Ep20: The First Four Weeks Of Writing My Best Selling Book Publish To Impact

[00:00:00] The most common question I get asked when it comes to writing and publishing a book is what does the process look like? In today's episode, I'm going to share with you the first four weeks of how I went about publishing my book, published here, impact. and I'm going to break these down in two separate episodes.

[00:00:17] So I'm going to give you the first four weeks today. And then throughout the coming weeks, I'll give you the next four weeks after that. And then the next four weeks after that. Just so you get an idea of how the process works. And then you can take each episode away with you and really get clear in how it is that you can write and publish your own book.

[00:00:37] What I'm also going to do at the end of each episode is tell you how long I spent working on my book, because it's probably less time than you think it might actually be. Let's begin. So it's week one and I've just announced that I will write a book and I'll be sharing my journey with my audience.

[00:00:55] So I began writing my book on September 12th, 2023. And I was taking off on a holiday to Europe for a month with my fiance. What a way to start. So I was already prepared that a month away. On a European holiday. It's not literally relaxing by the pool. It's one of those holidays where you're sightseeing. You're busy, you're changing time zones. You're doing so many different things and I wanted to see how much I could get written off my book.

[00:01:19] So it's week one. What did I do for the week? The first thing I did was I asked myself why. A book without a clear purpose is like a ship without a destination. I had to ensure what I was writing, aligned with my why and why I was writing the book now as a boot coach. I want to really break down perceived perceptions that writing and publishing a book is out of reach.

[00:01:42] So my wife is helping ambitious individuals like yourself, write a nonfiction book to make a difference in your business in your life personally and professionally.

[00:01:53] So I spent about five minutes, really getting clear on that. Why it didn't take me long. I spend about five minutes and then I could move to the next step, which was setting a realistic timeline.

[00:02:04] So after getting clear on my, why I sent an email out to my email list, letting everyone know that I'll be writing a book and I'll be taking them along for the ride. This now keeps me accountable, but it gives me a deadline for executing a published book. One of the biggest barriers I find when I speak to people is

[00:02:22] they've have written chapters for their book, but they've got no idea on the process and. , and they don't have any accountability partners as such to keep them going and keep them moving forward. So setting a realistic timeline, but also putting myself out there to say, I'm writing this book and I'm going to write it in this many weeks.

[00:02:40] So I've given my, I gave myself 14 weeks from the idea in my head to have a published book in my hands. So I've looked into my, why I've set a timeline. And now I need to think about my routine. . I know that I was going to be in Europe and it was going to be tough.

[00:02:56] So. I aimed to get my writing done on the planes and trains as I traveled throughout country to country.

[00:03:04] When I traveled America. A few years back now, I tried doing this when writing my first book, the six pillars of rewarding life, and I hardly got anything done.

[00:03:13] And I had to make the most of every. Opportunity that I had throughout the traveling time. So my routine took me about five minutes to gather or gather all the information that I had and pick and choose my days of when I could actually write. And it really worked out well for me. Number four.

[00:03:29] I gathered what was in my head and I write down every single potential idea I had for my book.

[00:03:36] Now. I like to hand-write my ideas because it makes writing a book more real. What I mean by this is I wrote down plenty of good ideas, but also plenty of bad ideas. Because it's not, it doesn't matter if I include them or not. It's more of a brain dump and think about it.

[00:03:52] When you write down your goals,

[00:03:53] you're going to be more receptive to the written word, as opposed to the typed word when it comes to your goals, because your mind is going to connect with it a whole lot easier.

[00:04:02] Now this took me two hours because it was essentially a brain dump.

[00:04:05] And it's essentially a mind mapping stage when I'm laying out the puzzle of my book and visualizing how all the pieces are going to connect. Good or bad. So I'm moving pieces around, trying to really figure out how this book can be structured.

[00:04:20] And then the fifth thing I did for the week was I looked at the book structure, and then I created an outline of the back of my mind mapping that I did in step four.

[00:04:29] So I knew that my book is going to be a, how to book, how to write and publish a non-fiction book to make an impact in your business, in your life.

[00:04:35] So it was easy to visualize the type of problems I'm solving for readers.

[00:04:39] And how I structured my book as I structured it as a guide to help you through the writing and publishing process. I knew it wasn't going to be a memoir, but I was going to reference specific challenges that I've overcome.

[00:04:52] And what I did was I used a four paper to write down my draft chapter names. And then I used a writing. Software called Scrivener. I used. Scrivener, but you might use Google docs or Microsoft word. I use Scrivener to lay out my book and it took me a few hours because I know this is how writing becomes easier.

