Step Three: Lay the Foundation For Your Book
When you build a house, you start with a blueprint. That gives the builder and homeowner a bare-bones vision of what the house will look like, without the granite countertops, stainless-steel dishwasher, or a built-in maid service (hey, a girl can dream!). The builder then takes the blueprint and follows its specs to create a house. No matter how fancy or plain the residence the builder always starts with the foundation. He pours the concrete, creating a sturdy base for all that will come after that. If the pour is bad, because no one did a soil analysis, or the forms weren’t laid correctly, or there was too much moisture in the concrete, then the entire house will be unstable. The foundation is the bedrock. Without it, the house can’t be built—and if it’s not done right, the house will eventually crumble.
Books are like houses in that they all have a similar framework: foundation, roof, walls. It’s the way those things are tweaked and shaped (Victorian, Cape Cod, Georgian, Salt Box) that differentiates one book from another, and creates genre. Underneath the gingerbread trim and the Grecian columns, however, the framework is basically the same. It’s the same with books, which means you need to start with your foundation to build the rest.
Great, you’re saying. I hear you, but I have no idea what the foundation of my book is or should be. I’m new at this. Take pity on me and show me how to figure that out.
Hey, that’s what we’re here for—to help you take that step from idea to book. Let’s get started. And as a side note, here is where our 90-Day Planning Packet comes in handy in a huge way—we ask all these questions and give you space to think about it.
First: Decide Why People Need Your Book
If you’ve read this far, then either you’re fantastically bored, sitting on a desert island and have nothing else to read, or…you want to write a book. The question is Why? This time, we’re asking you about more than merely why you should write a book—this is about why people need to read your book.
People buy things based on three different basic desires—they think it will make them richer, prettier, or more popular. Where in those three categories does your book fit? Is it a money management book for people who are starting with a piggy bank full of quarters? Is it a style book for women who only wear black? Or is it a marketing strategy book for kitchenware entrepreneurs looking to sell a spatula to every person in the world? What value are you going to give to your readers (and this part is crucial) that they can’t already get somewhere else? Did you catch that? Hope so, because it’s super important. What is your book going to give readers that they can’t already find somewhere else? Why is that so vital? Simple—you want to sell books to people outside your immediate sphere of influence. Let’s face it. Your Aunt Helen is so stinkin’ proud of you that she’ll buy five copies and hand them out to her bridge club. Your grandma might put a couple of copies on the table at the back of the bingo hall. All that is great and wonderful, but if you’ve read this far, chances are good you want to sell more than a dozen books.
You have to give people who don’t know you at all a reason to buy the book. There are only a couple ways to do that—become wildly famous overnight or offer a product they don’t currently have. Now, if you’re starring in the next remake of Jersey Shore, you can quit reading right here (just kidding; don’t quit and don’t star in a Jersey Shore reboot). If not, then decide on these two all-important questions:
- What value is your book going to provide to people?
- How will that be different from what is currently available?
Second: Determine Your Audience
You know what you want to write and why people need to read this information—but who is actually going to pay real money for your book? Who, outside your sphere of influence (waving at Aunt Helen and Grandma), is your reading audience?
How do you figure this out? Ask questions. What kind of car does your potential reader drive? Where does he shop? What are his hobbies? What is his median income? What is his biggest interest?
A person who drives a Honda, works in retail, and comes home to three young children wanting mac-and-cheese is completely different from a reader who drives a Bentley, puts in an hour on the golf course, and then comes home to a maid and an already-made martini. Bentley Guy is not going to want a book about quick and easy dinners for busy families. And Overworked Single Dad is not going to read a book on how to choose the best off-shore investment account for multi-millionaires.
If you’re having trouble figuring out your target readership, study the magazines you imagine they would be reading. Are they sitting in their penthouse apartment reading Fortune or on their sofa reading Good Housekeeping?
Those magazines have ads for all those things we asked about above. It helps to further hone your audience—are they male? Female? College educated? Employed? Over fifty? Under thirty? The needs, wants, and reading materials for each demographic varies, depending on those factors.
Now, take all that information and create one sentence out of it. For example: my ideal reader is a college-educated woman in her fifties looking to maximize her money management skills. Now you try it.
My ideal reader is: ____
Third: Ask for Opinions
If you’re having trouble figuring out what you can write about that will be different and yet speak to your core audience, just ask other people. Your Aunt Helen might say, “Whatever you write, dear, will be wonderful,” so she might not be the best source (sorry, Aunt Helen!). The people in your networking group, your Bible study group, your investment club—they have more insight into your areas of expertise and what information you could bring to the world.
As a side note, asking for these opinions is a great way to begin to tell people you’re writing a book and get buy-in from these potential readers. Be sure to add them to your promotion list. No harm in gathering as much pre-publicity as you can!
Most of the people who come to us have a vague idea of what they want to write about—maybe it’s their devastating childhood journey or their unique approach to weight loss. It’s our job to sit down with them and ask the questions addressed above, using the client’s answers to formulate a unique approach to their expertise. We want our clients to stand out from the pack. While a great book cover and bang-up marketing campaign help with that, everything starts with great content. We’ll talk more about your content in the next chapter. Right now, let’s stay focused on the foundation. If you are having trouble figuring out how to differentiate yourself in the crowded book marketplace, then come to the experts who do this every day. We’re in this to sell books, not to have them sit in a box in your garage. We want our clients to be out there talking, signing, and selling. So, it’s in both our best interests to help come up with an amazing concept.
Before you begin writing, take the answers to the questions in this chapter, create a sentence out of them, then tape that to the top of your computer (or keep it in a bold font and highlighted in your manuscript). It will help keep you focused instead of chasing squirrels that have nothing to do with your topic.
My book will give (insert ideal reader here) information about (insert topic here) because (insert the why here).
For example: Book creation is a daunting prospect for most of us and there are a number of publishing choices in the world today. Our book (the one you’re reading right now) will give writers, of all ages and varied walks of life, vital information about becoming an author. Now that you have laid your foundation, let’s get started on the framing and cabinet installation! Okay, maybe we took that analogy a bit too far. Either way, turn the page and let’s get writing!
