Research says that 81% of us wants to write a book someday; I am one of them. I can cross this goal off of my bucket list in, my first was published in 2007 and I renew the design in 2009, my second book got first out in 2010 and was renewed in 2012.
I started with mentoring in 1999 and I saw very quickly that a kind of book was missing, well maybe not the book itself. But something to put down ideas and thoughts from meetings with the mentor or maybe in trainings.
In the beginning I used a binder but wanted it to be smaller, to fit in a bag or maybe a (a bit big) pocket. And in the end the book is 5.83 wide x 8.26 tall, the perfect size.
But on to what I have learned.
1. Know why the book is needed. Know the reason why you want to write and why the book is necessary. And, knowing ‘why’ will help you stay with it when it gets hard —and it will.
2. Self-publish or traditional publisher. No doubt that traditional publisher can help you with a lot of things, but they also have opinions on the book. In my experience my traditional publisher wanted to change a very important thing in the book, and I refused to do it. So therefore I decided to self-publish the book.
3. Research. Don´t get stuck in research, because it’s very easy to do so. I read over 30 books and ended up in circle, and nothing was new. There were 3-4 “truths” about mentoring and all the books was about one of them.
4. Writing process. I pictured myself sitting in a cozy coffee shop finding the perfect words, but find myself having glory days and not so glory
days. And especially because I self-publish no-one was hanging over me with a deadline.
5. Sales process. As an self-publisher you are on your own when it comes to sales, logistics and others. I found www.lulu.com very helpful and getting me to www.amazone.com and http://www.barnesandnoble.com And also they have different marketing pack so you can buy the advice you need to sell the book.
If you want to start with something a bit smaller project than a book, why don´t you start with a blog.
I use WordPress and I find it easy to use.
Good luck with your writing…