I became a writer by accident, and have now published four books. So, I know what itu2019s like to have little writing experience, and to grow to writing a lot.Iu2019ll start off by saying that most people have false beliefs about how a book gets written. I used to think that to write a book, you would just sit down and write a book straight through. This is probably why I hated writing until I was deep into my twenties!The steps I recommend are designed to break down what can be a painful process into smaller, less-painful steps.Step 1: Build a Tiny Writing HabitThe first thing you need to do is to build a habit of writing. Many people will tell you to build a habit of 1,000 words, but thatu2019s just insane. You might meet that goal the first day, and maybe even the second, but then what happens? You oversleep your alarm clock a few minutes or you catch a cold, and you use that little thing as an excuse to not write today.I interviewed Stanford professor and habits expert BJ Fogg on my podcast, and he told me about u201ctiny habits.u201d Basically, you should shoot for the smallest habit you can possibly imagine. That might be to write five words a day, fifty words a day, or even one hundred.The point is that you pick a habit that is so small, you canu2019t possibly make an excuse not to write. It becomes harder for you to do the habit than it is to not do the habit.If you keep writing every day, suddenly, youu2019ll be able to write much more, with less pain. Stick with the tiny habit, but if you write more than that target, thatu2019s fine. Just donu2019t write less. Congratulate yourself just as much for writing fifty words as you do for writing 1,000 words.Step 2: Learn About BooksMost of us take books for granted. We donu2019t think about how much thought and consideration goes into getting people to want to buy a book.Make a habit of downloading free Kindle samples of books. Read a bunch of them. Think hard about why someone would want to buy the book based upon the title and subtitle. Read the Amazon reviews. Why did someone love the book u2024 why did someone hate it? Even more valuable, why did someone almost love the book.As you read Kindle samples, ask yourself if youu2019re personally compelled to keep reading as you get to the end of the book. The beginning of the book is really a part of the sales funnel, so pay close attention to it.Step 3: Build a Publishing HabitThere are lots of emotional barriers to get over in writing, but also in putting your work out there. If you have a writing habit, youu2019re busting through those barriers for writing on a daily basis.Now you need a publishing habit. Make a habit of publishing something every day. Again, you can start with a really tiny habit. I think Medium is a good place, but you could even do here on Quora if youu2019re practicing for nonfiction on a topic.As you publish, pay attention to the fears that you have each time you publish. Youu2019ll probably publish many things where you feel embarrassed or afraid, only to find out nobody really cares. Youu2019ll also publish things that you expect people to really love, only to find out the same.I like Medium because you can see what people highlight, and the u201cclapu201d feature also helps you see what resonates. This is all very valuable information, because it helps you see in real time what resonates.Step 4: Build an Email ListIf youu2019re going to go through the trouble of writing a book, you want someone to buy it. The best way to find buyers for your book is to already have fans.Sure, you can build an audience on Twitter or Facebook or here on Quora, but you donu2019t really own a direct line to that audience. This is why you need an email list.You can start with a simple sign-up at the end of each post you publish with your publishing habit: u201cSign up to get updates from me u00bbu201dYou can build up to giving bonuses for each sign up, such as a short story or a list of tips. I pra list of tools I relied upon to 4x my writing output.ConvertKit (affiliate) is the best email provider for authors. I personally use ActiveCampaign (also an affiliate), which is a little more complicated. Iu2019ve written detailed comparisons of ConvertKit vs. ActiveCampaign, MailChimp vs. ActiveCampaign, and an AWeber Review, if you want to delve into this topic in detail.Step 5: Write a Book Title That Will SellI cringe when I think back to the book title ideas I had for my first book ideas. Heck, I cringe when I think about some book title ideas that I have currently.Coming up with a good title for your book is very important, and very difficult.You want to balance having the right keywords with having something compelling or clever.Keywords are important because people search for books on Amazon. I have a book called How to Write a Book: An 11-Step Process to Build Habits, Stop Procrastinating, Fuel Self-Motivation, Quiet Your Inner Critic, Bust Through Writer's Block, Let Your Creative Juices Flow.I admit, thatu2019s a ridiculously long title and subtitle combination, but I called it that for a reason: Itu2019s jam-packed full of keywords that I know, through research, that people search for on Amazon. The book gets lots of organic sales!You