what format do you use to write a book

Every writer has a unique writing procedure—that means there are millions of ways to write a book.

But there are 11 key steps every writer should follow to make the process of writing your volume a whole lot faster and easier.

Applying these simple steps will show yous how to write a book faster, organize your thoughts with less stress, and ultimately create a better book that's more likely to get you the publishing deal and sales you desire.

For those of you who dear to write or want to learn how to write your first book, I'll share with you the 11 fundamental steps to writing a book that's ready to be professionally published.

How To Write a Book: A Guide for Beginners

The writing process is a mystery to nearly people. Even some of the most successful writers I've met are unable to really explain how to write a book!

If you lot ask them for advice on how to go a meliorate writer, they'll give you vague answers like "merely write more" or "find something that inspires you to write."

And while both of those answers band true and are indeed powerful suggestions for those who understand and use them, this mutual communication is far too vague for most writers to become the best results possible.

What stops most writers from finishing their book isn't a lack of hard piece of work or inspiration; almost of us just get stuck at some betoken in the writing process, and nosotros need help getting united nationsstuck and so we can keep making progress.

At the end of the day, most writers only want to larn how to write improve and faster with less effort and struggle. Writing tin can exist incredibly challenging and frustrating without a clear plan.

Creating a clearly defined writing process and following these eleven steps volition assistance you stay on runway and get unstuck so you can end your book and get it published.

While I can't promise that you can create a great book that's set to be professionally published without whatever effort or struggle, I tin share with you lot the detailed guide to getting the work done as effectively and efficiently as possible.

I want yous to get the best writing results y'all perhaps can—whether that means getting a volume deal from a Large Five publisher or creating a high quality volume that yous would be proud to self-publish.

1. Observe Your Big Thought

Of course, the offset footstep to writing a book is figuring out what you want to write about. Now, this doesn't mean you accept to know every sub-topic and detail that you'll comprehend at this bespeak, but you should settle on a "large thought" before getting started with anything else.

For nonfiction, it helps to retrieve well-nighwhyy'all're writing a book in the offset place. What is the trouble y'all're going to aid readers solve? Why is it important? Why are you lot the best person to write about it?

For fiction, you may already have the seeds of an thought for a bully story. But if not, you may find inspiration through creative writing prompts. These can lead to the nativity of a character or a world yous want to create and build your story around.

You can likewise await to real life for inspiration. Check out our listing of ideas for writing a book to learn where y'all can find inspiration for both fiction and nonfiction.

2. Make Time

The next thing you lot need to exercise is look at all the things that are holding you dorsum from writing a book. Chances are, you've probably thought about writing a book before, merely never got effectually to it.

Maybe you never seemed to have the time, or peradventure you merely thought your writing wasn't practiced enough. Whatsoever it was, make a plan to work around information technology.

If you're concerned about time constraints, work out a schedule and program time to write for at least an 60 minutes every day. This may mean getting up an hour before in the morn—but if you're serious about writing your book, yous'll make it work.

Say farewell to excuses!

3. Conduct Market Research

Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, marketplace enquiry is an essential footstep toward writing your volume.

Before you invest fourth dimension in writing, you lot need to understand who your ideal reader is and what they want, so you tin can be sure to write a volume that gives them that.

Study bestselling titles and scan volume reviews in your market place. This can give you a expert experience for what works and what doesn't, so you know what to exercise and what to avoid in your volume.

four. Pre-Write (Create Your Book Template)

For me, pre-writing is a huge key to my success as an author. Without this stride, I would never accept been able to write and publish 27 books in the last v years.

Pre-writing is the quick and unproblematic process I go through to create a certificate for my new manuscript that looks like a volume, feels like a book, and about smells like a book in less than an hour.

So what is pre-writing? It'due south basically pre-formatting your book to expect like a book in club to prepare it (and you) for success.

For instance, when I come up up with a new book idea, I will take one of my free eBook formatting templates for fiction or nonfiction and create a new document for the book on my computer.

And so, I'll go to the title folio and change the title of the volume to a new "title placeholder." I don't fifty-fifty demand to know the championship of the book however. I just demand to know what it's about.

