Building you Book Like a Bridge.

Dear beautiful women authors,

A couple of days ago, I was riding on the crowded New York city bus. It was a typical rush hour ride: impersonal, straight-faced strangers pretending not to be inches from each other. Suddenly the driver stopped violently. The people standing up fell forward on top of each other, like dominoes.

In a second, the people where no longer strangers. They were helping each other up, holding each other so they would not fall. They were standing up and offering their seats to elders and children. They were asking each other if they had been hurt. Their previously cold, uncaring faces were alive with love, warmth and concern.

I got a black and blue from the accident. But I got something priceless. An experience that love is our basic human Essence. An experience of our Oneness.

I want you to open your heart right now, breathing in deeply this truth: Your book is a nudge that helps your readers to awaken, to connect to themselves, and to each other. Your book shakes up the readers. It may be a gentle nudge or a slap on your face wake-up call.

Whether it is through a magical story, through your memories or through facilitating your readers’ connection with others or with themselves, your book is a nudge that your readers need to awaken and connect.

When you see your book as that special nudge your readers need, it becomes a bridge. Your book, then is a bridge that connects your readers with themselves and others. Building your book like a bridge is best done from the beginning, at the planning stage. But you can start this task at any point in your book path, even at the end, when you are already selling your book. Building your book as a bridge means ensuring that it will be there when your readers need that nudge, and that it will be at the right place and time to build the right bridge your readers need, whether that bridge is to knowledge, to themselves, to resources or to others in their community.

In this post, I include an exercise to help you build your book like a bridge. The exercise involves answering three simple questions. As the Dream Alchemist, I teach that questions are Psychic Keys. Use these three Psychic Keys to open the doors to your book’s success.

Some of you are beginning to write your book. You are worried about getting a publisher. It is good to think ahead, but I recommend that for the next several weeks, instead of worrying about when you should send your book to publishers, you focus on these three questions I will share with you.

Other authors reading this today are focusing on promoting your book or building a platform. These questions can generate creative, unique ideas for you, too.

Here I offer two examples on how you can answer these questions if you are a fiction writer or a non-fiction writer, and how your answers can help you build your book like a bridge.

EXERCISE: Building your Book like a Bridge

Question 1
How does your book connect your readers to each other, to themselves, to their humanity and to their community?

Question 2

Where are your readers gathering right now? What is the best place to build them a bridge?

Question 3

When should that nudge happen? When is the best time to build that bridge?

Why ask these questions? As you will see in the examples I provide below, your answers may allow you to build a sizable readership, find target markets, alternative sales and distribution partners for your book, and even get publishers to request for your book, instead of you chasing them to get it published. Are you listening now?

Two sample cases:

FICTION: Let us examine a case in which a fiction writer has written a novel about a woman who falls in and out of love and is dealing with her emotions, her grieving process and her relationship patterns.

NON-FICTION: Let us examine a case in which an expert in personal growth has written a book about conquering depression. The non-fiction book includes case studies, resources and practices.

Answer examples to question no. 1

Question 1

How does your book connect your readers to each other, to themselves, to their humanity and to their community?

Fiction sample: My novel takes the women readers into a journey that helps them see to what degree do they love themselves and the patterns of love relationships they hold. They also identify with the feelings of the protagonist as she rages and grieves. this helps them  laugh at themselves, forgive and accept themselves and move on to a better relationship.

Non-fiction sample: My book connect the reader to deeper levels of themselves and to others who are suffering and have overcome this condition. I also give resources, like book, programs and daily practices.

If you look at these answers you will immediately see, three things:

1. You are defining your readership. Knowing your market is the first step in finding your readers.

2. You are defining the benefits they will get from your book. Defining these benefits translates to gold in copyrighting your book promotional material and your web pages. The first thing your potential readers want to see is what benefits they will get from the book.

3. You are pointing towards places or partners for your promotion. By knowing your readers and the benefits they enjoy in reading your books, you now know where to search for these readers and can identify potential partners for your book promotion and sales. In the fiction case, the places where women meet to talk about love or to work-out relationship problems is the ideal bridge building place. In the non-fictional case, the places where people go to seek resources for depression is the ideal place.

Answer examples to question no. 2

Question No. 2

Where are your readers gathering right now? What is the best place to build them a bridge?

Fiction sample: ONLINE: Dating services. Websites teaching the Law of Attraction, in the pages for Soul Mates. LOCAL: Relationship programs. Could you work with non-profits, self-help groups, single women groups, and local therapists? Perhaps you could do an entertaining soiree for these groups at local cafes or restaurants, in which case they may offer a discount. You read the book and have an informal talk with the attendees.

Non-fiction sample: A possible association with 12 steps, non-profits and clinics addressing depression seems a good idea. You could do a free reading and Q&A and sell the book at the events, or offer an activity in which the book is bought as the material. Another possibility that comes up is to address college courses and events for social workers and psychology students. Again, your book can be part of the event, pre-sold as course material. ONLINE:  You can post entries in blogs addressing depression, giving short tips and linking back to your book page.

Question 3

When should that nudge happen? When is the best time to build that bridge?

Fiction sample: The obvious answer is Valentine Day. How about offering an event in Bares and Nobles for that day? In your local restaurants and Cafes? Other excellent times: Women’s History Month. Offer an mp3 audio of you reading an excerpt from the book, as a gift for women who register in the dating service during March.

Non-fiction sample: How about scheduling a series of speaking engagements for colleges? If you seek a chapter or angle that can help young people under pressure, you may then offer this speaking event to colleges that have a high level of suicide or depression rate among the students, and you can target these events for the beginning of the course.

As you can see, three simple questions can lead to power-packed answers that can help you find your readers, establish strong partnerships, choose the right place and time to promote your book. Armed with this marketing plan, it will be much easier to attract a traditional publisher, if you choose to go that route.

Light and love,

Maria Mar

The Dream Alchemist

For a book coaching session with me, check the Book and Ebook Writing Programs and the Book Clinic I offer at writetodream.com

PS. I offered a short version of this exercise at a segment of our Write to Dream Radio Show, where you can hear author, book coach and publisher Shelley Lieber in a power-packed, information-packed segment about the 4 developmental stages of your book. Go here:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/no4.htm

Read a summary of that show here: