HOW ‘EAT MY SHORTS BECAME A WAY OF LIFE FOR ME’ BY BART SIMPSON

I expect the title of my piece has attracted you to enter this Hub and discover what else Bart has to say. Sorry to disappoint but the Hub is not about young Bart but is about catching peoples attention and getting them to pick up and read your book. If my title caught your attention and you are now reading this Hub –it worked didn’t it. Think of your book in much the same way - you have a limited time span to get your reader interested enough to want more and buy your book. If I pick up a book and I am not being entertained or intrigued in the first few paragraphs I put the book down again - rarely ever to return to it.

The information I have been given is that your book needs to get or capture the readers attention not in the first chapter, not the first page but in the first paragraph otherwise you lose them forever.

I have done my research and also spoken to some publishers and will now impart my wisdom – as you can see I just fall over myself with humility ---- yeah right, read on.

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As promised here is the guide to getting your book published which covers different ground to my previous Hub on publishing feature articles – please check out my link below if this interests you.

I am currently writing my first book which is about my favourite subject - science fiction. Ever since I saw Blade Runner and Alien I have had the bug so to speak.

HOW DO I GET MY ARTICLE PUBLISHED AND MAKE MONEY?
OK youve written a bestseller or you have written an article how do you get it published and start to coin in all those royalties every month. I will give you some of my experience in the feature...

Ok we have to make some choices here either you write about fiction or non-fiction depending on your skills as a writer you maybe able to do both if so go for it and don't spend all the money at once.

NON-FICTION BOOKS

Highly competitive but if you feel that you are someone with vast knowledge to impart on a special topic which people haven't heard before go to it. If enough people are interested you may sell a million copies but it needs to sound like you talking (called finding your voice) and you need to find that niche market. Niche markets are cooking, do it yourself, selling your home, 'how to' do books or something like this article I am writing right now.

You need at least a short summary or one whole chapter ( sometimes called a synopsis) that you can show a book publisher or an artists agent to get there interest.

I did some research to find out what was popular and found that some of the top selling books by category were science fiction, biographies, cookery books and How to do books.

So once I discovered that my favourite topic (science fiction) was up there in the big sellers list, I buckled down to mentally creating the book and writing some notes.

Now that I have actually started to write something down and written 3 chapters I next got to thinking about how am I going to sell it or promote it to a publisher or an agent. I need to take note of any comments about the book particularly as this is my first one and apply any advice into the finished book. Next step as I already mentioned is the synopsis which basically spells out what the book is about and gives a general idea if the story is original or not to sell 5 million copies before Xmas.

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What about ideas to write about the so called 'writers block'. Let me give you an idea, what about writing a book concerned with time travel. Oh no! I hear you say this has already been done to death by a certain chap called H G Wells and the idea is all washed up and a dead end. Nobody would buy it no one would publish print or sell it. Think again, look at the book link to The Time Traveler's wife book for sale on Amazon. I bet the author is even now poring himself another Bacardi and lying on some nice warm beach somewhere.

Don't get me wrong I don't wish to deny him or her the fruits of their labour - but just goes to show you take an old idea re-vamp it add in some unique twists and turns and wallah!! Money in the bank.