- How To Come Up With Bestselling Book Ideas Quickly & Easily
- Brain Warmup Exercises for Author Creativity
- Creativity Exercise: Mind Mapping
- Creativity Exercises: Word Association & Brainstorming
- Publishing Bandwagons: Trend Surfing for Authors
- NLP Meta Programs For Authors
- Creativity: What About Textbooks & Academic Books?
- Book Ideas: General V Detail & Internal V External
- A simple way to improve your vocabulary
- Book Ideas: Pain V Gain & Matching V Mis-Matching
- The Creativity Matrix: Chunking Up, Sideways & Laterally
- Book Idea Formulas: Problems, Needs & The Human Condition
Meta Program: General Vs Detail
- Choose a main theme or topic – let’s say Publishing for this example
- List general words that define publishing at the top of your page (landscape format) with a row each
- Under each general word write down all the details, options and alternatives you can find for each main heading
- You’ll end up with something like this – and pretty much any one of these deeper topics could be a whole book in itself.
| WRITING | GETTING PUBLISHED | SELLING BOOKS |
| Book Ideas Writing Approaches Planning a book Coming up with a title Beating Writer’s Block Grammar Punctuation Language Choosing a genre Choosing an audience Getting book written Time management |
Self publishing Sorting out the ISBN Getting a barcode Cover design Typesetting Editing Vanity publishing Print on Demand Offset Printing Writer’s Agents Getting a publishing deal Negotiating your contract Getting royalties Author’s advances |
Getting into bookshops Getting distribution Finding your market Publicity and Press Getting Famous Selling direct Handling returns Setting your discount Setting a cover price Negotiating terms Licensing Movie rights Foreign rights Author’s Publicists Ebooks & Ebook readers Bookshops & Wholesalers |
Examples:
- Grammar = “The Complete Guide To English Grammar for Non-Fiction Writers”
- Print on Demand = “How To Self Publish Your Book Using Print on Demand”
- Publicity & Press = “The Author’s Guide To Being Your Own Publicist”
Pic by killermonkeys
Meta Program: Internal Vs External
If you’re self-motivated you’re able to get satisfaction for a job well done regardless of whether you get praise or criticism or not – if you’re other motivated, even if you think you’ve done a good job, you’d easily doubt yourself if you faced criticism from others. It’s likely you’re a mixture of both but this exercise will help you to fill in the gaps and increase your behavioural flexibility – which means more creative options for you! Here’s what you do…
- Choose a target audience – we’ll go for authors
- Make two columns – Self and Other
- List all the things you think your audience would want in your own dominant column (so if you think you’re motivated more by others start on the right or if you’re very self-assured start in the left)
- Now next to each item in the first column think of a complementary point for the other column (chances are you’ll find this more difficult)
- When you’ve got a complete list (as below) look for any words that could be the basis of a book
| SELF (INTERNAL) MOTIVATION | OTHER (EXTERNAL) MOTIVATION |
| Get your book written quickly Work your own hours Work whenever you want Share what you know Write a brilliant book Sell loads of books Make loads of money |
Hit the deadlines set by your publisher Stop taking orders from my boss Be home more for my family Help other people learn what I know Have people think and say I’m great Become famous and loved Show the doubters you’ve made it! |
Examples:
- Work your own hours = “How To Take Charge of Your Time As An Author”
- Stop taking orders from your boss = “How To Write A Book & Sack Your Boss”
