How to make your book stand out

You have a book idea, but you also have a problem. There are several, perhaps hundreds, of other books out there on that very same subject. With that very same idea. So you have to ask yourself, how can I make my book different? How can I make my book stand out from all of those other books on this subject competing for all of that shelf space?

One thing I have noticed while working on the ghost book is that there are other paranormal-loving writers out there writing a similar book. Either theirs is a book with their own branding (as in authors who are famous from TV shows), their books are regional or their books have a unique twist to them.

When you can make your book unique, that’s a big help in making it stand out from the rest. If you are a professional chef with years of entertaining at parties under your belt, you can make your cookbook unique by including funny stories overheard at parties or adventures in getting your masterpieces ready on time.

This is just one way to make a book stand out above the rest. Here are some others:

Slant. What is your book’s slant? Is it a collection of stories or investigations of a case? Is it focused only on one side of an issue or does it explore a debate in the book’s subject? Your book could be a book that’s being sold for charity, to commemorate an event or to showcase material from a club, organization, etc.

Voice. If you have a way with words, you can figure out a new way to tell a story or write a nonfiction book. You can be funny, upbeat, satiric, playful, etc.

Experience. If you have a unique experience with your book’s subject, something that people are not very aware of and/or that really should be out there for the reading public, this will add credibility to your book.

Expertise. If you are an expert on this subject and have several credits to your name, years of experience to back up and support what you're writing about, and you have a unique approach to your book’s subject, this will help your book still have a fighting chance of standing out.

Popularity. You don’t have to be Johnny Depp or Britney Spears to get your book noticed, but if you are popular in the blogosphere, are an award-winning athlete, have a lot of press and/or are at the center of a major news story, you have a pretty good chance of writing a book that is different from every other book on that subject. (It can also help sales.)

Newness. If your book’s subject has not been written about for several years, there’s a pretty good chance it’s time for an update! There’s always something new to add to a subject and new information is being discovered about so many things. If you have new material put together for an old subject, this will help get the book noticed. At the same time, if something new is being done with something old (such as a new trend in cooking), it can be something new to write about, as well.

The Void. Thousands of books are out there and there could be a bazillion books on one topic alone. At a recent visit to the bookstore, I was floored by how many books they have just on the subject of grammar. Zounds! However, there is always that chance that a book HAS NOT been written about something. Say you have an idea for a book and, like every good writer, you do some checking to see if it’s already published. If it’s not published, there may be a very good reason why. Maybe there’s not enough to make this idea a book. Maybe this topic is too controversial. Maybe it’s not a sellable idea. But if you are able to change ALL of that with your book – if you have enough to make a book on this subject, if you can find a publisher willing to play the controversy card and IF your book idea is indeed sellable and something people are willing to buy – go for it and write the book. Just because that particular kind of book is not out there doesn’t always mean it shouldn’t be.

These are just some ideas on what can make your book different from the rest. Hopefully they are enough to offer some ideas on how to make your book stand out.

Writing a book is only the first step of getting it into print. Figure out how you can make your book unique and this will increase your chances of getting your book into print and getting it noticed.

Ah, summer vacation

One fact about writers: We never REALLY take the weekends off. Even when we're not physically writing, we are still thinking about the writing. We're playing with ideas, rewriting sentences and toying with scenes.

For a while, I wasn't physically writing on the weekends. I took weekends off to just relax, hang out with the kids and do fun stuff.

No longer.

With my deadline fast approaching, I'm busy with the book EVERY DAY. If I'm not writing, interviewing, researching or checking out sites, I'm reading articles and planning out how to write chapters.

That was pretty much obvious with me today. Today was officially proof that I'm no longer taking a break on the weekends. I had emails to answer, interviews to do and research. And I don't normally log in at MySpace on the weekends, either -- for the same reason I don't write on the weekends -- but now I am because I'm networking on there with sources for my books. And that's working out pretty well, too.

Like I said, today was proof I no longer take the weekends off. But now it's summer vacation. Children may get summer vacation from school, but writers NEVER get a "summer vacation" from being writers!

One of the things I did today was go to the bookstore to do research. My oldest wanted to come along and, despite my warnings she would get very bored because Mommy will be spending hours paging through books and writing things down, she was insistent about coming along anyway. OK, I figured. I'll just give her a lot of books to read to keep her preoccupied.

Yeah. Riiiight.

The thing about my daughter is that, not only is she a gifted reader, she's a FAST reader. She'll plow right through books. Honestly, I gave her 6 books to read (one of them a comic book), and she was done in less than 10 minutes. Gah!

So it wasn't long before she started talking -- a lot -- and getting restless. A lot! It got pretty frustrating trying to write things down while keeping her quiet and preoccupied. But I was able to pull it off. After about an hour (instead of SEVERAL hours like normal), I was done. I got ALL of the info I needed because, fortunately, I finally found a book with all the info I needed. And I told a very-eager-to-leave Jennifer, "Now you know what Mommy is busy doing when she spends all day at the bookstore."

Now I have the rest of the week with a bunch of work involved with the RGT book. I am thankful that, number one, the baby still takes naps. And, number two, the oldest child is able to keep herself busy with art and crafts. At least, for a little while.

Grammatical numbers and verb agreement

Today I came across an email from England-based DPPi Journal. For those not in the know, I am a part of the editorial advisory board with that magazine. The email went out to all of us on the board, with an attached article and a request for editing of the article. I felt reluctant to try my hand at editing the piece, because, for one thing, I'm American, not English. While my being a part of this magazine has acquainted me with British English and diction, I do not feel capable of adequately performing the task of editing something written for a British audience. And, on the other hand, someone with a better grasp of British grammar might already tackle the editing job.

That said, I decided to give the piece a look all the same. I would just READ it, I told myself. Maybe I could offer some comments on it or a little constructive feedback on the topic.

When I read the article, however, I did notice quite a few editorial mistakes. And even though I knew this article is for a British audience, I felt that, perhaps, the editorial correction would still stand. Perhaps this one thing expected of American grammar would also be expected of British grammar.

A common mistake I saw in the article was that the writer kept putting a singular verb where a plural verb was needed. Here is an example of what I mean (this is not from the piece edited):

I think cherry pie, apple turnovers and cheesecake is a great dessert.

The problem with this sentence is that "is" should be "are." Here is the corrected sentence:

I think cherry pie, apple turnovers and cheesecake are a great dessert.

In the past, we have been told that in order to clear the confusion about what word is correct to use -- "is" or "are" -- we should read the sentence without the extra additions. In this case:

I think cherry pie ... is a great dessert.

This rule applies only if we are talking about one item. It is not appropriate for the above example, but it is appropriate for this example:

I think cherry pie, topped with whipped cream and cherry sauce, is a great dessert.

If, however, you are talking about more than one thing -- in the above example, three different kinds of desserts -- then you would use the plural verb and not the singular.

And even if this is a correction not wholly accepted by the magazine staff, I stand by my correction. Saying "I think cherry pie, apple turnovers and cheesecake is a great dessert" just doesn't sound right if you are referring to them individually.

A three-fer

Today, I challenged myself to try to do things I don't normally do or haven't done before. This type of challenging attitude also included my writing for today.

Today, I challenged myself to be able to work on three different manuscripts at once. After I read about how one author was able to juggle writing five or six books at once (and recovered from my heart attack after reading that -- haha), I wanted to see if I could handle working on three different books in one day. The most I have done is two. So I wanted to see if I could do three.

And, actually, I WAS able to work on three different books in one day! Yay!

It wasn't easy, though. I faced two roadblocks in trying to meet this challenge:

1. Distraction. I got so caught up in working on one of the manuscripts, it was hard to stop working on it. It was hard to pull myself away. I had to keep telling myself, "I have done enough for this book today! I can do more tomorrow." It was definitely hard to stop working on it. I did finally pull myself away from it, though. I guess making notes on stuff to add later made it easier for me to finally pull away from it.

