Publishing a book is journey. Much like climbing Everest .. or simply going on holiday.
With some planning, the right mind set and the wind behind you and not against you, the journey to publishing heaven can become an enjoyable and calculated process.
Step 1: become lucky
Getting a book in print, publicised and read by the right people needs a considerable amount of good luck. As Gary Player, the golfer said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” And you can practice being more lucky and getting good fortune to shine on you.
If you haven’t read it already, get a copy of The Celestine Prophecy to gen up on the subject or get Psycademy’s free Simple Guide for Having a Good day (and how to remember your dreams).
Step 2: why are you writing?
Before you start writing properly, you need to establish what you are going to write, why are you writing it and when are you going to write it. And, from day, it is really worth thinking about how you are going to sell it and what is going to do for you or your business.
Step 3: what are you writing?
Research what you plan to write. Who else has done something similar? What sources are you going to draw on? What will be different about your book and what new angle do you plan to take? Do you need to hone a writing style and learn the craft? There are many good books on the subject.
Step 4: what does your book look like?
Next define your book structure. What exactly are you going to write about? How will it be structured? What assets do you need like images, graphics, exercises and quotes? At this stage, it is also worth thinking about intellectual property rights and ensuring you have permission to use all the components you are thinking about in your book.
Step 5: how will you write your book?
There are probably billions of books in the world but I guess there are even more unfinished manuscripts. In order not to augment the latter list, you need to create the space to write. It might involve taking a writing holiday or break, just stopping watching your favourite soaps or getting up an hour early. My personal approach is to pack all work into a 4 day a week, leaving an indulgent Friday for writing.
You need to do this for the duration of writing the first draft. Let’s say you want to write a 12 chapter book. You should budget for between 8 -12 days of writing. If you learn how to channel the process can be much quicker.
Step 6: commission your first edit or critical review
This can be a scary step when you get someone else to look at your work.w. This could be done by a friend or outsourced to one of the many third party companies who specialise in this service. You are not necessarily looking for someone to correct typos and grammar. More for a holistic viewpoint on structure and whether you are achieving your goals for the book.
Step 7: honing your book
Incorporate feedback from the first edit and prepare a second draft for more detailed review. This phase naturally will vary time-wise depending on how much work is to be done.
Step 8: iteration to your final draft
Your second edit is submitted for more detailed copy writing and proof reading. Some people do this together and sometimes you may have to loop around Step 8 a few times.
Step 9: designing your book
When you have your final draft it’s time to submit it to the typography, pagination and design process. This is something you should have set up and thought about while the first edit was being carried out so that, by the time you are ready to move, you have found a designer and a route for publication.
More information on these latter two crucial steps coming soon …. and the many options open to you to get in print nowadays.
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Useful Links
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
Get your free Simple Guide to Having a Good Day
Books on developing your writing style
Filed under: Articles, Resources, Writing tips | Tagged: channeling, luck, publishing, writing
The ‘DYING VOICES of GONGS’.
As I read your page and grasp the crux of the need for one to continue to be creative in writing taking into use all the helpful tips,I want to share with you of how I have kept faith with the love for writing that has long been cultivated.
The love to write today has been extended into writing of a new, yet to be published, novel entitled ‘.Dying Voices of Gongs’.
The work mirrors, through the protagonist; Isitima, the Niger Delta society in Nigeria where militancy, kidnappings, abductions, blow-ups of oil wells by indigenous people.
They are challenging the continued oil and gas business that had left them impoverished, without employment for the youths, oil spills, indiscriminate effluent discharge and lack of infrastructural development in the area, 50 years after of doing such business. They insist on resource control.
This is a book length description of the issues that is becoming an international concern. This is a journalist’s attempt to give the issues a literary focus to invigorate further discussion.