Avoid The Three Biggest Book Blunders Agency Owners Make

One day in October 2003, authors Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz found themselves standing over the fax machine, waiting for an offer from one a big New York publishing company—an offer their agent had assured them was coming.

(If you were born before 1985, you can Google what a fax machine is.)

The deal fell through, because the offer never came.

“We were devastated,” Waltz admits. “One minute, we were on the road to success. The next we knew, we had the rug pulled out from under us.”

Most authors would have quit, but Fenton and Waltz believed in their book, so they decided to go the indie-publishing route.

And they’re glad they did.

Fast-forward 20 years, and their little 80-page book (Go for No!) has reached underground bestseller status, having sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into nine languages.

(If you would like to write book one day, I have an idea. Would you like a $365 scholarship to attend my June 7 Book Kickoff class? Give me three hours and I will give you answers to seven questions every author must tackle before they write a book. Details at www.indiebooksintl.com/events but for the scholarship, you need to email me at [email protected] )

I met Fenton and Waltz when they attended one of my Marketing With A Book Summits. Later, I interviewed them for an article, and they generously shared these tips:

Tip #1: Keep your book short.

“The overall trend in publishing is toward shorter books,” says Fenton.

And he’s right. Some of the biggest business bestsellers of all time are short:

• The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino, comes in at 130 pages.
• Napoleon Hill’s, Think & Grow Rich is only 104 pages.
• Dr. Spencer Johnson’s training and development masterpiece—Who Moved My Cheese—clocks in at only 95 pages.

“People are desperate for books that can be read in just a few hours,” Waltz adds. “In fact, we’re in the middle of what could be called a short book revolution.”

One of my magazine editors used to say: "Keep it light, tight, and bright."

Tip #2: Make sure your book solves a problem.

Again, the pair is right on target, and their book is a perfect example. Go for No! helps people reprogram the fear of failure and rejection—which is a big problem for millions of business people—which has a lot to do with why they’ve sold so many.

Tip #3: Overspend on your book cover.

No, that’s not a misprint. Fenton & Waltz openly admit they went cheap on their first book cover—and it cost them dearly.

“We lost thousands of sales with our first book cover because we tried to save a few dollars,” Fenton says. “That was really dumb.”

Again, they’re right on the money. An author should always invest in the best cover they can afford.

My motto is: The world does not need another crappy business book.

You know, as the saying goes, people really do judge a book by its cover.

Tell me about your book or the book you want to write.