Writing a Book is Where Everything Starts

Writing a book is not as complicated as you might think. The art of writing comes in many styles and genres; you may write short stories, children's books, pictorial books, non-fiction books, novellas, or lengthy full blown fiction novels. It doesn't matter how short or long your book is; it is still a work of creative art that you have produced from your creative imagination for the exciting entertainment or education of others.

I started writing stories when I was 14 years old. At that point I didn't care about my audience or why I was writing. The words just spilled out of me. Looking back, I wish I knew more about writing, publishing and making money with my writing because I would have done things a lot differently.

Over the years, I've found a lot of great information and received advice, tips and techniques that greatly improved how I write, the topics I choose, and how to properly research what I'm writing about.

This section of Publisher's Notebook is all about improving all aspects of writing a book from start to finish so you can cut down on actual writing time and get your book published faster than you can imagine.

What is Writing and Why Do You Write?

Writing has many definitions. We are authors of books so we fit in a class all by itself. Understanding what it means to write and why you do it will help keep you focused on the big picture.

Learn what writing is and the many reasons why you want to pursue your passion.

Writing as You or Using a Pen Name

Some people prefer to write under another name. Using a pen name can help protect your brand if you are writing outside your normal topics or if you are writing something way off base from your normal writing.

What is a pseudonym and how do you properly use it with your books?

Know the Process of Writing a Book

Writing a book is really quite simple if you are a natural born writer. Unfortunately, there may be many rewrites and frustrations, as I've experienced, by not knowing the actual process.

Understanding the process of book writing before you start it helps you in more ways a cuts down on getting your books to a publisher or self-published.

Learn how to write a book from start to finish so you know when it's ready to start publishing.

There Are Many Genres Out There

Choosing a genre as an author is simple, that is until you run out of ideas within that area of writing. Knowing all of the possible genre available can open you up to new ideas and keep you writing at all times.

Check out the writing genres available for authoring a book.

What is Your Writing Style?

You've read books, right? Every author has their own style of writing that sets them apart from all the rest. Some are similar, but no two writers write exactly the same way.

Here's the different styles of writing. Once you find your style, stick with it.

Getting Ideas for What Books to Write

Before you can start writing a book, you need some good ideas to get you on the right track. When you consider how you are going to make money with a book, you need to write about certain topics that are in demand.

Check out some great way to find book ideas that will lead you to the money and possibly the best sellers list.

Creating an Outline for Your Book

Some people can draft a story from the top of their head. Others need something to keep them on the right track as they go through the pages and chapters.

Learn how to create a book outline that helps organize your ideas and greatly reduces the entire writing process.

Researching Topics and Avoiding Plagiarism

When writing a book, there are times that you don't know everything about what you are writing about. So, you find the information and while transferring it to your book, it is difficult to rearrange things that aren't word for word someone else's points.

Learn how to properly research writing and rewrite information to avoid a plagiarism complaint.

What is Tone in a Book?

While editing one of my books recently, my software told me to "check the tone" of the sentence. What on earth is tone? So, I had to find out of course.

Here's what I found out about tone in writing and why it is so important to keep that tone balance throughout your books.

Adding Beef to Your Stories

Authoring a novel can be a lot of fun, but are you shooting for several hundred pages or trying to keep it short and to the point. Based on what you are writing, detailed descriptions may be necessary to set the scene and get your point across.

Here are some great ways to improve descriptive writing to add content to any book.

Keeping it Professional

Before even considering publishing your books, you need to get a second set of eyes on your book. I didn't have a lot of money at first to hire editors, but editing can still be done professionally by you. Either way you choose, you want your book to be flawless before it gets to a reader.

Here are some great resources and tips for editing writing before you move on to publishing.

Formatting Your Manuscript

There is a standard manuscript format that is used to get your book ready to submit to a publisher. Each publisher requires a little bit different things in a manuscript, but using a standard will save a lot of time when it comes to getting it sent off to them.

Learn about manuscript format and how to format your book to easily make rapid changes to accommodate publisher's submission requirements.

Following all of these basics of writing a book will get you on the right track to go through the entire process as quickly and painlessly as possible.

If you have any questions along the way, please contact me and I will try to answer them as quickly as possible. There are no dumb questions. I've probably had all of the same ones you had about book writing.

What's Going on?

Publisher's Notebook is adding content as quickly as possible to help as many writers and publishers as possible. Keep checking back for new, helpful information related to writing, publishing, and book marketing.