Write and Publish a Book

I wrote and published my first book in 2001. Even though the book is only around 100 pages it took me nearly 6 years to write. There are a couple of reasons it took me so long to write my first book. First, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I did not know how to organize my thoughts I just knew I enjoyed writing. Second, my book was a result of a personal process of healing I went through and it took some time to connect all the pieces. What I learned is that there are several ways to put a book together. The main thing is to be organized with presenting your information.

Organizing Your Book

I chose to organize and write my book in the following way. I chose a main topic and divided that topic into sub topics. My first book was a self help book so I broke it down into steps. The topic was how to achieve balance so I offered several steps to achieve a balanced life and gave each step a chapter of its own. For me this was the simplest way to write the book. At the end of each chapter I added questions for the reader to answer and left room to write notes to make the book interactive.

When organizing a how to or self help type of book it’s helpful to lead with the most important step first and then list each step from greatest to least important. To get my book started I just began to write notes in a notebook and adding to it as thoughts came to me. Then I started to sort through all of my notes and gather them into categories that became steps and then became a book. This way worked for me but another way may work better for you. I have heard that some people are good at creating outlines that list main points and sub points and then they are able to write their books from that.

Another way is to use clustering. When using this method you would write down a main idea and circle it. Then you would draw a line from that circle and write down another idea that related to the main idea and circle it. Then you would continue to create other circles with information in them until you have fleshed out all your ideas. And from this you would write your book.

Choose your Audience

One thing you need to think of is who you want to write your book to. Who is your audience? Also ask yourself why you want to write your book. What do you want to accomplish? How long will your book be? Why are you qualified to write your book? How will you market your book?

Publishing your Book

If you chose to self publish you will need to have the funds to invest. And you will need to have a solid marketing plan. I used a print on demand publisher called 1st Book Library. Basically, they only print the books when someone places an order for them. This keeps the cost down.

If your idea is popular enough you can sell it to a publisher who will market your book for you and pay you nicely for it. That is the kind of deal you want. Of course then you will have to deal with an editor who may interfere with your original vision of the book. To some people this is not something they want to deal with so self publishing is the only option.

Writer's Market

The Writer's Market is a must have and a valuable resource for writer’s who want to locate publishers and agents. Some publishers won’t even deal with you without an agent so you may need to start there. For nonfiction books you will usually be required to submit a query—which is a summary and basic outline of your book with information on how your book can be marketable—basically a sales pitch to a potential publisher or agent. For a fiction book you will need to have the book fully written. The Writer's Market tells you what the publishers are looking for and how you will need to submit your work.

Ebooks

Another option to publish your book is as an ebook. Ebooks are very popular now because people can publish them on their own computer and sell them online. The cost to publish an ebook is inexpensive. Ebooks can be marketed through a blog or on a website and can be marketed through affiliate marketing to increase visibility.