The Creative Penn Blog: Helping you write, publish and market your book

Writing With A Family. Productivity Tips With Andrea Pearson

November 25, 2019 by Joanna Penn 6 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:09:08 — 56.1MB)

How do you find the time to write when you have a busy family life? How do you stay creative while still managing to run a successful business? Andrea Pearson shares her productivity tips in today's show.

In the introduction, I share my Voice Double from Descript‘s beta. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Plus, my NaNoSloMo progress and why I might just write another book instead. Google Earth storytelling tools [Google blog].

Plus, join me and Mark Dawson for tips on how to sell more books through Reader Funnels. Thurs 5 Dec at 3 pm US Eastern / 8 pm UK. Click here to register for your free place.

Today's show is sponsored by IngramSpark, who I use to print and distribute my print-on-demand books to 39,000 retailers including independent bookstores, schools and universities, libraries and more.

It's your content – do more with it through IngramSpark.com.

Andrea Pearson has published 60 books under 3 pen-names including four books on marketing for authors. She is the co-host of the Self-Publish Strong Podcast with her husband, Nolan, and also the co-host of the Six-Figure Author Podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Joe Lallo — and she has 3 young children who she home-schools.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes

How Andrea juggles home-schooling children, writing, a new baby, and life
The advantages of dictation when writing first drafts
Outlining and using visual aids to help with dictation
Practical tools for managing a family’s schedule
What drew Andrea to podcasting and how she co-hosts three shows
Working with family members, including spouses
Going beyond books to licensing ideas

You can find Andrea Pearson at SelfPublishStrong.com and on Twitter @andreapearson2

Tips For Self-Publishing In Translation: Adventures With AI and German

November 22, 2019 by Joanna Penn 6 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 36:55 — 30.3MB)

Once you have a book in the world, translation is one of the ways that you can expand your readership, and potentially your income, through licensing foreign rights.

Of course, as indie authors, we can reach a global audience through self-publishing our books and many indie authors are moving into publishing in different languages. Some are successful, others not so much.

In this episode, I explain my first experiences with translation in 2014, why I withdrew my books in 2017 and why I have now published 3 books in German in the hope it will help you make some decisions about your own creative work.

My first attempt at translation in 2014 … and why I pulled out of the market

As ever, I am often early with my independent author experiments!

Back in 2014, I got excited about the possibility of translations. I did two novels in German, Spanish, and Italian. I did royalty share deals with translators and did a digital-only deal with Ullstein-Midnight in Germany. I put the books out on Amazon in ebook and print with much excitement …

I did some Facebook ads and tried some email blasts with early services in those markets but … tumbleweed. Very few sales, even for the book with a traditional publisher.

One of my German novels published in 2014

Several things were wrong with this approach:

You really need at least 3 books in a niche or series to make investment worthwhile and so that you can make more money per customer. It's very hard to market anything without at least 3 books — which is what I would say to any author in English as well.
Readers in those language markets are still primarily physical bookstore based, and online sales had not taken off in 2014. They still aren't mainstream even now!
I spread myself too thin and was not able to market effectively in any language, plus there were no easy options for reaching readers in those markets.

In 2017, I gave up and pulled my books out of the market. I paid off the translators, so I lost money, plus I was disappointed and burned from spending too much time on a project that ultimately failed. After 3 years, I asked for my rights back from the German publisher as they also weren't selling enough to make it worthwhile.

Click here for interviews with my translators and thoughts on my original translation experiences.

Why I decided to try again with German translations in 2019

Every year, I do a report on my book sales and this year, I was surprised to find at 7% of my book sales income came from Germany — for non-fiction books in English!

So I decided there was clearly a market I could serve.

7% of my book sales income was from Germany May 2018 – April 2019, up from less than 1% in the year previously. These are mostly non-fiction book sales.

Self-publishing in Germany has started to really take off in the last couple of years, and readers have also begun to buy more books online. At Frankfurt Book Fair, I saw booths of empowered indie authors in the romance and fantasy niches talking to excited fans — and those genre writers are usually the forefront of things to come.

