Everyone wants to write a book. I’m going to be honest though, are you ready? It’s not easy. If you think it is, it really isn’t. There’s brainstorming, thinking of the storyline, characters, backstory, synopsis, book covers, writing the book, editing, formatting, publishing it, marketing, promotion, book reviews, price of ebook and paperback, are you making an audiobook? Are you recording it yourself or paying someone hundreds of dollars to do it? Are you paying people to do your book cover, editing it and formatting it, or are you doing it yourself?
Too many people will go to an author and say they want to publish a book, how do I do it? My first question is, have you written a book. When the answer is no, there's not much else to talk about. If you've started it, I'll tell you all that you have to do to go the self-publishing route. I tell people the self-publishing route because that's what I know and getting a book deal doesn't and will never interest me (and for numerous reasons which I won't discuss in this blog). Most get scared about the process and they realize, this isn't easy at all and reality slaps them right in the face.
The biggest part of this whole thing is content, what are you writing about that's going to appeal to an audience. Please please please for the love of the human race, don't go writing about some subject matter because you want to make money, be a bestseller and be famous, you will only be setting yourself up for failure, disappointment and doom. Write about what you know and are passionate about, that will always bring you fulfillment in your writing journey.
Also, please I implore you not to go writing about what's trending right now and what's in the market, I see it way too much and I just know that a large percentage of these authors are just imitating another author who broke into the market and has achieved success of their own. So then the next person thinks well why can't that be me? Please carve your own path and set the standard for your own vision.
If you're going to write a book to entertain, great. If you want to write a book that impacts others, even better. All I'm saying is, do it because you love it and the awards will reap itself down the line. There's nothing wrong with wanting a bestseller status (it doesn't take a lot of books to get there), but always focus on your audience, the readers/fans you will attain through your writing journey.
Don't feel pressured to finish a book fast, but do take a decent amount of time to write it. Now if you've started a book 3 years ago and it's still not published, you don’t really have any intentions on doing it.
As I've said in my previous blog from a while back, you can basically ball on a budget and get a good book cover made, get it formatted to the size you want without having to break your pockets. On top of that you'll still have money to market it, get some book reviews, do a few radio interviews and do a press release.
So here's my breakdown of what needs to be done to write a solid book:
1. Eliminate all distractions (family members, pets, friends, obligations, etc).
2. Brainstorm, write everything in a book (I'm talking every single idea, no matter how dumb it is).
3. Format your chapters and characters (including a backstory).
4. Pick a good time to write (day or night, lunch breaks, etc.).
5. Decide how much you want to write daily (pick days of the week and amount of words or chapters).
6. Mental focus will be the key to writing good content (writer's block happens, don't stress).
7. Utilize websites that will help you to format your book, book covers and promotion (social media).
8. Decide what websites you want to publish on and if you're doing paperbacks.
9. Learn the self-publishing business (you'll make mistakes, I've made plenty).
10. Not every investment will be good (I've made some bad ones but not costly ones).
Marketing and promoting is definitely a given, that has to be done daily. You'll eventually learn all that you need to know and you'll always continue to learn new things along the way. Never stop learning and always adjust to the market and what value it will bring to you. I am still working on building my audience everyday and trying to find new ways to reach readers.
Do the work! No excuses! I hear too many excuses from people about why they don't get things done and I just look at them and say, if you only knew half of what I deal with now, you'd go home and mentally focus. We all have the same amount of time in a day, it's just a matter of how much you want it.
Be good and go accomplish your goals.
Jamell Crouthers
Aquarianmind
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