Equally an example, for my book The Kindle Writing Bible, the title placeholder started out asHow to Write More Nonfiction Books. A poor book championship, I know, but information technology served its purpose.

This title placeholder is not meant to be the terminal title of your book. Information technology's meant to accept the place of your title at the very offset of the writing process so you tin can kickoff to see your book taking form and coming to life earlier y'all fifty-fifty sit down to write it.

Call back of pre-writing like building the frame for a business firm. Once you lot take the frame built, you can immediately see the shape of the construction. Yous tin can see information technology accept form, and you tin can hands visualize how it will wait when information technology'due south finished.

Pre-writing takes a simple book idea and turns information technology into a concrete construction that exists in the real globe, allowing y'all to see your dreams come truthful correct earlier your eyes in a very short catamenia of time.

Something magical happens when you create the template for your book complete with your title folio, table of contents, copyright notice, author biography, and chapter headings. Even if there'south no content in the volume, it nevertheless looks and feels a lot like a book, and it helps you realize that yous actually can do this.

By looking at a well-designed, carefully formatted template with the provisional championship of your volume on the first folio (instead of staring at a bare screen), you'll start to feel like a existent author. When you experience like a real writer, you're more likely to human action like i every bit well.

After creating the title page, I then become to the back of my book and edit my "About the Author" department, "Other Books by the Author", the Review Request, and any bonus textile I might offer.

When I'm done pre-writing (which usually takes me less than twenty minutes), I'll oftentimes have 800 to ii,000 words in my book already written.

That's earlier I've even get-go writing the book!

I don't know virtually you, but that makes me feel pretty darn good when I wait at the word count at the bottom of the folio in Microsoft Word and see that I've already got a thousand words or more than written before I have even started to write the book.

I learned a similar pull a fast one on many years ago from a source I have long since forgotten. Basically, someone had told me to format my books in Microsoft Word to brand it look like a book, consummate with page numbers and formatting.

It seemed like a brilliant idea at the fourth dimension. I thought, "If I could accept my word document designed like a professional person book, it might just give me that actress inspiration I need to finally finish my book!"

Well, I tried that just I had no thought what I was doing. I had no clue how to design or layout a professional book, and then I never could get it correct.

I fiddled with adding page numbers and changing margins, paragraph spacing, headings, font types, font sizes and more, simply information technology never felt quite correct. Information technology didn't practise the trick for me because I had no idea what I was doing at the time.

When I finally figured out how to format and layout a professional person manuscript ready for publishing, I created my costless Kindle eBook formatting templates and it fabricated a huge difference for me.

I encourage y'all to use our free Writing a Volume Templates or create your ain volume writing template so you can create a new book document that makes the book come live even before you commencement writing the starting time chapter.

This unproblematic procedure volition help give you that extra motivation to start writing, and to keep writing once your volume actually looks like a volume instead of a completely blank document that you lot have to magically fill up with words.

If you create the torso of your volume first, filling in the pages becomes a lot easier mentally and emotionally.

"Writing a book is a mental and emotional struggle. Do everything you can to maintain control of your thoughts and emotions, and writing your book will exist a lot easier."

It's a foreign little quirk of human nature that information technology seems so much easier to go from writing 1,000 to 50,000 words in your book than it is to get from 0 to i,000 words.

My advice: become the 1,000 words down start and then start writing your book.

The truth is that I don't ever pre-write. Sometimes I get an instant flash of inspiration and just first writing. Merely that doesn't happen very often.

What happens most of the time is that I pre-write my book, and and so I movement on to planning my book, and then to writing the first typhoon.

5. Outline Your Volume

Once y'all've created your book template, information technology'south time to program your book.

I know planning tin can be dull, only it doesn't take very long and it volition end up saving y'all a TON of time in the long run, since you lot won't take to worry nearly:

• Writing a book no one wants to read
• Writing a volume that needs to be scrapped or rewritten from scratch because of a fatal flaw
• Rewriting or deleting a huge portion of the volume because information technology doesn't fit the storyline or organization needed after your plan became clear
• Writing role of a book so quitting because you don't know what to do next

Information technology'southward tempting to but rush in and start writing your book, but a simple programme can save yous an enormous corporeality of time equally a author.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired or excited to write your book. If at any indicate you feel like immediately jumping in and writing your book, so by all means go for it.

