You’re juggling a ton of balls in the air. How do you make time to write a book? Here’s how.

You’ve decided you want to write a book.

But you’re already juggling more than your fair share of balls in the air.

So uppermost in your mind there’s a question...

How are you going to carve the time out from your extremely busy life to write this book?

Actually, though, this is the wrong question.

Because normally – like any successful executive – you’re pretty brutal about how you manage your time.

You do it well.

So why does the thought of writing a book give you the heebie jeebies?

Well, this is because you haven’t clarified in your mind the real and tangible benefits of writing your book.

(And there are many.)

So the critical question I want you to think about right now is this...

What is writing your book for?

In the end?

What will having a book achieve for you?

Because I believe – if you can see a real strategic imperative for writing a book – your normally brilliant prioritising skills will help you allocate time across your workload.

And writing your book will slot in naturally to its rightful place.

If you’d rather watch this short video click here. In just a few minutes it answers the question how do you carve out the time to write a book.

How Much Time Will Writing a Book Take?

I will explain in a moment exactly how much time you need to set aside to write your book, I promise.

But until you have some measure of the importance of writing a book you’re never going to start. You’re just not going to believe it’s worth the time.

And, by the way, writing a book is going to take some time. This is not a trivial blog post or tweet we’re talking about here. It isn’t something you can dash off in a few minutes. Let’s be realistic.

But before I share the schedule, what do you want your book to do?

What Do You Want Your Book to Do For You?

If you want your book to act as a hook for speaking engagements, that’s brilliant.

Your book is a fantastic way to introduce you to people who might want you as a keynote speaker.

Imagine standing on a stage, somewhere in the world, sharing your vision and strategies from your new book.

There is nothing like it.

And having a book – a new book this year – is probably the single best way to introduce yourself to meeting planners and conference organisers.

Your book says ‘hi, I'm here, and I’ve got this great story’.

Secondly, in a similar vein, having a new book is a great way to get invited onto podcasts.

Which itself is a great way to market your vision for the future. And to market your services in a subtle, non-salesy way – simply by discussing the contents of your book.

Now you might be wondering why does having a book work so well here?

You see people on TV chat shows ALL THE TIME, sharing their latest book or film or project.

And this is because meeting planners, conference organisers and podcast show hosts are ALWAYS looking for new writers, new speakers and new people with new ideas.

They have to fill their schedules.

It’s the first law of podcasting. Get great guests.

What Else Can Your Book Do For You?

A third reason for writing a book?

How about three more reasons?

If your book is the backbone of a training program...

or a coaching program...

or a consulting program, then these too are fantastic reasons to write a book.

And all of these are strategically important to you and your business.

If they’re not, they should be.

When Should You NOT Write a Book?

OK. Here is a reason not to set time aside to write a book.

If your book is simply a nice idea – something you’d like to share with friends, family and colleagues.

Or if you just want to pop your book on your shelf when it’s done.

Maybe these are not such powerful reasons to write a book.

So don’t spend time on that book right now.

I suggest you write that book later.

When you retire.

Is Your Book a Means to an End?

But if your book is a means to an end, if it’s to help you achieve one of the things we mentioned earlier, or if it’s to achieve something else, equally important for you, this is when it becomes really interesting – exciting, even – to write a book.

So How Much Time Does it Take to Write a book?

So how much time, you’re wondering, how much time will it really take you to write this book?

And how do you manage your time given the rest of your workload?

Well, for the last book I wrote with Jacqueline Moore, my wife and business partner, we set out to capture exactly how much time it took.

In fact, we documented the entire process and recorded a 12-week livestream series. Every week we spent an hour explaining what we had done that week. For 12 straight weeks.

Live on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Maybe you saw one of those livestreams.

And what we found was that because we were very structured in our approach, and because we managed the project efficiently, it took us no more than an hour a day to write a book over that 12 week period.

It’s true. Our most recent title You Should Write a Book, went from blank page to a book on Amazon in just 12 weeks. Including all the research and all the typesetting and publishing duties.

Now let’s be honest here. Jacqueline and I have written fifteen books together and we’ve helped many other people write books. So we have streamlined the process.

For you, in reality, it will take longer. It will depend on your vacations, your other work, and the rest of your life.

But broadly speaking, if you can allocate an hour a day for a minimum of three to six months you will break the back of this challenge. You will write your book easily.

And if you want include the process of publishing your book, too, then I would add an additional three to six months.

In total then, you should budget for about 9 months, maybe a year to get your book done and out into the world.

In the hands of your ideal clients, your collegues and your community.

So if you want your book to appear this time next year, say, you need to start now. Every delay in making a start means a delay to your book appearing.

Now soon I’ll share with you the exact process we use – the 12 steps involved – so you can see exactly what we did and model our process for yourself.

But you might have another question about now.

Do You Have to Write Every Day?

A quick aside here –?because you may not be the kind of person who can set aside an hour a day or work at a set time.

Maybe you’re the kind of person who wants to spend an entire day working on your book.

Perhaps drafting the structure, or writing a chapter in one go.

Well, all I’d suggest is you see this writing project as taking about seven hours a week.

You might then spend that time all in one day.

Or you might spend two half days on your book.

It depends how the muse strikes you.

There’s something else to say here, too. And that’s this: that your work as author is definitely front-loaded.

What do I mean?

Well, as an author you’ll first concentrate on the idea and design of your book, then on the research and then on the writing stage.

But once you’ve captured the first draft of your manuscript then your book becomes mainly the work of the publisher, or the service company helping you get your book out.

So your effort is front-loaded and tails away over time.

All the more reason to start sooner rather than later.

Because a year from now you can have a book in your hands and be sharing it with podcast hosts, attendees at your keynote speeches, your clients, your colleagues, your community.

Is that worth the effort to you?

If so, set the time aside in your diary.

An hour a day.

And start researching and writing now.

THE STORY SO FAR

1. Above all you must have a real strategic imperative for writing your book.
2. Ask yourself: is your book to help you win podcast interviews or paid speaking engagements?
3. Or is it to be the backbone for a training or consulting or coaching programme?
4. Once you’ve decided your book has real commercial value to you or your business, your book will take an hour a day to write.
5. In total your book will take three to six months, depending on the length of your book.
6. Remember your work will be front-loaded during the year. Until you hand the manuscript over to a publisher or service agency to do the heavy lifting. The interior and exterior design, the typesetting and the logistics for distribution.
7. You will continue to need time for proof reading your book as it goes through the publishing process.
8. Your book will likely take about a year, then, from blank page to a good book on Amazon.

NEXT TIME: how do you find a publisher for your book?

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For transparency, this newsletter article first appeared on the blog at Authors Channel