Writing your first book - Allround Achievers

Honestly speaking, writing and publishing a book can be a tall order especially when it’s your first book. However, the benefits of publishing and marketing a well-written book, I believe, outbeats the struggle and challenge that come with it, considering how much it boosts your credibility, your impact in the world and the spread of your message around the world.

I recently just launched my first book, and I’m more than excited about that especially seeing the impact and performance the book has exhibited thus far. And so, I thought I’d share some key actions I took while embarking on the journey of the book project – from start to finish (not in any strict order). Hopefully, these actions will help you if you’re considering writing a book – especially your first book.

1. Get clarity on your message:

Don’t decide to write a book just because you want to write, rather write because you have a message to write for which there’s an audience. Yes, it’s ‘your’ book but again you’re not the reader. To help with that, ask yourself what you want to write on, why that’s important to you and your readers, and who are you writing to.

So you need to be crystal-clear on your message and on your readers (your target audience).

2. Survey your target audience

So, you’ve identified your target audience now it’s time to know them a bit more. You want to know their problems, needs, challenges, age, educational background, income level (if you feel it’s important), and other data you feel will be relevant in learning about your readers. The idea here is to garner as much information about your readers such that you’re able to meet and exceed their needs and expectations with the message in your book.

To help with this, consider running a survey on your target audience to collect data for your book idea. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey, GoogleForm, etc.

3. Read extensively on the topic

Let’s face it, you’re likely not the first person to write a book, not even a book on your topic of interest. It behooves you to learn from the writing styles of other successful authors to incorporate those into your writing. You also want to know what has been written on your topic of interest so you just don’t duplicate that but rather improve on that, making them even more valuable with your own uniqueness. So, go get the best books written on your topic of interest as well as those written by top authors to learn from them.

John C. Maxwell, one of American’s most prolific author, once shared that he reads everyday as part of his productivity routine as an author. You’re encouraged to make this a habit as an author.

4. Learn from the experts (the big bosses):

It can be overwhelming merely thinking about starting to write the book (that’s why most people give up too soon). You probably have lots of thoughts darting around your head like a ping ball (and I know how that feels). There’re tonnes of tutorials and courses out there on how to write a book written by experts who have mastered the art of writing. That is a good place to start as it will serve as a writing walking stick.

In preparing to write my first book, I found Brian Tracy’s program – “How to Write a Book” to be superbly helpful. The program guided me through the entire writing process from planning, researching and organizing the contents, to editing and marketing – and just about the entire writing process. In fact, before I completed it, I had already started off outlining the first chapter of the book. I traveled fast afterwards and had few writers’ block. (Brian Tracy is a prolific author of over 60 books so he truly knows his stuff.)

5. Produce a publishable manuscript

No matter what method of publishing you decide to go with (which I cover next), you always want to be sure to, as much as possible, commit to excellence not necessarily perfection (which doesn’t exist) in your writing. Based on your timeline and budget, consider having your book reviewed and edited a couple times before moving to the publishing phase. Getting family and friends especially those who are good at it can be a good starting place. If you’re going to self-publish then this will be beneficial to you.

You can find editors on platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, and others where you can find freelancers to edit your book. Also, there are also people on those platforms who can help with interior design and cover design. For cover design, make sure to check out 99 designs . On the platform, after submitting your applications, a contest is set up where up to 10-20 designers compete to create a winning design. On the final phase of the contest you can get the opinion your audience based on the last designs standing. (I just love the idea). Of course, you can explore other options.

6. Self versus Traditional publishing:

This is one of those decisions that can’t be taken on a whim – traditional or self publishing? Each has it’s own pros and cons which should be put into consideration. Ideally, you want to choose the one you feel makes sense for you. But one thing I’ve learnt lately is that this isn’t an either/or game as there’s room to go hybrid. In any case, here are some articles that cover the pros and cons of both options.

Going the traditional pub route, you’ll want to first find literary agent who can help you find a publisher. Check out this article on how to find one. Here’s a list of agents in Canada if interested.

For self-publishing, here’s a list of the top self-publishing platforms you can choose from.

7. All set – develop your marketing strategy

This applies mostly to those going the self-publishing route. You’re solely responsible for coming up with the promotional strategies for your book (literary from A…Z). And with social media and many other wonderful tools out there in the internet, you can produce desirable outcomes.
Ideally, about 6 months before the book launch, you want to start executing on your promotional plan. Here some promotion ideas:

Do a teaser campaign on social media. Post quotes/references from your book on social media using a unique hashtag. (Here’s the one I had on Instagram for my book)
Consider using book promotional websites such BookButterfly, AskDavid, BookHub, etc. These sites will basically help promote your book to their subscribers. Some charge a fee while the others are free. For more on promotional websites check out. If you eventually go with one or more of these promotional website, be sure to identify what their policies and cost are so you plan you launch. The application approval may take couple days or more , so keep this in mind when deciding the promotional site to use.
Create a landing page for your book (here’s the one I’d created for my book – here). There’re lots of tools out there for creating landing pages.
Start building a mailing list. Encourage people to sign up to the list by offering some form of free giveaway: could be 1-2 free chapters of your book or some other resource that’ll provide value to you readers. (I used #3 to collect my mailing list). You use this method mostly to collect new leads. For folks who you already know a la friends and family who you’d like to inform about your book, you can simply add their email address to your list to keep them posted.
Social media ad campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. If your book in on Amazon, you can run AMS ads there (one of the best places to run book ads; and make sure to check out this course on how to do it.) As many as you can; just start small then expand.
Think about producing a book trailer.
Write guest posts most preferably on sites where the readers are target audience for your book. Be sure to leave a link to your book’s landing page in the guest post so people can check it out.

8. Launch

3, 2, 1 – <<<BOOMMMM!!!>>>

And the time is finally here. You can now show the world your baby, your project – your book. The book has been birthed and now it’s time for you to tell the world about it. Starting from your family, friends and acquaintances – spread the word about your book, and ask them for referrals for speaking engagements or other promotional avenues. No one will blow your trumpet more than you will, so do what you can to get attention. Also, be ready to speak at events as a means to promote your book. (If you’d like to hone your communication skills, here’s a great place to start; this program helped me immensely and I’m confident it will do same for you.)

Apart from executing on the ideas outlined in #7, you can also consider :

dropping off copies of your book at local bookstores or libraries
contacting radio/T.V. stations hosts to interview you on your book
reaching out to organizations, offering to speak at their events (obviously those whose members will benefit from your book )
holding your own events (and possibly give away some copies of your book).

I hope you find these points helpful and handy for when you plan on taking on your next/first book project. I believe that by executing on these actions you’ll see tangible results on your book project.

So, what other actions have you found helpful when writing & publishing a book?