These steps are not meant to hold dorsum your creativity, but rather to create a structure that allows you to be more creative and more confident as yous get through the writing process.

How to Programme Your Writing Like a Pro

If you want to acquire how to write a book, yous commencement need to larn how to plan. Planning is where you outline the basic ideas and points of your book. You can simply write out the words to create a "book skeleton."

Some people spend a lot of time planning their books. They'll even write out all the affiliate titles on index cards and have sections on each index card for major points or subheadings in each chapter. That's all fine and dandy, but for me simpler is amend (and a whole lot faster).

For example, when I started writing The Kindle Writing Bible, I started with this simple book outline:

Topic (passion, knowledge, expertise, experience, market place research)

Writing (ghostwriting, interviews, how to write ameliorate, etc.)

That was it!

It took me less than five minutes to create that list of ideas to include in the book, and this incredibly basic writing program inspired me enough to starting time Pace 3: creative writing.

For those of you who require a piffling more structure and guidance for your writing journey, y'all tin create a much more thorough outline for your volume.

Brainstorming Writing Ideas

Sit downward with a pen and paper with no distractions and schedule at least 15 quiet minutes to recall nearly the most important ideas, stories, and scenes that should be in your book.

When you lot begin the big ideas or scenes for your book, your goal is not to filter anything. Instead, you want to be as creative equally possible and not concord anything dorsum.

Write downwards every thought you get during this brainstorming process, no matter how silly, ridiculous, or insignificant it seems.

Later this brainstorming session, you tin and so go through your ideas and filter out the ones that don't fit what you're trying to create.

Questions for Brainstorming Nonfiction

• What are the big ideas my reader needs to know?
• What are some stories that help illustrate these large ideas?
• What are some additional supporting ideas my reader might similar to know about?
• What other resource, tools, or links would be helpful for my reader to acquire even more?
• What action steps or exercises would help my reader understand or utilise the material even ameliorate?

Questions for Brainstorming Fiction

• Who are the main characters?
• Who are the supporting characters?
• Who is the protagonist/hero?
• Who is the adversary/villain?
• What does each graphic symbol desire?
• What does each character Non want to happen?
• Where does the story start?
• Where does the story cease?
• How exercise the characters get from the first to the terminate (scene by scene)?

Creating Your Volume Outline

Afterward brainstorming all the main ideas that will be included in your book, you tin can create an outline for your book.

Your outline is essentially only a tool for organizing all the ideas yous came upwardly with during your brainstorming session.

Here are some questions to assist you create a peachy book outline:

• What does my reader need to know first and foremost? What next?
• Is there a logical fashion to lodge the ideas for the book that makes the most sense?
• Are any of the chapters interchangeable (does the organization of each chapter matter to the reader?)

Outlines don't need to be big, fancy, or detailed. The purpose of an outline is to assist yous get a clear idea of what's going in your volume.

This will help you be more productive when you sit to write your book, since yous'll know exactly what you need to write almost each day.

6. Creative Writing

I call the process of writing the first typhoon of your bookartistic writing because it's all about using your creativity. It'due south not about editing. It's non about inquiry.

It's not about facts or figures, or charts or pictures, or graphics or references, or footnotes.

It'southward about writing your ideas and thoughts on paper and letting your creativity flow unrestricted with no distractions!

Most new writers try to do too many things at the aforementioned time when they start writing their first draft.

Yous get this great thought for your book, write 200 words, and then your heed says, "Oh shoot, I can't remember if there are xxx or 31 days in Nov!" And then y'all minimize your writing document, open up upwardly your spider web browser, and showtime Googling.

The problem with stopping in the middle of creative writing to research, edit, fact check, or rewrite is that it will DESTROY your writing output and productivity.

It's like telling a immature child to describe a picture and so every five minutes yous offer them a cookie. The child is not going to be able to go that picture finished anytime before long, and it'south probably going to look similar crap with all those crumbs on it.

When yous offset writing your first draft, only write!

Don't research. Don't close your writing document. Don't talk to anyone. Don't try to edit while yous type. Don't worry about spelling. Don't look at a dictionary. Don't do anything that distracts you from writing the ideas downwardly as they menstruum through your mind.

If yous follow these simple rules, y'all'll detect your writing productivity will increase dramatically. For me, my writing productivity increased several times over just by following this one simple dominion: When you lot write your commencement draft, do nothing but write new words equally yous go.

How to Stay in Creative Writing Fashion

• Links: Instead of searching for hyperlinks online to refer readers to the correct website, just write (link) and skip a line. And so, when you come back to edit the book, you can remember to insert the correct link.
• Enquiry: Instead of researching a particular statistic or thought online, just write 30 and skip a line. For instance, in one of my business books I was writing about the business failure charge per unit in America. I couldn't remember how many businesses failed in the first v years (it's 55% co-ordinate to Illusions of Entrepreneurship, while other sources say equally high as 80%). Just instead of looking up those facts and messing upwards your creative writing procedure, just write Xxx, skip a line, and do your research during the editing stage.
• Fact Checking: See "Research" to a higher place.
• Typos: Set them but if they are immediately obvious to you and it doesn't distract you from writing the adjacent sentence. Exercise Not search for them during artistic writing.
• Grammar: Ignore grammatical errors. You lot will work on fixing grammatical errors diligently after the offset draft is completed.
• Give-and-take Usage:If you're not sure of the right give-and-take to use to communicate your thought, just utilise the closest word that comes to listen and move on. You can update your usage and use a dictionary or thesaurus during the editing procedure.

7. Revise and Edit Your Manuscript

Learning how to write a book isn't just about the writing procedure—how you edit is every bit important!

One time y'all're "done" with creative writing, you will have a finished showtime draft of your manuscript.

Congratulations! Finishing your first typhoon is a huge step in the right direction. Most writers never become this far. Feel free to popular the champagne and celebrate.

So, the next morning time, your real work starts. It's time to revise and edit your work.

This is where you'll thoroughly study your manuscript to notice and gear up any typos, grammatical errors, factual errors, and other mistakes. You'll inquiry any facts or figures you forgot nigh and insert any hyperlinks and citations that you lot demand for the book. You'll besides want to insert pictures, graphs or whatever other media type that yous'd like to include in the book.

When I go through my outset revision, I often detect that I as well need to write more. Maybe a section is too brief or unclear for readers, so I'll demand to elaborate on a point or even add ideas and resources that I hadn't even thought almost the starting time time effectually.

Sometimes I may add a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or fifty-fifty an entire new chapter. Be open to continuously improving your book and adding important information for your readers throughout the writing process.

I may also demand to create new chapters, suspension up text, move passages around, or even delete sections of the book.

Even once your volume has been published, you can continue to make updates to your volume, especially if you are cocky-publishing.

If yous tend to write likewise much or constitutional on in your writing, check your manuscript to brand sure everything included in the volume is relevant, connected, and important to the reader. Longer books are not always better.

I recommend keeping your writing simple, sweet, and to the point. The less unnecessary data in your books, the better reading experience yous'll be able to provide for your readers.

Simplicity Is Primal

For nonfiction, you want to make sure everything included in your book is helping your reader get the results they want.

If you're writing a weight loss book, for example, make sure everything in your volume will assistance your reader accomplish their goal. Including irrelevant stories, facts, or data will only brand it more likely for your reader to put the book downwardly without the results they wanted.

Many nonfiction writers are insecure about how valuable their information really is. That'due south why they'll write a 350-page book that could have been completed just as well in 50 pages, saving the reader a heck of a lot of time.

For fiction, you want to make sure every sentence in your book is driving the story forward. Don't mention minor details or stories in the book that never connect to the storyline.

If a character tells a story, there meliorate be a reason backside it (such as giving us insight into that character'due south motivations or personality).

Your time is valuable. That means your reader'south fourth dimension is valuable. Don't waste matter it with fluff, irrelevant stories, or drivel.

