Get your discounted ticket at: www.millionaireauthorsbootcamp.com

Topics include:
How To Write Your Book In Under 90 Days
How To Push Your Book Up The Amazon Bestseller Charts
How To Become A New York Times Bestselling Author in Six Months Or Less
How to Make $20K A Month Publishing Books On Kindle
How To Make Seven Figures With EBooks and Self-Publishing

As I mentioned in my earlier blog – Do iPad or Do I Kindle? – the iPad delivers something very specific for authors that ereaders don’t…

- quite simply, it’s the ability to write.

Will I be getting one? You bet!

Will I wait a while? Yes too as I specifically want it do act as my mobile writing toolbox and want 3G.

Also the apps, I need aren’t quite yet available in iPad format.

So apart from the obvious ability to write, here’s what I plan to use it for and my app shopping list for developers to step up to the plate with …

… some of which I know are ‘appening

Killer app #001 : Mind Mapping

The iPad will be brilliant for being able to brainstorm and plan. If I currently Mind Map with clients I use pen and paper as a laptop creates an uncomfortable barrier. Having an iPad will sort that once & for all.

For authors, Mind Mapping is brilliant for not only coming up with initial concepts but also project management of the whole book production process.

Apps on my shopping list:

• iMindmap
• iThoughts
• Mind Manager

Killer app #002 : Audio recording

I encourage many of my clients (especially those that have dyslexic tendencies) to use audio recording as a means of “writing” their books. Transcription to text can either be semi-automatic or done cheaply through a number of human-based services.

Apps on my shopping list:

• Griffin iTalk
• Voxie ProRecorder
• Dragon Dictation

Killer app #003 : Research

It might sound obvious but a real bonus is being able to search without opening up a laptop and on a bigger screen than your iPhone.

Apps on my shopping list:

• Taptu
• QuickFind
• Early Edition RSS Reader

Killer app #004 : e-Publishing

Having Pages on your iPad will allow you to write and edit your book. Imagine though an app that allowed you to publish directly into the iBookstore or on the Kindle or Sony Reader. Well I will make a prediction that either Apple will make ePub an output format for Pages and/or a third party app will come out soon to do exactly that.

Apps on my shopping list:

• Pages (with Save as … ePub)
• Calibre (not available but soon please)

Killer app #005 : Producing your own apps

ePublication into the iBookstore will become as easy as submitting an MP3 file to iTunes within a few months. Publishing of read-only titles will become trivial and publishing will be in the hands of authors.

At the same time, great opportunities will open up to create interactive titles that make full use of the iPad environment.

Take my latest book Blocks which comes with six guided audio visualisations and several Mind Mapping exercises. Imagine listening to the audio at the appropriate point in the book and then opening the Mind Map app up to complete the exercise.

I am currently writing the sequel to Blocks with the iPad in mind as a target platform (as well as print).

Here’s a few more ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Embedding live web components
• Embedding tests and surveys
• Tasking and reminders
• Geo-coded based content
• Interaction and chat with the author
• Upselling of products and services

This decade is going to be an amazing time to be an author, a publisher and a reader…

…. Happy Scribing & do add your killer apps below

Incidentally, if you want to know more about all of this, I will be covering all aspects of ePublishing (and more) on my 3 day Author’s Retreat

Details and booking here …

Want to increase your chances of writing a bestselling book right from the get-go? Here are some tips used by the top 5% of authors.

Many successful writers do considerable research before they even get started writing their books. Much of this relies on having a basic understanding of marketing.

What Sells Books?

So Let’s go back to the fundamentals of what sells. Why do people buy books? Usually, it’s the ‘what’s in it for me’ factor. They buy because:

• they can learn something;
• it helps improve their life in some way;
• it saves them money;
• it solves a problem in their life.

To put it another way, people buy for ‘pain or gain’. In other words, there is a pain in their life that needs solving. Or they think they will gain in some way – either emotionally or financially.

