Growing at the Speed of Failure
How to Write Your Book: 5 Lessons Learned (part 1)
Over the course of the last 10 months I wrote a book titled, Don’t Own Don’t Rent Live Well – How to be DEBT FREE, Build Your Nest Egg & Live Life on Your Own Terms. About seven and a half of those months were writing – the rest was the editing, rewriting, cover art, front matter, marketing pieces, etc.
Today, the accumulation of the efforts of researching, writing, editing… and editing… and editing the book finally came to a conclusion of sorts. I arrived home this evening and found a package sitting on my doorstep. It was from the publisher. I brought it inside and recorded this quick video.
It was very exciting to see bound on paper what just a few weeks ago were mere thoughts floating around in my mind. I was relieved to see that it looked great. Though there is a relief of weight for an author when he sees his book in finished form in his hands, there is also another weight that is added. The second thought that came in my mind was, “My words are out there; I can’t pull them down like a poorly-written blog post.”
This evening I started reading the book and it’s actually pretty good. I hadn’t written anything in it for about a month now and it
was nice reading it again as if for the first time. Overall, I enjoyed writing the book. I did write every word of it myself, something I may not do in my next book.
The toughest part writing the book was not figuring out what to say, rather it was writing every day knowing I wasn’t getting paid to write it other than whatever effort I take marketing it after it is printed and in stores a year after starting. So, when friends ask you for a free book, they usually don’t realize that you may have taken a better part of a year or more – literally risking hundreds and hundreds of hours on a dream to have a book published. I’m fortunate enough to no longer say, “I’d like to write a book someday” – Today; I actually held it in my hand.
With hundreds of thousands of books released every year, there is no guarantee that a book will bring the author much in the form of an income. A writer has to not just write a good book, they have to be a great marketer as well. Holding the book in your hand is not the end of the process, it is the mere beginning of the marketing of the book.
Out of this process I have gained an insight into the publishing world as well as the life of a writer and the process that makes a book a reality. Here are five things I have learned that I wish I knew about writing a non-fiction book and how I would recommend people take into consideration before taking on the task of becoming a published non-fiction author.
- Work out a brilliant outline. Since I am dyslexic, I work out of order in just about everything I do. It is not out of laziness exactly, I do things differently in search of the best way to do things. So I started my book in the middle and filled in the gaps and worked forward and backward. I do the same thing with songwriting- starting with the hook and build a song around it.Take the time to outline the entire book to the best of your ability. Interview people who speak or write in the field you are writing in to see what they think. This step will probably save you a lot of time and may give you better insight into what the industry is lacking. Also, run your ideas past the demographic of people you want to write for. Do they understand or even care about your ideas? Know their hang-ups before you start and you will negate frustration months down the road.
- Write a sample chapter or blog your book out. Get feedback on style and substance. Are you making a connection with your prospective reader? A blog format will be a great avenue for you to get feedback on every individual idea you will later collect into your book. There are even services that will take your edited blog and print it later on.(continued tomorrow)
