Information For Authors...
Why don't they pave the road to success?
From the time you first have a concept for creating your material until it appears in the hands of your readers or the ears of your listeners requires months and years. It involves not only you, the author, but also the efforts of many others, from publisher to publicist, from bookbinder to bookseller. As you move from one task to the next there is always the question of what to do next. Frequently, you need to be doing several things at once. And often the nagging doubt appears, "What am I forgetting that I need to be doing now?"
Diva Developer System will help you create a successful, workable plan that establishes the most direct path to that day when you hold your finished book in your hands secure in the knowledge that an audience of interested readers are anxiously waiting to read it. And just as important, we will show you how to constantly monitor and adjust your plan as you progress towards completion. Our experience will greatly reduce the stress and the worrying, the costs and delays and most of all, help you be truly successful in your writing career.
"You mean I have to sell my own book?"
It comes as a surprise to most writers when they discover, at the conclusion of the lengthy, arduous process of writing their book, that they are only half done. For many, this is where the hard part begins. While the writer is usually an expert in the field they are writing about, they are seldom experienced in the business of marketing and selling their book. Many assume this is the task of the publisher. Unfortunately, this is seldom true today.
The success of most books is entirely due to the business acumen and marketing savvy of the writer and the team the writer must use to create actual book sales. This is an area glossed over in most books about becoming a writer and in most materials you will receive from publishers, especially in the newer fields of self-publishing, print-on-demand and e-publishing. Whether you will be considered at all by a traditional publisher may be entirely dependent on your plans for marketing your book.
Sign in bookstore "Sale - Recent Titles - $3.00-$5.00 Each"
Those stacks of recently published books found heavily discounted at tables and racks in bookstores, those unseen cartons piled in warehouses or garages and basements, all provide silent testimony against promising book titles that weren't properly marketed by their hopeful writers. You must be certain that your plan includes all the necessary steps needed for marketing and sales success. This is an especially critical area where solid professional help is crucial. We will show you how you can avoid this painful problem.
Buying your book versus the other guy's
Diva Developer will teach you how to view your book from the standpoint of the intended reader:
"Does this subject appeal to me?"
- "Why should I be interested in this book?"
- "Should I pick it up and look at it?"
- "Does this captivate me right away?"
- "Should I plan on buying this book?"
- "Should I buy it now?"
Your intended reader must say "Yes" to each of these six questions in order to carry it to the checkout counter and pay for it. How you get these six positive responses is critical to your success as an author. We will recommend how to position your book for maximum sales. Books are misclassified with surprising frequency at the wholesale and retail levels with the result that your book will never find its intended audience. We will help you make the right decisions on the title, sub-title and book cover.
The first one or two pages of your book must reach out and grab your reader right from the first sentence onward. We'll help increase the temperature of the critical opening of your book so it boils over in the reader's mind. We want your book to be read cover to cover, not to be put down when it bogs down.
"I'd like to write in a cottage overlooking the sea."
Every writer's dream is to receive that big advance check from that famous New York publishing house and then go
somewhere peaceful and quiet to address the business of finishing your perfect book. Meanwhile, in the real world...........
Most of the issues you will face are the ones that they don't tell you about. Traditional publishers may reject your book 
– they won't tell you how to get to "yes". They won't tell you how long it will be until you get paid, that books aren't "sold" to bookstores but are on a type of consignment where the bookseller can return them at any time or pay for them at their leisure. They won't tell you that promotional expenses are on your nickel – that they come out of any royalties your book earns – well before you are paid.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."
Print-for-hire publishers aiming at the self-published market won't tell you about their huge warehouses stacked with cartons of unsold books, fully paid for by their authors, 
who now face regular storage charges for their keep. In efforts to win your business they ignore the essential marketing process or offer canned, watered-down sales techniques that create minimal results.
Print-On-Demand will appeal to some writers due to minimal effort and minimal up-front expense. Once again, critical marketing issues are ignored or played down. But the real hidden truth is that this method only works as long as you, the writer, create all the sales – at full retail. This method of publishing essentially will eliminate your hopes of being able to sell through distributors or booksellers. The per copy printing costs prohibit any large number of book sales through normal wholesale/retail channels.
E-Publishing is a great way to give away articles and information, but not currently a viable way to sell your full length book, unless you have an already established name that people seek out or a heavily visited website, where you can sell reports.
Diva Developer offers 50 years of experience in the printing and publishing fields. We will provide you with information so you can find the best solution for your individual circumstances and for the market you will be positioned to capture. We will teach you how make the decisions that make sense for you, your book and your life as a writer.
And when it comes time to sign the all-important contracts that will determine the publishing pathway for your book, you will be able to review the contracts and negotiate the terms you need to breathe life into your new book.
