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Throughout filmmaking history screenwriters have used many methods to achieve success in Hollywood. Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, 1989) easily gained access to Hollywood as the daughter of stage and screenwriting team Henry and Phoebe Ephron. Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, 1999) juggled many jobs and wrote for the T.V. series, “Get a Life,” before catching the attention of producer Steve Golin. Alan Ball (American Beauty 1999) chose a different path; he first worked as a theater producer and writer. Producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner invited him to Hollywood because they both saw the debut of Ball’s hit play, “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” at the Manhattan Class Company Theater.

While Hollywood screenwriters have their own success stories, they also share strong work ethics and know how to foster vital business connections. This article examines how current Hollywood screenwriters Dan Bucatinsky and Tim McCanlies learned from their predecessors’ habits and how they jumpstarted their writing careers.

Dan Bucatinsky is a talented and disciplined writer who broke into the Hollywood scene in 2001 with his romantic comedy, “All Over the Guy.” A 1987 graduate of Vassar College, Dan took advantage of his education and worked diligently to learn his craft and develop a unique style. His time spent writing countless papers, stories, and scripts in college attributed to his screenwriting excellence. When he returned to Vassar in 2004 to advise aspiring screenwriters Dan emphasized the importance of writing everyday.

“Even when I draw a blank, even when I don’t feel like working, even when nothing I put down on paper is any good…I force myself to write for at least a couple of hours everyday,” Dan revealed.

This discipline is a trademark of successful Hollywood screenwriters. According to Dan, a writer’s willingness to push himself can prove more significant than raw talent. There are many naturally gifted writers; what distinguishes a great writer from a good one is the technique they have gained through careful study and years of dedication.

Several helpful books exist for writers seeking guidance as they try to develop their skills, including, “Crafty Screenwriting” by Alex Epstein, “Adventures in the Screen Trade” by William Goldman, and “Secrets of Film Writing” by Tom Lazarus. Dan Bucatinsky and countless other screenwriters rely on these resources to craft innovative, creative screenplays. These resources can be bought at any bookstore or online at .StoryScribe.com (.storyscribe.com).

Like Dan Bucatinsky, Tim McCanlies (Iron Giant, Secondhand Lions, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81) gained attention for his artful writing. He nurtured his natural writing talent by practicing and revising scripts when he wasn’t working at odd jobs to support himself.

In 1979 he published his first novel, “Harlem,” and enrolled in the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College to further study writing techniques. While in school Tim simultaneously excelled in his classes and completed a screenplay based on his novel. His hard work paid off: college founder Gary Shusett noted Tim’s diligence, read the screenplay for Harlem, and helped to get the script optioned by Interscope.

In a recent interview Tim revealed that he still writes everyday and added that “the key to good writing is to focus on developing strong, interesting characters.” He stressed the importance of building up a writing resume, encouraging aspiring writers to embrace all learning opportunities including internships and jobs as assistant writers.

One of Tim’s early jobs was as an assistant writer for the 1987 film North Shore. An array of writing jobs and internships can be found online through websites like .mandy.com, .backstage.com, .hollywoodlitsales.com, .FreelanceWriting.com, and .CyberScreenwriter.com.

Tim urges beginning writers not to lose hope, saying that it took him more than six months to write and revise the screenplay for “Iron Giant” even with his strong educational background and years of professional writing experience.

As gifted, hard working writers, both Dan Bucatinsky and Tim McCanlies recognize the significance of contacts in Hollywood. Hollywood studios receive thousands of scripts each month. Of these thousands only a few hundred may make it from the mail room, past the intern’s desk, and into the executive’s office. In the rush to read and pass scripts through the hierarchy, Hollywood studios push many screenplays to the back burner or, worse yet, immediately discard screenplays without review. Some amazing screenplays end in the trashcan while many mediocre scripts are approved for production.

Why does this happen?

Because when a script arrives with a cover letter of recommendation from an executive’s old professor, friend, co-worker, etc… it goes straight to the top of the studio’s “Read Me Now” list regardless of quality. This is the reality of the Hollywood system, however unfair it may seem to newcomers.

