Back in 1998 when I left England and started my journey around the world, I promised my 92-year-old grandma I would write letters to her every 2 weeks.  The next time she saw me was in 2001 when I came back for a visit.  She presented me with a suitcase full of my letters and postcards and told me “now write that book”

That planted the seed that maybe I could write a book, even though I had no writing qualifications.  I did not consider myself to be particularly good at grammar or spelling, but everyone kept telling me I had an interesting life and it would make a good book.  Anyway, I had heard how difficult it was to get your book published as a first time author and that seemed like a lot of hard work.

While I procrastinated my Grandma continued to receive my letters and I continued to travel.

In April 2005 I attended a workshop in Singapore on “how to write your book” and that turned out to be the inspiration and motivation I needed to get me started!  By the end of 2005 I was at the final editing stage and by Feb 2006 I self-published my book.I dedicated my book “A seven year journey around the world – discovering my passion and purpose” in memory of Bea, my grandma who inspired me to write my book.  Not only did she pass away before she saw the book in print, she didn’t even get to know I had actually started work on it, thanks to her.

Don’t let this happen to you!  Write your memoirs before its too late, write that fiction book you’ve been dreaming about, write that business book to promote your business and give you credibility, put all those poems and essays into a book, turn your thesis into a book!  Just start.

Remember, you don’t have to be an expert at grammar or spelling or sentence structure, that is what editors are for!  It is just up to you to tell your story from the heart and get started and take the time to educate yourself with the many resources available to make the task  easy and enjoyable!

I hope to inspire some of you to realize the gift hidden within you and give you the tools you need to spread that message and give new ideas and knowledge to make this world a little better for everyone. If you have a unique gift or ability, a book is the easiest way to spread that message to as many people as possible.

I would like to share with you the stories of some of the authors who I have helped to recognize their gift and spread the “word” with their published book.

One of those authors, Annie Hopper, has discovered a cure for Fibromalgia, MSC and Chronic pain syndrome and she is sharing her story to help other sufferers so that they can learn how she cured herself.  She hopes that if one sufferer can find a cure by reading her book, she has been successful in reaching out to other people who are going through the pain of the illness that once made her homeless.  Annie also offers workshops and since writing her book she has been able to spread her message to a much wider audience by giving radio interviews and being featured in the press.

Dr Daniel Scott is helping people to self-defend themselves in the workplace from verbal abuse with his book “Dr. Scott’s Verbal Self Defense for the Workplace.” He demonstrates how Neuro Linguistic Programming can be used against the workplace bully. His book will guide the reader through a detailed process of learning and practicing all the skills necessary to verbally defend themselves effectively in a professional manner. The exercises will include learning how to properly consider other people’s perceptions while still respecting and adhering to their own personal morals and principles, all within the structure and expectations of the company. Dr. Scott’s Verbal Self Defense for the Workplace is written primarily for general office workers and service industry staff; anyone who deals with individuals that become angry or confrontational with an organization’s employees and volunteers. He is providing a service to other people by helping them to overcome workplace bullying, something many of us have been the victim of. More information on this book at http://www.verbalselfdefensebook.com

Another example of a book that was written to help other people is “Care of the Caregiver” It is an easy-to-follow and practical working guide to help families and friends navigate the vital details of everyday life while caring for a loved one at home during a chronic or debilitating illness. When Lynn Longmuir’s husband Niall was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis in 1996, Lynn gradually found herself in a full time care-giving role with limited resources and no way of knowing how to deal with her own grief and pain. Taking care of someone you love is difficult and taking care of yourself in the process, without help, is practically impossible. After discovering how difficult to access and few resources existed for caregivers, she dedicated herself to ensuring that others in her situation have both the practical and emotional tools to be strong for themselves and their loved ones. Lynn is able to bring a voice of experience and compassion to this important topic. She can be found at www.careforthecaregiver.ca

Many entrepreneurs I know are inspiring and helping other entrepreneurs by offering insightful business leadership tools, sharing their knowledge to help. So ask yourself now…

• How will your story help others?  How can you be of service to others with your book?
• How can you help other people with the knowledge and experience you have?
• How can you best get that knowledge across so it is easy for the reader to understand?

