1) You can’t write a book without a deadline.
This is primarily true with all projects, but with books, it is gospel. A book tends to get out of your hands and become a monster. Expect your brain to rebel too. It would want to do everything else but work on the book. The only way to finish a book is to hire an editor who has pre-charged you for editing and has blocked his time. The late you get with delivering your book, the less time he has to edit it, which means poor quality editing. And in case you don’t finish in time, you lose your money and your editor too. Most professional editors want to work with professional authors. So if you expect professionalism from them, you got to be professional too.
2) You are bound to struggle with your first few books.
I wrote my first book like I had my first baby. I didn’t know what to expect and just went with the flow. I made several mistakes, but it didn’t matter. But with the second one, I learned many pitfalls and still fell into them. Despite making several lists, I still wasted time and effort. Now, taking a step back, I am more accepting that I will struggle with my first few books, which is fine. Just two years ago, I struggled with writing a 1000 word article. Today I am writing a 20,000-word book a month. If I can come that far in two years, I will get better in the next two.
3) Building a backlist is of utmost importance.
Nothing sells your book like your next book. So, early in your career, you will be spending time building a backlist and learning the ins and outs of the industry. Even if nobody buys your earlier books, having a backlist establishes you as an author in the industry and prepares the ground for the sale of your future work.
4) Amazon Ads could be your friend.
When you are relatively new in the industry and don’t have a mailing list, Amazon advertisements could bring much-needed visibility to your books. Without the promotions, no one knows about your book.
You don’t have to abandon your earlier books after putting all the work into writing, editing, formatting, publishing, and launching them. Set up Amazon ads and get the visibility your book deserves. Although Amazon ads don’t chew up your advertising dollars as Facebook or Google does, they do chew up your time. There is a lot to learn in this area.
5) Book-A-Month could be a real strategy.
What writing an ‘article-a-day’ is for Medium writers; writing a ‘book-a-month’ is for Amazon writers. The rapid-releases strategy not only gives momentum to your writing practice but to the marketing of your book as well. ‘Nothing sells a book better than the next book’ is the industry cliché.
It might come as a surprise to some but it is easier to write an article a day than it is to write an article once a week. The same is true for writing books. Speed brings focus and fluency.
6) Block out a week a month to write the book.
There are only four weeks in a month. So if you want to write a book in a month, you need to block out at least a week. You need to write 3000 words a day for a 21,000 words book. You will then need another week to edit it.
I wrote my first book in one week. I decided to take the weekend off with the second one and wrote it in 10 days instead. It turned out to be a better strategy as I didn’t have to postpone any weekend plans. I wrote 2000 words a day (a more manageable target) and edited the previous day’s work as I went.
7) You got to love the process.
A career as an author is not for those who want to succeed quickly. Even with rapid releases and advertising, building a backlist and readership takes a long time. You got to love the process (and writing) enough to be able to sustain for that long. Most authors who are doing well today have been writing for decades. They can do that because they love writing and the process of generating books.
8) Initially, you might have to concentrate all your energy on the task at hand.
When I got serious about writing on Medium, I stopped everything else and wrote 100 articles in 100 days to get into the rhythm of writing for the platform. I did the same for writing books. For two months, I entirely concentrated on books. I didn’t check social media, and I didn’t write on Medium. Once I established the system, and I began to get a bit more time, I started going back to the platforms I used to be active before.
9) Treat everything as an experiment.
Writing 100 articles in 100 days was an experiment. So was publishing something on three social media platforms for 100 consecutive days was an experiment. My first book was an experiment too. An experiment to see if I could write a book in a week. Writing a book a month is an experiment too, if I succeed, well and good. If I fail, no big deal. I will learn a lot during the process.
Speaking of failure, I could pull through 90 Days of Focus on Fiction back in August, neither could I keep the promise I made last week to write an article a day for December. They were just experiments. Some I was able to pull through, others I couldn’t.
Both these goals have gone to my future To-Do lists, and hopefully, I will do justice to them one day.
10) Writing a book is just one-third of the battle.
Two-third is marketing. According to The State of Indie Authorship in 2021, 79% of independent authors list marketing as the most challenging part of the publishing process. Writing the book came in second at 14%. I am finding the same. It could be that marketing is taking me away from my passion, i.e. writing, or that my marketing channels are not set as my writing process has. I will be spending more time on it in the next year.
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