Fortunately Amazon provides a number of simple ways to learn about books without necessarily having to purchase and buy every potential competitor.

Search inside the book

A search inside the book yields the crucial summaries provided on back covers and inside flaps, the table of contents, and a few pages of the introduction. This will give you a great summary of the work as well as some key specifics.

Publisher’s Weekly and other reviews

Test your understanding of the book against the reviews typically placed below the publisher’s information (date of publication, press name, ISBN number, etc.). If not Publisher’s Weekly, many books will have brief summaries provided from reviews. Pay careful attention to the source of the review to ensure it’s as reliable as possible. Take the publisher’s summary with a grain of salt since their goal is to convince you to purchase the book.

The list of related books.

As you scroll down the page you’ll notice a relatively new feature that allows you to browse over 50 related books. This can save you a lot of time in your research. My advice is to try and find the book most like your own, and then look into the related books on its Amazon page.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews can be hit or miss, but they’re well worth reading because you may come across a few stating, “I thought this book would be about _________, but instead it’s about _______.” These are solid gold for your purposes and will help you narrow down whether or not this book is worth comparing to your own.

Buy the Book (used if you can)

If you still feel a bit uneasy about the book you’re browsing, it may well be worth purchasing it just to be sure you’re not saying the same exact thing. I have done this in the past and it was well worth the peace of mind. I also made some clear and effective distinctions between the competition and my own work. You can always sell it used after you’re done with it to minimize your cost to a few dollars.

When an editor is facing a cut back in publishing, only the most appropriate and most marketable proposals will survive. This means that on top of researching the market for your book and the needs of prospective publishers, you’ll also have to keep an eye on publishing news to see which companies are in the best financial shape. If you really want to go with a publisher who is making cuts, just be sure your work is an attractive choice.

The first place to start when seeking news about a publisher is Publisher’s Weekly, though most markets will have blogs and press release sites that track the news specific to your field of expertise.

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I never realized how hard it would be to simply drop an author an e-mail. It’s darn near impossible.

When you have a book, you need to make it easy for people to learn about it and you need to promote it. This should include a web site with your contact info. In my mind, if your book doesn’t have some kind of web site and if people can’t contact you, you and your book may as well not exist. If someone wants to ask me to share something from my book at an event or if they want to learn more about it, a web site is so crucial. While I don’t want to encourage stalking, it seems that setting up an e-mail address that is easy to find would be the first thing an author should do.

While authors need to be responsible for promoting their books, it strikes me as equally important to make it as easy as possible for interested readers to contact the authors. This could bring all kinds of trouble and annoying messages, but the pay off strikes me as worth while.

However, research doesn’t have to be a drag. Here are some simple ways you can begin to uncover some publishing options.

Visit a Bookstore or Your Books at Home

Look through a bookstore and take particular notice of the publishers listed on the spines of your favorite books. You’ll soon learn the logo of each publisher. Now that you know the publishers who print your kind of work, look them up online or in a writing guide such as the Writer’s Market Guide. Perhaps your favorite writers have published with several different companies. See if you can find out why these writers may have changed publishers. It may be that some are more willing to publish first-time authors.

Check Out Magazine Racks

The same plan applies here with magazines. Browse magazines and try to settle on three or four that fit your interests. These may not be your first choice for submitting an article since the competition will be tough be beat without some publishing credentials, but see if you can find magazines similar to them that accept new authors.

Look Up Literary Agents

We’re digging into the tougher research here. First time authors and published authors may both need agents. While agents are not essential, they can be the key to opening the doors at publishing houses for unknown authors. While you’re looking up your favorite books, check the acknowledgements pages for information about their agents. Perhaps the agent of your favorite author is willing to review your manuscript. The Writer’s Market Guide and other literary agent guides will also help you find agents suited to your interests.

In each of these scenarios, publishing research can begin with the books on the your shelf or in your local book store, a prospect that shouldn’t be too daunting. Look through your favorite books and start with these lists. Once you have some preliminary info in hand, you can start probing into guides and online writing sites.

