publishing an non-fiction book or business manual

[globetrotter]

I have been giving a lot of thought, for a while, to publishing a guidebook to what I know. very very few people really know how to do my job well, but almost every company needs somebody to do it. most people who do it do it for way too short a time to get enough experience to do it well. I am constantly running into people who have my job with other companies, who are clueless.

aside from knowing my job, I can document, pretty well, that I know my job.

so, how would I go about getting a book deal? practically? I know that a lot of you have written books or work in publishing.

any and all input and advice would be highly appreciated.

 

[Valor]

Ask Manton?

 

[Alter]

No advice but...when you mentioned the presidential award my first thought was that you should write a book. Hope it all works out...certainly I will be buying a copy.

 

[Don Carlos]

You've been very coy about this for a long time now, but what in blazes is this job of yours? Are you an assassin or something? You speak of your job as if it's some top-secret duty handed down through 25 generations of ancient ninja masters.

 

[Eason]

gb is does medical equipment sales iirc

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Don Carlos

You've been very coy about this for a long time now, but what in blazes is this job of yours? Are you an assassin or something? You speak of your job as if it's some top-secret duty handed down through 25 generations of ancient ninja masters.

no secret, I do international sales of hospital equipment. what I am thinking about is a guide to international sales, set up as a manual that would walk a company through the first 3 years of going global, with options for different levels of possible investment, and various tools that can be used for making decisions, building plans and developing training for sales people.

thanks, Alter. I have been thinking about this for a while, I keep meeting people in my position who are really clueless, its not uncommon for this position to be given to people as a reward for doing well at a totally unrelated job - a lot of people get this job because they were a really good domestic regional manager, and then are moved out of the job before they can actually get good at it.

 

[Saltricks]

Write it, and ill buy a few copies for my company. Thanks.

 

[mordecai]

Sounds boring as **** compared to what I'd rather see from you, which is an autobiography. I'm okay with you mixing some advice and lessons in a la McNamara or Wooden or something.

 

[NorCal]

I might try contacting a literary agent. Or even just find a publishing house that does work in this area and try giving them a call.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by mordecai

Sounds boring as **** compared to what I'd rather see from you, which is an autobiography. I'm okay with you mixing some advice and lessons in a la McNamara or Wooden or something.

thanks, that would be a pretty short, dull book.

 

[imatlas]

Originally Posted by Saltricks

Write it, and ill buy a few copies for my company. Thanks.

This. We're 6 months into a global expansion and it's already stumbling.

 

[mordecai]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

thanks, that would be a pretty short, dull book.

I'll bet I could ghost write an amazing one out of your posts here.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by mordecai

I'll bet I could ghost write an amazing one out of your posts here.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by imatlas

This. We're 6 months into a global expansion and it's already stumbling.

hmmm. another market research question - if I offered a 4 weekend workshops over the course of a year that covered the A-Z planning global expansion would that be something that your company would be interested in? I envision something that would be workshops with no more than 10 people each, 20 hours of intense work that would involve discussing how to plan and then working on plans.

what I am sort of thinking about is writing a book and then having seminars and/or workshops to support the book. I actually have the time within my work to do this - maybe as many as 8 weekends a year if I wanted to.

 

[yerfdog]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

hmmm. another market research question - if I offered a 4 weekend workshops over the course of a year that covered the A-Z planning global expansion would that be something that your company would be interested in? I envision something that would be workshops with no more than 10 people each, 20 hours of intense work that would involve discussing how to plan and then working on plans.

what I am sort of thinking about is writing a book and then having seminars and/or workshops to support the book. I actually have the time within my work to do this - maybe as many as 8 weekends a year if I wanted to.

I think from a money perspective, it would actually be the other way around. Write the book and get your name out as an expert practitioner of your area of business. A book like that won't be a best-seller since it's so niche, but it will put your name out there and you will be able to say you literally wrote the book on international sales of capital goods. The weekend workshops, on the other hand, you can charge a lot for, or at least you should be able to once you get your name out.