Do You Have a Book in You?

Beginning writers often say they have a book inside them. Well, if they ever expect it to get published, they had better get it out. For many people, the epitome of being a writer is writing books. And although aspiring to be an author is a noble pursuit, it’s not all there is to a writing career.

When writing a book, most writers begin by doing just that. They bury themselves in researching their topic or story and spend months, if not years, writing about it. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? But how many of them actually get their book published?

In general, most people feel they have something so important to say that every publisher will want to publish their book and every reader will run out to buy it. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This attitude of self-importance originates way back in school—as far back as first grade. Most teachers don’t mean to instill this in their students, it sort of happens through a process of educational osmosis. The teachers had it instilled in them by their teachers in a never-ending educational process. So what is a book writer to do? Market research.



Whether you plan to write a non-fiction or fiction book, it pays to take a look at the market for your idea—not your book. Take a trip to a good bookstore and browse through the books on your topic. This will tell you what’s being sold. Remember, most of the books on the shop’s shelves originated at least two years prior to you seeing them. Now stroll over to the sale tables. The books on these tables are remainders—leftovers that didn’t sell during the book’s most recent run. Many may be terrific, but for some reason didn’t hit the mark. Take notes, being sure to nor publishers names.

Next surf on over to Amazon.com, the world’s greatest book depository. Search for books on your topic. Amazon has practically everything in print. Do the same at their competitor, Barnes and Noble’s Web site. Take more notes, again being careful to note the names of publishers.



After all this research, review your notes and draw some conclusions about how viable your topic really is. Generally, too many books on your topic means the market is overloaded. Too few often means not enough readers are interested or the topic hasn’t been explored to any great degree by writers.

Armed with your conclusions, you’re ready to proceed with your book, modifying the topic to reflect market trends. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t cater to your topic’s market but be driven by it. Doing so will greatly enhance your chance of publication.

And remember, it’s not the book that makes you a writer, but what you have to say in it.

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page.

What It Takes to Write a Non-fiction Book

Beginning writers look up at that ivory pedestal and wish that some day they could be standing on it. But most of the time the writer that’s currently standing on it high above the masses is the one who writes fiction. Why is that?

Perhaps it’s because the majority of what a novelist writes comes from his or her imagination. Readers respect that. But those who write non-fiction books work just as hard—perhaps harder—since they deal in facts and can’t embellish those facts to enhance their story.

So what does it take to write a non-fiction book? It takes commitment and lots and lots of research. The subject you chose for your book has to be one that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. While other writers may have written about it before, you have to choose the right angle that will make your chosen subject seem new and exciting. In non-fiction, that’s known as a slant.

No matter how much you want to write a book, don’t start out doing that. First, your writing skills may not be up to it, and second, your organizational skills won’t certainly be up to it. And if you haven’t written and published articles, on the subject of your book or not, you don’t have the credibility publishers look for.

So you say, forget the publishers, I’m going to publish my book myself electronically. That’s all well and good, but unless you have a reputation as a writer, why should readers buy it. And after all the work you’ll be putting into it, you certainly want them to do that.

Writing a book direct from the starting gate is like going from grammar school to graduate school in one leap. Chances are highly likely that you won’t finish it, and even if you do, it won’t sell. You need to be comfortable with the writing process before you tackle a book. You should be sure you can actually write well enough to be able to focus your attention on other things, such as organization, process, and deadlines and not have to worry about your writing. .

Before you begin to write your book, you’ll need to plan it out. Writers call this blocking. While you may want to start with an informal list of what you want to include, eventually you’ll need to create a table of contents. The table of contents becomes your guide while writing your book.

But before you can even begin putting together your table of contents, you’ll need to do quite a lot of research. You’ll need to do two types of research—marketing research and content research. The first looks into what other books have bene published on your subject and when. The second digs for the facts you’ll need to produce the content of your book. Both are equally important.

If there are lots of books published on your subject, it may not do well because of a flooded market. If there aren’t any or few books published on your subject, it may also not do well because readers may not be interested in it. So you have to look for a happy medium.

Researching the content of your book is a big job that takes a great deal of organization. You may choose to do all the research and then write your book, or you may research one chapter at a time. Whatever you do, use your table of contents to help keep things organized.

