Stairway to Publishing Heaven

Publishing a book is journey. Much like climbing Everest .. or simply going on holiday.

With some planning, the right mind set and the wind behind you and not against you, the journey to publishing heaven can become an enjoyable and calculated process.

Step 1: become lucky
Getting a book in print, publicised and read by the right people needs a considerable amount of good luck. As Gary Player, the golfer said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” And you can practice being more lucky and getting good fortune to shine on you.

The best ways to become incredibly lucky are these.

Firstly meditate daily for 20-30 minutes or, if you can’t, go for a walk.

Secondly, keep a journal of all the good things that happen to you unexpectedly each day – and remember to say “thank you” when they do.

Step 2: Set your intent – why are you writing?

Before you start writing properly, you need to establish what you are going to write, why are you writing it and when are you going to write it.

And, from day 1, it is really worth thinking about how you are going to sell it and what is going to do for you or your business. Also visualise who will publish it and write your endorsements?

Step 3: what are you writing?
Research what you plan to write. Who else has done something similar? What sources are you going to draw on? What will be different about your book and what new angle do you plan to take? Do you need to hone a writing style and learn the craft? There are many good books on the subject.

Step 4: what does your book look like?
Next define your book structure. What exactly are you going to write about? How will it be structured? What assets do you need like images, graphics, exercises and quotes? At this stage, it is also worth thinking about intellectual property rights and ensuring you have permission to use all the components you are thinking about in your book.

Step 5: how will you write your book?
There are probably billions of books in the world but I guess there are even more unfinished manuscripts. In order not to augment the latter list, you need to create the space to write. It might involve taking a writing holiday or break, just stopping watching your favourite soaps or getting up an hour early. My personal approach is to pack all work into a 4 day a week, leaving an indulgent Friday for writing.

You need to do this for the duration of writing the first draft. Let’s say you want to write a 12 chapter book. You should budget for between 8 -12 days of writing.

If you learn how to channel the process can be much quicker.

Step 6: commission your first edit or critical review
This can be a scary step when you get someone else to look at your work. This could be done by a friend or outsourced to one of the many third party companies who specialise in this service [like me].

You are not necessarily looking for someone to correct typos and grammar. Rather you are seeking a holistic viewpoint on structure and whether you are achieving your goals for the book.

Step 7: honing your book
Incorporate feedback from the first edit and prepare a second draft for more detailed review. This phase naturally will vary time-wise depending on how much work is to be done.

Step 8: iteration to your final draft
Your second edit is submitted for more detailed copy writing and proof reading. Some people do this together and sometimes you may have to loop around Step 8 a few times.

Step 9: designing your book
When you have your final draft it’s time to submit it to the typography, pagination and design process. This is something you should have set up and thought about while the first edit was being carried out so that, by the time you are ready to move, you have found a designer and a route for publication.