[00:05:12] I'd record bullet points under each chapter. As I worked through that outline.

[00:05:18] So that's really all I did for the very first week. The challenges faced as well. I would consider it the calm before the storm, because I didn't want to dive too quick into writing as I wanted to really establish my book idea and the relevant topics, the relevant research, and any materials for my book.

[00:05:36] So the very first week was just key to get myself in the mindset and the right frame of mind, get myself excited to right. and really put the accountability actions into place. So the total time I spent on my book mindset work, I spent about 20 minutes. Planning. I spent one hour. Outline three hours.

[00:05:56] So for the very first week of my book, I spent four hours and 15 minutes.

[00:06:02] Then comes, wake to. So wait two of my European trip, I was actually sitting at Keio lounge, waiting for a connecting flight to London and. If there's one thing I learned over that previous week, a routine quickly goes out the window when your focus shifts, not just in writing, but in life in general. And I made a promise to myself and also my audience that. I would teach them how to write and publish a book over the next 16 weeks.

[00:06:28] I knew my first month, wouldn't be challenging being on a sightseeing holiday for the six weeks, essentially. But that's what makes me want to get this book done. I want to prove to you that you can make time to write and publish your book, and it's not going to take as long as you think. So going back week one was all about the writing process.

[00:06:46] Week two is locking in as much as I could on actually writing.

[00:06:51] Now found this a lot easier because I already had the outline planned out, which really helps begin. So I did two things in week two. The first thing I did was I wrote my introduction. The introduction is your gateway to a powerful reading experience. And if you listened to my most recent episode, I actually do an episode about how to create a powerful introduction.

[00:07:14] So you can go back and head to that episode if you want as well. That really gives you an insight into. How I work through an introduction. So your introduction is what shapes the experience for your reader and it determines whether or not they will continue reading.

[00:07:30] But what I also know is I wrote my introduction. And I knew it. Wasn't going to be set in stone. Because when I finished my rough draft, that introduction is definitely going to be tweaked. So I just wanted to use my introduction as guidance while writing. I spent about 30 minutes doing this. And I also want to let you know too, before I go into the next step. Never edit as you write. It's really important because you're going to stop trying to perfect things.

[00:07:58] And it really stops you in the flow, in the process. So never edit as you write that's advice. I give to myself, it's advice that you give to clients. It's the perfect, it's the best way to get your draft done quickly. And the second thing I did is I started working my way down, the list of chapters. So I use, again,

[00:08:16] I use Scrivener my writing software to organize my ideas. Then tick them off after finishing each chapter. At this stage, the average word count of each chapter is one to 2000 words.

[00:08:30] The reason is, is because my book has a, how to, and a practical step-by-step the chapters are designed for action. So I want the rate to quickly refer back when needed, without feeling overwhelmed that they've been given a novel, or I want to make it easily actionable. So step two is just starting to write my book and it's working my way through those chapters that I did in my outline.

[00:08:54] And I did mention before that routine is challenging when you're on holiday. But. While traveling. I accepted that. I can't write during my usual time. So I opted to write on planes and trains where possible. Yeah.

[00:09:07] And how long did I spend on this while I spent 60 minutes on my introduction and I spent five hours on chapters, one to four. Total word count. 6,267 words.

[00:09:21] So that works out to be roughly a thousand words an hour, which is easily doable. . I'm not an extreme, fast hyper I'm relatively, relatively fast, but I'm not an extreme typer and sometimes things don't flow to me as naturally. So what happens is I have to think, and I have to really understand what it is I'm trying to say,

[00:09:38] but on average, a thousand words per hour, I was quite happy with that.

[00:09:43] And so there you go. That's what happened in week two.

[00:09:47] Week number three. I experienced travel exhaustion.

[00:09:51] And it was a really challenging week because the 36 hours of travel from Sydney to London.

[00:09:57] Was a nightmare.

[00:09:59] Now if there's one thing I want you to know about writing a book is there's going to be challenging days and even weeks on your journey. Now I made a commitment to write my book and share the journey with my audience. So I had to find the time to keep the momentum going.

[00:10:12] So what did I do for week three? Again, I did two things. One benefit of jet lag was being up early to write a few chapters. So I wrote out chapters five to seven. Which happened to be about the book writing process. And it couldn't really come at a bit of time because I was writing about establishing a mindset and how to structure a book.

[00:10:35] So the exact thing I was writing about, I had to try and. Be a part of it. And I had to try and really zone into what it was I was doing. The second thing I did was I actually had to go back and get some research. I hadn't anticipated coming across because the original research I had was at dated and I wanted to make sure I was a hundred percent on point in giving the best information on writing and publishing a book.

