Writing Your First Book

This pandemic causes you to look back at things in a weird way. It was just over a year ago that the pandemic started and I finished writing my sixth book “You’re Not Done Yet” a book that I had been writing on and off for a year. With the pandemic starting it had given me that time to complete things and tick off one goal complete. With the pandemic lasting much longer than many had anticipated many have either started writing a book or have had time to reflect on life and decided that a book is something they want to add to their bucket list to share their experience with the world. Whatever reason you have for writing a book we can help you with the four steps listed below. When you finish your book let me know maybe we will interview you about it on the podcast.

Step 1- What type of book will you write and why?

The type of book you write will depend on you and what your reason is for writing the book. Are you writing a book as a course or showcase for your expertise? Are you writing hoping it will be a best seller and offer you fame and money? Will you write a novel or a self help style book? Will you publish it through a traditional publisher or self publish the book? These are all questions that need to be answered first and reading other books is a great way to get started. Make some notes for your research know what you want for the final outcome. Most books won’t make you money but may bring opportunity in other ways so don’t measure on someone else’s success. Our monthly book club is now reading The Ugly One in the Middle by Stan Campbell which is a self published biography that may be of interest if you need a place to start.

Step 2 – Marketing your book.

The next step is marketing your book and it may seem weird that this step is before the actual writing of the book. You’ve probably started writing your book but at least six months before it’s done you should start marketing your book. I get calls from people all the time about illustration work for their books and the first thing I tell them is to do the cover image and webpage first. This way you can start your marketing and promoting your book building some buzz about it. I have included some information for you below on marketing tips and what you will need on your website for the book.

Step 3 – Writing your book

It’s amazing that writing your book is step number three and you may have already started it earlier but I see it often where people wait until the they have written it to start marketing it and lose a lot of time that could have been better used to promote it. Writing the book is the big work and if you’ve done your research it should give you a big start into the success of your book. Jyotsna Ramachandran helps people get their books into print form and offered some writing tips during the interview we had on putting the book together so you may want to listen and take some notes from that episode.

If you don’t think you can write the book yourself then a ghost writer may be something to consider. Later this month in an episode with ghost writer Laura Gale we talk about how ghost writing works and what you need to have in place for the book to be completed. Listen to that episode later this month.

Once the book is written it is time to put it together online on your own or with the help of a self publishing house. The podcast episodes below deal with those issues.

Step 4 – Promoting your book

Seeing the final book in place and completing a goal is cause for celebration. Whether you’ve self published or gone with a traditional publisher now is the time to let the world know. Planning a book launch can be exciting and daunting. I had a full day six hour book launch for my last book and previous books I had actually gone on a speaking tour. Whatever you decide to do have fun with it. Below is a video from my book launch if you need some ideas.

I hope the information above helps you achieve your goal of completing your book and checking off a life long goal. It can be very rewarding to finish a book and see it in printed form.
I wish you luck, stay safe.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a creative / media entrepreneur. He is a professional cartoonist, podcast producer, radio station producer, and television host producer. You can learn more about Bruce and his work at www.bruceoutridge.com