Video 1 Writing Your Book from I Want to Publish My Book But I Don't Know How

Video 1: Intro to Writing Your Book and Publishing Your Book.


The steps to writing your book can be varied, there are no strict rules of thumb. There are a million ways to write a book. The one you choose will be the one that fits your style. Questions you might consider asking yourself is: Is your book all text or all pictures or a combination of both? Are you writing a novel, creating a children’s book, a how-to book, cookbook, or poetry book? Whatever it is, begin by put your ideas down on paper or in a computer, creating an outline or a slurry of generated ideas. You can also dictate or record yourself speaking your ideas and then transcribe and edit. Let the creative ideas flow and build one on top of the other. You will begin to see the magic of your writing abilities take form.

However, this book isn’t about the mechanics of writing it is about publishing what you have written. There are many resources available to help you with your writing.

My advice is to write your book using a standard word processing program like MS-Word or Google Docs and keep the formatting simple. Whichever freelancer or software you work with to create your project can take that text and the images and create the book.


I Want to Publish My Book But I Don't Know How: Everything You Need to Know to Create an E-book or Print Book

Available on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Want-Publish-Book-Dont-book/dp/1985322250/

To learn more about PublishingMastery101 and all the courses please click
https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/p/publishingmastery101/

Some of the book writing resources that I like:• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, this is a classic
• One of my favorite resources is Steven Pressfield’s blog and his books. He is a wonderful writer of fiction, non-fiction and the process of writing. Check out “The Series” area of his blog. http://www.stevenpressfield.com/ He has an entire series of excellent how-to books on writing; The War of Art, Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative.
• On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft, Steven King
• On Writing Well, William Zinsser
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
• How to Write Bestselling Fiction, Dean Koontz
• The Elements of Style, Strunk and White
• Write, Publish, Repeat, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant, this book is a must on how to manage your writing and build a career and income from your books. This is one of the best I have read on how to structure your books to lead your readers from one book the next. I highly recommend reading this book.
• Joanna Penn and TheCreativePenn.com blog and books. Joanna is a British best-selling thriller author. Along with her novels she writes on writing, marketing, publishing and making a living as an author. Her book How to Market a Book is excellent. https://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Resources:One of the easiest ways to get the word down is to dictate your them. You can just speak it into your phone or computer; audio or video. A great way to do this is to create a series of questions and have someone interview you. Record it, transcribe and edit. A great place to do this is while you commute in your car. You do it every day and there is no one to bother you. Both of the services below can take audio, video or just link from a video.
• Rev.com, a fantastic service for transcription, very accurate, $1.00/minute, https://www.rev.com/
• Temi.com, audio to text transcription, uses speech recognition software, $0.10/minute, https://www.temi.com/

Connection and Learning

Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books. 

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers

Join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Question: How to Check Plagiarism of My Books, Does the Publisher Check It?

Question from my How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group.

How to Check Plagiarism of My Books, Does the Publisher Check It? 

I am not really sure what the answer is here but we had some excellent resources put up Brook Smith and thought I would share them. The person questioning is wanting to make sure all her content is original.

"This is a great question. Yes, they do check and if they find you in violation you risk some heavy consequences, banded and accounts canceled. Do everything you can to avoid this. If you have questions about any of your works, educate yourself and use several software checking services to check your work. Do not rely on just one opinion. Make sure you understand "how to cite your work and fact check" everything. Here are a few links to start your education regarding Plagiarism software that you can use." – Brook Smith

• ProWritingAid.com, Plagiarism Checks

• Grammarly.com Plagiarism Checker & Proofreader

• RealSimple.com How to Fact-Check the Internet

• MIT Libraries, Citing Sources: Overview

And if you want to search on Google for further info here are two good phrases for both text and images, "plagiarism checker free" and for images "image checker for plagiarism"


Connection and Learning
Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books.

