Write Your Book This Year!
Tonight, I'm sharing 10 steps to help you write your nonfiction book in 2024.
Writing a book is an incredible opportunity to showcase your expertise and knowledge and inspire others with your unique perspective. Despite its challenges, the reward of sharing your story with the world is immeasurable.
Whether you are writing a memoir, a self-help book, or a how-to guide on a specific topic, the process of writing, especially if you have never done it before, will stretch you. With the right approach and mindset, however, you can successfully write your book this year!
In this article, we’re outlining the exact steps you’ll need to take to turn your idea into a book.
1. Define Your Purpose and Audience
Before you start writing, take time to define your purpose and audience. What is the main message you want to convey through your book? When it comes to your target audience, build out a profile of the type of person you want to read your book. A book can’t be everything to everyone, so a target audience of “anyone and everyone” won’t help you write your book. An audience that’s too broad will actually make it harder to write your book because you’ll be trying to make everyone happy.
2. Choose a Topic
Once you’ve defined your purpose and audience, it’s time to choose a topic. It should be something you’re passionate about and have expertise in. For self-help books or how-to guides, you’ll need to have a high level of expertise to establish your credibility. This will help you substantiate yourself as a professional readers want to listen to and take advice from. If you’re writing a memoir, your expertise is your life experience.
3. Do Your Research and Complete an Outline
Once you’ve chosen your topic, you’ll need to take time to do research and outline your book. The research will help you gather information and ideas for your book while outlining will help you organize your thoughts and create a clear structure.
For memoirs, research can involve interviewing family members and friends to gain a better understanding of specific circumstances in your life, researching facts about the culture of a specific timeframe or stats about specific places you lived or visited, and any details that will add depth to your story.
To write a how-to guide or self-help book, you’ll need to heavily research your topic, including facts and statistics, professional resources, and you may even want to interview other experts in your field to get a full grasp on the material you want to write about.
4. Write the First Draft
With your research and outline in place, you’re ready to start writing the first draft of your book. I know it’s easier said than done, but don't worry about making your first draft perfect. Just focus on getting your ideas down on paper based on your chapter outline. You’ll have time to make incremental improvements to your manuscript during the revision stage.
5. Revising and Self-Editing Your Work
The revision and self-editing stage will involve reviewing your work and making changes to improve the content, structure, and style of your book. You’ll make multiple passes through your work, each time looking for something different as you read and revise.
With more than a decade of experience as an editor, I like to read through a manuscript starting with the big-picture details down to the tiny changes. And you may want to do this as well.
This means you’ll read and revise for larger content changes, including adding and removing content, clarifying details, filling in plot holes, adding stronger and richer details, etc.
On another pass, you’ll focus on revisions that are at the paragraph and sentence level. Look for areas that don’t move your story forward, that bog the story down, where you go off topic or find yourself on a tangent. You’ll also look at paragraph lengths and run-on sentences. And here’s the thing, you may need to do several passes in this “middle zone” of revisions. That’s OK.
Once you’re comfortable with these mid-level revisions, you’ll move into the sentence- and word-level changes. This includes checking for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and easy-to-spot typos.
6. Get Feedback from Others (Including a Professional Editor)
Once you have fully revised your manuscript, you’ll need to get feedback from others. Feedback should come from family, friends, beta readers, and professional editors. Feedback will help you identify areas that still need improvement from readers’ perspectives and give you valuable insight into how future readers will respond to your book.
7. Revise (Again) and Finalize Your Manuscript
Based on the feedback you receive, you’ll need to revise (again) and finalize your manuscript. One thing you’ll want to keep in mind when working with a professional editor is that the editor cannot do all the work for you.
Whether traditionally published or self-published, every writer receives notes back from their editor that only the writer can complete. So, be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to thoughtfully review your editor’s notes and make the final necessary changes to your manuscript.
This step in the revision process can still involve significant changes to your book, such as rewriting chapters, adding new content, or adjusting the structure. And I don’t want you to rush simply because you’re ready to send your manuscript for typesetting. This revision time is some of the most precious time you can spend with your manuscript.
8. Cover Design and Book Formatting (Typesetting)
Once the text of your manuscript is finalized on your end, you’ll need to have a book cover designed and have the text of your manuscript set into a book layout. The cover should be visually appealing, on trend with similar books being sold in your genre, and relevant to your topic. The interior formatting of your book, or typesetting, should be professional and easy to read.
9. Publish and Promote Your Book
I highly recommend promoting your book throughout the writing and production stages, but once you’ve sent your book to print you can kick your book promotion into a higher gear. Find creative ways to promote your book through social media, set up book signings or readings, and discover other marketing strategies that suit your schedule and your book.
10. Keep Writing
Once your book is published—keep writing. Writing is a lifelong pursuit that requires dedication, discipline, and passion. Continue writing and sharing your knowledge with others, and you will continue to grow and improve as a writer.
Final Thoughts
Want to write a nonfiction book this year? Remember to define your purpose and audience, choose a topic, complete your research and an outline, write the first draft, edit and revise, get feedback, revise and finalize your manuscript, have the cover designed and the interior text formatted, then publish your book and continue to promote it anywhere and everywhere you can.