The smart screenwriter will accept this reality and make the most of his/her connections to ensure that their script lands in the “Read Me Now” list. Although mixers through organizations like the American Screenwriters Association and the Writers Guild of America are good places to make contacts, the schmoozing element of the business often requires some luck as well as hard work.

For example, Dan Bucatinsky was close friends with a woman named Lisa Kudrow when he was studying to become a writer at Vassar College. When Lisa became famous for her role in the popular television sitcom, “Friends,” she helped Dan achieve his Hollywood dream. She ensured the production of “All Over the Guy” by signing onto the film as an actress and recommended Dan as a writer to many Hollywood producers and directors. Dan and Lisa continue to collaborate on film projects, and he writes parts for her into his screenplays. When Dan speaks to students, he stresses making valuable friendships in college and urges students to view writing as a business as well as an art.

Tim McCanlies also credits much of his success to luck and connections. Without the support of Gary Shusett, an associate producer on the 1988 film “Moon Over Parador,” it is unlikely that Interscope would have read Tim’s unsolicited screenplay “Harlem,” let alone optioned it. Once Gary Shusett helped him get his foot in the door, Tim had the opportunity to make films with rising Hollywood stars like Brad Bird (Iron Giant 1999, The Incredibles 2004) who appreciated his work ethic and creativity. Tim’s career as a Hollywood screenwriter thrives today because of the connections he made and fostered as a young writer.

The key to breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter is twofold: a willingness to write, study, and practice with consistency; and a talent to develop relationships with people in positions of power. There is not one right way to be a screenwriter, but these elements are significant to achieve success in Hollywood.

None of living humans will state that life nowadays is easy, no matter what your achievements are. People say they are under a strain, but they are the producers of it and there is nothing they can do about being dependent on it. We live a comfortable life using modern technologies to make it easier to cope with everyday routine, but when a problem comes up we quickly hide behind the wall of fear and misunderstanding not to get closer to the dangerous solution. In everybody’s life comes the point when it is impossible to stand the strain and you run for shelter of your couch and support of your friend that is always near to help you whenever you need him. You adore his demeanor, his appearance, his sense of humor and his deep knowledge of every subject you happened to touch upon. You know that you are jealous and you wish to be just a bit like your successful friend. And the reason of this is constant presence of luck in his life that irritates you with decrease of the last in your life. His kind words in your address do not help and make the situation even more severe. You finally realize that depression is somehow caused not only by problems surrounding you, but by jealousy you can’t get rid of.

People try not to speak about the reason of them being depressed. But they lively discuss the evil jokes of destiny that gives all possibilities to one and takes them away from another. People that are can find a purse in the middle of the sidewalk, take the last train even being late, turn in written assignments and getting the highest grade, meet a person and never part, are considered extremely lucky. But what is “luck”? “Luck” is an abstract noun that means an unexpected result that is extremely positive and was achieved with no effort from the side of the object. Some can argue with this definition. Nobody can take away all the possibilities unless you let them go without fighting for them. You have an aim, but you need to take some actions to realize it. To reach success you have to be active, focused on positive, hardworking and striving for knowledge. Success comes with time, not with desire. If the first try was unsuccessful keep trying and finally you’ll get the desired result. “Try, try, never say “die”, says the saying that means that every try if it is hard enough will be duly rewarded. Start accomplishing what you’ve planned and everything will change for you from no on.

There’ll be no possibility to stop and look back onto what was wrong and was it bad luck at all. If such thoughts still appear in your head, try to ignore them and focus on other important things. Now it is quite obvious that definition of luck given above is quite subjective. Now you don’t think that success of your friend is a matter of luck. He is self-motivated, active, creative and willing to move on and these are features that make a winner of him. One more quotes,” Looser blames his failure on bad luck; a winner blames his failure on his carelessness”. You know who you are now and you have a choice: to keep up if you are a winner and to change the attitude if you are a looser. Believe in second chance and people will consider you to be lucky.

Writing articles on the web is the best form of expression in this internet centric era. The power of web has allowed us to reach millions of users surfing internet at any given point, and there is a tremendous potential to put forward your views to this audience. This is a great way to promote your website or blog as well. I personally prefer writing travel & tourism articles and following are a few tips for writing good articles which I follow.

1. Title is the most important part of any any article. A good attention grabbing title will certainly welcome users to your article. For example if you are writing an article on travel tips for Brazil tourism, you may decide to go with a simple title of “Brazil travel tips”, but I would personally prefer a title like “Going to Brazil - Important Brazil travel tips”, this will grab better attention and interest.

2. Use bullet points or numbers to break your article into several sections. It is a very good idea to bold certain words and sections of your article. Put pictures if you can, for example while writing a travel article, include maps, points of interests and other useful contact information.

3. Length of article: There is no rule but an article between 300 to 500 words is usually considered the best.

4. Search engine optimization: Optimal keyword density, using H1 tags for headings and specifying keywords in meta tags are some of the good rules to follow. Also do not forget to put the ALT tags on images.

5. Submitting your article: Try to submit articles on a website which have the same niche as your article, or at least the article is placed in the section which shares the same theme. For example if you are writing an travel article there is no point in submitting it to a site which has a niche of technology or finance.

6. Submit articles frequently: If you are a website owner then write articles often. This will encourage readers to browse your other posts and eventually visit your site for additional information.

7. Good content: Always publish original content and present facts to the best of your knowledge, regardless they are good or bad. Your article should provide unique information to the user. Specify a date when the article was written.

8. Using examples to describe your point or a situation, is also a great way to present your perspective.

9. If your article gets long, then put headings on the top and provide internal hyperlinks to rest of the article. A great example of this is wikipedia encyclopedia.

10. Social bookmark sites: After your article is published on the web, it is a good idea to bookmark with sites like Delicious and Stumbleupon. This should also help to attract additional web users to your article.

When I finished my book, “The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico,” I sent queries to a number of publishers. On a lark, I queried McGraw-Hill. To my utter shock and awe, they wanted to look at the completed manuscript. The editor who read the manuscript wrote back and said that he wanted to take it to the final committee for possible publication. This meant that the book passed all the requirements except the final step in which it is determined, in a kind of crystal-ball reckoning, if it will be something that will make them money&ndashthe bottom line.

Unfortunately, it did not pass that final step.

The main reason was the financial department thought the subject (expatriation to Mexico) occupied such a small niche that it would not make them money. They told me another reason they rejected the manuscript was that I had no platform.

In non-fiction (and, to an extent fiction), publishers take a hard look at who you are. They want to know why someone would want to buy your book from them. If you’ve written a book on weight loss, the publisher is going to look at what your qualifications are a selling point for your book. If you are a doctor with a very large practice, the publisher might reason that your education is a selling point. In addition, you have this platform, the medical practice, from which you can promote your book. Though the patients may only number in the hundreds in that doctor’s practice, the publisher might gamble that those patients would spread the news about the book to their friends. (Word-of mouth-promotion.)

Another example is the most beloved person (that’s a joke) in the entire world, Ann Coulter. This woman has a following she gathered from her TV platform. All those appearances she has made on television earned her a following that will buy all her books no matter what the woman says. Although I am a conservative, let me say this: She pushes it too far most of the time. However, she is a best-selling author and all of her books make the top of the list. She carefully and shrewdly built her platform from which she now has this following who buy her books.

To McGraw-Hill, I was a nobody. No one had heard of me and I had no following.

The book, by the way, got published and is still paying my $400.00 a month rent payment.

Since the year 2005, I have been busy. I’ve been writing hundreds and hundreds of articles, mostly for free. I have worked to build a following from the platform of the Internet (and a few print venues). I have engaged in article marketing to promote my books.