Remember this is a process. You are gradually accumulating knowledge. You will never become a publishing industry expert. This is simply a process of gathering bits and pieces of information over time, gradually putting together enough parts to send you on your way toward publishing.

Therefore it’s important to keep your finances in the picture with writing. Are you writing on the side as a hobby? Are you making it part of a larger business venture? Are you planning on hosting events and seminars that will help pay the bills? Are you building a relationship with a publisher to you’re guaranteed a steady stream of work.

Not only do writers need to be prepared for a paltry profit, they need to also be willing to give some of their writing away for free. If you’re doing a blog or newsletter, then you’ve got a great start at building up your reputation and expertise. It’s also important to publish articles online because it’s an easy way to gain exposure.

However, at some point you’ll need to start thinking of making money. Part of your leverage will be the quality of your work that you gave away for free. And that is the key here: treat every assignment as a key one for your career. If you’re not paid today, you may be paid five years because of that article.

The hourly break down for writers is never pretty, but keep the big picture in mind. You’re building a portfolio and momentum.

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Knowing the Magazine Market

First of all you should consult a recent version of the Writer’s Market Guide. This doesn’t mean you need to pick up the latest edition, though that will surely be the most helpful. You should consider picking up last year’s edition if you’re looking to save a buck or two. These guides will provide you with a great reference to magazines and journals who may accept your work. They’ll tell you who accepts unsolicited manuscripts, who pays the most, and how to submit your manuscript. They also provide articles and sample query letters to speed you along.

This is all essential information that will help set you part from the pack of writers scampering to get their works published. Remember, if you’re trying to break in that plenty of experienced writers are submitting work to these editors and so enjoy an advantage. Your best asset to stick to the rule as precisely as possible. This means ordering a trial issue of the magazine, reviewing the guidelines carefully, and making the editor’s job as easy as possible.

Press Releases

Of course it’s rather tough to start out with submitting articles to a national magazine. A better bet may be submitting articles to local newspapers. Find the smaller paper in your town that may need some freelancers and offer your services. It couldn’t hurt. However, another way to slice this is to offer a nonprofit organization with their press releases.

I did this with a local church and ended up writing a pretty significant feature for the local paper. The church paid me a nominal fee and the community noticed that this church had a lot going on, which turned out to be a real win-win for both of us. I have a long list of releases I wrote this church and now can offer these as writing samples that have been published, even if many of them did not have my name hanging on a “by” line.

Publishing Online

And if either of these sounds a little too intimidating, remember that you’re working on blogging or at least networking a little online. Search for some online magazines that you may find interesting. These sites rarely pay their writers, but their guidelines are a bit more flexible since the online format is very forgiving to wordy writers. Expect rejections here all the same, but be sure to keep plugging away, as publishing online is a great way to gain some exposure for yourself and to give publishers a simple way to access your writing. 

Dealing with Rejection

The down side of writing articles is the roller coaster of acceptance and rejection letters. The rejections may come fast and furious at first, but remember that even the best writers have to deal with rejections from time to time. There are far too many writers competing for the same spots. There is a lot you can do to increase the odds of getting published, but rejection is something you always have to deal with, so steel yourself for it.

The up side is your collection of published work will give you valuable experience, look great on your future book proposal, and contribute to building your platform of readers. If they recognize your name in the book store after reading a great article you’ve published pro bono online, they may be more inclined to pick up a copy of your work.

Coming Up: How to publish an e-mail newsletter at no cost whatsoever.

While sitting on a panel on publishing this past weekend one of the speakers mentioned that selling a book is a person-to-person transaction. If you can think along those lines, then you’re in the right mind set for building a publishing platform. How can you spread the word about yourself and your future? That is where we’ll start.

Anyone who is planning on writing a book should seriously consider blogging. It’s one of the most effective ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If you can build up a strong blog that readers find helpful or insightful, you can then send a copy of your blog stats to a publisher as a concrete example of your appeal to readers and they will serve as one effective avenue of connecting with potential readers and continuing to connect with them after they have read your book.

