Writing a book can be difficult, not only because the writing itself can be a lonely old process riddled with moments of self-doubt, but also because you have no one to answer to. If you write alone it can be easy to let yourself down and give up.

I have long been a fan of collaboration. I believe that when two people with complementary skills get together the book they produce can only benefit from the meeting of two minds. Better still, once the book is out, when you have two authors you get two networks you can tap into for promotion and two people to work at marketing and selling. During the writing process you can keep each other on track. Back in 1995 I collaborated on a cookery book with Sue Valentine. I loved to cook,  knew how to write and knew how to desktop publish. I had written a cookbook before. Sue had a PhD in food science, was used to inventing recipes, loved to cook and also loved to take photographs. Sue and shared the work, the promotion and the money! We wrote Dates when we both lived in Oman. It has now been republished by Zodiac and continues to do well.

More recently, Simone Costa Eriksson and Ana Serra have collaborated on a brand new book called Moving Abroad – the Mission of Detective Mike.

Simone takes up the story:
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“Ana was my spouse intercultural coachee, after our 5 sessions were over, I had found out about Ana’s interest in writing for children and that we had a lot in common: we both had intercultural marriages, we both had lived in Italy, and we both have had problems with our children while moving abroad. So I proposed to her to write the book combining my psychology interest in families in transition and her talent with writing for children. In reality, when we began, we were just two desperate expat wives trying to make sense of our life experience, we were so convinced children and their families needed special attention. I was always impressed with Ana’s writing, one time she wrote a special poem for her daughter to have it on her birthday party invitation.

“We started by meeting weekly to discuss each area of difficulty for children and how we could help them solve it. Since she is from Argentina, she started writing it in Spanish, she would read to me and help me translate what I could not understand. Ana moved back to Italy just before we concluded the Spanish version, it took about a year. Then we did the Portuguese version and later translated into a non-native English! That is when I found Jo Parfitt. Besides correcting the English and turning it into native language, Jo questioned the structure, the characters and the language we had used in an honest way, just what we needed! Another 6 months had passed when we managed to put together the text, illustrations and design. I felt I could trust Jo ‘as a midwife’ since the first messages we exchanged.
“We met the illustrator Meri, throught Evely, someone who builds and sells wooden toys and whom I met in the local craft market. I needed to paint a big cube used for our workshops. Since the very beginning, Meri understood immediately and deeply what we were talking about, it was an instant synergy. We had magic moments together and often got very emotional when discussing the concepts behind the story.”

Sue and I collaborated on a cookbook, Simone and Ana collaborated on a children’s book. Both publications benefited hugely from this meeting of minds and skills.

Through my work as an authors’ mentor I have often worked with teams who are working together. I have discovered that while this is definitely a good idea, it has its pitfalls. If you are thinking of collaborating, here are some tips:

five tips for collaborators

1. Appoint one team member as the lead editor, and ensure all work is edited by the same person so that the voice and style are consistent. You may choose to work with an external editor for this.
2. Divide tasks fairly according to skill and availability.
3. Set deadlines and appoint one team member to crack the whip
4. Have regular meetings
5. Write one chapter, initially, that everyone approves and then use the ‘formula’ for that chapter to write the rest of the book. In this way you can ensure consistency.

People take about 30 seconds to make up their minds whether to consider buying a book or not. The list below will help you to hook them before they even open the book:
10 ways to grab a book buyer’s attention

1. Have a great title – funny, punny, alliterative are all good
2. Have a clear subtitle – ensuring the keywords  people use when they search for books on Amazon are in there somewhere
3. Beg, cajole or bribe someone famous or eminent to write your foreword and put their name on the cover
4. Beg, cajole or bribe more famous people to review your book later and put their words on the back cover.
5. Take the best review quote you have, from the most influential person, and put it on the front cover.
6. Ensure your book design fits the book’s message, your purpose and your brand
7. Offer a bonus, some free stuff and promote that on the cover. Stephanie Hale, author of Millionaire Women, Millionaire You invites readers to collect tons of great reports from her millionaire vault. Arvind Devalia, offered a free coaching session with Get a Life, Marcus Buckingham offered a free online assessment with Now Discover Your Strengths.
8. Write a compelling description of the book and what it will do for the reader and add that to the back cover.
9. Put your photo on the cover. A professional one!
10. Put your website on the cover, and make it memorable, then, even if they don’t buy the book, they may look you up later.

These tips, and many more, from the Book Promotion Seminar, in London, April 2010, will appear on my blog over the next few weeks. Make sure you sign up so you don’t miss out.
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Do you have more tips to share on how to ensure your book is judged and sold by its cover? If so, please share them here.

