Writing a nonfiction book for the first time can be overwhelming. There are numerous ways to write a book. To help you begin your book-writing journey, this quick-start guide offers ten steps to write a nonfiction book.
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1. Understand why you want to write a book
Determine your objective and goals for writing a book. For example, ask yourself: What is the objective of writing a book on this subject? How can my book solve a problem? Which niche market will I address? What steps do I need to take to reach my objective?
What is the objective?
The objective for writing your book should be one sentence that includes your ideas and values. Here’s an example of my objective for writing, Time to Refresh.
I want to write and publish a book that encourages and inspires women to move forward after being laid-off, fired, or pushed to the sideline.
What are the goals?
The goals in writing your book are the plans you make to accomplish your objective. The goals for writing your book are the steps you take to accomplish your objective. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Here’s an example of my SMART goals for writing my book.
Specific – I will write one book in 2018.
Measurable – I will spend at least two hours per day working on the book.
Achievable – I can achieve this if I cut back on my television time.
Relevant – I need to write my book to inspire other people and begin a new commercial writing career.
Timely – I will finish writing my book in six months.
2. Know your ideal reader
Before you begin writing, it’s good to identify your target audience for the book. Create a list of questions to help you understand your ideal reader. A few questions are listed below to get you started.
– What is my reader’s gender?
– Is my reader married or single?
– Does my reader experience pain points that would lead them to read my book?
3. Brainstorm ideas
Before you start writing, set aside time to brainstorm ideas for your book. Explore questions like:
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- What’s my book about?
- Has this story been told before? If so, what information can I share that is new?
- What’s the structure for my nonfiction book?
- What story should I include to bring my book to life?
- Who should I interview?
Based on the answers, create a mind map that features a central idea or main point in the center of a piece of paper. Next, list subtopics that relate to the main point. To complete this exercise, you can use a notebook or a large sheet of paper on the wall with Post-it Notes. Since I like to keep my ideas in a digital format so I can write on the go, I use Mind Meister, a web-based mind mapping software that allows you to brainstorm in real-time With easy-to-use templates, Meister helps you imagine the components of your book. Here’s an example from one of my boards.
4. Create an outline
Analyze the information from your mind map exercise. Organize your data in a logical order. For each chapter or section, create a list of questions you think your reader would ask and a list of questions your reader should ask. Each list will help guide the research process. Determine what is missing or any ideas you don’t believe will fit in your book. While Microsoft Word works fine, I use Scrivener to organize my notes, research, and writing. Below is a screenshot from Scrivener for one of my writing projects.
5. Do research before you start writing
Gather research related to your outline’s questions and main points. Collect as much information as you can, but don’t overdo it. Keep track of your research by recording:
– The title for each book, article, or website
– Publication dates
– Publisher
– Page numbers
– URLs to sites
– Names and titles of people you interview
Assign your research notes to your outline. If your research does not fit easily into your outline, file it in a folder.
Review your research and write short paragraphs to capture the information you want to include in your book. You can also obtain quotes, data, or statistics outlined in tables.
6. Write the First Draft
Prepare to write
Using your outline and research notes, write each chapter of your book. Do not edit during this phase. Just write. Take one chapter at a time.
Decide whether you will write in the first-person narrative—I/we; second-person narrative—you; or third-person narrative—she/he/it/them.
During the writing process
Use a timer during your writing sessions. Write for 25, 30, or 45 minutes, then reward yourself with a 15-minute break. Decide how many timed writing sessions you will work through each time you write. For example, you may have time for four 45-minute sessions on Mondays, but you may only have time for one 30-minute session on Tuesday morning. Find time in your schedule, and don’t let yourself go up if you cannot devote the same amount of time each day. Just write!
If you want to improve your writing productivity and keep track of your time, try RescueTime, which helps you understand how you spend your time on the computer.
Book structure
Decide which components you want to include in your book. A few examples include:
– Foreword—Written by someone other than the author.
– Dedication—List the names of a few special people, one or two, who inspire and support the author.
Author Bio—Write a short biography for the back cover and a more extended bio for the book itself.
– Introduction—A brief message about what lead you to write the book.
– Overview—A “How to “se This Book” or “What Yo” Will Learn” page s”summarizes what the reader can expect.
– Chapters—Each chapter should be easy to read and should tell your story.
– Summary– The last chapter should summarize your key points, inspire readers, or give them direction on what to do next. You can also include a website address.
– Glossary—Only include if your book consists of a lot of jargon or acronyms.
– Source page—Includes information about the sources you cite throughout the book — title, author names, page numbers, etc.
7. Rewrite
Once you have your first draft completed (good job), it’s time to view, edit, and rewrite. Look for opportunities to strengthen points, offer additional information or examples, and remove unnecessary text. I use writing software like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to help me rewrite and edit.
In my experience, Grammarly works great for checking grammar and proofreading. In addition to using Grammarly every day to edit my emails, blog posts, and content, I used the writing software to change words and remove grammatical errors in my third book. The screenshot below highlights the edits needed for one of the chapters in my book.
Before sending the fourth draft of my book to an editor, I used ProWritingAid to remove overused words, improve sentence length, and delete repeated words. ProWritingAid is excellent for producing detailed reports and helped me see how easy or difficult the text was for readers.
8. Edit
After self-editing your manuscript, consider hiring a professional editor and proofreader. The following types of editors include:
– Developmental editor. This editor provides a structural edit of the book to ensure the book’s text flows well, makes logical points, and answers expected questions. A developmental editor works with the author during the writing phase.
– Copy or line editor. This editor conducts a word-by-word review of the book to correct grammar, spelling, typos, and consistency. A copy editor works with the author once the author has rewritten and edited the book.
– Proofreader. Before sending your manuscript to print, a proofreader can review your book at the end of the rewriting and editing phase to ensure the book is ready for publication.
9. Book design and formatting
Interior layout
The text in the book should be easy to read. Use fonts from the standard Serif font family:
– Garamond
– Baskerville
– Century Schoolbook
– Times New Roman
– Palatino Linotype
Book cover
To secure a cover for your book, either hire a professional graphic designer on Fiverr or design the cover yourself using a tool like Canva or PicMonkey. Either way, your book cover should include:
– Bold, easy-to-read fonts can be read if your book cover gets shrunk down to a tiny graphic.
– High-quality images
– Attractive color palette
10. Publish
Decide how you want to self-publish your book. Your choices are:
– Hybrid Publishing. You hire a company to produce, publish, print, and distribute your book.
– Print on Demand (POD). Print houses, like IngramSpark, print your book upon your request and offer fulfillment to Amazon and other retailers. IngramSpark offers independent authors access to one of the publishing industry’s largest global print and ebook distribution networks.
– Offset Printing. An offset printer prints large quantities of your book, which keeps the wholesale cost low. As the author, you store and distribute the books.
About the Author: Karen Brown Tyson is a Lean Six Sigma-driven communicator, author, speaker, and blogger focused on faith, productivity, change management, and writing. She is the author of, Time to Refresh: A 21-Day Devotional to Renew Your Mind After Being Laid Off, Fired or Sidelined. As part of her company, Constant Communicators, Karen works online, in person and by phone helping her entrepreneurial clientele improve their business and nonfiction writing.