Start thinking about events, conferences, or gatherings where you can begin to talk about your work. If you’re involved in children’s literature, write some stories and start visiting local schools to read for the students or host a free workshop on how to illustrate a book. If you’re into fiction, consider starting a newsletter where you send out a new chapter each month or week from a specially written story. If you’re writing nonfiction, you can either attend or lead a workshop, join a local writing group, or publish your own newsletter in either print or over e-mail. 

Submitting articles to a few key online or print magazines will also put you on course to build a portfolio of published works that will make yourself more marketable to a publisher. Keep in mind that your best bet is to focus on roughly five magazines at first and establish a relationship with the editors so that you can provide exactly what they’re looking for. They may even help promote your book in the future. Over time you’ll hone in on the magazines that best fit the kind of writing you do, and you’ll also be able to explain other markets that may work.

Of course you may not be able to start teaching or leading a workshop right off the bat, but these are goals you should be aiming for as you work to establish a platform of potential readers. The key is to determine what you want to write, and to then think of ways you can start connecting your writing with readers.

Perhaps one of the hardest things for writers to confront when breaking into this field is the need for self-promotion. However, if you can keep in mind that you’re providing a service to your readers (advice, wisdom, or just a great story to enjoy), you should be able to start looking for ways to promote your writing and your insight as an author. This dilemma of self-promotion is where we’re go next.

For example, would a degree in your area of interest help? Perhaps you’re locked into a job you find dull or draining and a career change into an area of interest would be a huge boost for your day to day life. However, the proper academic background will provide the resources, contacts, and credentials to help move you toward success as a writer. My own career was helped immensely by a few key professors from both my graduate and undergraduate studies. They may even have contacts in the publishing world and can help jumpstart your career.

Academic courses will also ensure that you have read the best books available and have access to journals and any other research that may be closed off if you were not a student. Your fellow classmates are the perfect people to provide critique for your book ideas, bringing up angles you may have missed and helping you refine your ideas. Informed feedback will be a wonderful help as you move your book ideas toward a proposal.

As you read and build your expertise in your field of choice, look into ways you can begin to share it. If you’re going into writing, then you really need to think about starting a blog on your area of interest. Begin by looking for the top blogs in your area of interest. While a Google search will help, look into blog awards, blog rankings, and blog search engines (such as Technorati). Begin reading these blogs by subscribing to their RSS feed that be displayed either in your browser, on your Google homepage, or on your own RSS reader such as Bloglines. Be sure to look up the blogs listed in the sidebars of the top blogs and read them as well.

Once you have a better idea of what’s out there, set up your own blog either through wordpress.com (free but not necessarily a unique site with a unique domain name) or a hosted service such as Blue Host or any other budget blog hosting company. You should aim to spend about $4 to $7 per month if you go with a hosted service the provides a domain name and complete access to your blog’s design. Get your ideas out there, read other blogs, comment on the sites of others, and respond to whoever comments on your own blog. Commit to occasionally reading a site about professional blogging such as problogger.net so you optimize your site’s potential. This is the time to build your knowledge, refine your writing skills, and build your contacts and expertise.

When you present your book to publisher this preliminary leg work will pay off in dividends as you can show that you have established yourself as an important voice in your subject area. You’ll have a network of experts and fellow bloggers who can help review and promote your book and an easily accessible way to connect with your readers. The internet is far too important for budding authors to ignore it.

So now you have some topics in mind, but perhaps you can sharpen your focus. If you’re interested in parenting, then you may want to focus on a particular age group. If religion, perhaps you could focus on a particular denomination, period of history, or type of theology. When you have your topics in mind, it’s time to start… reading. Of course you need to carve out a bit of time each day to write, let’s say about an hour or so if we’re aiming for the ideal. But you’ll also need to read and read and read.

There are a number of reasons why you’ll want to read as much as you can:

Read Good Writing

Once you have a field or two in mind, you’ll want to read the best that field has to offer. Pay attention to the kinds of sentences, words, and pacing each author uses. Do they focus on short declarative sentences, bunch their thoughts in huge paragraphs, or grind the narrative to a halt with a two-word paragraph? You’re reading for the enjoyment, but also for the insight into the craft of writing.