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers
Join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

How Do I Write My Autobiography, or How to Start a Book

‪We had an excellent question come in from a member of the Facebook How to Publish Your Book Group:

"‬I need help writing an autobiography if anyone can help I would to make it my #1 goal in 2017"

Great question and one that many people struggle with and ask about all the time. My advice is to just start writing. I am not an educated writing person. I learned to write at 53 after struggling with being dyslexic my entire life. I had no understanding of how to write, but what I did was to just start and push myself and I just worked at it for years until one day I punch through and then words came pouring out and haven't really stopped

What Kind of Book Are You Writing
Here are a couple of thoughts. What kind of autobiography are you writing. Are you trying to tell a universal story through your own life journey or are you just passing on what your life was more or less to your children and family. On day one I did this and day two I did that.

I have an older friend who is currently writing his autobiography and he sent the first rough draft to me a couple of days ago. He is writing his story for his daughter. It is a wonderful gift that he is doing. It is rough but all the basic facts are there. When I was struggling with my writing one technique I used to free me up was to write my book to my sister as a letter. In fact I started off with saying Dear Katherine, and then I began. It takes some of the pressure off. Write to a specific person, tell them your story.

Top Ten Technique
Another technique I use with many people is my Top Ten Technique. Write down the most asked question you get, one sentence. Then the second most asked question till you have 10 or so questions. These become your chapters. Then write one paragraph for each question and then four or 5 paragraphs for each and you then have a book. You can also dictate the story. Many smart phones have voice transcriptions on them, they work great. This is a great thing to do in your car. You are quiet and alone. Then email the text to yourself.

The key here is to not go to far on any one question because you will burn out, but to write all the chapters all at the same level. What you write in chapter 6 will effect what you write in chapter 1 if it isn't to finished. For you I would make those questions, major points or milestones in your life. What is your number one defining event or moment in your life, then the number two and go from there. Remember you don't have to start at birth. In fact I wouldn't start at birth, that is kind of dull you haven't done anything yet, start with the big one, whatever that is. What defines you. It is probably not a job but is a moment of some growth or decision, then you can go forward and back to other defining moments. Your big moment will most likely be of more interest to your readers also. Then fill in the edges

You could sit down and take 12 post-it-notes and put down 12 defining moments, move them around until they make a story and then fill in the holes. Don't feel you have to get all of this at once, the story will evolve. You will get your voice as you move forward. Don't feel you have to have answers to every part of the story. Don't worry that you don't know where to go, just keep going and it will happen.


I have flushed out my Top Ten Technique in a longer post with more details. Click here to read about my 10 Steps to Write and Publish Your Book

One of the things that really really helped me was to publish my writing. I did this on blogs that I set up. I used Google blogger for most of this because it is so easy. This website is a Google Blogger Account, if you have an email address you actually have a Blogger Account. But one of the hardest things people writing struggle with is hitting the Publish button after they have written something. Is the text good enough? Am I saying the right thing? It needs to be edited. I am scared what people will think? There are a million reasons but a magical and trans-formative thing happens when you push the publish button and send it out to the world. On the other side of hitting the publish button you know what to say. Clarity comes and trans-formations comes and then you can move forward. With blogs as with word processing you can change the words and fix it. Nothing is permanent, you can remove it or update it. I am not saying your have to write your book in public but you do have to put the words down somewhere. This is just one technique that helped me. And remember to have an editor review what you have written when you are finished. It will improve what your wrote a lot. We don't have to do these things all our selves. That was a big moment for me when I realized I could have someone fix what I wrote. I don't have to be perfect.

I encourage you to start, I have seen people's lives change sometimes right in front of me from releasing and publishing their words. At the moment you have a barrier sitting in front of you that is stopping you, you have an entire life, how do I get a handle on it. Think baby steps, think telling your story small and then expand. Just Say Yes, sit down and start to write your story, it can be crappy, it can be wrong, it can be painful, it can be joyous but I guarantee it will be trans formative and your life will change because you are starting the journey. Thank you for asking and for trusting and we will be looking forward to hearing about your journey.


Resources
Steven Pressfield has an outstanding blog and books on writing, http://www.stevenpressfield.com/
Also check out the beginning of my Resource Page, http://brucethebookguy.blogspot.com/p/resources.html for a list of excellent books to get your started

What is the Library of Congress and Public Domain Content and Pseudonyms Yes or No?

