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Have you had the goal to write a book but don’t know where to start? Here is a quick framework of some natural steps that can help you on your journey from passion to book outline to written book and published author status!
1. Engage a Course or Book on Publishing
I recommend folks read the book “Published” from some ideas of how to market their book. We’ve also created a course on book writing for fellow professionals called “Professional and Published” which has been accessed by almost 900 people since it’s launch!
2. Work with a Book Coach
Book coaches can help you move from passion or idea to a concrete process for writing the book itself. They can help you narrow down your audience, focus on your gift, and they can even help edit the book as you begin writing if that’s something you want within their professional support services! One Book Coach we’ve connected with recently is Amy Collette of Unleash Your Inner Author, who focuses on mental health and self-help book authors.
3. Hire a Book Editor
Of all the things to invest in on your book writing journey, you’ll want to prioritize funds for a book editor to format your paperback and Kindle versions for your launch. It saves a ton of time to work with someone who can do the formatting quickly and easily, helping your final product look professional for folks who purchase your published book. You can find book editors on Upwork.com. Our go-to professional for almost all five of our published books has been Kevin Turner of 789 Book Layout.
4. Finalize Amazon Keywords
This is a critical step to making sure your ideal audience finds your book among several million books listed online. We enjoy working with Richard Wolf of Wolf Design and Publishing for this service. This company also offers book cover design, best-seller campaigns and more to help your book get noticed!
5. Complete Market Research
Have you done your research on what books are already out there? What makes your book stand apart? What are the price points you are seeing for similar books?
6. Write Your Book
Do you struggle with carving out time for the actual writing of your book? Thankfully there are resources out there to help! Locally, The Process Denver is a workspace dedicated to focused work time in effective time blocks to make progress on your project. They also have a writing workshop called “Writers Blok” for folks with goals specific to writing!
7. Publish Your Book
Complete the steps to self-publish online and viola, your book is officially out there! Once your book is published, you can track sales, numbers of pages read, and customer reviews easily through your author portal. Lastly, don’t forget to periodically check that your book isn’t being plagiarized online. You can read about my own journey of having my best-seller stolen online in my blog here.