HOW TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED

Whether you want to publish the next best fantasy book or publish a scholarly book, the options you have in getting a book published are so much greater than they were just ten years ago. With newer technology, more small-run printing options, and the Internet, any aspiring author has so much more control and more choices than just the traditional route: seeking out and dealing with the whims of publishers.

I’m not suggesting that traditional publishing (selling your rights to a publisher who then prints, publishes, and distributes authors’ books) is no good, archaic, or a bad choice; just that, years ago, it was your only real choice in publishing a book.

Today, publishing a book is an entirely different game with many great options including one that is BEST for you. There are a million and one different reasons for publishing a book, and there are just as many motivations behind each reason.

Someone might want to publish a book in order to share a great idea. While another may want to save another person from the unnecessary turmoil that they themselves went through. Still another may want to teach others how to do something that will improve their health or their lives in general.

The motivation behind a book idea, the thing that drives some people to publish their book, can be profit, or maybe they are driven by a burning desire to help others. Some will only seek fame, and others will have a combination of motivations.

Whatever the reasons and motivations, they are all valid in the eyes of the author and therefore worth pursuing; if only for personal gain or for a much larger perspective of reaching and creating an effect upon the masses.

But before one can get a book published, the obvious but grossly overlooked step that is vital to its successful publication is getting a book professionally written. Putting too much attention on publishing is like wanting to win the Daytona 500 but never considering the necessity of a professional race car.

It is more obvious in car racing that if one were to use a car that was not up to snuff with Nascar standards, the likelihood of any success is little to none. But in book writing, it is not as easy to see. One MUST have a professionally written book; one that reads well—one that moves or motivates readers in some way, keeps them unable to put the book down because it is so interesting or moving. A book needs to be a high-quality product in order for you to be able to publish it, just like a racer needs a high performance car with which to win.

So the first thing to consider in how to get a book published is getting a high-quality, professionally compiled book written. THIS is your vehicle that will allow you to successfully get your book published! If you already have a book written, you need to verify it. Not by family and friends or inappropriate entities that are only interested in your money for so-called publishing. 

The book is your vehicle to getting published. Choose carefully. It must be HIGH QUALITY and FINE TUNED.

You need to have your book read by a professional editor. You can search on the Internet for editors, and there are online venues where hundreds of editors have a shingle up for business.

But buyer beware of the many pseudo-professionals that lurk around every corner, in every area of the Internet, and in real life. At Writer Services, we give free consultations to writers and authors who want their manuscripts evaluated; let them know their options as well as offer different approaches that best suit their needs and budget without letting QUALITY suffer. 

http://www.writerservices.net/editing.php 

If you don’t have a book written, then you need to find a bona fide book writer; one that can make your publishing dreams possible. I will cover this in my next article, which is part of this HOW TO GET A BOOK PUBLISHED series.

Returning to the auto racing metaphor, you’ll notice that champions of the track are backed by a team of extremely experienced and knowledgeable people: the crew chief, the car chief, the pit crew, the mechanics. Your editor needs to be all of these in one, working with you in myriad ways to achieve that book that can take you to your big win: getting published.

Always make sure your editor, with experience and knowledge, can take you to the winner’s circle.

I would also like to highly recommend the e-book, The Truth About Book Writing: Being an Author and What Is Required to Succeed with a Book of Your Own. It describes in detail what you MUST know to enable you to end up with a professionally written book; one that you can get published!

Video Transcript: 

Hello aspiring authors and entrepreneurs, I’m Robert Nahas, Founder and CEO of Writer Services. Today, we’re going to take a look at how to get a book published. As you might expect, the first step toward getting a book published is of course getting a book written. You need an exceptional, professionally-written book, and I’ll tell you why I emphasize this.

The world of publishing—especially the world of book publishing—is extremely competitive. This might be a fact that’s difficult to swallow, but it’s important to acknowledge that only the very best books get published. Publishers of all sizes receive stacks and stacks of manuscripts every day from authors, and about 93 percent of those are nowhere near the quality of writing they’re looking for.

Even if you’re going to self-publish, there’s a good reason why publishers turn down poor or average books. It’s because those books fail. But here’s the good news: working with a professional book writer and a professional book editor makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE. You might have heard some of the larger publishing houses providing an editor to an author, but in most cases, those authors are already published and well established. Plus, you really don’t want to invite a lot of alterations and changes to your manuscript when you don’t have to. In other words, it’s better to leave things well enough alone.

The best way to go about it is to hire a professional editor who does not work at a publishing company. That is typically how most people have their books edited anyway. The bottom line is, your book has to be in exceptional shape before you submit to a publisher anyway. And if you’re self-publishing, obviously, your book needs to be the best it can possibly be.

As you likely know, Writer Services (my company) has writers, editors, proofreaders and so forth to whatever you need for your book. So we customize or custom tailor our services to your needs. So feel free to reach out to us, and I can put you in touch with one of our editors, and they can work with you. But, in any case, whether you work with Writer Services or another company, make sure that you do hire a professional and that they specialize in book editing; not just articles and things like that.

And, as always, I love hearing your comments on what we’ve talked about. So, the best way to do it is to please leave a comment below, and subscribe to my blog, which I am religiously posting to every week now. I’m Robert Nahas. Thanks a lot, and I’ll see you soon.