I looked at my top-selling non-fiction books in Germany and then picked the three shortest ones since that would give me marketing ability and cost the least in terms of translation. Basically, this is the lowest risk option for me at this time given my experience last time around.

This addresses the 3 main issues I had last time as this time around:

I published 3 books in a niche giving me more potential for cross-selling and more income per customer
Online sales have taken off in the country and I have proven sales in the English language for self-publishing authors
KDP Select + Amazon ads allow me to market even without knowing the language

Why and how I used AI translation tool, Deepl, to create the first draft

Back in July, I did a whole podcast episode on 9 Ways That Artificial Intelligence (AI) will Disrupt Authors and the Publishing Industry in the Next 10 Years. The advances in AI translation were one of those ways and as part of my research, I looked at a number of companies.

Some of the most advanced were only taking on big accounts, but Deepl came highly recommended from a German bi-lingual friend. It is only EUR7.99 (around US$9) a month with a free 30-day trial and importantly, the copyright for the translation belongs to the owner of the document.

This is super important for German, in particular, because in Germany, the translator can have the copyright to the translation. But if the first draft belongs to you, then any further translation is editing of an initial draft so the copyright remains with the author. Since control of intellectual property is a critical part of the author business, this was attractive!

I recommend at least trying Deepl.com with one of your books, just to see how it works, and particularly if you are bi-lingual in one of the languages they support.

Upload the book and within 1 minute — yes, 1 minute! — it is translated into German, or whatever language you choose. You can do 5 documents (books) per month for EUR7.99 (around US$9), so less than a coffee for a whole translated book.

Most people I asked about the various language translations said it was 70-80% reasonable, and certainly understandable.

[NOTE: This is non-fiction only! I have not tried it for fiction because there are many more ramifications of language in fiction.]

If you are a translator, this tool could help with your workflow. It's like a first draft so it should save you time. I believe that AI translation will GROW work for translators, not replace it. Many more authors and publishers will do translations if it becomes cheaper and quicker to do so, but they will still need localization and editing to produce a finished manuscript.

Turning the first draft into a finished manuscript … in another language!

Of course, a first draft is not a finished work that you can publish and expect to get good reviews. I engaged several different editors who were also translators as well as a team of German-speaking beta readers from The Creative Penn community, and this stage took much longer than I expected.

The first hurdle was the use of ‘Sie' and ‘du.' In English, we have ‘you' but in German, and many other languages, there are different words for ‘you.' In this case, ‘Sie' is for a more formal occasion when you don't know someone, and ‘Du' is for informal friendship usage. The associated words in a sentence also change form based on the choice so it is not a find and replace job.

Deepl didn't translate every occurrence in the same way, so we had to make a decision. We did the first book with ‘Sie' but my beta readers said it just didn't sound like me, so we went with ‘du,' and I'm happy with the result because my beta readers are happy! Apparently ‘du' is more common in the self-help niche and used by bloggers.

In terms of the editor-translators, they still need experience with the non-fiction niche in order to translate specific words and also to ‘localize' the content.

For example, Erfolgreich als Self-Publisher (Successful Self-Publishing) has a whole load of resources that are different for the German market. I couldn't have done that without my wonderful German editor (whose info I am deliberately not sharing as she is on maternity leave. If she returns to work, I will update this article!)

Why I am starting out with KDP Select and Amazon exclusivity for German ebooks

I am a vocal supporter of wide publishing — when authors have at least 3 books in a series (fiction or non-fiction) and they have the time and knowledge to market more widely. It takes a few books before an author is ready to think about different kinds of publishing and book marketing, so it makes sense to start with Amazon. Plus, we also have the most extensive opportunities for English language books, and many of those opportunities are not available in other countries and languages.

