How to Turn Your Lifelong Passion Into a Full-Time Publishing Gig
What’s your lifelong passion?
Is it world travel? Dog training? Gadgets? Vintage automobiles? Or something completely different?
Whatever it may be, there’s a good chance you can take your passion and parlay it into a successful part-time or full-time publishing business.
Just look at what self-publisher Gary Scott pulled off …
For over 20 years, Gary searched relentlessly for a business opportunity with “incredible profit potential AND a high margin of safety.”
He didn’t have much luck.
But once he learned that he could write about what he loved doing the most (in his case, international business and international real estate investing) and that he could sell this information for a hefty profit – his search was over.
Now he’s a highly successful self-publisher, worth millions of dollars, splits his time between North Carolina and Ecuador, and lives life completely on his own terms.
So … how can you become a successful self-publisher?
Here’s a simplified, 7-step process you can follow to get started.
STEP 1: Pinpoint your passion.
To begin, grab a notepad (or sit in front of your computer screen, if you prefer). Close your eyes for a moment. Ask yourself, “What do I most love doing? What am I really good at? What really interests me? What do I know more about than most other people?” As ideas start flowing into your head, write them down. All of them.
Don’t censor yourself! No matter how random or wacky your passions or interests might seem, WRITE THEM DOWN! You’d be surprised at the profitability of certain ideas, even in competitive markets. (For example, the book How to Flatten Your Stomach by Jim Everroad, originally a 6,000-word self-published title with a few photos, went on to sell 2,000,000 copies in a highly competitive market.)
STEP 2: Research the marketplace.
Once you’ve pinpointed your passion, make sure it has profit potential. An easy way to do this is to take a quick trip to your local bookstore … or just go online to Amazon.com. Find out what books, magazines, DVDs, or other products are related to your passion.
If you find a few books, magazines, or other publications related to your passion, you’ve probably got a winning idea on your hands. On the other hand, if you find nothing at all, your passion might be a little too narrow-focused. If this is the case, you may want to “go up a notch.”
Let me explain …
Let’s say you were born and raised in Tucson, Arizona … and your true, lifelong passion is quail hunting in southern Arizona. You consider yourself an expert at it … and it’s your favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.
Fair enough.
The challenge here is that quail hunting in southern Arizona is a pretty narrow topic. In fact, if you go on Amazon and do a search for “quail hunting in southern Arizona,” you’ll find nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada.
However, if you “go up a notch” and look around for books on, say, just “quail hunting” or “bird hunting in Arizona,” you’ll be in luck.
I just took a peek on Amazon and found books titled Quail Hunting in America and Wingshooter’s Guide to Arizona, for example. Both are a little broader in scope … and both are in publication.
Now … does this mean your “quail hunting in southern Arizona” idea has absolutely no hope at all? Not necessarily. If you jump on Google and see there’s a lot of web pages, blogs, etc. that talk about quail hunting in southern Arizona, there still might be potential there.
(By the way, I just Googled “Arizona quail hunting” … and 594 web pages came up. Hmmm. Not a whole lot … but maybe. Hard to say. You see, sometimes choosing a topic to write about requires a “gut feeling” kind of judgment call. However, if you do enough research online and in bookstores, you should have a solid idea as to whether an idea is worth pursuing.)
HINT: “How-to” information always holds a lot of promise. If you can show a significant number of people how to solve a common problem, you can make really good money. (For example, the book How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir has now sold over 2,300,000 copies … and still sells 25,000 copies per year today.)
STEP 3: Perform additional research.
Just because you’ve done something a million times … or think you know everything you need to know about a certain subject … doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the be-all, end-all, black-belt expert and have nothing more to learn. Far from it!
While you’re researching the marketplace, make sure you pick up a few key books in your area of interest to augment your considerable knowledge and expertise. Or, if it’s genuinely a passion of yours, reread the books you probably already own on the subject. Get intimately familiar – all over again – with the main topics … themes … concepts … and ideas in the books. Pay attention to what you see again and again in all of the books. Recurring themes … concepts … structure … that kind of thing. Take detailed notes.
And then, think of what you can add personally with your own experience. And write it down!
