How to write how to books

How to Write a Book: 21 Crystal-Clear Steps to Success

Writing a book is hard without the right help. Without someone who’s done it before, you can end up making crucial mistakes.

You decided to write a book. Maybe you have a perfect idea (so you think, but we’ll get to that), have always wanted to write one, and just aren’t sure where the heck to get started!

The process of writing and publishing a book successfully is so much more than just writing and pushing a button to publish on Amazon.

One of the easiest ways to start, is with an outline.

(Heads up – You can grab a free outline template below. I cover more about how to use this tool in Step 9 of this post – but go ahead and grab your outline guide now. It makes everything easier, later).

Acknowledgement Page, Copyright Page, & More!

25-page Non-Fiction Book Outline Template

Finish your book FASTER by downloading this FREE template that’s pre-formatted, easy to use, and you can fill-in-the-blank!

Anyone who says learning how to write a book is easy has never actually tried.

If they did, they’d know writing a book takes a lot more than a helpful piece of grammar software. It takes help from someone who’s done it before.

This is why I’m weighing in, having written and published 6 bestselling books and replicated my process across thousands of students through our Become a Bestseller program.

Let’s save you a ton of time, and many headaches, and dive into how to write a book.

If you’ve ever tried to write a book, you know how it goes…

You stare at a blank page for 5 minutes, but it feels like hours. To combat the boredom, you stand, stretch, and brew yet another pot of coffee.

And…a week later someone asks how your book is coming, and you think, “Book? What book? I haven’t even come up with a book idea yet!”

But now you’re ready to start writing a book—and we’re going to help make sure you do.

Here’s how to write a book step by step:

Ready to get started as a serious writer right now? Check out your free training below before reading the rest of this post!

How to Write a Book Despite Procrastination

There are plenty of reasons why writing a book, whether you’re writing a fiction novel or a nonfiction book, puts most writers directly into procrastination mode.

These are some common reasons you procrastinate when writing a book:

Take a deep breath (but no more coffee, you’ve had enough). Remember that all authors have been exactly where you are right now. Every successful writer—from William Shakespeare to Walt Whitman to Stephen King—began by staring at a blank page.

You’re in illustrious company!

Ready to learn how to write your first book and go from blank page to published author in just 90 days? Then let’s get started!

Phase 1: Think Like a Writer

Before you sit down and type a single word, it will pay off if you take some time to address a few attitude questions and adopt the right mindset. Successful writers know, before your write a single word simply writing and getting words to flow isn’t the hard part. It’s so much more about being organized with the same structure and writing voice for the particular story they need to tell.

This is one of the most frequently overlooked steps in becoming a published author, which is a big reason why so many people fail to finish their books.

Take it from me—it’s worth your time to complete these steps. They will make the rest of your book-writing experience much, much easier, and more satisfying.

[Pssst! Want to see some of our students’ published books? Check out the SPS Library here!]

Step 1: Find Your “Why” for Writing a Book

Before you open your laptop and start daydreaming about which photographer should take your best-selling author headshot, or about getting interviewed on Oprah, you need to answer one question:

It’s not enough to have an inspiring book idea. Before you put pen to paper, you need to know your purpose. It might take writing a blog post to begin a journey that has you self-published in less than a year. Remember most likely you’ll want to approach this as a writing career rather than a single book you put out.

How do you begin writing a book?

I won’t lie. Writing a book is rewarding, but it requires hard work. It requires emotional labor, long nights (or early mornings), extended weekends, and facing a constant self-critical process that is unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

Solidifying the purpose of fueling your book will carry you through this difficult process.

Ok, you’re thinking—“Don’t worry, I know why I want to write a book. I want to write to feel important!” That’s an interesting thought, and feeling important may be a byproduct of becoming a self-published author.

However, feeling important isn’t the same as your purpose—your WHY. Feelings are fleeting, whereas a purpose is a deeper, intrinsic motivator that will keep you burning the midnight oil to power through Chapter 23 when the rush of feelings has long dissipated.

And this is a huge reason why so many of our Become a Bestseller students end up starting and finishing their drafts quickly—in 30 days in most cases!

These are some popular reasons for authors to write a book:

There are no wrong or right purposes for writing a book.

Your WHY will be unique to you.

Once you’ve honed in on your WHY, let that purpose help focus your writing. By keeping your purpose at the forefront of your creative process, you’ll make the writing process quicker and smoother than you thought possible.

Step 2: Stop the Excuses for Not Writing the Book

You’ve figured out your WHY and articulated your unique purpose for writing a book. And right on cue, something is going to try to derail your progress already: your writing excuses.

When there’s nothing standing in your way, it’s sadly typical to start letting excuses for not writing your book become the obstacle to your success.

But you can overcome it.

It’s worthwhile to spend a little time addressing some common excuses many of us make to prevent us from writing.

Once you’ve cleared out the cobwebs and smashed those mental roadblocks, you’ll be better prepared for the writing process ahead. Getting your mind ready is one of the first steps to producing valuable work, whether than publishing an ebook, the next great American novel, or a passion project.

Excuse 1 – You don’t know what to write.

You may not realize it, but you have a story worth telling.

In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised to find as you write that you have more than one story and you’re having a tough time narrowing down the content.

The easiest way to start writing your first book is to choose a topic you’re comfortable with. You can literally write a book about anything, so go with what you know.

Here’s how you can figure out what to write about:

Once you have an idea narrowed down, you can go ahead and start your mind map and outline.

(Psst… If you missed your chance to grab your outline earlier in this post, here you go again. Inside the template are more detailed instructions for how to use an outline, and how to go from “no book idea” or “too many book ideas” to the “perfect first book idea” using a mind map. Don’t worry, I show you how to mind map your book also – inside the Book Outline Template instructions.)

Acknowledgement Page, Copyright Page, & More!

25-page Non-Fiction Book Outline Template

Finish your book FASTER by downloading this FREE template that’s pre-formatted, easy to use, and you can fill-in-the-blank!

Excuse 2 – You don’t have enough time.

Today, we’re all busy. I get it.

But I have some good news: Writing a book takes less time than you think.

Find an hour a day you devote to something mindless—social media, video games, internet, or TV—and start writing instead.

And if you don’t have an hour, try 30 minutes. Even 5 minutes 3 times a day can be a source of massive writing productivity. Think about it.

The average person can type 60 words a minute. 60 words x 5 minutes = 300 words. Do that 3 times a day and you’ll produce close to 1,000 words a day.

You’ll amaze yourself at how an hour per day adds up to something productive!

Excuse 3 – Good writers spend all their free time reading.

Think you need to read all day long to be a writer? Think again.

In fact, many prolific writers cut down on their reading—at least temporarily—in order to give themselves enough time to write.

Besides, you don’t need to be a literary connoisseur to write a great book. Your writing style and voice is your own.

And the best way to discover your own natural writing voice is by sitting down and writing (not reading what others have written).

Here are some tips to use reading to help you write a book while reading less:

Excuse 4 – You’re “not an expert.”

A lot of people get tripped up on this. They think, “Oh, I’m not really an expert on ___. I can’t write about that.”

The truth is that the whole concept of “expert” is very subjective. An amateur astronomer wouldn’t seem like an expert to Stephen Hawking…but to 99% of the rest of the world, they would be an expert.

You don’t need to know everything about your topic. As long as there’s a knowledge gap between you and the reader—and as long as you’re helping to fill that gap by teaching them the things they don’t know— you’re expert enough to write a book.

So stop worrying about “not being an expert!” If you’re passionate and knowledgeable about a topic, then you are 100% qualified to write a book about it.

Excuse 5 – Your first draft must be flawless.

A draft is a work-in-progress, and the goal is simply to get it on paper. A draft will have mistakes and that’s okay—that’s what the self-editing process is for.

Even experienced professional writers who finished a book that ended up covered in the red pen of an editor or numerous red changes in a document, just like the one pictured below.

As Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “Done is better than perfect.”

If it works for a multi-billion-dollar company, it should work for your first self-published book.

Don’t get me wrong, as I’ve already said, writing is hard work. But shedding these excuses should help get you into a positive frame of mind for the writing process.

Realize You Don’t Need to Be Perfect

The thought of writing a book causes many people to think, “I’m not a good enough writer. I need to do _____ before I start writing.”

Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need:

All you need is one thing: a system for finishing your book.

There’s no such thing as a perfect book or a perfect writer. When you get down to it, the most important distinction is between authors who finish their books and authors who don’t.

Don’t worry about being perfect. Just focus on your book, and your writing will get better and better over time.

As with anything we learn, writing is a skill. It requires practice to hone over time. So let go of the idea that you’re not good enough and work to improve by reading expert writing tips and practicing daily.

This will help you make the mindset switch from “I can’t” to “Let’s get this done!”

Phase 2 – Set Yourself Up For Success

Now it’s time to start your prep work. Before you start putting any words onto the page, you need to focus on a few important preparations.

Take the time to complete these steps and you’ll be setting yourself—and your new book—up for success.

Step 3: Schedule Your Book Writing Time

Here are 3 things you can do to create your own customized book writing plan.

Without a plan, it’s too easy to let your book writing goals get pushed to the background, eventually fading into the soft mist of “someday.”

Develop a writing habit and plan it out

Don’t let your book end up in the graveyard of dreams.

In order to realize your end goal, you need actionable steps to follow.

Assess what’s going on in your life in the next 30 days, then block out when you can write, and when you can’t. It’s common for new writers to set unrealistic time goals, which in turn generates stress when it’s impossible to meet those arbitrary deadlines.

Avoid this and stay realistic, since developing a writing habit is most important at this stage in learning how to write a book.

Thirty minutes (or even 5 minutes) spent writing is better than nothing, so resolve to make it happen and find the time.

Look at Omer Redden, a Self-Publishing School student. He was working full-time at one job, had another part-time job, raising 3 kids, and moving across states—busier than most people—yet he found the time to write his book Give and Grow Rich: Change Your Mind, Change Your Money in 3 months. Using the Self-Publishing School process, he’s gone on to write 5 books, and his wife and kids are publishing books now too!

If Omer could make it happen, then writing your book is certainly an attainable dream.

Choose the time of day you plan to write

You might decide to get up early and write before the obligations of your day crowd out your writing time. But if you’d win the gold medal in the Olympic sport of snooze-button slapping, then choose a different time or make sure you get to bed earlier so you’re fresh in the morning.

If your evenings are free, but your brain is mush and you’re only good for sinking deep into the couch cushions, then choose a different time or rearrange your schedule so you aren’t so burnt out in the evenings.

Alternatively, you can grab some time on your lunch break, or sneak small blocks of time into your workday, such as when you’re transitioning between activities or waiting for a meeting to start.

Whatever time of day is convenient for you, stick with it so that it becomes a predictable part of your day. This will establish a writing habit.

Set a deadline for writing your book

Setting an end date forces you to stay on schedule and keeps the forward momentum going. So consider giving yourself a deadline for your book.

You may be wondering: How do you choose a deadline when you have no idea how long the book-writing process will take?

One month is a good benchmark to start with. Self-Publishing School recommends writing until you hit a daily word count of 500-1,000 words, but this ultimately depends on how many words are in your book. If you can commit to an hour a day, you should be able to reach that goal. After 30 days of daily writing sessions, you will have completed a 30,000-word draft.

If you’re not sure how many words you should be aiming for, fill out the calculator below so you’re shooting for the right word count for your audience and genre based on industry standards.

Valuable Asset Alert!!

You can check out our word and page count calculator here to determine the target word count for your industry in order to work backward to plan your writing schedule!

Consistency is key. Small, consistent actions toward writing your book are how it comes to life.

If that schedule doesn’t work, then commit to a time period and a daily word count that does. It’s okay if that’s 15 minutes per day.

The ultimate goal is your rear end in the writing seat for that allocated period of time each day.

Share the end date of your first completed draft with others so you have an extrinsic motivation to keep moving toward that finish line.

It’s a good idea to choose an editor for your book (before you finish your first draft) and schedule when you’ll have the completed first draft of the manuscript in that person’s hands.

That way, if you’re tempted to flake out and put off a writing session, that looming deadline can help keep you going.

Step 4: Create Your Writing Space

The physical space where you write your book is important. A dedicated writing space allows you to “flip the switch” and get focused on writing. If you try to write in an environment that’s too loud, too busy, or too cluttered, and you’ll find yourself getting frequently distracted. However, some get their best work done at coffee shops and love the ambient noise.