If you’ve chosen to self-publish your book and before you start to write it, set a drop-dead deadline—one that you can work with—and work backwards to the present time. Include editing, copy editing, revisions, and extra time for the unknown and unknowable. If there isn’t enough time between then and now, change the final deadline or publication date

If you choose the publisher route, you’ll begin by composing a query letter and sending it out to publishers, that through your marketing research, you believe may show an interest in it. In this case, you won’t begin to write your book until you get a firm commitment from a publisher who will also set the deadline for completion of the manuscript.

There are two ways to write your book. The first is in chronological order, beginning with Chapter One. The second is to write it out of order, beginning with the easiest chapter first and working ahead to the more complex ones.

Edit each chapter as you finish it. This is much easier than waiting to edit your whole book. As you write, be honest with yourself. If you get that little pang of doubt, listen to it. Don’t con yourself and don’t fall in love with your own pearls on paper. On the other hand, don’t polish until you take all the luster off the page. Know when to stop editing.

However, the editing you do is to get the manuscript in the best condition possible. Even though you’ve edited your work, you’ll need to find a professional editor to edit it if you’re self-publishing. Otherwise, you’ll send it to the publisher who will assign an in-house editor to work with you on the final copy edit. Writing your book is only half of the process.

Unless your publisher gives you a short deadline, figure out how much time you’ll need to complete your book and plan accordingly. Writing can’t be rushed. You’re not trying to make the early edition. You’re writing a book, perhaps your first. Between writing times, do something other than think about the book. Leave space between work sessions. Take a day to review research, and then sleep on it. Write, reread, leave it alone, and sleep on it. Remember, your mind will be working on your book while you’re sleeping.

It’s important not to overdo it when writing your book. Don’t work for hours on end. Take frequent breaks and spread the work out over days and weeks. Also, eat well, sleep as much as you need to, stretch frequently, and exercise. This is work. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Winning the Power Struggle

Do you feel powerless as a writer? Do you feel as if the fate of your writing is in everyone else’s hands but your own? If so, you’re not alone. At some point in every writer’s career, those feelings can be overpowering.

So how can you take that power back and put the fate of your writing in your hands instead of someone else’s?

Let’s start with the guilt you feel when you aren’t writing. Every writer feels that at one time or another. You have the ideas. You have the drive. You have the skills. So why won’t other people leave you to it?

Perhaps your friends and family don’t see you as a writer. You’ve got to promote yourself to them. When you have something published, give or send them a copy, not for feedback but just to show them what you’ve accomplished. In fact, make a point of telling them you just want them to read it to enjoy. They’ll perceive you as creating a product for their enjoyment. Doing so also says you’ve made it.

Another power struggle occurs when you think you can only write in a certain place and at a certain time. If you’re good at writing and like to write, you can write anywhere and at any time. You can write on a scrap envelope or even on a napkin in a restaurant. If you have the ideas, you can write. Get out of this rut and write at some other place and time different from when you normally do. Take your laptop to McDonald’s, buy a cup of coffee, and sit down and write something—anything.

Comments from editors—especially negative ones aimed at you—can sideline your writing, sometimes for weeks or even months. Don’t put editors on a pedestal. Remember, a lot of them wanted to be writers but couldn’t be without a regular paycheck. A lot of them are just frustrated writers. If an editor treats you that badly, it’s time to move on. They can be just as bad as bosses in a day job.

And don’t let comments from other people sidetrack you. While editors should have the credibility to say whether your writing is good or bad, other people don’t—not even English teachers. While English teachers may know their grammar and usage, most don’t understand the kind of writing you’re trying to do. Academic writing is totally different and what you’re writing isn’t literature.

Remember, only someone who’s in the writing business can tell you if you’re good or not. If an editor does say you can’t write, ask them why. Ask them to go into details. It’s the only way you’re going to learn to improve your skills. But if another person without credibility says that to you, just ignore them, or at least say you would never begin to criticize the way they do their type of work.

Don’t get wrapped up in market trends. Too many writers think they have to write about the latest trendy subject. In fact, there are probably too many other writers writing about that very subject. Pick another one that few writers are writing about.

Do you believe the only way you’re going to get published is if you have an agent? Many writers do. Agents are people who help sell books and films to the right people. But you really don’t need one if you’re willing to pitch and promote your own work. Famous writers mostly have agents because they’re way to busy to pitch and promote their own work.

Don’t rely totally on anyone else’s opinion about what you write. Only you can make the final decision about what to include. But do listen to what others who are credible have to say and take what they say into consideration.

Finally, don’t put the fate of your writing in anyone’s hands but your own. Only you have the power to make things happen. And when you do make it in writing, shout it out to the world!

Don't Give Up

Just about every writer has wanted to throw in the towel at one time or another. Whether it’s lack of ideas, piles of rejections, or lack of motivation, the temptation is always there. And whether or not a writer considers quitting, most don’t. Why is that?

Writing for many is a compulsion. It’s a drive that runs deep. For some, it starts in childhood, for others later in life. But either way, writers feel compelled to write. And anything that gets in the way of this desire causes frustration.

To avoid getting into this trap, it helps if you know some of the causes, so you don’t get into this predicament in the first place.

Some writers just can’t come up with enough ideas. Do you begin working on what you consider a super idea, only to get bogged down because the idea isn’t developing the way you thought it would? This problem usually comes about because you haven’t thought the idea through. But thinking about an idea is only part of the process. You’ve got to plan it out, too—even roughly.

But not every idea is a super one, so it pays to stockpile them. The more ideas you have, the better. Not all of them will be winners. In fact, most of them won’t be. Having other ideas on hand will enable to you to try something else if the first one doesn’t work. No writer should ever quit for lack of ideas.

Rejections, on the other hand, have put an end to many a writing career. To get published, your work must be accepted. If it’s rejected, you don’t have a chance. One writer got 28 rejections on a book idea before he realized that it may be too specific or not in line with what publishers wanted. He didn’t give up. Instead, he tried another which got accepted immediately. He jokingly said that early in his career he got enough rejection slips to wallpaper his bathroom.

A young California food writer wrote a Moroccan cookbook. No one was interested in it, so she published it herself. She ended up with a room full of several thousand books. Did she quit? No. She contacted Nieman Marcus in Texas and got them interested in selling it in their gourmet shop. That worked out fine, so she continued contacting department store chains and gourmet shops across the country. Her first venture was such a success that she went on to publish six more cookbooks.

Lack of motivation causes a lot of beginning writers to think twice about further pursuing a writing career. Wanting to write is one thing. But have a purpose is another. Whatever you write should have purpose. Do you want to inform or entertain or advise? Giving a purpose to your work will make it seem that much more important. Ask yourself why you want to write. If you say it’s just to get noticed, you’ll fail for sure.

Finally, if you’ve been writing for a while and have had some success but are now in a slump due either to a lack of ideas or a lack of markets, think about all the work you’ve put into your career so far. Don’t let it go to waste. Keep plugging away and give yourself another chance.

Make More Money Freelancing

In today’s topsy-turvy world of freelance writing, making a lot of money is nothing more than a pipe dream for most. Making any money is more realistic. It has become harder and harder to do so with the flood of new media. So how can you make enough to pay the bills—and not count on your spouse’s paycheck. Ladies I’m speaking to you.

The first thing you have to learn to do is to do your best for whatever you’re getting paid. This can be a challenge as many publications have cut their pay rates in the last several years. To make sure you come up with good content, you need to be as organized as possible, so you don’t spend countless hours on a job that pays a low rate.

There’s an old saying: “You get what you pay for.” While that may be true, a lot of editors want more than they’re willing to pay for. You can make your articles seem better if you include lots of details and keep them short. Generally, a shorter piece take less time to write. So stay focused on your topic. Get excited about it and let that excitement spill out to both your editors and readers.

The second thing you must learn to do is negotiate. Most writers shy away from this because they assume that if they push too hard, their editors will reject them. That may be true when you first start working with an editor. Rule Number One: Don’t negotiate on the first job with an editor. Do the best you can on it and win that editor over. You might consider doing two or three jobs for that editor before asking for more money. Sometimes, an editor’s hands are tied and he or she cannot give you more. But usually they have some leeway in what they pay freelancers. Some writers get paid the minimum while others get the maximum.