STEP 4: Outline your book.
Outlining your book in advance can really help you stay focused and avoid long, boring tangents that still plague many half-rate books today.
One idea here is to take a peek at the tables of contents in the books you like in your market. See how the books are structured. Determine how you can add or improve what you find with your own experience and ideas. And flesh out your outline and the structure of your book in as much detail as you possibly can … BEFORE you start writing.
HINT: Microsoft Word has an excellent outlining feature that can really help you outline your book efficiently and effectively. They’ve even produced a video that shows you how to do it. Watch it here.
STEP 5: Start writing!
This is when it’s time to let it all hang out. You’ve got the experience. You’ve got the knowledge. You’ve got an idea. And you’ve got your outline. Let it fly!
This may sound a little wacky, but at this stage, you just want to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE … and WRITE SOME MORE!
Get it ALL out there on paper. As they say, “Kill em’ all; let the devil sort ‘em out!”
Just like you did in STEP 1 when you determined your true passions, you don’t want to censor yourself here. Let your creative, artistic, “right brain” take over. If you make a few spelling or grammar mistakes here or there while you’re writing, don’t sweat it. You’ll have plenty of time to sort that all out in the next step.
NOTE: This is probably the most challenging stage. You’ll probably feel tempted to stop and edit your work as you go. Don’t do it! Not only will this slow you down considerably, but it will “cut off” your right-brain thinking and might keep you from releasing all of your best ideas.
TIP: Writing like this can be taxing on the brain. No doubt about it. So you’ll want to take breaks from time to time. Try writing for 30-45 minutes, then taking a 5- to 10-minute break, and then writing again. Do just this and you’ll be able to write for hours and hours.
Once you’ve got everything down, it’s time to do some clean up.
STEP 6: Edit your book.
This is when you put your creative, “right-brain” to bed … and let your analytical “left brain” wake up and take over. Now you’re looking for ways to “clean up” your copy.
Read over your first draft again … this time with a sharp editor’s eye.
Add copy … delete copy … move copy up and down … and of course, use your spell checker and grammar checker to clean things up. Do whatever it takes to get your second draft looking as sharp and readable as possible.
HINT: You don’t have to do this all on your own! Whenever possible, get a group of other people whose opinion you trust to “peer review” the first draft of your book. Or ask them to use the “CUBA” process. That is, ask them to point out anywhere in your copy where it’s Confusing, Unbelievable, Boring, or Awkward.
Also, another extremely helpful tool you can use in Microsoft Word is the Flesch-Kincaid rating. You’ll find it under Tools > Spelling and Grammar in Microsoft Word. It assesses the readability of your document. Try to shoot for an “FK” rating of 8.5 or less. (This article scored a 6.5.)
STEP 7: Print your book.
Your book is all finished. You’re really happy with it. And you think it’s going to sell well. Now it’s time to get it printed and start selling it!
How do you get it printed?
Well … you’ve got several options.
One option is to have your book printed “traditionally” like the hardcover and paperback books you’ll find in bookstores and online. This can be quite expensive, though … and if your book doesn’t sell, you could wind up with excess inventory on your hands … and lose money.
Another option is to use “print on demand” technology … a technology in which new copies of your book are only printed after an order is received. This avoids the “excess inventory” possibility and has become a popular choice among self-publishers today.
A third option is to have your book delivered digitally. Common examples of digital publications include the Portable Document Format (commonly known as a PDF) as well as “e-books.”
According to Gary Scott, digital delivery is the way of the future for self-publishers.
“Digital printing and delivery of your publication can save enormous amounts of time and money, plus allow you to start your publishing business with far less capital.”
AWAI has even gotten on the digital delivery wagon. You can see how we do it by taking a look at our current best-selling e-product, The Pro Resume Writer Program.
And Once Your Book Is Printed …
… it’s time to market and sell it! If you’ve chosen a hot topic the public wants to know more about … and you do a bang-up job of marketing and selling your self-published book …
… you could soon be well on your way to becoming the next one-person publishing empire yourself.
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Thank you for this article.
Patricia del Valle – January 10, 2011 at 12:11 am