True, some authors can write in a disheveled environment…

…but I suspect that most of these authors would become even more focused and productive if they cleaned up their writing space to make it easier to focus on their writing. There is a common myth that a dedicated writing space can make the task robotic or take the “art” out of crafting your work. This may be true for some, but I’d say arrive at that conclusion after first mastering the basics of successfully publishing a few books.

However, that’s just my opinion. The truth is that the “best” writing environment is going to be personal to you. We all work well in different settings, so with that in mind, consider these general guidelines to boost your productivity:

(To get the sound of a cafe from the comfort of home, check out Coffitivity.)

You might need to experiment to find the writing environment that allows you to focus and write freely.

Bottom line: Find the writing environment that makes you comfortable and go with it. Once you find the best creative process for you, you’ll even look forward to writing!

Step 5: Equip Yourself with the Right Writing Tools

Would you try to construct a piece of furniture without a hammer, nails, or wood?

Of course not! You need the right tools for the job.

Well, the same principle applies when writing a book. And when it comes to writing, your most important tool is your choice of book writing software. If you’re wanting to become a New York Times bestselling author but don’t want to consider the best tools, you may be doing yourself a disservice.

Unfortunately, most people don’t really put much thought into which program they use to write their book. They just use whatever word processor they’re most familiar with. Trust me, you want the right book writing software to make the process as frictionless as possible.

But doing this can cause you to really miss out—especially if there’s another program out there that would work much better for you.

There are countless options out there, but most people end up using one of the “big 3” word processors:

We’ll cover all of them for you below.

Microsoft Word

If you just want a time-tested program that works, Word might be the program for you. It’s the most widely used word processor in the world, which means it’s highly reliable and consistent. It also provides a lot of formatting options and even has a navigation pane you can use to easily find the chapter you’re looking for.

One of the biggest downsides to Word is that it’s fairly expensive as far as word processors go.

Scrivener

If you like advanced features, definitely check out Scrivener. It was created specifically for authors, and it contains all sorts of tools that are really helpful for those that write fiction or nonfiction.

For example, you can use the corkboard view to organize how you’ll write your book using virtual notecards:

The biggest downside to Scrivener? Because of all the advanced features, it has a steeper learning curve than other word processors.

If you do decide to go with Scrivener, it’s the professional writer tool I personally use and suggest.

Google Docs

You can think of Google Docs as sort of a “Word Lite” program that you can access online, for free. While it doesn’t boast as many features as Word or Scrivener, it’s the hands-down most convenient program out there for sharing and collaboration.

Because everything is stored online, you can access your work from anywhere. And it’s easy to share your work with others and collaborate by leaving comments in the margins:

The big downside to Google Docs? It lacks the more sophisticated features of Word and Scrivener.

Of course, these are only 3 options—there are many more great writing tools out there.

Phase 3: Actually Write Your Book

OK, we’ve got the preliminary stuff out of the way—time to sit down and actually write this thing! Contrary to popular belief, writing books doesn’t have to be this huge task. If you’ve been following along, this is the moment you’ve adequately prepared for!

This is an exciting part of the process…unfortunately, it’s also the part where many people get overwhelmed and give up.

But there’s good news: actually writing a book can be a lot easier than you think—if you have the right system. A system that guides you from your idea through your outline and all the way up to your final, polished, publication-ready draft.

Step 6: Come Up With Your Book Idea

Before you can start typing, you need to have a topic. That might seem obvious, but it can still be a stumbling block if you don’t know what to write about. This is an opportunity to do market research and come up with fresh ideas.

Fortunately, there are countless book ideas that could turn into bestselling books.

I recommend brainstorming a long list of book ideas. This way you’ll have a lot of options—giving you the freedom to choose the best possible book topic.

You can even utilize lists of writing prompts found here to get your mind moving in the right direction.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to come up with a book idea:

These are all great ways to come up with bestselling book ideas. In a nutshell, you’re trying to find topics that you’re knowledgeable or passionate about. Because these are the topics that you’re going to do a great job writing about!

Can anyone write a book?

Yes, anyone can write a book, even if they can’t think of an idea right away. Notice that I highlighted the question, “What do you get paid for? What’s your expertise?”

That’s because this is a particularly useful question for coming up with book ideas. A lot of people seem to forget that there is usually at least one topic on which they are a bona fide expert—and that’s their job!

It might not seem that exciting or special to you, because you’re so used to it, but to someone else who’s trying to learn what you already know…your job-related knowledge can seem very valuable indeed.

Don’t Censor Yourself

When you’re brainstorming ideas, don’t censor yourself. Just let the ideas flow. Realize that there is no such thing as a crazy idea. Anything can make a great book topic.

So don’t ever let yourself feel silly or start to judge yourself—doing so is a surefire way to stop your creativity in its tracks.

On the other hand, don’t feel bad if your topic sounds too commonplace either. Even if you’re writing about an age-old topic—like a weight-loss book or a romance novel—that’s OK!

The truth is that there are no “new” ideas. Everything has been written about before.

When you’re brainstorming ideas, don’t censor yourself. Just let the ideas flow. Realize that there is no such thing as a crazy idea. Anything can make a great book topic.

So don’t ever let yourself feel silly or start to judge yourself—doing so is a surefire way to stop your creativity in its tracks.

On the other hand, don’t feel bad if your topic sounds too commonplace either. Even if you’re writing about an age-old topic—like a weight-loss book or a romance novel—that’s OK!

The truth is that there are no “new” ideas. Everything has been written about before.

But it hasn’t been written from your unique perspective. And that’s what really matters.

Realize that a writer’s job isn’t to come up with never-before-seen ideas. Doing that is pretty much impossible in this day and age.

Instead, a writer’s job is to explore topics from their own point of view. To lend their unique spin on them.

Take a Reader-Centric Perspective

While thinking of your book topic, here’s a piece of advice that I strongly recommend you follow:

Think from your reader’s perspective (not your own). The reader’s experience is what you should care most about. Essentially you’re not asking them to only purchase and read your book, you want the reader’s attention. I can’t tell you how many books I read, lectures I attended, where I didn’t put my attention into it.

Many people are too self-centered when they write. When I say “self-centered,” I mean that they’re thinking only of themselves: their interests, their hobbies, their passions.

Yes, it’s true that those are great topics to explore when coming up with your book topic. But during this process, you’ll need to switch from a self-centered perspective to a reader-centered perspective.

Ask yourself questions about the reader:

When you start to think this way, it becomes much easier to write your book in a way that provides immense value for the people who matter most—your readers.

Step 7: Figure Out Which Book You Should Write First

By now you should have a long list of book topics. And you might be wondering, which topic should I write about first?

Here are a few tips to help you choose the best starting project:

With these tips in mind, take this assessment, then choose the topic for your very first book before proceeding to the next step.

Step 8: Fill Out The Book Map

The BookMap is a free downloadable book outlining template you can use to quickly gather all the important information you’ll need for your book — fiction or nonfiction.

Essentially, the way it works is you’ll create a mind map—sort of a brain dump with a line connecting related ideas together—on your book’s topic.

Start your BookMap by writing your intended topic in the center. From there, answer the questions and add as many related ideas as you can think of. (Again, connect related ideas with a line.) The BookMap gives you the benefits of writing in free form and creating structure from all the connections you make.

Step 9: Turn Your BookMap Into an Outline

Once you’ve completely filled out your BookMap, the next step is to group all the related ideas into categories. There’s no hard and fast rule for how to do this; just combine your ideas in the way that makes the most sense to you.

One way to do this is to rewrite each idea on a fresh piece of paper, this time grouped together in related topics. Or, you could simply use different-colored highlighters to categorize your ideas with different colors.

Either way, the result is the same: when you’re done grouping your ideas, those categories will form the outline for your book—each category is a new chapter. So now you know exactly which topics to write about, and you know which points to cover in every chapter of your book.

If you want a really easy book outline template to use, we’ve got one for you!

Enjoy a made-for-you book outline template complete with chapter-by-chapter structure assistance too.

Acknowledgement Page, Copyright Page, & More!

25-page Non-Fiction Book Outline Template

Finish your book FASTER by downloading this FREE template that’s pre-formatted, easy to use, and you can fill-in-the-blank!

Capture More Notes with The Sticky Note Method

You can use this method instead of the BookMap, or as a supplement to it.

For about a week, carry around sticky notes and write down anything and everything that crosses your mind regarding your possible book topics.

When the week is up, organize all your sticky notes into sections and themes. Then, organize these themes into the patterns that would make sense in the context of chapters of your book. You can then elaborate on areas where you notice missing pieces to the puzzle, and use all of the material you’ve gathered and organized to create an outline.

This method may be helpful if you’re struggling with the notion of committing to writing a whole book since it lets you break down the process into manageable pieces. The ultimate outcome of using this method is deeper thinking, clarity, and concise organization of thoughts and patterns.

Step 10: Write One Chapter at a Time

You now have a chapter-by-chapter outline for your book. The only thing left to do…is to actually sit down and write it!

There’s not necessarily a right or wrong way to write your book. But there are some ways that are easier, faster, and more successful than others.

And in my experience, there’s one writing method that works better than any other. Here’s how it works:

Steps 1 & 2 should be familiar by now—they’re the same steps you followed to create your overall book outline. You just repeat those steps on a smaller scale for each chapter.

Then in step 3, you have a choice: you can type out your chapter on a computer, or you can use a recording device & transcription service to dictate your chapter.

If you like the idea of dictating your book, rather than typing it out, here’s how to do it.

Step 11: Speak Your Book

This method works well if you’re a strong speaker and you prefer speaking to writing. The ultimate outcome is that you can create your book draft as quickly as possible, with no actual “writing” on your part. Cool, huh?

Once your chapter outline is complete, the next steps are:

As I mentioned, one of the benefits of this method is its speed. Just how fast can you write a first draft using speech dictation?

If you’re writing a nonfiction book specifically, this method will work great for you.

Well, if the average book is 15,000-25,000 words long, and if the average person speaks at about 150 words/minute, then you can easily speak your entire book in approximately 2-3 hours.

Of course, your spoken & transcribed book will need some polishing and revision to get it publication-ready. But it’s still the fastest way of writing a book I’ve ever come across.

Speed Up Your Writing

Writing faster means getting to publication—and to profits—that much sooner.

Try these pro tips to maximize your daily word count:

Phase 4: Avoid Potholes Along The Way

If you’ve been following along with steps 1-3, then you’re in the process of writing your book. You’re working from a solid outline, which means you know exactly what to write in every single chapter.

So nothing could possibly go wrong… Right?

Unfortunately, no. Even when you have a solid plan, a proven system, and a detailed outline, you can still get tripped up by some of these sneaky book-writing roadblocks.

Step 12: Avoid Writer’s Block

Writer’s block can rear its ugly head in many ways. For some, being blocked means no words at all, while for others, it means trying to nail down a functional draft in the midst of a tornado of swirling ideas.

Most of the time, writer’s block is a symptom of a paralyzing fear of others’ opinions.

The harsh reality is, if you write, at some point you’ll be on a first-name basis with a bout of the block. The only way to deal with it is to beat it.

Here are 8 methods I’ve found personally useful when fighting writer’s block:

Step 13: Don’t Edit While You Write

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You sit down to write and you bang out a page or two. Then you stop and reread what you just wrote. And instead of continuing, you go back and start editing those first few pages of writing.

In your mind, you’re just fixing up your work. You want everything to be just right before you continue on ahead.

But in reality, you’ve just stopped all your forward progress. You spend the next hour trying to make those pages PERFECT…and when perfect doesn’t happen, you get frustrated and stop writing.

Usually, when this sort of thing happens, it becomes very difficult to do any more writing. Why? Because writing and editing use different parts of your brains—and when you allow yourself to slip into a more critical/judgmental frame of mind, it becomes almost impossible to start creating again.

That’s why, even though editing is an important skill, you need to resist the urge to edit your work while you’re still writing.

Don’t start editing your book until AFTER you’ve already created the entire first draft.

When you are ready to edit your book, check out this advice from writing coach and editor Tiffany Hawk.

Step 14: Push Past The “Messy” Middle

Now you know not only how to get started writing your book, but how to complete your book project in a mere 90 days!

Remember to keep your WHY at the forefront of your mind, and you’ll be able to crush any and all obstacles that get in your way. If any of the common challenges or obstacles we’ve mentioned rear their ugly head, you’ll know how to deal with them. Staying motivated is the key here, becoming a successful writer means not getting stuck on first drafts.

It sounds obvious, but writing habits lead to good writing. Don’t lose interest, you’re on your way to becoming a great writer, don’t let self-doubt creep in. Get your entire manuscript done, remember to finish writing. A daily word count goal can help get your draft completed.

With just a little bit of time and a lot of determination, you are on your way to officially calling yourself an author.

Phase 5: Launch Your Book Successfully

By this point, your book is completed—congratulations! You’ve done something that most people will never do.

You’ve written a book.

But you’re not done yet. Not quite. Because you still need to launch your book in a way that sets it up for success; in a way that maximizes your readers, your income, and your influence.

Unfortunately, most people who succeed in writing a book never get this whole “launch” thing figured out. They throw their book up on Amazon without really having a plan, and as a result, they get very few sales, make almost no money, and are frustrated at the lack of response to their work.

It’s true that self-publishing your book on Amazon is a great way to go. But you can’t simply publish your book and expect people to find it. Instead, you need to dedicate some time to mastering the publishing and marketing processes on Amazon to sell more books. This is the only way to make sure that your book makes its way into the hands of the people who will benefit from reading your words.

If you follow this simple launch plan, you can rest assured that your book will come out with a bang and will generate steady sales right out of the gate and for years to come.

Step 15: Hire A Good Editor to Edit Your Book

Finding an editor is important work. Having someone on your side that understands your writing style and the purpose of your book is essential. Additionally, the best editors remove unnecessary sentences in order to leave the reader feeling they understand what they should and get a clear line into the writer’s mind.

Several people, including myself, create tests in order to hire the right editor. There definitely is an art to it, consider the post linked above to find the process we recommend you use.

Step 16: Format Your Book Properly

Few things are more irritating than having to go back through your entire book to fix the formatting.

If you missed our free outline template earlier in this post, here it is again.

Because fixing your formatting really is that much of a pain in the butt.

Acknowledgement Page, Copyright Page, & More!

25-page Non-Fiction Book Outline Template

Finish your book FASTER by downloading this FREE template that’s pre-formatted, easy to use, and you can fill-in-the-blank!

Learn How to Write a Book in 8 Easy Steps

Many people believe that learning how to write a book requires a lot of schooling and raw talent. But that’s not true. Plenty of famous, successful writers don’t have master’s degrees in creative writing. Many new fiction writers have no prior experience in writing or publishing a book. There are only two things you need to write a book successfully: inspiration and determination.

Inspiration will be the thing that gets you started. It’s the story idea or character that won’t leave you alone. Or perhaps it’s a love of writing that you want to take to the next level. But it’s determination – persistence, willpower, and the refusal to quit no matter what – that will get you to “the end.”

It also helps to have a handy step-by-step list of everything you need to know about writing a book. So, here you go!

Last Updated March 2022

Discover the secret storytelling code behind all successful novels and use it to outline, write, or revise your own | By Jessica Brody, Writing Mastery

1. Start with a “seed” of a book idea

Believe it or not, you don’t have to have the entire story figured out before you can start writing a book or short story. All great novels started as a spark or a “seed” of an idea. This could be an intriguing character, an ominous or magical setting, or a romantic or funny scene. It could even be as small as a witty piece of dialogue. All these are seeds that you can water and harvest into ideas for good books.

When you first sit down to think about the type of fiction book you’re going to write, don’t worry about the details. You don’t need to know what genre it is, every character’s name, or what every moment of the plot will look like. Find a spark or a seed that you can grow.

Need help coming up with an idea for your book? This short course will walk you through the four ingredients that make up all great book ideas. It will help you brainstorm your own!

2. Develop the main character

Once you have your idea “seed,” the easiest part to start growing it is with your main character. Decide who will be the primary person the reader will follow through the story. Who will introduce your reader to your world? Whose perspective will the reader see your story through? Once you decide who this is you can ask yourself more questions about this person. Here are some brainstorming questions to get you started:

Answering questions like these will make your character take shape. It will give you a good idea of who your book will be about. Every good novel is essentially about a character who changes or transforms in some way. This is called a character arc. To establish a good character arc, you first must understand who your character is at the start of the story. This will help you figure out where they go and how they change.

Looking for guidance on how to write characters who leap off the page? This comprehensive character master class will teach you how to write dynamic characters. It will walk you through the steps of developing your own.

3. Create a simple plot outline

Not every writer chooses to start writing a book with an outline. Some writers prefer to brainstorm a few details and start writing, figuring out the story as they go. Other writers prefer to map out an extensive outline before they write a single word. Some figure out every chapter in advance. It’s up to you.

Starting with a basic outline of your story will help you succeed when you write the first draft — even if you don’t end up sticking to it.

The basic three-act structure

You can base your outline on the three-act structure. Most successful stories ever told have a three-act structure. You’ll find it in books and movies alike. If you sketch out a few ideas for each of your story’s three acts, you’ll have a basic plot outline. This will help guide you when it’s time to write your book.

Here is an overview of the basic three-act structure:

Need help outlining the story of your novel? Take this plotting master class. It will walk you through all the steps of outlining and writing a successful plot.

4. Start the first draft

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” — William Faulkner

You’ve got your main character developed and your outline ready to go. It’s time to hit that coffee shop, library, or your favorite writing space, and start writing.

The most important thing to remember about the first draft is that it’s a discovery process. It’s not supposed to be good. It’s only supposed to be finished. This is where you are letting the story unfold. You are discovering things about your character, plot, and world.

For that reason, the first draft is often messy and imperfect. As you write, you’ll find characters and plots growing in directions you’d never thought possible. You will often discard your outline as you experiment with characters, plots, styles, and forms. This is a place for you to break the mold and push yourself. Don’t bother being perfect. The faster you can jot down ideas on paper, the better. This rough collection of thoughts, ideas, and plotlines will eventually come together into a book. That will be after due editing and countless revisions, of course. For now, focus on writing anything.

It helps to set goals for yourself, like a daily word count goal. Try estimating how long your book will be. Typically fiction books are between 50,000 and 100,000 words. Divide by the number of days you want to spend writing the first draft. This will give you an estimate of how many words per day you’ll need to finish.

For instance, you could think your first draft should be 75,000 words. If you want to finish it in three months, you will have to write about 825 words a day to finish in that time frame.

Setting word count goals for yourself can help keep you on task and motivated to write every day. This is important when the writing gets tough, which it’s bound to do. Every successful writer has struggled during the first draft, and you probably will too. Setting a daily word count goal and sticking to it can ensure you don’t quit halfway through.

You don’t have to be a full-time writer to write a book. You just have to set aside time to write each day. For instance, every day before work, after dinner, or during your lunch break. It doesn’t matter when you write as long as you’re consistent. The more consistent you are, the more writing will become a habit. As it becomes a habit, the easier it is to sit down to write each day.

Learn how to develop consistent and effective writing routines. This course is all about hacking your productivity.

5. Take a break

Once you’ve finished your first draft, it’s time for a much-needed break! Writing the first draft is not easy, so congratulate yourself and get some rest and relaxation.

Taking a break is necessary for recuperating and refueling your creative tank. It’s also necessary for giving your brain some distance from the story. After you’ve taken a few weeks away from your novel, you’ll have a fresh perspective on it. Then, you’ll be able to revise it with more objectivity and more clarity.

6. Read through your first draft without editing

Once you’ve given yourself some distance away from the novel, it’s time to read back through your first draft. During this initial read-through, try your hardest not to edit anything you’ve written. Read what you have, absorb, think about the story as objectively and critically as you can. Take lots of notes about what you would like to change and get to the end.

This will help you understand the full picture of what needs revision. Revising without having the full picture in front of you will feel daunting. It might even lead to time wasted. You don’t want to spend two hours perfecting a chapter that you might have to cut later.

7. Revise

“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story… When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” – Stephen King

Now that you have a full picture of the story and the work that you need to do, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. On the first revision, focus on bigger fixes that affect the entire plot or character arc. Wait on smaller fixes like word choice or sentence structure. This will keep the process from feeling too overwhelming. It will also help you focus on where you spend your revising time.

Some questions to ask yourself as you work on the second draft are:

Answering these questions will help you figure out what you can improve in the second draft.

Feel free to repeat steps five, six, and seven as many times as you want. Keep going until you feel happy with the plot and the characters. Many writers complete several drafts before moving on in the process.

8. Edit and polish

The final step is to polish it up and make it shiny. With the previous steps, you’ve revised the story. You feel like the plot is working, the characters are interesting and dynamic, and the pacing is tight. Now is the time to focus on the smaller details.

This is where, as Stephen King puts it, you must “kill your darlings”.

To make this murder easier, follow these tips:

Lastly, celebrate!

Congratulations – you’ve written your very first book. It’s time to shout from the rooftops. You’ve just accomplished what many people never accomplish. Well done!
Ready to publish your novel? Take this course for a comprehensive step-by-step guide to traditional publishing.

Page Last Updated: September 2021

How to Write a Book: A Definitive Guide for New Authors

Learning how to write a book for the first time is a challenge, but you can easily become an author.

In this article, I offer a step-by-step process for writing your first book faster.

Over the past few years, I wrote a three-part series of books about writing called Become a Writer Today. I also published The Power of Creativity, a novella and several short stories.

I’ll also reveal some of my mistakes and offer proven book writing tips. My speciality is nonfiction book writing. That said, you can apply some of the lessons from this guide to fiction too.

1. Develop Your Book Writing Skills

Book writing, like any skill, takes time to develop. You need to learn skills like writing the first draft, self-editing, arranging your ideas and so on.

Your strengths and weaknesses, life experiences and even the books you read play a crucial role in shaping the author you will become.

Don’t worry if you get things wrong. Stephen King threw the draft of his first book in the bin. His wife fished the book, Carrie, out of the trash and encouraged him to finish and publish it.

It took me three years to write my first novella and a year to write my second book. After that, I got faster.

Tip: Blogging and journaling are great ways to practice writing and explore ideas for a nonfiction book.

2. Create a Dedicated Writing Space

Do you have a dedicated place in your house to cook? Or perhaps you have a large couch in front of your television?

____-WHAT______ can be an easy and fun activity if you have a dedicated space. The same is true for writing.

Want to write a best selling book? Create a dedicated writing space where you can work on your first draft without interruption.

Ideally, your space will be sparse and devoid of distractions. That means no televisions, game consoles or other items that don’t support your writing.

You could put inspirational posters on the wall or look out onto your garden. Conversely, many successful authors prefer working while facing the wall because the outside is distracting.

Even if you don’t have space in your house or office, you could go to a library or coffee shop each day. Poet Raymond Carver wrote many of his early poems in his car.

You could also listen to some soft, soothing music in this space to get you in the groove. When working, I like listening to rainfall on repeat using noise-cancelling headphones. Remember, a perfect writing atmosphere varies from one author to another.

Tip: You could also go to a library or coffee shop each day. The poet Raymond Carver wrote many of his early poems in his car. As long as you can work without interruption, you’re good.

3. Decide Why You Want To Write a Book

Most people forget to mention how lonely the writing process feels. Authors spend hours researching, revising and sitting alone in a room with only words and ideas for company.

If you’ve never written a book, the isolation is difficult to get used to, but it’ll pass as you get into the process of writing the book. The people close to you might understand what you’re doing, but don’t count on it! One new writer struggling with his book emailed me to say:

“ One of the reasons I have not gone farther with writing is because my family sees me working at a computer, or like today with a cell phone, and thinks I’m goofing off. “

Handling isolation and staying motivated is easier if you know why you’re writing a book in the first place. Here are some questions to ask:

Find at least four to seven reasons why you’re writing a book in the first place. Referring to your list will keep you motivated when you feel isolated or others question what you’re doing.

I wrote The Art of Writing a Non-Fiction Book because I wanted to:

Tip: Keep your list of reasons alongside your book notes so you can review it regularly.

4. Commit to Writing Your Book

Writing a book is a time-consuming creative project that demands months (or even years) of time. Ask yourself if you have the mental resources, creative energy, and time to do it.

You must write every day and sacrifice other pursuits or rearrange your day so you can put writing a book first. When I wrote my first book, I gave up playing Call of Duty and Halo because I didn’t have the time to write and play games.

Stick to your commitment when the writing feels more like work and less like a passion, even when you don’t feel inspired. After all, it’s not easy to write the first draft, never mind become a “ New York Times bestselling author.”

Adopt the mindset of a professional writer who doesn’t call in sick or give up because he or she doesn’t feel like doing the work. You must become a professional who finishes writing.

Tip: Commit to working on your book every day by writing in the same place at the same time, either early in the morning or late at night.

5. Research Your Ideal Reader

A reader buys a book because they want to be informed, inspired educated or entertained. Connecting with your intended audience is critical when you want to publish your manuscript. You must cater to a certain demographic, so having a clear idea about your intended audience can go a long way in shaping your book.

For instance, J.K. Rowling wrote her Harry Potter books primarily targeting teenagers and young adults reading for pleasure. Her books catered to a universal audience and became a cult phenomenon due to her magical storytelling abilities. Always keep your intended audience in mind and consider how they might feel or react to your book.

Figure out what you’re going to say that’s different. If you want to entertain, educate or inform readers, you must offer something no one else can.

Tip: If you’re writing nonfiction, consider surveying someone who represents your ideal reader or interviewing them.

6. Study Other Books in Your Niche or Genre

As a savvy writer, your job is to find out your audience’s wants, likes and dislikes. Spend an hour or two browsing Amazon and finding Kindle books about your topic. Look for books in your niche with a sales ranking below 30,000 in the Kindle store.

Typically, these books sell at least five copies per day, meaning they’re popular with readers and earn a return for the author. Read at least the top ten books in your niche, taking note of the titles, categories and ideas behind each book. Study both good and bad reviews for these books to see what readers like and dislike and how you can improve.

An author can also easily combine several ideas from various books and remix the information with their writing.

Robert Greene, author of Mastery and The 48 Laws of Power, said he reads 300-400 books over the 12-24 months before starting a project. He uses a flashcard analogue system to record lessons and stories. In a 2013 Reddit AMA, he said,

“I read a book, very carefully, writing on the margins with all kinds of notes.

“A few weeks later I return to the book and transfer my scribbles onto note cards, each card representing a critical theme in the book.”

You might not be writing a book as dense as Greene’s, but research is an integral part of learning how to write a book.

Tip: Learning how to analyze a book is a great way of understanding the conventions of that genre.

7. Gather Your Book Ideas

If you’re writing nonfiction, readers expect accuracy and research. If you’re writing fiction, and your story takes place in real-world locations, details matter. Every good author has a system for arranging ideas for their current and future books.

Try these options:

The main lesson is to have some sort of system for storing and arranging each book idea in one place.

Tip: Review your Kindle notes from other books at least once a week. You’ll be amazed by what you forget.

8. Establish What Your Book Is About

Get a blank piece of paper and spend an hour asking and answering questions like:

Nobody has to read your answers, so be honest. They’ll help you write a more concise first draft. Free writing can help with this step too. Unless you’re writing fiction or literary nonfiction, craft a positioning statement for your book that describes it in one sentence.

Here are three templates:

My book helps ________________ who ________________ get ________________.

My book teaches ________________ how to ________________.

My book helps ________________ who ________________ achieve ________________.

My positioning statement for The Power of Creativity is, “My book helps people who don’t think they’ve any ideas to become more creative.”

Doing this extra work upfront will help you avoid spending hours writing, only to find later you hate your idea. If you’re self-publishing your book, your positioning statement and book proposal will also help you market your book.

Tip: Road test positioning statements by writing and publishing short articles related to that topic on popular blogs and other writing platforms like Medium.

9. Decide What Type of Author You Are

There are two types of authors: pantsers and plotters.

Pantsers are writers who sit down in front of the blank page with only a vague idea of where they are going or what the story is about. They write from the seat of their pants, inventing things as they go along, and are happy to see where their characters take them. They write with a connection to God, their muse or their subconscious.

Stephen King is a pantser.

Plotters spend weeks or months planning their book ideas. They decide what they want to write about in advance. They also have a clear view of their story before they begin. When plotters sit down to write, they have a firm idea of what they’re going to say and the research to back it up.

Robert Greene is a plotter.

I’ve tried both approaches, and there’s nothing wrong with either. You’ll discover what type of writer you are, and your writing voice will emerge if you turn up and do the work.

Remember, as Seth Godin says, “Everybody’s writing process is different.”

After years of painful rewrites, unfinished manuscripts, and pulling my hair out, I found out I’m a plotter. I like to know what I’m writing about in advance. I NEED to know what I’m writing about in advance. Today, I’m convinced being a plotter lends itself well to most types of nonfiction writing.

You don’t need to be a subject matter expert to start writing a nonfiction book, but you will become one by the time you’re finished. To start, you just need patience and the ability to write clearly.

Tip: Identify a subject or an area of expertise about which you can write at length and let your imagination soar. Freewriting is one way to explore your interests before planning or starting a book.

10. Interview Experts for Nonfiction Books

Years ago, part of my job as a journalist involved interviewing politicians, business people and even authors. The interviews that caused me the most problems were more than 60 minutes long because they took hours to transcribe.

Don’t make my mistake.

Interviews can help you research a nonfiction book faster and add credibility to your work. However, if you’re interviewing subjects, keep your interviews between 30 and 60 minutes and work out in advance what you want to ask interviewees.

Tip: You can save a lot of time by getting your interviews transcribed for a dollar a minute using Rev.

11. Set a Cutoff Date for Your Research

How much research is too much? Greene’s books are dense, nonfiction books of more than 500 pages filled with historical stories and psychological insights. In other words, research forms the backbone of what he writes.

Your book might not depend on so much research upfront. Remember, research can turn into a form of procrastination.

Tip: You can always fix gaps during the editing process.

12. Establish Your Book’s Controlling Idea

You might want to write a children’s book, or a book about a sport or a diet regime. Or you might want to tell a personal story or offer a guide to a complex topic like teaching science to kids.

Your job will feel a lot easier if you get yourself a chainsaw. For authors, that chainsaw is the controlling idea behind their book.

Your thesis statement or controlling idea should offer a glimpse into the subject you’re writing about and the viewpoint that guides your book. You can figure out your book’s controlling idea by spending an hour asking and answering some simple questions:

Your thesis statement will help you assess whether each chapter achieves its purpose during the editing process. It will help you build your book on a firm foundation.

Here’s the controlling idea for The Art of Writing a Non-Fiction Book:

“With the right ideas, skills and hard work, you can become a successful non-fiction author today.”

Tip: Consider two to three books from your preferred genre. Use the back jacket copy or book blurb to extract their controlling ideas.

13. Select Your Book Writing Apps

For outlining, consider using an app like Dynalist or creating a mind map. Scrivener is my preferred choice for long-form writing as it’s easy to drag and drop book chapters. Ulysses is another good choice.

That said, MS Word and Google Docs work too. Then I use Vellum for laying out final drafts and self-publishing.

I also recommend using a plagiarism checker like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to check your nonfiction works for inadvertent mistakes. Ultimately, the tool is less important than the process.

Tip: Check out our guide to the best book writing apps.

14. Outline Your Book

Outlining a book is an ideal approach for most nonfiction authors and plotters. You can create an outline using an index card or dedicated software like Dynalist or MindMeister.

Here’s how I did it: I

Write an outline to help guide you in the right direction, making sure your chapters follow a logical progression.

Don’t write an outline and expect it to solve all your problems when working on a first draft. When you write an outline, all you are doing is creating a blueprint that you can use as a reference.

Tip: Create an outline based around the three-act structure. Book writing apps like Living Writer include this.

15. Break Writing into Small Chunks

Writing a book is much like running a marathon. A new runner doesn’t attempt to run 26 miles as part of the first session. Achieving that level of endurance requires many sessions to build the discipline and strength to finish a marathon.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work ahead of you? Break your work down into smaller milestones that you tackle one by one.

Books are made up of chapters, sections, paragraphs and sentences. Today, write a few paragraphs about a single idea or piece of research for your nonfiction book. Tomorrow, write about another idea. And so on.

As long as you move forward with your first draft each day, you will reach the end of your first draft.

Tip: Use the Pomodoro Technique to manage your writing sessions.

16. Write Everyday (If You Can)

Do you need to write every day? If this is your first book, it’s unrealistic to expect you can write every day for several months. Instead, aim to write five or six days every week.

Cultivating a writing habit becomes crucial when you reach this juncture. A good writing habit ensures that you set aside time each day for creative work.

If you haven’t written much before, set a more achievable daily word count target along the lines of 300 or 400 words. Then, with some basic math and a calendar (I use Google’s), you can work out how long writing the first draft of your book will take and set yourself a deadline.

Tip: I recommend new authors use competitions like NaNoWriMo as a motivational tool.

17. Finish Your Messy First Draft … Fast

Writing the first draft of a book is intimidating. You look at the blank page in front of you and wonder how you’re going to fill this page and hundreds of other pages to come.

Don’t overthink it.

Instead, find somewhere you can write quietly for an hour and do all you can to get the words out of your head and onto the blank page.

The first draft is sometimes called the vomit draft (Eww!) or the rough draft because you just need to get it out! Don’t stop to edit yourself, review what you’ve written or see if what you’re saying makes sense. The first draft is also a time when you can nurture and develop your writing habit.

If you decide you’re going to set aside two hours each morning, writing the rough draft becomes a schedule you stick to. I find it helpful to set a target word count for my writing sessions. I usually aim to write 1,500 words in an hour, set a timer and open Scrivener.

(Don’t want to use Scrivener? Check out our guide to the best book writing software.)

Then I keep my fingers moving until I reach the target word count or until the buzzer sounds. While you’re writing your first draft, keep your outline and notes nearby to guide you through each section in your chapter. You might be interested in our overview of first draft examples.

Tip: Speech to text software will help you write the first draft faster.

18. Accept You’ll Make Mistakes

A rough draft, like the name suggests, includes flaws. As long as you have a skeleton idea that you can refine and rework, your rough draft is a success.

A writer shared this sentiment with me a few weeks ago:

“My writing isn’t good enough; I feel like I’ll never finish my first draft!”

First of all, the job of your first draft is simply to exist, so don’t worry about the writing.

That comes later.

If you feel like you’ll never finish, start in the middle of the chapter that’s causing you problems.

Introductions explain what you’re about to say next, but how can you write an introduction if you don’t know what comes next? Similarly, conclusions wrap up what you just said, but how can you write one if you don’t know what you just said!

Your story needs a good beginning, a juicy middle portion, and a cracker of an ending. Jumping straight into the middle of a chapter will help you gain momentum faster. Maybe your main character finds out about a secret that will change the course of the story. Or perhaps a major event threatens the very existence of your protagonist’s universe.

Jump into the middle, then figure out how to write the introduction. Take writing your first draft chapter by chapter. Write your book with the sole intention of putting the story that is stuck in the recesses of your memory onto a paper.

Don’t worry if all of it comes out at once and some chapters seem unfinished. That’s the purpose of rewrites, editing and revisions. When you write your book, ideally you should enter a state of flow.

In this state, your fingers move automatically over the keyboard. Sentences become paragraphs, and paragraphs become chapters.

Don’t write your book with the sole purpose of getting it to the top of some best sellers list or a big payday. Instead, write it to create something readers love.

Tip: If you’re unsure what to do about a mistake, write the letters “TK” beside it. It stands for “to come” except with a K. You’ll easily spot this annotation during the editing process as no other words begin with these letters.

19. Manage Your Book Writing Time

I wrote my first book when I was working in a job I disliked, just after my wife had our daughter. I didn’t have enough free time to write for eight hours a day. Even if I did, I lacked the mental discipline to do it.

Starting out, I wrote every night after 9 p.m. when the kids were in bed. However, I quickly found that when I put writing last in the day, it was least likely to happen. I cannot stress the importance of hard work. It’s the key to completing any daunting task, and writing a book, at least for a first-timer, demands it.

Now I set aside time in my calendar for writing every morning at 6 a.m., and I do all I can to stick to this. It helps that my daughter is now five.

If you’re a new writer or you’ve never written a book before, you’re probably balancing writing your book with a job and family commitments. So pick a time when you’re going to write every day, block-book it in your calendar, and do all you can to stick to it.

Managing your creative time also means saying no to other activities and ideas—if they take you away from the blank page. Getting from page one to The End is a long race, and it sometimes gets lonely, but the hard work will pay off.

Tip: Eliminate distractions while writing using software like Freedom App or RescueTime. Still need help? Read our guide to productivity for writers.

20. Set a Deadline

Professional writers work to deadlines. Some writers complain that deadlines loom like a guillotine and find them off-putting.

Your story will not jump out of that blank page on a bright sunny day and say, “Hey, I am ready to be published!” A typical nonfiction book consists of between 60,000 and 80,000 words, and a typical novel can be anywhere from 60,000 to 120,000 words.

(You can write shorter books if you’re self-publishing.)

