10 Simple Steps To Writing A Book (We’ve Sold One Million Copies Using These Steps)

Whether you’re a professional, a blogger, a consultant, a homemaker, a retiree, or anything else — you can learn how to write a book.

Now before you think, “I can’t write a book. What would I write about? Who’d want to read a book I’ve written?” — please hear me out.

I never thought about writing a book either, but as of today, I’ve written more than 20 books over the last year 3 years. I’m not sharing this to brag, but just to let you know it can be done, even if you don’t think of yourself as a book writer.

screenshot of books on Amazon writing a book

I had all sorts of limiting beliefs around writing a book, not the least of which was how I would get it published. But the publishing industry has changed dramatically in the last few years, and self-publishing your own book is becoming more the norm rather than the exception.

As more and more writers become indie authors, and as current self-published authors learn to adopt professional publishing practices, indie authors will capture an increased share of the market. But that’s not the only reason for you to write a book.

Being an author who writes books gives you loads of credibility, authority, and name recognition.

Writing a book related to your profession or expertise will make the book like a calling card for potential clients and a way to generate new business. Knowing how to write a book allows you to be viewed as an expert and someone who carries some clout in the industry.

If you have a blog related to a particular topic, writing your own books gives you another way to build your following and create an additional income stream.

Even if you’re writing a novel, having the title “published author” next to your name gives you a boost of confidence, broadens your skillset, and makes you a more interesting person.

Can you make any money writing books?

Yes, you can, if you know the skills and strategies involved, and if you’re disciplined and consistent in writing.

If the idea of writing a book intrigues you, then you can get started right away in telling your story, sharing your expertise, or teaching a skill.

Here are ten steps to writing a book:

How To Start A Book (Step One): Determine your goal.

Are you writing a book for fun? To promote your business? To build your credibility? Think about the end goal of this book you want to write and how it will serve you and your readers. This will help you determine if you want to write fiction or non-fiction.

man at computer sitting writing a book

For now, don’t make your goal relate to earning millions of dollars. See this first book as an experiment and a way to learn more about the process. But even if it’s an experiment, you want to produce the best product you can that’s professional and well-written.

Step Two Of Writing A Book: Define your topic

Once you’re clear on your goal, start thinking about the topic of the book. If you’re writing a non-fiction book, think about exactly what you’re trying to communicate or teach in writing this book.

Rather than covering a broad overview of a topic, go deep with one element of the topic. This allows you to share much more information with your reader and gives you the opportunity to write additional books related to the topic.

If you’re writing a fiction book, create your story and characters around a narrative that you know something about or have a passion for. If you’re a history buff, maybe you write historical fiction set in the time period that interests you. You certainly don’t have to do this, but it gives you an anchor for the various ideas you may have about a potential novel.

Step Three Of Writing A Book: Create an outline.

Once you have your topic idea formed, begin outlining the chapters and/or sections of your book.

Try to think from the end of the book first. What do you want your readers to walk away with at the end? How do you want the story to culminate?

Once you have a general idea of how your book will end, create the book outline moving toward that end.

If you’re writing non-fiction, you may be breaking down chunks of information to teach your readers something sequential. Or each chapter might be an individual lesson or essay on its own, all leading to a final converging point or message. You may decide you want to support or enhance the material with stories, quotes, or examples.

I write non-fiction books and generally write skeletal outlines for my books. For example, if I were writing a book on meditation, my outline might look something like this:

Introduction

About the book

Chapter 1: What Is Meditation

  • History of meditation
  • Types of meditation
  • Meditation and mindfulness

Chapter 2: Beginning Your Practice

  • Learning to breathe
  • How to sit
  • The monkey mind

You may have another outline style that works well for you, but I find the skeletal outline is an easy and quick way to get your ideas on paper as you first get started.

Outlining a fiction book is a little bit different because you’re creating a narrative. Spend some time simply brainstorming and allowing your imagination to create a story in your head. Take some notes while brainstorming.

Then come back and begin fleshing out your outline further. Creating your outline will first involve deciding on characters and the roles they will play in your story. Once you have a general idea of the main characters, you can use a skeletal outline for the story, or you can write a brief summary of the story, and then determine how to break down the story into chapters.

Step Four Of Writing A Book: Determine how you will write.

I write my books on my Mac using the Pages word processing software and also use Skrivener. You want to write using something that allows you to easily edit and make changes without wasting a lot of time.

Also, you’ll eventually want to send your manuscript to be edited and formatted, and it’s much easier and less expensive if you’re able to send it in a format your editor can easily edit.

Some people really enjoy writing in longhand, as it stimulates creativity and forces you to write slower. If you decide to do this, you’ll likely have to go back and type it all on your computer anyway. So you might as well start there unless you simply can’t write unless you have a pen in your hand.

Step Five Of Writing A Book: A writing schedule with daily goals.

