How I Wrote and Published a Book in 9 Months

How I Wrote and Published a Book in 9 Months

Author: Tracy Minnoch-Nuku
Fitness Professional - Entrepreneur, Author, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker/Presenter, Trainer, WIFA Global Ambassador
Read the original post here!

The fact that I am even writing this article has me chuckling.

Writing a book was always something I had wanted to do, like a million other people. We have stories to tell and sell! Whether you do it or not is another thing. The reason I actually started came from a place of conversations. I have a successful podcast Sexy Ageing and I interview “super-agers” to discuss topics like fitness, health, medicine, business, entrepreneurial skills and journalism. We compare the miracle of midlife and the topic “menopause” often comes up.

Without knowing much about menopause, except that I was smack up in it and it was NOT GOOD, I was learning from some of the world’s experts in the field. I also took the time to gain a certificate in Women’s Midlife Health and Fitness so that I could understand from a health and fitness professionals perspective how the body needs to adapt including the changing training and nutrition needs during this life stage.

I was on such a fast and steep learning curve, I needed to write it all down. I had 29 out of the 35 commonly recognised perimenopause symptoms and so I thought that would be a good place to write a book from.

•   Commit to the Goal: The idea of committing to writing a manuscript became the goal. Not that it would one day be published. Just the bucket list goal of consistently writing a page or two every day. And so with that thought, I woke up at 4.00am, 3 days per week, and wrote for 90 minutes each time.
•   Plan your story: I made a list of all the symptoms I had and prioritised them into the most common through to the least common and started from the biggest one. This provided a flow, from one symptom to another, and also gave me the inspiration to write my symptom management tips provided by experts and personal experience.
•   Stay the Path: The goal is 30,000 words for a book so if you get to 10,000, you are heading in the right direction! Don’t look back — don’t start editing. Until you are done!
•   Find a professional editor: Having someone who specialises in editing books is essential if you have taken the leap to publish your work. They will see how the book and story flows and ask questions to help you clarify your message. They are your b*llsh*t meter and fact checker rolled into one. You will love and hate them at the same time.
•   Edit, edit, edit: See, I wrote that three times? This is the minimum number of times you will review your manuscript for typos, incorrect spelling and grammar issues. Even then, I ended up doing a forth review.
•   Hire a Book Cover Designer: When I finally realised I had a viable manuscript to publish, my research confirmed that hiring a professional book cover designer is essential. I hired a freelancer on Upwork and this allowed us to collaborate on a book cover, back cover and spine that worked for my Paperback and eBook. Best money spent and I already recovered the cost in book sales in the first 24-hours.
•   Publish: Being a first time author, I published my book “My Menopause Memoir” on Amazon Kindle Direct which allowed me to publish as a Kindle eBook and Paperback. This means that you aren’t committing to a large financial outlay to have books printed and you can keep your commitment to save the planet/save the trees.

From the first 4.00am alarm till the first book sale, it took me 9 months — like having a new baby! I still occasionally wake up early and think I need to be writing — like now...

Author: Tracy Minnoch
Fitness Professional - Entrepreneur, Author, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker/Presenter, Trainer, WIFA Global Ambassador

Read the original post here!
Get Tracy's book here!