It was my morning routine, and as I was reading through my emails something caught my eye:
Your Book Has Made the Best-Selling List!
This coming from a trusted friend, I knew it wasn’t the typical spam email and the news made me pause.
My dream is to have a book on the best-selling list, and it was unfolding right before me!
A buzzing sound was heard off in the distance, and my world became dark as I reached my hand over to shut my alarm off. It was just a dream. In reality, I am not a best-selling author, however my goal as a writer—a storyteller—is to share my inner most secrets, my stories where fiction meets nonfiction, with anyone who wishes to read them.
As a writer, the first thing I do is write my goals and priorities down for each book I’ve started or plan on writing and start mapping out the details of the story and characters. That project overview is where I ask myself questions to see if the book idea would be profitable, and am I the person to write it?
The best practice would be to map out your journey, pack the things you need, and then enjoy the ride! But true confession: I sometimes write backwards! The whole story comes to me, and I sit and write and write until I notice I have an unedited manuscript basically completed. Or I follow my own advice but find myself writing several full information outlines of books and put days/weeks into the book only to find or figure out that I might not be the right person to write it. However, I save it and visit it again in the future because with more experience, I may figure out later that I am the right person. I simply needed time to figure it out—maybe get out of my own way.
Being a best-selling author is only a dream, but in my reality…I have secrets to tell.
Here are questions to consider!
Project overview
Who is my target audience?
What is the Topic? Write a paragraph detailing the topic you’re writing about.
Address the major issues and add the solution you want to give readers.
Fiction:
Compelling story
Main characters
Conflicts – Plot
Plot Twists
Major issues
Is your selling point unique? If not, will it provide new information or old information (or story line) in a new way?
Is your selling point unique? How?
Word Count?
The Market: Defining the audience – who will purchase your book and where?
Are there comparative titles – similar books?
Make a list of at least six similar books and add Titles, author, ISBN #, Publisher and year published, price, formats available, and page count.
Author Bio: Are you the right person to write this book?
Author platform: Do you have the platform to support this book? This is a basic level of measurement that relates to this topic.
How will you promote this title?
I hope these questions will help you!
RA Anderson 