I have used three directories, Associated Content being one, to post my articles. I have “parked” my articles online and, through the magic of search engines as well as online publishers wanting free content, I have gathered a following. From this platform of writing free articles online, I have had three experiences that demonstrate my point.

First: A travel guidebook company contacted me and asked me to write for a book they were putting out. They asked for a contribution for the book. I wrote an article for the book, which is now on the market. It is a paying gig and provides excellent exposure for my writing.

Second: A couple of journalists who are starting a print and online magazine contacted me to become a regular contributor for their new publication. They found me online, read my work, and want me. This is more exposure and an additional platform from which to extend my book promotion reach.

Third: I just got word that an advance-paying publisher is offering me a contract for my next book. What looked attractive to this publisher was the writing itself AND the fact that I have a following. Now, with the magazine startup, I will have additional exposure to a readership of about 100,000 people. The magazine is related to the niche in which I write.

This is what publishers are looking for when you query them for possible publication of a book idea. How will you be able to sell this book, what will you do to promote it relentlessly, and who knows who you are? This is the business side of the so-called creative writing gig.

You have to find a way to gather a following of people whom you can reach to tell them, “Hey, I have a new book coming out. Will you please buy a copies for yourself and all your friends?”

So, all those articles you are not getting any upfront payments for in Associated Content?

Get them online anyway. Write the best you can. Try your hardest to promote them.

Associated Content is the platform from which you can put together your following. I did it!

The professionals are out there cruising the net looking for their next talent.

Overcoming writer’s block has so many prescribed cures that seem like witches’ brew, you may as well be trying to get rid of hiccups. My favorite remedy is “just write anything.” If I were to follow this advice when I’m stuck in a frustrating blank stare moment, my page would be filled with expletives that would be of no use to anyone, including Lenny Bruce.

If you have no idea of what to say on any given subject, you do not have writer’s block, you have a lack of knowledge problem. If you have the facts in front of you and still do not know what to say then you have writer’s block. The basic step of gathering enough material to complete your writing task should never be confused with writer’s block. Writing takes leg work - tedious legwork. Before the Internet this task could seem insurmountable; but now with worlds of knowledge at our fingertips, I don’t want to hear about any problems getting background material on any subject. Learn how to use the search engines well. This should already be part of your writer’s skill set.

Genuine writer’s block comes when you “just don’t know how to say it.” You have the information, a basic outline, yet you are not satisfied with the tone, cadence or anecdote provided. It just doesn’t feel right. You can’t tie your ideas together into one cohesive product that supports the underlying theme you are trying to convey. What do you do?

Take your material and write it out as you have it. Even if doesn’t feel right complete your assignment as if it were due today, and walk away. Leave the problem to rattle around in your brain for a while. Now here comes they key. Do something totally unrelated that requires you to pay some attention to your new task - a household chore, returning emails, running an errand. I generally find a physical chore, like walking to the post office to be superior to a mental chore like answering emails. Exercise is one of the great inspirational tools available to us. If you exercise regularly this would be a great time to do that. Sometime during your chore or exercise the answer will pop into your head. That is the way our brains work. Inspiration comes to us all the time. We need to be distracted from the noise that interfering with our ability to hear the inspiration. Once we have changed our focus away from the problem at hand our brain can finally deliver the answer unimpeded. Whether you believe the answer has come from your brain or from the cosmos the answer is always available to us. Sometimes more than one chore is required for distraction. On a big problem it might take a week of chores. Be absolutely sure you have a pen and pad of paper with you at all times, because the answer may be fleeting, or just a partial answer with the remaining portion to show up at a later time.

Most writers are working on more than one project at a time. Leaving one assignment and starting another can also help in getting the answer to a previous writing problem. Remember; never confuse lack of preparation with writer’s block. Lack of preparation is a matter of laziness and is a whole different problem to overcome.

The task of getting published is one of the daunting aspects of writing. This can be difficult, if you want to get published by a traditional publishing house. It’s not as difficult if you want to self-publish. In this article I will share with you the steps involved in getting your work published either traditionally or through self-publishing.

