I decided to opt for one of these offers of publication which proved fortuitous because I was immediately teamed up with a highly experienced commissioning editor who taught me how to craft my raw text into what had been concerning me all along: production of a meaningful volume. "Starting Your Own Business" was published in October 1994, sold out of its first edition in December of that year, and was reprinted in January 1995. It has gone from strength to strength ever since and disposals continue to rise year-on-year justifying my plan to earn extra income at home.

I tell you all of this not to impress but to let you in on secret of how my tutorial came into being.

Subsequent success in writing for profit in my spare time prompted me to delve deeply into reasons why my work always seems to be on target. It couldn't all be down to luck. Sure, serendipity stepped in at outset but there had to be more to it than that. I began to evaluate what I was doing right, where I was going wrong on occasion, what I thought I knew ad what I had still to learn from my peers. The result of my painstaking research is "Writing for Profit in Your Spare Time. This creative writing course encapsulates power-packed tried and tested strategies that work for me and other accomplished niche non-fiction authors; strategies that will work just as well for you. When you've done that: sign up for my free newsletter and I'll pass on new tips and techniques as they emerge.

ISN'T IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET PUBLISHED NOWADAYS?

If you're talking fiction, yes, most definitely that is case. But beauty of writing for profit in realms of niche non-fiction is that you avail yourself of facility for accurately pinpointing your marketplace and your publishing options.

CAN YOU REALLY TEST MARKET ONLINE TO GUAGE DEMAND?

Chapter 11 of tutorial reveals not only how you can do this effectively but why you should do it in order to gauge potential demand before you place your work with a traditional publishing house.

CAN YOU REALLY SELL ONLINE?

In Chapter 12 you will discover how one part time author produced an online bestseller that catapulted to #1 spot in Amazon.com within a week of its release. Most authors nowadays create a web site for promotion purposes (I have several and they all produce good business.)

YOU MENTION ADDITIONAL INCOME STREAMS. WHAT ARE THEY?

Read about them in Chapter 13 and start to get excited at prospects.

AM I NOT JUST AS LIKELY TO END UP WITH PILES OF REJECTION SLIPS?

If you go out looking for them you won't be disappointed; you'll get them in abundance. Study and stick with strategies in 'Writing for Profit in Your Spare Time' and you will cut down incidence of rejection slips to a miniscule minimum.

Jim Green is a bestselling author with a string of niche non-fiction titles to his credit including 'Starting Your Own Business' (How To Books ISBN 1-85703-859-2) and 'Starting an Internet Business at Home' (Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8). His tutorial is available at http://www.writing-for-profit.com

How My First Published Work Almost Hit Dump Truck

My first published work (and coincidentally my first bestseller) came about by way of accident. What do I mean by that? Just this: I didn't set out to write a book. I was sitting at home one evening in December 1993 completing a review of meticulous notes I had compiled in lead up to launching a new business. As I closed ring binder and prepared to consign my accumulated data to dump truck I stopped in my tracks. Hey, I thought, there's book in here somewhere, there's an extra income opportunity, there's an opening to make money from writing, there's a way to create a residual income stream, and what's more, I can earn all of this extra income at home.

Busy though I was in early days of my new enterprise I set about my extra income idea by drawing up a plan of action to transcribe recorded research into a how-to or self-help manual for benefit of others about to embark upon what I had just achieved. This inspiration to earn extra income at home could only be accomplished in my spare time (what there was of it) but because material was in both date and chronological order I started out with a valuable edge. How to structure text though, how to convert my expertise into a meaningful volume, how to develop its presentation into a format that would appeal to publishing industry, how in fact to locate a publisher: these were some of my dilemmas in my plan to earn extra income at home.

Five months later I put finishing touches to my first draft and sent copies off to four niche publishing houses (something I've never done since nor would ever do again because it's bad form) and to my astonishment received two offers of intent of interest to pursue project. I appeared to have hit jackpot and I wondered why. It didn't take me long to figure that out. Happily, my text coincided with emergence in early 1990s of world wide government initiatives to stimulate indigenous economic growth by encouraging start-ups in area of small to medium size business enterprises.

I decided to opt for one of these offers of publication which proved fortuitous because I was immediately teamed up with a highly experienced commissioning editor who taught me how to craft my raw text into what had been concerning me all along: production of a meaningful volume. "Starting Your Own Business" was published in October 1994, sold out of its first edition in December of that year, and was reprinted in January 1995. It has gone from strength to strength ever since and disposals continue to rise year-on-year justifying my plan to earn extra income at home.

I tell you all of this not to impress but to let you in on secret of how my tutorial came into being.

Subsequent success in writing for profit in my spare time prompted me to delve deeply into reasons why my work always seems to be on target. It couldn't all be down to luck. Sure, serendipity stepped in at outset but there had to be more to it than that. I began to evaluate what I was doing right, where I was going wrong on occasion, what I thought I knew ad what I had still to learn from my peers. The result of my painstaking research is "Writing for Profit in Your Spare Time. This creative writing course encapsulates power-packed tried and tested strategies that work for me and other accomplished niche non-fiction authors; strategies that will work just as well for you. When you've done that: sign up for my free newsletter and I'll pass on new tips and techniques as they emerge.