Curious About How to Write a Book?

Oh joy of tequila and neck strain–I’m writing my second book. Many people have asked me how to go about writing a book, and it’s a great question with answers that are changing almost daily. After sitting down with dozens of potential authors, I decided to share some things about writing a book that I never heard before jumping in the first time…and I wish that I had. If you’re considering writing your book, maybe this will save you some time, money and frustration.

Here is my unusual and maybe even important advice for how to write a book.

Start with Why…Not.

Ask yourself,

“Self, why would you not write a book?”

No interest.

Yeah? Then you must really be procrastinating if you’re reading this blog post.

Can’t write.

You can’t write or you can’t write well? If you can’t write, hire a ghostwriter. If you can’t write well, start by taking a class.  I could be wrong, but it may be more important to find good readers and to become a good writer than to spend equal time trying to become a great writer. Being a great writer is overrated when you consider how long it takes many great writers to be considered great.

Don’t know where to start.

Start by finishing this statement: I want to write a book about ____________ because ___________. There, you’ve started.

Don’t know what success would look like.

Best reason yet. How did you fill out that statement (above)? If you satisfied that statement, would you consider that a wee bit successful? Do you want to create or augment a business, become rich, be heard, be helpful, leave a legacy, tell a story, educate, become famous…or infamous? You gotta understand why you want to write your book in order to ever understand what success might look like.

Don’t know if I’d be successful.

Identifying who you don’t intend your audience to be, will help you understand how to interpret feedback in a way that can light your way to success. For example, if you receive feedback from your non-audience that they don’t like your book concept (nay-sayers), you can ignore that feedback. If you receive feedback from your non-audience that they love your book concept (yay-sayers), you can appreciate them. If you receive feedback from your audience  that they don’t like your book concept (different nay-sayers), you know to listen to that feedback, re-assess, and make necessary changes. If you receive feedback from your audience that they love your book concept (different yay-sayers), you know where you’re golden.

If you’re not careful, success is something you can ignore away.

What to write with?

Okay, you’re probably not going to use a number 2 pencil or fine-point sharpie, but those were good enough for JK Rowling so, whatever. I used Microsoft Word, and as I wrote I moved my random ideas to the bottom of the document where I could later dig them up to be used or discarded. There are many special software programs for writers, but I had enough to learn without adding new software to the mix. I also turned on tracking changes for later drafts and periodically sent myself email copies of the manuscript for saving and copyrighting purposes. I have no clue if that’s legally protective, but I may have read it somewhere.

Deciding what you will write with will lead you to…

When to write?

It is often suggested that writers should set a specific time and a specific number of words to write each day. Some even go so far as to suggest that if you are having trouble writing good stuff, it is important just to write…even if it’s junk. I found that I never set out to write junk just to write junk, but often the glorious gems I did write were not worthy of being respected in the morning.

Pick a number of words you’ll write each day and a specific time you’ll write them. Or…go away by yourself for a week and get cranking. Once you have a good chunk to motivate yourself, then get bossy about the time and output you expect of yourself.

Which leads to…

Where to write?

I read somewhere that the best writers pick a spot that is their own special writing spot. Your special spot is supposed to be distinctly different from where you do the other stuff that you do. I tried that but I got antsy. I moved around for inspiration. Maybe that means I am not among the best writers; maybe it means something else.

Also, I can’t blame my family for disrupting my potentially special spot because asking them not to interrupt me didn’t seem fair when two seconds later I was asking for their input.

I think the key is to find an inspiring spot for your writing mood o’ the moment. So choose your special spot….or move around for inspiration.

What is a book anymore?

There are e-books that are 5-pages long and e-books that are versions of big, fat books. There are e-books that you can write in Word and save as a pdf on your computer, and other e-books that have to be formatted for Kindles or other electronic reading devices. You can learn how to do this yourself or hire a book designer and formatter so your book looks good on each device. There are also many services that can help. Know that you have many options and it is not a one-size-fits-all thing.

As far as print books, you can go to a traditional book printer or broker or use a digital printer or print-on-demand service. There are even printing machines where you can print out your book right on the spot at a bookstore. There are an amazing number of book printing companies and services. Amazon even provides fairly easy ways to create an audio book out of your book. These options are increasingly industry changing and disrupting, and you should investigate these options as part of your decision to aim for self-publishing, traditional publishing, or a hybrid model (like me).

Here are some word counts that may help you with what’s what:

10,000 words is a white paper or pamphlet

20,000 words is a short book (e-book or print)

35,000-50,000 words is a typical non-fiction book (if there’s still such a thing as typical)

60,000-70,000 words is a long non-fiction book

80,000-100,000 words is novel length

100,000+ words is…damn, that’s long

You can produce a small e-book to send out as a way to gather feedback for your bigger book project or you can jump right in and write the big book with print versions, e-versions, and audio versions. Whether you want to produce a short e-book or a large print book or explore versions and combinations of different formats, all depends on why you are writing the book in the first place. If this is of interest to you, hit me up in the comments because there are huge opportunities that I wish I had known about and I’m happy to share what I now know and a lot of what I still don’t know.

Just a few of the additional things I wish I had known.

Many months before you start your book, finding and interacting with your target audience (online and in-person) is critical. This will help you build your platform, it will reveal what problems your audience has that you can solve, and it will shed light on their interests so you can write accordingly. If you don’t want to put yourself out there, you can remain a best-kept secret…right along with your book.

Your title should be curiosity provoking. Your subtitle should be explanatory. With my first book, Arousing the Buy Curious, the title provoked curiosity. The subtitle, Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals, was confusing. I should have used strangers for focus group testing subtitles so I wasn’t tarnishing the result by seeking feedback from friends and people who know me.

Whether you are traditionally published, self-published or go the hybrid route, you will need to promote the heck out of your book. This requires a delicate balance between keeping your friends and social media connections informed and excited, and annoying the hell out of them.

In case you’re curious…

….My next book is about curiosity.

 

 

 

 

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