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About this Book
New Updated Version!
More Information, More Inspiration
A Book-of-the-Month Club Selection!
A Quality Paperback Book Club Selection!
A Writer’s Digest Book Club Selection!
• The elderly woman’s adventure in solitude...
• The housewife’s battle with obesity...
• The gay man’s guide to pleasuring women...
• The farmer’s cookbook...
• The teenager’s solution to a puzzling national obsession...
• The home baker’s directions for giant cookies...
• The gym teacher’s belly flattener...
• The alcoholic’s chronicle of addiction...
• The elementary school teacher’s encyclopedia of all things disgusting...
Best-sellers all...
Ordinary people all...
More nonfiction books are breaking the 100,000-copy sale barrier than ever
before. Amateur writers, housewives, and even high school dropouts have
cashed in with astonishingly simple best-sellers.
This guide, by best-selling author Marc McCutcheon, shows the
reader how to get in on the action by identifying lucrative publishing
niches and filling them, not once, not twice, but year after year.
Table
of Contents
The Don’’t Skip This Introduction Introduction 1
Some thoughts on the best home business anywhere……How much can a
modestly successful author make?……Fiction vs.
Nonfiction……Do you have to be a high school dropout to do this?
Chapter One
Could You Have
Written Any of These? 11
A select representation of the hundreds of titles that earn thousands
and even millions of dollars for their authors every year
Chapter Two
Nonfiction
Success Stories 29
Make a sizable income writing nonfiction books...A score or more
best-selling titles you could have written
Chapter Three
What Kind of
Nonfiction Book Should You Write? 41
Nonfiction’’s top-selling topics……A rundown of the basic nonfiction
categories……A critical ingredient for author success
Chapter Four
How to Know if
Your Book Idea Will Fly 59
Avoid listening to family and friends……Testing your idea……
The Great Book Idea checklist
Chapter Five
Why You Don’’t
Need a College Degree 76
Establishing credibility……Where to find expert
information……
Contacting experts……Collaborating……""With a foreword
by……""
Chapter Six
Do You Need an
Agent? 92
Fees……Duties and responsibilities……Representing yourself……
Sample agent/author contract……Choosing an agent
Chapter Seven
Toughen
Yourself to Rejection 111
Don’’t feel like the Lone Ranger
Chapter Eight
The Query
Letter 115
Be professional……Sample letters……
What to include……What to omit……Anticipate rejections
Chapter Nine
The Proposal
133
The parts……Sample of a successful proposal……Proper format
Chapter Ten
Negotiating
Your Book Contract 152
Figuring advances & royalties……Negotiating the advance……
Handling subrights……Sample contract
Chapter Eleven
Promotion 176
Working with your publisher’’s publicist……Obtaining prepublication
blurbs……Promotion to-do checklist……Resources
Chapter Twelve
Lean and
Mean: The Secrets to Full-Time Writing Success 193
It’’s a business……1,000 words a day……Focus……
A writer’’s checklist for success
Chapter Thirteen
A Grab Bag of
Tips 209
Beating the block……Entitling titles……
Writing tips……Finding more time to write
The Author’’s
Bundle of Rights 230
Standard Format for Book Proposals and Manuscripts 232
Resources
Helpful Books 233
Helpful Magazines 234
Helpful Websites 235
Organizations 236
University News and Public Information Offices 238
Glossary 245
Index 250
About the Author 264
About the Author
Former literary agent and best-selling author Marc
McCutcheon has thirteen books currently in print, including Descriptionary,
The Compass in Your Nose & Other Astonishing Facts About Humans,
and Roget’s Super Thesaurus, all Book-of-the-Month Club selections.
The editors at Amazon.com recently voted Roget’s
Super Thesaurus one of the "Ten Best" reference books
published in the last several years.
Marc doesn’t hide the fact that he is a high
school dropout. "I almost invariably get unpublished authors’ complete
attention when I tell them I dropped out of high school. Something about
being an autodidact fascinates people and gives them hope that ‘if he can
do it, I can do it.’"
He lives with his wife, Deanna, and two children,
Kara and Macky, in South Portland, Maine.
Reviews
"
Chock-full of
practical, immediately usable ideas anybody can utilize to make
serious money writing books."
—Marilyn Ross, coauthor of The Complete Guide to Self- Publishing and Jump
Start Your Book Sales
"A perfect business plan for nonfiction writing success!"
—Priscilla Huff, 101 Best Home Businesses for Women
"Comprehensive and engaging this book will save you time, energy,
and frustration."
—Michael Larsen, literary agent, author
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