The Business End of Selling a Book Idea

In a recent post, a public relations professional encouraged readers to position themselves as thought leaders in their fields through initiatives like publishing a book.

Publish a book. What does that take?

One person who knows the answer is Rob Freedman, who has had four books on business topics published since 2003 by four different publishers. In January, McGraw-Hill came out with his latest, How to Make Real Money in Second Life.

Rob, a senior editor at REALTOR® magazine, conducted a short course last week for a few fellow members of ASBPE (the American Society of Business Publication Editors). He began by handing out seven pages from his proposal for How to Make Real Money… The proposal looks like a business plan, complete with a summary of the book’s intended content and approach, a profile of the audience, the benefits that will induce them to buy the book, and a competitive analysis—what other books on Second Life are out there, and how is this one different?

A business plan is exactly what publishers want, right down to the “handles,” bulleted selling points for the jacket. An example: “You’ve read about it in Forbes, Fortune, and The Washington Post. Now act on the opportunities available in the exploding virtual world of Second Life.”

Publishers want authors to propose titles (two or three options, please) and—last but not least—they want to know what the author can do to market the book. Make speeches? Give seminars? How many speeches, to whom, when, and where? Can the author get interviewed by print media, on radio, or on television? Will that exposure help sell the book? Roughly how many copies?

Wait a minute. Isn’t that the publisher’s job, selling the book?

Yes and no. The publisher’s imprimatur and distribution system alone will sell some books, and that’s the main reason not to go the self-published route. But unless you’re Dan Brown, for whom anything after The Da Vinci Code will get front-of-the-store display, a prospective publisher will want a detailed plan showing how your book will find its way into readers’ hands. That’s before an editor even thinks of picking up your manuscript.

So if you want to find a publisher, first find your audience and figure out what you can say that they’ll find irresistible. Then figure out how you’ll spread the word.

(Among the many books on writing book proposals, one of our favorites is How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen.)