Have you ever thought about writing a book? Would it be a personal story, memoir or business book?
We’re going to get into what you need to do to write a book. Knowing how to write a book is important.
How do I know? I’m writing one myself. I am writing a book that will help business owners manage the money in their business and personal lives.
When I started on this book-writing journey back in March 2020, I knew nothing of how to write a book. Well over into a year now, and I have learned so much. I have made great contacts and am making slow and steady progress on my book.
I want to share what I know on how to write a book with you so that I can add value to your book-writing journey.
All journeys are different, and mine is about writing a business book. There are different genres of books you can write, but I can’t speak to those. I am only sharing what I know on how to write a book through my own experience. I do not claim to be an expert on this topic, but I do have experience. And if by sharing my experience with you I can help you, that is all I aim for.
Can anyone write a book?
Absolutely anyone can write a book. In fact, most people consider writing a book but a small minority actually write the book. Knowing how to write a book is non-negotiable.
Although anyone can write a book, not every book can get published by a publishing house. If you have a story that you feel that you need to get out and can’t find a publisher, anyone can self-publish a book.
Writing a book is hard work. It takes hours and hours of work to put into the project. And it’s not enough to be a good writer anymore. Yes, you need to be a good writer, but you also need to be a marketer and sell those books.
Knowing how to write a book can be difficult information to find and therefore I am choosing to share my experience with you. I am not teaching you how to write a book, but I am bringing you with me on my journey.
My personal story
I had started my business in January 2020 and knew I wanted to write a book to help me with my business. I was always drawn to writing and speaking and knew a business book would be an integral part of my marketing plan.
I had no clue how to write a book, but I knew in my gut I wanted to take that journey. Writing a book is a long process and I had no idea where to start. So, I took to google.
Google led me to find a few book coaches where I interviewed them and ultimately decided to work with Jenna Kalinsky of One Lit Place. She was the best choice I made!
Jenna showed me her process on how to write a book. Jenna and I worked on the first draft of the book, and it was harder than I thought it would be. Creating the outline was the easy part for me, it was coming up with the words to fill those spaces.
Jenna kept telling me it was a good idea to write the draft first because it would help me get clear on the book that I wanted to write. That proved to be really good advice, and I wrote my first crappy draft about personal finance.
Writing the book about personal finance didn’t feel right to me, and after I wrote that first crappy draft within a few months I decided to pivot and write the book about business finance.
Off I went for another few months to write the first crappy draft of the business finance book. This was it, this is what I was happy with.
Jenna worked with me through the process of how to write a book and we came up with my first draft, then a second draft and once I was satisfied with it and knew what the book was going to be about, we started with the book proposal.
During this time, I had formed a relationship with a literary agent based out of New York City. I had signed up for her course Get Signed where she walks the authors through the process of getting signed.
If you want to know how to write a book and how to get that book published, I highly recommend for signing up for Lucinda’s course Get Signed. This is not an affiliate link – I am sharing this information because I feel it is an excellent and affordable course.
Now keep in mind, it’s important to me to get a book deal. That is not the case for everyone. Some authors prefer to self-publish and some prefer the traditional publishing route and then there is the third option of a hybrid approach to publishing.
There are pros and cons to each of the three, and believe me, traditional publishing is not the best route to take. But it’s important to me to try to get published, so here we are, where I have submitted my proposal and am waiting to see if I can sell the book to a traditional publisher.
I wanted to learn how to write a book that would get published. Choosing this road is difficult as it is a highly competitive landscape. I may in the end choose to self-publish, but for now, I am trying the traditional publisher route. If I don’t try, then I’ll never know if it’s possible.
How to write a book and get it published
There are three different routes you can take for publishing your book: traditional publisher, self-publishing or hybrid.
If you are looking to gain credibility, then you might consider having your book published by a traditional publisher. There are pros and cons to having your book published such as less creative influence, less money in your pocket through sales, but the good news is that if the book is published it will be available in bookstores for customers to buy and if you sell enough you have a chance to earn a spot on the NYT bestsellers list.
If you want to make money on the sale of your book and you already have a large audience, then self-publishing may be the way to go. You have creative control and higher profit margins on your sales.
Personally, I have a small list of people to sell to and I chose to follow the route of traditional publishing to help get my name out there. So far, the road to traditional publishing has been filled with rejection, yet I persevere.
There are several really good articles on the differences between self-publishing and traditional publishing and I suggest you do your research and make your decision based on your unique situation.
I don’t know a lot about the hybrid book-selling market so I won’t comment.
Tips on Writing a book for the first time
When you are at the beginning of your journey and you have no idea how to write a book, you need to do your research.
As I mentioned, I hired my book coach Jenna Kalinsky of One Lit Place to help me get through the first couple of drafts for my book.
My biggest tips for you are patience and perseverance. Learning how to write a book takes a lot of patience. Sometimes you just don’t feel like writing, or you have writer’s block. Other days it flows out of you and you can’t seem to stop writing. And what you’re writing is good! That’s the reward.
And eventually, you get to that place where you have a solid understanding of what the book is about.
What comes next in your writing journey is crafting your book proposal.
How to write a book proposal
A book proposal is part of the how-to-write book series. The book proposal is what the literary agent uses to sell the book to a publisher. Book proposals are used for this purpose.
Some authors find the book proposal stage a very challenging process. A book proposal is a marketing tool that is used to sell your book to a publishing house.
I worked through my book proposal with Jenna and it took several weeks for us to put it together. Once we were satisfied, I started sending the query letter and the book proposal out. I was so excited. I had envisioned literary agents knocking on my door dying to work with me!
That did not happen.
Most of the agents just ignored me.
Except I was very grateful to have a relationship with one agent who took the time to help me. She thought my writing was decent and was willing to help me get further in my writing career. She helped me massage my book idea into something that was more marketable (don’t forget that the publishing industry is a business and they are in the business to sell books) and connected me with an expert in book proposals to improve my book proposal.
Working with someone experienced in the book proposal process was nice, as she brought in a different perspective. She was instrumental in getting this book proposal completed.
If you don’t want to pay for help there are many websites that you can visit that show you how to write a book proposal. The templates are just as good and if you have the interest you can research the best ways and ideas on how to write a book proposal.
Get help from your network
Once your book proposal is complete, you will need to find a literary agent who agrees to help you sell your book. For a fee (I believe the standard is 15% of the sale and royalties) the agent takes you on as a client and they represent you. It is their job to get the best deal possible for the book.
It truly does take a village to write a book. My recommendation to you, and I recommend this always, not just for book writing, is to build relationships and create a valuable business network.
I am fortunate enough that I have created relationships with other business owners who have published their business books. I am beyond grateful for the sincere friends I have made who want to help me on my book journey and have connected me with their connections.
It is so much easier to get a literary agent to view your proposal if you have an introduction through a colleague or you have created your own relationship with them.
Thus far I have had a handful of no’s, but I am at the beginning of the journey. Maybe that yes will come as I continue my journey.
At the time that I am writing this article (July 28, 2021) I am waiting for feedback on my new book proposal. I do not have a literary agent who has agreed to present me yet, but I’ve sent out four requests. Many requests need to go out. I will update this post at this spot when I have news coming in.
Conclusion
The book-writing journey has taken me a lot longer to get to this point than I would have thought when I started on this journey back in March 2020. At this point, it has been 17 months.
Yes, I had about two months where I stopped writing to rethink my approach, and I have two different manuscripts as a result, but the process helped me get very clear with the book that I really want to write.
I am hopeful that my book proposal will sell.
But regardless of what the outcome is, I know I have several books in me to write, and I will continue on this path and see what life brings me.