Couple of good questions that came in today to the Facebook How to Publish Your Book group.

Public Domain Content
Thank you for adding me into the book publishing group. I heard you mention in an online (YouTube) video that information gathered from the Library of Congress is royalty free? It wasn't explained in the video, so I wanted to know how this works.

Pseudonyms and Pen Names
Also, I've notice that you have numerous titles on Amazon under your name. I have heard people say they've opted to use pseudonyms once they've published numerous titles to keep people interested. What's your take on this? I am published and have a lot of book ideas. I would gladly exhaust the plethora of titles on CreateSpace under my one wonderful name, because I love it just that much, but I'd like your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing back from you. Thanks much!

Thank you Vele for connecting and for your question.

Question 1: Public Domain Content
So what I was probably talking about with the Library of Congress is actually about public domain content. The LOC as mountains of it. It has Books, prints, photos, drawings, films, audio, it just goes on and on. It also has all the books you see in book stores and libraries. The Library of Congress's mission is to be the research library for the US Congress and be the Nation's library. So they have a gigantic wealth of content and much of it is in the public domain and we can publish it and use it to create products.  The key date for public domain content is 1923. Pretty much anything created before that date is in the public domain and can use to create books or products after that it is most likely under copyright. For me to be safe I usually stay below 1900. You always have to check but that date is the key one.

Library of Congress Web Site. LOC.gov

As citizens of the USA we also have access to pretty much anything created by the Federal Government. For the Federal Government it is really any content that they release, it is all in the public domain. You can republish reports from the Commerce Department for example, or the Presidents speeches or photos from the National Parks or maybe health information from the Department of Agriculture. You just have to check to see that it was actually created by a Federal employee. A great place to start is USA.gov. You also have to check the copyright rules of the Agency where you get the content. Each Agency has that information on their website, sometimes you have to dig.

This idea that content created by the US Government is in the public domain is unique to this country. It isn't always that way in other countries. I have created quite a few products based on US Government content. 

The key here is to not do a direct copy but to create a derivative work. Something better. Amazon is not a fan of public domain content and will often reject it because so much has been done with it. But they are fine with you creating a derivative work. Take a Shakespeare and create an illustrated work. Do your research, learn about public domain content, and start exploring the Library of Congress.

https://www.loc.gov/
https://www.usa.gov/

Question 2: Pseudonyms and Pen Names, Yes or No
This question comes up a lot. My view is that you use your real name for all your work. Now I completely understand that there are situations where that isn't practical for safety or privacy reasons. But in general I am in favor of using your name.

Now sometimes I will get the question, "if you are writing in different markets or subject aren't you creating confusion with your readers? Aren't you suppose to be creating an identity?" Are you a fiction writer or the person writing about auto repair? Well yes you are but what I have found is that readers don't really care. They just want solutions to their questions and don't care who wrote the book. Now once you get a name in a certain area you can bring readers back for the next book and that is cool. But for that one person that complains because you wrote an auto repair manual instead of your romance novel, well to bad.

I also found that we as writers have lots of interests and there isn't any reason to not write about them. We need to keep our own interests going, I don't always want to write on topic A, I might want to write about topic B or C. Also you just don't know which books are going to take off and be successful. I am a big fan of spreading your ideas around. You will be surprised what book succeed. Generally not the one you worked the hardest on.

"Google wants clear paths of who we are and what we do."

But one of the biggest reasons is that we live in a social media world. Marketing our books falls mostly on us and if you have all these different identities floating around it just becomes much more difficult. Google wants clear paths of who we are and what we do. It is to hard to have different identities and keep it all straight. It becomes a big mess. Keeping one Facebook identity is hard enough, keeping several is a real pain. I understand about the privacy issues and safety but if you can keep your name it will be just lot easier to market and promote your work.

Author: Bruce Jones
Bruce is the international bestselling author of over 40 books. His latest book is Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishers. Bruce also runs the Facebook group How to Publish Your Book with over 1,300 members.

