Dream It, Write It, Publish It!

You’ve been wanting to write a book for a while but have no idea where to start. First, congratulations on your dream! Someone once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Dreams are magical bubbles of potential that come to us in inspirations, reveries, wishes, or hunches. They tug at our heartstrings and revisit us in moments of contemplation—on walks or while driving. We imagine holding our book with a gorgeous cover and our name on it. We imagine reading excerpts in front of audiences who buy our books and ask us to sign them. We envision glowing reviews. We picture being filled with pride over our dreams becoming a reality.

But where do you even begin? The good news is you have many options for writing and publishing your dream book. Let’s take a look at them.

If you are a newbie writer and have a story to tell but no writing chops or aspirations of becoming a writer, we recommend hiring a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter will help you tell your story, record your ideas, and then write the book in your voice. The nice thing about this option is that you’re outsourcing the project, and your main role will be interviews and reviewing the chapters as the ghostwriter completes them. This takes about six months to a year, depending on the length of your book.

Let’s say you’re fairly new to writing but have aspirations of writing your own book. We recommend working with a writing coach, who can help you every step of the way to outline and write your book. You’ll want to hire an editor on the backend to make sure your writing flows. This process could take some time as you develop the skills necessary to write an outstanding book.

If you’ve written part of your book but are stuck and need help moving forward, you may want to work with someone who can coach you and edit your work.

Now, the other big question is: should you self-publish or traditionally publish? Those who would like to go for traditional publishing should know that this path can take up to three years from start to finish. If you’ve written a novel or memoir, you must finish your book and then pitch it to agents. If you land an agent, he or she will pitch your project to publishing houses. There’s no guarantee that an agent can land a book deal.

Each of these steps can take up to a year or more. If you have an idea for a non-fiction book, you can write a detailed proposal and pitch that to an agent. Please note that traditional publishing is highly competitive, but it doesn’t hurt to try that route if you think you have a fresh idea and excellent writing skills. If you land a publishing deal, the publishing house will do limited publicity, so to maximize marketing and sales, you may want to hire a publicist.

Your other option is to self-publish. The good news about self-publishing is that what was once frowned upon is now seen as a viable alternative to traditional publishing. To self-publish, you will write, edit, format, design, and publish on the platform(s) of your choice. You have more control over self-publishing, and the timeline is much shorter. There’s no need to wait for agents and publishers to give you the key to the kingdom. Also, you get to keep more of your book’s profits.

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To prepare for self-publishing, we recommend that you partner with a copyeditor and formatter to help you launch your book. After it’s ready to go, one of the challenges with self-publishing is getting the word out about your book. You’ll need to promote and market your book so people know about it.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s the best option for you so your dream of writing a book can come true. Authoring a book is a delightful and rewarding process. It’s also hard work, no matter how you slice it. There’s nothing like the pride of authorship when you hold your own book in your hands and share it with readers.