It can be daunting, thinking about putting everything you know into a book. There are a couple of things it can be useful to know to get you started. 

One, your first book doesn’t have to contain everything you know. There’s value in writing out the basics, the things a beginner would start with, rather than trying to encapsulate everything you’ve learned over a long and successful career. Your audience may prefer an introduction, a starting point, some first principles and insights, over an exhaustive treatise.

And two, you don’t have to write it all at once. You can break down your content into sections and headings, outline with bullet points to remind yourself what you want to say, then take them one by one by one, write a piece at a time until you’re done with that all-important first draft. You need to know your audience, how you want them to benefit, and then speak to them directly in tone and content as you go through the headings.

The first non-fiction book I wrote was based on my experience staging houses for sale. I was speaking to home-owners who were planning to sell. The book was to help them arrange their property so potential buyers felt good, could absorb what they needed to know, and would want to make an offer. 

I started with a list of chapters, broke that down into a list of headings, and then started to write. To keep track, I put all the headings in italics, and when I had twenty minutes or half an hour free, I looked through those italic headings and chose one, focusing on the small subject, writing what I knew. Once done, I replaced the heading with non-italic bold type, then next time I’d look through the headings still in italics, choose one I felt like addressing, and write that. When it came to it, I didn’t even realise I’d finished – when I came back to write another section, I realised everything was done. Piece by bite-sized piece.

There’s an enormous sense of accomplishment, getting that first draft completed. From there, a good next step is to engage an editor, someone who can do a pass for structure, then a second pass for the line edit. You’ll want someone you like and trust, who understands what you’re trying to achieve and who will be honest with you as you work together to get to that result.

If your book is for business development, self-publishing is a good route to take. You’ll need a cover designer, someone to do layout and a tutorial or two on print-on-demand. If your subject has wider appeal and a publisher might be interested, then a step back into proposal writing will be in order, before you go full-throttle into writing.

And if you’d like support at any stage of the process, from outline preparation to full ghost-writing engagement, book production or just coaching along the way, please get in touch. 

Jennifer Manson is an executive coach and author who also works with inspired experts to get their message into book form. Email jennifer at theflowwriter.com.