There’s never been a better time to write a book.

You can write AND SELL your book profitably, because the Amazon Kindle platform makes it possible for you. The gatekeepers have gone.

However, you do need a method.

As I said here, Write AND Sell Your Ebooks With Angela’s No-Fail Ebook Sales Formula:

“Can you profitably write and sell ebooks?

The self-publishing frenzy says that you can. However, you need to know what you’re doing, so that you’re as sure as you can be that your new ebook will SELL before you start writing it.

It took me five years of writing and selling information products before I stumbled over the formula I’ve been using ever since.

Now I’m sharing the formula with you. Once you start the right way, ensuring that you have readers who are ready and eager to BUY before you start writing, it’s easy to make sales.”

All you have to do is start writing. Write — and then sell.

Many authors are wary of posting their material online. You shouldn’t be.

One author had some luck.

This article, Author Found on Penguin’s Web Site Signs Book Deal – NYTimes.com, reports:

“Ace Books, an imprint of Penguin, has signed the debut novelist Kerry Schafer to a two-book deal, only weeks after Ms. Schafer posted writing samples on Bookcountry.com, a Web site Penguin introduced in April that invites writers of genre fiction to share their work.”

There you go.

You’ve created a blurb for your book. You’ve even created an outline. Now comes the writing.

Unfortunately, few things go according to plan. When you’re writing a book, nothing goes according to plan.

Although I know that writing a book’s a chaotic process, that doesn’t mean I like it. I’m always looking for something — anything — which will tame the chaos. Otherwise I know that I can get entangled in thickets for days, if not weeks, trying to find my way back to my original inspiration.

Here’s an idea for planning your novel which I’ve never heard discussed. This post, Taking note: Charles Dickens’ Plan Sheets, describes Charles Dickens’ plan sheets:

“On the right side dealt with the substance of the chapters. Thus he usually wrote on the top right of the sheet the name of the novel and the installment number; below the title he wrote the name of each planned chapter. In the space under each chapter he listed the most important events. The “plan sheets” varied very much, as one might expect. Some plans are very full, some remained rather empty.
“

It’s a simple, paper-based method, which is why it appeals to me. I can write nonfiction books on the computer, but when I’m writing fiction, I always write my first draft using pen and paper. I’ve no idea why this is, but I can’t write my initial draft at the keyboard; when I try I always end up blocked.

What do you think of Dickens’ planning method?

Want an agent? If you do, try not to shoot yourself in the foot.

This post gives you great advice — things you shouldn’t say in your agent query letter. Glass Cases: Stop Helping Yourself. I liked this one:

““My manuscript has been professionally edited.”
The first question that always comes to mind is “by whom?” Your friend who works at the local newspaper? A college writing professor? Your aunt who reads a lot? There are plenty of freelance editors out there whose opinions are professional and whose judgment I would respect as an agent. However, even if you used professional services, there is no reason to say that in your query. It tells me nothing about the quality of your writing or whether I’d be interested in your book. “

Here’s a tip: forget getting an agent until you have an offer from a publisher.

New writers, and professional writers who should know better, think that all you need is an agent, and fame and money await. That’s rarely the case, and in the early stages of your career, an agent can do you more harm than good.

Seth Godin is a marketing genius.

I love these words of wisdom in his blog post, Seth’s Blog: The last hardcover:

“If you’re an author, pick yourself. Don’t wait for a publisher to pick you. And if you work for a big publishing house, think really hard about the economics of starting your own permission-based ebook publisher. Now’s the time.”

Pick Yourself

I hope you’re hard at work writing your book. I also hope that you have books #2, #3 and #4 in the planning stages.

You now have opportunities NO ONE has ever had before, if you want to write a book.

I’m majorly aggravated that I was born too soon. I wish I’d been born around 1990… Ho hum, since I wasn’t, I have to believe in reincarnation, because I LOVE being an author in 2012 with so many opportunities.

So, pick yourself, get published on the Kindle. See where it takes you. Your potential is glorious, but only if you believe in you.

FWIW — I believe in you.