I meet many smart business people who have dreams of becoming the next Malcolm Gladwell or Steve Covey. Figures vary, but here’s a safe number: there are thousands of business books published each year, only a tiny percentage of which will sell more than a thousand copies. Behind these waves of published titles are oceans of proposals and ideas that their owners hope to convert to a book contract and five-star reviews.

Yes, as a former publisher and book editor, I’ve seen these books and proposals come and go. And I understand the desire to be heard. So, if you’re one of those who wants to get a business book published, here are 6 questions to ask yourself.

1.Does your book solve a business problem? Publishers sort business books into categories that roughly encompass different functions in a company: management, leadership, communications, marketing, sales, product development and design, operations, entrepreneurship, and innovation. If yours doesn’t fit into one of those categories, it’ll be harder for you to sell your book and find an audience. As Todd Sattersten and Jack Covert of 800CEORead, noted in their book The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, business books are created and sold to solve problems.

2. Do you have the time and commitment to write a manuscript? This may be obvious, but it is the question you must answer. Whether you plan to write the book alone, or have the resources to hire a ghost writer or editor, the journey to writing a proposal, getting a publisher, and translating your vision into 50, 60, or 70 thousand words will be harder and more time consuming than you expect. You need more than nights and weekends, particularly if you want to have a family, friends, or a significant other when the process is completed. You will be writing to meet the standards and expectations of your editor and publisher, who must approve of the manuscript for it be ultimately published.
3. What books have sold in your subject area, and how well did they do? A few hours of research will uncover a lot of critical facts. Is your expert area over-published, ill-timed, or out of favor? For example, you could have a breakout concept on buying, fixing, and “flipping” houses for profit, but no publisher will touch the proposal until the real estate economy improves. You may have a great treatment for a book on social media marketing; however, major publishers have flooded the market with dozens of these books. Study Amazon, read publishers’ websites, go to your local bookstores, talk to bookstore managers: learn your shelf.
4. Do you have the resources and time to build up a following for your book? Every publisher will want to see your book’s platform–the combination of media and marketing channels over which you have provable access. These are channels that will translate into awareness of the book among key communities, interest in the book, and conversion into purchases. What is your social media profile? Can you deliver large numbers of Twitter follower or readers of your blog? Will your company support your book with client speeches, seminars, and purchases? Do you have a speaking platform? Do you have the credentials and experience to gain the attention of experienced business journalists?
5. What is your “elevator pitch” for this book? One publisher I admire related to me how the nature of online reading and browsing has transformed book marketing from the classic pitching of features and benefits to a memorable killer sentence or two. As you present your proposal to agents, publishers, retailers, consumers, and the media, your title, subtitle, and short pitch need to stick. For more on pitching and positioning books, and a well-packed trunk of everything you need to understand the book industry, I always recommend The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry.
6. Can you devote time (and money) to hawking the book once it’s published? Books face intense competition (attention is a precious resource) for the dollars of your potential readers. You need to sell your book based on a complete business plan: this will include social media, online marketing, speaking, client appearances, press releases, signings, networking, and much more. You should have a budget, and your website should be launched months ahead of publication. Be ready to work with your publisher to drive interest and demand for at least six months after publication. I will discuss successful book marketing in greater depth in future posts.
Have you tried to sell a book of yours to a major publisher? What tips would you add to this list?

Herb Schaffner is president of Schaffner Media Partners, a consultancy specializing in business, finance, and public affairs publishing expertise, and is found on Facebook. He has been a publisher and editor-in-chief at McGraw-Hill, and a senior editor at HarperCollins. Follow him on Twitter (when it’s not distracting).

A few weeks ago, bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk sent 50 Easter baskets to independent booksellers around the country hoping they’d love and then handsell a memoir that was part of the package, The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (Hawthorne Books). Both authors are part of a Portland, Ore., writing group that also includes Chelsea Cain (Evil at Heart), who wrote the introduction to Yukavitch’s book.

When Tattered Cover’s book buyer Cathy Langer returned from vacation two weeks ago, she stumbled upon Palahniuk’s Easter basket (which was really a box) in an enormous pile of stuff. It got her immediate attention–“because it was from Chuck, and because Chuck’s boxes are always packed with interesting things,” she said. The last one he sent, for his most recent novel, included a rubber snake, which graced Langer’s computer for months.

“Then I saw it was a Hawthorne title, and was even happier because they publish wonderful, beautiful books and don’t have the kind of resources that big publishers do that catch buyer’s attention in a loud and silly way,” Langer added.

Touched by Palahniuk’s generosity–and some candy in the box–Langer read the enclosed book, which made her cry. “And I’m not a crier,” she added. For a day she issued a “Chronology of Water challenge” to anyone who came near her office: “Read Chelsea Cain’s intro and read the first page and I defy you not to be utterly hooked.” The challenge worked. Then Langer started e-mailing other booksellers about the book.

Palahniuk’s box also enticed Kelly Estep, manager of Carmichael’s Books in Louisville, Ky., to read The Chronology of Water right away. She, too, is now a devoted handseller of the title. Speaking of Palahniuk, she said, “I think it’s great that he is trying to push people he believes in into the world of independent booksellers who can do something with their books.”

The box undoubtedly helped sell a book that Hawthorne publisher Rhonda Hughes called “not your mother’s memoir.” For one, The Chronology of Water opens with the birth of Yuknavitch’s dead child. Then she delves into her abusive childhood, bisexual promiscuity, drug abuse and many jobs, from fieldhand to stripping. And the cover features a bare nipple–the author’s–but the trade paperback has a tasteful bellyband around it so the book can be placed face-out without offending the easily offendable. Booksellers who have read it agree that The Chronology of Water is powerful and beautifully written–even the tough parts.

The effort is helping: Hawthorne has already shipped its 4,000-copy first printing and has gone back to press. “The indies are just brewing,” said Hughes. Hawthorne is distributed by Publishers Group West.

“The Easter boxes are part of my on-going rebellion against all things electronic,” said Palahniuk. He called them friendly “bombs” sent out to surprise people and make them feel like being in the “Weather Underground/Santa’s Workshop.” He and Yuknavitch packed the Chronology of Water boxes together in Palahniuk’s kitchen, which was all “halogen lights on neon-colored Peeps.”

“A writer feels so helpless once the book is printed,” Palahniuk said. “So introducing the book to booksellers, in a goofy way, beats passively sitting in terror, watching movies and fretting.”

This isn’t Palahniuk’s first effort on behalf of another author. In 2007, he aggressively helped promote another Hawthorne title, Clown Girl by Monica Drake (who is also part of that Portland writers group). Drake introduced her publisher to Yuknavitch.

Aside from teaching writing, Yuknavitch runs Chiasmus, a publishing, film and arts company, with her husband. She was one of the writers who created the collaborative novel Caverns in Ken Kesey’s graduate writing class at the University of Oregon; it was published by Viking in 1990.–Bridget Kinsella