The following non-fiction steps to writing a book can be followed by new writers to help give them a slight advantage in the rough competition towards getting a book published.
How to Start Writing A Book
1) Determine Your Subject - before you begin writing a book, choose one or more subjects that interest you enough to warrant you spending 2, 3, or 4 months immersed in it. If you have no interest in your subject matter, not only will the odds of your success be diminished, but you'll also be bored writing it.
2) Do your market analysis - ok, you have your subject, but is there a market for it? Unless writing is simply a hobby for you, the overriding purpose of you writing a book is to sell it. Is there a market for your proposed book? How do you know? Without a viable market, the odds of your book even being approved by a publisher are slim.
3) Outline your book - before writting a book, create an outline of how the book will be organized. The benefits of an outline are many. It gives you a roadmap from the starting line to the finish so you always know where you're at. An outline also helps you to organize your thoughts so that your writing proceeds along a logical path.
4) Write your proposal - to avoid wasting your time, before you begin to write, create a book proposal and send it to the publisher. The publisher will either approve it, reject it, or ask you to revise it. Don't waste your publisher's time by sending long winded proposals. The book proposal probably should be no longer than about 10 pages. It should include a summary of the proposed book, a possible table of contents, sales figures of how similar books have done (if they are available), the demographics of your target market, a short bio of your previous writing or expertise in the subject matter, your ideas on how to promote it, and a sample chapter if you have one.
5) Follow your publisher's instructions - all publishers have their own rules for deliverables. Simply follow them. Your publisher will tell you when your first draft is due, when the final version needs to be complete, and checkpoints for all other deliverables that they need.
How to Write Books - The Biggest Step of All
6) Write - even if you don't have a publisher. Writing is a skill. And like most skills, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Many would be writers never pick up the pen to begin writing because they believe that they don't have the talent. But most writers are made, not born. Sure, like in any other profession, there are a few individuals who are just naturally talented in that area and can seemingly whip out pages at will.
But writers that talented and extraordinary are few and far between. Most professional writers have struggled and worked hard to get to become successful at their craft. No matter the level of talent that they begin with, they dedicated themselves to continually improving and refining their talent until they reached their goal.
