On Becoming a Bestseller (3)

You now know why you write (lesson 1). You know the kind of writing you produce by default and your target audience (lesson 2). Let us now determine what your core message is, a key factor in becoming a bestselling author. It is also a key motivation for writing a book in the first place.

Do you know what your core message is? What is the one thing you want to tell your target audience every time you put words on paper? Can you summarise it in one paragraph? One sentence? What about a single word? Until you can state the mission of your writing in precise terms, you are not ready to become a bestselling author. Not having a clear mission will not stop you from writing and producing a book, but whether the book will become a bestseller is doubtful.

It is an extension of the premise that you will only be known for one thing in life. Once you apprehend this "one thing", not only will it reflect in your writing, it will also help you stand out from the multitude of writings out there. Assuming you are to write the one hundred and seventy seven thousand, five hundred and ninety fourth book on prayer (from my amazon.co.uk search), what is going to make it different from its predecessors? That's quite exaggerated, of course, but the point is, the world of books is so condensed, you do not want to enter it ambiguously. You do not want to blend with the crowd and become unnoticeable. By the way, just spending a fortune on promoting an undefined product will not make it a bestseller (somewhere down the line we will come to the subject of promotions; for now, we lay the foundations).

A clearly defined message is the centre point around which everything else revolves. It holds your writing efforts together and gives it substance and direction. It gives it a unique genetic code in the marketplace and multiplies its appeal. Even when you know your purpose in life, spending time on coining a word for it for the writing world will pay off in the end. I am finding this to be true in my writing. Even though I have always known that my purpose is to advance the purposes of God in the Earth and help others find the unique part they have to play in His Kingdom, I finally found a way to translate this into my writing. One word. You guessed it - Well-digging! It goes like this:

• The land represents God's Kingdom
• Everyone is given a portion of the land through promise
• The only way to possess and rule over the land is by digging wells
• Once you succeed in digging a well, your legacy outlasts you for many generations.

Do you think if I title the 177,594th book on prayer, The prayer-life of a Well-digger, it will stand out in the market? (By the way, if you try to publish a book with that title, it will so be unlike you. Everyone will know where you got the idea from!).

I really hope this is clear. It will require a whole workshop session to demonstrate the power of a crystal-clear message AND how to coin your own mission in a word. It's a bit like product branding. A branded product has more chances to do well in the market than an unbranded one. If you want to become a bestseller, you will need to brand yourself and your message.

The lessons continue. Please write your comments, ask questions or make suggestions on how these lessons can be improved. I'm here to serve you!