1. Follow your passion. If you are passionate about your subject, bring others along with you in your writing. The old saying comes to mind 'you can't push a rope.' Your books should bring your reader on a journey of discovery with you, not pushing them where they may not want to go.4. Find your niche. We all can't be experts at everything. Find a niche that will allow you to become the go-to-person.
5. Avoid the 'Nattering Nabobs of Negativity.' There will always be people in our lives that don't want us to succeed. They try to make themselves feel better by putting others down. Avoid these people. Expanding upon #2, find some positive people to support your mental wellness. Perhaps find a writing buddy, where you can challenge each other to become better writers.
6. Be aware that you will spend 30% of your time writing your book and 130% marketing it if you want to be successful. You are the one with the vested interest in the success of your book and it becomes your responsibility to keep it growing.
7. A book is a dynamic object that requires care and nourishment. Writing your book is just the beginning. You should be thinking of different ways to monetize your content. Think content marketing. Take a close look at the content you have written. Can it be broken down into smaller chunks and repackaged as a white paper, brochure, pdf or perhaps another book? You are only limited by your imagination and your available free time to monetize your content.
8. If you are writing and plan on publishing your book, you may have to reframe how you think about it. Your book and you as an author, are in business. Your book is the product and you as the Author provide the service. This concept opens up possibilities for you that may not have been imaginable until you wrote and published your book.
9. Don't let your creative ideas be stifled by the fact that there are likely many other books similar to yours in the market and more being published every day. Keep in mind that there are thousands of cook books out there and more every day. You may not be writing a cookbook, but you are the only one of you and what you have to say is different than what others are writing. At least it should be or perhaps you shouldn't be writing it in the first place.
10. Learn how to self-promote. As mentioned in #6, the success of your book lays in your ability to promote it. You can have the best book in the world, but if nobody knows about it, you won't have any sales. When it comes to self-promotion, you need to look at the bigger picture. You are not your books and your books are not you. In promoting your books to potential buyers, you are really promoting your credibility as a person and as an Author. If your reader likes you, they will buy your books. Self-promotion relies on utilizing an on-line strategy, as well as face-to-face networking in your local community.
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Bonus Tip: Create your Authors Platform as soon as you can. Don't wait for the publication of your book before you start. Your Author's Platform includes: your Author's Bio, your Author's website, a website with a easily recognizable url to promote your book(s), social media presence etc. You want to create a demand for your book before it is published.
