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How To Write Thought Leader Books And Articles Like Ray Bradbury

This article is more than 4 years old.

A client recently contacted me about some of his books that contained a big mistake. Thanks to Print on Demand publishing there was not a huge print run. But he had twenty books to dispose of and he did not want them to fall into people’s hands. “What should I do?” he asked.

Another author had a worse problem. He had cases of books that he self-published and the word foreword on the cover was spelled forward. “What should I do?” he asked.

My reply to both: “Fahrenheit 451.”

As Ray Bradbury began the book, “It was a pleasure to burn.” The title of the sci-fi masterpiece Fahrenheit 451 refers to the temperature that books burn.

Enough about destroying books. What about creating them? I once interviewed Bradbury about how he came to write that book. He told me he rented a typewriter for ten cents per half hour in a library basement at UCLA and plowed away for a week with a bag of dimes. He had to spend $9.80.

That book launched Bradbury as a sci-fi thought leader. I loved to hear him speak about science and writing.

So you want to be a thought leader? Most consultants and business leaders overthink their books and articles. Just carve out some time and do it. If you don’t have a week, try half a day every week for three months. But unlike Bradbury, don’t do it alone. Get a structural/development editor to help you create a blueprint and give you feedback.

Writing is a team sport. Sure, Bradbury did it alone, but chances are you don’t have his raw talent. A structural/developmental editor is your teammate that focuses on structure and content. You want an editor that looks at articles and a book with a more critical eye. Like a copy editor these editors do fix errors in grammar and spelling, but mainly they look for structural problems. In other words, things that make the reader say “huh?”

A good structural/developmental editor will comment on more complex structural issues, suggesting that an author delete or add sections, combine thoughts or expand on a point made. They help co-create the article or book.

Book publishers will sometimes hire more than one editor to review a manuscript. If you are self-publishing a book, you will definitely need to budget to hire at least one editor. Some editors will also do minor rewrites, if needed, but that usually brings a higher price tag. For a business book of around 20,000 words, a structural/developmental editor usually charges $4,000 to $8,000, depending on how much work is needed.

Don’t confuse a structural/developmental editor with a proofreader. A proofreader, or line editor, reads over a completed manuscript to make sure there are no errors. They are looking for typos, grammatical issues, and goofs. They are far less detailed than an editor. Hiring a proofreader is often the final step in the article or book writing process, right before you submit for publication. Typically, you’d hire both an editor and a proofreader. Their fee can typically range from $4 to $8 per page, about $500 to $1,000 for a 20,000-word book.

Trust me, Bradbury had editors and proofreaders that made his works better.