what book does the world really need now?-help me make a best seller
I will fund someone writing it and finding the best way to publish it
and give them 10% of all profit.

Patrick Murphy

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 09 Apr 2004 02:58 PDT

Dear Patrick, 

I could have several suggestions, but: - 

(1) I am not a witch, so I don't really have the powers of absolute
prediction. I am not sure, but I think that neither of the other
researchers is a psychic. We can be always wrong. Remember all great
ideas that didn't work, and stupid ones that did.

(2) I am also not sure that the answer to the questions "what the
world really needs to know" and "what the world would buy" is the
same. I am pertty sure that bestsellers like "Da Vinci Code" are not
something that people "really need to know", but some philosophy or
policy books actually are. Quiet truthfully, I don't really think that
some of the bestselling advice books out there (if you meant non
fiction) are "what the world needs to know" but more of a "what the
world wants to know" or "what present should I buy my not defunct
co-worker, whom I really don't know? I know! - "Who Moved My
Cheese?"".

So, what I could propose: 
- Analysis of current trends in bestsellers
- Analysis of people's problems that are (less) answered in books. 
- Prediction (though not accurate) of what I think could sell

Please tell me if this is what you're after, and if not, what exactly
would satisfy you as an answer.

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Request for Question Clarification by nancylynn-ga on 27 Apr 2004 21:31 PDT

Hello orangespud-ga: 

Are you interested in sponsoring a non-fiction book or a novel? 

Are you looking for specific ideas within currently hot genres? (I can
help you with some ideas in some non-fiction categories.)

I can't possibly guarantee your eventual book would be a bestseller.
As many of my colleagues have already noted, there's no sure-fire
recipe for what will be a hit. No one ever expected "Seabiscuit," or
"The Perfect Storm," or the new punctuation guide, "Eats, Shoots and
Leaves," to become publishing phenomenons.

But I can certainly tell you which genres and subjects are selling
well, what publishing trends and forecasts are for the near-term
future, and give you some ideas for books within those categories.

I can also give you advice on where to find a writer best suited to
your project (once you decide which project to pursue), and a
realistic idea of what well qualified, professional writers charge for
their work.

I can also help you weigh the options of pursuing the traditional path
to publication: obtaining an agent, who, in turn, will try to place
your book with a publisher; along with information on publishers who
accept proposals from writers who don't have agents; and the pros and
cons of self-publishing.

I can offer some advice and excellent resources on how to prepare on a
book proposal (which can be as challenging as writing an actual
book!), which is how you sell your book idea to agents and publishers.
(You would also have to pay a writer to put together such a proposal.)

So, I can definitely provide you with some ideas and advice on the
basics of developing a book and attempting to get it published. I can
also recommend some outstanding books for writers seeking a publishing
deal.

Regards,
nancylynn-ga

Patrick

If we could answer this, we would all be rich :)

Seriously, there are thousands of writers all over the world trying to
answer the same question - trying to predict what next years big thing
might be and writing a book that will hit the shelves at just the
right time. (So actually, your question should not be....what book
does the world really need now...it should be "What book will the
world really need by the time I finish writing my book?)

But you need to think about what you are offering. If you are going to
fund a writer, what are you going to do a couple of years down the
line if the book isn't a best seller? Will you be asking for your
money back? Would any author be prepared to work under those
conditions?

And wouldn't an author be more likely to want the money for his ideas
for himself, rather than selling the idea for $200 and 10%  of a
possible profit that might not materialise?

You would achieve a better profit by doing it yourself.

willie-ga

Patrick,

You're likelier to sell more copies if your book is nonfiction.  One
book that may help you generate ideas is "Damn! Why Didn't I Write
That?" by Marc McCutcheon.  That book's subtitle is "How Ordinary
People Are Raking in $100,000.00 or More Writing Nonfiction Books &
How You Can Too!"

If you have a strong preference for fiction, the best way to make
money might be to write in a genre such as mysteries, romance novels,
Westerns, etc.  James Frey discusses this in "How to Write a Damn Good
Novel."  (Interesting that these two great books on writing have the
same expletive in their titles!)

I agree with politicalguru that it's hard to say in advance what will
sell and what won't.  What William Goldman said about screenplays
seems to apply to books as well: "Nobody knows anything."  There are
countless stories of bestsellers that were rejected by publisher after
publisher... until the 23rd or 42nd publisher said yes, and the
book-buying public responded enthusiastically.  The best way might be
to follow Marc McCutcheon's plan to come up with an idea YOU think
will generate a bestseller.  If you're passionate about the product,
then you'll have the drive necessary to persevere until you succeed.

It probably won't be hard to find a writer willing to work with you. 
In Appendix E of "Secrets of a Freelance Writer," Robert W. Bly says
he charged (as of 1997) "50% of advance and royalties or $125-175 per
book page" for ghostwriting books.

Make sure you get the writer to sign an appropriate contract before he
or she starts working on the book: any intellectual property lawyer
can help you draft one.  If you do a Google search on terms such as
freelance writer, corporate writing, commercial writing, etc., then
you'll be able to find writers in your area who can do the job.

Best of luck!

