What You Need, Personally, To Write A Book

There are as many reasons to write a book as there are titles of books. For each book published the reason to write the book was personal and may or may not have been fulfilled. Yet without the desire and a reason to begin writing a book you will have a difficult time finishing it.

The book is working its way through your thoughts and you are becoming more and more excited to get your ideas written down. Yet, like any habit, it starts with a bang and quickly loses momentum. This is the point where self motivation takes over. Here's where you need to go back to your reason for writing a book. Ask yourself questions such as why am I writing this, who am I writing to, what do I want them to get out of it, and is it worth my time and energy to continue. If you answer yes to the last question your motivation will be renewed and your habit of working on writing your book becomes solidified.

The key to a good book is the strength of its concept. Make sure you can explain what your book is about , preferrably in one sentence. If you were asked 'What is your book about?" you should not hesitate to be able to answer with confidence. If you can not you need to regroup and get a clear idea of what your concept is. Keep your eye on that concept throughout the writing of your book..

This may sound elementary but when you take a trip you need a roadmap to know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Do not start your book without a roadmap and plan. Some may think that writing a book means sitting down to your computer and just let the words flow out. Although a romantic idea, this is not how it works. Draft a plan of ideas and concepts, who you are writing to, and your end goal. This plan will be the difference between a tightly written book and a book that rambles on.

Writing a book requires focus and commitment over many months or more. You will not finish in a day or even a week. Your attention span will be strengthened when you follow the plan you've set up for yourself and your book, and you will reach each step. You will need a long attention span to keep you on task. Focus and commitment will be necessary not only to finish writing your book but also to get it published and with promotional efforts.

Remained determined, even through times that you have nothing to write or when your life has hit a rough patch. This commitment is necessary to keep you together through these times and come out the other end with a book you are proud of and worked hard at.

It is always a great idea to have guidance and someone in your corner all the way from the concept to the finished product. If this is your first book or your 99th it never hurts to have someone to bounce ideas off of who can actually help. Join a book writers forum, take a course, or get a coach. Any of these will assist you when times get tough.

You are the one who wants to write a book. You are the only one who can keep your determination throughout the entire process of writing, publishing, and promoting your masterpiece. If you're personally ready then it is time to start writing your book.

Toni Grundstrom is a freelance writer with emphasis in the Marketing field. I have been writing for a living for newspapers, newsletters, and now online ezines. I have also worked for a professional legal association, government entity, and small businesses. With 17 years of experience I provide valuable content in all aspects of Writing and Marketing.

Advertising Tips - Long Or Short Copy?

I get a lot of questions from people asking me if they should use long or short copy for their sales copy. Well, the answer is, it depends. There is no hard and fast rule for this. The article you're about to read is going to give you some guidelines to follow when writing your sales copy. Please keep in mind that these are not hard and fast rules, just guidelines. Hopefully, after you are done reading, you'll have an idea of how you want to approach this.

Let's talk about sales copy in general and then we can get to some specifics. This may sound like a smart answer, but in general you want your sales copy to be as long as it has to be in order to make the sale. A great copywriter once said, "Sales copy can't be too long, only too boring." This is so true. You can put your reader to sleep in two paragraphs if you don't write compelling copy. So focus more on the quality of your sales copy than how long or short it is.

Now, let's get to some specifics. In these cases, these rules do apply most of the time. If you're writing sales copy for an email ad that is going to direct the potential customer to a sales page, then you want that email ad copy to be as short as possible. It's up to the sales page to close the sale, not the email ad. The purpose of the email ad is simply to get the prospect emotionally pumped up to want to go to the sales page. A long ad is not necessary in order to accomplish this.

Now, let's get to the sales page itself. In this case, again, as I said, it's not the length of the copy but how interesting it is. However, many studies have been done on this and all of them show conclusively that longer sales copy, when written well, pulls better and converts better than shorter copy, especially if you are selling a high end product. Think about it. If you're looking to buy something and it's a couple of hundred dollars, you're going to want as much information about that product as you can get. A short sales page probably isn't going to give you all the info that you need. However, if you're buying a $7 report, most likely a short sales page is all that is needed.

So, when you go to create your sales copy, keep these guidelines in mind. Again, they are not hard and fast rules, but if you stay as close to these guidelines as possible, you'll find that your conversions will probably be a lot higher.

How to Profitably Sell Books on Amazon

Knowing which books to offer on Amazon can mean the difference between a good income stream and total failure. Here is what you need to know.

First, how do I sell books on Amazon

Amazon.com has a feature called Amazon Marketplace. This service lets you sell your used books, CDs, DVDs, etc. just by listing their code number (ISBN number for books, etc.) Listings can literally be completed in a minute or less for each item you sell. It does take a few minutes to set up a selling account but there is no charge for doing so. In fact the only time you incur a charge is when something actually sells.

There is one small negative to this approach. It only works with products that have a code number. So if you have antique books or other items without a code number, you will need to set up an amazon shop. There is a monthly fee for setting up a shop but the fees that amazon charges are much less in this method of selling than the direct selling method in the prior paragraph. So if you become a volume seller it is probably worth the investment in getting an amazon shop as the investment will quickly be paid for by the savings in fees.