[00:10:59] The challenges faced. Travel exhaustion was a major factor. In a really average writing week. I was hoping to get ahead on the plane to London from KL, but I just couldn't get it done.

[00:11:12] The second challenge I faced was having broken minutes.

[00:11:15] What I mean by that, it was really hard to write for longer than half an hour at times, because we're out and about traveling. And this is a challenge you will face in your book writing process. As you get into flow. Most of my writing was done in the morning for around 20 to 60 minutes, but I still got some chapters in. So don't think that you need to spend. One or two hours writing your book.

[00:11:38] If you spend even 15 minutes, 20 minutes. You're still getting that consistency and you're still getting words down. You're still maintaining flow and motivation and momentum.

[00:11:49] Now the total time I spent for that week.

[00:11:51] Was three hours. Now only spent three hours for the week on my book. And I only write chapters five to seven with the weekly word count at 3,920.

[00:12:02] Again, averaging between 1000 to 1300 words for an hour. The total word count now takes me up to 10,207.

[00:12:13] Now we move on to the final week in this podcast, episode is week four, week four was all about writing the draft. And trying to build that and gain that momentum and focusing on one thing.

[00:12:26] So the fourth week I'd spent the last week traveling around, uh, Switzerland and a beautiful country.

[00:12:31] And on one hand it was really surreal, but on the other. Again, I'm out of a proper writing routine. And after that challenging week in week three. The draft of my manuscript was coming along nicely and I managed to pump over 10,000 words. In Switzerland, just by focusing on one thing. And that was writing. So I spent roughly. Eight hours on my draft manuscripts, which works out to be on average, almost 1.15 hours per day, working on my book. It meant I was well on track to finish my draft manuscript. In a few weeks time.

[00:13:06] So as you can probably say, there probably wasn't as many challenges that I faced this week and that's going to happen. You're going to get ebbs and flows. You're going to have really great wakes. You're going to have pool awakes. It's just never losing sight on your book.

[00:13:18] So instead of the challenges I faced for that week, because there probably wasn't any, to be honest,

[00:13:22] I'll give you an insight into how published it impacts was written in terms of the parts and the structure of the book. Say part, one of published impact is all about writing your book. This is where I teach you about how to get in the right mindset. Validate your book idea. And prepare you to write your draft manuscript. In four to six weeks. So the first part of the book, you'll learn how to structure your non-fiction book , to make writing almost effortless.

[00:13:48] . So part one's writing a book. And the second part is pre-publication. So before publishing your book, you need to know the key investments to make editing, cover designing formatting. Those are three tools I believe in non-negotiable to deliver an incredible book to your audience.

[00:14:04] So during the pre-publication phase in published impact, I teach you how to price your book, select the right categories and keywords. So you can hit the bestseller charts and also upload and launch your book for maximum success.

[00:14:18] And the final part of published impact is the post-publication and launching phase. So after your book is published, the job isn't done. In this part, I teach you how to market your book to your audience. So you can. Earn royalties, grow your business, bring in a sane amount of leads, and you also learn how to get more reviews and set up book funnels for long lasting success inside your book.

[00:14:41] So all in all week four was a productive week despite being on holiday in Switzerland. And, um, it was probably a touch behind schedule for week four, but I know it was going to make up for that in the following week.

[00:14:54] So the total time I spent on my book for week four was eight hours. The word count is 10,120, which takes my total word count of my draft manuscript to 20,307.

[00:15:08] So let's not recap the weekly word count from week one. Week one was zero words because it was all about getting into the right mindset, creating a book outline. So it wasn't actually writing my book. Week two, 6,267 words, week three, 3,920. And week four, 10,120.

[00:15:30] So my total word count. As it stands is 20,307.

[00:15:36] And another common question I hear from riders. Looking to publish their books is ask how to write consistently without moving momentum. And it's cliche, but the reality is to focus on one thing and break it down into small blocks of time. I managed to get 10,000 words in from writing just over an hour, a day on average,

[00:15:57] this is what I teach others.

[00:15:58] And you can definitely do the same. So with that said, I will do another episode in the next couple of weeks from weeks five to eight. Just so you can get an idea again, of the actual process that I'm taking, because what's going to happen in the next lot of weeks.

[00:16:13] We'll be looking at the cover design and all these different, exciting things that you can learn how to do as well. So thanks for joining me. I hope you took a lot out of this episode. If you want a free copy of my book, publisher impact head to the show notes and you can get it there.

[00:16:28] Otherwise, if you want to learn how to write and publish a book, reach out to me and we can make it happen for you. But until next time catch you soon.