Carl

Here's an expansion of my previous comments:

When I said you shouldn't have trouble finding a writer to work with
you, it probably goes without saying that your terms would have to be
commercially reasonable, but I'll say it anyway.  You said you'd fund
the writing of the book... that might cost you around $35,000 for the
finished product.  You might want to build some milestone payments
into your contract, for example $5,000 for the first 40 pages, at
which time you could review the work and decide whether or not to
proceed.  If you offer x dollars per page plus a percentage of the
royalties, the writer might give you a break on the price per page. 
It would probably be difficult, though, to find someone who'd be
willing to write an entire book "on spec," that is, without any
up-front compensation.  As the Robert Bly example points out, some
people MIGHT do it if they believe in the project strongly enough and
get a large enough cut on the back end.  But most writers will want to
get paid by the page.

Again, you'll need a good contract - if you're paying five figures to
someone to turn your idea into a book, you want to make sure you're
covered, and that you own the copyright in the book.  As soon as the
book's completed, file a Form TX with the Copyright Office along with
the required fee (I think it's $30, but check their website) and the
correct number of copies of your book (either one or two - again,
check the website).  You can't sue for infringement until you've
registered your copyright; you also can't get statutory damages until
then, and your intellectual property lawyer can tell you more about
why those things are important.

It could be well worth $200 to pay for someone to come up with great
ideas for you.  I've been extremely satisfied with the answers I've
received from Google.

Once you've selected an idea and hired someone to write the book with
you, you might want to consider publishing the book yourself.  You can
read Dan Poynter's "Self-Publishing Manual" for more details.  It's
more work than having some else publish the book for you, of course,
but you can get your book to market much faster, and you'll keep a
greater share of the royalties.  So if you care deeply about speed and
profit share, this might be the "best way to publish."  Two listservs
you can join to find out more about self-publishing are
http://www.pub-forum.net/ and http://www.publish-l.bigstep.com/ .

I'll also reiterate that it's impossible to know for sure what will
sell and what won't.  What someone can do for you is come up with a
list of good ideas, and you can pick from that list and get started. 
Much will depend on the quality of the writing and your willingness to
promote the book once it's published.  Even a book about a seemingly
boring topic, like sidewalk tiles, could do well if it's
entertainingly written and heavily promoted.

Most of what I've said focuses on the "bestseller" part of your
question, not the part about what the world needs.  That's largely
because there are many different opinions about what the world needs. 
Arguably, people "need" entertainment, they "need" to satisfy their
curiosity about a variety of things, and so forth.

Here's my own suggestion: publish something similar to the Zagat
Survey Guides, focusing on educational products instead of restaurants
and nightclubs.  An example of one way these might be used:  if I have
a six-year-old and I want her to learn French, what are the "five-star
products" I can choose from?  You might suggest the "French in Action"
videotapes, or a specific series of childrens' books, or the Pimsleur
CDs, etc.  I think books like these would be incredibly useful, yet
I've never seen anything like them.  People will pay a lot of money to
learn how to give their kids the best possible start in life.

Cheers,
Carl

In my opinion, the best book would the one where you could express
your own charachter in it. For example, Im a member of Wierd Space, a
family of MSN groups. We geather together and we discuss all kinds of
nature, raizing up questions and suggesting own ideas. Overall,
afterall... sometime later ..  our posts becoming somthing better then
bestseller - sometimes its fun, other times its weird. In general -
its very mysterious and unpredictable.

I'm sorry for the message I wrote before...
But I think that to make a bestseller book you need an Idea that isn't
common, and to do this you would need to take a survey of the less
popular.
-Write a book that almost nobody is writing, because if there are
3,000 books of adventure, then the bestseller would be a romance that
has only 10 different authors.
So what i'm saying is: write a book that only a few people is writing
about, and make it different from all of them, make it unical at the
time it's done.
And the best subject that I could think of, is non-fiction, about the
true democracies.
All of what's written above is what I think and not an expert's suggestion.
I hope your dream will come true!

A possible best seller in the US, and around the world, could be a
book how the average as in low to middle class citizens can MOST
EFFECTIVELY influence their officials - elected or otherwise.  As a US
citizen I am keenly interested in finding out what actually works. 
What sorts of communication to elected officials gets their attention
in an influential way.  Citizens of the world are looking for a "how
to" re: organizing large, world-wide movements, managing the media
being produced so that the message is positive and widely spread, how
to elect officials who will in fact represent the voting public. 
These skills and knowlege are need in political arenas, economic
arenas as well as enviornmental arenas.  The citizens of the world are
looking for a way to come together and work together to stop global
warming, bring more democratic governments into place, stop famine and
stop war.  Can you help?

Dear Orange, 

The truth is - it doesn't really matter what you write
or create. It doesn't matter if anyone needs it or wants it.

It's all matter of how you market it.

The pet rock is a perfect case in point.

Who needed or wanted such a thing. 

Yet, it made a big hit with the late night talk show hosts, 
comedians and radio hosts, the newspapers, etc. 

It wasn't an accident. The guys behind it had public relations
experience and contacts. 

So if you produce ANYTHING, long or short - and hire the right
agents to pitch to the people who have the broadest audiences, 
you'll guarantee a bestseller. 

Campy packaging helps. 

Want something of enduring quality? 
Do some Google searches on the most frequently 
asked questions - or for words with the highest 
numbers of responses. That will tell you what people
are looking for. 

Ken Evoy's e-book, Make Your Knowledge Sell
will help you find a topic with an audience.
http://myks.sitesell.com/

Good luck with your project. 

Your TaxMama-ga