My mission is to create a set of templates and instructions that will allow an author to more easily create a novel or a non-fiction book.
My vision is to create a comprehensive description of the four-phase process involved in creating a book.
If you’re writing a book for the first time, you probably think that the writing is the entire scope of the project. I know I thought that way once upon a time. The brutal reality is that writing a book is a multi-phase project that can take years to complete.
Whether the book is a novel or non-fiction, the project encompasses four separate and distinct phases:
Let’s talk about the interval first. It takes me a year to write a novel and it may be same for you. If you self-publish the book, you can add an another six months. If you pursue an agent and a big publisher, add a few years to the project interval. Marketing lasts as long as the book is available.
Another reality is that this four-part project is rarely, if ever, described this way. Most times writing, publishing and marketing are treated as separate projects.
In this series of templates, I’ll treat the book project the way it should be treated: as a long-term, multi-phase project. That’s the way I go about creating a book. While you may be horrified by this concept at first, believe me, in the long run, it’s better to know this now than to be surprised as each new part of the project is revealed.
A further complication for new authors is this: planning and writing the book does nothing to prepare the author for the publishing and marketing parts of the project. Writing, publishing and marketing involve three completely different skill sets and the only commonality is that all three involve the same book.
The templates are designed to accumulate important information in all phases of the project. This information will simplify the work involved.