topics in a similar format.

I was always a big Star Trek fan. This resulted in two books with Harper-Collins: The Ultimate Unauthorized Star Trek Quiz Book and Why You Should Never Beam Down in a Red Shirt. As publishers began to see me as a writer of popular culture trivia, I received several more contracts along this line, including What’s Your Frasier I.Q.?, a quiz book on the TV show Frasier.

Books about hobbies can be how-to, money-making, reference, specialized or general information. If you have an interest in tropical fish, for example, you could write How to Keep Tropical Fish (how-to), How to Breed Tropical Fish for Fun and Profit (money-making), An Illustrated Guide to Aquarium Fish (reference), Care and Breeding of Fancy Guppies (specialized) or Your First Fish Tank (general).

Notice that the first six methods on this list involve you, the author, having some special insight, experience or information on the topic of your book. Author and publisher Dan Poynter says, “Write about something in which you are a participant. The world needs more books written by writers who are also experts, not writers who are journalists.”

“Concentrate on the area that interests you, and if you’re not an expert now, you may become one,” writes Tom Peeler in The Writer. “And even if the area of interest still requires consultation with recognized professionals, specialization will allow you to develop regular sources and will give you credibility with them.”

One of Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons shows an author autographing his book at a book signing. The caption reads, “After being frozen in ice for 10,000 years, Thag promotes his autobiography.” The title of the book: It Was Very Cold and I Couldn’t Move. Obviously, no publisher expects you to have 10,000 years of experience in your subject matter. But writing about something you know, have experienced or have achieved is one route to coming up with a book idea a publisher will buy from you.

7. Tidbits of Scattered Information You’ve Collected Or Compiled

Are you interested in a specific field of knowledge or study? And are you the type who clips articles and collects tidbits of information on your topic? If so, you can convert this passion for information by compiling your collected knowledge into book form.

For a while, I became fascinated with all the toll-free consumer help lines and hotlines I saw advertised, giving free information on everything from AIDS prevention to gardening tips to stock market quotes. I became an obsessive collector of these numbers, clipping articles and writing down 800-numbers I heard on the radio and saw on TV. Finally, I compiled them into a book, Information Hotline U.S.A., published by New American Library.

Similarly, a friend of mine, Don Hauptman, is obsessed by language in general and word-play in particular. Don is a collector of information, and began collecting acronyms (such as DNA, LSD, scuba, laser). When his collection got large enough, he turned it into a book on acronyms, Acronymania, published by Dell.

8. A Gap You’ve Found in the Reader’s Knowledge You Know You Can Fill

An excellent way of finding marketable ideas is to talk with people and find out what they want and need to know, then write a book to satisfy that information need.

For example, an attorney with good negotiating skills heard many clients telling him that they, too, wished they had good negotiating skills and would like help becoming better negotiators. The attorney became a millionaire by writing and selling books, audio and videotape programs, seminars and training sessions in negotiating skills.

Working as a business consultant, I saw there were dozens of books on sales, but almost nothing on how to generate leads for salespeople. I proposed The Lead Generation Handbook, which sold to Amacom, the publishing division of the American Management Association.

And when we moved out of New York City and bought a home in the suburbs, we knew nothing about plumbing, electricity, gardening, cars, aluminum siding, roofing, or the dozens of other things every homeowner eventually becomes familiar with. I thought, “Why not write a book that will be an instruction manual for first-time homeowners?”

I wrote a proposal for a book titled The Homeowner’s Survival Guide. No one was interested, and I put the proposal away in a file and forgot about it. Several years later, a major publisher – one for whom I’ve now written several books – came out with such a book with the exact same title.

Another lesson learned: Pay attention to your own gut feelings. Had I kept trying with this book, as I advise you to do, it might very well have sold within a year or so. But I gave up on it, and now another author’s name is on the cover.

9. An Existing Topic You Can Target to a Specific Audience

A common situation is the author who wants to write a book on a specific topic but finds the field overcrowded.

This happens to all of us: You get an idea for a book and get excited about it. Then you visit the bookstore and find two shelves’ full of books on the same topic, books that seem very much like yours. You become discouraged by the competition, give up and drop the idea. Don’t! You can still write that book. You just need a fresh slant, angle or hook.

One of the easiest and most successful methods to finding this fresh slant is to target your book toward a specific audience within the market. For example, a seminar leader told me she wanted to write a book on presentation skills, but was afraid to try because so many books already exist. She mentioned at one point that she trained mainly women. I asked her if women making presentations in the business world face a different set of challenges than men do. “Of course,” she replied.

“Then,” I suggested, “the title of your book should be Presentation Skills for Women.”

In the same way, I wanted to write a book on selling, but found the market overcrowded. Since my experience is in selling services vs. products, I offered Holt a book on Selling Your Services.

10. Whatever Interests You

In addition to finding out what interests other people, an excellent source of ideas is what interests you. You are a curious, intelligent, creative human being, constantly thinking and wondering about the world around you. Chances are what interests you will interest many other people, too.

I’m a big Stephen King fan, as are many others. Having written the TV and comic book quiz books, I naturally thought of doing a quiz book on Stephen King. My agent promptly sold it to Kensington Books, a paperback publisher in New York City.

I recommend you keep a notebook, file folder or computer file labeled “book ideas,” and whenever an idea for a book comes to mind, write it down and save it. Don’t worry whether the book will eventually interest a publisher. Creating ideas and analyzing/assessing ideas are two separate activities, and should not overlap. Don’t hold your creativity back; let the ideas flow and quickly get them all down on paper. Later you can decide which won’t work and which merit further effort.

But first, you must have the idea.

[Ed. Note: Robert W. Bly is the author of more than 70 books, including The Copywriter’s Handbook (Henry Holt) and Write More, Sell More (Writer’s Digest Books).

This article is excerpted from Bob Bly’s Getting Your Book Published.]

This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread