Essay Online

The hardest thing you’ll ever have to do is to ‘start’. When you want to travel, the hardest part is to just ‘go ahead and go’. But once you start, everything follows. The same goes with writing. I don’t know about you, but when I write, the first sentence in the article gets erased five times before one becomes permanent. But once you get through the first sentence, writing the whole article will be a breeze.

There are actually a lot of ways by which you could begin your article. You could start it with a quotation, a question, an anecdote, or you could go straight to the point. There is no exact formula for starting. You can start your article with any sentence, as long as it suits your purpose.

What’s the Purpose of the Article?

So think about why you’re writing that article. What is your purpose? Is it to entertain, to inspire, to persuade, or simply to inform? If you want to entertain, then a funny anecdote might do well. If you want to inspire, then a famous quote may do. If you want to persuade, then maybe you could start with a question. If you want to inform, then you could go straight to the point.

Let me give you a concrete example. Let’s say that your aim is to persuade people to buy your product. I mentioned that if you want to persuade, starting the article with a question might do the trick. Let’s say that your product is a water bed. Maybe you could start your article with a question like, “Have you ever had a night when you couldn’t sleep because of your lumpy mattress?” or “When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep?” This is a good strategy because you’re automatically creating a bond with your reader. If your reader answers “yes” to your question, he will be able to relate, and if he is able to relate, then he will be interested.

The First Line

But asking a question isn’t the only way to start an article. If you can make it work, then an anecdote might be perfect for your article. Maybe you could tell a story about a friend of yours who didn’t want to buy the bed at first but was persuaded to do so after a bit of prodding. And then give them a punch line. It has to be funny, or at the very least, unexpected. Maybe you could end your anecdote by saying that your friend went to your office, fuming. He kept on glaring at you so you asked him what was wrong. And then he answered, “I got into trouble at work because of your bed”. And so you ask him why and he answers that he woke up late because the bed was so comfortable. You’ll have showcased how comfortable your bed is and entertained your readers at the same time.

Again, there’s no exact formula for starting to write an article, just let your imagination run wild.

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.

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.

There are basically three options for getting your book published. You can try to get your book proposal accepted by one of the industry giants like Penguin or Random House but that’s a tough road. Those companies only work with proven authors or those who already have huge platforms and salivating audiences. Having said that, if you manage to get accepted, you’ll end up with a huge implied endorsement and a ton of indisputable credibility.

On the other end of the spectrum, you could self-publish your own book. The nice thing about this approach is that the only person who has to approve your book is you! If you want to publish your own book, go right ahead. In fact, given the advancements in technology, you can do exactly that and order as little as one book at a time. The downside is that the credibility is far lower than with a major publisher.

These two options seem to be on opposite ends of the continuum and indeed have plenty of differences between them. Luckily, there’s a third category that sits comfortably in the middle. It’s the category of smaller independent publishers and there are thousands of them. They range from very small mom and pop operations to well-established significant publishers. They tend to specialize in one genre or another and often become leaders in their area of expertise.

Soliciting the independent publishers is a great way for a new author to break into the market. Find one that specializes in your particular area and visit their website. They will tell you exactly how they want to be solicited and you’re well advised to follow their guidance. Find out exactly what they’re looking for and then cater your proposal to their specific requirements.

It’s not necessary to have a Literary Agent when soliciting independent publishers. Don’t get me wrong. Having an agent is always a good idea. But you do have some additional options when dealing with the niche players and many will accept proposals directly. Most want you to send it to their Acquisitions Editor but I recommend checking with their website before addressing the envelope.

Getting a book advance is less common when dealing with independent publishers. It’s not impossible but I wouldn’t bank on it. The upside is you’ll have more access to the people reviewing your proposal and that’s half the battle. Don’t pester them. They probably get a few hundred proposals each month. But a polite and well placed phone call rarely hurts and it gives the editor a chance to hear your speaking voice at the same time.

Becoming an author is something you only do once. Once you’ve published your first book, you will forever more be an author. And it can change your life, not to mention your career. Don’t waste your time approaching one of the industry giants when your odds of being accepted are significantly less than 1%. Instead, find an independent publisher that specializes in the subject you’re considering and target your efforts accordingly.

Tactical Execution has made a business of helping others achieve their goals. We provide implementation solutions for a wide variety of marketing objectives and all our programs are designed to maximize immediate results. Please visit the website to take advantage of all the free resources available there.

Frequently, I’m asked whether I know the whole story of a novel at the outset of writing it. The answer is a simple “no”.

I might have an idea of where I want a story to go, but often I’m surprised by the direction it may take, seemingly all on its own. How on earth does that happen?

First, let me say that I often make plot outlines and charts as I work, more to keep track of where I’ve been rather than where I’m going. It sounds a bit like “backing into” a story. When I first started CONDUCT IN QUESTION many years ago, I got perhaps a hundred pages into the novel and suddenly had no idea what would come next.

It seemed fruitless to revert to charts and diagrams. Here’s what I did do. For a number of weeks I set aside the beginnings of the novel and spent much time making notes about the characters I had up on the stage, for I realized I didn’t know enough about them.

An example? In CONDUCT IN QUESTION, there are two sisters, Katharine and Suzannah. Actually, they were inspired by two clients I had, only to the extent that those two sisters seemed so diametrically opposed in nature that, when together, they seemed to form some strange sort of unity. Katharine was to be the hard as nails- business- woman and Suzannah was some sort of faded flower child. But I didn’t know what their fate would be, because I didn’t know enough about them. Although I initially thought of Katharine as the one who would set everyone straight and impose her will on the family, it occurred to me that her toughness might somehow set her up as the perfect victim. Once I started thinking of her in that fashion, she very quickly evolved into a far more interesting character. She would be the victim of the Florist [the serial killer] because her nature caused her to take inordinate risks, which most other women would never consider. Her aggressiveness led to great danger. Finally realizing she had become so hardened by life and experience, she understood she had never trusted anyone enough to love. And love was what she really wanted. With that line of thinking, the plot, her destiny fell into place.

Right now, I am involved in one of my many re-workings of the structure of the third novel in the OSGOODE TRILOGY, A TRIAL OF ONE. There are three major story lines in this novel, all of them different sorts of quests. It continues the search for shares representing about fifty million dollars in the second novel, Final Paradox, for shares. But there’s a problem with the story line about Harry [the protagonist] and Natasha [the love interest] and a third party to form a triangle.

How to make it end right? It’s very strange but I can see where an essential event will take place, but not what will happen, except in the most general sense. For example, two people in this plot must part forever. Their relationship will be changed permanently. But how? The location will be at a remote and isolated cottage. I can see sand dunes, held in place by scrubby vegetation, with the beach stretching out forever. The wind will be unceasing. Fine so far as it goes. But what and how will it happen? I am hoping the more I explore the setting, the answer will reside in its details.

I came across an interview of various writers on the question of plotting and the making of outlines at .authorsontheweb.com. They were responding to Stephen King’s statement that he did not make an outline before writing a novel. Jeffrey Deaver, citing the importance of structure of story, said he makes outlines, although that might not be so important in a character or situation driven novel. Daniel Handler says writers who claim not to use an outline are lying because, if you know the end of the sentence when you start it, you’re outlining. Because of his multiple plot lines, Jonathan Kellerman does outline. Of course, the replies show just how highly individualized the creative process can be and, in fact, must be.

For me, each writer must find his or her own way into the world of creating characters and events. In much of his writing, the German author, Thomas Mann, expounded upon the process of artistic expression. Perhaps Mann is best known for the short story, Death in Venice. For example, in his short story, Tonia Kruger, a young man attempting to find his voice and place in the world of literature, says in his letter to his friend Lisabetta,

“The work I have done so far is nothing or not much &ndash as good as nothing. As I write, the sea whispers to me and I close my eyes. I am looking into a world, unborn and formless, that needs to be ordered and shaped; I see into a whirl of shadows of human figures who beckon me to weave spells to redeem them: tragic and laughable figures and some that are both together &ndash and to these I am drawn. But my deepest, secretest love belongs to the blue-eyed, the fair and living, the happy, lovely and commonplace.”

For me, this says it all. Those characters and the events of their lives are in some murky, barely perceptible world of one’s psyche. It’s the writer’s job to weave the spell, which brings them up into life, makes them speak from their inmost souls and then causes them to perform whatever acts they are impelled by their nature and circumstance to do.

Regardless of genre, this is the task each and every writer has in common with another. And each one eventually comes to his or her own method.

Almost everyone thinks they know how to write a screenplay. We’ve all heard someone watching TV saying “I could write a better script than that”!

The truth is that just about everyone does have a story worth telling. Unfortunately most do NOT know how to write a screenplay.

Most professional artists are very particular about their tools. The screenplay writer is no different. The key to writing is being organized. Before even writing a single word, you must have an inner road map that your characters are going to follow.

If you are writing a novel, you CAN take the time to ramble and develop your descriptive talents. A screenwriter cannot!

Just like any muscle, the writing ‘muscle’ has to be exercised on a regular basis. The simple process of sitting in front of a computer for set periods of time is critical in training the subconscious that THIS time is when you are going to call on your creativity. In order to learn how to write a screenplay you have to understand STRUCTURE. Unlike a novelist, you do not have the luxury of allowing your script to develop into 300 plus pages. It will not get read if it does not conform to an industry standard of around 110 pages.

The structure of most contemporary screenplays: 1) Establish the character and general situation, 2) force them up a tree and throw rocks at him and 3) get the hero down again.

Firstly: you get the audience to know something about the character and his situation.

Secondly: a situation must be created that goes against your characters comfort zone. He must have a nemesis trying to destroy everything he stands for. This ‘bad’ guy takes pleasure putting your hero up that tree and making it as uncomfortable as possible.

Thirdly: our hero needs to overcome all odds and ‘payoff’ the bad guy.

If it really is that simple, then why isn’t everyone a screenwriter? The answer is they do not know how to write a screenplay.

So let us say that you have a clear idea of what your three acts are going to be. Well now you begin to develop the characters. They have to play off each other and either support or destroy our main character. Any time the characters are neutral, the screenplay is dead. Just remember: conflict equals drama. No conflict, no drama.

So what does it take to become a screenwriter, besides learning how to write a screenplay? It takes discipline &ndash to sit at your workplace, even when you are not sure what you are going to write. It takes having a thick skin, so that when the inevitable rejections come, you do not BELIEVE in their judgment as to your potential. It takes major BELIEF in yourself. But MOST of all it takes LUCK!

The film industry is littered with great scripts that never got made. - Directors fall out with producers. A great idea yesterday turns into a pariah today. The studio that WAS going to make your picture has changed hands and the new studio head wants to stamp his own directorial policy on his new position &ndash and you were chosen by the previous head! There are a million legitimate reasons why Hollywood should not immediately fall at your feet &ndash but YOU are going to overcome this. If you do not believe this, then do not even attempt to learn how to write a screenplay! If you DO believe in yourself, then hey &ndash why shouldn’t you be the one that gets lucky?!

So yes, learning how to write a screenplay isn’t so difficult. The difficult part comes AFTER you have written the screenplay.

Raising your level of writing needs you to focus on bigger things, like having your work published for example. This is a surefire way to encourage yourself to go beyond your current limitations and weaknesses as a writer. Taking the step from writing as a hobby towards writing professionally and having an article or a piece published is indeed a big leap for anyone. It needs a long-term commitment, discipline and an almost endless source of inspiration to be able to write constantly and creatively. Not only does it entail having to do intensive research, but it also pushes the writer to find a certain niche from which he can excel.

