How To Write A Book: Day 1

So I’ve decided to write my second book. I’ll be documenting the process so you can follow along and use my techniques to write and self publish your own business building book.

I’ll be using the system I’ve developed and that I teach to other professional speakers and entrepreneurs at www.yourbookinamoth.com

So let’s get started, break this process down as I go along, and see how long it actually takes.

Day 1: Research and Outline

I’m going to:

• define the purpose of the book
• the ideal customer for the
• see if there are any competing books on the market
• and create in initial outline for the book

The purpose of this book will be to show speakers how to get hired as cruise ship enrichment lecturers and then use those gigs to build a six figure speaking business.

My ultimate business objective in writing this book will be to use it as a front end for a multi CD/DVD product I’ve been working on that offers much more in depth training on the subject.

It’s tough to persuade people to invest in a big training course like that if they don’t now who you are or don’t have a chance to sample what you have to say on the subject first. The book will provide my customers with just such an introduction.

This book will also serve as a calling card for me when approach other bloggers, seminar producers, and media outlets with an offer to speak on the subject of cruise ship speaking. Once I’ve written the book on the subject credibility and publicity will be easy to acquire. I already experienced this when I wrote the book on weight loss hypnosis as a result of doing cruise ship lectures on the subject.

The ideal customer for this book will be professional speakers or people who would like to become professional speakers but have had a hard time going full time in this business. Also, speakers who have already been hired as cruise ship enrichment lecturers (the technical term for this job) but are unaware of how to make it profitable and build a speaking business out of it. And finally, entertainers who can or do perform on cruise ships who would like to also do speaking. (this is how I started and by adding speaking and book / cd / dvd publishing to my entertainment business was able to double my income almost immediately).

How To Research Your Book

I just did a google search and Amazon search on “cruise ship speaking” and “speaking on cruise ships’ and there appear to be four books already written on the subject. This is great by the way. When I’ve coached people on how to write their own books they’re typically afraid of competition at first until I point out that having multiple competitors means the market can support all those products. If there were no competitors at all then I would have to assess whether the market was big enough to cater to in the first place. In this case, two of the book are pretty old, one is geared specifically for entertainers, and the last is for non-professional speakers who just want to cruise for free. I’ve ordered all of the books so I look at the competition close up.

A word about competition:

The authors of those other book don’t necessarily have to be my competitors. It is also possible to enter into a cooperative arrangement with people who serve the same market you do. When my book is done I will offer to split the proceeds with those other authors in exchange for them promoting it to their customer lists. It’s in the best interest of their readers and offers them another revenue stream without having to do any work. This cooperative approach can be applied to any business by the way. Think about how you can work with your competitors and join forces to serve your customers more effectively and everybody wins.

How To Do Keyword Research For Your Book

I just looked up the keywords that someone searching for information on cruise ship speaking would do. In my case I found terms I wouldn’t have thought to use but will now include in my articles on the topic. Such as “cruise ship lecturer” as opposed to “cruise ship speaker”. I’m going to go back over this article and add that phrase in somewhere for better search engine optimization.

You can do keyword research for your own book or website by using this tool here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool

How To Outline Your Book

I’ve already written a few articles about how to outline your book in an hour so I won’t go over that process again here. Refer to this article for information on how to do this:

http://www.joshuaseth.com/how-to-outline-your-book/

OK, I just took a 30 minute break and outlined my entire book. Of course, I’ve done this before and coached other people on how to do this as well so it’s faster for me. But whether it takes you an hour or 30 minutes or even 2 hours it’s important to do a detailed outline before you begin writing a book. It’ll will save a lot of time later in the process.

This outline is sure to change as I actually progress through the writing and then the editing of the book but it gives me an important structure to work with from the very beginning.

What’s that old quote about success? It’s where preparation meets opportunity, right. Today has been all about preparation. Tomorrow I’ll begin to write. Actually, I’m all charged up and ready to start writing now but I’m on tour at the moment and have to go fly to a gig!

Total Time Invested

The total time invested so far is 78 minutes. 48 minutes to write this article and do the research and 30 minutes to outline the book. For more info on how to write and self publish your own business building book visit www.yourbookinamonth.com

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