Ep41: Busy Business Owner? How To Publish Your Book In SIX Months

[00:00:00] As a busy business owner, you might be wondering how the hell you're going to have the time to become an author and to write a book. Today's episode I'm going to talk about how long it actually takes to write your book with the right strategies. Because right now you might be thinking, yeah, I do want to become an author, but it's going to take me a long time. It took me three years to write and publish my very first book. But once I actually figured out how to actually write the book and have a strategy in place, it took me less than six months, twice to become a best-selling author.

[00:00:31] So in this episode, I'm going to give you an actual timeline of how long it actually takes to write your book.

[00:00:36] But first I want to talk about the misconception that writing book has. The misconception is that you need to. I give up working on your business, give up family time, give up friends time, give up your weekends. It's simply not the case. And just like with anything it's about strategic time management, it's about planning. It's about leveraging the right resources.

[00:00:58] So you're not getting caught in that process and you know exactly the direction you're heading with the right timeline in place. Now, what is the timeline to write your book in less than six months? Okay. It begins with planning and outlining. Obviously the stage is important and it typically takes between two to four weeks of planning. And during this time, what you're going to be doing is defining your book's purpose.

[00:01:24] How are you positioning that book to your audience? What is the structure of your book?

[00:01:28] What are the goals for your book? What do you want to achieve out of it? All of the answer to these kinds of questions are going to help develop the concept for your book. So you're actually going to be really prepared and ready to go ahead and start writing your manuscript.

[00:01:43] But you can't move forward or you can't write a manuscript effectively without having the planning and outlining in place. Because that is what's going to help you. That's what's going to be your guide, that planning that outlining. You're reminded each time you go ahead and start sitting down to write.

[00:01:59] You're reminded of the process involved, and that's going to cut so much time inside the process. Now, once you've planned and outlined your boot, you can go ahead and start writing the first draft. This is going to be your rough draft and how you go and write your book is based on your schedule.. Now, once you've planned an outline your book, you can go ahead and start writing the first draft. This is going to be your rough draft. How long you spend on this is always up to you, but I would always encourage you to spend about six hours on this per week.

[00:02:30] Because what you can achieve in six hours of solid focused work, solid, focused writing. Is incredible because that means you can finish your rough manuscript in six to eight weeks. Think about it like this. If you know your topic, which I'm sure you do, you know your topic, you've got an outline structured.

[00:02:49] You can go ahead and write a thousand words in an hour. It's very easy to do that. If you know you, what you're talking about. And it's a very conservative amount as well. So you've gone ahead and write a thousand words in an hour.

[00:03:01] What that means is if you spent six hours writing your book, that 6,000 words a week, you do that for six to eight weeks. By the end of the eight weeks, let's say 6,000 words.

[00:03:11] Times eight weeks is 48,000 words, which is enough for a really high quality powerful book. Even six weeks. 36,000 words. That is still enough for a high quality powerful, impactful book. It comes back to your goals. What goals do you want to achieve for your book? So that's, what's going to count. The consistency in which you write your manuscripts, because that's going to prepare you for the self editing and for that next stage. And the more consistent you are to sit down and write. The more confident you're going to get in writing your book and visualizing that end result, which is a powerful book that's going to grow your business. That's going to make an impact on other people's lives. That's going to bring in more leads. So think of writing your book as a really fun and exciting journey.

[00:04:00] Once you go ahead and finish your draft, you can then move on to the actual self editing process.

[00:04:06] Now right now, you should be proud of yourself because it takes a certain mindset and commitment. In your progression to get your manuscript ready to for a self edit.

[00:04:15] So now is the time to actually Polish it and know that what you actually have written makes a lot of sense. When you've finished your draft. So you may find that. It's almost there, but there's a weight that's lifted on your, off your shoulders.

[00:04:28] But there's still some work to do because all those words that you've written now, All those words and sentences you've written need finessing, but what you may not realize is this is the phase where the real magic is starts to happen. Because editing is that breach. It's that bridge connecting your manuscripts to that high quality professional impactful, powerful book that I've been talking about. And it's the last hurdle before the fund begins. And that fund is actually going through the publishing process because you just, you. It's an exciting feeling, knowing that the manuscripts been written, the books. Being self edited and it's out for professional editing.

[00:05:05] Now there are several types of self edits, but I'm going to give you the two that matter the most. And the first one is a verbal self edit.

[00:05:14] So, this is where you can read through your manuscript aloud and make comments on it. As you read it. So you can spend maybe one to two weeks doing this, and then you can move on to the other second edit, which is the eye scanning. Edit. Remember that these edits are yourself editing. It's not actually being sent to the PR professional editor yet.

[00:05:33] So the eyes scanning edit is after that verbal read through. Your eyes scanning, edit's going to offer you a fresh perspective. So rather than taking the view of the author of the writer, you're actually taking the view of the radar. So you're stepping back and you're viewing your work. You're writing from that distance.

[00:05:51] And this stage, you're going to notice three aspects. You're going to notice your spelling and grammar to make sure your spelling and grammar is all good. You're going to notice any formatting issues. So is there consistency in your paragraphs and, and chat dealings? The bullet points or information lists, are there bullet points or lists and headings?

[00:06:11] Are they all started correctly? And the third one is, does it flow? Does your book flow? So quite often, by looking at my manuscript, I can spot issues with the flow of writing and this means that the rate is not going to get confused about where they are.

[00:06:24] So you're going to make sure that your book is readable. It's got readability.

[00:06:28] Again, these can take another one to two weeks. So let's say for the sake of a self edit yourself, edit is going to take you four weeks. All right. So where are we at? So we spent three to four weeks planning. So let's just say a month we've spent. Eight weeks writing your manuscript. So let's just say that's going to be two months. And then we spent one month doing a self edit. So we're four months in and we're now sending it off to the professional editor.

[00:06:55] But what's really awesome about having a book professionally edited is you can get so much done in that time of your book being edited. You're not just going to be sitting there waiting for your book to be returned. This is where you're you're going to get a professional cover designer, We can really start bringing that concept to life and create your book cover while the book is out with the editor.

[00:07:15] And obviously it's going to depend on how long your editors take, but what you can do is you can negotiate with the editor. The timeline that you want to have your book back in. And what I found

[00:07:25] in my last three boots, I've had my cupboard completely designed my concept, completely designed and my editing completely finalized inside a month.

[00:07:36] So that's now taking us to five months where. We've done all of the hard work everything's basically done. And all that's left to do is now format the book and have the book published.

[00:07:48] So you then going to send your book off to your format up because you're going to have the manuscript back from the editor. Usually in a word document and you're going to have the cover design files, which will be your paperback book. And your ebook files sent to you from the cover designer. Those are the two key important things that you're going to need to send to the format up to get your book ready for formatting.

[00:08:11] And if you've done the work in the manuscript, in terms of laying everything out, including all your resources, all your materials. Formatting is going to take the lesson at a time. And you can roughly say. It can take less than a couple of weeks to format . Again, through my last three books, it's taken me a week to have them formatted.

[00:08:28] That's that's everything that is print. Ready? Ebook. Ready? Any links in my Kindle with any QR codes on my paperback books, all ready to go because the work has been done prior.

[00:08:39] And now we're effectively five months in which all that's left to do is get ready for publishing and.

[00:08:46] Depending on your book goes, you may want to delay that book being published up for another four to six weeks, because you might want to send it to advanced readers who can proofread your book as well, which I do recommend doing. That also gives you time to start promoting your book, develop a marketing strategy for your book because when it comes time to launch, you want people to notice your book. You want people to buy your book.

[00:09:09] You want people to pay attention to your book, and essentially you want to grow your business from this book. So while yes it's entirely possible for you to have that book in your reader's hands in six months it may not align with your strategy because you may need that extra month to start marketing your book and to start building attention,

[00:09:29] and creating again, that marketing strategy. So it does depend on your boot goals, but essentially it's done. You're there. All that you've gotta do is just enjoy the launch process. Enjoy the launch period. Enjoy the week of the launch.

[00:09:43] And just have fun with it. So you can have your book written and published, and it just depends on the goals of your timeline too. But as I wrap up today's episode, I want you to remember that writing a book it's not a sprint, but it does require the dedication because it is entirely achievable.

[00:10:00] You need to want to write a book and you need to have that mindset shift. Knowing that six months is enough time to have a high quality book prepared for publishing. You may not have it published in six months, but it's prepared and you've implemented that marketing strategy because the book is going to come out not long after. So by understanding your book goals and really managing your time effectively and having that support and accountability. as well, you can transform your expertise you have, and turn that into a published book. And that published book, like I said, can bring in. more leads, create more impact, significantly, improve your business, generate all your content.

[00:10:39] All your content can be in one spot. It can do so much. And it's such a versatile tool to have in your business, which is why I believe every business owner should write a book. So thanks for tuning in today's episode, if you found it helpful. Don't forget to describe a lever of view, but if you do want a copy of my book, published impact, reach out to me in the show notes, you can reach out to me on Instagram there, and if you're ready to take the next step in actually writing your book. Let me know, and I can show you how you can become an author, but until next time, I'll catch you on the next episode.