If you want to write a nonfiction book, and you commit to writing 1,000 words every day, it will take you 60 days to write the first draft if you write daily.

Tip: Put deadlines into your calendar for a first draft and for sending your book to an editor.

21. Fight Writer’s Block

Many new writers worry about writer’s block. They say things like:

“How can I get the words to flow?” or “I can’t think of anything to say.”

Writer’s block is a serious issue for some new writers, but it’s easy to conquer.

In his book, On Writing, King says he deals with writer’s block by throwing a new problem at a character. If you write fiction, your protagonist might get lost in a forest and meet a villain.

Freewrite about what this encounter looks like. Introducing plot twists, small tragedies, a background story or even a new character will help you get over writer’s block.

If you write nonfiction, explore a setback or challenge you faced while trying to achieve a specific outcome. Extract a story from your journal if it helps. Stopping to refill the well is another good way to conquer writer’s block.

Tip: When stuck, put your first draft down, read other books that inspire you, visit an art gallery or listen to a podcast by someone you admire. Also, check out the best writing books for advice.

22. Track Your Progress

One of the biggest tips I can give you for writing your first book is to track your daily word count and how long you spend writing each day. Writing and publishing a book takes months, depending on the subject, so set small milestones for yourself.

Ernest Hemingway recorded his daily word count on a board next to where he wrote so as not to kid himself. Tracking your daily word count will help you measure your productivity and see how far you need to go to reach your target for writing your first book.

A target daily word count is less important when you’re writing the second and third drafts or self-editing your book. During these rewrites, concern yourself with shaping your ideas and working on the flow and structure of your book.

At this point, it’s more helpful to track time spent each day rewriting or editing.

No matter the stage of your book, you should:

Remember, what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets done. Check out our self-editing checklist for more.

Tip: Track your word count in a spreadsheet. During the editing process, track time spent working on each draft.

3. Before Editing Your Book, Let It Sit

When you’ve finished writing your first draft, let it sit on your computer for a week or two, and do something else.

Celebrate your success! Your hard work has paid off.

After spending weeks or months working on an idea, I find that the work becomes too hot to touch, let alone edit.

When you let your writing sit for a while, the ideas cool down, and your memory of it fades. Once you’re ready, print out a draft of your book, sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, and read your draft in one or two sessions.

When you read the draft, you’ll look at it and think, “Oh yeah, I remember this.” Best of all? You’ll be able to see the book’s strengths and problems you missed previously. Highlight and underline sections with a red pen that you need to change.

Look for words and sentences to change and ideas to remove and expand upon. Don’t change them now! Mark your manuscript with a pen and continue reading. Also, don’t feel disheartened if your prose disappoints. Ernest Hemingway arguably said, “First drafts are shit.”

The American novelist and editor Sol Stein likened reviewing the first draft to performing triage on a patient.

Tip: Reading the first draft aloud will help you hear instances of weak writing. You can still ignore the grammar nazis though.

24. Write the Next Draft

Great writing is rewriting.

Before you get into small changes during a rewrite like tweaking a chapter title or editing a sentence, fix your book’s big problems. What does this look like?

While I was rewriting my creativity book, I dumped two unnecessary chapters and wrote a new one. I also found additional research to back up holes in my arguments. Only then did I get into performing line edits.

While rewriting, ask yourself:

You might perform the process of writing, reviewing, editing, and rewriting several times before you’re happy with your book. Take it sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and chapter by chapter.

As you work, your book will teach you how to write it. This is also a good time to reexamine your writing style and check if you maintain a consistent style throughout your book. You can develop your craft by analyzing books and stories.

But what if you still need help?

Stephen King advises,

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.”

Even marathon runners stop to refuel. Plan your breaks because procrastination is inevitable. Relax, refresh, and then get back to your book.

Tip: While working on later drafts, enlist the help of a family member or friend for input. Later on, hire an editor and ask them to provide frank feedback. Our guide to long-form writing also adapts this process.

25. Budget for Self-Publishing Your Book

I’ve written before about the cost of self-publishing a book.

Writing a book is free (unless you count your time), but publishing a book is not. So budget for hiring an editor, proofreader, and cover designer. Recently, I spent:

What else did I budget for? Well, because I’m self-publishing this book, I set aside several hundred dollars for Amazon book ads. Even if you’re on a tight budget, you must understand that working with an editor, proofreader, and cover designer is the entry cost.

Here’s the truth:

If you want to write something readers enjoy, invest more than just time in your book.

26. Hire an Editor

You might be able to write the first or second, or even third draft alone, but at some point, you need outside help. When you’re immersed in a writing project, it’s difficult to see gaps in your research, stories that don’t work or chapters that are too long.

If you’re encountering roadblocks, you can waste a lot of time trying to get around them yourself. Editors are trained professionals whose job is to turn manuscripts into something readers enjoy.

A good editor will help you write a far better book and improve your craft as a writer. They’ll also help you speed up the process of rewriting your book.

Like any professional, editors are not free. You’ll have to hire one in advance and give them several weeks to review your book. Depending on your book’s length, you can spend anywhere between 500 and several thousand dollars on an editor.

Getting frank editorial feedback about your work is difficult to take. Sometimes, you can ignore criticism, but your editor’s feedback should be about the work and not about you.

After a book cover, budgeting for an editor is one of the most important things you must-do if you’re going to publish the book you’ve just written.

Tip: Check out our podcast interview with Natasa Lekic of NY Book Editors.

27. Hire a Proofreader

You could try proofreading as well, but I don’t recommend it. It’s time-consuming, and because you’re so close to the material, you will inevitably overlook some typos and mistakes.

I wasted a lot of time trying to proofread my drafts only to have readers email me about the typos. I don’t know about you, but typos keep me up at night! In the end, I hired a proofreader, asked them to fix my book, and re-uploaded the proofed version to Amazon.

Instead, I recommend hiring a proofreader or giving chapters to beta readers, family and friends to check. Hiring a proofreader will cost several hundred dollars, depending on the length of your work.

Giving chapters of your book to eagle-eyed friends and family shouldn’t cost you much (beyond returning the favor!).

Tip: You can proofread early drafts using software like ProWritingAid and Grammarly. We still recommend working with a professional proofreader before pressing publish though. Read our grammar checker review.

28. Publish Your Book

I recommend Scrivener and Vellum for preparing a final draft for publication. There’s a modest learning curve to both tools, but it’s time well spent. Alternatively, you can hire a book designer for a few hundred dollars.

You’ll also need to hire a cover designer, and I recommend 99 Designs. Adding a book review will also come in handy to attract those readers who do a drive-through by skimming your summary and cover.

Getting a book review from an established author or lots of readers will help you sell more copies. If you need help with this, consider joining the Author Marketing Club.

If you have an email list or blog, you could offer readers free review copies of your work. It’s relatively easy to upload your e-book and cover to Amazon and other bookstores like Kobo or Draft2Digital.

Tip: Build pre-buzz for your book by writing guest blog posts on other sites. It’s relatively easy to turn nonfiction chapters into posts with some editing.

How To Write a Book This Year: The End

Learning how to write a book takes a tremendous amount of hard work and mental discipline.

That’s one reason why many would-be authors spend more time talking about writing than doing the work. Once you finish your work and publish it, congratulations!

Now, you’re a professional author. But remember …

Successful nonfiction writers put their books on the marketplace and move on.

You will always see a gap between what you want to create and what you end up writing, but you can narrow the distance with each new title. After all, the best way to sell the most recent book is to write an even better one next time.

Book writing webinar

How To Write a Book: FAQs

Can anyone write a book?

Lots of people say they have a book inside of them but less than 5% of people will write one. The good news is you can write a book with a little hard work and perseverance.

How much does an author make per book?

Do you need a publisher to write a book?

Anyone can write a book. And, thanks to self-publishing platforms, anyone can publish their work too. On the other hand, if you wait until you find a publisher before starting your book, you risk not writing much at all. Plus, you’ll put off gaining the practice and experience of a creative who works consistently.

Is it better to write or type a book?

Some popular authors, like Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates, enjoy writing long-form by hand. Other writers prefer typing up their manuscripts. Either is ok. However, typing is usually faster. And unless you have a budget for a typist, you’ll have to create a digital draft at some point.

Author

Bryan Collins runs things around here. He’s also a non-fiction writer and author.

Become a Writer Today is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate, we also earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Write a Book: The Ultimate Guide

We all have a great book idea burning inside of us.

We imagine how writing a bestseller will change our lives. How it will advance our careers. How it will make us an authority on a topic we enjoy.

A 2021 poll conducted for National Novel Writing Month showed that 54% of people would love to write a book about their own life story. But, only 15% have been able to get started and still more struggle to finish.

The truth is many of us don’t actually make it to the writing phase.

The epic ideas, thoughts, and stories we wish to tell don’t come to fruition because of the inability to act on this dream.

Table of Contents

I also know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. When you know how to write a book and have the right tools and support to get through the book writing process, your dreams of writing your first book can come true.

Use the following book writing and publishing guide of the 12 most important steps you can take to plan, produce, and launch your own book.

Find Your Why: Reasons to Write Your Book

If you have a great idea for a book, you should write it. It’s as simple as that.

Not only are you doing your future readers a disservice by not sharing your creation, but you are also holding yourself back from reaching your full potential.

You will stay motivated through the writing process as you remind yourself of the reason you are writing a book. What is your why?

Here are just four of my favorite reasons why you should write your first book and how writing will change your life in ways you never even imagined:

This sounds simple enough, right? So then the real question becomes, “why don’t more people start writing?”

This is a tough question to answer, but I believe much of it has to do with direction…or lack of it.

For most people, writing and publishing a book may seem like an insurmountable task. Figuring out how to stay motivated when writing your book can be challenging, especially if you do not have the right processes and guides in place.

However, just like any other seemingly insurmountable task, the journey from start to finish is best handled one step at a time. Through regular, focused writing practice, you can begin to put pen to paper to compile your piece with a step-by-step process, one page at a time.

Set Up Your Writing Space

One of the most important steps to how to write a book begins before you put any words on paper. Take the time to set up a proper writing space so each writing session can be productive.

As you create a dedicated writing space, your goal is to minimize distractions and maximize inspiration.

If you have a spare room, turn it into your dedicated writing space. If you do not, find a space that is comfortable and as free of distractions as possible.

Some successful writers prefer writing in public spaces like coffee shops, libraries, or parks. The white noise of coffee shops can keep your mind focused on your writing. Writing your book in a library can prevent you from the distractions of your cell phone or being at home. An outdoor area not only gives you healthy natural sunlight but being among nature can also be inspiring.

The best writing location for you is a personal choice, and it does not always have to be the same place if you find you need a break from your normal writing environment.

If you are setting up your dedicated writing space at home, add a desk and supportive chair. A sit-stand desk and an ergonomic chair can counter the effects of sitting for long periods of time and invite you to your writing space.

Small touches like adding plants help you create an inspiring writing environment. Add your favorite artwork, photographs, or books, but keep it simple. You want each of your writing sessions to be productive and free of distractions.

Many successful writers prefer writing at a computer while others always start with pen and paper. You might begin writing in your notebook at a coffee shop and transfer your notes to your laptop. If you are more productive spending all of your writing time at a keyboard, do so.

Book writing software can help you streamline the writing process. It cuts down your writing time with helpful tools like spell checkers, auto-save, grammar tools, plagiarism checkers, and ways to organize your chapters.

Some book writing software has built-in productivity features that help you stay free of distractions. Others can help you publish your book. If you decide to use book writing software, choose one that is user-friendly and meets your needs.

Dedicate the Time to Be a Better Writer

The next step to how to write a book is to set aside time to develop your writing skills.

Writers come from all walks of life, and some of the most successful authors in the world often lived half their life with no real intention of ever writing a book.

Although there is no set formula for how to be a good writer, the difference between average writers and good writers comes down to the way they approach their craft.

Being a good writer requires you to write often, read more, and polish your writing skills

Write Often

Great writing stems from consistency and regularity. If you can establish a daily writing routine with regular writing sessions, you will be well on your way to making significant strides toward finishing your book.

The best way to get started is to find a structure that works for you.

First, set the scene.

Set up your writing space where you will be able to do your best work, whether that is in your home office, a corner of the living room, your local coffee shop, a coworking space, or your back porch.

Second, choose an ideal time to write. If you have the most unstructured time available to you in the early morning, perhaps that timeframe could be devoted to your craft.

