Write Your Book in Under 30 Days: Publication Schedule — Days 2 to 5
Jason Schenker
Futurist | Economist | 1,200x Keynote Speaker | 36x Author | 15x Bestseller | 27x #1 Bloomberg Forecaster | 1.2 Million Online Learners | Board Member | CSIS Adjunct Fellow | Forbes Contributor
Keeping to a Schedule
For those of you following along with me as I write a book in under 30 days this month, I wanted to share the schedule for days 2 to 5.
Just like the schedule on Day 1, the action items you will need to implement as you go through the process of writing a book will be broken out into four categories:
Administration, Team, Format, and Content.
Days 2 to 5: Administration
Check to make sure your KDP account is set up and approved.
Get your ISBN numbers.
Set up the basics in the KDP account for your book, including subject area.
Days 2 to 5: Team
Select your Upwork team members. Begin iterating on cover designs. Work with a project manager to set up your outline, if you need.
Days 2 to 5: Format
Build out a skeleton draft of 180 pages in Microsoft Publisher.
Don’t worry about blank pages. You just need the format of the book in place.
Look at the format of books you like and try to emulate the way they place the titles, page numbers, section headings, and additional materials at the back of the book.
Some people will tell you this is a really tough and painstaking thing to determine. It's actually not. But keeping it consistent can be a challenge. This is why it's important to pick your format attributes before you start writing the text of your actual book.
Days 2 to 5: Content
Work on completing the outline and putting section dividers and chapter titles in the book.
This may change, but you should have it pretty close to done.
Don’t worry if you don’t love some of the sections. You can come back and reorder or rename those later.
By the end of the first week, you should have three pieces of content done for sure.
1. A preface thanking others.
Gratitude is an important touchstone of success. There is a reason why the ancient Greeks invoked the Muses at the beginning of epics and poems. Your preface doesn’t need to have a religious or quasi-religious tone to it. But I’ve seen books that do, and that’s totally fine too. It’s your book. Shape it how you want. But make sure to thank those important to you — and those who helped make your book a reality.
I recently read a book — The Invisible Hook — where the author proposed to his girlfriend in the dedication and thanked her extensively in the preface.
It’s your book. But showing gratitude will likely help you focus your efforts.
2. The chapter after the introduction.
Leave the introduction until the book is written. After all, that’s the heart of the notion that you’re telling the reader what they’re about to read. And you won’t know that 100% until the book is almost completely done and ready for copy editing.
I often refer to this chapter as WIWTB — why I wrote this book. It should explain why you are the guy or gal who wrote the book you are writing.
This chapter should have some anecdotes and highlight your professional experience and background. It can be full of humble brags — or it can outright say, “Here’s what I know and why I know it.”
No matter how you craft it, you need your readers to know that the words you’ve put on the page are worth their weight in gold — rather than worth their weight in air.
3. The back materials of your book.
This is the part of the book where you want to include some biographical information, information about your company, and information about other books you’ve written.
Some people include a few sentences as a biography, some use pictures, and some put in a full text bio, which is what I prefer to do.
After all, if the book is your business card, you certainly want the readers knowing about your business.
But it’s all up to you!
Write the Future — Previous Articles
In case you are writing along this month with me, here are the articles I've shared so far to help you write your book in under 30 days:
- Writing Schedule on Day 1 — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-write-your-book-under-30-days-writing-schedule-day-jason-schenker/
- Identifying Your Audience — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/write-your-book-under-30-days-identifying-audience-jason-schenker/
- The Audience of One — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/write-your-book-under-30-days-audience-one-jason-schenker/
- The Secret Formula — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-write-your-book-under-30-days-secret-formula-jason-schenker/
- Picking a Book Cover and Title — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/write-your-book-under-30-days-picking-cover-title-jason-schenker/
- How Can a 30 Day Book Not be Junk? — https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/write-your-book-under-30-days-how-can-day-junk-jason-schenker/
- Building a Team with a Hype Man - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/write-your-book-under-30-days-building-team-hype-man-jason-schenker/
Write the Future
This article draws on content from Jason Schenker's book Write the Future, which was released on 24 June 2020.
Write the Future is online here: www.WriteTheFutureBook.com
Jason Schenker is one of the world's leading futurists. He is the Chairman of The Futurist Institute and the President of Prestige Economics.
He is also an instructor for LinkedIn Learning.
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