Mainstream publishers are often reluctant to accept work from young writers as anyone under 18 cannot sign a contract on their own and will require parental involvement. That is not to say you cannot submit to them but make sure your work is of high quality as you will be competing with adult writers. There are also several publishers that cater specifically to young writers, for a list of these, check out the book THE YOUNG WRITER’S GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED. There are also several sites on the web that accept work from young writers such as stonesoup.com and Merlyn’s pen. Make sure you edit your work thoroughly and follow the submission guidelines for publishers carefully. Some publishers prefer that you send a query letter only at first describing your project. The query letter should be only one page long. If it is longer than that a busy editor will likely just throw it to one side. Think of the back cover summary you see on most books you buy, try to summarize what your book is about in a few words. This can be difficult but it must be done and done in a way that grabs an editor’s attention. Some publishers will allow you to submit a query letter and a few chapters of your work or your entire book. It is important that you use the correct font, you can’t go wrong with courier new 12 pt and a double spaced manuscript. The query letter can use the same font but there is no need to double space it.

Let’s now take a look at self publishing. Self publishing has become quite easy with the advent of self publishers like Lulu. At lulu.com you can publish your work for free. However lulu does take a small commission of anything you sell. Lulu also sells ISBN’s for around $100 U.S. dollars. An ISBN will make your book available for international sale. It will become available to places like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and hundreds of other distributors worldwide. When you self publish you set your own price and your age never becomes a factor as it will be with some traditional publishers. If you decide to self publish everything falls into your hands, from editing to formatting. Lulu provides several services for these publishing details, however the costs can add up for young writers. The good news is that with patience and determination you can do it yourself. Lulu provides templates for formatting your book. If you can find a teacher, friend or parent to help you with editing you are well on your way without breaking the bank. Lulu makes making your book cover as easy as possible although you are responsible for finding your own image if you do not wish to use their images.

Finally, there is nothing like seeing your work in print and the opportunities for young writers are greater than ever.

Publishing a book is one of the best ways to build credibility and gain exposure. Not only can it position you as an expert in your field but it could also open the door to entirely new opportunities just because you are now an author. Indeed, almost any author will tell you the best thing they ever did was publish their first book.

There are three primary options for getting your book published. The easiest way is to self-publish the book yourself, meaning you complete the work and send it to a printer. Done. The second option is to use an independent publisher. These are legitimate publishers but they’re smaller than the big boys and tend to specialize in one area or another. The last option is the most ambitious and it involves the industry majors like Penguin and Random House.

Any aspiring author would prefer to get their book published by a major publishing house. It gives you far more credibility and enhances your chances of selling the book once it’s on retail shelves. But getting one of the big publishers to publish your book is no easy task. There are a number of things you need to keep in mind before you even get started.

Most importantly, the big publishing houses only work with proven authors. That means it’s extremely difficult to get them to work with you on your first book. They want to know you’ve successfully sold books before. And if it’s your first book, you better have an impressive platform and an audience you can easily tap into to promote sales. Bottom line; they don’t really care what your book is about. Their top priority is your ability to sell it.

The big publishers generally don’t deal directly with the author anyway. They prefer to deal through Literary Agents. These are basically screeners who receive hundreds of book proposals each month and sift through them looking for those with real potential. Getting a Literary Agent is step one if you hope to get your book published by one of the big publishing houses.

A great way to find Literary Agents is to go to a book store and find books similar to the one you’d like to write. Then look at the acknowledgments. In most cases, the authors will thank their agents in that section and you can simply make note of their names and then look them up on Google. Then contact them and see if they’re accepting new proposals.

Book proposals for the big publishing houses are generally quite large. It’s not unusual for the proposal to be 100 pages long. In fact, you’re almost better off writing the entire book ahead of time and then putting the proposal together afterwards. You’ll end up including a sample chapter in the proposal anyway and there are plenty of other things it should include. You can find more information about what needs to be included by doing a Google search for book proposal.

