So you're an aspiring writer. Many of us are, but not many people know how to get their ideas from their heads into a printed book that is sold in a bookstore. In this lens I am going to give you some basic info on doing this for a non-fiction book, a process I've used many times to win successful book contracts.

First lets lay out how much money you can make. The bottom line is that as an author, you're going to get screwed by the publishing company. You're going to produce a product for them but get very little of the money coming in. That being said its a good thing to get into because once a book is published, if its a decent book you're going to have a good passive income stream. Let's break down how much you're going to make for a non-fiction book based on real-life examples I'm familiar with. Actual numbers will of course vary depending on the topic written about and size of the market.

The money you make is basically going to be broken down in two parts: The advance, and royalties. The advance is actually an advance against royalties, meaning that you won't see any royalty payments until the amount of royalties earned passes the amount of the advance.

I have written computer publishing books along with textbook supplements for math, science, and engineering courses. Advances for computer related topics tend to be larger than advances for other topics. I got two advances for $12,500. But, those books never again earned a penny. On the other hand, advances for typical non-fiction books can be in the $3,000-$5,000 range. That doesn't sound like much. You bust your ass and then get a check for a mere $3,000. You sure aren't going to live off that now, are you?

The good thing is if the book is successful it will earn out that small advance quickly and you'll end up getting royalty checks. On one book I did, the first check was $500, but the second one was $14,000! I have gotten other large checks since then as well. Let me tell you its nice to get a check like that in the mail, months after having worked on something! Sure its not enough to live on but its a great income stream, and you can MULTIPLY It by writing more books.

Let's lay out how the royalties are calculated with a rough example. You are assigned a percentage, which is typically 10% for a non-fiction book. But this is not 10% of the cover price, rather its 10% of NET. So after Borders and all the middlemen take their chunk, you get ten percent of whats left over. On a $20 book I have found this to be about 80 cents a copy. Yep, that's 80 cents. It doesn't sound like much, but remember that adds up. The key is thinking hard before you write about your idea-make sure its a good one that will generate repeat sales over time.

My recommendation for getting published is to focus on series of published books. These include DEMYSTIFIED from McGraw-Hill, FOR DUMMIES from Wiley, and THE IDIOTS GUIDE TO...(don't recall the publisher). Get on the web and find out who the series editors are. You're going to pitch your idea to them.

The For Dummies series requires an agent, they do not talk to authors directly. The agent will take a small percentage of your income, but getting published with the Dummies series, if you could do it, would be a huge advantage. They are in every bookstore and sell, sell, sell.

The great thing about any one of these series (or any others if you can find them) is that you get yourself in with a set of books that are recognized by consumers and bookstores alike. So do some research. If you're an expert on Fly Fishing, and Fly Fishing for Dummies or Fly Fishing Demystified hasn't been published, you might be on your way to a great book that will make good side money for you.

Of course you can still publish but without writing for a series. And another option is self-publishing. There are downsides to self-publishing, because although you can keep a larger cut of each book sale, you're going to have to do an awful lot of work yourself to get it going-and its unlikely you'll get your book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. But there is the cyber world with internet bookstores like Amazon, and getting a self-published book in there is fairly straightforward. Add to that with some determination and planning you can make some money off self-published books. Visit this website for details on how to make that happen:

Foner Books

Self-publishing may be a method to use, but lets say you want to actually publish a book with some well known publisher. How do you do it?

I got into this purely by accident. One night was watching the news magazine 48 Hours and they were talking about some guy who had written a piece of fiction. He was a pharmaceutical salesman, not an author. So he wrote up a Book Proposal and sent it off to 10 publishers. A few weeks later he got a $100,000 contract!

OK most of us aren't going to be that lucky. But the truth of the matter is, its not all luck here. What I did with this story is first say to myself, "OK the guy wrote a novel, I can't do that, but what can I write?" So I wrote some material on computer programming. Pick something you know about, and write about it. This brings us to step #1:

Step #1: Write ONE chapter of a book you want to write. Include this with a table of contents outlining the entire book. Make the table of contents look like books that have already been published-enough to convey what will be covered in the book but not overwhelming detail.

The key idea here is don't waste time writing an entire book. Publishers and editors don't have time to read your book-they're going to skim over a single chapter to see if you can write and if you have a good idea that fits in with their agenda. So just put together 25-30 pages and make it as good as you can.

Step #2: Find Editorial Contacts.
Go on Amazon or look at books you have on the same subject you want to write about. Find out who the editors are. Then get online and dig up their email addresses. This is actually not too hard.

Step #3: Write a book proposal.
Roughly, a book proposal consisists of an opening cover letter describing your idea, a more detailed description lasting a couple of pages selling the idea, your table of contents, and the sample chapter. The book proposal is all too important! You have to SELL the editor on your idea. So its important for that cover letter to convince them they need to publish a book on the topic. Your language should not be too corny but it should be exciting and flashy, like you're describing a hot new car to someone.

If you have never written a book proposal before, here is a web page with some straightforward examples that can be used for non-fiction titles:

How to write a book proposal

Take your time with this step. Its as important as writing the book itself. Have people review it to see what they think. If you know sales type people that sell cars etc, or people that write ad copy, get their invaluable input.

Step #4: Send it off to TEN publishers
When I wrote up my first proposal, I printed up ten copies and mailed them off. This was back in 1998. Today, the thing to do is make PDF's of your proposal and email it. Carefully choose ten publishers, starting with the most obvious and exciting (McGraw-Hill or For Dummies) but also looking at smaller less known publishers. It can't hurt to get your first book published by a small publishing house, that helps you build a resume to get more books down the line with bigger publishers. Include a resume with your contact information (including email and phone number) with your package.

Step #5 : Wait
I chose ten publishers because I wanted to get it out to a decent number of them but didn't want to overwhelm myself. Pick a reasonable number you can keep track of. I don't think there are any hard rules, but my experience is I hear back from people within about two weeks if there is any interest, but I would give 6-8 weeks to see what happens. On my first proposal, 3 out of 10 contacted me with offers. I picked one, and the rest is history!

Don't harass the editor with inquiries. If they are interested, they will call you. They get very busy with stacks of proposals, but they will look it over, and if it strikes a chord with them, they'll call you with a proposal.

I don't generally use agents, but an agent can be helpful. They have lots of contacts in the industry and are motivated to get you published since they get a share of the royalties. They can also help you refine your proposals before they are actually sent off. Also, editors may be in contact with them telling them about books they want authors for.

Here are a couple of agencies (for non-fiction) to get you started:

Waterside Productions

Fresh Books

OK so now you've got an offer. You sign the contract, and get your first advance check, and start writing. I have to warn publishing companies are fairly slow on getting payments out. So be patient and expect to wait a few weeks.

If none of your chosen publishers took a bite, don't get discouraged-be persistent! Refine your book proposal and send it out to ten more.

Or consider self-publishing on www.lulu.com.

In any case, happy writing and good luck!