On the flip side, if the idea of putting pen to paper before winding down for the evening seems more appealing, an evening writing schedule might be more suitable.

And, last but not least, set a goal for how much actual writing you’d like to accomplish every day.

It doesn’t have to be a lot. You might also aim to give yourself a target word count to hit, perhaps something between 250-500 words.

Regardless of the structure, you create, make sure that it provides you with the most freedom and flexibility to succeed at writing more often.

Read More

The fuel for writing books comes largely from reading good books.

Whether you love horror or hate it, Stephen King is widely recognized as one of the most successful authors in the genre.

With almost 70 novels and hundreds of short stories under his belt, King has built a life on the foundation of sharing spooky stories that have captivated millions.

On this topic, he says, “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

I honestly couldn’t have said it better myself.

But, if you don’t want to take King’s word for it, here are some other reasons why reading more makes you a better writer:

And as a final note, walking a mile in a reader’s shoes can also help you feel more connected with your audience.

If you invest your time in reading more of your genre, you will begin to understand firsthand what motivates readers to continue reading.

You’ll discover the answers to questions like:

Take a Writing Class

While you certainly do not need a degree to be a professional writer, learning good writing skills and how to make best use of writing tools will help you tremendously to learn how to write a book.

Whether you are writing fiction or writing nonfiction–or even just starting out with a blog post or short article–learning the tools of the trade will boost your writing career.

And this is not just my opinion. Studies show that being a good writer depends on repeated practice.

Many writing classes are available online for free, so it is easy to fit them into your schedule.

Taking the time to learn effective writing skills will not only help you strengthen your writing muscles, but you will also gain a community of other writers that can inspire you with fresh ideas.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

To be a successful writer, choose a story to tell and learn how and who to tell it to.

First, you need to identify what story you will tell. A lot of great book ideas come from brainstorming what you are interested in. Make a list of things you enjoy doing, things you know how to do, topics you are an authority on or at least know a lot, and things people come to you for advice or help with.

Once you’ve decided on your topic, knowing how to write a book that will reach the people you want to read it depends on getting to know your target audience.

It is important to understand your audience in order to continue to successfully create new pieces of your work they can’t wait to get their hands on.

This is perhaps the most important step in the process of how to write a book. Because when you write, the book is never about you. It’s about what you can share with the audience you wish to serve.

To determine your target audience, it is first important to consider:

Once you’ve determined your unique answers to these questions, you can begin sourcing information from people within your network.

There is a chance that your personal or professional network could be very closely aligned with the audience you wish to reach. You could even begin with this audience and expand or revise it as you continue to edit and change portions of your soon-to-be bestseller.

All in all, it is a writer’s job to get to know their audience. It takes work, but all of that work is what will make your book great.

Choose the Right Book Topic

My next how-to write a book guideline is to choose your topic wisely.

Once you have committed to being a better writer and have identified your target audience, now it’s time to choose an appropriate topic or a story for the audience you’ve selected.

It is critical that the topic be unique enough to set your book apart but general enough to appeal to a wider group of people that still fall within the same umbrella as your audience.

Take the idea of writing a book on social media marketing, for example. It’s general enough for your audience to understand, but you need to pitch it from a different perspective.

Perhaps your book could be focused on a specific theory on why you should only post to social media on Tuesdays. Now, this is a very unique train of thought, so if you choose this route, be sure that you can back up your ideas in grounded evidence as to why you believe this…but you get my point.

And most importantly, choosing the right book topic for your audience is meaningless unless you are passionate about the topic yourself.

Not only is it much easier and more natural to write a book about something you actively believe in, but it is also more entertaining for your reader because they’ll be able to feel your level of involvement and interest in the topic just by scanning a couple of sentences.

Simply put, your audience won’t believe what you’re saying unless you believe it first.

Know How to Make Your Book a Bestseller

Along with choosing the right topic that you are passionate about and will keep your reader’s interest, knowing how to write a book also involves understanding key concepts that turn good books into bestsellers.

Network With Other Published Authors

Since fellow writers have been through the process of taking a book from ideation to creation numerous times, they are a wealth of knowledge and can offer you expert guidance and tips about any step in the writing process and publishing process.

Assuming they are a talented, successful writer, this is almost always a good thing and will put you on track to becoming a bestseller yourself.

Plus, reading and familiarizing yourself with the works of other bestselling authors that you look up to is one of the best ways to develop your writing skills.

By getting to know the works of authors in your own genre, you’ll develop a knack for understanding different successful writing formulas and be able to begin piecing together engaging stories that readers cannot wait to get their hands on.

On top of that, you’ll also begin to recognize stylistic patterns that specific authors use to define their work and stand out from the crowd.

Best case scenario, you will pick up some of their writing tips and tricks to use in your own works. Worst case scenario, you may be struck with some additional inspiration on how to approach and alter your own writing techniques and style choices.

Either way, you can’t lose.

The more people who know about your book, the greater chances it has of becoming a bestseller. The word will spread when readers find a good book, but there are also things you can do to bring attention to your book.

The best way to get the word out about the great work you have created – or are in the process of creating – is to network with other seasoned authors.

Determine What Bestseller List You Want To Be On

So, you want to be a bestseller. But do you know what kind of bestseller do you want to be?

For example, do you see yourself topping the digital charts on Amazon? What about clinching the top spot on the New York Times list? Or perhaps sitting pretty high up the book list that is put out by the Wall Street Journal?

There are so many bestseller lists that it is impossible to track how many there are. To make matters more confusing, each one also has different criteria for determining which books make the cut and which do not.

Some bestseller lists measure the number of sales of a certain book over a specific period of time, while others are curated by a certain group of people responsible for choosing which titles should make their list.

In any case, if you are trying to be recognized as a bestseller, you should come into the process of book writing with an idea of which list you’d like to be on. From there, you can perform research to better understand the qualifications you will need to meet to be considered for a ranking.

Other Bestseller Considerations

While the above considerations should be the main priority when thinking about ways to make any bestseller list when writing a book, you’ll also want to keep a few other things in the back of your mind while creating.

One of those things is the quality of your writing. To make a book a bestseller, it is essential that your writing is both clear and captivating so your readers do not lose interest. While the story you tell is certainly important, so is the way you tell it.

Your prose doesn’t necessarily have to sing like Shakespeare’s, but it does need to be polished enough that people thoroughly enjoy reading what you write.

You’ll also want to take a look at your marketing strategy. Is there anything you could change in order to get more eyes on your work?

Consider what places your audience usually shops for books of this nature, if your potential buyers are on social media or if they prefer to see most of their ads via billboards, fliers, or in a newspaper.

Create a Book Outline to Begin the Writing Process

A successful journey starts with a good road map. A bestselling book begins with turning a good book idea into an outline you can follow before the actual writing begins.

Finding a way to organize all of your thoughts at the front end of writing a book will guarantee your success later. This sounds like a tedious step, but trust me, knowing how to write a book outline can make or break the direction you take your piece or how much time it will take you to complete.

A book outline is essentially a map that guides authors to the end of their book-writing journey as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. A good outline should help set the stage, organize the scenes, and clarify how the entire story or message comes together. It also will eventually form the table of contents for your book.

How much planning you end up doing is largely up to you. Some authors prefer to have a detailed outline that is well fleshed out from start to finish while others create a basic outline, preferring instead to let the book unfold as they write it but having the foundational structure in place.

Regardless of the outline you choose to create, once you build your outline piece by piece, you will then be ready to write your book page by page, and, eventually, you’ll progress from one sentence to your first drafts to a finished product ready for publication.

How to write a book outline is slightly different when your write fiction versus writing a nonfiction book. Here are some guidelines to follow:

Writing fiction

When you write a book on a fictional topic, your outline helps you plan out your characters, scenes, setting, plot, climax, and more. You can approach writing your novel outline in many different ways, but whichever approach you choose, include these essential elements:

Writing non-fiction

Writing an outline for your non-fiction book involves identifying the purpose of your book and writing down the main ideas, principles, and concepts you want to convey. Nonfiction writers include these elements in their book outlines:

The purpose of your outline is not to write an entire manuscript but to create a structure you can follow to get from your big idea to an entire first draft, all while heading in the right direction that will keep your reader’s attention.

Dedicate Extra Time to Working on Your Book Title

When you pour your heart and soul into writing a book, you want people to read it. Often the first impression readers get of your book is its title. You want to craft a title that will encourage someone to open the cover and read the entire book.

Assume 80% of people will read your title, while only 20% will end up reading your book. That means you should spend extra time working on an emotional and impactful title.

You might have a great title for your book long before your write your rough draft, or you might until you finish writing or are even in the editing process.

Regardless, aim for a title that grabs attention, is easy to say, gives an idea of what the book is about, and is memorable.

Make a list of 20 or so book ideas. If you are writing a book that is fictional, think of the names of your characters, places, memorable phrases, and plot twists in your book for inspiration.

For your nonfiction book title, think of your target audience’s pain points and how you are solving them. Unlike fictional book titles that can be more inventive and imaginative, the title for your non-fiction book should give the reader a clear idea of what the book is about.

While it is usually not against copyright laws for your book to have the same title as another book, you want to avoid this for confusion, especially with popular titles. You can do this with a deep search on the internet. Book titles can be trademarked, however, such as Chicken Soup for the Soul and the Dummies series.

Check the database of the US Patent and Trademark Office online to ensure your book title has not already been trademarked.

Consider adding a subtitle as well. This can help your title stand out by allowing for a short title, but clarifying with a longer subtitle.

Learn How to Fight Writer’s Block

Nearly anyone who tries to write a book knows that writer’s block can hit and put up a roadblock to your progress.

Writer’s block can sometimes come from self-doubt. You might stop writing because you fear no one will want to read your story. That is simply not true. Write it anyway, you have something important to say and there are people who need to hear it.

You might also get writer’s block from not hitting your daily word count goal or being overwhelmed with how many words need to be written to complete your first draft.

Don’t allow discouragement to keep you from doing a great thing. Everything worth doing takes time and effort. Renew your motivation by taking a break, reading motivational quotes, or talking to a trusted, inspirational friend or family member.

You might also lose interest in your book idea. If this happens, whether after just writing the first few pages or deep into your book, you may need to revise your approach.

Create Your First Draft

Use your outline to craft your first draft. Don’t worry about how perfect it is or if you are including everything you need.

As you get into the writing habit, you will find you are inspired with ideas you may want to insert into an earlier or later part of your story. That is what a first draft is for, to allow your book to be a living, thinking, changing document.

Use your personal writing voice for your book. Do not try to write like other authors, although you can learn from their good writing habits as well. But make sure your first draft captures who you are and what you want to convey. Chances are this will not be your only book. You will want your voice to emanate from and be recognizable to your readership.

When you feel you have written the particular story you want to convey in your first draft, you will then focus on editing and revising.

Edit Your Book

When I write a book, I write quickly and leave the editing process for later. This strategy has helped turn my book ideas into over 70 books.

My motto is to write feverishly and edit meticulously.

When you get into your writing routine and first start writing a new page or a new chapter, it should come as an uninterrupted flow of conscience.

Later, you can go back and carefully edit your work, pruning away unnecessary content, polishing your writing, and weeding out mistakes. In the beginning, though, it’s getting your thoughts onto paper into a rough draft that is the most important.

Self-editing, hiring an editor, or combining both processes are options to you.

It’s always best to review your work yourself first, to ensure you have addressed all of the ideas you want. If you continue solely with self-editing, use one or more of the many writing tools available to you. These will help you catch spelling, grammar, and technical errors, and some can give you advice on voice and tone.

You can also hire a professional editor to make sure your entire book is polished from cover to cover. This is especially helpful when you are self-publishing.

Publish Your Book

Learning how to write a book will turn your big idea into a bestseller. Once you finish writing, it is time to get it in front of your readers.

In the past, publishing a book meant convincing publishing companies to look at your work and like it enough to publish it under their name.

Of course, this is much easier said than done, and even the world’s most successful authors, such as J.K. Rowling, Dr. Seuss, and Luisa May Alcott had to deal with countless rejections and years of waiting before they were able to finally publish their book.

In many ways, though, this process is a thing of the past. Today you can self-publish, work with a publishing company, or use a publishing service like Amazon.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is the practice of publishing a book without the help of a traditional publishing company. Choosing this option might sound challenging, but in fact, there are a variety of convenient options that make publishing a book quick and easy.

You can pay for and arrange all aspects of the publishing process on your own, or work with a company that handles some of these tasks for you. Just note that if you work with a non-traditional self-publishing company, you may need to pay for specific services or turn over some rights to your book.