My wide publishing for English language is based on the fact that I do global marketing for an English language audience. My podcast has been downloaded in 218 countries, and this site has a global reach, as well as social media being available everywhere. I want readers in all those countries to be able to buy my books, or borrow them from libraries, so wide publishing is best for what I want to achieve as an author and business-woman with a long-term mindset.

BUT/ I do not have a platform in German, I don't speak German, I don't actively market in German (other than on Amazon), and the opportunities for German language publishing and book marketing are not as extensive as in English.

So, I am starting out with Amazon KDP Select for ebooks in order to take advantage of some of the marketing opportunities that do not require language to use. I will also start with Audible exclusivity once I can get an audiobook done for Mindset. ACX is not available in Germany at the time of writing this, so the pool of narrators is much smaller. Hopefully, this will change in 2020.

I may revisit this over time, but the other ebook retailer, Tolino (which you can reach through the aggregators Draft2Digital and PublishDrive) does not have the type of promotional capability as Amazon. Some indies I met at Frankfurt said that it was harder for them to market on Tolino, which means it would be even more difficult for me!

Ingram does have print partnerships in Germany, so I will look at that next.

Book marketing in German — when you don't speak the language!

In October 2019, Amazon KDP added amazon.de to the KDP Dashboard so we can now use Amazon Advertising for books in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and anyone else who shops on the DE store. Go into the KDP Dashboard and click Promote and Advertise. Then choose the store you want to advertise to.

You can use auto-ads based on a budget, which is brilliant if you don't speak the language. You can also use Publisher Rocket which will soon be releasing a German version to pick keywords. (Thanks to Dave Chesson for delivering a much-needed service!)

I have around 400 subscribers to my email list in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so I emailed them on launch and I made advanced review copies available. I will also be doing some Facebook Ads targeted to authors in those countries who have an interest in self-publishing.

I have a few interviews booked on German podcasts, but of course, I will be speaking English!

My thoughts on translation and rights licensing, AI and the future

So, was it worth doing?

I'll give these books a year in order to make a financial return. It was cheaper to get the initial translation done with Deepl, but it still cost for the editing, extra formatting help, marketing and mostly, my time in managing the whole process. It was more ‘expensive' than expected and took a lot more time than I had planned.

I was frustrated by the lack of control because I couldn't even fix a stray typo or get the formatting right on Vellum because I don't speak the language. I also can't do much in the way of marketing, so it's not like going indie in English anyway.

I think it's worth doing translation projects if you have evergreen books that you want to invest in for the long term — and if you can invest the time, and have a marketing angle. But it's best done if you are bi-lingual or can partner with other authors/self-publishers to help do the parts of the process that need language + niche knowledge.

I also think we are in a period of 5-10 years where rights licensing is going to continue as-is for foreign languages, but I do believe that in the 2030s, we will be using wearables that translate automatically.

Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is an expanding area, with Google recently introducing a model with 103 languages trained on 25 billion examples [Synced Review] AI translation earbuds have been released by a number of companies [Today Online].

Many of us already use Google Lens to translate signs, menus and other written text while traveling [TechCrunch]. AI translation is developing at great speed and it's inevitable that disruption will come to the translation industry because of this.

In a similar way to AI audio and voice synth technology, I think translation will split into different segments for rights licensing. People will want to consume cheaper books and won't mind AI-translation for a more affordable product, but there will always be a market for artisanal, human-translated, artistic works.

Of course, that doesn't solve the marketing problem! As we all know, just because you have a book available, doesn't mean you can sell any copies.

All of this makes me want to continue to pursue licensing deals for translation rather than doing it myself. I have non-fiction books in French, licensed through Club Positif, and also in Korean, and will pursue more of these deals through Curl Up Press.

If you are interested in licensing any of my books, please contact me here.