Moreover, you have to be able to gauge your own work and consciously maintain a higher level of quality as compared to when you were just writing on a journal or your own blog. This leaves the question of how one learns how to write well. How can you raise your level so that it is up to par with what is asked and required of you as a professional writer?

There are different ways to find your way towards fulfilling your worth as a writer. Some of these are the following:

1. Find your niche. You have to be able to know what you are capable of writing about. You have to know where to focus your attention to, what topics to write about, and what genre of writing you are going to start with. Some may find poetry as your strongest area, while you may feel that writing feature articles are where you are at your best. The important thing is that you are able to decide where to concentrate. For a writer who is just starting, you have to be the master of your specialized craft before branching out to other areas and other genres.

2. Educate yourself. You were not born with all the information already lodged in your brain. Read and refresh your mind by going through printed materials about the topics close to your heart and the areas where your interest is more attuned. Learn from the best in the business; study their style and their delivery. From those lessons, you can create your own unique style.

3. Write from the heart. The next important step is to start writing. Pour out your soul and write from an intelligent yet emotional perspective. Show your strengths as a writer and highlight these in all the lines that you write.

4. Edit and correct your article. Check if the facts add up, review your references, and see to it that you don’t contradict yourself. Give others a chance to critic your work, and be open to suggestions without sacrificing the content of your work.

The above-mentioned ways are just rudiments of how to write a good article. These will help you get started towards your goal of being a good writer and being able to write well. Mastering all these things however does not necessarily mean producing a best seller or getting all the accolades you dream of. Perhaps the true measure of how good a writer you are is the patience and dedication you give towards writing a well written article or book, for even the great ones did not receive praise immediately. So hone your craft and be patient in doing so, as even the longest journeys start on a single step.

After a long illness, my mother passed away in June 2006. Even though we all knew she had little time left, her death still came as a shock.

My brothers helped me write the eulogy, and I delivered it. I almost made it through, maintaining my composure and humor right to the end. But, final goodbyes are never easy. With the last sentence, a poignant and personal message to our mother from my brothers and myself, I lost it. To cry at your mother’s funeral is natural and expected. But being an author, and being comfortable with public speaking, I thought I could manage it. I humbly acknowledge grief trumped self-control.

And then there are the relatives and friends, many of which I hadn’t seen in decades. Of course, one must always be polite and gracious when someone offers condolences and a sympathetic hug. But, what do you do when you haven’t a clue who the devil the person is? Years pass, people change. More than once, I had to discreetly ask a trusted relative, “Who is that?” Then, I had to hide my shocked expression when I realized time has been kinder to me than to others of my bloodline, or to my old friends.

We got through it. At the luncheon after the funeral, I said goodbye not just to my mother, but to many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends &ndash some of which I would see again and some I know I will not. It is an odd experience, looking in the face of your own mortality. My father died ten years ago. And now my mother is gone. It becomes a reality check, to do what there is to do while there is still time.

That being the case, I am writing again. I am happily anticipating the release of my second book, Sins and Secrets. And I am thrilled to be an Aphrodisia author. It is a wonderful rush to jump back into the deep end of my life!

My Mother’s Eulogy

Welcome everyone and thank you for coming. We are here to remember and say goodbye to our Mother. She fought the good fight, being as tenacious as a pit bull and never giving up. But finally, after more than thirty years of dealing with various conditions and illnesses, she has found peace.

Mother was the sort of mother who never stopped worrying about her children, no matter what age we were. Were we eating well? Were we getting enough sleep? Were we staying well and not catching colds or the flu?

She kept after our father in the same way, but they were also a couple who enjoyed each other’s company very much. Mom and Dad were best friends as well as husband and wife. They had fun together. They loved to dance together, particularly the polka. They also often took us on joy rides to the local woods, sharing their enjoyment of the forest with us and showing us how to spot deer at sunset.

One of those rides wasn’t as much fun. Mom and Dad took us on an unmarked dirt road, trying to see some deer. Dad found himself down in a gully. He tried to turn around, and couldn’t. We were stranded overnight until lumbermen came to work the next morning and found us. Evidently the road was a logger road, not meant for passenger traffic. As I will explain in a moment, thanks to Mother’s planning, we were OK. It was scary, but it was kind of fun.

Both my brothers and I were all toilet-trained the same way. Mother’s technique was to be with us in the bathroom, run the faucet, and softly say, “Rain, rain, rain.” It worked. In fact, the suggestion has lasted the three of us into adulthood. With all the rain we’ve had the last few days, my brothers and I have needed to stay within easy range of a bathroom.

Mother loved music and sang in the choir. She particularly loved country music, which the three of us hated at the time. The Saturday night ritual was always Country Music Jubilee, then Hee Haw, then the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.

She loved gardening, both for glorious beautiful flowers and for food. Speaking of food, Mother made the best fried chicken. She put the Kentucky Fried Chicken secret recipe to shame. For holidays and family gatherings, she cooked tremendous amounts of food, and still worried whether there was enough for everyone to eat. And while she was cooking, she would sample the food, and at mealtime, while everyone else stuffed themselves, she couldn’t eat much more.

Mother had real artistic ability. One of the times she best displayed it was at Christmas. We always had huge trees and many decorations around the house, but Mother’s crowning achievement was found under the tree. She sculpted an elaborate village there, with mirrors for frozen lakes, pine seedlings, or “crow’s feet” for miniature trees, and boxes and props to create multilevel hills and mountains. She would cover the hills with white sheets and cotton to simulate snow. Her village was like Christmas Wonderland to us. My brother continues this tradition in his home.

Mother was the only girl in her family, and she got into hunting just as much as her brothers did. I’m sure a lot of you recall a character Johnny Carson played occasionally on The Tonight Show. His name was Floyd R. Turbo, American, and he would make silly editorial comments on the issues of the day, but dressed differently from other TV commentators. When Mother was going to go hunting, she would put on a red Woolrich jacket and a hat with ear flaps, the resemblance was pretty amazing. I couldn’t resist calling her Floyd R. Turbo, American. I think she was somewhat amused. Or else I would call her the Great White Huntress. And she was a successful hunter.

Remember what I told you about Mother being prepared when we were stuck on the logging road? Our Mother made emergency preparedness an art form. No matter where she went, she packed for any potential disaster. On picnics, we packed boxes full of food, enough for a small army, the grill, all the lawn furniture and extra clothes in case one of us fell into the water. When she went to my brother’s college graduation, she took the toaster and the coffee pot to the motel. And when she traveled anywhere away from home, we had to lock down the kitchen sink so she wouldn’t take it.

Through it all, Mother was motivated by her desire to do the best she could for us. Every night she would send us to sleep by saying, “Good night, sweet dreams, I love you.” For the rest of her life, she would continue to send us off with those words. So it is only fitting that now we are able to say the same to send her off.

So, Mother, good night, sweet dreams, we love you.

The two central pillars in effective personal marketing are the establishment of credibility and the quest for exposure. You could have a large business or you could be an independent professional. You could be selling a product or a service. Regardless why you’re marketing yourself, writing a non-fiction book is one of the best ways to achieve those two pillars.

Writing a non-fiction book is a daunting exercise. But most people don’t understand the extent to which it will change your life forever. Writing your first book happens only once in your life, if ever. And those who have done so will tell you their lives break down into before the book and after the book. Everything changes once you have written your first book.

The title of this article singles out non-fiction books and there’s a reason for that. Authors of fiction works get tremendous benefits from the effort as well but the finished product validates their writing ability and their creativity, nothing else. For the authors of non-fiction books, the finished product validates their writing ability and their personal knowledgebase. In other words, it positions them as an expert in their field. That feeds directly into effective personal marketing, which is the objective behind this discussion.

