Book writing tips

Becoming a published author does not need to take years. With advancing technology and a mentor you can fast track the process and have a book in your hands in months. I am talking about a high quality print book that you will be proud of.

It is possible to become a successful published author even if you don’t like writing, you think you don’t know enough or you don’t have any content. This is exactly my story and I have since published nine best-selling books and I am teaching others to do the same.

The first tip I like to give my Author Express members is not to think of writing a book. I think this in itself has a lot of negative beliefs  around it, like taking years to write a book, and simply sounding all too hard. It’s why I always use the term create your book. And it is fun!

All you are really doing is organising and ordering the information you already know.  By putting your thoughts together you can sometimes clarify a part of your knowledge and/or identify a gap that you can simply fill in by doing a bit more research or interviewing an expert on the topic and include that in your book.

I authored my entire book series by using other people’s content. I simply interviewed them or asked them questions to answer for me.

When you follow some simple steps to outline your book’s chapters and what you want to include each one, it is a matter of getting the content out.

Some practical tips to do assist with content creation  for your book are;

• Setting yourself an appointment each day for an hour to devote to content creation
• Some people like to get an accountability buddy to keep them on track
• Stop telling yourself you are too busy, all successful people have a book because they made time to do it, start telling yourself you are a published author instead
• Add your book cover ideas to a vision board to keep you inspired and motivated
• Turn off the TV and spend time on content creation instead
• Let your family know not to disturb you just for an hour
• Activate airplane mode on your PC to stop distractions caused by social media and emails popping up
• Turn off your phone
• Block out your diary and make an appointment with yourself. Like setting time aside to exercise or prepare meals, you need to do the same for your book
• Write in five minute bursts. Use a timer and just set yourself a challenge to go flat out for the full five minutes. It is amazing how many words you can get down- then repeat.
• Deactivate the auto-correct and spell checks as you write in a word document, so that your writing just flows and you don’t keep stopping to correct typos. There is plenty of time to do that later
• Try and leave some points on the page for your next writing session so when you sit down you can just expand on them, or use my 3 step system to produce your book map document so you already have the whole book mapped out.
• Think about the person you are writing your book for and just write as if you are speaking to them, the best books are written in a conversational tone. If you don’t like writing then talk it, record it and have it transcribed, this is a great way to keep you in flow and get the information out.
• Think about the benefits having a published book are going to bring you like more leads to your business, building your profile, more opportunities, and having a brilliant promotional tool that works for you while you sleep. Having a book allows potential clients to invest time with you which builds trust and relationships, and by being an author you are already seen as an authority.
• More importantly think of all of the people you can make a difference to by sharing your message, this can keep you going on the days you don’t like feeling like writing.
• Ignore the voices in your head that will pop up and tell you things like, you are not an author, who are you to write a book?  You can do this and it will be worth it.

 

Share your message. Make a Difference. Leave a Legacy

Fiona Jones

Best-selling author, publisher and founder of Author Express

www.AuthorExpress.com