Getting your first book published by one of the industry majors is difficult but it’s not impossible. Do your research on the front end and learn how the system works. That will be your greatest asset when starting the process. You can find a lot more tips and tricks for getting books published on my website and I hope you take advantage of the free information available there.

The Internet and the information revolution continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There are many ways that you can participate. Recent developments now make it easy to make money writing online. There is a shortage of content writers; more are needed, no experience required.

If you are a native English-speaker or are first-language fluent in English, and can write simple, clear, understandable test at a 6th-9th grade (school) level, then you can make money writing online…

On the Internet, almost everything is communicated in written form. Someone had to write every page of every website on the World Wide Web. The explosion of Internet activity and the number of new websites has created an opportunity for almost anyone to make money writing online, creating the content the Net requires.

In Internet terminology “content” is anything of possible interest that fills up web pages. Content can e pictures, drawings, artwork, graphs or text. Text content consists of written words, which requires writers to generate. By “writers” they mean people who can produce simple, understandable, unique text in conversational form.

Making money writing online does NOT require experienced writer/authors with literary credentials! It only requires first-language fluency in English and the ability to write at a 6th to 9th grade in school level in normal everyday English. (As a point of reference the Reader’s Digest is written at the 6th to 8th grade level of comprehension.)

The first-language fluency requirement means that this work cannot be outsourced to China or India! The text must be clear and easily understood, thus only native speakers of English can make money writing online generating unique content.

Writers are requires because to count, website content must be unique, different, not published elsewhere. The Internet is based on computer technology. Computer-based “spider” robots crawl the Web making copies and measurements. Any text can be compared to millions of pages, finding all duplicates in seconds.

People go to search engines to find things on the Net. If a website’s content is found to be a duplicate, it is deemed to be unimportant by the search engines and won’t show up on Google, Yahoo, etc. searches. To be counted as possibly important, their content absolutely must be unique, not published anywhere else on the Net.

Only people, communicating as writers, expressing themselves in their own words, can generate intelligible unique text. If you can express yourself in conversation, you can do the same in written form. If you can express yourself in written form at a 6-9th grade level, you can make money writing online.

The Internet is a free market for writers of unique content, with many buyer-users and producer-sellers and no one big enough to control any part of the market. The challenge is to get buyer-employers and seller-writers together. How do writers get started doing their thing and making money writing online?

You could do like everyone else and start with the search engines… Got a question? Go online and “Google it”!

Or you could follow the links below for more information on making money writing online…

It is the dramatic question that grabs your reader and holds him or her. It creates a narrow path that forces the reader into suspense that won’t let go. It moves the story forward. All bestseller-kind-of novels have it.

Have you noticed that untrained eyes want you to explain everything in that first line, first paragraph. But it is the “Dramatic Question” that creates the hook.

In my novel, the Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires, a mystery/thriller sprinkled with social commentary, I didn’t want it to be clear what was going on. I wanted a question that would create a hook. Even when writing the “who, what, when, where, why, how,” I didn’t want it to be cut and dried. I wanted people to wonder. Here’s what I mean?

“In my country, men like him disappear in the thick of night.”

(I started in the middle of action. This man is not from the United States. This is a threatening statement about someone we don’t know.)

The guest pitched forward from the shadows in the small, but elegant room. A glint of light hit his hair, as slick and black as a crow’s feathers.

(That dark-haired man is unsavory. He wants someone to disappear. Who?)

I could have written it in a pedestrian telling way instead of an action story way&ndash(The man, Michael D’Angelo was Bolivia. His hair was black and he was intending to kill the mayor of Compton. He said, “In my country we kill guys like the mayor.” Well, it seems far away. Kind of distant. To me, it’s not intriguing.

The host didn’t look up, but smashed the day’s paper in his fleshy hands, then threw it on

the fine mahogany desk before him. A small Asian woman stood behind him, massaging his

broad caramel-colored shoulders. The masseuse balled her fist and kneaded a knot near his spine. The host gritted his teeth and groaned, his eyes drifting to the luxury yachts docked in the marina below. Then he peered into the fiery night skies that stretched endlessly southward.

