Marketing Your Best Seller 77 Write a WOW Business Plan Before you begin writing a business plan, check out the competition. I interviewed 101 best- selling authors and asked them exactly how they approached marketing in the writing business. I interviewed both 昀椀ction and non- 昀椀ction authors, including M. Scott Peck, Wayne Dyer, Wally “Famous” Amos, John Gray, Ken Blanchard, Spen- cer Johnson, Wyland, Og Mandino, Zig Ziglar, Cavett Rob- ert, Je昀昀 Lant, Jean Houston, Barbara De Angelis, Deepak Chopra, Clive Cussler, Nora Roberts, and R. Buckminster Fuller. We copied their individual answers, condensed them onto little yellow Post- Its. Ultimately had 1,094 Post- Its on the wall of Jack’s o昀케ce in Culver City, Cali- fornia. We kept adjusting and moving them until they emerged as a WOW OF A BOOK BUSINESS PLAN. Try something like that yourself! In the book business, there’s a specialized document called a book proposal. I prefer to call it a business plan, because remember: you’re not just writing a book, you’re going into the book business! 吀栀is is the 昀椀rst document that you will show to an agent, if you try to acquire one. It’s also the 昀椀rst material pertaining to your book that an acquisi- tions editor will see. So it has to be a WOW both in terms of what it says, and in the professionalism it displays. It has to be eye- catching, original, di昀昀erent, interesting,