So - You Want To Write A Book

By Author: Kevin Taylor
Total Articles: 39
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Someone once said there is a book in each of us, and perhaps they are right. Perhaps you too can write a best selling book.
Many want to write their memoirs and family history to give to friends and family. In that case, go ahead. Your grandchildren, great - grandchildren will be interested in what you did, the times in which you lived. Historians are always very interested in the daily lives of the ordinary people of the past. It is a vital part of their research, and, in the future, historians will be just as interested in your life. But if you think that this will cost you a great deal of money, this in not necessarily so. It may seem a silly question, but, should you write a book in the first place; and, why do you want to write a book?
Whatever the reason, it is quite satisfying when you first hold a book in your hand, you see your name on it, and you think- I wrote this. That doesn't happen to everyone.
The major internet book seller, Amazon, already has several million titles for readers to choose from, so your book will be lost in the crowd, and will take hard work to make it stand out. In addition, ...
... as most of the self published books are badly written, libraries and book stores will not stock self published books. If the book is of special, local interest, then your local library may put one, maybe two on their shelves.
I published my first book for a total outlay of less than $100.00, and this included having someone design of the front and back covers, plus formatting of the interior.
However, if you want to write a novel and make a pile of money, that is another thing entirely. The unfortunate fact is, very few people make money by writing a book. The very well-known authors, with sales of millions of books, can and do make money. However, there are many well-known authors that cannot afford to give up their full - time job. And as for the new, completely unknown authors, they very seldom do.
Whilst a few people make a great deal of money self publishing, the fact is that the great majority do not sell more than 100, most of them considerably less, usually less than 10. The largest of the Internet publishers, Amazon, for example, has millions of books on their website. And there are many more internet book sellers. So your book has very little chance of being noticed. Many Internet publishers will promise sales, but few achieve them, so you must be very, very careful. There are a lot of scam publishers that promise a great deal, take your money, and then nothing.
Everyone has heard how a complete novice can write a book, and make a fortune. The Harry Potter novels were the first books that JK Rowling wrote. She was turned down by over 35 publishers before Orion publisher took her on. Then, her books became the greatest achievement in literary history, achieving sales of over 450 million books, not to mention movie rights. This has been followed recently by the phenomenal success of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, which was self published by E.L James. This has sold 65 million copies to date, and is still flying off the shelves. At the time of writing this article, there are a number of movie companies bidding for the right to make a movie of it.
The internet abounds with self published authors who, having persisted in marketing their books, have eventually achieved remarkable success, many of them making a very comfortable living indeed. One such case is Amanda Hocking. A prolific author, she wrote over seventeen books before attempting to publish any of them. Her books were turned down by several mainline publishers, so she turned to self publishing in 2011. At first, her books sold slowly, then by mid - 2012, her books had started to sell, soon she was racking up sales of 9,000 books per day. Today, with the excellent quality of her writing, and her marketing efforts, her sales figures now run into the millions. So much so, that some of the mainline publishers, who had turned her down in the first place, were now contacting her, asking to publish her books in future. So, with hard work, a little luck, and most of all good writing, it can be done. But, don't expect an easy ride, the road will be long, rough and tough.
Notwithstanding all above, it is very satisfying indeed, when you first hold a book in your hand, you see your name on it, and you think- I wrote this.
That doesn't happen to everyone.

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