Madhan Ind{Yeah}: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickcoolpix/3566848458/

What is stopping you from sharing your knowledge and experience? Don’t let Fear and Ego get in the way of writing and publishing your book.

The biggest obstacle for writing your book always comes down to fear and ego, these are the top 3 objections:

• Is my story interesting enough?
• Will people be interested in reading it?
• Is my writing good enough?

When in reality you should be asking yourself:

• How can I be of service to others with my book?
• How can I help other people with the knowledge and experience I have?
• How can I best get that knowledge across so it is easy for the reader to understand?

Asking these tough questions up front will help you organize your book with the benefits to the reader always at the forefront of your outline.  The most challenging questions I always ask are at the beginning of my InspireABook™ workshops are:

1. Who is your reader? (i.e. age, sex, demographics, customers, friends, family or specific group i.e. cancer patients, entrepreneurs, parents etc,)
2. What will they learn by reading your book? (i.e. educational, inspirational, motivational etc)

Once you can answer these questions we have learnt the focus of your book and from here we organize your content to always reflect the lessons you want your reader to learn in a way it is easy for them to learn.

I’ll give you some specific examples from my clients in the next post – so stay tuned!

Image supplied under creative commons: Madhan Ind{Yeah}  http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickcoolpix/3566848458/

Getting a celebrity endorsement for your book is one of the easiest ways to promote it.

Readers are much more likely to listen to a well-known expert or media personality saying they can’t put your book down. Not only this but a little ‘celebrity’ magic tends to rub off on you.

I’m not saying that you should write to every celebrity or expert you can think of willy-nilly. However, if there is a tie-in with your book, however tenuous, then go for it.

Many authors are reluctant to approach celebrities for testimonials. Don’t make the same mistake!

Celebrities have egos the same as everyone else. And if your book is getting publicity and media attention, this is also going to benefit them.

You may have to approach 100, even 500, celebrities. But you only need ONE to make a massive difference to your book sales. Does it really matter if 499 tell you to get lost, if you get the one testimonial you’re after? What do you stand to lose? Hurt pride and the time it took to write the letter or email!

It’s never been easier to access celebrities via the Internet. Not only can you use search engines like Google to track them down. Many of them also have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Make it easy for them by writing 5 of your own testimonials. When you contact them, point out that they can choose one of your templates if they wish. Anything that saves them time or having to wade through loads of material, will persuade them of your professionalism.

If you’re feeling daunted, then focus on the positive benefits for you and your book. Quotes will boost your book sales and credibility. And think how great you’ll feel when you see those endorsements printed on your book cover.

I came across a brilliant site recently that is ideal for exercising your Creative Muse.

It’s called Six Sentences and takes submissions, posting the best, of short pieces written, well, in Six Sentences.

They also have an excellent Ning community site.

In the Blue Peter tradition, here’s one I submitted earlier – The Power of Six

If you want a real challenge and a whoe bit of fun, take the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com and use it as a seed to generate your Six Sentences

Unless you’re in the textbook or academic field (where there’s a need for very specific, academically accurate and impartial information) then you shouldn’t just write about what you know – you should find a way to write about it in a way the reader will want.

In fact, I’d argue that many academic books would benefit from an injection of sensationalism. It’s a great way to engage the reader when you take a position (either for or against something)  but most academic texts have to keep a sense of balance which is why they’re often so dull for the reader. Then again – they’re about information not entertainment.

Also, academic books are rarely written with the goal of massive financial success in mind. So, if you want to make money from books – then don’t model them! They’re often too niche, too research-intensive, a pain to edit and proof, and likely to go out of date by the time you’ve published them.

