Dear Reader,

People often come to me for advice about getting into book writing for a living.

The first thing I say is “Don’t do it unless you really have to.”

You see, for some people, writing is a compulsion - while others just see it as a potential way of making easy money.

Of course, there are ways of making good money from writing books and selling them yourself or through a publisher - especially now that we have the internet.

If you’re interested in doing that, or want some good sound advice about how to write and market a book that will make you money, then you should take a look at an interesting report that passed my way recently called ‘£20K in 20 hours’.
As you’ll see when you click on the link, this is a lot more about making money than about writing a book! Find out more here.

The easy way to make money from writing books...

I know for a fact that the men who wrote the ‘£20K in 20 hours’ guide have certainly made A LOT of money from writing books. I’m not entirely convinced that you’ll make quite so much from so few hours work (it certainly takes me a lot longer than that to put a book together!). But this actually rather good report does reveal to you exactly how they do it, including: how to choose the right topic, the right title and the right market… how to research and actually create those 100 or so pages… and even how to sell it.
They even give away some of their own secrets and give you a list of publishers (including themselves) who you can approach if you have a book to sell. If you have a book ready to sell have a read now

… and the hard way!

The real truth about most authors, however, is that 90% of authors whose names you will see on the spines of those beautiful books in those beautiful bookshops will hardly make a bean.

Many people believe that being an author must mean that you’re rich and famous but that is so far from the truth. If you have the desire in you to write a really good book then you should do it for the love of it, not the money.

Few ‘authors’ even earn the minimum wage for the hours they put into writing a book. And if you’re banking on becoming a millionaire through writing then you’d probably be better off entering the lottery.

Because: the only reason why you should really contemplate writing ‘a book’ is if you really want to.

My personal salute to every human being who even attempts to write a book

I personally think that books are amazing and I thank and congratulate each and every person who has written one. I thank even those people who have written books on parrots or guinea pigs or important bridges of the Second World War that I will never read. I even thank all those people who have written books that will never be published.

Because they are keeping the love alive. Keeping the book alive. And informing, entertaining and expanding the minds of our nations.

Still want to write a book? Then here are a few more tips:

Think writing a children’s book might be an easy option? Think again. This is actually the hardest market to get into. Partly because billions of other people think that writing a book for kids may be an easy number too. And partly because there is not actually that many new children’s books published every year. (And I personally have doubts about the tastes of the market...)

I would love somebody to write a book entitled ‘Animal Talks Here’. Why? On a visit to the Port Lympne wild animal park yesterday, there were boards hanging on several of the animal enclosures giving you the times for talks on that animal. A wonderful boy standing outside the rhino enclosure in front of us told his mum that he wanted to come back to hear the rhino talking at 2.45…

If it’s money you’re after then don’t try it alone. Take a look at the £20K in 20 Hours report I mentioned earlier. This is a smarter move than trying to write a book yourself than presenting it to an agent or publisher.

If you have an idea for a book already, I would recommend you go to a publisher or an agent BEFORE you start writing it - or once you have a couple of chapters together. They will let you know if they like the idea and maybe even commission you to finish it. It may be a waste of your time to work on a book that nobody will be interested in publishing. Alternatively, they may help you find the write angle and save you a lot of time.

The mainstream publishers I know say they are mainly looking for books that are “written well” - by which they mean good grammar, good flow and ease of reading. If you want to be a writer, spend time studying how successful books are written - and then spend even more time trying to learn from this style.

If you want to write a novel, the recommended length is between 50,000 and 100,000 words. Any shorter than 50,000 and the spine of your novel will not look thick enough to stand out in a bookshop. Any longer than that and it will cost a lot to print: a risk a publisher is not prepared to take on a new writer. There are of course, as always, exceptions to the rule.

Don’t be frightened of doing something similar to a book that’s been successful. There was a time when publishers and agents said that they were looking for something original. These days, however, when the whole industry is struggling, a lot of commissioning decisions are made by accountants who want to know that a book is like another book they’ve heard of that’s been financially successful.

Try reading what you have written out loud to yourself. If it doesn’t read nicely when you read it out loud, then you need to change it.

Just write - every day! I loved these tips I found on a website from Cory Doctorow, author of ‘With a Little Help’, ‘For the Win’, ‘Makers’, and ‘Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom’:

1. Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
2. Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
3. Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscious is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.

Good writing.