Holtje - The Complete Idiots Guide to Writing Business Books

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Table of Contents

Foreword

True or false: The skills it takes to write a successful business book are exactly the same skills that come into play in writing any nonfiction book.

The accurate answer is both yes and no. Yes, because youll certainly want to employ clear writing and a good narrative style, as you would in any nonfiction. No, because business books are typically read for specific reasons. They must employ clear writing and readable style, but they must also do much more.

Whether the topic is a biography of a major business figure or a corporate history, how to invest wisely or how to start and run a small business, readers of business books are looking for insight, guidance, and practical help every step of the way. If you need a book about writing general nonfiction, this is not the book for you.

This book is about focusing your attention on the specific interests and precise needs of a special audiencebusiness readers. It describes at least a dozen different types of business books, including those on leadership, entrepreneurship, marketing, corporate history, career planning, investment, and more. And it provides detailed information on the entire process, including refining your idea, identifying the market, finding the right publisher, negotiating the contract, working with agents and co-authors, and so on.

In the pages of this book, you will meet editors, literary agents, and other authors of business books. In addition to the practical advice dispensed throughout the book, you will find anecdotes, tips, and quotes bringing the advice to life.

Bert Holtje is extraordinarily well qualified to write this book. In 30 years as a writer, editor, and agent, he developed expertise in every facet of publishing. He is the founder of James Peter Associates, Inc., where he served as an independent book producer and literary agent for three decades, representing 87 authors of nonfiction books and placing more than 600 books with major publishers. Bert has consulted with publishers on the marketing of books. And he is himself the author of some three dozen books.

I think you will enjoy reading this book and Im sure that you will benefit from the solid and practical help you will find in its pages.

Grace W. Weinstein was a two-term president of the American Society of Journalists & Authors and has served on the Board of Governors of the New York Financial Writers Association. She is the author of 13 books, most of them on personal finance, and has written business and financial articles for a wide range of magazines, from BusinessWeek to Wealth Manager. She currently contributes columns, primarily on tax and estate planning, to the Financial Times.

Ms. Weinstein was the editor of the monthly newsletter Money Matters: A Womans Guide to Financial Well-Being. She has been a syndicated columnist, a speaker on personal finance and tax issues, and a regular financial columnist for Good Housekeeping and Investors Business Daily. She served for three years on the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board and has been on the board of the Copyright Clearance Center. As a corporate consultant, she writes white papers, brochures, annual reports, and educational publications.

Introduction

Writing a book about writing a book is an interesting experience. I know that you will probably spot some split infinitives and clunky constructions and maybe even some signs of fuzzy thinking. Id say its like walking a tightrope except that youd probably nail me for the clich. So, before we get going, Im not going to apologize for anything. If you spot a mixed metaphor, good for you! However, if this book helps you write your book and get it published, you will have had a good experience in the pages that follow. Even if you dont get published, you will probably know why after reading my book. If nothing else, everything we do should always teach us something.

There, thats out of the way. Its not a disclaimer. Its just my way of saying that if you really want to write a business book, you can and I can help you. In my nearly 40 years of work in book publishing, I have written many books, edited many more, written advertising copy for other peoples books, written many magazine articles, and even provided the total editorial content of a monthly business magazine for over 15 years. On top of all that, I started and ran a literary agency for 30 of those 40 years, managing the careers of more than 80 successful authors.

Im not bragging; Im sure Id be impressed by what you do and have done. And its what you have done and are doing that you probably want to write about. So here we are, two experienced people in very different fields, working together to achieve a common goal: getting your ideas on paper in a form that a publisher will love to publish.

Theres a lot more in this book about getting you published than there is about writing. The chapters on writing, however, can set you on the right track, but they wont bore you with the details that would only interest an editor. With what you already know about the craft, you can more than likely create an acceptable manuscript or one that, with a little help, can be turned into one. But you want to write a business book, and business books are different from other books.

What makes business books different from other books is what their readers expect to get from them. Im sure you have read your share of business books, whether they were how-to books or biographies of famous and successful businesspeople. Why did you read them when you could have been reading good novels or biographies of people who have led far more exciting lives than most businesspeople? You read them because you wanted to learn something. Theres no other reason to read a how-to business book. And by reading the biography of some terminally boring business executive, you hoped to learn his or her secrets of success.

Does this really mean that business books are different from other self-help books or biographies? The answer is yes. Just as a biography of a sports star will differ from a biography of a businessperson, a book about how to sell will differ from a book about how to coach a soccer team. Its the audience that dictates the difference. Readers have specific expectations for the books they read. They not only expect information, they expect to read about it in ways that are comfortable for them. If you dont address your readers in ways they have come to expect, you will lose them quickly. This is one of the major topics of this book.

Getting your business book published well is another key feature of the book. While self-publishing does offer opportunities to publish, there can be no discounting the value of a book published by a major publisher. The publishers imprint says something that even the best-designed self-published books cannot say. Yet not all self-published books have been rejected by larger publishers because they fall short qualitatively. Many are turned down no matter how well they are written simply because the publisher cant see a large enough market to make publishing the book worthwhile. But there are alternatives, and you will read about them in this book.

You cant spend as much time in book publishing as I have without having learned most of the tricks of the trade. I have tried to include everything that will be of help to you in this book. These arent the hidden secrets so often touted to sell books on just about any subject. Rather, they are the easier ways over the bumps, the shortcuts, and the ways to determine whats real and what isnt, plus a lot more. Authors with more lofty views of themselves might call it their wisdom. I prefer to think of it as whats needednot just to get things done, but to get them done faster, better, and with some style. I hope they work for you as well as they have worked for me.

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