After 13 weeks with a small cohort of authors on the Author Guide Course, I’ve realised that getting a book from ‘I’ve got an idea’ to ‘selling like hot cakes’, is not about the quality of the idea, it’s about how well you plan.
Lots of people have great ideas for books. But they never see the light of day, because the potential author simply doesn’t get around to it.
Is it a lack of commitment on the part of the author?
Is it that they don’t know enough to put together a successful book?
Is it that they don’t believe they’re a writer?
In most cases, it’s none of those things.
It’s all down to putting together a plan – and then making it happen.
The course outlined the plan, every single step, with worksheets, planners, advice and guidance. But it stopped at the point of application.
Make friends with your diary
Being a bit (OK, a lot) bossy, I’d like nothing better than to sit down with each individual author and help them to plan the steps and assign time to carry these steps out, but it’s really not possible – and probably a bit too controlling for most people!
So, if you really want to create a successful book, you need to make your diary work for you.
That means creating your to-do list for every aspect of creating it – from your purpose statement, your reader profile and what they want, research into your market place and then the planning, information gathering and writing.
Now you assign time in your diary – for every step.
Literally block out time. Make appointments with yourself. And take account of your personal body clock – don’t schedule writing time for late afternoon, early evening if you’re usually wiped out by then, or decide to get out of bed an hour earlier to facilitate writing time, if you’re naturally a night owl and your brain doesn’t function until you’ve had caffeine and been upright for a couple of hours.
Now treat those appointments as though they’re appointments with your best client. If someone wants to meet during those times, “I’m sorry, I’m already booked then,” is usually enough to divert them to an alternative time. Nobody wants to work with someone who cancels appointments, so they will respect your existing commitments.
If an emergency comes along and you really HAVE to do something else during the time you’d assigned to your book – don’t just fall off the wagon, rebook the time as soon as you can.
It’s not about ‘inspiration’
If you’re thinking ‘but I need to be inspired to write’, with a non-fiction book, you don’t need inspiration – you need planning. If you’ve created your chapter template and gathered the information that will fit into each chapter, you’re not facing a blank page – you’re just populating the framework.
Stop procrastinating and finding reasons why not – even if now is not the right time for you to create your book, decide when that time will be and get those slots booked in your diary.