Start out by asking what the editor can pay for the assignment. It’s at this point that you must decide if you can economically do the job. Is it worth your time? Will it be easy enough to make lower pay feasible? If the answer is no, tell the editor you’re sorry, but you can’t do your best on the job for that price. Believe it or not, there are other fish in the sea.

Once you feel confident enough to negotiate, think like you’re at a public market in a foreign country where bargaining is the norm. Before you begin, consider what you are presently being paid and then figure how much more you can accept. Ask for 50 percent more to start. Don’t get greedy. The editor may counter with 25 percent more. It’s just like bargaining for a souvenir. If you don’t get your price, be prepared to walk away. If the editor likes your work enough, he or she will counter with an acceptable offer. You’ll be surprised how often this works.

In order to be able to negotiate successfully, you have to have shown the editor that you can get your articles in on deadline. If you discover that you’re going to be late, call the editor and let him or her know. They really appreciate that. In fact, they’re smart enough to have given you a deadline that is actually a week or two ahead of when they actually need the article. So there’s a little wiggle room. But don’t count on this. Some editors work right to the wire.

Lastly, as a business person, it’s important for you to follow up. Remember, editors are busy people. Besides dealing with other writers, they’re dealing with various departments. After you’ve sent in the assignment, wait a couple of days and then send a short Email asking if the editor received it. If you mailed it, give them a call in a couple of days. Both the U.S. Postal Service and Email can be unreliable.

The editor will tell you when he or she plans to run your article. Once that date passes, send another message asking for a copy or two of the issue in which your article appears. And if you haven’t received payment by the negotiated time, contact the editor about it. And don’t forget to let the editor know how much you enjoyed working with them—if you did. Don’t lie. There are some editors who are hell on wheels to work with. In their case, move on to another publication. Don’t torture yourself, no matter how much you’re paid.

NOTE: For additional ideas on negotiation, read my blog from Feb. 1, 2013---"10 Ways of Improving Your Chances in Negotiation."

So You Want to Write a Column

A regular option open to you as a freelance writer is to write a column. Though it sounds simple enough a column requires discipline, creativity, and most of all ideas—lots of them.

For many, writing one article is hard enough , but imagine having to come up with 52 of them—one each week—or at least 12 if you’re doing one monthly.

As you read this blog, you may ask yourself, “Isn’t this like a column?” Sort of, but not exactly.  A column is generally a short article on a theme that gets published regularly—weekly or monthly as a regular feature of a newspaper or magazine. A blog, on the other hand, may be posted regularly, but usually that’s up to the blogger. And while a blog may follow a general theme, it may stick to it loosely for a short time. A column, on the other hand, may go on for years.  The most important distinction is that a writer does the former for free and the latter for pay.

Over the years, the market for columns has changed dramatically. But one thing hasn’t: Publishers are still looking for new columnists. Generally, a column offers an insider’s view of a subject, of which the writer is an expert. It’s also a regular feature of a publication, either in print or online, and is personality-driven by the writer. It also contains an opinion or a point of view

A blog, on the other hand, provides for an interactive discussion with its readers. The blog writer  posts the blog, which the site displays in reverse chronological order—the most recent post appears first). Blogs can be the work of a single person or several persons, and often cover a single subject. And while a blog can be written by anyone, columnists are usually professional writers.

To be a successful columnist, you need to find a specific niche, but not so specific as to narrow your potential audience and topics of your column. You’ll have to find out whether other columnists are writing on the same subject and study their work to see how it differs from yours.

After you’ve done that , you’ll need to outline some topic ideas and write several sample columns to show to editors. It’s important to stay ahead of the game. You should continually update and add to your topic list so that you’re never at a want for ideas.

Because columns are short and published regularly, they don’t usually pay as much as even shorter regular articles. An advantage to writing a column is that you can publish it in several noncompeting market at the same time, thus increasing the amount you earn per column. 

