Preparing to write: A checklist of to-dos

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Preparation is an essential part of writing a book. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, eBook or traditional book, you need to prepare yourself. A good place to start is answering these 15 questions and once you do, it’s time to create a checklist of tasks for getting your book finished.

But what should you include on the list? Here’s some suggestions:

  • Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey was definitely on to something when he added this to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Starting with your end goal makes it easy to work backwards. So, for this item, decide if you’re going to go the self-publishing or traditional publishing route. Then, once the manuscript is finished, you know what to do next.
  • Decide your audience and ideal reader. We’ll talk about this more another day but it’s important to remember that no book is a good fit for every person. Given that, who do you want reading and recommending your book? Conjure up an image of that person and keep them in mind throughout the process.
  • Establish a word count guideline. How long do you want your book to be? What’s a good length to convey your message? This will vary based on topic and type of book but it’s helpful to set a rough idea. Then you can break up how you write by words per day or amount of time per day.
  • Find beta readers. Especially beta readers who will be honest. You need people who will give you feedback and suggestions on your book to make it better not people who will simply feed your ego.
  • Research. Fiction or nonfiction, you’ll need to do research on your book. Whether it’s on subject matter or gathering interviews or creating characters and realistic places, you’ll need dive a little deeper into your topic. Even if you’re using first hand accounts. You’ll also want to do some research on what other types of books in your niche are being sold (knowing your competition is a good thing!).
  • Organize and develop a system. Systems are essential for keeping yourself organized and motivated during your book writing process. Have a central place for your outlines, notes, research, citations, interviews…anything that’s going to help you complete your book. Create a method for how you’re going to write your book and worth through writer’s block (we’ll talk about that another day, too).
  • Establish a platform. While you can still be successful without huge numbers of followers, you do need to have a profile on social media. You don’t need to use every single one (there’s just too many) but it helps to pick one or two and focus your efforts there. A platform gives you fans and supporters and, when the time is ready, an audience who already likes and trusts you and to whom you can sell your book. Followers and fans are also great beta readers and can give wonderful feedback for marketing and selling your book. Hint: if you use Facebook, even if it’s just for personal reasons, you have platform.

Your list might look slightly different based on your goals and priorities but these items are a great foundation.

Writing a book is hard work but if you’re organized, motivated, and know where you’re going, you definitely can get it done!

What are some items on your writing checklist?

So you want to write a book: 15 questions to ask yourself

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Your book. In a bookstore. Front facing, prime placement.

BESTSELLER.

It’s something many aspiring authors dream of having. It’s their end goal. But in order to get there, you have to write the book first, right?

Right.

Writing a book is hard work. Like, really hard. You toil and slave and spend hours in front of a computer writing and deleting and writing and deleting and some days you think you’ve written gold and other days you think you’ve written crap. Most likely, it’s somewhere in between (that’s what editors are for!).

And that’s all okay.

But before you get that far, and before you make the commitment to write a book, you should probably ask yourself some questions:

  1. What kind of book do I want to write?
  2. Why do I want to write it?
  3. What’s my end goal for the book?
  4. How is it different from other books in the same niche or on the same topic?
  5. What are some other books on the topic?
  6. What do I want my book to look like? Is it a collection of interviews or essays? A narrative? How about the cover?
  7. How much time can I commit to writing my book?
  8. What question will it answer or problem will it solve?
  9. Am I passionate about what I want to write?
  10. Do I have a platform? How can I use it? If I don’t have one, am I willing to spend the time to create and cultivate one?
  11. Do I want to self-publish or traditionally publish?
  12. What’s my budget for services like editing and cover design (for self-publishing)?
  13. Do I want an agent (for traditional publishing)? How do I find one?
  14. When it comes to marketing, what am I willing to do? How much time and possibly money do I have to spend on it?
  15. Am I a good writer? If not, but I know my idea is good, can I afford a ghostwriter to bring my idea to life?

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and you don’t have to answer them in order. But by going through it and honestly answering the questions, you should be able to steer yourself in a direction and settle some thoughts about writing your book.

7 criteria that make your book stand out

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Once I began my employment as an acquisitions editor, and let my friends, family, and extended network know I was actively seeking manuscripts, I’ve had my inbox flooded with requests to evaluate their ideas and completed (and half-finished) proposals and books. I try to look at each one fairly and objectively and with the same set of criteria.

It’s that last part we’re going to talk about today.

Now, please bear in mind that these are simply my criteria for evaluating a manuscript. It’s my mental checklist and not necessarily the same as another acquisitions editor. But, at the very least, it’ll help point you in a direction and give you a sense of what your manuscript should look like before you send it off to someone like me (or an agent, but query letters are a completely different topic). inside the head

 

That said, here’s what I look for:

  • An engaging read. Does it capture my attention? Does it make me want to keep reading? Do I care about what happens next? Am I learning something (for nonfiction)? Is the information easily digested but lessons or characters that will stick with me after the book is done?
  • Writing quality. Is the book well written? Is it full of jargon and industry terms, or can anyone understand what you’re saying? Is is passive or active voice? Is the vocabulary varied?
  • Flow. Does the book flow naturally or is it forced? Do the chapters connect to each other or are they disjointed? It is organized logically?
  • Structure. For nonfiction, coaching type books–are the exercises or chapter summaries or workplans easy to use? Is there a table of contents and index? If not, does the book work fine without them? For fiction, how is the story broken up?
  • Editing. Have you gone over it for major grammatical problems? Is it riddled with spelling mistakes and sentence structure problems? Are quotes properly cited?
  • Market. Not your marketing but audience market. Is there a need for your book? Does it fill a gap in information or add something different or unique to a saturated market? Does it offer a new perspective on an old topic?
  • Passion for the topic. It’s not necessarily about my passion for the topic; it’s about yours. Does it come through in how you’ve written the story? Can I tell that you’ve done your research or carefully planned the characters and plot? For fiction, can I tell that you love your characters? For nonfiction, does it make me feel enthusiastic for the topic, even if this is the first I’ve heard of it?

It’s really that simple. A book doesn’t have to be perfect for me to love it but it has to have potential. It has to grab me. It has to make me want to learn or read more. And if your book has that, you’re definitely ready to submit it!

But you might be concerned that your platform or social media isn’t big enough. We’ll address that in depth another day but in short, I’ll just say that don’t let how small your platform might be be a detractor. If your book is good, it can get published! It can do well! Because you can fix a small platform. You can’t always fix a bad book.