This month I’m answering all of the questions you have about publishing! Many people think it’s a straightforward manufacturing process—closer to producing zippers or bubble gum or anything else we use and hold every day. But the truth is, publishing is much more complicated than that. With publishing, you’re not just creating a physical object, something to be used or consumed. You’ve entered into an abstract world of ideas, where discourse, art, entertainment, thought leadership, science, persuasion, and inspiration collide and fuse with the more tangible business systems of consumerism and manufacturing. It’s a constantly-evolving ecosystem of tensions, gray areas, competing priorities, and complicated analytics. If you have a question about publishing that you’d like answered, feel free to email me (ariel@arielcurry.com). If I don’t know the answer, I know someone who does and I’ll find out for you! The Publishing Process One of the most common questions I get, especially from authors at the start of the writing process, is, “What does the publishing process look like?” They’re already thinking beyond the idea itself, considering how they’ll get the message out into the world, to as large an audience as possible. You probably know that publishing your book isn’t easy. In this post, I’ll take you step-by-step through the major phases of creating a book. It isn’t magic—although sometimes it feels like it! Refining Your Idea This is the obvious starting point for a book! You have an idea that feels exciting. You have a story in your soul that needs an outlet, and a message that you want to share with the world. This is an amazing place to be! The first step is to decide if your nonfiction book will be a memoir (a story about your personal transformation through an experience in your life) or a personal development book (a book written to achieve a specific transformation for your reader). Next, you should think about the four qualities of bestselling book ideas (for personal development books): They have a distinct audience. They solve a sticky problem. They offer a novel approach to solving that problem. They deliver on their promises with simple genius. If you’re hoping to write a memoir, then you should ask yourself: Am I ready to write this book? Have I done all the healing I need to in order to tell the story? Do I know where the story starts, and where it ends? What have I learned through this experience that I want to share with the world. At this stage in the process, I recommend two things: Try writing 5-10 pages (stream of consciousness is ok!) of your book. See how that feels. You’ll undoubtedly start to refine your thinking through this process. Do you want to keep going? If so, then… Hire a book coach! A book coach can guide you through the next phase in the process. Book Planning or Pitching a Proposal Book proposals and book plans fulfill the same purpose of helping you figure out how you’ll make the book successful. Regardless of whether you’re hoping to traditionally publish or self-publish, you need to think through how you’ll support your book, before you get too far down the road! I truly believe that creating a robust plan for your book before you get knee-deep in the writing will save you countless headaches and help you create a MUCH stronger book. This is why I always say that EVERY author needs a book proposal/plan. Where book proposals differ from plans is that a proposal is submitted to a publisher, and is used to help the publisher evaluate whether your book will be a good investment for them. A book plan, on the other hand, is used by authors who are self-publishing, since they’ll be taking on the role of publisher for their own work. A book proposal/plan should think through four key pieces: Project: What’s the idea? How will you develop it throughout a whole book? Positioning: How does your book idea compare to other similar books? Platform: What systems do you have in place for getting your message out to an audience of eager readers? Promotion: How will you leverage your platform to promote this book? Your proposal/plan should also include an outline that shows you’ve thought through how the book will unfold throughout the chapters. How will you guide your reader through the transformation? Publishers will also ask you to submit sample chapters (about 10-15% of the manuscript) with your proposal. I highly recommend NOT going through this alone. Creating a plan is basically thinking through every aspect of your book in advance, and that is not easy to do! A book coach can help you anticipate challenges you might encounter along the way, problem solve in advance, use phrases/wording that will catch publishers’ (and readers’) attention, and craft a comprehensive outline so you know exactly what to write. I offer book coaching, and I also know several incredible book coaches that I’d love to recommend, so if I’m not a good fit, we’ll find someone who is! Writing Once you have your plan, you are ready to actually write the book! Getting your thoughts on paper will be so much easier since you already know where you’re going. Still, it takes discipline and fortitude to getting 50,000-ish coherent words out there! The most successful authors I know adopt some of the following strategies: Wake up early and write before you do anything else. Set aside time every day for writing. Write morning pages before you do your book writing. Join a writing group, coaching program, or mastermind. Set a daily/weekly writing goal in the form of either a word count goal or time spent writing. Reward yourself for hitting key milestones. No matter how well you plan ahead, you will inevitably encounter resistance. When you do, keep these reminders on hand. And when you finally finish your manuscript… take a break! You’ve been swimming in the deep waters of your manuscript for so […]
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