The write stuff to becoming an author

So you want to write a book.

The good news is that writing and publishing a book is doable. Maybe the book in your head is a business book that shares your successes, and failures, so that others (who will, of course, flock to buy the book) can benefit.

Truth is, a case can be made that many entrepreneurs have a story to tell: The rags to riches growth of their business, sometimes riches to rags; a business-focused problem-solving book that draws upon the business owner's own experiences.

Maybe you're thinking fiction, a novel, because you're a good storyteller and you've had this idea in your mind forever. And you can take forever somewhat literally: Jim Elsener, who created what is now the Daily Herald Business Ledger, began writing "The Last Road Trip," a baseball book that first became words on paper "10 or 11 years ago, when I was unemployed."

The book, available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats, was published in August. If you're on Elsener's "large list of names," you've likely received an email announcing the book's availability.

Therein lies a fact of author life: "Only the very top authors get promotional help," says Bob Goldsborough, a veteran journalist and, since the 1980s, the continuator author of the long-popular Nero Wolfe mystery series begun in 1934 by Rex Stout. Stout died in 1975; Goldsborough received permission from his estate to continue the series in the mid-1980s.

Elsener plugs his own book. Goldsborough does much the same, scheduling book signings and similar events mostly throughout the Chicago area.

If Elsener, a good writer with additional books in his mind, and Goldsborough, a successful author who created his own Snap Malek mystery series as an additional creative outlet, bear the responsibility for promoting their books, what can a beginning author expect?

"I'm not sure there is any one right way to get a book published," Goldsborough says. "It's harder to get published in the traditional way. There's more and more self-publishing."

New authors can find success, however. Jessica Chiarella, for example, expects her second book to go to publishers in about a month. Her first book, titled "And Again," had its genesis as a short story about cloning. Published by Touchstone, a Simon & Schuster imprint, the finished manuscript, Chiarella says, was in part the result of her experience in DePaul University's writers' program.

Among the things she learned that could benefit other beginning writers:

• Write the first draft, then make it pretty, Chiarella says.

• Share that draft with other writers. In Chiarella's case, many of those other writers were classmates, but if you're not in college or a writing program of some sort, ask trusted friends to read the manuscript and make suggestions. You're not looking for automatic praise; you want insights from your initial readers that will help make your book more readable - and more saleable.

• Need an agent to get your book in front of publishers? There are lists, but you'll need a good introductory letter.

© 2019 Kendall Communications Inc. Follow Jim Kendall on LinkedIn and Twitter. Write him at Jim@kendallcom.com. Read Jim's Business Owners' Blog at www.kendallcom.com.