In order to have a successful column, you need to come up with a unique angle or approach. You may wish to take the outspoken approach. Perhaps you’ll deal with controversial topics within you column’s subject area. If you feel knowledgeable about a subject, then a column may be just for you. You’ll need a substantial amount of knowledge and understanding about a subject to come up with topics week after week or month after month.

Next Week:  More on writing columns.

Are You Staying Competitive?

Okay, so you created a business plan and are on your way. But is that really enough? While that may have been fine to get you going, it’s not enough to keep you going, especially if you’re out to make a profit.

Whether you'd just like to sell your work steadily to quality markets without too much hassle or whether you like the idea of making enough money to be invited to visit luxury resorts or  test-drive the latest sport cars, you must look to profits. If you don't concentrate on having a surplus at the end of the year, you’ll fall behind. Profit requires knowing how to compete with the professionals so you may join their ranks.

So how do you stay competitive in this business?

First and foremost, you have to focus on your craft. Your writing has got to be the best it can be. After all, it’s your product and your livelihood. Are your writing skills up to par? But don’t just check the mechanics—spelling, punctuation, sentence structure—check your content. Is what you write compelling? Does it capture your reader’s attention and hold it? In this world of ever-increasing distractions, does your work stand out? Periodically check what’s being written about in your subject area. While you may be a fine writer, you may be behind the times with your content.

And what about your financial reserve? Do you even have one? Too many beginning freelance writers work so close to the wire that one unpaid job can knock them for a loop. Try to build up some sort of reserve so that you don’t fall into this rut. Once you end up there, you’ll find it difficult to get out.

How well do you manage your time and energy? Remember, time is money. If you don’t manage your time efficiently, you won’t make any. Do you work on several projects at once? Do you combine research for more than one project instead of flitting from one to the other? Do you get the most production out of the time you do have?
   
Have you set some priorities? Arrange your work in order of importance—what’s due first, perhaps who’s paying the most. However, while working on high-profile projects all the time can be rewarding, it can wear you out. Mix lighter jobs with more heavy duty ones that require more intense focus and energy.

Problems arise in this business all the time. Sometimes, you may feel as if one problem follows directly on the heals of the previous ones. Are you ever going to get a break? Often, you won’t. Do you have the stamina and patience to put up with the nit-picking of some editors and clients? Are the ones doing the nit-picking the ones who pay the least? Consider if working for them is worth it in the long run. When problems do arise, are you able to solve them quickly or do they linger and eat into the energy you need to complete your work?

Let’s face it, freelancing is a risky business at best. It’s like putting your right foot out and not having a steady ground to walk on. How do you handle risk? Are you an all or nothing person? Or do you balance risk with some conservative judgements? Ask yourself, “What do I have to lose?” You may be surprised with the answer. Freelance writing is a lot like playing the stock market. Some of your stocks may shoot upwards only to come crashing down the next day. Others may plod along steadily and in the long run earn profits for you. While the steady ones may not be as interesting, they don’t come crashing down too often. Taking calculated risks is good for business. Study the markets and know what you’re getting into before you make the leap.

And once you’re a success, how do you plan to stay up there. It’s a long way down and sometimes the rungs of the ladder break, causing you to fall quickly. There are a lot of ups and downs to freelancing, and it’s up to you how you handle them if you want to stay ahead of your competition.

It’s All in the Edit

Next to writing the actual words, your most important job as a writer is to edit your work. Good editing makes all the difference between writing and really good writing. However, many writers find it tedious—they like only the buzz they get from the actual process of writing. Also, just as many writers don’t really know what editing is all about. They think they know based on corrections made by English teachers when they were in school, but this is far from the editing needed to make a writer’s work look professional.

First and foremost, before doing any editing, step away from your work. Let it sit idle for at least a day or several. The longer you refrain from looking at it, the better. Your mind will forget about it eventually, so when you do look at it again, you’ll see it in a new light.

Editing is much more than just correcting mechanical errors—spelling, punctuation, verb tense, pronoun agreement, and general sentence structure. Editing deals with the content of your piece. Does it make sense? Is the flow logical? Are your words familiar enough for all readers? (See my previous blog on using $20 words).

