For those of you who have published a few books already, you might want to skip to the next article. If you are working on your first or second book, you’ll want to read on. Whether you are planning to sell thousands of copies or none, the basics are the same.

The road to publishing success is not paved in gold. No one can guarantee a smooth ride. In fact, there are often obstacles and detours along the way. When you become serious about finally producing the book of your dreams, you envision hordes of people flocking to major bookstores and purchasing copies for everyone they know. You start practicing your acceptance speeches for the many awards your book will receive. And you picture yourself traveling from place to place throughout the world signing books for thousands of adoring fans.

Industry reports and publications have cited sluggish book sales over the past year showing a continuous decline month after month. Book retailers have been shutting their doors due to the lack of sufficient business. Publishing houses have tightened the reigns on their finances and as a result some have become more reluctant to offer deals in record numbers as they have in recent years.

As we move into the new year most of us are setting our goals for 2008. That is good, because firm objectives provide a target at which to aim, the standard against which you can gauge your relative success. And written goals provide a means for looking back to see how far you have come. If all these benefits of setting goals are true, how can goals be of no value? Goal setting is a tool, and like any other tool it is useless if used incorrectly.

What is a bulldozer book? It’s one designed to change minds. The author’s intent is to push his or her opinions or beliefs onto the reader. He hopes to influence people to change a habit, make new choices, adjust an aspect of their lives.

More people today than ever before are becoming authors. Unfortunately, most of them fail in their quest for success. According to a Jenkins Group survey, seventy percent of books published in this country do not make a profit. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) backs this up. Their statistics show that in 2004, over seventy-six percent of all titles sold fewer than 100 copies. Why are so many authors failing?

A blurb is the book description you find on the back of a book or online to describe a book’s contents. Most run several paragraphs, but some publishers want them shorter or in a special format so be sure to check with your publisher’s guidelines before you begin work.