For more on editing your own work, check out our guide to self-editing. Use the tips presented there, and always think to read a printed version of your manuscript and read it out loud at least one time to come across mistakes and potential improvements that y'all would non take discovered otherwise.

8. Get Feedback on Your Manuscript

No matter how swell yous are at writing, you tin can always produce better work with a little help and insight from others.

Crowdsourcing and finding beta readers is a great style to become feedback from other people to help you improve your book. Nigh authors will give their book manuscript to their married woman or family or friends, or fifty-fifty a fellow author and accept them review information technology for typos, grammatical errors, fact checking, and other recommendations. That'southward a wonderful style to get free advice and help on improving your book.

It's not the same every bit hiring a professional editor (unless you happen to know a professional editor who's willing to help you out for free), only it's a great start. You can also ask your friends and followers on social media to read the book and give you feedback.

Realize that you'll get the best feedback from your platonic readers. If you're writing a science fiction novel, the best feedback you will get is from folks who buy and read lots of science fiction.

If you are brand new and don't have any fans yet, you can kickoff by connecting with your target readers on online forums, Facebook groups, and past request for readers to review your work on social media and on your website.

This step isn't necessary for every writer in every situation, but it tin exist very helpful, especially if you are inexperienced or working on your first volume.

9. Professional Editing

Once yous've gone through several rounds of revising and rewriting your volume and gotten feedback from your target readers, it's time to hire a professional editor to help meliorate your manuscript even more.

Ane of the biggest mistakes new authors brand that can end upward costing you a lot of money is sending a first draft to a professional person editor at this stage.

If yous send an unedited beginning draft to a professional editor, they're going to end upwards spending then much fourth dimension fixing typos, formatting errors, grammatical errors, and common mistakes that they won't exist able to do their best work.

What happens in nigh of these cases is that the editor has to charge you more—sometimes a LOT more than—because they have to spend and so much extra time wading through all the simple mistakes yous could take easily fixed yourself, if only you had spent a fiddling more time editing.

The other reason to avoid sending an unedited first draft to an editor is because it makes you look like a rookie.

Professional writers don't send unedited work to editors; they know how of import it is to revise their ain work earlier getting a professional editor involved.

If you deed like a professional writer, you will find that the best professional editors are more willing to work with y'all and won't charge yous quite as much.

You may also find that your team will exist more willing to become out of their way to help you lot succeed when they run across how much effort and piece of work you accept put into your book.

You lot tin learn more than near how to find a professional person editor hither along with more data on how much a practiced editor charges for their services.

ten. Formatting Your Manuscript

Now that yous've edited your book, it'due south time to format it.

Formatting a book manuscript is basically a simple process in which yous design your document or book file to exist the most attractive and about useful to your readers.

If you plan to become your book traditionally published, yous can ask your agent for a checklist or guidelines on how to properly format your book for traditional publishing.

If you lot plan to self-publish your book on Amazon Kindle, you'll need to format your book for the Amazon Kindle platform.

You can download the costless Kindle formatting template for fiction here and the Kindle formatting template for nonfiction here.

If you plan to self publish your book in print using CreateSpace or some other printer, I highly recommend hiring a professional book interior designer to assist y'all layout and blueprint your book for print. (Nosotros have a gratis paperback self publishing checklist to help walk you through the process.)

You can also endeavour using the new Reedsy book formatting tool that tin help you format your book for eBook and print (it's free to use).

Whichever publishing route or tools you lot choose to apply, your formatting needs to go done and it needs to be done right before yous publish your volume. Zero will turn readers off faster or attract more bad reviews on Amazon than a book that's hard to read due to poor formatting.

11. Stay Motivated

No thing which phase of writing a book you're currently in, information technology'southward important to stay motivated. Continue your eye on the prize past reminding yourself why you're writing the book in the first identify.

Embrace feedback (even the negative stuff!). Seek out a mentor who'due south already been downward this road—talking with someone who'south been through the experience of writing a volume can help put things into perspective and assistance you push forrad if you feel stuck.

Keep working on writing the very best volume y'all can, and you'll see results presently enough.