2. Mindset. One of the manuscripts I worked on today is my new MG novel. And it's a fantasy novel, something that's a bit more different from ghost stories and writing. It was hard to get myself into the "fantasy world" of this story -- at first. I knew what I wanted to write. I knew what the next scene would be. (Heck, I'd been carrying it around in my head for two days!) But it was hard, after working on the ghost book and working on the writing book, to shift gears and move from nonfiction to fiction, from reality to fantasy. And fantasy is not a genre I write in very often. I like mystery. Horror. Suspense. So it's doubly challenging to get myself into that mindset, especially after writing in nonfiction so much today.

However, I conquered those roadblocks. I was able to work on three different books in one day. I'm excited I was able to beat that challenge and pull it off.

But I wouldn't recommend it.

It was very difficult with the stress of being able to write well as I worked on this book then that book, and switching gears was very hard. I was also frustrated that I did not have the time to do more research on something for the ghost book, which is what I needed to do for one chapter.

In summary, I think it is best to limit how many books you work on in one day, only so that you will have time when AWAY from the writing to ponder the writing you've done, and what additional writing and/or editing you can put in there.

Planning ahead

When I was freelancing, I didn't live by the clock. I lived by my calendar. I had deadlines penciled in and planned my queries according to many editorial calendars.

These days, with my focus more on books than articles, I am also planning ahead. This time, however, the planning that I do with my books is just a little different (and involves less querying).

With a book under deadline, I plan how much of the book I will work on each day as well as each week. I sort of put together a "timeline" of what I will do with this book at certain intervals (for example, work on this chapter one day, that chapter another day), and decide when certain parts of the book should be done. I always allow wiggle room in case of emergencies (you just know that THOSE are bound to come up!) and always try to get done as early as possible. If I finish before the deadline, I have time to (relax!) read over the material and double-check for anything I need to verify or supplement.

When it comes to a book that is scheduled for release, planning ahead is definitely crucial to the book's success. There are news releases to go out, ARCs to get to reviewers, readings to plan, speaking engagements to set up and an audience to promote the book to. (This can be done through an E-zine, writing freebie articles which focus on the book's subject or touch on the book's theme, becoming known on certain web sites and through social networks, etc.) It's also helpful to set up a web site to help promote the book, put together flyers and other assorted promotional accessories, and get the word out to friends and family about the book's upcoming release. The more people who order it through an online retailer or bookstore, the greater your book's selling numbers on Launch Day.

With a book that is planned for publication, timing is everything. Deciding on the right time for a book to be released can determine how well it'll sell. For example, a collection of Christmas stories won't be a hot item if it's published in June. More like September or October. (Think of an editor's "lead time" and it'll help zero in on what time of the year would be best for books with a seasonal theme.)

All the same, there are other ways planning ahead can be helpful when it comes to writing books. The month of June is halfway over. Soon half of the year will have passed. It's time to reflect on progress made so far this year.

What have we managed to write?

What projects did we bring into this year that we REALLY want to finish, this year, so that we can start the next year anew and with new projects to write? How can we accomplish this goal?

How can we plan out for the remaining half of the year so that we can complete the old things and make room for new things?

Now is just as good a time as any to think on these thoughts and decide what next step we want to take with our writing career. What have we done so far this year? What do we still want to do, this year?

As for me, these are my goals for the rest of the year:

*Finish Real Ghost Towns (title to be changed) by deadline and get it to publisher.

*Finish Trimming the Fat. Decide on a new title and get the book into final draft shape.

*Find new publisher for haunted houses book. (My co-author is doing this, as well.)

*Finish editing/rewriting MG book (Native American story).

*Type up second book in MG series. Get it to beta readers and try to get manuscript into 2nd draft stage by end of year.

*Finish writing fantasy MG book.

I have an idea of what books I will be working on next year (I bet you can guess that one of those books will be the third in the series! Right now, I've only been dabbling with it) but right now, these are the projects on my plate for the rest of the year.

Putting everything down onto paper or on a file really helps me to organize how I plan them all out and decide where to go with them. Not everything can get done at the same time, of course, and timing when I plan to finish the books can help me plan ahead on what to do with it when.