Whatever you’ve written, you’ve done so to express yourself on a particular topic. Have you done that? Will that be clear to your reader? Clarity is the number one problem with most poorly edited writing. Remember, your reader can’t phone you or send you an E-mail to ask what something means.

Generally, editing consists of four jobs:  deleting, rearranging, rewriting, and correcting.

First read through your work and delete any word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph that doesn’t belong. If you can eliminate the word and there's no loss of meaning, then eliminate it.

If you haven’t looked at your work for a while, you may notice that some parts need to be rearranged for better continuity. Readers won’t make the leap, so don’t expect them to figure out what you mean. Make your writing logical. If you’re not telling your story chronologically, make sure you won’t lose your reader in the process.

After you delete parts or whole sections and rearrange others, you’ll most likely have holes to fill, so you’ll have to rewrite some parts to make sure they read well and make sense. In this editing phase, you may also want to check for smooth paragraph transitions. These help your writing to flow effortlessly from paragraph to paragraph.

Lastly, and only then, correct any errors in spelling, punctuation, verb tenses, and pronoun agreement.

Once you’ve edited your article, short story, or book, it may be time to let someone else have a crack at it, especially if it’s a book. Find someone who is a serious reader to go over it in detail. Better yet, hire a professional book editor. With the ease of self-publishing for Kindle or Nook, too many writers today are trying to sell what amounts to writing trash. Make sure whatever you sell is the best it can be before you put it on the market.

What Does It Mean to Have Cave Smarts?

Neanderthal man survived for a very long time because he had “cave smarts.” To survive as a freelance writer, you also have to develop cave smarts but of a different kind. While the Neanderthals learned to hunt by trial and error, you must know your strengths and weaknesses and use them accordingly.

Most writers are industrious, sometimes intuitive,  at times a bit impulsive and perhaps compulsive, and observant. What drives most writers is inspiration. The difference between writers and wannabee writers is how they handle it.  A wannabee writer believes that he or she has to be inspired to write anything while a professional writer uses inspiration to get ideas that he or she further develops into articles, stories, and books—all the while keeping an eye on their target market.

If you don’t have a reader in mind when inspiration strikes, you might as well not write anything. Writing for yourself won’t get you anywhere professionally. You have to write for a specific audience. This audience may change from publication to publication or from book to book, but it’s there, nevertheless. Knowing who that audience is ahead of time will enable you to use those inspired ideas to their best advantage. And that’s where being industrious comes in. It takes a lot of hard work to develop an idea to its full potential—perhaps hours of research, followed by an equal amount of time actually writing.

And men, don’t let the women convince you that only they have “intuition.” If an idea seems right, then it probably is. Follow your intuition once in a while. You may have a “gut” feeling about a topic. Follow it through. It may turn out to be the best piece you ever wrote or a runaway bestseller.

While it isn’t in your best interest to act impulsively, once in a while you may have to decide then and there—providing the light bulb goes on in your head—that you’re going to start working on an idea. This often will give you a jump on the competition. And in today’s super fast media world, that may not be such a bad thing.

Avoid acting compulsively. Don’t worry about sharpening your pencils or making sure your desk is compulsively neat. Sure, you’ll have to put on your janitorial hat occasionally, but don’t make it come before getting your writing done. Don’t use cleaning, filing, or sorting as an excuse not to write. As a professional writer, you should be able to write any where at any time.

Many believe that successful writers don’t clip, file, retrieve information. Only a handful of writers work at an empty desk with only a computer and a monitor. If you don’t accumulate lots of files on the work your doing, then you probably aren’t doing enough research. You may use clips of articles to help develop a current project, or you may let them age to help trigger ideas in the future. More important than talent or luck, is the knack for using clips and files to research and develop topics to write about. Contrary to popular opinion, professional writers don’t write off the top of their heads. Even writing a blog takes some thought and preparation.

Writers overdevelop their sense of observation the way a blind person overdevelop their sense of smell or hearing. You need to be alert at all times, even when you’re not actually working. Ideas are everywhere and if you’re not keenly observant, you’ll miss them and perhaps some great opportunities.