Self-publishing is often the more affordable option for those who are focused on the financial aspect of bringing a book into the world.

The process of self-publishing a book is actually quite simple, and, if you take the time to do it right, the results can be just as effective and spectacular as any book published by one of the major publishing companies.

Publishing Companies

A publishing company is an entity that is responsible for handling the printing, distribution, and storage of an author’s book.

Within the publishing company, there is typically a publisher who is tasked with finding books that are likely to sell well. They act as the direct line of communication between the author and the publishing company and are responsible for creating contracts with authors they would like to sign.

Once a publisher has signed a contract with an author, the publisher will move forward with the process of printing the book and preparing it for sale.

There are two specific kinds of publishing companies that an author could consider – traditional book publishing companies and self-publishing book companies. Each operates in a different way and offers aspiring authors their own unique set of processes, services, and contracts for the work they are seeking to publish.

Traditional Book Publishing Companies

Traditional book publishing companies have been around for years. They used to be the sole gatekeepers that one would need to impress in order to get a book published. The process involved pitching your creative work to a company or publisher who would then make a final decision on whether or not to take a chance on your book.

Oftentimes, this process was long and tedious, and the author might have to pitch to multiple companies in order to get their book in front of their audience.

Though times have changed, and some of these companies have adapted well to the digital age, their essential roles remain the same.

Some of today’s most well-known traditional book publishing companies include Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

Self-Publishing Companies

Self-publishing companies are less established and take a different approach to the publishing process than traditional publishing companies.

Their primary role is to assist authors with the process of publishing books independently. These companies help with printing or digital preparation, as well as the distribution of works.

Some of the best self-publishing companies include Kindle Direct Publishing, Kobo, and Xlibris. However, a number of other options are also available.

How to Publish a Book on Amazon

The benefits of Amazon’s book publishing platform have appealed to many authors in recent years.

Amazon’s self-publishing has made it incredibly easy for anyone to market their book on the largest book-selling platform in the world. Through the variety of services that Amazon offers, you can publish your fiction or nonfiction book in digital, print, and even audio format.

Really, the only parts of the process that Amazon doesn’t have a hand in are your book cover design and formatting, although it does have a built-in cover creator.

A few standout perks that set Amazon’s publishing platform apart from the competitors are:

Write Your Next Book

Now that you’ve written and published your first book, why not do it again?

Learning how to write a book makes writing the next book even easier.

Note what worked well in your first draft and throughout the whole process and what needs improvement.

Once you start getting book reviews, it is also very helpful to read these. While some reviewers will not give constructive criticism, the majority of readers will give honest and helpful reviews.

Use their words to analyze what your target audience is looking for. If them mention something they wish your book had, see if you can provide that in your next book. Try also to incorporate the positive things they raved about your first book. It is all about finding needs and meeting them.

Start Writing Your Book Today

My final piece of advice for your book-writing journey is to tell you to go for it!

The main difference between those who are published authors and those who are not is that published authors actually followed through with their dreams, taking it one sentence at a time using a proven book writing strategy.

About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian’s goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and Youtube.

How To Write A Book In 10 Steps

By Harry Bingham

Are you writing a book? Maybe you’re starting out for the first time?

Twenty years ago, I was in your exact position. My wife was seriously unwell. I’d quit work to look after her. And yes, a lot of my time was spent caring for her… but that still left a whole lot of hours in the day.

I didn’t want to just do nothing with that time. And I’d always wanted to write a book. (I’ve still got a little home-movie film clip of me, age 9, being asked what I wanted to be when I was grown up. I answered, “I want to be an author.”)

So, sitting at home, and often quite literally at my wife’s bedside, I opened my laptop and started to write.

That book grew into a 190,000-word monster. I was engrossed by the damn thing too. Worked really hard. Was a perfectionist about every detail.

I got an agent and I got a six-figure book deal with HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest publishers. And the book went on to become a bestseller that sold in a load of foreign territories too.

And best of all? I got a career I loved. I’ve been in print continuously ever since, bringing out about a book a year in that time, and I’ve basically loved every second of it. (Oh, and my wife? Yeah, she’s got a long term condition that will never leave her, but she’s about a million times better than she was back in those days. It’s been an up-down ride, but we’ve been a lot more lucky than not.)

A Super-Simple Step-By-Step Guide For New Writers

But you’re not reading this because you want to know about me. You want to know how to start writing a book.

You’ve got a big empty screen to deal with. A headful of ideas, a desire to write… but no structure for putting those ideas into practice. You want to know: what next?

Well, that’s a good question. (One I didn’t think about too hard about when I started out, but then again I did end up deleting a 60,000-word chunk of my first draft because it was just no damn good.)

So what do you need to do next? The book writing process can be incredibly daunting, so we’ve made it simpler for you.

If you want to start writing a book, take the following steps, in the following order…

Write A Book In 10 Steps

1. Take One Fabulous Idea

If you want to know how to write a novel, there is only one sensible place to start, and that’s not with the first line as you might think, but with the very idea of your book – the thing you want to write about. This is one part of the writing process which you can’t avoid. Which is great, as for lots of people it’s the most fun part.

Concept matters massively. It’s almost impossible to overstate its importance. Stephenie Meyer writes competent prose, but it’s her concept that turned Twilight into a cultural phenomenon. Dan Brown, Stieg Larsson, and Stephen King are similar. They’re decent writers blessed with stunning ideas.

Agents know this, and – no matter what your genre – a strong premise is essential to selling a book. Given any two broadly similar manuscripts, agents will almost always pick the one with the strongest central concept.

How, then, do you get your amazing book ideas? The answer is that you probably already have them. Your killer idea may be germinating in your head right now. It may arise from a passion of yours; it may come out of a book you love.

It’s not about the seed of the idea. It’s how you develop it that counts.

The key here is:

(A) picking material that excites you,

(B) picking enough material (so you want several ideas for possible settings, several ideas for possible heroes, several ideas for basic challenge/premise, etc. You want to be able to make choices from a place of abundance.)

(C) – and this is the genius bit – you need to start combining those ingredients in a way that ensures you have at least one rogue ingredient, one unexpected flavour in your concoction.

So let’s say that you just wanted to write a 1940s, film-noir style, private-eye detective story – an homage to Raymond Chandler and that great generation of writers. If you just replicated all those ingredients, you’d have an unsaleable book. Why? Because they’re too familiar. If people want those things, they’d just buy Chandler’s own work or others of that era. So throw in – a ghost. A German secret agent. Or set the story in a black community in Alabama. Or… whatever. Just make sure there’s one discordant ingredient to make readers sit up and take notice.

Need more help? Then go watch this 10-minute video I put together that walks you through this exact part of the writing process.

It also helps to know really early on what kind of word count you should be looking at. The gold-standard way to figure this out is to get hold of five or six recently published novels in your exact area. Then count the words on a typical page and multiply up to get an approximate total. If that sounds like too much work, then just use our handy guide. The gold-standard approach is better though!

2. Build A Blistering Plot

The next essential for any novelist is a story that simply forces the reader to keep turning pages. Fortunately, there are definite rules about how to achieve this.

Here are the rules you need to know:

Work With A Very Small Number Of Protagonists

These are the main characters in your story. The ones who propel the action and whose stories the readers invest in. You probably only have one protagonist, and that’s fine. If you have two or three, that’s fine too. More than that? Not for a first book, please! They’ll make your job too hard.

Unsettle The Status Quo Very Early On

You could possibly do this from the first page, but certainly within the first chapter. The incident that gets the story rolling is called the Inciting Incident, and it’s the catalyst for everything that follows. Read more about how to make your Inciting Incident work really well here.

Give Your Protagonist A Major Life Challenge

Do this very early on in the book and don’t resolve things till the very end. The reader basically read the book to see whether your protagonist gets the thing they’re seeking. Does the gal get the guy? Does James Bond save the world?

Increase Jeopardy

Though it’s important to do this over the course of the book, it doesn’t have to be an even progression, by any means. But by the final quarter or third of your novel, your protagonist needs to feel that everything hinges on the outcome of what follows.

End Your Book With A Crisis And Resolution

So the crisis part is when everything seems lost. But then your hero or heroine summons up one last effort and saves the day in the end. In general, in most novels, the crisis wants to seem really bad, and the resolution wants to seem really triumphant. It’s achieving the swing from maximum light to maximum dark that will really give the reader a sense of a satisfying book. (More on plot structure here.)

Delete Unessential Chapters

And finally, one more crucial tip: if a chapter doesn’t advance the story in a specific way, you must delete that chapter. How come? Because all the reader really wants is to know whether your protagonist achieves the thing they’re seeking. If that basic balance between protagonist and goal doesn’t alter in the course of a chapter, you’ve given your reader no reason to read it. So axe unnecessary backstory. Ignore minor characters. Care about your protagonist with a passion.

Well, the principles aren’t that hard to understand, although executing the advice can be a wee bit trickier.

Use the “snowflake method” to build your structure. The heart of this concept is the idea that you should start with an incredibly bare-bones summary of your narrative – one sentence is fine. Then you add something about character. Then you build that sentence out into a paragraph. And so on. It’s a great way of allowing your plot to emerge somewhat naturally. More help on that technique here – but don’t ask my why it’s called the snowflake method. It’s nothing like a snowflake.

3. Add Unforgettable Characters

Long after a reader has forgotten details of a plot, the chances are they’ll remember the character who impelled it. The two things you absolutely must bear in mind when constructing your characters are:

Oh yes, and one great tip (albeit one that won’t work for every novel) is this: if in doubt, add juice to your character.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Stieg Larsson could have just written a book about a genius computer hacker.

But he didn’t. He could have written a book about a genius computer hacker with Aspergers.

But he didn’t. He could have written a book about a genius computer hacker with Aspergers and a hostile attitude towards society.

But he didn’t. He could have written a book about a genius computer hacker with Aspergers, a hostile attitude towards society, and who was also a rape victim.

He also tossed in a complex parental background, bisexuality, a motorbike, years spent in the Swedish care system, and an aptitude for violence.

It was the intoxicating brew of all those elements combined that created one of the world’s most successful recent fictional creations.

Short moral: if in doubt, do more.

Our character development page has got a free downloadable character profile questionnaire that asks you 200+ questions about your character. Those questions basically challenge you to know your character better than you know your best friend. It’ll only take you an hour or two to complete the worksheet – and your character knowledge will be propelled to a whole new dimension of awesome. Honestly? It might be the single most useful hour you can spend right now. Uh, unless you are on a burning ship in a storm. In which case, reading this paragraph is not a good use of your time.

4. Give Your Characters Inner Life

One of the commonest problems we see is when a character does and says all the right stuff, but the reader never really knows what they think or feel.

If you don’t create that insight into the character’s inner world, the book will fail to engage your reader, because that insight is the reason why people read. After all, if you just want to watch explosions, you’ll go to a Bond or Bourne movie. If you want to feel what it’s like to be James Bond or Jason Bourne, you have no alternative but to read Ian Fleming’s or Robert Ludlum’s original novels.

This character insight is one of the simplest things for a novelist to do. You just need to remember that your protagonist has a rich inner world, and then you need to tell us about it. So we want to know about:

It’s OK to use fairly bland language at times (“she was hungry”, “she felt tired”), but you’ll only start to get real depth into your characters if you get individual and specific too. See for example how much richer this passage feels, and how full of its character it seems to be:

Seeing the meat, she felt a sudden revulsion. The last time she’d seen mutton roasting like this on an open fire, it had been when [blah, blah – something to do with the character’s past]. As the memories came back, her throat tightened and her stomach was clenched as though ready to vomit.

Because the character has thoughts, feeling, memories and physical sensations all combining here, the moment is richly endowed with personality. A simple “She felt revolted” wouldn’t have had anything like the same impact.

Once you’ve written 20-30,000 words or so, it’s worth pausing to check that your characters seem alive on the page. So just print off four or five random pages from your manuscript and circle any statements that indicate your character’s inner life (physical sensations, memories, thoughts, feelings, and so on.)

If you find nothing at all, you have written a book about a robot and you may need to rethink. If you do find indicators of inner life, but they’re all bland and unengaging (“I was hungry”, “I remembered a barn like that when I was a kid.”), you may want to juice up your character. If you find a rich inner life, then you’re doing great. Just keep at it.

