Cheers,
Jeremy

Anything you did/know in this digital age of publishing would be very helpful to me.

Thank you,

Norm Maher

I am in the final stages of writing a non-fiction book myself (due Sept 1 to the publisher’s), and I was wondering if you are relying on your editor for proof-reading or if you hired someone yourself? I am not the most meticulous writer so I was thinking of plopping down around $1500 for a good professional proof-read prior to turning in my manuscript but maybe that is overkill if they will do it for me? Thanks for your help!

Yet, planning sometimes does take longer than the actual action, and good planning makes actual action easier. I’ll have to remember that in the future.

I know that I’ll definitely be picking up a copy when it comes out. That or borrowing it from the Library :P

I am astounded at the amount of copy you generate every day. 5000 words plus lengthy blog posts? Wow.

I’m only at the beginning stages of my book. I was lucky enough to be contacted by a reputable agent (via my blog) and have decided it’ll be easier to negotiate my first publishing contract through the agent. We’re putting the book proposal together now.

I’m finding the creation of the proposal (book packet) very helpful as it makes me figure out the chapter-by-chapter outline first, before tackling the book copy. I like your idea of going further with the outline, paragraph by paragraph. Thanks for sharing this tip.

Best wishes to you and your first published book! May it become a bestseller!

Congratulations! I would love to read your thoughts about Amazon’s new Kindle.

Louise, the last paragraph of your comment seems wildly out of place here (but actually pretty funny) since the whole idea here is to go for the dream.

I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that. Fingers in my ears “La, la, la, la…”

I worked in the publishing industry for years, eventually owning a small company. People think that putting a book out is easy and that any crackpot idea they have for a story or manuscript should be published.

You are a very skilled writer with a relevant, interesting subject. You are also clearly highly organized and driven. That very rare combination makes you a suitable candidate for publication, and yet book success is not guaranteed by any means. The failure rate of published books is staggering; I wish you all the best and feel you will be in the incredibly small minority that will make money.

Folks, writing a successful book is like being a star athlete: the ratio of failed wanna-bes to those actually living on the proceeds is thousands to one. Don’t encourage your children to choose these as a career unless you want them living with you when they turn 40 :-)

The best advice I can give you is this: getting a book published is only half the battle. The success of a book lives and dies by its marketing, and the publisher won’t do it for you. This means a lot of promotion, book signings, author events, etc., which is a job in and of itself. I have always said the REAL work begins when the book is released! You’ve already got a great marketing vehicle with The Simple Dollar blog, so use that to its full potential. Remember, getting an advance is great, but the publisher must make that money back in book sales before you’ll see any additional royalty payments.

With that being said, I have no doubt your book will be a great success, and I’ll definitely grab a copy for myself!

I’m curious about your outline process- that sounds incredibly detailed. Maybe you could share more info about that some day- it sounds like something I need to work on. When I write, I just sit down and write.

Best Wishes,
D4L