If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book, maybe it’s because of the “instant expert” status that often comes with being an author. Or perhaps you like the idea of adding another income stream, using your book as a “springboard” to launch a speaking career, or just spreading your life-changing message. Or, perhaps you would love to leave your legacy.
But if you’re like most people who dream of being authors, not only have you not written your book yet – you haven’t even STARTED it! And that puts you squarely in the middle of the majority of would-be authors. Why is that?
“It’s the start that stops most people.”
– Don Shula, Legendary Miami Dolphins Coach
Coach Shula knows the hardest part of any project, or any effort, is just getting started. And although he wasn’t thinking of writers in particular when he said that … it certainly applies. You see, even though “everyone has at least one book in them” as the saying goes … most people die with “their” book still stuck inside. And that’s a cryin’ shame.
As a New York Times Best Selling Author, an international best-selling author and writing coach, I make it my business to help people get that one book OUT of them … and then move on to the next.
So today, I want to share with you these 7 Easy Book Starters taken from my “Book Writer’s Program” training. Use them to get started on that book you’ve wanted to write. In fact, any one of the following would be a great strategy to FINISH your book, as well.
1. Write it yourself, a little at a time. This is how I wrote my first book. By getting up thirty minutes earlier each morning, and diligently writing for that half-hour, I finished my book in only a month.
A variation on this is to write until you have a page … and then stop. The next day, you do it again, and again, the next day. In a year, you have enough material to edit down into a nice 200-250 page book … and possibly enough to create additional, peripheral products around the book!
You might be thinking, “A whole YEAR?!” C’mon, now – a year goes by awfully quickly. How much of your book did you get written LAST year? If 365 days is too long a commitment for you, then write TWO pages each day, and your book will be written in six months instead.
2. Write the entire book in a weekend of total all-out, focused effort. (Naturally, this can be done only when you’re intimately familiar with your subject). If you need to do any research, do it well ahead of time, and have it organized for quick and easy reference throughout your “writing weekend”.
Read through your notes a few times, in advance. This will not only help you memorize the material itself – you’ll also be much faster at finding the information you need at writing time.
Here are the remaining strategies for starting – and finishing – your book. Space doesn’t allow me to fully explain them here.
3. Hire a ghostwriter
4. Teach a program, record it, have it transcribed, and edit the transcriptions
5. Speak it aloud to someone else – not necessarily “dictating” it but just have conversations with another person (on the phone, or face-to-face), and record everything. After all, a book is simply a “dialogue” between the author and the reader.
6. Take blog content or article content – YOUR OWN blog or articles! – and blend it together into a logical flow to create a book.
7. Pull old interviews and programs that were previously delivered, organize them, and have them edited.
Writing a book – even your very first one – doesn’t have to take years, and needn’t be a drain on you, either. All you need to do is follow the advice in this article to get started, and build a head of steam.
Peggy McColl
Would you like Peggy McColl to hold your hand as you write your Best-Selling Book? For a limited time, you can download Peggy’s eBook called “The Prosperous Author” for FREE, and find out if you can become a Best-Selling Author within 60 days: https://bit.ly/2xVIxmJ