It is worth noting that one of the most powerful motivations in marketing is financial gain. In other words, a reader can justify ‘investing’ in a book if they think it will either save them time or money. The trick is to think how you can apply these principles to your own book. This is particularly helpful for non-fiction, though perhaps less so for novels or poetry.

Your Book Title

A book title is one of the most powerful tools for selling a book. It gives the reader a succinct and clear reason for buying your book. Your title can make all the difference between a bestselling book and a book that ends up on the slush pile. The important thing to remember is to put the benefit for the reader in the title.

Examples might be:

• A book targeted at would-be lawyers – ‘Top Tips For Wannabe Lawyers’ or ‘Want To Be Lawyer? – How To Get There Faster’ (WIFM: training)
• A book targeted at the general public – ‘Top Tips To Cut Your Lawyer’s Fees in Half’ or ‘How To Choose The Best Lawyer’ (WIFM: saving money, problem solving).
• A book targeted at a specific niche – ‘How To Sue The Person Who Injured You’, “The Idiot’s Guide to Getting Divorced’, ‘How To Write Your Own Will’.
• A book targeted at other lawyers – ‘What You Don”t Know About Rival Law Firms’ or ‘How To Become A Partner In Your Law Firm In Less Than A Year’ (WIFM: entertainment/competitive edge.)

These titles are off the cuff and imperfect. But hopefully you can see the ‘what’s in it for me’ principle at work and see why a target audience would want to buy them.

This doesn’t mean that a book has to be solely about the subject matter in the title. This just provides a convenient marketing ‘angle’ for a book so that readers (and publishers, in the first instance) can see the benefits and understand why people would buy them.

Looking at the aforementioned titles, I hope that you can see that some books provide a more powerful motivation for buying than others. Saving money, making money, and problem solving are stronger emotional motivations than entertainment or curiosity, for example.

Market Research

Thanks to the Internet, you can now do comprehensive research into what your readers are likely to be looking for. You can check amazon.com to see if there are any comparative books on the subject. This will help you to identify your unique selling points. Why, for example, would a reader choose to buy your book over theirs? What do you offer that other authors don’t?

Don’t be put off if there are similar books to yours. This shows that there is a market for your subject matter. However, you do need to identify what is special and different about your book to make it stand out.

So you want to write a book? But perhaps you’re daunted by the odds? Believe it or not, there is a way to stack the odds in your favour – though less than 5 per cent of writers seem to know about it. If you want to give yourself a fighting chance, then it’s worth spending the time doing some research before you even write a word of your book.

How Publishers Think

When an agent or publisher looks at a book, they want to know it will sell. It is as simple as that: they want to know your book will make money. I will be blunt: if you are a good writer, if your writing is polished, if you are entertaining and witty, that is the icing on the cake. What matters is whether your book will sell and who it will be sold to.

Consider this – 70% of books published don’t make make a profit or even earn back their advance. This is why you need to stack the cards in your favour as much as possible before you approach an agent or publisher.

The approach 95% of writers take is to write a book and then think: ‘who will I sell it to?’ In fact, a slight shift of thinking is needed. First of all, you need to identify your target readership. Suppose you are a divorce lawyer writing a book. Are you writing for: the general public, trainee lawyers, professional lawyers, for example? Each of these groups of people will have different needs and requirements. They will all read a book for different reasons.

Importantly, once you have identified your specific target audience, you can then understand what their needs are and what motivates them. It also enables a publisher, ultimately, to market your book as they can work out where your readers ‘congregate’ – magazines, clubs, associations, ezines, etc – so that they can target their publicity.

Profile Your Readers

Ideally, once you have identified your target audience, you need to step inside their skin so that you can write a ‘profile’ for them. Are they male or female? What is their social class and level of vocabulary? How old are they? What are their top 3 goals? What do they like reading? Which clubs and associations do they already belong to? Which publications do they read or subscribe to? What are their top 3 frustrations? What makes them angry? What makes them happy?

