How to Write YOUR Non-Fiction Book in Just 60 Days with Stephanie Chandler
Episode 939: Show Notes
Ever dreamed of writing your own book but felt overwhelmed by the process? What if I told you that you could have it done in just 60 days without sacrificing quality? Today, we’re sitting down with Stephanie Chandler, a leading expert in non-fiction book publishing, to break down exactly how you can make this happen.
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Why Small Business Owners Should Consider Writing a Book
The word ‘authority’ starts with ‘author,’and a lot of people don’t realize that writing a book brings you instant credibility. It’s a great way to impress clients and get booked for speaking engagements—it’s really the best business card you could have. But taking the first step is not so easy because of imposter syndrome and analysis paralysis, where people simmer on the same idea for years. Michelle is here to remind you that you have value to give to your audience! We all have our own unique take on things, and that is one of the best ways to stand out while you’re carving out a niche for yourself.
How to Write a Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days
Here’s the deal: 1000 typed words is about three pages. It’s a long blog post. Can you write three pages a day for the next 60 days? That’s a 60,000-word manuscript, and yours doesn’t even need to be that long! It’s about setting up a consistent practice. Michelle starts with an outline: first, she writes all her ideas on their own index cards: case studies, statistics, and every other minute detail. Next, they’re spread out on the floor, and she starts to put them in order. Now, the chapters begin to unfold. But even before this, she has a target audience in mind.
What You Need to Do to Make Sure Your Book is Different
Market research can be as simple as going to Amazon and looking for similar books. You can get all the information you need by simply looking at the table of contents. What do you have to say that hasn’t been said yet? Look for a hole in the market—something that truly narrows it down. As a service-based business, you know what there’s already an audience for, and certain audiences are always going to grow! Michelle believes that if you write a great book, get a good editor, and make your book the best you can be before creating a marketing plan, your audience will follow.
Knowing Where to Start When You Have Too Many Ideas
Michelle writes the book description before anything else. That’s the sales copy! It’s where you outline what the readers are going to get from the book. If you have way too many points, you’ve got to break it up into a series. Is there a logical order to those ideas? Is there a burning need in your market that you should address right away? Chapters should be balanced and most of the time, one story is enough to illustrate a point. These stories are what will make an impact, so make them count!
Finding Your Own Unique Voice
Start with a muse in mind. Michelle writes for one specific person, as though she is having a conversation with them. Who represents your target audience? Write for that person. But you don’t have to follow any sort of strict order when you write. Michelle often writes the last chapter first! She also stresses how important it is not to edit while you write. Don’t worry about your spelling or your stats. Pausing breaks up the flow. Keep the faucet on! That’s also why Michelle often sets aside big blocks of time to write, even leaving the house for a weekend to get a chunk of content written.
How to Choose the Right Tools
For the majority of non-fiction writers, Google Docs are enough! And keeping it all in one place is best. But everybody does it a little differently, and you can find what works for you. Michelle pleads with us not to write a manuscript with AI! It’s a great idea generator, but you cannot copyright-protect your work if you’ve used AI to create it. Next, you need to consider editing—what kind do you want? There’s developmental editing, copy editing (which we all need), and final proofreading.
Self-publishing Versus Traditional Publishing
There are also so many kinds of publishing, and you get to choose what works for you. Michelle has done them all! She shares the realities of traditional publishing: they can remove chapters from your book, change the title, give you a cover you don’t like, and they can even sit on it like an egg and not have it come out for two years. She finds the lack of creative control really challenging. The flipside is that self-publishing gives you all the control, and you earn more per book. But how much you make is really all about how big your audience is. Generally speaking, most publishers expect the authors to put in the work, and if you don’t, you won’t get published again.
Publishing in a Changing World
Here’s the reality: somewhere around 70% of all books are being sold in e-reader form. We’re not walking into bookstores the way we used to. Books are being sold online! And even if your book makes it to bookstore shelves, if it doesn’t sell in 30 to 60 days, it gets shipped back to the publisher for a full refund! There’s no other industry we know of that follows that formula. It’s a weird challenge. Michelle believes bookstores are the worst place to sell books. Michelle also reminds us that it’s meant to be fun! If it feels like drudgery, it may be time to hire a ghostwriter. She finishes with a pearl of wisdom: the goal for all of us is to write something that readers want to tell others about, and editors help us to do that.
Promote Your New Book on Social
Once your book is ready to put out into the world for sale, you’ll want to have a strong promotion plan in place to drive traffic to the sales page. We’re here to help! Check out our Instagram Profit Playbook to get our proven strategy.
Quote This
“A lot of people don’t realize that writing a book brings you instant credibility.”
— Stephanie Chandler
Highlights
Why Small Business Owners Should Consider Writing a Book [0:01:18]
How to Write a Non-Fiction Book in 60 Days [0:04:48]
What You Need to Do to Make Sure Your Book is Different [0:10:24]
Knowing Where to Start When You Have Too Many Ideas [0:14:55]
Finding Your Own Unique Voice [0:19:48]
How to Choose the Right Tools [0:24:59]
Self-publishing Versus Traditional Publishing [0:29:04]
Publishing in a Changing World [0:31:47]
Today's Guest
Stephanie Chandler
Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
Stephanie Chandler is the author of several books including The Nonfiction Book Marketing and Launch Plan and The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan. She is CEO of the Nonfiction Authors Association, a vibrant community for writers, and the Nonfiction Writers Conference, an annual event conducted entirely online since 2010. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur, BusinessWeek, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, and Wired magazine.
OUR HOST:
Abagail Pumphrey
Boss Project on Instagram | Facebook
Abagail hosts the twice-weekly podcast, The Strategy Hour, which is recognized by INC and Forbes as one of the best podcasts for entrepreneurs.
Key Topics:
Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Book Publishing
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