To Specialize or Not to Specialize

In marketing today, the catch word is “niche.” Practically every new business has to develop a niche market or it won’t survive in today’s tough economy. Niche marketing is all about targeting the right customers and for non-fiction writers in particular that means the right group of readers. Few magazines today publish general content. Most specialize in a particular subject area with its own group of dedicated readers. And to a non-fiction writer, like myself, targeting a group of readers means developing a specialty.

While some writers are generalists—writing about any subject for any market—the most successful ones specialize in writing about just one or two subjects.

So how do you develop a specialty? Begin by looking over the subjects you’ve written about already and see if you’ve written about some multiple times. If one subject stands out, perhaps, with some added subject and market research, you could develop it into a specialty. If none of the subjects you’ve previously written about stand out, consider you interests. Often specialties grow out of a writer’s special interests or hobbies.

Take my path for example. I began writing articles about traveling to various destinations because I like to do that. I wrote about all sorts of places, but go nowhere. Rejections piled up faster than I could write new articles. Eventually, after an eye-opening trip to Mexico, I began writing about that country. First a little, then more and more. Opportunities opened up for me to travel down to Mexico several times a year. By that time, I realized I liked writing about Mexico and discovered a wealth of topics to write about. So I began reading everything I could on the country while continuing to write about it. I explored lots of topics, from history to beaches to culture, food, and traditions. Soon over half the articles I was writing were on Mexico. I had developed a specialty.

One of my special interests is antiques. I love to collect things and to find out more about them, I began writing about them. At first, I wrote on antiques in my collection, then I started branching out to include ones I didn’t own. I found I especially liked writing about antique furniture. Eventually, writing about antiques and collectibles developed into a second specialty.

It takes as long as two years to fully develop a specialty. It’s not just a about gathering topics to write about, but also learning in depth about the subject and finding markets for your work.

The main advantage in specialization is the amount of knowledge you amass about a particular subject over time. The more you learn, the more opportunities will come your way as you become an expert on your chosen subject. And expertise is what you need to write books on your subject.

Look Before You Leap

When writing a book, most writers begin by doing just that. They bury themselves in researching their topic or story and spend months, if not years, writing about it. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? But how many of them actually get their book published?

In general, most people feel they have something so important to say that every publisher will want to publish their book and every reader will run out to buy it. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This attitude of self-importance originates way back in school—as far back as first grade. Most teachers don’t mean to instill this in their students, it sort of happens through a process of educational osmosis. The teachers had it instilled in them by their teachers in a never-ending educational process. So what is a book writer to do? Market research.

Whether you plan to write a non-fiction or fiction book, it pays to take a look at the market for your idea—not your book. Take a trip to a good bookstore and browse through the books on your topic. This will tell you what’s being sold. Remember, most of the books on the shop’s shelves originated at least two years prior to you seeing them. Now stroll over to the sale tables. The books on these tables are remainders—leftovers that didn’t sell during the book’s most recent run. Many may be terrific, but for some reason didn’t hit the mark. Take notes, being sure to nor publishers names.

Next surf on over to Amazon.com, the world’s greatest book depository. Search for books on your topic. Amazon has practically everything in print. Do the same at their competitor, Barnes and Noble’s Web site. Take more notes, again being careful to note the names of publishers.

After all this research, review your notes and draw some conclusions about how viable your topic really is. Generally, too many books on your topic means the market is overloaded. Too few often means not enough readers are interested or the topic hasn’t been explored to any great degree by writers.

Armed with your conclusions, you’re ready to proceed with your book, modifying the topic to reflect market trends. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t cater to your topic’s market but be driven by it. Doing so will greatly enhance your chance of publication.

Winding Down Time

It's the first of December and time to start thinking about what I've accomplished this past year as well as to plan for next. Yes, that's right, I said plan--something a lot of writers don't do. In this game, you have to stay ahead. If you don't, you'll surely fall behind.

To get things started, I renewed a relationship with one of my regular editors. I've worked with this particular publication for 15 years, but this year didn't do much for them. One of my specialties is writing about antiques and this publication is one of my regulars in that market.

I also began formulating an outline for my newest book on the American Southwest. This can take a while. The more thought I put into the structure of the book at this stage, the fewer problems I'll have along the way. And while too much detail can bog me down, too little will leave me with a vague idea of particular sections later on.