Other resources for translation and rights licensing

If you're interested in translation for your books, check out the resources below:

12 Book Translation Tips for Authors
Translators Base – a site for finding freelance translators and posting jobs you have available
Book translation services and helpful hints: Kindlepreneur.com/book-translation/
The Alliance of Independent Authors is running a Translation Rights Program and sharing their lessons learned on a series of videos so you can follow along with the experiment. You can find more info at selfpublishingadvice.org/indierights
My experiences of translation, interviews with my translators and more
My discussion with Orna Ross about translation into German on the Ask ALLi Podcast – Nov 2019
Interview with me on the Vienna Authors Podcast with Klaudia Zotsmann-Koch
Interview with me on Selfpublisher Podcast with Henri Apell

Bücher in Deutscher Sprache

Geld verdienen mit Schreiben Joanna Penn

Erfolgreich als Self-Publisher Joanna Penn

Do you have experience in translation as an independent author?
Are you a translator with thoughts on what we could improve or what could work for indies?
Please join the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Writing Tips: Using Beats To Keep Readers Emotionally Engaged

November 20, 2019 by Creative Guest 5 Comments

Emotionally engaged readers are the ones that will buy and recommend your books. They will become your super fans. In this post, author and writing teacher CS Lakin shares how to create that connection that readers crave.

Our #1 objective when writing fiction is to evoke a response from readers. Readers read to react. If our scenes don’t move our readers at all, we fail as writers. That’s a sobering fact.

The reaction we’re intending will vary from moment to moment. But whether we want our readers to feel worry, fear, exhilaration, hope, or amusement, we need to learn how to elicit that response masterfully.

Slow It Down

One sure way to lose a reader’s engagement is to rush. Characters, like real people, need time to react, to process what they experience. If dialogue and action move quickly without any insertion of character reaction, it’s likely the scene will fall flat emotionally.

However, even with “showing” emotion effectively in characters, if scenes fail to allow space for readers to react and process, they cheat the reader of the opportunity to respond fully to what they’re reading.

Let’s look at the end of Terri Blackstock’s opening scene from her thriller Predator. Krista’s sister has been missing for weeks, and a body’s been found. The tension builds as Krista arrives at the site and watches workers excavate the body.

Krista waited, willing back the numbness, certain she wouldn’t recognize the girl. As the first raindrops fell, a man in a medical examiner’s jacket took in a gurney, and Krista watched as they pulled the body from its shallow tomb. She saw the pink-striped shirt that Ella was wearing that last day. Blonde hair matted with blood and earth.

Her knees went weak, turned to rubber. She dropped and hit the ground. At once, a crowd of police surrounded her, asking if she was okay. She blinked and sat up, let them pull her back to her feet.

Ella!

She heard footsteps pounding the dirt.

“Aw, no! No! It can’t be her!” Her father’s voice, raspy and heart-wrenching, wailed out over the crowd. She wanted to go to him, comfort him, but it was as though her hands were bound to her sides and her legs wouldn’t move.

As they brought the girl closer, Krista saw the bloody, bruised face. Ella’s face.

The search was over. Her sister was dead.

Blackstock punches readers with emotion at the end of this scene by using techniques that help readers respond emotionally. She creates beats.

Create Beats

Beats or pauses in a scene can be created in many ways.

When our characters pause and process, that provides a beat. Show tiny details they notice around them, which helps slow time in the scene. Krista blinks and sits up. It’s a small insertion that provides a beat.
End chapters with action. That allows space for your reader to think about what just happened. Blackstock could have shown Krista weeping and wallowing in her thoughts as the gurney passed by, and that might have been a strong ending as well. But ending with the punch of action allows space for the reader to emotionally react.
Use short words and short sentences. Use one-line paragraphs. “The search was over. Her sister was dead.” Short, to the point. Powerful.
You can show an expression or gesture. Instead of saying “the news slapped her like a hand striking her face” you could say “Jill swallowed. Blinked. Reached a trembling hand to grasp the edge of the table.”

It’s very common for suspense scenes to end in action, with the follow-up scene starting with reaction.

Here’s the ending of the first chapter and the beginning of the next scene with this character from Brandilyn Collins’s Exposure. Notice that the first scene ends in a punch of action with a brief line of visceral reaction. The next scene follows with the full reaction.

