Are you a book lover? How many books do you read in a month? Some people read 4 books a month – as for me still understandable, it means one per week (that is beyond my capability). I can barely manage one book a month.
Still. While some people love to read books you might be one of those people who has a dream of writing them. Of course you will know that you’ve got a lot of writing ahead of you.
According to Amazon’s great Text Stats feature, the average length of a book is 64,000 words. That’s 32 times the average blog post (if you usually write 2,000 words per post).
Let’s say if you are able to write 2,000 words a day then your book will still take approximately 5 weeks to write 70,000 words. You get the big picture. Writing your own book is hard work.
That doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
Pros of Write Your Own Book
1. Practice
If you’re writing a book you need to start by doing some proper research on your subject. You need to read a lot of literature and digest it to bring the best content and ideas to the story you are working on.
It is like an intensive college course. You are being forced to study more, learn a ton, do some research and collect and organize facts. It is all a good thing! You’ll be an expert on the topic.
It is indeed quite hard, but keeping on challenging yourself is something that you need to do in life. Remember the quote “Magic happens outside your comfort zone” right? Do something hard, challenge yourself and you’ll get the reward!
Completing such a big project also helps create successful habits. You can break big project (write a book) into smaller tasks (use outline) and get motivated to finish what you’ve started. There are certainly a lot of things that you can do If you succeed to write a book.
2. The best way to share an idea or story
Have you ever felt that your ideas are better delivered through writing rather than in conversation? Of course not the140 characters you get on Twitter 😉
You’ll have the chance to explain in details about the idea / the story that matters to you and you would like to share with others, without interruption. Writing is also a great tool to train yourself to recognize your feelings.
3. You’ll help someone
Have you ever been inspired by a book that you read? I do. I know (and we all know) that nothing can be achieved instantly. I got inspired by a book that I read recently. It taught me that I shouldn’t give up.
Everything needs a process. At some point it can be frustrating (no progress at all in things that we are currently doing). But with preservation you can get the results you want in life.
This is what I am trying to say. You won’t know if your book would be that inspiration that could change somebody’s life. Maybe you can make someone believe in themselves again. You can help them to stay motivated, you can show them how to do something or make money. Your book(s) certainly can help somebody in so many ways.
4. It’s actually good for your soul!
By writing your own book, you’ll realize that to write a book is a hard thing. Something that you might not even notice when you start. Writing your own book is also a humbling experience. You will gain a lot of respect for other authors just for achieving their aims and producing a book.
Writing a book also teaches you a lot about yourself. Writing every single day forces you to think more, be logical and order your thoughts. It also forces you to set your own targets. It is like a mission that you need to work on. You’ll be surprised how you’ll stay motivated about your own mission.
5. Something more!
You’ll have achieved something few people can manage. Having a book under your name can create new opportunities and bring your brand to the next level. At some point it can also create a new income stream for yourself. Though you need to think strategically about how to market the book and such things. But everyone needs to start from somewhere, right?
Cons of Write Your Own Book
Are there actually any disadvantages of writing your own book? The only disadvantage that I can think of is you’ll spend quite a lot of time writing.
That’s not really a problem though. The trick is to be disciplined and have a clear outline of what you want to achieve.
OK, so now you are thinking that writing your own book is a great idea. What’s next? If you’re looking to write your own book, here is a breakdown to help you to get started.
1. What you know and what you need to know
If you already have the idea / story that you want to write about, the next step is writing down what you know and what you need to know about the subject. This will help you structure your ideas.
Before you write everything down you might think you don’t know much about the subject. I promise after you get started you’ll realised you understand more than 50% of the subject matter. It’s a good reminder never to underestimate yourself.
Though writing down things that you know and things that you need to know can become a big list, it is ok. Write down everything and then review it.
An author doesn’t need to be the person that knows every single thing about a subject. Often you can start writing the book as an excuse to research more about a subject.
2. Research
After writing down a list of what you need to know, you can then create a list of specific things you need to research. It is important to remember that you should set a limit on how much time you’ll spend researching and then force yourself to move on.
It is so easy to get lost in the research stage. You’ll find so many interesting and useful things that you can quote and include within your book. This is why you should create your own target and timeline for research.
3. Make the outline
An outline is the next thing that you should make. It doesn’t matter whether you create an excel sheet, an online mindmap or a sketch. Make sure that the outline is easy to access so you can see where abouts you are on the project and what you need to work on next.
4. Write your first draft
Yep! The time has come to write your first draft. Sounds like a though thing to do doesn’t it? No it is not so hard, you have completed steps 1-3. This will make your task a lot easier.
Some tips that you should remember when you try to write your first draft: (1) Set a daily word amount to hit. Try 500 words to start with and give your best effort to hit that minimum limit everyday. No matter what. Weekdays, weekend, good day, bad day, rainy day, sunny day, whatever it is, keep on writing and always hit the minimum.
(2) Keep on writing even though it is terrible. Don’t delete and edit as you go. Keep things casual. Almost no one will write well in the first draft. Write, write and write, then you can edit it once you have finished your minimum words per day. Be casual and write with your heart.
5. Second draft
First, congratulations on finishing your first draft! You are so cool! Time to read the whole of your first draft and write up your second draft. You need to check out if the draft is already suitable with the outline, check facts and fix typos.
6. Get feedback
While you should keep your first draft for yourself, you must show your second draft to a person who you can trust. It can be your friends or family. As long as it is a person who will give you valuable feedbacks for your project.
If you don’t have anyone in mind, think of someone who fits your target audience. Get feedback and use it to improve your next drafts.
7. Some more drafts and last, final draft.
Check everything for the last time. No more typos, everything in place, and most importantly, you are happy with it. Right after that you are ready to publish it and do some marketing to push great sales.
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Creating a Cover
Last tips. Once you finished with the whole process. Pre-production, done the production (writing, editing, rewriting, writing and some more editing), now the time for the post production. One of the post-production part is creating your e-book cover.
For ideas about creating your own eBook cover check out this post. It’s an analysis of the best selling eBook covers on the market and what makes them so special. You can also check out this post for 9 tips about marketing your eBook on Amazon.
Conclusion
Writing your own book can be something fun. It can be your own personal project. Regardless of what it is I promise you’ll be proud of yourself when you finish writing.
And you should be…
It is a big achievement, because write a book isn’t easy.
Have you ever tried to write a book? What tips can you share with other aspiring writers?
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