When my daughter was in elementary school, the Parent-Teacher Organization hired an author to teach the kids how to write a children's book. Each youngster succeeded in writing and illustrating a book that was proudly shared with family and friends. In the process of becoming author-illustrators, I could see their self-confidence soar. What a great idea!
Let me contrast that experience with my writing career as a book author. I started more years ago than I care to remember by writing stand-alone chapters in books of business essays. I still remember the pleasure of holding my first copy and flipping to the page where my work began.
Many years later, I coauthored an entire business book. The joy of holding that book was ever so much greater! Naturally, I could hardly wait to repeat the experience. And I have several times.
Becoming a published author is definitely addictive . . . and psychologically rewarding. In the process of writing, teaching courses, and meeting other writers, I've learned a few other useful things about becoming an author:
--Almost everyone dreams of someday writing a book.
--Most people doubt that they have the skill to do so.
--Everyone would benefit from having lots of help in learning how.
--Once you learn how, it just becomes easier and easier to repeat the process.
I well remember my first up-close-and-personal experience observing an aspiring book author develop a manuscript. The writer had a well-developed, specific idea and worked hard at it. Pages piled up. Those pages were endlessly revised. More pages were written. Disgust with the project built.
The high point for the writer came from happy dreams of success when a manuscript was first sent off to a well-known publisher. The project was eventually abandoned by the author after receiving many rejection letters from agents and publishers. What a sad result that was! Yet that result is the most common one for aspiring authors.
Many aspiring book authors try to improve their chances of success through taking writing classes, attending writing conferences, and meeting lots of authors and agents. Through those activities, most book authors in training sit through lots of grammar lessons, receive much advice to keep writing, and hear conflicting recommendations about what to do next to advance their careers.
Sometimes such wannabe authors gain an agent. But that's far from being a guarantee of making a book sale.
What does it take to become a successful book author? The answer may surprise you: it takes both much more and a lot less of what most potential book authors think they need to do. Success also requires doing some things that are different from what writers think is required.
Here's an example. Some years ago I was contacted by a person writing a non-fiction article about food for the high-profile magazine, The New Yorker. I happened to know a lot about the particular subject of the article.
By contrast, the writer was so dense on the subject that he could barely understand what I was telling him. When he tried to repeat back to me what I had said, he got it all wrong. After more than an hour of frustration, I finally told him I couldn't spare any more time to help him.
Months later, I got a call from a fact checker who read to me what the writer had included in the article based on what the writer thought I had said. I was not surprised to find that every sentence had a mistake in it.
Why am I telling you this story? Well, that writer has since authored four non-fiction New York Times best sellers and is considered one of the most successful book authors on the planet.
How could that be? Well, it's simple. This man is very talented at picking subjects that people like to read about.
Although he is all-but-incapable of writing effectively about those subjects, he's able to find patient, hard-working sources, editors, and fact-checkers who are able to help turn his tortured thinking and writing into something resembling accurate, understandable prose that's interesting to read.
What's the lesson? Authors who have a book concept that readers like can stand atop the shoulders of many capable, helpful people who will direct them to the finish line of success.
What's the problem? Most aspiring authors have concrete ideas for what they want to write about . . . and they pick topics that few, if any readers, have much interest in.
What's a good way for authors
to overcome their problem and benefit from this important lesson? Enroll in a graduate-school program that allows them to write a non-fiction book under the supervision of successful authors in their field.
Let's consider an example of such an experience to understand what you should do to write your non-fiction book. When he was young, Dr. Sabdat Sabdat aspired to become a civil engineer or a math teacher. Unfortunately, ill health caused him to perform poorly on his advanced secondary school final exams, and those opportunities were lost.
Instead, he was offered a position in Tanzania's Ministry of Finance as an accounts assistant. This was his first exposure to accounting, and he knew that he needed an accounting education to do his work. The ministry cooperated by sending him to the Dar es Salaam School of Accountancy (DSA) for a year of training.
Building on that educational foundation, he became quite expert, later earning an Advanced Diploma in Certified Accountancy from the Institute of Development Management (IDM). Upon graduation, he joined the faculty there as a tutorial assistant.
A year later, IDM sent Dr. Sabdat to Canada where he earned a postgraduate certificate in financial management (CFM) from Algonquin College of Arts and Technology. When IDM opened a graduate school of business five years later, Dr. Sabdat joined the inaugural class of students and earned an MBA degree in finance.
Not satisfied with his knowledge, Dr. Sabdat studied related subjects on his own and also took computer-related courses that were supported by his next employer, the Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA).
As a result of his excellent knowledge, he advanced as a lecturer and later became the program head for various advanced diploma and management courses of study. He was eventually promoted to become registrar for the entire faculty in admissions and examinations.
During those years, Dr. Sabdat was also active in preparing and presenting papers, manuals, feasibility studies, and curriculum plans for new programs. From those writing experiences, he developed a desire to publish a book on finance or management accounting. To turn that desire into reality, he asked IAA to support his doctoral studies and the institute agreed.
Dr. Sabdat selected Rushmore University to study for his DBA degree in accounting and finance. He designed courses there to emphasize developing his research, writing, and presentation skills while updating his knowledge of accounting and finance. As a result of this preparation, he wrote a dissertation, Management Accounting Practices in Service Organizations: Experiences from Tanzania Hotels and Lodges.
Working on the dissertation helped provide encouragement for other researching and writing. While Dr. Sabdat was preparing the dissertation, he also completed a major research project at IAA, "Capital Budgeting Practices in Tanzanian Manufacturing Firms."
Since graduation, Dr. Sabdat has published three articles based on his dissertation which bolstered his academic reputation and got promoted to the position of a Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies for IAA. His appetite was increased for research and writing, and he was also able to write an article that was accepted for publication based on his new research into Islamic banking practices.
Dr. Sabdat has also enrolled in a second doctoral program at the Open University of Tanzania. His doctoral dissertation proposal there is entitled "Capital Budgeting Practices in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis of Manufacturing and Extractive Industries." Undoubtedly, this dissertation will also provide an opportunity to publish many articles.
In addition to the benefit from having written all this material, Dr. Sabdat has many opportunities to do more. It is easy to turn a dissertation into a published book.
Many organizations seek out such works for publication, and many expert editors are available to turn dissertations into standard non-fiction formats. Most dissertation writers can make the adaptation into a book in less than a year of part-time effort.
As you can see, Dr. Sabdat has been able to increase his research and writing productivity and marketability through the graduate programs he has studied in. The sky's the only limit now on how many books he can write and publish.
Based on his credibility as an authority in management accounting, his books should have wide appeal to students and business managers who want to improve in those activities.
You should expect to hear a lot more from and about Dr. Sabdat.
His story can become your story. Are you ready to develop a commercially appealing topic for your first book? If not, get the help you require so that you can fulfill this great dream.
Author Resource:-
Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school, where he advises many doctoral candidates to prepare dissertations that are later published. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your effectiveness and improve your career, visit
http://www.rushmore.edu
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