There are many elements that go into creating a best seller, including how you publish it and how marketable you are as an author. But these are some of the factors that go into the writing of a profitable book.

1. Define your target audience and write to them as if you were in a conversation with one member of that audience.

2. Know where the emotional connection is with the audience; what they fear, what they worry about, what their passions are and write the answers to their problems, or at least a way to decrease their fears.

3. Brand yourself with a courageous core message. Show your passion for your viewpoint and back it up.

4. Find the open position in the market and fill it - particularly if other books already available on this topic are out-of-date, inaccurate, too narrow, or not particularly reader friendly.

5. Test audience response to concepts, presentation and packaging at several points in the process. Do audience and peer reviews on the table of contents, cover and sample pages.

6. Write a book that is comparable to and compatible with other successful books on this topic to piggyback on their success with this ready audience.

7. Develop a full range of products or a plan for additional products as you write your book- audios, workbooks, seminars, etc.

8. Create a transformational experience for the reader, not just an informational experience. Make an impact on the world.

9. Give the reader a bridge to the practical world with things to think about, checklists and exercises. Help that reader take your passion and make it part of his or her life.

10. Help the reader stay connected with you and with the community of others who care about this subject with a web site that offers additional resources, and next steps.

Do these things and you have a much better change of finding a large publisher that believes in you and your work ? a prerequisite to hitting it big. Also, plan to spend a lot of your own time, money and connections in marketing the book before and after it hits bookstore shelves. But you must start with a book that is well written for the intended audience as a base upon which to build everything else in your bestseller strategy.

Copyright (c) 2007 Gail Richards