Her finger hesitated over the back arrow button, then pressed.

Onto the screen jumped the close-up gruesome face of a dead man. Eyes half open, dark red holes in his jaw and forehead. Blood matted his hair. Printed in bold in the bottom left corner of the picture, across his neck: We see you.

Kaycee dropped the camera and screamed.

The next scene begins a full chapter later:

Kaycee jumped back from the table, casting crazed looks all around. A dead man. That mangled, bloodied face . . .

We see you.

Her worst fear come true.

Kaycee tore across the kitchen and grabbed her keys. She rammed out the back door and hurtled to her car. With its engine running, she barely waited for the garage door to open before screeching backwards, down her driveway, out onto the street … [and so on]

The first scene ends mostly in action. The next scene picks up the reaction, then processing what she’s seen. Notice that Collins did a bit of repeat, the way you might see on a TV show after a commercial.

Why? Because between these scenes are many pages with other characters, and it helps to reset the stage, remind the reader in a brief instant where we last left Kaycee.

Here is another example from a successful thriller, Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. This excerpt is from the first few pages of the novel, setting up the situation Langdon will be thrown into for the story. Watch for the beats.

As Langdon sat alone, absently gazing into the darkness, the silence of his home was shattered again, this time by the ring of his fax machine. Too exhausted to be annoyed, Langdon forced a tired chuckle.

God’s people, he thought. Two thousand years of waiting for their Messiah, and they’re still persistent as hell.

Wearily, he returned his empty mug to the kitchen and walked slowly to his oak-paneled study. The incoming fax lay in the tray. Sighing, he scooped up the paper and looked at it.

Instantly, a wave of nausea hit him.

The image on the page was that of a human corpse. The body had been stripped naked, and its head had been twisted, facing completely backward. On the victim’s chest was a terrible burn. The man had been branded … imprinted with a single word. It was a word Langdon knew well. Very well. He stared at the ornate lettering in disbelief.

“Illuminati,” he stammered, his heart pounding. It can’t be …

In slow motion, afraid of what he was about to witness, Langdon rotated the fax 180 degrees. He looked at the word upside down.

Instantly, the breath went out of him. It was like he had been hit by a truck. Barely able to believe his eyes, he rotated the fax again, reading the brand right-side up and then upside down.

“Illuminati,” he whispered.

Stunned, Langdon collapsed in a chair. He sat a moment in utter bewilderment. Gradually, his eyes were drawn to the blinking red light on his fax machine. Whoever had sent this fax was still on the line… waiting to talk. Langdon gazed at the blinking light a long time.

Then, trembling, he picked up the receiver.

How does Brown stretch out the moment to allow the reader to respond? Did you notice? He collapses in a chair. He sits a moment. Then his eyes are drawn to the red light on the fax machine. Then he gazes at the light a long time.

This is all deliberate, unhurried, intended to slow the moment and let it sink in—so the reader can process and react.

Imagine if Langdon looked at the fax, uttered words in shock, then grabbed the phone and started talking. Sure, that could work, showing his agitation and horror at what he’s seen. But the other way creates more tension in the reader because it delays finding out what happens next.

Want to move your readers by inserting beats?

Try doing the following:

When you read novels, look for the beats. Moments when the character stops to process. Moments when the author provides space for readers to react and process. Study the technique used and write it down.
Look at one of your scenes in which something happens that’s important to your plot. A place where a beat is needed to give time for the character and reader to pause, react, and process what just happened. What kind of beat can you add here?
Find places in the story or novel you’re writing to slow time. Have your character notice small details around her (a ticking clock, a smell or sound).
Examine your scene endings. Do they pack a punch by ending with action? If not, consider how you might rewrite.
Look for ways to punch moments home using short words, short phrases, stand-alone sentences—not only at scene endings but in key moments in your scene when you want your reader to react.

Evoking emotion from readers is a difficult skill, but learning to add beats will get you one step closer to becoming an “emotional master.”

Do you work on making sure your writing is connecting with your readers on an emotional level? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

C. S. Lakin is an editor, award-winning blogger at Live Write Thrive, and author of twenty novels and the Writer’s Toolbox series of instructional books for novelists. She edits and critiques more than 200 manuscripts a year and teaches workshops and boot camps to help writers craft masterful novels.

Want to learn how to become a masterful wielder of emotion in your fiction? Enroll in Lakin’s new online video course, Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers.

How To Sell More Books With Reader Funnels With Mark Dawson

November 18, 2019 by Joanna Penn 3 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:35 — 46.1MB)

We all want to sell more books — but it's time we started to treat readers differently at the various stages of the marketing process. In this interview, Mark Dawson explains the reader funnel, as well as how he developed confidence in his writing craft and indie business skills.

In the introduction, I give an update on my NaNoWriMo writing and mention my Creative merch, now available on Society6.

Limited Time webinar: Mark Dawson will be going into much more detail on reader funnels and how you can use ads at all stages of the book marketing process, plus doing a demo. Join us on Thurs 5 Dec at 3pm US Eastern / 8pm UK and of course, you can register and get the replay, but if you join us live, you’ll also get to chat with me behind the scenes and also be part of the live Q&A. Join us: www.TheCreativePenn.com/dec19

Today's show is sponsored by PublishDrive, a global self-publishing platform distributing to 400+ stores and 240,000 libraries, with innovative marketing tools like integrated Amazon Ads. The writing process is hard enough, so the publishing and marketing process should be easier. PublishDrive helps authors write more, publish more, sell more and worry less. Go to www.PublishDrive.com to learn more.

Mark Dawson is the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of the John Milton thriller series with over a million books sold. He runs training courses for authors at Self-Publishing Formula, and he's also the co-host of the Self-Publishing Show.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

Show Notes

On selling a print-only deal to a traditional publisher
Why splitting intellectual property rights is important for every author
The importance of stepping out of our comfort zone
Creative practices that keep the writing going even in a busy life
The challenges and opportunities of publishing in another language
Using different levels of engagement for different types of readers in a sales funnel
What does the future of publishing hold?
Why not needing permission is so liberating and democratizing for writers

You can find Mark Dawson at MarkJDawson.com and SelfPublishingFormula.com and on Twitter @SelfPubForm and @pbackwriter

How To Outline A Non-Fiction Book So Readers Can’t Put It Down

November 13, 2019 by Creative Guest 6 Comments

By their very nature, many non-fiction books have the clear intention of helping their readers. Author and ghostwriter, Joshua Lisec, shares tips on how to meet that goal so that your book is widely read and recommended.

The Official Steps to Non-Fiction Author Success:

Write.
Edit.
Publish.

If you’ve read any non-fiction advice articles recently, you probably got some version of that advice. It makes sense in theory. You’re an expert in your field. When you decide it’s time to write your book, shouldn’t you just starting writing, then keep writing until you’ve exhausted your mental library?

Well…

No.

What if simply sitting down and typing whatever comes to mind is the worst way to write your non-fiction book?

What if brainstorming what you would like to write about leaves you with a manuscript that only your parents and pals want to read?

As a Professional Ghostwriter of over forty books, I’ve learned (and taught) a thing or two about how to write a page-turning, mind-opening non-fiction book. The difference between a book that sells a few dozen copies and one that gets word-of-mouth marketed across the world is all about the way the author outlined the book. I’ll explain.

I want you to think about a non-fiction book you cherish. The one you bought extra copies of so you can share with colleagues and clients. Got it? Of course you do! You’ve highlighted and sticky noted so many of the book’s pages you’d you’re studying for an exam. You’ve downloaded quote cards from the book as reminders of how you should live, move, and be in the world.

Now I want you to think about the last book you didn’t finish. Takes a few moments to think of it, doesn’t it? The book wasn’t terrible. Just…forgettable.

