You know the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, man, practice.
Here's today's version: How do you write a book?
Write, man, write.
At least once a week someone asks my advice about writing a book. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Potential author: “Hey Bruce… you've published a bunch of books. Tell me, how do I write a book?”
Me: “Um, you sit down and you write it.”
Potential author: “Yeah, okay, I guess I could do that. Because, you know, I have this book inside me and…”
Me: “You have a book inside you? You should get it out of there. It's really dark and hard to read where it is.”
Potential author: “Yeah, but that's hard work. How did you do it?
Me: “Simple. I sat down and wrote each book. Word by word, page by page.”
Potential author: “You have any good tips on how to do that?”
Me: “Sure. Sit down at your desk at the same time every day and write. A page a day is a book a year.”
Potential author: “But what should I write about?”
Me: “What do you want to write about? What do you care about? What do you have something to say about? What do the people you want to write for want to read?”
And so on.
As you've probably figured out by now, I don't have a lot of good advice on the subject. That's because no matter how many times I've done it, writing a book is like running a marathon, studying the guitar, or learning to speak a new language.
You simply cannot run a marathon until you've trained and put in lots of sweaty miles. You can learn all you want about form and diet and pacing and equipment but at some point you still have to pull on your running shoes and hit the street.
Likewise, you can study as much as you want about how to swim, but unless you finally get into the water and start kicking your feet, you'll never actually be a swimmer. Sure, you can read books about the subject, but after you're done, you still won't be able to swim. And those books won't be a lot help either — unless they're made of Styrofoam and double as flotation devices.
When it comes to musical instruments, new languages, and book writing, the most important thing about doing it is doing it. Lots of people can give you lots of advice but at the end of the day if you want the results you have to do the work.
But sometimes there's something else that can help you get to where you want to be.
A coach.
A swimming coach can help you get better faster. A running coach can help you get better and faster. A guitar teacher or a language teacher can help you learn to do those things, too.
So it should stand to reason that the right coach could also help you learn how to write a book.
Clearly I'm not that person. But Don Hutson is. He's a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller who's written 16 books, including his most popular – The One Minute Entrepreneur. Because of that, Don gets asked for help writing books a lot more than I do. That's why he's putting on his Five-Day Fearless Writer's Boot Camp. It costs only $27 and Don says it'll answer all your questions about how to write and publish your book.
So the next time someone tells me they have a book inside of them, I'm going to tell them to click HERE for Don's new program. Maybe he'll be able to help them get it out! Maybe he can help you too.
Writing a book or a journal article begins with the first page, and thereafter is as you say. I found it quite thereaputic. Right now, I get pleasure in reading what I wrote 30-50 years ago, quite amazed I did so at ages 30-50.
I hope you will write a companion piece anent what I could have benefited from doing back in the publish or perish days:
Unless you self publish or you are Tom Clancy, you are looking at a contract giving you 12-15% at most.
Submitting a finished manuscript to a publisher, without an agent, is called “throwing it over the fence.” It has a low probably of acceptance, since editors don’t like to read all they receive ‘over the fence.” They want a chapter and an outline…and they likely will send it to three readers with appropriate credentials. With luck you will be assigned ‘an editor‘ IF the book has a high probability to generate a substantial profit. They market accordingly.
Self publishing is attractive. You get all the money from sales after you have creatively named yourself, e.g. Sunshine Press, paid for printing, and marketing as best you know how. Marketing a self published book would make for a very helpful book. I enjoyed ~ 12% from Brown Book Company (no kin), Simon and Schuster, and Ginn publishing Co.. and got $50 honorariums for article copyrights. All are out of print, and I would have been wise to self publish the one I retained the copyright for, but marketing and advertising is foreign territory for most authors. They tend to become entrepreneurs only after their first successful publication.
You know this, of course, but being in isolation, limits you to nostalgia more than future projects. Just musing.
I’m sure your musical group has faced the same dilemma re recording. You play for fun, but you would like to record a set or two so you can say you did. Without marketing and advertising, and with some minimal shared costs, it will contaminate the venture in minutia and money.
Be safe, and keep in mind that the air we breathe here in your other neighborhood comes across miles of open ocean from the Azores.
Bruce, I’ve always said that no one can write a book, if we are talking about something of “normal” length. But anyone can:
1. Think about a book idea
2. Work on an possible chapter outline after the idea has crystalized
3. Pick an obvious chapter that is “easy” and write it now
4. Outline the most difficult chapter and identify any sources of information needed for it
5. Write the most difficult chapter based on the outline. It may be hard, but take a day or three and stick to it until a draft is finished
6. Tackle a remaining chapter. All you have to write is a few pages that will turn into a draft of the chapter
7. Repeat #6 for another chapter
8. Repeat #6 for another chapter
9. And continue until you have a draft
10. If you get this far, you likely have the momentum to finish the book
No one can write a book. But anyone can write a part of a book. The key, though, is writing, as you say in your post. Nothing will happen until you sit down at your computer and write. Sadly, that’s the only way books get written. You mentioned Don Hutson’s Fearless Writer’s Boot Camp. If Don is doing it, you will learn a lot and he will help build your enthusiasm for the project.
By the way, I’ve written ten books, so I do know that no one can write a book…
Thanks Chris! I wonder how many more books you’ll have to write before you change your mind.
Me: “You have a book inside you? You should get it out of there. It’s really dark and hard to read where it is.”
Well said. Is this an homage to Groucho? “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
“A page a day is a book a year” is the best advice you ever gave me. Four years and four books later, I am still grateful. Thank you for getting my books out in the world where they belong, Bruce!