As someone who has run my own business for over 20 years I learned a long time ago that networking is a fundamental part of my business. I have seen first hand how giving is one of the best ways to grow my client list.

​Here, in this month’s column at The Hague Online, where I am Writer in Residence, I share the story of a fascinating scene that unfolded in front of me while I sat on the London Underground last weekend, when I attended a super Book Promotion Seminar.

If you have been following my blog lately you will be aware that I am reporting on what I learned at a Book Promotion Seminar that took place earlier this month in London. Stephanie Hale, who runs RichWriterPoorWriter was our final speaker, and here I would like to share with you her tips for making your book into an Amazon bestseller. Stephanie has written many books, with Millionaire Women, Millionaire You being her most recent.

‘As a rule, if you manage to sell 100 books in a day, that will give you Amazon bestseller status,’ Stephanie explained. Many books never sell more than 500 copies – ever. What follows is her method for ensuring that  a book reaches bestseller status.

‘There are many benefits to being a bestselling author,’ Stephanie continued. ‘You achieve expert status, you can add the phrase ‘bestselling author’ to your PR, you get invited to speak at events and the more readers you have, the more opportunities arise to build your contact list. Once those people are in your list, you can then sell more products to them.’

12 Steps to Amazon Bestseller Status

1. First, you need a great book, with a great title, cover, opening page, back cover blurb, an emotional message containing buzzwords, your website, your photo and an attention-grabbing endorsement, preferably from a celebrity.
2. Next, submit your book to Amazon – .com, .co.uk and all other relevant sites.
3. Give away review copies and get people to write reviews on all the Amazons.
4. Identify your target audience, find directories, forums, clubs, websites, publications and blogs that are popular with your Ideal Reader.
5. Create a buzz about yourself – post extracts online, ask for feedback, get comments from people, contribute to blogs, forums and other social media sites.
6. Set a date for your campaign. Check this date does not clash with big sporting events, holidays etc. You can use Google Trends to see when certain subjects have a peak moment. This is the date you will ask everyone to purchase your book, so you need to prepare your helpers in advance. More on helpers in step 9.
7. Collect irresistable bonuses, preferably available by download only, and that will encourage people to buy your book. Stephanie has a Millionaire Vault packed with wonderful stuff for her readers.
8. Ensure that it is easy for your readers to get hold of these bonuses, preferably via a single download link.
9. Build a network of helpers who can spread the word for you. Choose helpers who have active lists, affiliates, blogs and so on. Ideally, you want to be contacting 10,000 people. So identify helpers with substantial lists and it is not too difficult to be emailing 10,000 people during your campaign.
10. Write a persuasive sales letter that you will email out to your helpers, asking them to share the news of your great book and your incredible offers.
11. Write an enticing web page on a website devoted to your book. Share testimonials, benefits, features and of course information about your bonuses. Don’t forget to add a buy now button!
12. Monitor your progress, check your sales figures, keep in touch with your helpers and keep track of what is working. Like they say, ‘what you measure you can manage’.

Books need a wow factor if they are to make you as rich and famous as you intend, right? so here goes:

There are 4 types of wow:

​Author wow
You are an important part of the mix. Your own personal story or journey should be part of the brand. Do you walk your talk? Do you have the authority to write on your topic? Do you have a ‘tribe’ or following already, so that you are have a readymade market waiting for your book? Are you a speaker or trainer with opportunity to sell your book at the back of the room? If so, then you have author wow.

Style wow
There are 2 kinds of style – your writing style and the way your book looks on the page

• Analyse existing books that you like and see how they lay out lists, resource boxes, case studies, quotations, subheadings and so on. Your book needs enough white space on the page and needs to be easily navigated by people in a hurry. It needs clear signposts. You do judge a book by its cover and layout. Make sure yours looks fab.
• Your writing style is part of your brand. Use your natural voice. Be accessible, simple, don’t exclude the reader with words they won’t understand. To find your voice I suggest you write a Shitty First Draft fast, and then go back and edit it.

Content wow
What will you put in your book? What ingredients? Will you use anecdotes, case studies, tips, lists, statistics, graphics, cartoons, photographs, a bibliography, an index? Be sure your ingredients follow a set pattern or recipe to keep your content consistent. Ensure the reader feels compelled to keep reading. A book must inspire, support, entertain or inform. It must have a purpose. Define your purpose and stick to it.
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Story wow
All books need story. Yes, even non-fiction. Your story, the stories of your case studies. These stories need to leap off the page and be as visual and compelling as fiction. I have devised a tool to help you add spice to your stories. This means you need to add Specifics, Place, Incident, Character and Emotion. This is what I teach in all my life story classes.