There has been so much written lately about how important it is for business owners and business people in general to write a book. What I think is MOST important is for them to understand WHY they need to write a book and HOW to get it done fast.
1. How to
Write a Book
By Suzanne Doyle-Ingram
www.SuzanneDoyleIngram.com
2. How to Write a Book
When I mention to people that I wrote and published 7 books in 2012, people
always are curious about how to write a book. Honestly, it’s not that hard,
and in this post I am going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to
write a book. I promise, you can do this!
3. Before I get into how to write a book, let me ask you a question that I
always ask my workshop participants. I ask them, Why do you want to
write a book?
Here are some of the answers I typically get:
To make money
To feel successful
To feel a sense of accomplishment
To teach others
And here are some reasons you may not have thought about:
To give away as a lead generation tool to potential clients
To pre-sell prospects
To establish myself as an expert in my industry
To share a big bold message with the world!
4. How to write a book
In this post on how to write a book, I am going to focus on non-fiction books,
because those are what I have been writing and selling online. “How to” books
are great sellers because everyone wants a solution to a problem these days.
They go to Google to find free resources on how to solve their problem, but
they go to Amazon to BUY a book that will solve their problem.
5. How to Write a Book – Step One
So the first step in how to write a book is to choose a subject matter. What
are you good at? What are you interested in? What is your profession? Here
are some ideas for you to ponder:
If you are a… real estate agent… why not write about: How to Sell Your
Home in 30 Days, How to Stage Your Home For a Quick Sale, How to Choose
Your Realtor If you are a… marketing consultant… why not write about: How
to Find Your Next 10 Clients Using Free Marketing Techniques… Top 10
Online Marketing Resources…What You Don’t Know About Marketing is
Hurting Your Business
6. If you are a… Daycare Owner… why not write about: 5 Steps to Choosing the
Right Daycare…. How to Start a Daycare Business… How to Market Your
Daycare Business
… You get the idea. The first step in how to write your book is to pick a
solution to a problem. You want your readers to appreciate your advice and
you want to solve their most pressing problem. What keeps them up at night?
Solve that and you’ll have a winner.
7. How to write a book – Step Two
Now that you know what to write about, you need to create an outline that
makes sense. Readers do not like to read a book that is not logical, it’s
subconsciously stressful to read a book that jumps around from idea to idea
and is an endless blather of weird musings.
8. Here’s how to write your outline:
1. Introduction – state their problem (the thing that is keeping them up a
night)
2. Introduce your solution to the problem and how much better their life
(orcareer)will be after they solve their problem.
3. Solve the problem in 5 – 7 steps
4. Step 1
a. Expand on this step with 3 points.
5. Step 2
a. Expand on this step with 3 points.
6. Step 3
a. Expand on this step with 3 points.
7. Step 4
a. Expand on this step with 3 points.
8. Step 5
a. Expand on this step with 3 points.
9. Conclusion. State what the problem was, and the 5-7 steps that it
took to solve the problem.
9. I bet you didn’t think that learning how to write a book would be that
easy!!?? Honestly, this is exactly how to write a book. You can do it in ONE
WEEK my friend. The first 3 or 4 books I wrote were written at night after I
put my kids to bed. I would write from about 9 o’clock until midnight every
night. Yes, it was exhausting but as a working mother of three I’m tired
anyways!
The length of the book doesn’t matter and here’s why: If people are looking
for a solution to a problem, do you think they want to spend hours and hours
reading a long book, or would they prefer just getting to the meat of it and
solving their problem as fast as possible?
10. The first step is writing your book. Get started writing your book, even if you
just do a little at a time. As they say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with one step.” I can’t tell you how many people call me and ask about my
publishing services before they have even written a book. I always ask them,
“Is your book finished?” And they say, “No….”
Don’t put the cart before the horse. Do not worry about marketing it – that’s
easy! – just get your book written. Once you start writing, you will be amazed
at how it all flows. I give advice all day about how to write a book but guess
what? It’s only the action takers that succeed. Lots of people can learn about
how to write a book but how many of you will take action and actually start
writing? I hope it’s YOU!
11. Final Pointers on How to write a book
I encourage you to take what I have shared above and think of a topic you
can write about. What sort of questions do you hear from your
clients? What sort of problems do they have? What would make their life
easier? Choose your topic and then take 20 or 30minutes to write your
outline. Then start fleshing it out by writing three supporting points under
each main point. By the time you start writing, it practically writes itself! I
hope this has been helpful learning about how to write a book. Please leave
a comment or question below and let me know if I can be of help to you.
12. You may be thinking, “OK this all sounds fine and dandy Suzanne, but how
do I actually got about writing a book???” I have a solution for that! And
it's yours, free.
Click Here to Download Your Copy of My Book called
"It's Not About the Book Sales! How Any Business Person Can Quickly
Write a Book and Leverage it to Land New Clients".