Hopefully, you will see the merits in understanding your readers as your book can then provide some of the solutions to their problems and frustrations. In essence, you are giving them what they are already wanting or looking for.

So, why was I successful?

Was it just a fluke?

Well, back then I thought it was, but now, 26 books on, I realise that I got several things right.

So, I go to the flipchart and start to ask the audience what they think the reasons for my success might be. It always follow the same pattern. To kick off, they suggest things like focus, a good title, the right idea at the right time, a market, a wow factor and authenticity, but then the room falls silent. They wrack their brains. Then someone says, it always happens, someone says: “There’s something else though, isn’t there?” and the rest of the audience begin to nod.

You see, the other reason I succeeded was because I believed in myself. I was 23, I was young, naive, filled with hope. I did not consider for a moment that the fact that I was not a cook and had not been published before would stand in my way. I believed I had a good idea. OK, let me get it out of the way right now, before you wonder how I got away with not being a cook – though I had not written the recipes and could not cook, they had been given to me by French families while I had been living in France. The book was called French Tarts and it was a good idea and, in the mid-eighties, it was the perfect time. I truly believed I had a good chance of the book being accepted.

I believe that self-belief is the number one requirement if you want to write a book. It should not be the last thing on the list but the first. So, what follows, are five ways that I suggest you try to develop this elusive item.

1. Ask for feedback and take it, welcome it, know that without it you will never really know how good you are. Improve your chances by suggesting how you want the feedback to be served. Say you want to hear what they liked, what they felt might be missing and how they might improve it. This kind of feedback is much easier to digest and will leave you feeling good about your work.
2. Write every day. OK, almost every day. If you have a journal and are in the practice of doing ten minutes of what Julia Cameron, in The Artist’s Way, calls Morning Pages, then you will begin to feel like a real writer rather than an imposter. You see, real writers do something phony writers don’t – they write.
3. Read other books in your market. Devour them. Make Amazon your best friend and read everything else out there that is like the one you want to write. You’ll soon find things that you consider not to be so great about each book, as well as things you’d like to emulate in yours. This will boost your confidence in your idea.
4. Get published in a small way. Nothing will make you feel more positive about your potential as an author more than already having your name in print. So write articles, start a blog, write book reviews or theatre reviews. Get your name online and in print, build a portfolio. Not only will this increase your profile and Googleability, but will also develop belief in your writing.
5. Join a class or online program, one that makes you commit to writing, forces you to do homework and ensures you turn up at the class and the page regularly. Being in a class means you get feedback from the rest of the group, if you you are lucky, and from a professional,the teacher. Practice makes perfect and is habit-forming. Try it.

Readers too want to know about the people who write the books they read. If you share your stories this makes your writing authentic. It makes people believe in you.

So, what does this actually mean, then, you ask.

It means that if you are going to write about yourself in your books, you need to be able to write in stories. Think about fiction for a minute, that’s a ’story’, right? What ingredients do you have in a novel?

You have people. And people have character, they talk, feel and they do things.

You create a sense of place too, and if you are lucky, the reader can relate to some aspects of the story.

It is just the same with the pieces of life story, or anecdotes, that you share in your non-fiction.

Here are the seven ingredients that I believe you need to use to write a story that leaps off the page.

1. Character
2. Dialogue
3. Details
4. Scene setting
5. Emotion
6. Resonance
7. Narrative

So, next time you want to share a story from your life to illustrate a point, don’t do it like this:

My grumpy teenage son came on one day and told us he wanted to leave school.

But like this, using the ingredients above:

I stood at the kitchen window and watched James return from school. His blonde head was bowed, his narrow shoulders stooped and his black rucksack slumped against his lower back.  I moved to open the door for him. His face was devoid of expression.

“Hi love, had a good day?” I said cheerily, knowing that with his ears plugged by headphones he was unlikely to answer.

James shucked off his rucksack and kicked it to the side of the hallway. “I’m never going back there again. Not ever, right?”

OK, so it takes longer to write a piece of life story this way, but I think you will agree that it’s worth it.