CREATING
Get Started Writing Your Book!
5 Must Do's to get you going
1 – Figure out what you want to write about. This sounds very easy, but it’s not. You need to figure out what book YOU were meant to write. The book that no one else could write. Four years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on YouTube. Remember this was 2008, and there were very few social media books at the time. I was really excited at the prospect of having my own book for about 5 mins, till I realized that I wasn’t really interested in writing a book about marketing on YouTube. And I also didn’t want to tour the country speaking on the topic. I was pitched on a couple of other book ideas over the next couple of years, but I finally decided that 7 Keys of a Queen was the only book I wanted to write.
2 – Figure out why your book is unique and fills a market need. Once you figure out the topic of your book, you’re then going to realize that your book’s already been written several times. You need to figure out what you bring to the table that hasn’t been discussed before. The point is, you’ll need to figure out what your ‘hook’ is. What are you going to bring to the table that’s unique, but that will still have value for your readers?
3 – Find 3-5 books that you think are similar to your idea. For each book, you need to explain what your book offers that the competing title misses. And try your best to pick newer titles. If you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books that were all written in the mid 1990s, that tells the publisher that your idea is dead, otherwise someone would have written about it in the past 15 years!
4 – You need to create an outline and table of contents for your book. This is where it starts to get serious, and we find out if you really want to write a book, or if you are just toying with the idea. This will be a lot of work, but you’ll have to show this to a potential publisher, plus it will make the writing process much easier once you have a game plan to follow. It will also be incredibly beneficial to you because it will force you to flesh out your idea into several chapters, which will help you better structure your book’s message.
5 – Write the first 1-3 chapters. This is another good test to prepare you for the process. If you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1-3 solidly-written chapters, you’re making an excellent case for why your book needs to be published. And writing those chapters will give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book. For example, if it takes you 3 months to write the first chapter, that could be a big red flag.
Granted, writing a book is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work and, most of all, perseverance. But that’s where we can help.
To Your Success,
MG
Get Started Writing Your Book!
5 Must Do's to get you going
1 – Figure out what you want to write about. This sounds very easy, but it’s not. You need to figure out what book YOU were meant to write. The book that no one else could write. Four years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book on marketing on YouTube. Remember this was 2008, and there were very few social media books at the time. I was really excited at the prospect of having my own book for about 5 mins, till I realized that I wasn’t really interested in writing a book about marketing on YouTube. And I also didn’t want to tour the country speaking on the topic. I was pitched on a couple of other book ideas over the next couple of years, but I finally decided that 7 Keys of a Queen was the only book I wanted to write.
2 – Figure out why your book is unique and fills a market need. Once you figure out the topic of your book, you’re then going to realize that your book’s already been written several times. You need to figure out what you bring to the table that hasn’t been discussed before. The point is, you’ll need to figure out what your ‘hook’ is. What are you going to bring to the table that’s unique, but that will still have value for your readers?
3 – Find 3-5 books that you think are similar to your idea. For each book, you need to explain what your book offers that the competing title misses. And try your best to pick newer titles. If you propose that your book idea will be competing against 5 books that were all written in the mid 1990s, that tells the publisher that your idea is dead, otherwise someone would have written about it in the past 15 years!
4 – You need to create an outline and table of contents for your book. This is where it starts to get serious, and we find out if you really want to write a book, or if you are just toying with the idea. This will be a lot of work, but you’ll have to show this to a potential publisher, plus it will make the writing process much easier once you have a game plan to follow. It will also be incredibly beneficial to you because it will force you to flesh out your idea into several chapters, which will help you better structure your book’s message.
5 – Write the first 1-3 chapters. This is another good test to prepare you for the process. If you can hand a publisher a solid proposal for the book that includes 1-3 solidly-written chapters, you’re making an excellent case for why your book needs to be published. And writing those chapters will give you a great idea of how long it will take you to write the entire book. For example, if it takes you 3 months to write the first chapter, that could be a big red flag.
Granted, writing a book is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work and, most of all, perseverance. But that’s where we can help.
To Your Success,
MG
 | Purpose Publishing will be attending the Just Say Yes event on December 12, 2015. For more details or to register, go to www.brendambarrett.com Author but not in town? Let us know and we can make your title available at our booth. Call for details and assistance getting setup. 866-599-6270 |
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