Second, decide your interest level (i.e. just list books or get a store)

The next step is to decide your interest level. It is going to be a casual thing or will you be treating it as a serious business.

Lets say you were just cleaning house and wanted to make a bit of money on some books or CDs you have. In this instance, it doesn't make sense to set up an amazon shop as you won't earn enough to justify the monthly investment in keeping your shop running. But lets say your passion was yard sales and bargain hunting and you knew that every week you could find and list hundreds of books, CDs, DVDs, etc. In this case getting an amazon shop would be a wise investment.

Basically amazon is structured to satisfy anyone's selling needs and they have a variety of simple tools that will help you achieve your selling goals in a quick, cost effective and efficient manner.

Third, these are the types of books you should not be selling

Selling used books is not an obvious thing to do. Common sense would say that bestsellers are the best kind of book to offer because they have sold millions of copies. But it is their very popularity that makes them poor books to sell. If you do a search on amazon for a bestseller, you will find that many people are selling their used copies, many times for under $1.00. With millions of copies out there, the market is glutted. This is true for any type of bestseller - fiction or nonfiction. Other books types you want to avoid are biographies, cookbooks and political books. And of course books like encyclopedias, readers digest condensed books, dictionaries, etc. are also terrible for resale. Oh, and also avoid old library books. There is nothing wrong with them per se but they will be slow sellers because of the markings the library puts on the books.

The only exception to this rule would be signed first editions. If you find a signed first edition, it will retain value and possibly be worth more than the published price depending on who the author is.

Books you should be looking for are books about specific nonfiction. subjects. (In other words, avoid all fiction books.) For instance, books about cars, boats, playing tennis, collecting coins, herbal medicine, business (as long as they are not best sellers), real estate, gardening, etc. are all excellent books and have a very high prospect of selling for a very high price when compared to a bestseller. I will typically get 50-75% of the cover price selling these types of books on amazon.com.

One other thing to note when choosing books to sell. Try to find books that are in perfect or near perfect condition. These books will have their dust jacket if hard cover. The spine will not be broken. They will not be filled with writing. People know they are buying used books when buying from you but they want a book that is nice and presentable, not one that is falling apart.

Where can you find used books for sale?

Used books are everywhere but your goal is to get them as cheaply as possible - preferably for $1 or less. Places I regularly check include yard sales, flea markets, thrift shops and libraries. Libraries often have used books donated to them that they just put right on the sales table. I think the people who donate them think they will end up on the shelves of the library but they never do. Estate sales and auctions can also provide opportunities to buy books. And keep your eyes open. You never know when you might run into a buying opportunity.

Will all the books sell?

No matter how carefully you pick your books, you will end up with some that just don't sell or are just very slow in selling. This is normal. Chances are good that the book will eventually sell but it could take several months. And if you purchase your used books cheaply enough, the carrying cost of the books that sell will be small. I find that if I list a random selection of 100 books, about 25% of them will sell each month. That means that after 4-5 months, I can pretty much assume that all the books that will sell have actually sold and I may be left with 5-10 books that for whatever reason had no buyers.

At that point, I make one of two choices. I either lower the offering price on amazon to try to attract a buyer or "trade" the book for something more desirable.

The only time to buy bestsellers

There is one time and one specific reason I will buy bestsellers. If I have the opportunity to buy a large number of hardcover (and sometimes paperback) bestsellers in perfect condition for under $1 each (under $0.25 each if softcover), I will usually buy them. However, I will not sell them on amazon.

There are a large number of used bookstores that will buy or trade books with you. They typically give you 20-25% of the books list price if you want cash and up to 50% of the books list price if you want a credit. That means I have a ready outlet for liquidating these books. If it is worthwhile, I can just swap them for immediate cash. Or I can trade them for other books I can sell at amazon. In general, I make out better in a trading situation than in a cash situation but sometimes if I have way too many books, I will just go for the cash option to reduce my inventory. It is a really effective form of inventory management.

Before you jump out and buy 100's of bestsellers, do check with the used bookstores in your area to see what they are offering for these books. Different shops may offer different rates depending on their current inventory. A little shopping around by phone can result in a lot more cash ending up in your pocket.

How much can I realistically make?

The amount you can make in any given month depends entirely on how many books you acquire that month, how well you did at negotiating the cost and how well your books choices were. This is a business where you can easily make several hundred to several thousand dollars a month depending on the above items. Also it is a business that can give you higher returns the longer you do it. The more you sell, the more you get to know what will sell quickly and what will sell slowly. That will let you be a bit more particular about the books you choose in your book hunting. Instead of ending up with lots of unsold books at the end of the month, you will have an inventory that turns over very rapidly.

Bookselling is a really fun and stress free way to earn anywhere from a supplemental part time income to a full time income. And with the tools offered at amazon.com, it is really easy to get started and keep the profits flowing. There aren't many businesses where you can make money by shopping but this is one of them!