Write Your Volume in 21 Days

If you're upwards for a challenge, why not endeavour writing your book in less than a month? I've written and published 27 books in the last few years and have several more in progress. At one signal, I was consistently producing more than 1 book every 21 days, so I tin can tell y'all that it is possible!

I've published books anywhere from 40 to 400 pages (sometimes the shorter ones sell even better). Then if you think y'all take to write a massive 400-page book, yous don't! Your book should be equally long equally it needs to be to fully tell the story (fiction) or help the reader solve their problem (nonfiction).

Here'southward what I recommend to go started with writing your first book:

1. Begin Ideas in 15 Minutes

Lock yourself in a room. No phone, no email, no interruptions for 15 minutes. Only a pen and a notebook. Come upwards with as many book ideas / topics / niches as yous can think of. Y'all should accept at least 20. If you lot think of other ideas afterwards in the shower merely add them to your list ASAP.

Write down these questions to spur ideas:

What topics would I love to write nigh?

What knowledge do I have that could assistance people?

What do I know now that I wish I knew when I got started with X (a business, relationship, trouble, any)?

What ideas do I accept that could sell well?

Why: It's important to get all your book ideas out ahead of fourth dimension. Otherwise, halfway through a volume you'll become an idea for 10 other books and might get distracted. Get distracted with a neat idea upfront, not halfway through.

2. Do Research and Get Feedback

Find out what your potential readers are really looking for. You lot tin follow our volume market research process in club to better understand your market and how to make your book stand out from the contest.

Yous should also ask your marketing and business concern savvy friends which of your ideas sound most marketable. If you don't have whatever marketing or business concern savvy friends, melody in to our weekly podcast interviews with bestselling authors and try to expand your network of entrepreneurs and creative people so you can get better feedback on your ideas.

Why: Feedback is crucial. Great feedback from smart people can assistance yous ostend that your expert ideas are really worth pursuing, and it can assistance you choose the best book idea for you to start with. The central is getting started. Once you get the first book washed and selling well, you'll be so excited you won't want to terminate writing books.

three. Choose Your All-time Book Thought

Based on feedback (x%) and your passion/interest/inspiration (90%), decide which book to write start.

Why: You amend be inspired to write your volume and share your story. Otherwise, you're going to need someone else to motivate you to finish it and market it. Feedback should only exist used to clarify your own thoughts and ideas and make them ameliorate.

4. Outline

Lock yourself in a room once again. No phone, no email, no interruptions for xv minutes. Come up with as many ideas that you want to share in the volume equally you can call back of. If you think of other ideas afterwards in the shower just add them to your list ASAP.

Organize these ideas into a tentative outline (see Step 5 in the main tutorial to a higher place). This will help guide your writing process.

After, you should be so excited that you can't wait to start writing and/or speaking into a voice recorder (also a proficient option in lieu of an interview or every bit a supplemental manner of recording info for the book). I use QuickVoice app for my iPhone when on the go.

Publishing: The Next Step Afterwards Writing Your Volume …

Afterward your book is finished, it's time to become it published!

There are and so many options available for publishing your book, including traditional publishing, indie publishing, self-publishing, and publishing your book with TCK Publishing.

No matter which publishing route you choose, it's up to yous to create a publishing plan for success. To do that, you need to study and focus on what you can control as an writer.

Yous can also bank check out our guides and resource on how to write a children'southward book, how to write a biography, and how to write a memoir for more tips.

Did you discover this information helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

Additional Resources for Authors:

• Microsoft Word Styles Tutorial: Learn to Streamline Your Formatting
• How to Get Your Self-Published Book Edited and Formatted and What the CreateSpace Shakeup Means for Indie Authors
• How to Format Your Book for Amazon Kindle Using Microsoft Give-and-take in Just 30 Minutes
• The Footstep-by-Stride Guide to Formatting Your Impress Book for KDP

Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of TCK Publishing, and the bestselling author of 27 books including Secrets of the Half dozen-Figure writer. He is likewise the host of the Publishing Profits Podcast show where we interview successful authors and publishing industry experts to share their tips for creating a successful writing career.

cliftonfronness.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.tckpublishing.com/how-to-write-a-book/

Share this post