Writing a book is the easy part, and that’s not too easy. Selling it is the hard part. Author Hugh McLeod expresses a truism in “The Sex and Cash Theory” (Ignore Everyone and 39 Other Keys to Creativity):

“The creative person has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. The second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.”

So it’s important to enjoy what you’re doing and be able to get value out of things other than monetary rewards, or even monetary break-even, because most of the time, that’s not going to happen, not at all. least without much continuous effort. work on your part. Selling books is like riding a bike. When you stop pedaling, you fall.

Writing is work, but it’s also a lot of fun and very rewarding, if you’re inspired by your topic and want to share your knowledge, create an atmosphere, or do anything else that’s important to you.

This article is geared toward nonfiction writing, though much of it will be applicable to fiction writing as well:

Write about what interests you – what you think will help, inspire or educate, not what will “sell”. Of course, if you can achieve both at the same time, all the better. It is important to have psychic income from what you do. That way, even if you don’t make much or no money, you’ll still feel like you’ve done something worthwhile and leave a legacy that can help others long after you’ve moved on.

avoid regrets – From Larry King’s my remarkable journey:
One of his eight marriages was to Sharon: “Sharon’s father was an amateur baseball player and he was pretty good. But he went into the Marine Corps and then his father forced him to take a job at the post office. Once I took him to an Orioles game. We were on the field during batting practice, standing behind the cage, watching the players hit. It was a typical scene you see year after year, game after game. But when I turned towards Sharon’s father, I saw tears running down his face. I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said, ‘I should have tried.’ I’ll never forget it. I may regret it. But one thing I’ll never have to say is that he wishes he’d taken the risk.”

Keep that in mind, whether you’re thinking of writing a book, starting to paint, traveling, or whatever else you’d like to do. What you want to avoid is “The Longest Rock”: sitting in a rocking chair when you’re 79, wishing you had done something, but knowing now it’s too late to do anything about it. Discipline yourself to do what you have to do. At least you’ll know you tried.

royal rewards – “The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa. Even if your path never makes money or advances your career, that’s still worth a ton.” (McLeod) Writing my most recent book was a very important goal for me for that reason. I wanted to try to help readers find more happiness in their own lives by creating more in the lives of others, not just now, but in the future. Some of my high school classmates told me that they found my book “inspiring”. It was very humiliating to hear that from people who “knew me when”. I’ve also received very good editorial and buyer reviews on Amazon.com, so I think the book has value. So whether it sells 5,000 copies or 50,000, I can always have the spiritual satisfaction that the project was worth it.

Start file folders – Summarize the main topics of your subject, for example, Real Estate Principles, then put them in what you think is a logical order: Real Estate Basics, Ownership Interests, Real Estate Transaction Model, Contracts (Listings, Offers, Sales Agreements), Financing and mortgages, etc. Use them as a working table of contents. Put everything you find relevant in the appropriate folder. Once you feel like you’ve collected enough to get started, start writing. Much of this comes to you as you work.

Read other books in the field – Provide a general outline of what you are going to do and serve as an investigation. I read about fifteen books on happiness and goodness in preparation for writing my recent book on happiness. Doing your research reading helps ensure you don’t overlook anything important in your book. It also provides citable information that you can use.

Start – Start in any section if necessary. Just get going and start typing.

Title – Don’t worry about it or waste your time trying to think of one. Just give him a job title. Just like “Field of Dreams”, start writing and it will come.

Write as timeless as possible– Do not date the book too early as it includes very contemporary material. Many times this cannot be avoided, but it is something to keep in mind.

Writing is a perfect example of “flow” – a concept developed by Mihail Csiksentmihali. A “state of flow” can be created through a valuable exercise of time in the search for something greater than ourselves, where the sense of time is lost. If you “don’t know where the time went” when you were writing, you are there.

Find your best time to write – in the morning, later in the evening, overnight. Next, use bonus times: vacations, breaks, or times when you can’t sleep or wake up during the night.

Explain what you are doing and how you should do it to your partner. – Having their cooperation helps. Then be considerate and try to write when it is least likely to interfere with daily life, when the other person is away, busy, or sleeping. You still want to have a life.

“How come you ever wrote a book?” is not a frequently asked question writers get. The simple answer is that you have to keep sitting in the chair and keep writing until you finish. There is no easy way. It takes focus and discipline. If you’re always “too busy” or can’t find a time to write regularly enough, it’s not going to happen. It takes commitment and faith in your subject. We usually seem to find time to do what we really want to do, no matter how busy we are. You just have to decide if writing is one of your priorities or not.

Use up-to-date computer programs and equipment – It may seem romantic to write a book on a typewriter like Hemingway, but it is very inefficient. Decide if you are pining for the past or if you want to do something with reasonable efficiency.

When you have a thought, write it down or write it somewhere immediately – Don’t tell yourself you’ll add it later. I forgot many good thoughts like that, permanently. When you think about it, write it down somewhere.

To get stuck – It seems that you can not write anything today? Find something else to do related to the book, get out and weed, go to the movies, go for a walk. Just do something else. It’s okay. Happens. Even the best hitters get depressed. As long as he still has the abilities, he will go back and return to base.

Use citations in your writing – Provides concise sources of proven wisdom and augments your work using the thoughts of recognized experts. My Book of Happiness contains dozens of quotes that have greatly increased the value of the book and support its premises.

save regularly – Set to do it automatically or do it every fifteen minutes or so. Get in the habit of always pressing “Save” every time you have to get up for something. If you press the wrong key or pull the plug, you can lose hours of work. You may think you can do it again, but you’ll never get it back as completely as you had it before. Trust me, it’s very frustrating and “epithetic”. Remember: it is better to save than to add to the lexicon of the creepy expression.

Don’t forget CTRL-Z – This is a very useful “restore” key. Sometimes you do something without realizing it and things disappear, sometimes a lot. Just stop for a minute. Don’t type anything else, because if you do, the command won’t work. After a mistake, hold down CTRL and press “Z” at the same time and your material will be restored.

Copyright – You get copyright on your work as you write it. Registering it with the Copyright Office gives you proof if you need to defend it. Obtain an application through the Library of Congress website (http://www.loc.gov/). Copyright rules can be easily checked on the Internet.

Count fingers and toes – It is commonly said that parents check a newborn to see if it has all the fingers and toes. You will do the same when he is in a hurry to get his first box of books delivered. It is a great moment for a writer to see the calving after an elephant gestation period. He checks the cover and reads everything to make sure it’s okay. Look inside the book to see if everything is as it should be. This is a great advantage of having a small print run. If there is a problem, it minimizes it and can be corrected in future print runs.