“What do you intend to do?” he asked, trying to read his guest’s face, but the man’s dark, piercing eyes guarded his secrets.

(What secret does he have? How does it tie into this person he wants to get rid of?)

The guest picked up the Compton Chronicle and stared at the headline: SEPTEMBER 1, 1981&ndashCOUNCIL MEETING UPSET RUMORED.

The host flicked his hand, and the masseuse quickly left the room. He grabbed a white terry robe from the plush mauve chair behind him, pulled it on, and paused a moment, listening. Only the sloshing and squeaking of the yachts in the dark marina waters filled the silence between the two men. Now, he was sure they were completely alone.

The slightest trace of West Indian accent became audible. “You see, we must be so careful on this one. All of America, Black and White, is waiting for the next Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy. Someone who can inspire a nation.” He bit the tip off a Flora Fina cigar and spat it from his tongue. “Most poor slobs realize they’ll never be a hero, but they sure as hell want to know one they can brag about.” He rolled the cigar between his fingers, never lighting it.

“You know, they say a truly great hero comes around every twenty years or so. In the forties, you had Roosevelt. In the sixties, you had King. In the eighties, they will have me,” he chuckled. “I’ll give Black people something they never had&ndashpower. I’m not talking church talk, Black pride, all that. I’m talking about money and clout. Owning buildings. CEO’s of Fortune 500s. Rich Black folks on every block in every city.” He laughed. “Hell, they may even teach a class about me at Harvard one day!”

“I leave the pretty words to you, Se

Publishing a book is one of the best ways to position yourself as an expert in your field. Not only that but the book demonstrates your expertise in its best and most organized format. And perhaps the biggest advantage of all is that your book allows people to be introduced to your expertise without you doing a thing. Yes, you have to write it and get it published. And you also have to market it. But after that, you can sit back and let people read it on their own time.

So let’s talk about some of the realities behind publishing your own book. The biggest misconception people have about the process is that the publishing company does the marketing. Untrue. Regardless of the publishing company you use, the responsibility falls squarely on the author. And that’s a rude awakening for most aspiring authors.

Marketing is no easy task and the biggest priority of publishers considering your book proposal is NOT the quality of your writing or the brilliance of your idea but your ability to market you own book. Yes, it’s true. The biggest thing publishers look for when they evaluate book proposals is your audience and your following. They call it your platform and it refers to the activities you do everyday that put you in front of potential buyers.

The best thing you can do to increase the odds of your book proposal getting accepted by a publisher is to build your platform. Whether that includes workshops and seminars, press releases and media publicity, interviews and special events, blogging and podcasting or internet marketing, publishers need to know you have a strategy to promote your book and the tools necessary to pull it off. Indeed, they’re looking for a certain amount of star power.

If you don’t have a platform when you submit your book proposal, it won’t even get a second glance. That’s why it’s absolutely imperative to get the process started early. Offer workshops and seminars. Develop a website and build awareness and traffic. Use press releases to announce events or special milestones. Write articles, both online and off. Look for speaking engagements to build credibility and gain exposure. These are the things publishers will favor when evaluating your proposal.

Another misconception about getting a book published is that you’ll make money in the process. Unfortunately, this is rarely true on the first book. As an unproven author, you won’t be able to negotiate a big percentage in the book deal and the marketing campaign will devour most of the profits. The primary objective behind your first book should be to build credibility, gain exposure and validate your abilities as an author, including marketing. If you succeed, you’ll get a much better deal on your second book and that’s where you can start making money.

Publishing a book can be one of the best steps a person can take when developing a business. It sets you apart from the vast majority of others in your field and people will forever more treat you differently. But you also have to be realistic with the process and that’s what this article is all about. There is lots of information that can support the development of a platform and the marketing requirements on the Tactical Execution website and I encourage you to take advantage of those resources.