5. Add Drama

Your job as a novelist is to show action unfolding on the page. Readers don’t just want a third-hand report of what has just happened. That means you need to tell things moment-by-moment, as if you were witnessing the event. Consider the difference between this:

Ulfor saw the descending sword in a blur of silver. He twisted to escape, but the swordsman above, a swarthy troll with yellow teeth, was too fast, and swung hard.

(This form of narration is “showing”.)

Ulfor was badly injured in a swordfight.

(This form of narration is known as “telling”.)

The first snippet sounds like an actual story. The second sounds like a news report.

Obviously, you will need to use the second mode of storytelling from time to time. Telling can be a simple way to convey facts and speed things up, but for the most part, your tale needs to consist of scenes of dramatic action, glued together with bits of sparse narration. If in doubt, look up our free tips on the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule.

One of the real drivers of drama on the page – and one of the real pleasures of fiction – is intense, alive, surprising dialogue. Writing dialogue competently is pretty easy – you can probably do it already.

But writing really great dialogue (think Elmore Leonard, for example) is not so simple. That said there are rules you can follow which just make your writing better. For more advice on all this, just check out our page on dialogue.

6. Write Well

It sounds obvious, but it’s no good having a glowing idea and a fabulous plot if you can’t write.

Your book is made up of sentences, after all, and if those sentences don’t convey your meaning succinctly and clearly, your book just won’t work.

Almost everyone has the capacity to write well. You just need to focus on the challenge. So think about the three building blocks of good writing:

A. Clarity

You need to express your meaning clearly. Of course, YOU know what you’re meaning to say, but would a reader understand as clearly? One good way to check yourself here is to read your own work aloud. If you stumble when reading, that’s a big clue that readers will stumble too.

B. Economy

Never use ten words when eight would do. That means checking every sentence to see if a word or two could be lost. It means checking every paragraph for sentences that you don’t need. Every page for surplus paragraphs. If that sounds pedantic, just think about this. If you tried to sell a 100,000 book that had 20,000 surplus words in it, you shouldn’t be surprised if agents rejected it, because it was just too boring and too baggy. But that’s the exact same difference as a 10-word sentence and an 8-word one. In a word: pedantry matters. It’s your friend!

C. Precision

Be as precise as possible. This normally means you need to see the scene in your head before you can describe it clearly to a reader. So it’s easy to write “a bird flew around the tree”, but that’s dull and imprecise. Just think how much better this is: “A pair of swallows flew, chirrupping, around the old apple tree.” The difference in the two sentences is basically one of precise seeing, and precise description. Need more help? Then you’ll find this article really useful!

If you can manage those three things – and you can; it’s just a question of making the effort – then you can write well enough to write a novel. That’s nice to know, huh?

Descriptive writing sounds like it ought to be boring, right? Everyone knows what a coffee shop looks like, so isn’t it just wasting words to tell the reader?

Except that’s not how it works. The reason why writing descriptions matters so much is that the reader has to feel utterly present in your fictional world. It has to feel more real than the world of boring old reality. That’s where great descriptive writing comes into its own. If you can – economically, vividly – set a scene, then all your character interactions and plot twists will come into their own. They’ll feel more dramatic, more alive. And again: there are simple repeatable techniques for strong descriptive writing. Read more about them right here.

7. What If I’m Writing For Children?

Same rules apply, no matter the age or genre you’re writing for, but we’ve put together a collection of our best tips for children’s authors, including help on how to get a literary agent who’s right for you and your work.

Whatever else, write clearly and economically. If your style isn’t immediate and precise, children won’t have the patience to keep up with you. If a chapter doesn’t drive the story forwards, you’ll lose them. If in doubt, keep it simple. Write vivid characters to an inventive plot. Write with humour and a bit of mischief.

But really: if you’re writing for kids, then follow ALL the rules in this blog post, but do the whole thing on a smaller scale. The only really crucial issue that distinguishes children’s fiction from adult work is word count. You just have to know the right kind of length for the specific market you are writing for.

Oh, and don’t rely on internet searches to give you the right answer. Because there is so much age-dependent variability in kids fiction, crisscrossed by a good bit of format and genre variability, the only safe route to follow is the one we’ve just given.

The most common mistake made by aspiring children’s authors has to do with writing down to children. And that’s wrong. Children don’t want to be lectured or patronised. They want their world to be taken as seriously by you as they take it themselves. One of the reasons Roald Dahl was so successful was that he wrote about stuff that adults (in the real world, outside fiction) would have disapproved of. A giant who spoke funny? Adult twits who behaved badly? A lethally dangerous chocolate factory? Dahl’s willingness to be subversive put him clearly on the side of kids, not adults. Authors such as Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, JK Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer all use the same basic trick. Copy them!

8. Set Up Some Good Writing Disciplines

The first rule of writing is this: Good writers write.

They don’t want to write. They don’t think about writing. They don’t write a blog post about writing.

Sure you can do those other things too, but they’re not what counts. What counts is bum-on-seat hours and that document word count ticking ever upwards.

Now the truth is that different writers approach their work differently. There’s no one set of rules that works for everyone. But here are some rules that may work for you. If they do, great. If they don’t, adapt them as you need. Either way, if the rules help you write, great. If they don’t, discard them.

Set Up Your Writing Space So It Appeals

Lose the distractions. Make sure you have a computer, pens, and notebooks that you like using. Get a comfortable chair. You’re going to be in your dedicated writing space a lot, so it’s important to find somewhere you can relax. (Just don’t get so relaxed that you end up spending hours of the time that you allocated to your writing sessions surfing the internet or cuddling your cat.)

Eliminate Distractions

Got a TV in your writing room? Then lose the TV. Or change rooms. Get rid of the distractions that most bother you.

Determine When And How Often You Will Write

If you have a busy life, it’s OK if that’s a bit ramshackle (“Tuesday morning, alternate Wednesdays, and Saturday if I get a chance.”) But the minimum here is that you set a weekly allowance of hours for your writing sessions, and stick to it come hell or high water. Pair your writing schedule with:

Set A Weekly Target Word Count

Hit your word count target every week, no excuses. In terms of specifics, it doesn’t matter how many words you write. Whether you reach a word count of 2,000 each day or 300, what’s key is being consistent. Once you’ve started writing and have tangible evidence of your hard work, it’s likely that carving out some writing time and reaching your target will get easier.

Make Some Kind Of Outcome Commitment

For example: When I have finished this book, I will get an external professional editor to give me comments. Or: I will share this with my book group. You just need to have in mind that this book will be read. That knowledge keeps you honest!

Commit To A Deadline

Don’t make that too tough on yourself, but do make it real. Almost anyone should be able to manage 2,000 words a week, even with a busy life. And most adult novels are 70-100,000 words long, so in less than a year, you have yourself a book, my friend. With practice, you’ll get faster.

Work To An Outline

I said you needed to sketch your plot, right? (You can get that plotting worksheet by navigating to the top of the sidebar on this page.) Use that outline as your story-compass. If you need to tweak it as you go, that’s fine – but no radical changes, please!

Always Prioritise The Reader’s Perspective

Don’t write to please yourself. Write to please the reader. If you need to imagine an actual Ideal Reader, then do so. Write for them.

Don’t Worry If Your First Draft Is Lousy

It’s meant to be! That’s what first drafts are for. Jane Smiley said, “All first drafts are perfect, because all they have to do is exist.” Same goes for you, buddy.

Take Breaks

If you’re a fidgety writer (as I am), you’ll want to take a lot of breaks. If you concentrate fiercely for twenty minutes and take a break for five or ten, that’s fine. Just keep going that way. This is your writing time, and it’s important that you set it out in a way which works for you.

Warm Up Each Day

I always edit my work of the day before as a way to warm myself up for the chapter I’m about to begin. If you like to warm up differently, then go for it. Just remember you may not be able to just start writing fresh text at 9.01 am precisely. Most of us need to warm the engine a little first. Even if all you do for the first ten minutes is get settled into your dedicated writing space and re-read yesterday’s work, that’s a great start.

And that’s it. Do those things, and you should be fine.

9. Revise Your First Draft

Nearly all first drafts will have problems, some of them profound. That’s okay.

A first draft is just your opportunity to get stuck in on the real business: which is refining and perfecting the story you’ve just told yourself.

That means checking your story, checking your characters, checking your writing style.

Then, doing all those things again. You’ll find new issues, new niggles every time you go back to your work (at least to start with), and every time you fix those things, your book will get better. It’s a repetitive process, but one you should come to enjoy.

Don’t get alarmed by the repetitions: think of this rewriting task as climbing a spiral staircase. Yes, you are going round in circles, but you are rising higher all the time.

We’ve seen hundreds of new manuscripts every year, and we’re pretty good at recognising common problems. We’ve even got a checklist of recurring issues we find. Most are fixable, so you don’t need to worry too much if some of those apply to you.

The thing is simply to figure out what the issue is, then sit down to address it. Remember that all successful novelists started the same way as you did: with a lousy manuscript.

Editing your own work can be a challenging and somewhat mysterious process. So we’ve removed the mystery. We’ve put some actual edits to an actual book (by me, as it happens) up on the blog, so you can see how the self-editing process works for an experienced pro author. You can find more about all that over here. While you’re at it, you may want to take a look at the various different types of editing that are available. But don’t jump into paid editing until a very late stage. For now, self-editing will improve your manuscript and build your skills.

10. Make Friends, Get Feedback

Writing a book is hard work. It’s lonely. Those around you are seldom equipped to offer expert feedback and advice – and, of course, this is a difficult road. Most first novels do not get published.

So please don’t try to go it alone. Here are some things you can and probably should do:

Join A Writing Group Or Online Writing Community

It’s really helpful to be able to interact with people who are on a similar path to you, and understand what writing is like. There are many communities to choose from. Like ours! See our expert tip below.

Go Public With Some Of Your Writing Goals/Achievements

That could just mean updating your Facebook page or talking with your friends at the office. The main thing is to avoid your book feeling like a dark secret you’re not able to share.

Get Friendly Peer Feedback

When your book is finished and roughly edited, it can be useful to seek supportive feedback, of the “Wow, you can really do this!” variety. You’ll need to get tougher in due course, but that early support can work wonders.

Build Your Skills

That could mean doing an online creative writing class, or taking a course, or working with a mentor, or attending an event. Whatever you choose to do, you will improve as a writer and writing & editing your next book will come easier than it did this first time round.

Get Professional Feedback

Once you’ve done as much self-editing as you can manage, getting some professional feedback is the ideal next step. There is absolutely no better way to improve a manuscript than to get a rigorous set of comments from an experienced third-party editor. Watch this video for tips on how to process and make best use of that feedback.

Remember, you don’t have to do all of this at once. This is a marathon, not a sprint. So go easy with yourself when setting out your goals. Under-commit and over-deliver, right?

Meet friends in a free and knowledgeable community of writers. I blog there every week and thousands of writers like you meet to share peer-to-peer critiques, gossip, advice and support. And also – friendship. Passion makes friends like nothing else and our community is all about passion. Sign up is totally free. And fast. And easy. Just go here and do what you gotta do.

Bonus Tip: Get A Literary Agent

Literary agents only take about one book in a thousand, so before you take this final step, we do suggest that you’ve completed numbers 1 to 9 properly. You should also take a look at our advice on manuscript presentation to make sure you’re really prepared for the next stage. That said, if your novel is good enough, you will find it easy enough to secure representation. Just follow these steps.

A) Select Your Target Agents

We have a complete list of literary agents and you can filter all data by genre, agent experience and more. It’s the most complete source of its kind.

B) Choose About 8-12 Names

You’re looking for agents keen to take on new writers. If they happen to represent authors you love, so much the better. (More advice on how to start your agent search.)

C) Write A Fabulous Covering Letter

This can be a little daunting. But once you’re familiar with the process, it will feel less overwhelming. Try using this advice and sample letter.

D) Write A Good, Clear Synopsis

Synopsis writing is a process that terrifies most writers, but this is easier than you might think. Just follow these tips.

E) Get Your Stuff Out There

And there you have it: 10 steps to help you start writing that novel.

This may seem like a long, daunting process, but you want to write a book, and now you know where to start. So let’s celebrate that for now!

Happy writing, good luck. And keep going!

Jericho Writers is a global membership group for writers, providing everything you need to get published. Keep up with our news, membership offers, and updates by signing up to our newsletter. For more writing articles take a look at our blog page or join our free writer’s community.

By Harry Bingham

About the author

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About Jericho Writers

Jericho Writers helps writers with every part of their journey to publication. We offer editing, we run courses, we offer some great mentoring, and we host some awesome events. Best of all, we offer a great membership service to serious writers. Come and take a look.

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