Once you have written and published your first book, you will forever more be referred to as an author. No longer will you be a regular human being like everybody else. No. From then on, you will be part of an exclusive club. You will be an author. That label will be used in written references to your name. It will be used when introductions are made. And it will be used when people talk about you behind your back.

Being an author comes with an automatic baseline of respect from most of your peers, whether they know you or not. But it comes with more than that. It comes with immediate credibility within the topic. And if you’re in a professional field, the days of justifying your expertise will come to an end. In fact, the days of looking for new clients may come to an end as well.

Books are a tremendous tool to leverage your time. The finished product presents your knowledge in a structured and optimized format. But at the time it is received by the reader, it requires no effort by you. The reader can read your book while you’re on vacation or sleeping. Indeed, you invest the time and energy once but then you reap the rewards over and over again. That allows countless perfect strangers to experience your highest intellect, all at the same time.

Writing a book also opens the door to a variety of other opportunities that might be quite different than your underlying profession. Not only can the book be sold, leaving you with a profit, but it can position you for speaking engagements in your area of expertise. These opportunities can be very profitable and position you as an industry guru rather than an actual practitioner.

Admittedly, some people would prefer not to be such a guru and that’s fine. But writing a book gives you that option. You can choose either path. You can publish the book and remain in the trenches, doing the same work as before except with tremendous new-found credibility, or you can accept the opportunities and redefine your identity around your new position.

Writing a book is a big job to say the least but it will change your life forever. Tactical Execution provides a lot of guidance aspiring authors can use to complete the job and promote the finished product. Please visit the website to take advantage of the resources available there.

Most of us have dreams of writing a book one day but the statistics verify that the vast majority never complete the task. There are lots of reasons for this failure but one of the most important is that would-be authors have heard that publishers accept only a tiny percentage of the book proposals they receive. People have heard how difficult it can be and they give up on the task as a result.

Technology has changed a lot of things in the publishing industry, not to mention just about every other industry you can imagine. Not only is it easier for an entrepreneur to start a book publishing company but the costs of printing a small number of books has come down dramatically, allowing authors to avoid the prohibitive minimums that used to characterize the book printing business.

With these recent developments in mind, we need to re-introduce would-be authors to the new book-publishing landscape so they can re-evaluate the possibility of finally making their dream a reality. This article will review the three primary ways of getting a book published in the modern world. Future articles will cover the opportunities and challenges of each strategy.

The first way of getting a book published is the path that has existed for years and years. There are a number of huge publishing houses including Penguin, Random House and McGraw Hill that can do the job. But these industry elephants only work with proven authors and generally require you have a literary agent before they’ll even review the proposal. Of course, the upside is that these publishing giants are well respected, leaving you with better credibility and preferential shelf space within the major retailers.

The second strategy is to use a smaller independent publisher. There are more and more of these popping up everyday and they tend to specialize in one genre or another. Of course, there’s a wide variety of publishers within this category &ndash some very small and others quite well established &ndash but they all generally have full distribution channels in place, allowing your book to reach the same shelves as the big boys. Proposals are sent directly to the Acquisitions Editor for consideration and literary agents are optional.

The last strategy is by far the most common: self-publishing. Because printing minimum order quantities have come down so much in recent years, authors can quickly and easily print a few copies of their new book and risk less money than ever before. Obviously, this virtually eliminates one of the major barriers to entry and an estimated 90% of all books being published today are self-published.

The clear upside is that nobody can reject your proposal. If you want to write it and print it, go right ahead. And in many cases, the printing houses you would use to get the book put on paper have respectable distribution channels in place as well, meaning your book could theoretically reach the same shelves as those published by larger publishing companies. The downside is a lower degree of credibility but for many, that’s a small price to pay for their dream to get realized.

The important thing to remember is that regardless of the publishing method you choose, the majority of the marketing effort is left to the author. Even with the industry majors, it’s the author’s job to promote and sell his or her book. So if you have ambitions to publish your own book, sit down and think about how you’re going to sell it. If you have an answer to that question, you have a much better chance of getting accepted by the big boys.