If you want to build your writing career, one of the best things you can do is write and publish a book. In fact, one of our lead writers was hired because he self-published several ebooks. Not only can publishing your own book help your career, you can actually earn a decent income from it.
If the title of this article drew you in, let me expand on it to say that you could actually pull this off over a weekend. Consider this first book a trial run and you can work on streamlining the system to suit your personal needs and goals.
If you are wondering how you can possibly write an entire book in a week let me start by saying that while this method lends itself best to nonfiction books, it can be easily used for the crafting of novellas. There are a few minor changes that you would want to incorporate into the system for fiction but they don’t interfere with how the system works.
This is best suited for nonfiction books because they are typically less creative and more informative. You don’t have to invent a plot, characters or conceive a story. With a nonfiction book you are simply putting down information in a logical progression to teach or inform the reader. If you pick a subject that you know well then the book is already written; you just don’t know it yet.
This book will be published as a Kindle E-Book. This is the fastest way to get you book published and available to a huge audience.
Sunday: Conduct a Personal Assessment
The first order of business is to get off your computer. Find a quiet place to sit with a pad of paper and a pencil. Make a list of everything you do very well. Don’t be modest here. If you are an inventive cook, write that down. Are you a retired stockbroker? Great, add that to the list. Keep going until you have exhausted the things you know and can do without research. It’s okay if you might need to look a couple of fine points up but you don’t want to get bogged down in research right now. Just list the things that you can easily write about without researching. Imagine that a friend has come to you for advice. What would your closest friends ask you about?
Choose 3-4 things that other people are interested in and from there prioritize them from the easiest to write about to the ones requiring the most fact checking. We will start with the easiest one first.
Monday: Create Titles and Cover
So you have selected a topic by now. You need to create a catchy title, something that gets a browsers attention. One of my all-time favorite book titles is The Jewish-Japanese Sex & Cook Book and How to Raise Wolves by Jack Douglas. That gets your attention, doesn’t it? In the case of your book, try and convey through the title that there is valuable information inside that the reader simply must have.
Today is probably the most difficult day of them all. Once you have a working title you need to create a cover. If you have original artwork or photographs, you are all set. You can of course use the stock covers in the Kindle publishing program. If you want to use stock photos from the Internet you will want to double and triple check licensing on the photos.
Tuesday: Create an Outline and Chapters
You have the topic, cover and at least a working title. Today you need to create an outline and chapters. This is nothing more than a rough sketch of the order in which you want to present the information. If you are writing a book on great Japanese style recipes you have developed then you might want an introduction, then a section on cooking utensils and one on any specialty ingredients. It can go from there but you get the idea. You want to logically organize the format of your book.
Once you have the outline you essentially have the chapters. Each main point of your outline is a chapter. Give it a name or a number. In most cases, especially in nonfiction, actual chapter titles work better. After your Introduction you have Tools and Equipment, Ingredients and so forth.
If you get a bit carried away and actually write some of the book today that’s fine. Nothing says you have to wait if the writing muse hits you!
Wednesday: Gather Resources
If you are wondering why I had you write the outline before gathering sources it’s because until you have the outline written down you really can’t be certain which resources you will need. This is a streamlined approached to writing a book so there is no need to have 50 books sitting around waiting to act as a possible resource!
If we are looking at the above mentioned cookbook then you will probably have your personal recipe file handy, maybe a book on Japanese cuisine to double check spellings and the names of specialty equipment or ingredients.
Thursday: Write Your Book
I hope by now you have noticed that you no longer have a book to write. You have several chapters to flesh out. Writing a book is a daunting task. Fleshing out a chapter is no big deal. You have the chapter title so you know exactly what to write. So sit down and write the first chapter. Never write the introduction first; you will end up having to rewrite it when you are done anyway.
In most nonfiction writing there is a simple formula. It also happens to be the best formula for giving speeches: Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them. The beauty is in the simplicity: Introduction, body with specific points, conclusion. It’s also very effective at conveying information.
Because someone is bound to worry about the length of the book: Stop that! You book only needs to be as long as it needs to be to convey the information that you are presenting. To be perfectly honest, most people would rather read 10 pages instead of 100 pages if they are getting the same information. Don’t worry about length and pages.
Friday: Edit Your Book
After finishing your book you want at least 8 hours between the writing and editing process. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who can read it before publication you should let them. Try and convince a friend to read it. Because you know the information so well it can play tricks with you. What seems well explained to you might be missing something to someone new to the subject.
If you don’t have someone to read it for you then you will have to do it yourself. It’s best to approach it after a full night of sleep. This will give your brain time to decompress from the writing and move into the editing mode. Edit out any unnecessary information, check grammar and spelling. Look for typos. They exist and believe me people will comment on them. Some people love to find errors in books; some people collect string. It’s a weird and wonderful world.
Saturday: Time to Publish
It’s publishing time! Your book is complete and you need to publish it. It’s not a difficult process and it doesn’t take long. Publishing a Kindle E-Book only takes a few minutes. It is surprisingly easy.
Now that your book is complete and published you can sit back and relax; but only until Monday. On Monday you have to start promoting your new book and you need to remember to send me an email so I can go read and review it!
Of course you COULD start the process all over again on Sunday with the second topic on your list…
Happy Publishing!
Questions or comments about this article? Send them to alexandra@freedomwithwriting.com