Seriously, some book topics just haven’t got a big enough market or universal appeal to make it worth your while. And, if the niche is tiny, then books are rarely the best model for making money. There are other things you can sell to a niche audience though which we’ll share inside the members area.

Summary

So that about wraps it up – I’ve shared loads of tricks and creative strategies for helping you come up with ideas. I’d suggest choosing 2 or 3 that appeal most to you and see what comes up. Of course – a great book idea is one thing – but there’s a long way to go before you’ve got a great book and are selling loads of copies. Take a look at the Publishing Ladder of Success and you’ll see what I mean!

It’s the sort of idea that you feel compelled to act on and it can make you drop everything or keep you awake in the early hours. Perhaps you had a vision for a new invention that will make you rich, an idea for a novel or even something to save or change the world.

These types of inspirations are wonderful.  They seem to come in at random when you are least expecting them and they happen to all of us. They also seem to come in fully formed in less than a second.

Isaac Newton apocryphally had one when an apple fell on his head leading to his Laws of Motion and Theory of Gravity. What actually happens in these cases is that you are thinking of something other than the task at hand.

To understand where these types of inspiration come from, it’s worth looking at times when they don’t happen. Say you are suffering from road rage or you’ve had an email that’s upset you, I think you’ll agree it’s hard to be creative. On the other hand, if your inner critic or internal dialogue is running, it has the effect of damping inspiration and the flow of ideas.

Mind maps are a really useful tool to use to get you into a creative way of thinking.  The left brain tells the right brain, “Leave the maps to me, I’m good at structure and navigation.”  While the logical left hemisphere is busy, the right brain is left free to sneak under its radar and get into full creative flow.

To get into a dissociated mode where you are “not thinking” about an issue, here’s a simple mind mapping exercise. Note that you don’t need any special software, pen and paper is just fine.

In the middle of a piece of paper, draw a picture that represents the opportunity or issue on which you would like some inspiration.

Now get any book and pick four pages at random and count down to the 7th line on each page. When you get to the 7^th line, find the first noun in that line for each page.

If there isn’t a noun, use the first adjective and if there aren’t 7 lines choose another page at random.

Now draw four branches off your central image with each of the words on them. Then, without thinking if possible, draw sub-branches with words that come to mind from each of these seed words. Like word association, just write down the first words that come into your head.  Feel free to make more associations from the new words.

You should end up with a picture something like the one above. You will find you have been taken down several new routes in your thinking and you may even have had a blinding flash of inspiration … and a great idea for a new book.

You may not be aware that there is not only an art but also a science to having such eureka moments.

Somewhat ironically Edison apocryphally tried 10,000 or so materials before he came across the ideal filament for light bulbs. He could have saved himself loads of time had he had a real light bulb moment and just think of what else he could have invented.

Imagine then how your business could benefit from you having that amazing light bulb moment to carry you through recession and how instilling a culture of creativity and inspiration would boost staff morale.

Now I’ve been fortunate to have had light bulb moments all my life and recently have been researching where such inspirations comes from and how to have them virtually on demand.

What I have found is that light bulb moments, and the commensurate increase in creativity, come from getting into one of two modes known as Whole Brain and Whole Mind Thinking. The latter being more powerful and needing a little more practice and discipline than the first.

Whole Brain Thinking is where the two hemispheres of the brain work in harmony. Often the left logical hemisphere suppresses creativity by saying things like, “You don’t have time” or “Don’t be stupid, people will laugh at your idea”. It is just acting to protect you as it would from a predator.

The easiest and best way to synchronise the hemispheres is to practice regular meditation. From a personal perspective, the benefits are immense to your mind and body and there are even iPod-like meditation machines available now if you want to experience deep meditative states.

In a business context however this could be frowned upon so there are more acceptable techniques. By far the best way is to use mind maps. The map seems to give the logical left brain something to keep it happy. It likes structure and you can imagine it saying, “A map, now that’s something I can work with.”

