I publish an online magazine called TheOnlineFisherman.com, wrote the second title for Adobe (Workflow Reengineering) and have written now (I think) 42 commercial titles. All but three made money. I currently carry a few different press cards, the most active being the Florida Outdoor Writers Association.
Making money on your first book is very, very unlikely. If you want to make money at your story, regardless of how exciting, unique, or telling it might seem, think again. There are the Rollings and Steven Kings out there, but man, are they rare. I do not want to say never, but I will say rarely. And it takes time. A professional will not write your story as well as you could, although a good one can help you write it yourself. You seem to speak well enough to do a decent job with Dragon Dictation and a decent editor (MUCH cheaper than a pro writer). The big houses (we wrote for Prentice Hall, Pearson Ed, Adobe, Sams, McMillan, Houghlin, and all the big guys) actually employ people who throw out 90% of the manuscripts they receive. They do not read them, mind you. They flash through four or five pages, and toss them. Period, end of story. You don't hear a word, you get strung along if you bother to call, and they threw your stuff in the can the first hour they looked at it. If the word Cuba or Kidnapped catches their eye that morning for whatever reason, you have a chance. But the stuff on their desk is in two piles. The first is "Know this guy/girl" and the second is called "Wanna-be-a-writer" pile. That one is largely doomed before they finish their morning coffee (or tofu-burger, you never know until you see the paleness of their skin).
I am wrong about a lot of stuff, so do not take my word alone, but after thirty years of doing it, and hearing people say "I should write a book" or "I have a story you would not believe" at least three times a week (try saying you're a writer when somebody asks you what you do for a living and you'll get four different responses as sure as the sun will rise in the east), I encourage people to think twice about spending a year of their life literally possessed by their desire to tell a story.
BUT if you want to, here is a simple set of instructions.
FIRST: Write an outline. If you do not know how to, learn. Do a search for "How to Write an Effective Outline" and you will find thousands of experienced people talking to you directly and personally about how to do it. And it is the book. The outline is the basis and the structure, the paragraphs the steps on the ladder, and the words the flavor.
SECOND: Write like you talk -- do not have a writing voice and a personal voice.
THIRD: Tell them what you're gonna tell them in the first three pages. Preferably the first paragraph of the Introduction to the book. Then tell them, and then in the final few pages, tell them what you just told them.
If you're writing courseware, then you give them a test to see if they bothered to read it
gary poyssick
A OneStop Online Fishing Magazine and Resource
Against The Clock Books for Sale
