How To Write A Book (Step-By-Step)

Introduction

Writing a book is as pretty complex and complicated process that requires precise skills and a burning passion in order to go well.

Back in November 2022, I get onto self-improvement and I start changing my life ever so slowly through self-improvement. I make progress, I gain muscle, I lose fat, I feel healthier and better each day, and, a few months later, I have abs, and I’m more advanced in self-improvement. And so, I begin writing a book, because since self-improvement has helped me change so drastically (from loser to winner), I can therefore try and teach it to other people.

My first attempt was… meh. Bad writing skills combined with a lack of organization and idea led to me making a book that was low in quality and high in useless bla bla.

Second attempt, a few months later, was pretty good. I definitely got better, but it still wasn’t that yet.

Third attempt didn’t made it to the end. Was closed near the beginning.

Fourth attempt was my weight-loss course, that I had written in a PDF format (accessible for 29.99€ here or in the section « The Weight-Loss Course », or at the end of this article). This worked pretty well. The writing style was a bit odd but it still worked pretty nicely and I feel proud of it. It’s my first real piece of work that I ever published and I gave a lot of time and energy into trying to build it.

Since the beginning, I’ve definitely made progress, and I feel pretty proud of it, to the point that I believe that I know a minimum about the process of writing a book. So, in this article, I’ve written for you FIVE STEPS to writing a book that could help you get started. Let’s begin with the first step.

FIRST STEP: Read books!

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The first step is to… READ BOOKS! Reading self-help books for example could not only help you make more progress but understand how to formulate sentences and how to handle ideas. The writing style of the authors, which probably already appealed to many, could also be inspiring to you. I often used the writing style of many authors as a guideline for my books or writing, and so this is why in the weight-loss course for example, some passages are better written than others, or more « formal » than others, because I was still figuring out my writing style.

So, read books, and let that knowledge, that way of speaking, that way of writing, leach onto you.

SECOND STEP: Imitate and innovate

Once you let it leach onto you, try to imitate and innovate. Speak or write like this author, try to maybe write articles or begin your book in this manner. You don’t have to absolutely copy the author if you don’t feel like that is what attracts you for your book, but truly, try to get inspired by it. Just let the feeling flow, and write. Write in whatever style you want.

This is what innovating also means, you can imitate your favorite author from time to time, in his references or ways of speaking, but you can also use your own style, and let your heart speak out in a way that is authentic to the reader, so as to develop your own writing personality.

THIRD STEP: Organize

Oh god. The worst part. Okay, I’ll get straight to the point, the first thing you need to do is to find your prospect, or the client you want to reach. Try to be as specific as possible, except if you’re teaching a subject more broadly. The more specific you are, the more « specific people » will find your book, as they will be searching for their particular problems. For example, if I struggle to cook eggs, I would be more likely to look at the YouTube video on how to cook eggs, rather than the ones on how to cook in general.

The second part of this is to list all of the problems and solutions your client could encounter. For example, for a book about cooking healthy foods:

Problem 1: « I can’t cook healthy foods because I don’t have the time » .

Solution 1: « How to cook healthy foods rapidly and efficiently »

What I could give my client 1: « Full written guide on how to gain time whilst cooking, links to cooking utensils that could help you gain time, link to a YouTube video about fast cooking, meal prepping, etc »

First list all the problems in the different steps of your « blueprint », then list all of the solutions by reformulating the sentence in a way that it looks like a tutorial with « how » for example, and then, find what you could actually give your client so he or her can reach those means.

Organizing is super important. Once you get a handle of all of your problems and solutions, or before doing so, try to make and think about a good looking and fun layout that is logical and effective to treat the subject you want to treat, with a certain number of chapters, these chapters title and their meaning, etc.

FOURTH STEP: Trim And Stack

Once all of our problems and solutions are listed, we want to trim and stack. This means, re-organizing in our layers each problems and solutions so it sounds good. For example, if your book layer about potatoes starts with "CHAPTER 1 - The Potato’s Skin", then you can put inside of it the problem and solution « Should I eat potato skin? I don’t know if it's healthy or not! » (problem) or « Why you should eat potato skin, according to …. » (solution).

Once we stacked the problems and solutions on top of one another, we can trim them! Or, we should have done this before, but nonetheless, we need to trim! This means, we need to cut the problems and/or solutions and/or « things we could do for our clients in order to answer these problems and solutions » that are not worth it. For example, one of the possible solution of the problem « I don’t know how to cook » would be to get a flight, go across the world to meet your client and cut his potatoes, and then go back home. But this solution isn’t worth it at all, in terms of the time it costs, money it costs, energy it costs, client satisfaction it costs (waiting time), etc.

However, a small YouTube video guide where you show how to cook a few simple ingredients is something great you could do for your clients. It doesn’t cost a ton of energy, it doesn’t cost any money, it barely costs any time, and it’s going to help the client much more than if you just cooked for him.

FIFTH STEP: Write

Ahh… the real job. The most complicated work of it all, is writing the book. Once you have the ideas, the layout of the book, the problems and solutions organized in each chapters, you need to find a way to integrate them into your narrative, and write your book using an engaging writing style. The goal is to make this book both fun to read and also very useful.

Nobody wants to buy a mundane book. So, add some things to make it better. Writing a cook book? Add a few jokes here and there (that is appropriate to your audience). Not a whole joke but in the theme of the meal for example.

SIXTH STEP: Re-read and re-write

This step is about verification. Once you have finished writing your book you need to re-read your entire book to check for errors, to check for problems and solutions you might have missed, for ideas or subjects you could add, for examples you could give, for engaging re-formulations of sentences you could make, I mean the list goes on. But, this step is about verification.

So, re-read your entire book, and re-write passages, add new ideas, be open and creative. Also, use Grammarly or any other « spelling » software so you can double check your spelling to make sure you didn’t make any error, or to find ways to formulate sentences that sound better.

SEVENTH STEP: Bonuses

When you create content (a video, a book, an article, a course), it’s always good to include bonuses. On « smaller » contents that will often be forgotten such as small videos and articles, it’s not that important to add bonuses. However, on bigger content, such as courses or books, it’s incredible and almost necessary for your success to add bonuses.

Bonuses are entire subjects or sub-subjects that weren’t treated in the book, and that you want to give out for free so people can learn more. For example, if I have a bodybuilding course, I might want to add bonuses about « bodybuilding for seniors » or about the subject of steroid or about other types of weight-lifting or about bodybuilding without equipment or at your home gym, etc. However, remember that these bonuses should still be engaging and interesting, and they should still have a process of problems and solutions and things you could for your clients.

If you don’t do this, your bonuses will look bad, and people will probably not care about them. However, bonuses could also be a good selling point.

EIGHT STEP (FINAL STEP): PUBLISH! :)

Finally, publish! Research how to get copyrighting from your book, you can also find an editor or any other professional help. You can go to a publishing house if you want to publish your book in real life and get it famous across the country/world. If you want to go for the « amateur » approach you can post your book on Amazon and sell it from there, such as an amazon kindle.

Conclusion

I hope this article was of help to you and that you’ll get on your way to becoming a successful author.

As always, thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next time. Bye.

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