Now What? Strategies

There are as many ways to write books as there are people who try to write them.

For the beginner, it can be a frustrating, confusing experience because we’re pretty sure we were taught how to write in school. Having a nodding acquaintance with the basics leads us to think that a book is a bunch of pages strung together and that you probably start at the top left of the first page and keep going until you reach the bottom of the last page.

That would be wrong.

Which is why so many first time authors look at books on the best-seller lists and say to themselves, “How hard can that be, really?” When they get a few pages under their belts, they sit back with a smile and get ready to love their masterpiece, only to discover that all kinds of things are missing. After all that work, it’s nothing like a book at all. How frustrating!

Should they (or you) give up? That depends on how willing you are to learn. The secret to writing great stuff and having fun at the same time is to realize that there’s an actual process involved. There’s skill and dogged day-by-day commitment. And, like anything else we get good at, we have to be willing to practice until we develop a knack. And the knack I’m talking about in this case is more than stringing words together. A very big part is understanding the role and responsibility the writer has to the reader.

Here’s the thing…

A tale only belongs to its author until it becomes a book. At that point it belongs to the public, who will have to be encouraged and enticed to buy it. You can’t expect people to hand over their hard-earned money if you don’t write something of value to them. And you can’t create a compelling message they’ll be willing to buy by flinging words at a page and hoping for the best. You can’t communicate your ideas unless you make them easy to access and understand.

So even after you get great at stringing words together, unless you’re willing to buy all the books yourself, you need to think about the reasons other people might be interested in hearing what you have to say. You need to take the time to walk in their shoes a little and package your message in a way that will make him or her willing to buy, open and read what you wrote.

Working with me as your writer-for-hire is a collaborative exercise. You and I put our heads together to discover the reason you wanted to write in the first place and the reason we’ll be able to entice your readers to buy. The steps we take to present your message as you meant it to be shared will be carefully considered. It will take our combined efforts to identify your readership, find your creative voice, select your ideas, themes and threads and begin the tale-weaving process.

Is it work? Of course it is. Will it be frustrating? At times, you bet. Will it be worth it in the end? Oh yes!!!

I’m ready to start when you are.