can also attract people to your book with a clever title. But it has to be a title that is 1) clever or cool-sounding 2) conveys what the book is about in some way 3) passes the u201ccocktail party test.u201dImagine youu2019re at a cocktail party, and youu2019re telling a friend about a book youu2019re reading. How does it feel to tell them youu2019re reading that book? Does it feel good? Does it make you look good?This is why a book like Deep Work passes the cocktail party test. It feels good to tell someone the work you do is u201cdeep.u201d If a book were called The Small Penis Owneru2019s Handbook, that would not pass the cocktail party test.Step 6: Write an Outline for Your BookWeu2019re halfway through the process, and weu2019re only now writing an outline!? If I could blame one thing for why I hated writing as a kid, it would be the outline. Every damn English teacher I had made us write an outline before we wrote a paper.Well how the hell are you supposed to know what youu2019re going to write about before you write it?!Through your writing and publishing habit, youu2019ve started to develop a u201cuniverseu201d in your mind on a particular topic, or a series of topics (even if youu2019re writing fiction).Now that you have some idea what you want to write about, you can try to give structure to that writing.I personally never have a completed outline that I stick to. I start to outline, and then if some prose comes to me on a particular bullet point, I start writing prose. The next day when I come back, Iu2019ll start writing an outline all over again from scratch.Force yourself to write an outline of your book. Accept that itu2019s imperfect, then move on.Step 7: Write a First Draft of Your BookNow that you have an outline, you can write the first draft of your book. Channel your writing habit into filling out that outline. Your tiny habit will have to get a bit bigger now.Make a habit of writing 500 words a day, filling out that outline. I like a program called Scrivener for writing really organized projects, but use whatever youu2019re comfortable with.Let yourself be sloppy here. Remember, itu2019s a first draft.Step 8: Read the First Draft of Your BookItu2019s an amazing feeling to print out your book at Office Depot and bring a stack of papers to a cafe. Sit down, shut off your mind, and try to react to your book like youu2019re someone who has never seen it before.Donu2019t bother marking down spelling and grammar mistakes here. Youu2019re trying to feel the book as a whole. If you think about details, it will distract you from that.Step 9: Restructure Your OutlineNow that youu2019ve read the first draft of your book, you can restructure your outline. You may need some incubation time between reading your first draft (maybe a couple of times) and restructuring your outline.Stephen King recommends to authors to not even read the first draft of their manuscripts until several weeks after finishing it. You really do need some time for your mind to make connections.If you give yourself a few weeks before you restructure your outline (while still keeping a writing habit) when you revisit, something magical happens. Try to write a new outline from scratch. Youu2019ll probably find your ideas are more crisp than ever.Step 10: Write Your Second DraftNow that youu2019ve written the whole book, consumed it, and restructured it, you can rewrite everything, using that new structure as a guide. There may be lots of details you need to research.Again, keep a habit, and stick with it. Youu2019ll find parts of the second draft come very easily to you, since you already have the first draft in your mind. Things will be more crisp.Step 11: Write Your Final DraftNow, you can start worrying about things like sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. Print out your second draft, go over it with a red pen (I prefer green). Share it with friends or your fans. (I shared the second draft of The Heart to Start with my readers on Google Docs, and they crowd-edited it.) You may also want to hire an editor or proofreader.Well, thatu2019s how you write a book. Everything Iu2019ve written here is in more detail in a book I wrote called How to Write a Book.How to publish a book?As far as how to publish a book, that part is easier, if youu2019re willing to self publish. People forget that you can publish a book almost as easily as you can publish a blog post. In fact, How to Write a Book was originally just a blog post, also called how to write a book.If you really want to get a feel for how to publish a book, I recommend you go to KDP, and try to publish 500 words, on literally anything, under a made-up name. Your u201cbooku201d will be available in the Kindle store within hours.Itu2019s incredibly valuable just to go through the process of publishing on Kindle, just to see how simple it is. In fact, you should publish your first u201cdummyu201d book today before you even start any of the steps Iu2019ve laid out above. It will change the way you think about book publishing.If youu2019re interested in more of my thoughts on self publishing, I wrote in more detail about self publishing, specifically what I learned publishing three books in only six months.