While the left brain is busy, the right can get to work and do its creative stuff. Remember that the “brain” of a business might comprise of more than one person and be a collective. So, for example, the left brained technical team can busy themselves on the map and structure while right brained marketeers unleash the ideas trapped inside them.

Whole Mind Thinking is a mode where the synchronised left and right frontal lobes of the conscious mind fuse with the unconscious mind and then can access what is known as the collective consciousness. It is postulated that the collective consciousness is where all ideas past, present and future reside.

To access this mode, you first need to address any embedded fears or patterns that might be holding you back that are residing in the unconscious mind.  These can manifest in many ways such as in creating writers’ block or self-destructive patterns of procrastination or fear.

Once the conscious and unconscious minds work in harmony, the path is clear for inspiration to flow.

For more information on the whole subject, get a copy of my new book Blocks with free access to guided MP3 visualisations whic will take you into the altered state of consciousness where Eureka Moments happen  …

Jump on The Bandwagon

This is the “creative” model used by most big publishers. Their researchers and analysts look at what’s selling well and encourage the publisher to cash-in on the trend while it’s still hot!

The good thing about jumping on a Bandwagon is that readers usually have an insatiable appetite for their chosen subject. If they’ve read all the Stephenie Meyer books they’ll be hungry for more – so your vampire book – if pitched well can find its way in. You can bet if readers devour one book on a subject they’ll want more – just fit in and get ready for sales.

Just look at any mainstream publisher’s lists and you’ll see the same sort of stuff – the more of it there is – the more they’re making money from it.

Lampoon (Jump Off) The Bandwagon

Again, you can use the “Go Against The Grain” approach (see earlier about mis-matching) with trends too – a book entitled “The Danger of Low GI Diets!” or “It’s Not A Secret Stupid!” or “The Law of Attraction Requires Action” are all ways to tap into an audience who is sick of the mainstream pulp and popular books while also getting the “true believers” interested enough in reading it too.

Copy Cat Books Abound - pic by -Sel

Currently Popular trends as I write this…

• Vampires
• Witches and Wizards
• Pirates
• Law of Attraction – The Secret
• Finance and Debt
• Low Carb Diets (How low many GI books do you need?)
• Twitter and Social Media

Universally Popular trends …

• Spirituality and Religion
• Relationships
• Health and Diets
• Celebrity
• Romance
• Travel

An example of a direct Parody of a popular series in its own right would be the “Barry Trotter” books by Michael Gerber (and not the guy who wrote The E-Myth – an excellent book – I might add). Plus, the best-selling book of all time – “The Bible” – was parodied (to much commercial success) by Richard Dawkins – with “The God Delusion”.

This uses elements of matching and mis-matching as well as big picture and detail to produce lots of ideas and content to bring out a full range of creative flexibility you may not have thought you had. What you do with the resulting content is up to you but it’s likely that inspiration for the following elements of your book can all be covered…

• The big idea, benefits or promise
• A title and subtitle
• The main chapter headings
• Your target audience
• Words for the blurb

There are three main ways we sort data in our minds. They are:

1. Chunking Up (where you’ll get all the benefits and reasons why)
2. Chunking Down (where you’ll get all the detail)
3. Chunking Laterally (where you’ll often find the weirdest stuff and metaphors)

This is useful to know because, what most people describe as creativity is really a form of chunking up and chunking laterally – and when you’re not feeling creative it’s almost always because the details are bogging you down.
So here’s what you’re going to do…

1. Get a big sheet of paper
2. Write a theme, topic, audience, main idea or your subject in the centre (draw it as a picture too if you like) – I’ll choose “Being An Author”
3. Draw the lines as shown below
4. Use the questions below to help you chunk in all the directions (up, down, lateral) and negatively (left) and positively (right) from your main theme

Here’s an example of a completed Creativity Matrix…

Now, if you’re more analytical and prefer to work to a proven formula then here are some other useful tools to spark your imagination to come up with potentially profitable and definitely brilliant book ideas…