You can become famous as an author. Many of us have great ideas we want to share with others. Why not make some pocket money by selling such ideas through a book? This article provides some tips on how to get started as an author.

AFTER PUTTING down a good book, many of us wished that we were the author of the bestseller and live the rest of our lives off the royalties from the book. Others vow that they will publish the spiced-up story of their life when they have taken out the Central Provident Fund savings.
      It is an excellent idea to share your experiences with readers and add them to the pages of history. But getting a manuscript published is more complex than you think.
      Many uninitiated authors spend years on the manuscript and when it is finally completed, they spend more years hunting for a publisher. This process may lead to heartache, as the rejection letters from local publishers are as common as weeds in the garden. There are very few publishers in Singapore who are prepared to take a risk with a tenderfoot author. There are hundreds of publishers in the United States but many there prefer to deal with literary agents.
      A good approach is to draft a convincing book proposal and sell the idea to a publisher. In this way, you need not spend time and effort completing the manuscript if no publisher is interested in your book.
 The nine parts of a good book proposal are:
•  Cover
•  Title page
•  Brief synopsis or executive summary
•  Contents page
•  Book description
•  Author profile
•  Book contents and specifications
•  Chapter summaries, and
•  Sample chapter.

Book Proposal
Cover: Invest in a good design to illustrate the selling points of your proposal.
Title Page: Choose an attractive title and subtitle. This page should include the
author's name and contact.
Synopsis: This should be about 1.5 pages long. Written like the back co-ver copy, it should stimulate the editor to read your proposal.
Contents Page: The page numbers help the reader to go directly to sections of the proposal that interest him.
Book Description: Should be about three to seven pages long. It positions your book in the market by answering these questions:
      Who will buy it?
      What other books has the audience bought in the past?
      Why will the audience buy your book instead of the competitors' books?
      Start with a captivating introduction. Compare and contrast your book to other successful titles you have seen in the bookshops. Stress the need for the book and its benefits, as well as the problems and solutions your book addresses and solves. Use statistics to support your arguments.
Author Profile: One or two pages. Do not include an academic vitae, instead write it more like a press release that makes you sound promotable, presentable, and knowledgeable. Include past titles if possible. Avoid boasting but this section is very important to the acquisition editor, for example, you can't write a saleable zoology book if you have no expertise in the area.
Book Contents and Specifications: One-page overview of the book lists chapter titles only. Specifications include manuscript length in number of words, format (colour printing, hardcover, quality paperback, or mass market paperback), and anticipated delivery date.
Chapter Summaries: Use bulleted lists to highlight the chapter's strong points. If your book has more than 10 chapters, try to keep the summary of each to one page only.
Sample Chapter: Pick your strongest chapter where you can display your writing talent. Besides your profile, this sample writing is proof of your writing skills to the editor. If he finds that your writing has many spelling and grammar mistakes, and worse still, there are many errors of fact, your proposal will be rejected without much apology.

Publishing Contract
      When you receive the good news from the editor, the next step is to sign the publishing contract. Generally, the author's agreement with the publisher covers the following questions:
      When the author shall deliver his manuscript
      What he must supply in addition (illustrations, appendix, index and so on), the amount of alterations he is allowed to make without charge after the manuscript has been typeset.
      The contract also outlines the publisher's obligations:
•  When the books will be published
•  When the royalty will be paid
•  Copies to be printed
•  Approximate price.
      The agreement contains conditions for the sale of the secondary rights. These include rights for translations, sale to foreign markets, sale of serial rights to magazines and newspapers, sale of the publication to book clubs, cheap editions, and film and television rights.
      From this point on, the editor will hold the author's hands to guide him about how to make the book a bestseller. He will give tips on:
1.  Approximate size of the book; how to estimate the number of manufacturing pages
     to enable author to stay within the boundaries agreed upon
2.  Preparation of manuscript: Typing, housestyle, and other points
3.  Schedule for completion of manuscript
4.  Methods of gathering and preparing illustrations
5.  Organisation of book for maximum usefulness to users
6.  Contractual matters such as royalties; allowable corrections in proof; obligation to
     prepare manuals and revisions; permissions and copyright; and assignment of
     contract, and
7.  Preparation of correlated and supplemental materials such as teachers' editions,
     transparencies or Powerpoint teaching slides; and tests if it is a textbook.

Self Publishing
      For authors who have a completed manuscript in hand but no publisher, all is not lost. With the help of someone with publishing knowledge, you can be your own publisher. If it is a black and white book, the typesetting, printing, and binding cost will not be unaffordable.
      A small investment of about $2,000 will allow you to print about 500 copies of a 180-page book. The main problem is finding a distributor for the title. Book distributors may charge up to 45 per cent of the published price for their service which leaves the author with little profit except his pride.
      Alternatively, he could sell the book via his Web site and through direct mail but he should register a company in order to start this business.
      Best of luck to those who want to be a Dan Brown or JK Rowling one day.