What I Learned From Writing A Book
Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Dave Stein
I get emails and calls from people writing books about sales and selling. Here is some of what I learned and experienced as a result of writing How Winners Sell:
- It was harder to produce my 256-page book than the 512-page one I started out with. I spent almost as much time taking the book down to a sellable size than writing it in the first place.
- It forced me to explain things in the clearest of terms—much more so than speaking or training.
- An excellent editor is worth his/her weight in gold.
- Writing a book forced me to focus on my own IP rather than what I picked up over years of reading other peoples’ stuff. From what I understand, the same goes for most authors. Then again, I see my IP in other peoples’ books without any attribution. That used to really tick me off. Now I’m more accepting.
- Book publishers (not Bard Press) told me what they’ll do to help promote and sell my book, but they wound up doing almost nothing. (I realize if I was Tom Peters or Seth Godin, I wouldn’t have that problem.)
- It makes a great business card to use when I really want to make an impression. Especially when I sign it and point the recipient to a specific page that I believe will impact them.
- It’s a great marketing tool, when used the right way.
- It’s a rite of passage for a professional. Like skydiving for the first time is for a person who likes a thrill. Or soloing when you’re taking flying lessons.
- It enabled me to look at other peoples’ books much more critically.
- It became the center of some teasing in my family. For example, when the subject of saying a few words at my older daughter’s wedding, she asked, “You’re not going to try to sell your book to the guests, are you?”
- I learned I really get a buzz when people tell me the book made a big difference in their careers.
- To be a successful author, I really had to learn an entirely new business: writing, publishing and promoting books. I didn’t quite get to the mastery stage on the last book. The next one will be different.
Filed under: Marketing
Dave,
Here are some more that I’ve picked up over the years and working with 5 publishers.
13. Your size of your advance is proportional to the publisher’s commitment. If the advance isn’t big, you’re on the C-list and can’t expect any publicity.
14. Unless you’re a top author, it’s almost impossible to make minimum wage writing a book. The money comes from using it as a business tool. Or you write it for fun.
15. The best, indeed the only, negotiating position that beginning author can take, when dealing with a big publisher, is over a barrel with your pants down.
16. Publishers are crooks. They wait six months to pay your royalties, because it lets them earn interest on the float. They pretend it’s because it takes time for booksellers that long, which was last true in the 19th century.
17. Publishing houses consist of a few old people who make a lot of money and a bunch of young folk working for peanuts until they figure out they’re being screwed.
18. The only way to get around the problems with a publisher are to publish yourself or (better yet) have a personal friend who has his own imprint. (That’s happened to me twice.)
19. Everybody thinks they should get a free copy of your book. Everybody. They think the publisher sends you cases and cases, not the paltry 10 copies that are traditional.
20. Nobody has ever read Chapter 7 of any business book. Publisher make money renting out Chapter 7 to the CIA for secret communication with agents in the field. (OK, I made that up.)
21. If you use a case study in a business book to show how a business should be run, within three years the company will go belly up or the CEO will be arrested for fraud. Or both.
22. The big name authors blurbed on the back cover haven’t read the book. They’re blurbing your book because it’s free publicity for theirs. Or they owe the author a favor.
23. Every business book must have a short title and a ridiculously long subtitle. These titles are destined to be considered quaint in fifty years, but publishers love them.
24. Want a good laugh? Read just about any business book published in the 1980s. The best ones are all about how the Japanese are going to drive U.S. businesses into the dirt.
I guess that will do for now.
Geez, maybe I’ll pass on writing that new book for a while…
Dave,
What a wonderful list. #10 – my son cringes constantly because he thinks I’m going to plug my book to his friends’ parents. Usually he is right to do so. I’ve become a shameless self-promoter and I can’t seem to stop myself.
I love books – writing, publishing, and marketing. The book business is a huge puzzle that is incredibly fun to put together. It is also a business that is changing rapidly – though the old geezers in the head offices are having a tough time coming to grips with this fact.
When people ask me about writing I give them four pieces of advice:
1. Writing a good book is very, very hard.
2. Finding someone to publish you is even harder.
3. Selling your book is nearly impossible.
4. Screw it all and write damn it!
Thanks for giving me a good chuckle. We’ll be adding your book to the book store at SalesGravy.com.
Jeb Blount
Author of PowerPrinciples (see, I couldn’t help myself)
CEO, SalesGravy.com
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