Top tips for aspiring authors

How to Publish and Sell a Book that you are told no-one will want to buy

“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” Toni Morrison.

We knew our book - She's Back - was needed. So many women were approaching us with the same questions: why has my career stalled? How do I get it back on track? What am I going to do for the next twenty years? 

And we had the answers. After three years working with women, conducting unique research, advising organisations and reading pretty much everything there was to read on the subject,we had not only some answers but also a plethora of powerful stories. 

Although a lot has been written about women and work, nothing actually spelled out what to do "on Monday morning" for women keen to reignite their careers. We decided to put that right.

What could go wrong? Well, we were not famous, we had no hefty PR budget, we were novice authors, we didn’t have thousands of followers, in short, despite having a literary agent, we were not an attractive proposition. Some of the juiciest rejections:

• Career books for women don’t sell
• Arianna Huffington and Sheryl Sandberg have said all there is to say on this subject
• Could you make it gender neutral?

Clearly, we ignored all this advice and pressed ahead. And here is our advice for anyone else who has a book in them and who is not quite sure where to start. 

Be clear on who your book is for and why you’re writing it

We had a razor sharp focus. The purpose of our book is to help women pick up their careers again after a period either out of work or operating below their potential. 

Yes, there’s lots below that, yes, men take breaks too, yes, organisational culture needs to change if more women are to succeed, yes, the cost of childcare is an issue, yes there’s unconscious bias at play, yes the recruitment industry needs to change. 

There is more to it than that and it has a wider relevance, of course, but that’s were we began.

Find a publisher who shares your vision

Despite all those rejections, we eventually did receive the offer of a publishing deal. Hallelujah. Or maybe not. The publishers, a well known and respected business imprint, were prescriptive about what the book had to look like: 60,000 words, no diagrams, no colour and to a specific size and format. Not us, on any level.

Disappointed, but undeterred, we walked away. We had such a strong vision for our book, because we knew what was needed: something highly visual, entertaining, colourful, dip in dip out, handbag sized, with a modern, graphic feel. The type of modern manual that inspires us.

We have grit, we persisted and eventually we found a young, innovative, like-minded independent publisher who “got us.”  Together, we crafted a shared vision for what our book should be like and committed to a very tight deadline. Within three weeks we had nailed the title, the front cover and a visual straw man of the contents. This gave us a road map of how to complete our manuscript.

Break the elephant into chunks

The one thing our newly found publisher did agree on was that the word count had to be substantial. 50,000 words or so. Once we’d picked ourselves up off the floor - we were used to writing 1,000 word articles - we realised that this wasn’t an impossible task. We sat at the kitchen table and worked out the titles of each chapter. The task became clearer - 15 articles, each of around 3,000 words.

Find your tone of voice

We were clear that we wanted to talk to our audience in an authentic tone. We wanted them to feel as though they were sitting at the other side of that kitchen table, engaged in a debate. No jargon; no nonsense; no buzzwords and equally no patronising. If I ever wrote a sentence that sounded vaguely corporate, Deb would make me stand up, walk around the kitchen and say what I meant out loud.

Test it with readers

By far the most valuable thing we did was engage with our audience early. Apparently, test readers are a big thing amongst cookery writers, who use them to test recipes. We can thoroughly recommend them.

Our test readers gave us amazing insights and detailed feedback, but the most important thing they gave us was the confidence and enthusiasm to continue. 

“I’ve just read through this and will take the time to feed back thoroughly, but thought an articulation of my initial thoughts would be helpful - HELL YEAH.

Uzma, one of our readers, even came over from Switzerland for the book launch.

Be aware: selling is just as tough as writing 

We know we have to spin as many plates as possible and we are both systematic and pragmatic about getting our message out there. We are selling direct to clients; we are building a team of ambassadors using the 40 plus people who feature in our book; our Facebook group is effectively our sales team; we regularly speak at events; we have even gone into bookshops ourselves.

We’re learning that selling is an art and a skill equal to writing. No point writing if no one is reading. We’re succeeding despite the naysayers. And our achievements feel all the more sweet.