I have had 28 books published by major publishers such as HarperCollins, John Wiley and Sons, W.W. Norton, Penguin and others. When I first became involved in writing and publishing trade books (publishing industry jargon referring to books for a general audience), I had an author's mindset. That is, I was thinking like an author. "Once they see my proposal, they will realize this will be a great book and they will want to publish it." Sometimes I sold my proposed books and sometimes I didn't.
But after some years and some experience trying to sell book ideas that didn't sell or trying to get a new agent and failing, I began to realize that I needed to understand and speak to the agent's needs and interests (and in turn the publisher's needs and interests) as well.
I need to build the business case for the book as well as make sure the proposal showed how unique my book idea was and why there was a group of readers who would be likely to buy it.
These three considerations are what I call in my book writing and publishing courses:
Platform, positioning, and population.
Platform is a publishing industry buzzword that roughly translates into your:
Marketing abilities
Marketing plans
Marketing channels
Credibility
Portfolio of previous accomplishments
Positioning involves where your book will be positioned within the bookstore and the book market in general. This includes what genre the book belongs to (romance, detective/thriller, self-help, spiritual, inspirational, how-to, and so on) and how it is different from other similar books.
Population can be viewed as a subset of Positioning in thaqt it help define who exactly your readers will be. Most newbie or wannabe writers say their book is "for everyone." It is hard to market to everyone and the publisher will not be swayed by this stance. Better to narrow your market. For example, there are lots of books about stress management out there, but how about "Stress Management for New Parents" or Stress Management for the Newly Retired"? Narrowing the population may be by age, geographic location, interest group or anything else that segments and differentiates your potential reader from all readers.
Mastering these three aspects of pitching your book project decreases the likelihood of agents and editors rejecting your book, not for its content or topic, but for other reasons. Please learn about these important topics before you submit your book.
Hope this helps in getting your book written and published.
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