I find it strange to see so many people that have a black or white view of the world, especially when it comes to writing.
There are those that write a book or write for themselves purely for the self-indulgent feeling of having written something – not even knowing if that writing will earn a dime for them. Pure writing typically starts with an idea you have floating around in your head and ends with a finished manuscript, ebook or self-published book that languishes on a shelf or inside your hard drive.
On the other hand, you have the business opportunity mentality of internet marketers and the work at home crowd that looks to book writing as a pure profit play – basically willing to write about anything so long as it makes them money. Once again, these projects often end in failure since the liklihood of someone writing "just for the money" connecting with their audience is very slim.
I, as much as any of you reading this, hate to always fall into the middle of an argument. Sometimes it just smacks of not being able to take a stand, of being wishy washy on key issues.
Well, here I go, about to be as wishy washy as it gets – but for good reason.
I have written top selling training programs, ebooks and self-published books and have coached dozens of others to do the same – in every case the "grey zone" is where writers and non-writers have achieved the most success and happiness.
In fact, the system works so well I teach it (along with a complete system for selling your ebooks and books online) at InfoMarketer’sZone.
The formula goes something like this….
1. You start with a subject and perhaps even an idea or topic in mind to cover in their book or ebook.
2. Before jumping ahead, you take time to examine your market – both demand and existing books and ebooks. In fact, you can even going so far as to test reports, articles, content-based websites or blogs in some cases, to validate the topics that touch the rawest of nerves – a factor necessary to guage the level of desire and demand for your book
3. A willingness to take their information and ideas and tailor them to the desire within a marketplace without compromising their passion, interest or feelings on a particular topic.
There you have the perfect definition of the "grey zone" in writing.
Here’s an interesting blog posting from an aspiring writer that summarizes the "grey zone" for writers exceptionally well. In this case, the author wrote strictly for her own passion and goals and now writes about the decisions that lay in front of her about how to commercialize the material.
As you read the blog posting, one can’t help but wonder, what if she had taken her topic in the beginning and tested it for demand – perhaps she would have been able to combine her passion and achievement in writing with a stronger commercial position and been able to have both love for her project and money (Not to say she won’t get there anyway)?
You really can have both a love and desire for your topic AND the money – but it must be something you plan for first and not after you have spent weeks or months crafting the perfect manuscript or book.
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