I'm currently in the middle of a very exciting time: drafting my third book, tentatively titled 12 RITUALS FOR ART + INCOME: Learn and Apply the Habits of Successful Artists, Writers, and Other Creatives.
I thought I'd share with you my plan to complete and publish the book by the end of November, 2014.
I thought I'd share with you my plan to complete and publish the book by the end of November, 2014.
The Plan
- Week of August 4: Draft The Beginning (first chapter)
- Week of August 11: Draft Chapter 2 and organize interviews
- Week of August 18: Draft Chapter 3 and title research/testing.
- Week of August 25: Draft Chapter 4
- Week of September 1: Draft Chapter 5
- Week of Sept 8: Draft Chapter 6
- Week of Sept 15: Draft Chapter 7 and begin cover design
- Week of Sept 22: Draft Chapter 8 and ask for Beta Readers
- Week of Sept 29: Draft Chapter 9
- Week of Oct 6: Draft Chapter 10 and continue cover design
- Week of Oct. 13: Draft Chapter 11 and ask for Beta Readers
- Week of Oct 20: Draft Chapter 12
- Week of Oct 27: Draft Chapter 13
- Week of November 3: Draft Chapter 14
- Week of November 10: Re-write and send to Beta Readers.
- Week of November 17: Complete cover design, write book description and any other sales copy or launch copy needed. Set up/spread the word about hard launch via Author Marketing Club.
- Week of November 24: Incorporate the thoughts and edits of my beta readers and soft launch the book! (Hard launch will be December 30, 2014.)
Eating the Elephant
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time goes the cliche. The first version of the plan had me working on the book until the last day of December. And when I talked to Prince Charming about my plan to work right through our baby's birth and even work the week of Christmas (ha... ha ha, ha), there was enough eyebrow raising that I thought maybe there was a slight chance I was biting off like, huge elephant bites at a time when my life will already be a feast, metaphorically and literally. So I tightened up the schedule so I can enjoy my baby and holiday time. I did this by making my elephant bites a wee bit larger earlier in the plan, but still chew able. I allowed for those bigger bites by saying "no" to some other things in my life. This is the key you have to understand if you are going to fit more in.
Drafting to Soft Launch
The plan is a very tight schedule and includes up until the soft launch (the publishing of the book on Amazon.com). The hard launch is when the publicity takes place and the book reaches a wider audience.
If you have the time, I recommend adding a few additional weeks to give yourself some breathing room on your own book. I think 20 weeks is a good goal for this process.
Research Time
Please note that this plan does not include the majority of the research time for the book. I'll still be researching throughout my drafting time, but I've also already done a lot of the research. This is a topic I've been intensely interested in for years. I tend to naturally collect information on topics I'm interested in, and I did, both before I knew I'd be writing about this, and more systematically after I started blogging about it, sometime over a year ago.
Word Count Goal
The book will likely hit somewhere between 42,000 and 60,000 words. This is enough to get the point across without being too much of a time investment for busy readers. Each chapter will be around 3,000 to 4,300 words, so that's less than 1000 words a day. Hey, that's a pretty easy bite of the elephant!
P.S. FYI I would probably never eat a real-life elephant.
Publishing
I use Amazon's KDP program which makes the publishing process both easy and very quick. See this post for more about why I love this program for self-publishing authors.
Your Project
I hope today's post helps you on your own book writing project! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or thoughts. Please share this post with that person you know who has a non-fiction book inside them just waiting to get out.