Based on my and my authors’ lived experience, I can tell you why your fave book holds your attention to this day while that “blah” book disappeared behind the bookshelf when your cat hopped up there one day.

The world’s best non-fiction authors write their book for you—not for them.

Yes, an author pens a manuscript based on their background, ideas, and true-to-life experiences. Yet their ego is not the intended audience—your heart, mind, and soul are.

This insight brings us back to the number one mistake I see aspiring non-fiction authors make on their first draft (and all too often the final draft). These enthusiastic writers consult their mental library of experiences, ideas, and understandings, throw everything onto the page, and try to make heads and tails of what goes where in the book.

It’s a tough task. It’s also unnecessary.

The non-fiction books you’re going to recommend to family and friends for the rest of their life could not be further from these mosaic manuscripts. The authors you admire wrote their book at the intersection of what they wanted to write about and what people like you wanted to read.

Imagine a Venn diagram. In one set is everything the author could have written. In the other is everything readers in their chosen book category desire from future books.

The most emotionally compelling books exist at that intersection.

And that’s exactly what you will take away from this article—how to outline a non-fiction book so the final draft is something you can be proud of because readers can’t put the thing down.

Step 1: Mind Map

Now is the time to get out your favorite coloured pens and journals or your laptop and let your mind roam. Feel free to freewrite.

What you won’t do is stare at page after page of notes and wonder where the book starts or ends.

Instead, use a free mind mapping software like MindMeister to organize the topics, subtopics, examples, and calls-to-action that could make an appearance in your non-fiction book.

Let’s say you’re a self-improvement expert. Take your notes over to MindMeister and type your book idea in a circle. Next surround your idea with specific topics you could cover in the book. For example, if you’re writing a productivity book, your topics could include routines, diet, exercise, and time management.

Go back to your notes and look for subtopics, sub-subtopics, and even sub-sub-subtopics. Everything goes in your mind map. For example, your routines topic could eventually be two chapters, one covering a morning routine and the other your evening routine.

Then the evening routine chapter talks about getting ready for tomorrow, journaling away your worries, enjoying a quick meditation, and optimising your sleep. The sleep section could go on about tips to fall asleep quick, stay asleep all night, and wake up on time and refreshed without an alarm clock.

As you can see, your mind map is fast becoming a first draft outline!

Just like that, disorganized, disjointed notes become the makings of a real book. That said, you can expect to feel an eensy-weensy bit overwhelmed upon finishing your MindMeister map. How can you possibly go from a mind map and a journal to a first draft? Well, you won’t. Not yet at least.

Before an entrepreneur develops a new product, they do their homework first. What do customers want? Where are the unmet needs right now? How are existing products failing to satisfy consumers?

In the next step, you’re going to think like an “authorpreneur.” You’re going to do your research to find out how you can turn your mind map into a manuscript that makes people wonder, Where have you been all my life?!

Step 2: Research

In step one, we found out what all is in your set of the Venn diagram—that is, everything you could write about. Here in step two, we’re going to discover what your future readers want from books like yours. This way you’re authoring a book with broad appeal, a book you know for certain that people want to read.

Let’s head on over to our friends at Google. In keeping with our productivity author example, let’s google “amazon bestselling productivity books.” The top search result directs you to the Amazon bestseller list for that category.

Click four the highest ranked Amazon bestsellers in your category and scroll down to their reviews. Why four? Because if you go the traditional publishing route with your non-fiction book, you’ll be expected to present an industry standard book proposal to a literary agent, an acquisitions editor, or both. Your book proposal will include a section on competing titles where you must explain how your book compares to four popular books in your category.

One of my ghostwriting clients as a CEO of a top European reputation management company. In the authentic reviews and ratings industry, it’s common knowledge that very good (five star) and very bad (one star) reviews are not perceived to be as credible as middle-of-the-road reviews (four, three, and two star). Entrepreneur and The New York Times have both published research supporting this hypothesis. When consumers scroll down a page of positive reviews, they wonder if perhaps they’re too good to be true.

