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.

Most writers feel overwhelmed at one point or another. In fact, staying focused can be one of the biggest daily challenges. There are always 101 other things that need doing – domestic, social and professional.

This can prevent you from getting your book written and published as quickly as you’d like… and leads to that feeling of there never being enough hours in the day.

Here are some steps you can take to put yourself back on track:

1. Focus on ‘results’ rather than ‘goals’

Goals differ from results. You might have a goal to complete your book by the end of the year. You may even have a series of mini-deadlines to help you achieve this. But what is the RESULT you want? The result you want may be to get published, or to make money, or to establish yourself as an expert. Writing your book is just part of the puzzle to achieve this. Always focus on the outcome, rather than getting bogged down by short-term goals. This helps you to see where you should be spending your time most effectively.

2. Be specific

Results need to be specific to be effective. “Do some writing” is not specific, for example. “Write 10 pages in the next week” is a very specific outcome. As is: “Redraft chapters 1 to 10 in the next 28 days.” This is a much better way of monitoring your progress.

3. Prioritize

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the seemingly ‘urgent’ tasks and lose sight of the truly important ones. Supposing you’ve bought a copy of The Writers Handbook and are wondering which agent to send your book to. But maybe you haven’t written a pitch yet to achieve this outcome. Your first priority would therefore be to write an attention-grabbing pitch. That result would allow you to move on to your next goal of drawing up a shortlist of suitable literary agents. If you sent your book out too early, you’d probably end up with a pile of ’round robin’ rejection letters. If you do things in the right order, it makes it so much easier to achieve results.

Nowadays artists, writers and musicians can use modern technology in the form of Meditation Machines to achieve the same result in a much more controlled manner.

Tom Evans is using meditation machines to teach authors how to get their conscious minds out of the way so that they can tap into their unconscious mind and the collective consciousness.

Many people have experienced this mode of thinking as a light bulb moment. The easiest and cheapest way to tap into so-called light bulb moments is to meditate regularly. For many people though the thought of meditating each day though seems like an anathema in their modern day lives. How can you waste 20-30 minutes of an already busy day?

In actual fact regular meditation makes the rest of your day go so well that you can save hours of time and it has been proven to extend life expectancy too. You will get the time invested back in spade fulls.

That said, many people have trouble getting their mind to be quiet and might not know when they are actually in a deep meditative state. This is where using a Meditation Machine comes in.

Using a progressive programme of gentle exercises, the user is taken into deeper and deeper states from waking beta to relaxing alpha and deeper theta induction.

In the latter state, where the brain is in theta, the mind is connected with the collective consciousness and creativity just flows.

“Using these techniques, I have got students to come up with the most amazing titles for their books and to get whole chapters as a complete vision in one session,” says Tom. “The resulting productivity is amazing.”

Writer’s block becomes a thing of the past and associated fears of rejection and unworthiness seem to dissipate like magic too as a bonus. Getting better sleep and other health benefits make it a no-brainer.

While it is common for most meditation to occur with eyes closed, the Mind Spa machine also allows you to enter the meditative state with your eyes open. This equivalent state is one you can enter while out walking – but you can be working at your computer at the time on your best seller.

“The brilliant thing about meditation machines is that you can use them at any time during the day for a quick top up or injection of inspiration,” says Tom, “and they are useful for experienced and non-experienced meditators.”

Get a meditation machine today on a 30 day guaranteed money back trial – & I guarantee you won’t be sending it back - http://www.meditations-uk.com/main/choose_meditation_machine.html

This blog was even written just after a meditation light alpha relaxation session.

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 approach is the best way to come up with “How To” book ideas. I’d suggest using Brainstorming and Mind Mapping (see earlier) to generate ideas using the “Big Problem” as your central theme. Make sure it’s a problem people really want solving though else you’ll have a book that won’t sell. Here are the steps…

1. Choose a Market
2. Define Their Biggest Problem or Need they’re seeking
3. Think of Ways To Solve/Answer It (Your Big Promise)
4. Include Their Big Problem/Need in the Title
5. Include Your Answer/Big Promise in the Sub-Title

No need for examples here – they’re all over the place!

Books That Appeal To The “Human Condition”

Most humans share many good and amazing traits – and on the whole I like humans – well I am one too!

