Skip to main content

3 Ways to Better Book Planning

Many of you are not rich...yet. Your book isn’t published and you may not yet have the customers necessary for great sales. You probably have full time jobs, might travel regularly, have a family that needs your
love and attention, chores and responsibilities at home and in the community.

  1. Pace yourself-Setting goals and milestones is incredibly important. However, the nervous breakdown that follows too tough of a schedule is never worth it. Never write a book or build a business at the cost of your job or your family.
  2. Commitment-Get buy in from others you have invested time with. Writing is an addition to your schedule that will add stress to your life. Part of your planning should be getting an agreement with anyone you are committed to. The agreement should benefit everyone. Families and relationships need love, communication and patience. Commitments in the community, church, clubs, and social organizations are also important. Let everyone know that you may have to rearrange your schedule, cut down on some events, or otherwise make yourself available to writing until you finish the project. Be sure to give something in return. It’s not all about you.
  3. Planning Chapters-Find a quiet or quieter place to concentrate and write your book. I find the writing process easier if I preplan my book. The bulk of the work I do in preparing my books take place with a notebook and pen. I do a lot of pre-planning in my head as well. I usually outline a chapter on one side of a piece of paper. If my book is eight chapters long, I have eight pages of paper. I guess I am a product of my times because my book plan looks like a presentation. I use bullet comments for chapter topic supported by further bullet comments for the supporting ideas.For example, here is a snapshot of my planning page for this chapter. This was a first draft outline and has changed somewhat. However, it was enough to get me started:

 Chapter 5 Write a book

  • Introduction
  • Define a problem
  • Pressing issues that you can resolve
  • List Solutions
  • How have you solved the problems
  • Research
  • Research includes social networks
  • Interact-Ask questions; provide feedback
  • Learn from others and provide feedback
  • People will learn to recognize your name
  • Format
  • Introduction
  • Supporting sections
  • Summary
  • Book Cover
  • Summary
I’ve planned books on my back porch table while watching my children play on the swing set. Slow times of the day also provide good opportunities to draft book outlines. I’ve even sought inspiration while jogging.The point is, book outline design doesn’t demand more than a few sheets of paper and focus. Learn to manage time well, respect your commitments, and don’t over schedule your valuable time.

Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How will you publish your book

  You can publish your book yourself, or publish with others. There are so many options available depending on how much work you want to put into the process. Writing a book is a great experience that can help you further your business opportunities. Publishing with it’s many requirements and resources could prove to be more work than you want to do, especially if writing is not our primary business.   Self-publishing provides an increasingly valuable method of getting information to your audience. With self-publishing, you can write, outsource the printing, and market your book while controlling the process. This type of publishing can be done with very little money up front and, if done right, creates a great source of revenue. If you plan to self-publish, you will need some basic items and information. Books should have copyright protection and each book sold through distribution channels will need International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN). However, with Kindle Direct Publishing (K
Post a Comment
Read more

Self-Publishers, Pay Attention to Detail

CreateSpace is an excellent self-publishing solution. I primarily use Lightning Source for most of my publishing needs, but there are some advantages of printing with CreateSpace as well. Primarily, books are listed “in stock” at Amazon.com and CreateSpace stores if printed with CreateSpace. My Lightning Source books are available on Amazon.com but usually not listed “in stock”. Thus, I often make my books available for print with both Lightning Source and CreateSpace. If you chose to use one or the other, or both, make sure your title information, ISBN and other book administrative details are accurate and listed the same in both venues. Without that level of detail, your book manuscript and cover submissions may not be approved. Additionally, if you try to link your printed book with an Amazon.com Kindle version, or your paperback with your hardback version, it may prove difficult if title information details vary too greatly. For example, my manuscript is entitled Red Bike Publis
Post a Comment
Read more

LCCN, PCN or CIP? How to Catalog Your Self-Published book

Catalog options mentioned here are available only to United States  (US) publishers with offices and staff in the US who are available to answer  bibliographic questions about their books. The Library of Congress  Control Number (LCCN) Catalog in Publication (CIP) are two  well known catalog systems. The CIP provides free distribution of prepublished and further distribution of completely published books to libraries  and book vendors world-wide. The PCN provides an abbreviated  record but is not further disseminated to libraries on the same scale  as the CIP. Here is a secret. This book is primarily written for nonfiction authors  who want to self-publish a professional book available to specialized  organizations or professionals. It will most likely be available through  Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores and distributors. This is  the widest distribution effort and your best marketing source. You will  most likely use print on demand and rely on word of mouth, social ne
Post a Comment
Read more