The 11 "To Do's" That Turned My Potential Snooze-Fest Non-Fiction into an Award-Nominated Book! By Wendi Pomerance Brick

I'm thrilled to introduce you to our guest author today, Wendi Pomerance Brick. Wendi is an author that I met through old-fashioned networking. While speaking to people in my local Texas Starbucks about my book, one of the women told me that her aunt in California was an author who was being asked to speak all over about her book. A little research led me to Wendi.



Today, Wendi will walk us through the secret to her award-winning success and give us tips that she used to breathe life into her book. This is an exciting success story and I'm grateful that Wendi is sharing it with us today. It shows us that there are so many paths to success for authors.



The 11 "To Do's" That Turned My Potential Snooze-Fest Non-Fiction into an Award-Nominated Book!

ByWendi Pomerance Brick



Writing a book is certainly a labor of love, emphasis on labor. Not in a bad way, it was just more labor intensive, and took a lot longer, than I thought it would.



Writing a non-fiction book about providing great customer service in government had the potential to be quite a snooze-fest, so here's what I did to make it fun and valuable for the readers. It must have worked because it's selling like hot cakes on Amazon and was also nominated for Best Non-Fiction Book 2011 by the San Diego Book Awards!



Let me first clarify that I went the "self-publishing" route. I put that in quotes because I didn't really self-publish, I only self printed. I had a lot of help getting from a draft manuscript to a finished product. Here's the journey that worked for me.



To complete the draft manuscript and to get past my writer's block, I digitally recorded a bunch of my workshops, presentations and seminars. That was a huge help in filling up the blank pages. I mistakenly thought that creating the manuscript was basically the end of my journey. Well, add another 6 months to your timeline, give or take, once you have the manuscript finished. Here's the rest of the story...



1. Hire a structural layout person. This could be someone who advertises as a ghost writer. Interview several people and pick one that you feel a connection with. They really need to "get you" or this step won't work as well.



Once you write the book, send them the manuscript for "readability" review and engagement of reader. This person can also help with the marketing hooks and phrases that could pull the readers in and make them want to keep reading. All the ideas are yours but this person helps smooth out transitions and flow, identifies what could be elaborated on, and what should be removed all together.



2. Hire a copy editor. I'm no English major. This is the person that does a grammar and punctuation check, the style guide (which is very important for visual consistency) and checks to make sure everything is correct before printing. This was my source of greatest frustration. I did this part three times with 2 different people before it was correct, so keep in mind you may need more than one person.



3. Engage a graphic artist. My artist was also my publisher. She not only designed a stunning front and back cover (at least I think it is stunning) but also did all of the layout design internally.



4. Engage someone to lay out the book so it can be uploaded to print. In my case, this was my graphic artist described above. This person creates all the internal copyright pages, pull quotes, fonts and formats, etc.



5. ISBN number for your book. It's imperative to have this ISBN number and very easy to purchase on line. You'll need this before your artist can finish the internal copyrights page and the back cover art.



6. Get your endorsements. There are templates on line for sending endorsement requests. Often the person would like to see the preface, first couple of chapters, or even the whole book as a .pdf before giving you the endorsement. Ask a lot of people! Everyone will not respond to your request. I sent out requests to about 20 people and received 6 awesome quotes.



7. Determine a price. This was a combination of art and science. Start by research look for books of similar size and length. There is no set formula on this.



8. Ensure your title is unique. More research. There doesn't seem to be a central library of all titles. I used Amazon.



9. Find a high quality reliable book printer. This is where you will upload the book and they will ship you the finished product. Do a proof run to make sure the book is the quality you expect before you order 500 of them.



10. Marketing is completely up to you!! Put together a marketing plan relying heavily on your networks. If you have the money, you may want to hire a professional PR firm to help you with press releases, media exposure and identifying potential market contacts. Make marketing your book part of your everyday activities.



11. Sales- how are you going to sell it? This seems like an easy question, but it's not that straightforward. First, you need to get a permit, at least in California, and here it's a Resellers permit from the State Board of Equalization. You will owe taxes on the sales at different tax rates depending on where the buyer is from, so you'll need a way to track all that. Once a year, you'll be expected to send someone a sales tax check. Along with this, you'll have to set up system to track inventory and sales. I have all of this set up in my QuickBooks software.



Speaking of sales, you'll have to decide if you need a merchant account. Will you accept/process credit cards on your own? I personally only take checks or cash at trade shows/seminars, and use Amazon.com for credit card sales. There are pros and cons to using Amazon, so you'll have to see what works best for you. I'm also aware that there are apps and new attachments for your smart phone that will enable you to process credit cards in the field, but I haven't personally done this yet.



I sincerely hope this information is helpful to you in your pursuit of being a published author! It's been a great experience for me, and I'm sure the second book will be a lot smoother. Yes, after all of this, there will be a second book. Go do great things!



--------

Wendi Pomerance Brick, Author

President and CEO

Customer Service Advantage, Inc.



Wendi has 14 years of experience developing and implementing customer service improvement programs, including training and facilitation, surveys, process improvements, performance measures, rewards programs, and technology updates.



In 1998, Wendi was named as the County of San Diego's first Customer Service Manager. Her programs were used as models around the United States and were awarded two NACo (National Association of Counties) Achievement Awards. In 2003, Wendi was a Finalist in the San Diego Business Journal's annual "Women Who Mean Business." Wendi was asked to join the Executive Team at the City of San Diego in 2006, and was appointed Director of the Department of Customer Services.



Wendi is now the President and CEO of Customer Service Advantage, Inc. CSA provides customer service consulting and training services to businesses, non-profits, educational institutions and government agencies. The CSA approach is based on a unique "Six Essential ElementsTM" model for establishing a customer-focused culture. Her new book The Science of Service: Six Essential Elements for Creating a Culture of Service in the Public Sector was released in December 2010 and is available at www.TheScienceOfService.info.





For a complete Curriculum Vita, see www.LinkedIn.com/in/wendibrick.



Member Organizations:

• Escondido Chamber of Commerce

• Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce

• San Diego North Economic Development Council

• South County Economic Development Council

• American Society for Training and Development

• Municipal Managers Association of Southern California



Customer Service Advantage, Inc.

760.445.6550

www.theCSAedge.com







































 -------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests .