3 Things You Need To Do Before You Start Writing Your Book - Knowledge Business Series #006

It is always refreshing to know what you are doing and have a plan on how to achieve that goal.

While we have that sorted out, it is important to look at another important aspect of your book project -- preparation.

A lot of people skip this step and so they spend years on a project they could have spent months or even weeks on.?

Let me share how I typically write my books. I get an idea and after validating and doing my mind mapping, I go ahead and start gathering content on the idea.

The content I gather is shared on social media as well as my website just to see what the response will be like.

I also organize webinars to share the idea with my ideas. All these make me research more into the topic and understand whether my readers are interested or not through the feedback I receive.

This process of preparation gives me the confidence to be able to write authoritatively.?

There is no single formula for this. My approach is completely different from other authors’ and that is okay.

The idea of preparation truly seeks to get you as a writer psychologically ready for a particular writing project.

If you are not adequately prepared to start a writing project, you risk falling into the claws of an enemy called writer’s block which is the lack of inspiration.

A good preparation sets the tone for inspiration and ensures you have a successful project.??

In order to be well prepared for your project, you must be armed with research. If you do not research properly, when your manuscript manages its way into the hands of a publisher, he or she will know.

A proper research will include a title and content research. Let’s look at them in detail.

1. Title Research

One very important reason for title research is to validate your book idea.? There are millions of published books and you want to make sure yours does not get lost in the lot.

So you need to look around and see what title has been used already. Sometimes it doesn't really matter whether it has been used. I have ever written a book with a title that has been used before but there's a way around it.

I normally start my title research on a search engine. I type in my title and see the results. Over here, You want to look out for books that are ranking from top book sites.

If there are results like that,? you might want to consider picking another title or changing a few things about your title.

You can also do your title research on book platforms especially the ones you want to publish the book on.

Since you are writing an e-book or a book that will be published online, you have to try as much as possible to make your title a bit different so you don't end up directing traffic to another person's book.?

You must also try to make your book title? easy to say. That way people will find it easier to look for it online.? Also, let your title communicate clearly what the book is about.? Do not use words that are too difficult to understand.?

One other way of validating your book idea is to just ask the people around you.? You can just send a message to your friends telling them about the idea you have and ask them what comes into their minds when they hear the title.

If you are a member of some online communities, you can use them to test your idea and see what they think about it.

This is one way to obtain constructive feedback on your idea so as to validate it and also it doubles as a marketing strategy for your book.?

Once you put that out there, people who see it know something is happening and so they will be expecting it.?

This is one of the ways I have involved a lot of people in my book project and it became so easy to sell to them after I finished.

2. Content Research

One key question you must ask yourself when you are about to begin your book project as explained in a previous edition of this newsletter is to know your what.

What are you going to write in the book? and also, who are you writing it for?

These are very important questions that you must answer from the very beginning because they influence the language, tone, style and every other thing including marketing your book.

You must assess your preparedness when it comes to the content you are writing about.?

Do you know everything about the topic you've chosen to write about?

Do you know some people who has some ideas about the topic and so you need to learn from them?

You have to assess all these situations before you take another step in your writing process.

At this stage, I'd recommend you do what is called a literature review. Whether you have done your mind map or not (You will know what that means in a bit), a literature review is important? because it helps you to understand the topic better so you can write better.?

What it basically entails is looking for already published material on the subject you are writing about.

You must study them and pick ideas from them to support your original idea and of course acknowledge the source of such ideas.

3. Mind Mapping

As part of your preparation to start writing your book, one of the things you have to do is mind mapping.? For me, I think this is where the magic happens.?

This is where the book comes alive for me.? And I take this stage very seriously.? It should actually be the first thing you do after getting after validating the book idea.?

?So when you have a book idea I suggest you write a summary of it.? Just about a few lines to describe what your book is about.?

Then pick a manila card, a board or just a fresh batch of a book.? The next thing is that you are going to pour every idea that comes into your head on those surfaces.

So when you think of your book idea, what are the subdivisions or sub ideas that you think about.?

If your book is about cooking yam, then you might want to look at the processes involved.? At this stage you write everything that comes into your mind down not considering the sequence, flow or anything at all.? The goal is just to write!

After writing them down, you might want to arrange them in order so it makes meaning.?You should actually approach this as a reader not a writer.? so for a book on how to cook yam,? what do you think they should read first??

You begin with that and continue? taking them through the entire process to arrive at the destination.? Your goal is to take your reader through a journey.

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?What you have in front of you at this stage would be called the chapter ideas of your book.? But if there are too many, you might also consider grouping them into sections or parts, where part one looks at one part of the process and the other parts also have distinctive areas the capture.?

I believe that with this piece of knowledge, you'll be able to put something great together. Feel free to DM me with your questions.

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