This is the most important part of writing your book. You can’t write only when you feel inspired or motivated. You must create a daily (or 5 day a week) writing habit. It’s best if you can write at the same time every day and commit to a number of words you’ll produce at each sitting.

woman writing on paper writing a book

Attach your new writing habit to a trigger or cue which prompts you to begin writing. This trigger is a previously-formed automatic behavior, like brushing your teeth or walking the dog. Select a trigger that happens every day and one that occurs at a good time for you to write. Eventually, your new writing habit will be so associated with your trigger that the combination will feel automatic.

Start small with a goal of writing 200 words each day for the first week. Then increase the number of words until you reach 1000-1500 words a day. At this point in my post here, I’m at 1245 words. That gives you an idea of how much you might try to write each day. It’s really not all that much.

If you’re writing an 80,000-word novel, it will take 80-90 days of writing 1000 words a day to finish it. If you’re writing a 30,000-word non-fiction book, you can have it done in just over a month with consistent writing.

Step Six Of Writing A Book: Create the environment.

Find a spot in your home that you feel is conducive to writing.

Maybe it’s your office, a standing desk, or your dining room table. Decide exactly what you need in advance so you’re prepared every day when you sit down to write.

Do you need music playing? If so, what kind? Do you want a candle? A cup of tea or coffee? Do you need to be near a window?

Having all of this determined in advance will help motivate you to get started and to make writing an enjoyable ritual.

Step Seven Of Writing A Book: Write, don’t critique.

As you’re writing, try not to constantly review and critique your work. Just write. That consistent writing habit is so important. You can always go back through the book many times to re-write and edit if you don’t like something. But it will give you a huge boost to just finish the book and stay committed to the process.

Everyone who writes is their own worst critic. Be prepared to think, “This is crap. Who am I kidding.” Every writer thinks this. Some of it may well be crap and need re-working or editing. But you have to start somewhere, so get it all down on paper and then deal with the crap. Read writer Anne Lamott’s book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and you’ll learn the value of crappy first drafts. The most experienced writers have them.

Step Eight Of Writing A Book: Rewrite and polish.

Once you finish the book, set it aside for a few days or a couple of weeks. You’ve been so close to this project while writing it that you need to create some distance. Then go back and read over the entire book again, correcting mistakes, rewriting sections as necessary, cutting out wordy parts, and tightening it up.

Take out the words and passages that aren’t absolutely crucial to the story or message.

Go through this process a couple of times until you feel pretty good about what you’ve written. But don’t get stuck in the editing process. Once you review your masterpiece a couple of times, you’ll need to turn it over to a professional.

Step Nine Of Writing A BookFind a professional editor.

Even the most experienced, professional writers use editors. You don’t want a book full of inconsistencies, grammatical errors, and misspellings. You also want to make sure the book flows properly, and that your use of words is correct. A good editor polishes and refines the book before publication.

The editor checks facts and verifies headings, statistics, data in graphs, and footnote entries. For fiction, the editor will check for consistency and logic and will read with the needs of the audience in mind.

Don’t skimp on editing your book.

Yes, you’ll have to pay for a good editor, but you want to make sure you are releasing a professional work. If your book is filled with errors and inconsistencies, you’ll get bad reviews and people won’t buy the book. Also, it will damage your credibility as a writer.

Step Ten Of Writing A Book: You finished! Now publish your book.

I could write an entire book on how to publish and market your book. But I’m including a mention of it here because you don’t want your wonderful book to languish in the documents folder of your computer. You may not feel completely happy with it or think it’s the next New York Time’s bestseller, but that’s OK.

Launch it a get it out there so others can read it, and you can have the satisfaction of having your first published book under your belt.

With every book you write and publish, you’ll learn more and become a better writer.

You’ll be inspired by other writers as you research and read more about writing and publishing. Everyone has to be a beginner in the beginning, but the more you write, the more of an expert you’ll become.


More Related Articles:

The Perfect Writing Software

13 Proven Tools for Discovering Bestselling Book Ideas

How To Write Flash Fiction


Did you find any value from these tips on writing a book?

I hope you enjoyed this 10-step guide to wring a book. I hope you’ll use each of these steps for book writing to help you write your own book.

Would you like to share this with other writers?

It would be really great if you could help me spread these writing tips to others. Would you be willing to send out some love to your friends and family? Please share these writing steps on your preferred social media platform.

Here are 10 simple steps to writing a book. This guide will walk through how to write a book. We've sold over one million copies of our books using these exact tips.

3 thoughts on “10 Simple Steps To Writing A Book (We’ve Sold One Million Copies Using These Steps)”

  1. I have written several books in the past but wanted to refresh myself with a suggested process and see if there were new ideas out there that would be helpful. I found your article very helpful. However I was surprised that you, and most of the others I have been reading, do not suggest research as one of your steps – both research in terms of what is already out there on the topic you are writing on and research in terms of content. Was wondering why this is.

    Reply

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