This program protects your content while still displaying such things as your link to your book on Amazon next to the table of contents and index so that viewers can go on over to Amazon and purchase the book should they desire. It’s a great way to generate visibility and additional sales for your book. If you self-publish you can sign up yourself. If you have a publisher, they need to sign you up. You can find out more at www.books.google.com

So why do people write books? Why are you writing your book? There are as many reasons as there are people, but here are just a few:

To become known as an expert
Because you just MUST write
To make money
For a family heirloom/keepsake
Because you know you can do it
To share your knowledge
To share your experiences
To learn things (it’s amazing what you learn as you write!)
As part of a product line
To be able to say you’re a published author

There are no right or wrong reasons to write; only reasons. Let’s take two examples. Suppose you want to write to become known as an expert in your field. You’ll then need to figure out how to do that, which would be totally different from someone wanting to write a family keepsake. Writing to become an expert requires a professionally written book and you will need to spend time, effort and energy in promoting and marketing your book. If, on the other hand you want to write a family keepsake book, you won’t need to be very concerned about marketing at all.

That’s just one example of the many different roads authors travel. Those who are writing novels have a different path than those who are writing non-fiction. While many things are similar, there are differences and you need to be aware of them.

So take time to identify the reason or reasons you want to write your book. Once you’re clear on that, you can move forward knowing the direction you want to take and you will be one step closer to getting the job done!

I was rather overwhelmed by the thought of writing a whole book, so I created a quick outline. I knew what types of recipes I wanted to include and broke that down into what would be chapters in a book. You can do that too. If you’re writing non-fiction, get an outline of what information yo want to cover and work from that. Don’t think about writing a whole book…that’s too huge! Think about writing one chapter, then about writing one page of that one chapter. Do that and then think about the next page.

If you’re writing a novel, create an outline, get a feel for your characters and use that as a guide to starting your book. You may find as you develop your book that the characters take on a life of their own and your outline is no longer of much use. That’s okay, it got you started, didn’t it? It served its purpose. If your characters want to take the weight of developing the plot as they want it, let them go at it! You’ve now got some powerful allies in writing the remainder of the book.

I know this might sound simple, and it really is. Break it down into managable chunks and you’ll be able to start, and that’s the most important thing…to start. So let’s get at it and get something down on paper today, the beginnings of an outline, the beginnings of a plot, anything to move you forward with your dream of writing your book.

King of Authors

Glad you dropped by. This blog will provide loads of information related to how to write a book and get it published. I’ve done it…several times. When I first started there was no such thing as print-on-demand and when I wrote and published my first book I had to print 10,000 copies at a hefty price tag to get my book out there. It was worth it, in the end, but it’s scary when you have to put out that much cash. I was a self-published author by choice, I never did go after a book publisher. I knew of a company that published books for authors and that’s how I wanted to go…and I did.

Since my first book came out in 1992, the whole publishing world has turned upside down. Now you can write and publish a book and make it available to the public and it only costs you the price of a proof copy of your book (usually under $20.00)!  And there are so many new tools to help promote and sell your book as well.

We’ll talk about all of them here on Write Your Book. I’ll share all the latest and greatest methods of publishing and promoting a book and also get into the technicalities of writing. We’ll talk about copyright and what it means and how to avoid any challenges with that. I’ll be happy to explore topics that are of interest to you as they relate to the writing and publishing business so if you have any specific areas you’d like to get information on, let me know.

Now, enough about all that…the next post we’ll get started on the good stuff…the facts!

Marg