Creating a Book Using The Top Ten Technique and Building Products

Today I did a follow up interview with Gale Turner Brown about how she is writing her new book, How to Run a Blab TV Show, which is on creating and managing TV shows on Blab.im. Gail is becoming one of the top experts on developing and running Blab.im shows. Using the Top Ten Technique from my Yes You Can Write a Book program, we developed the initial book outline. We then moved to using an interview based on those questions to generate the text for the book. Today's interview dug into the process and how we did it. Gail can now move on to finishing up her first book. In today's interview we also talked about using your book content to make products and selling them on Gumroad.com and Teachable.com. Books are great ways to develop content that you can later use products. It was a fun, active interview today on writing books, creating content and making products. This video is almost a mini course all by itself.

The Top Ten Tips Technique Quick Steps 

 
1. Write down the 10 best tips or lessons on or about your business, or your expertise. Keep these to one or two sentences each. #1 is your best then follow with 9 more.

2. Write out one paragraph for each tip or lesson, just one paragraph.


3. For each lesson expand that 1 paragraph to 3-4 paragraphs, flush out the concepts.

4. Add an author bio along with a photo and contact info at the back of the book. Add a resource list at the back of the book, an intro for the front, a table of contents and any additional info that might apply to your book. If you offer programs or consulting, drop that in also, give readers a call to action. We are talking 28-36 pages when done. This isn't a manifesto.

5. Have your book edited and proofed. After your book is formatted and laid out have it printed out and re-edit again.

6. Format your book in MS Word or some similar word processing application such as Google Doc, Pages, or Scrivner. If you are going to print your book, create an original document that is the page size of your book. 5 1⁄2” x 8 1⁄2” is a great size and is easy to get printed at a quickie print shop for those first copies. If you have access to Adobe InDesign that also works very well. A local designer can help with this stage.

7. Create a separate file for the cover. For an ebook/Kindle, front cover only and save it as a jpg. For a printed book on CreateSpace, set up a full cover spread, back, spine and front. Both Kindle and CreateSpace/Amazon have online tools you can use to make a cover. If you are using a local quick print shop like Staples you can leave out the spine.

8. If sending your book to Kindle then save it as an html file for the web. If you are going to print, export or save as a pdf file. Also export your cover file.

9. Upload your book files to Kindle, or CreateSpace.com, CreateSpace is the print-on- demand, self-publishing side of Amazon.com, or take the two pdf files to a local quick print shop. If hosting on-line at Amazon, add descriptions, author bio, categories and keywords.

10. Market your book though the popular social media channels; FaceBook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, your website, and YouTube. These lessons make great videos and blog posts. Give it out to potential and current customers. Make the book available on your website as a pdf download.


I have a companion book that I have been working on that goes with this technique,
Click Here to Download Yes You Can Write a Book, Top Ten Tips Book

To learn more about Gail Turner Brown please visit her site
https://smallbizshowtv.blogspot.com/p/shows.html

Start Writing Your Book by Listing the Biggest Question You Get Asked

Announcing the beginning of my new book writing program Yes You Can Write a Book. We begin with the first step which is getting down a list of the top ten questions you get asked the most. These can also be the top tips, lessons or ideas you have on a topic. Watch the video to get started.

I also have a companion workbook that goes along with the program. The workbook is available at the companion membership site, YesYouCanWriteaBook.com




1. Write down the 10 best tips or lessons on or about your business, or your expertise or your knowledge. Keep these to one or two sentences each. #1 is your best then follow with 9 more.

A. Write down your #1 best business or experience tip or lesson.

B. Now write down nine additional lessons. Keep these to a sentence or two. No paragraphs just the lessons.

C. Use the Google Top Ten Tips in search technique, the Amazon Book Table of Contents or the Book Review technique to find and flush out your ideas.

These are the main tips or lessons about your experience or expertise that you want to pass on to the next person or might be useful to a customer. This is the core of your book. This first pass is a quick exercise. You most likely know all of these right off the top of your head. I usually start this process by asking, “what is your number 1 tip?” Don’t do a lot of thinking on this, don’t self edit, just write down your number 1 tip. Ok now write 9 more and you are done. You can always change these later, but these tips are usually the things you tell people all the time, or the things people ask you about.



