How to write, edit, publish and market a book every year

What is your writing style? How do you get through your manuscript? I've heard testimony from many who write full length manuscripts and the methods are different. Some swear to working 18 hour days at the computer with a compelling need to get the novel or non-fiction book finished. I've heard it said that Stephen King felt as if a lady were waiting outside his room to do him harm should he slow progress on his finishing his books.

For me, there's less of a sense of urgency. I'm a little more practical. Though I sell lot's of books, I still can't quit my day job, very few do. So for me, I've got the meet more pressing demands of my life while hacking out an existence as an author publisher. After putting in an honest day's work at the paying job, taking kids to their events, being a good husband and faithful church goer, I have very little time to write. Sometimes only one hour per day. 

Many times, I have to share that time with marketing, cover design, editing and all the other fun stuff that goes with providing good information to my customers. So, how do you do it? Well, let's take an example from our surroundings. You may have heard the expression: everything in it's own time. There's a season for everything, each season builds upon itself to produce either growth or preparation for growth. Here are four ways to incrementally complete most writing projects.

1. Have a writing season where you plan 1,000 to 2,000 words per day five days per week to finish the book. Some days you might only get 500 words, so be gentle on yourself. Be sure everyone understands that you'll be committing time to the task. But be faithful and meet your other responsibilities while not engaged in writing as others respect you and your time while you are writing. This all hinges on an outline. For my professional books, I begin with a piece of paper where I write a topic and brainstorm important features of the topic. I'll grab 10-15 relevant features and create chapter titles. I'll write 5 or 6 main bullet points and use them as sub chapter topics. I'll combine this into a 5 or 6 page outline and march to the computer to begin my work 500 - 2000 words at a time.

2. Have an editing season. After you write your manuscript, plan a few months of re-write, again giving yourself a goal by word, page or chapter volume. I'll take the outline and compare it with the final manuscript. Does it reflect ground truth? Does the book meet the intended need? Will the reader be able to understand and implements principals at the basic level? If so, then I begin to reduce the manuscript and focus on tightening up the message. So out go hundreds of words. I do this over and over again until the manuscript is ready for some good grammar and spelling checks. Then, I'm done.

After 6 months of writing and 6 months of re-write, it's possible to have a publishing ready book at the end of a year.

3. Have a re-writing or updating season. If you have non-fiction books out, consider updating them with new information or just better writing. In my niche, laws and regulations change as do best practices that require manuscript updating. You may find that your experiences mature and you can update your books to reflect your growth. 

For example, you may have written a great book on how to clean your house when expecting guests with pet allergies. In the book you've demonstrated how to vacuum, filter out dander and reach secret places your pets have burrowed in. However, after a year or two of the books' publishing date, you've blogged more, spoken at more conferences and received feedback from thoughtful readers. You've discovered secrets and solutions that you didn't know about during the writing and editing seasons. Now you are armed with new information. Add that information in and spend the time rewriting to make it better than it ever was. I like to use this time to update the cover and announce a new publication date. It's a way to keep the topic and book fresh. Of course that doesn't work for novels. However, you can use the same concept for sequels and prequels.

4. Have a marketing season that runs simultaneously with the other tasks. My primary marketing tool is my blogs. I have a blog for each of my books, hobbies and publishing company. Sometimes the material I am writing or editing is great fodder for the blogs. Twice the impact with half the work. Where it might be too time consuming to write a new book while editing an older manuscript, you can market simultaneously. 

Sprinkle bits of marketing during each of the other seasons so that it is a concurrent task. If you are rewriting said book about pet allergies, you can post updates to the actual project, specific writings on the topic, or notifications of changes to come in your blogs. Be sure to include links to your book and build excitement for the upcoming release. Turn your blogs into newsletters for faithful readers and keep them updated.

The above books are all published by Red Bike Publishing using techniques
discussed in this article

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