However, there is also a dark side (although it’s just human nature) known as “The Human Condition” – which is a powerful place to dig for universal themes to base your book idea on. While not applicable to everyone, all of the time, we can all relate to many of the following:

• Greed
• Laziness
• Complacency
• Procrastination
• Superstition
• Aggression
• Jealousy
• Spite
• Self Interest
• Need to be liked/loved
• Insecurity
• Impatience
• Fear
• Nosiness
• Hate
• Schadenfreude (enjoying/being fascinated by another person’s mis-fortune) etc.

Pic by practicalowl

Making a book that appeals to one (or preferable many) of these human conditions is bound to get a good response, cause some buzz and provide you with a book people will want. Just think how popular Get Rich Quick Schemes are? Most of us know they’re rubbish but they continue to sell because they appeal to the greed, laziness and self-interest in all of us.

Examples of Books That Are Successful (Though Not Necessarily Good!) Due To Their “Human Condition Appeal”

• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne: Get what you want simply by thinking happy thoughts! (Laziness, Self Interest, Superstition, Greed)
• The 4-Hour WorkWeek by Tim Ferris: Enjoy the lifestyle of the rich without having to wait for retirement (Laziness, Impatience)
• The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen: Become a Millionaire The Easy & Fast Way (Laziness, Impatience, Greed, Self Interest)
• All the Childhood Abuse Books: Tragic Stories of People’s Misfortunes (Fear, Schadenfreude, Nosiness)
• Pulp Romance: Mushy, Feelgood, Stories (Need to be loved)
• The Bible: Answers all our questions – about where we came from, why we’re here and where we’re going (Superstition, Fear, Insecurity)
• Celeb Books: Tells the story of their rise and fall (Nosiness, Jealousy, Schadenfreude)
• True Crime Memoirs:  (Nosiness, Aggression, Schadenfreude)

I could go on but I think you get the point!

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…

Some people are more motivated by what they don’t want than by what they do. You’ll likely have a tendency to one extreme or another and this tendency can leave blind spots in your creative thinking. So follow these steps and see what comes up…

• Choose a target audience – we’ll go for authors again
• Divide your page into 6 columns – with Pain to the left and Gain to the right
• List all the things your audience “is afraid of”, “hates”, “doesn’t want” in the third column
• List all the things your audience “is excited about”, “loves”, “does want” in the fourth column – you should have something that looks like this…

• Now, consider the consequence of each item moving left for Pain and right for Gain until you’re finished – you should have something like this when you’re done…

by Benedict Campbell - Wellcome Images

Virtually all of the items on this list could be used as the basis for a book – with most powerful words and ideas at the extreme left and right. Have fun with it and see what occurs.

Meta Program: Matching Vs Mis-Matching

You know how some people will always think of a counter example to anything you say? Well they’re mis-matchers. Then there are those that agree with everything you say or find commonality when there’s none – they’re matchers. Now, as I said – most people will be a mixture of both under certain conditions – so don’t be tempted to start labelling other people or yourself. For the purposes of creativity all we’re trying to do is increase your flexibility and options to expand your creative potential. Let’s get started!

(Matching) Go With The Grain…

1. Find a “Universal Truth” (really an over-simplified generalisation or compelling question) that baffles many people – like: Why does time speed up as we get older? Why don’t men listen? Why are all politicians liars? Why are some people lucky?
2. Promise to give your readers the answer to this “mystery”
3. Make it amusing

Examples of successful books using this Matching approach:

• The Luck Factor (What Makes Some People Luckier than Others?) – Richard Wiseman
• Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps – Allan and Barbara Pease
• Making Time (Why Do We Experience Time at Different Speeds?) – Steve Taylor
• The Tipping Point (What Turns a Small Event/Idea Into A Global Phenomenon?) – Malcolm Gladwell

(Mis-Matching) Go Against The Grain…

1. Find “Conventional Wisdom” or “Outdated Dogma” in your area – for publishing it could be “Getting Published is Difficult”
2. Attack the conventional wisdom aggressively …
3. Write a compelling headline or mission statement or manifesto for change – an example “Getting Published Is Easy – When You Know What You’re Doing”

Examples of successful books using this Mis-Matching approach:

• The God Delusion (God Exists? Prove It!) – Richard Dawkins
• Blink! (Big decisions need lots of analysis? No they don’t and here’s the proof) – Malcolm Gladwell
• Emotional Intelligence (IQ is linked to success? No EQ is a better indicator!) – Daniel Goleman
• The Gorillas Want Bananas (Textbook marketing works? 80% of it doesn’t!) – Debbie Jenkins (and me!)