Step 1
Write out your #1 best business or life experience tip or question you get asked. If you had to give one piece of advice on your topic this would be it. Don’t think to hard about this, just get it out.

And then write out nine more of your best tips or questions. Keep these to one or two sentences each. I have include work sheets in the book that you can print out or fill in in pdf and save.

Be sure to download the free Workbook, it is in the course preview area in the membership site
YesYouCanWriteABook.com 

After you have written your Top Ten List come over and post them in the FaceBook How to Publish Your Book Group Page

Write and Create a Book Quickly Using the Top Ten Tips Technique, Be a Published Author

The top ten tips technique for writing and creating a book is a quick and easy way to pull together a book for your business, profession or interest. J. Bruce Jones, "BruceTheBookGuy" takes you through the simple steps that he has use to write and teach others how to write and create their books.

Basic steps include:

1. Write down the 10 best tips or lessons on or about your business, or your expertise. Keep these to one or two sentences each. #1 is your best then follow with 9 more.

2. Write out one paragraph for each tip or lesson, just one paragraph.

3. For each lesson expand that 1 paragraph to 3-4 paragraphs, flush out the concepts.

4. Add an author bio along with a photo and contact info at the back of the book. Add a resource list at the back of the book, an intro for the front, a table of contents and any additional info that might apply to your book. If you offer programs or consulting, drop that in also, give readers a call to action. We are talking 28-36 pages when done. This isn't a manifesto.

5. Have your book edited and proofed. After your book is formatted and laid out have it printed out and re-edit again.

6. Format your book in MS Word or some similar word processing application such as Google Doc, Pages, or Scrivner. If you are going to print your book, create an original document that is the page size of your book. 5 ½” x 8 ½” is a great size and is easy to get printed at a quickie print shop for those first copies. If you have access to Adobe InDesign that also works very well. A local designer can help with this stage.

7. Create a separate file for the cover. For an ebook/Kindle, front cover only and save it as a jpg. For a printed book on CreateSpace, set up a full cover spread, back, spine and front. Both Kindle and CreateSpace/Amazon have online tools you can use to make a cover. If you are using a local quick print shop like Staples you can leave out the spine.

8. If sending your book to Kindle then save it as an html file for the web. If you are going to print, export or save as a pdf file. Also export your cover file.

9. Upload your book files to Kindle, or CreateSpace.com, CreateSpace is the print-on-demand, self-publishing side of Amazon.com, or take the two pdf files to a local quick print shop. If hosting on-line at Amazon, add descriptions, author bio, categories and keywords.

10. Market your book though the popular social media channels; FaceBook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, your website, and YouTube. These lessons make great videos and blog posts. Give it out to potential and current customers. Make the book available on your website as a pdf download.

If you like this video I have a companion course that teaches you how to format your book, build your cover and publish your book on Kindle.

learn more and to download a free companion book on how to create your own Top Ten Tips Book visit Easy Kindle Books at http://www.easykindlebooks.com

Special Discount Coupon for the Course: KindleBonus

Join our publishing Facebook group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Writers, How to Get Unstuck and Get Motivated, How to Publish Your Book Show 1/26/15, 2pm EST

Join me Tuesday at 2:00pm EST with Becky Norwood of Spotlight on Your Business and we talk about getting your writing and staying motivated. Writers, Getting Unstuck and Getting Motivated




Techniques mentioned in the broadcast for keeping your motivation going.

• Cooking timer method, no editing, blah, blah, blah
• Perfection Freezes Progress
• Top Ten Technique
• Hitting the Publish Button
• Steve Pressman quote
• Make a sample book
• Dictate your book into your phones voice transcription
• Conduct an interview and then transcribe the text
• Change your location
• Exercise, daily walk
• Set a Deadline with penalties, money or task
• Get an accountability partner
• Have a comfortable writing location
• Set a schedule for your writing, same time every day, set amount
• Writing a letter to your sister technique

I will fill in some resources for getting transcriptions here.