Six Steps to Take Before You Begin Blogging a Book

Most writers simply begin writing the moment they come up with a book idea they feel is worth pursuing. However, it’s best to wait a moment…or a few moments…to focus and evaluate that idea. This helps your book have a chance of succeeding in the ever-more competitive book market.

After all, no matter how you write your book, completing it and getting it published represents only half the battle. Standing out in an industry where more than 400,000 self-published books and 300,000 traditionally published books are released into the marketplace each year makes up the other half.

To give your book a good start, take the following six steps before you start writing:

1. Get clear about your book’s subject.To accomplish this task, write a pitch for your book—a 50-75 word elevator speech. This helps you hone your subject.
2. Determine why the benefits your book will provide. List 5-15 benefits your book will provide to readers. These are the reasons why someone would purchase your book—what they are looking for, want to gain, or need. Also write a short paragraph about your book to go with the benefit list. Consider this back-of-the-book copy or metadata for your book. What might you say or write about your book that would make someone carry it to the register or hit the “buy” button?
3. Conduct a market analysis. Determine who your reader is and how many of them exist. Where can you find these people? Are there enough potential readers out there to justify writing your book? Market research tells you if enough potential buyers exist for your book. It also helps you know for whom you are writing. With this information, you can better target their needs. (You might need to revise what you’ve done in step 1 and 2 after completing this step.)
4. Study the competition: Ensure the book you want to write will be unique and necessary compared to the other books already published in your niche or category. There are a staggering number of books published each year. Before you write a word—or publish a book, study what other authors have already written and published, and then angle (or re-angle) your book so it is different—and fills a need no one else has filled. This helps ensures readers purchase your book rather than an established title or a book by an established author. (Again, you might need to go back to previous steps and revise after completing this one.)
5. Evaluate your potential content: Create the structure of your book by producing a table of contents. Then look critically at this outline to determine if it makes sense and provides unique and necessary content targeted to your audience. Also evaluate if you will have enough content. If not, make adjustments.
6. Flesh out your content:Write chapter summaries based on your outline. This helps you get a good feel for what you plan to write. You can then re-evaluate your content and re-angle or add or subtract content as necessary based on any previous steps.

Once you have completed these six steps, you are ready to begin writing or blogging your book. Your table of contents and chapter summaries provide a great writing guide—one targeted at your market. Your pitch and list of benefits also help you stay focused on your topic and the promises your book makes to readers. Write the book you have planned out, and you will keep those promises—provide the benefits you have described for readers in your target market. This will produce a successful book, one that will stand out once released into the ever-more-crowded publishing marketplace.

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