Of course I don’t mean to imply that you should assume every five star and one star review is paid promotion. They’re not. For aspiring authors who’d rather be writing than reading reviews all day long, this tip is merely the shorthand way to find the reader feedback you need to write a marketable book.

Step 3: Exclude (Or Include)

“I know exactly what readers want.”

Not a sentence a first-time non-fiction author should ever be heard uttering. Even the most experienced and astute writers may mis-guess which topics their book should cover and which it shouldn’t. That’s why third-party feedback from your future readers is a better standard for judging what to include in your book.

And who knows! Perhaps you’ll find out that readers in your category are begging for a book on a topic you know a lot about but hadn’t considered. Happens all the time with my authors.

Author: “Really? People want me to talk about that in my book?”

Ghostwriter: “Yep, over two hundred and fifty reviews say the exact same thing: ‘I bought these other books hoping they would cover Topic X but they never did.’”

What’s your Topic X?
The idea, method, or approach your future readers are hankering to read about that you are uniquely suited and qualified to discuss? Let’s find out! Comb through the four, three, and two star reviews on the top four bestselling books in your category. Search for two specific sentiments:

“Hoped they would’ve’s”

“Wish they hadn’t’s”

When I go to a top productivity book, I find these reviews:

See the pattern? “Disappointing,” “nothing new,” “some useful advice.” These readers all feel like the productivity book overpromised and underdelivered. One reviewer explains how the author brushed over too many topics. Other reviewers felt like the book contained too many personal accounts from the author without having a “how-to” system or framework.

For your book project, copy and paste all relevant reviews word-for-word into your favorite word processing program (mine’s Google Docs). Once you’ve scoured reader reviews for the top four bestselling books on Amazon, it’s time to open your mind map again.

Based on customer feedback, which topics should you exclude from the book?

What topics do readers want to see you discuss that haven’t made it into your mind map yet?

For example, several productivity book reviewers expressed disappointment that bestselling books did not present a productivity system. Lo and behold, a system does not make an appearance in our mind map! We’d better structure the topics so the book is step-by-step, not here’s-a-tip-there’s-a-tip.

What else do we find in the reviews? One reader did not seem too pleased that the productivity book they purchased went on and on about time management. What topic is in the mind map? Yep, it’s time management.

If we want to ultimately write a non-fiction book that readers like these blokes can’t put down, what must we do? Strike that topic from the mind map—and from the ensuing outline—or include time management as part of a how-to productivity system.

Oh, what was that word I just used? Outline? Yes, the outline! After you’ve completed this process of elimination (and inclusion!), you have yourself a marketable, salable book. Well, its outline at least.

These three steps to outline your book may take up your next few writing sessions. Trust me—and my international bestselling authors. It’s so worth it to allot a few hours now to customer research so you can write a smashing book…than to skip this step, crank out a so-so book nobody buys, and wonder what the heck happened.

Because when you outline, write, and publish a book that people want to read, something strange and magical happens.

They buy your book.

Have you thought of using mind maps to thoroughly outline a non-fiction book? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Every day Joshua Lisec helps authors manifest the mission behind their voice. He is the founder of The Entrepreneur’s Wordsmith LLC, Ohio’s first Certified Professional Ghostwriter, a multiple-time #1 International Bestselling Ghostwriter, a Forbes Contributor ghostwriter, a TEDx speaker, and a two-time published novelist.

Since 2011, Joshua has ghostwritten forty books and has been featured in TED, TEDx, BBC Radio London, Foundr, American Express, Yahoo!, Fatherly, The Huffington Post, the Nonfiction Authors Association, and numerous other outlets. During a recent podcast, Dilbert comic creator and New York Times bestselling author Scott Adams recommended Joshua to aspiring authors who need help writing and publishing a book.

[Mind map image in sharing graphic from BigStockPhoto. All other images copyright Joshua Lisec.]

[For more tips on writing non-fiction, check out How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn your Knowledge into Words by Joanna Penn.]

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