Spark Ideas

You can’t expect to come up with every idea on your own. That doesn’t mean you’ll be pinching the thoughts of others, but you can use their ideas as a jumping off point for your own articles. In fact, you may find after reading several authors that a certain pattern emerges in their thinking and you now can write about these connections. All that to say, there always is a need for original thoughts that crop up during long, quiet walks, the restful moments before falling asleep (You do have a note pad by your bed, don’t you?), or in-between verses while singing in the shower (The notebook may be a bit harder to pull off in there, but not impossible).

Research

As you write you’ll typically need to do quite a bit of research. Even if you’re writing a novel you’ll need to research settings, characters, and occupations. Let’s say you have a character who is a firefighter, you’ll need to learn about volunteer firefighters vs. full-time firefighters, how fire burns, and everything else that has to go with emergency response. However, if you’re writing non-fiction you’ll also need to stay current on statistics, studies, and articles. You’ll find that an online bookmarking tool such as del.icio.us is a fantastic tool for storing and sorting online information. If you use Mozilla Firefox you can install a button that allows you to click on a "tag" button and you’ll have any link saved.

Writing Kung-Foo

Writing is a daunting, lonely task at times, so you’ll need some encouragement, support, and insight. Stephen King, Anne Lamott, and Natalie Goldberg are just a few of the talented writers who have published fantastic little books on writing, and believe me, there are tons more to choose from. You need to capture the norms for a writer, the bumps to expect, and the flow of highs and lows just so you don’t get discouraged, or worse, go crazy. Pick up a few magazines on writing at a book store and do a few searches online. Perhaps your favorite writer has a blog where you can find encouragement and ideas. Even an hour spent reading a book on writing in a book store may give you some fantastic clues on how to succeed as a writer.

Coming Up: I’ll take a look at ways you can not only do your research, but build your expertise and much more.

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While my focus will be on getting a major publisher to pick up your book, these strategies and ideas will help you become a more effective writer not matter what you set out to do: magazines, blogs, etc. My goal is to provide a wealth of resources, ideas, and strategies that will propel writers forward with their work.

And so we shall begin with the most obvious, but nevertheless most important word of advice I have ever received and will ever give: write. Carry a small journal, buy pads of paper, treat yourself to the yellow pads if you like them better, invest in some nice pens, look into that lap top you’ve had your eye on, get up a half our early or stay up an extra half hour, treat yourself to a coffee or cup of tea five days a week if that will help you write for 30-60 minutes.

Just make sure you’re writing.

Depending on the area of expertise you’re gunning for, you can use snippets of overheard conversations, use passages from books, TV shows or movies, a simple word, a prop, a memory, or a person to spark your thinking. Just go with it and write. Write horribly. Write the worst thing you’ve ever done.

It’s OK, you can always revise later. So much of writing is creating the habit, learning to cultivate your mind so that you can capture ideas, run with a concept, and ultimately jot it down and expand it, exploring the places each idea takes you. In order to begin that journey, writing often–not necessarily well–is the crucial first step.

I had no idea what was about to hit me.

Having rarely ever used the review feature of Microsoft Word, my editor gave me a quick and shocking introduction to the notes and corrections pervasive in my drafts. While my writing was OK and most of the material was fine, I was too academic in tone, many of my chapters lacked a sound structure, one chapter needed to be divided in two, and another chapter needed to be deleted altogether.

Following the lengthy comments made by my editor, I began to drastically revise each chapter.  I generally followed the following procedure in making edits:

1. Print out the draft marked up by my editor.
2. Review this draft during lunch breaks and make notes and suggested changes.
3. Start with a blank computer screen and the print out with my notes.
4. Rewrite the chapter from scratch, copying and pasting from the older draft when possible.

This was not a hard and fast rule, but it generally worked. I reorganized the chapters, inserted more stories, cut down on the technical information, and worked on connecting with my ideal audience–a friend I knew back in Pennsylvania. Cutting apart your work and revamping it can be tough work, requiring a certain disconnect from your writing. Nothing is sacred. Everything is on the table. I quickly found that I could not effectively edit until I learned how to delete.

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