"I am going to write a book someday."

How many times have you heard yourself or someone close to you utter these words?

I believe there are several reasons we/they do not follow through on their epiphany.

They don't know where to start.
They don't know how to eat an elephant.
They feel they are not worthy.
They don't have the time.
They won't sell any copies.
They don't know who would care.
They don't think anyone would publish it.

A few years back I had the privilege of attending a prestigious one day seminar at Wizard Academy entitled "How to write a non-fiction book." There were no more that eighteen people in the room. The morning session was taught by Ray Bard, president and founder of Bard Press. The afternoon session was led by author J. Keith Miller.

I am now going to write (from memory) the main things I learned from these humble, yet mighty men.

From Ray Bard I learned:

---In order for your non-fiction book to be called a "best seller" you have to sell over 100,000 copies. (Most likely in a certain amount of time.)

---He talked about how book distribution works. I learned publisher, the distributor and the book store make 98% of the money.

---Ray also said there are basically four categories of books being published.

1. Pond Books: The interest in neither deep nor wide. A good example of a pond book might be a cookbook put together by your churches ladies group.

2. Swamp Books: A swamp book does not have deep interest, but does have a national audience. A good example might be coffee-table Marilyn Monroe. There might be two sold in every bookstore across the country.

3. Well Books: The audience is narrow, but very deep. The example Mr. Bard used that day was a best-seller he published called "The Care and Feeding of Quarter Horses". Obviously the audience is narrow, but apparently every quarter horse owner either purchased one or got one for Christmas.

4. Ocean Books: The audience is both deep and wide. The topics general appeal to people who have not yet assumed room temperature. They are generally about Money, Relationships, Food, Fun and Sex.

What category does your book fall under and why have you not started writing it. Keith Miller taught us how to actually eat this elephant.

Next week I'll tell you what I learned from Keith Miller.