writing a book youtube

The Top 10+ Writing YouTube Channels (2023)

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While the craft of writing hasn't gotten any easier for writers over time, the methods and avenues for learning and practicing writing skills have expanded in so many ways. Take a look at my list of more than ten top writing YouTube channels to see which one holds the best writing tips for your creative writing growth.

YouTube: Where Writers Go to Learn

The other day, as I was pilfering through a closet, I came across the first novel I ever wrote. Picking up the yellowed manuscript, I cracked it open. The handwritten words looped across the college ruled notebook paper. Red ink crowded the margins and whiteout chipped off some of the lines.

So much has changed in the decades since I penned my first tale. Not only what I write on, but how I prepare for the next leg of my writing journey.

There are so many sources of amazing information available on a variety of media. So many, in fact, it can feel overwhelming.

How do you know where to start? How do you know if the book, blog, podcast or YouTube channel is worth your time?

The world of writer YouTube channels has a name: authortube. There’s a wealth of channels with thousands of videos. Some focus on the writing craft, the nuts and bolts of writing. Others on self-publishing and the business of being a writer.

Fortunately for you, I’ve done the research, and found the top ten Youtube channels for writers. These channels are from authors, editors and entrepreneurs who are currently publishing videos on a regular basis to provide you with ongoing and up-to-date advice.

Top 10 Writing YouTube Channels

Check out these writing channels to give your writing a boost:

1. The Creative Penn

The Creative Penn  from New York Times best-selling author, Joanna Penn, covers a wide variety of topics. She offers tips on self publishing, marketing, and being a successful author.

While she is known for her thrillers, Joanna often collaborates with guest writers who provide advice on fiction, memoirs and nonfiction. You can find her posts weekly.

2. Mark Dawson

Mark is a prolific best selling indie author with over forty novels. His website and authortube channel, The Self Publishing Formula, offers tutorials and collaborations with other successful authors who use social media advertising to supercharge their careers.

Mark publishes videos weekly each with a new topic on the path to being a successful indie writer.

3. BooksandBigHair

India Hill Brown, author of The Forgotten Girl and The Drowned Girl, leads this booktube channel where she provides book reviews, unboxing and read-a-thons.

She also has videos offering advice on how to land a literary agent and how to set and accomplish your writing goals. India uses her own experiences as a writer and a mother to help influence her content.

4. Jenna Moreci

Jenna won over a huge fan base by offering her sarcastic, comedic writing advice in bite size pieces on her YouTube channel . She is a successful indie writer with thousands of short videos serving up writing do’s and don’ts; like How do I Write My First Chapter or Why Your Plot Twist Sucks.

This is not your mama’s Youtube channel, and I suggest you don’t let your kids watch either. But her wit and humor keep you coming back for some great tips and laughs. Jenna puts out new videos weekly.

5. Michael La Ronn

Michael heads up a channel called Author Level Up . Each week he posts videos about the writing craft, self-publishing and increasing your productivity. He offers livestream Q&A sessions as well so you can interact directly with Michael. Learn to write better and faster all while having fun.

6. Dave Chesson

Dave’s channel, Kindlepreneur, provides a series of short, easily digestible videos on increasing your notoriety as well as some great `”how to’s” on a variety of publishing topics like uploading your book to Amazon, writing a prologue, and book formatting.

Dave’s strength is moving books to readers. His website, kindlepreneur.com , is a book marketing website. Dave is also the founder of Publisher Rocket, a book marketing software. (See The Write Practice's review on Pub Rocket here .) Dave publishes videos weekly, so you can always be informed on the most up to date trends in the publishing industry.

7. Diane Callahan

Looking for something more creative? Diane’s channel, Quotidian Writer, offers a unique view on a variety of writing craft topics. Diane is a developmental editor of fiction and an author. Her videos themselves are works of art.

These short pieces feature images and reenactments while you learn. Diane puts her videos out every other month, so be sure to tune into her next installment or get caught up on her previous topics.

8. WordNerds

The channel Word Nerds focuses on live streaming videos with eight word nerd hosts from across several genres. It’s like a writer party each week where you can participate in the discussion with a writing community. With a library of nearly 1,500 videos on topics ranging from inspiration to interviews you’ll find something to spark your interest.

9. Alexa Donne

Alexa is a traditionally published YA author who uses her channel t o provide guidance on writing and publishing. Even though she’s a YA author, she hosts interviews with authors across several genres. Alexa offers straightforward advice to keep you focused on writing and your head in the game.

10. Abbie Emmons

Abbie’s upbeat videos will help inspire you to meet your writing goals and improve your writing process. She believes the rules are less important and puts her focus on empowering authors to find the meaning in their words and understanding their craft. In her words, “I teach writers how to make their stories matter by harnessing the power and psychology of storytelling.”

3 Bonus Channels!

All right, I couldn't stop at just ten. Here are three more top channels that are well worth your views:

11. The Write Practice

Joe Bunting’s channel, The Write Practice , focuses on improving your skill as a writer and helping you develop good habits to becoming a successful author. These short monthly videos provide easily executable lessons and creative ideas that are paramount to any writer regardless of your skill level or experience. Paired with the site's writing prompts, there's something to help every writer grow.

Joe is a best selling author and founder of The Write Practice website, a place for authors to gather and share their work and improve their craft. Joe has been helping people achieve their writing goals since 2011, so join in and let him help you on your journey.

12. Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson didn’t mean to become a Youtube sensation. The sci fi / fantasy author and university lecturer fell into it by accident. Brandon has his own current authortube channel, but the lecture series he posted in 2020 is well worth the watch. Brandon has a knack for teaching so these popular videos are not only easily understood and engaging but delivered in the classroom making it conducive to learning.

Lecture #1 Introduction on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Lecture #2: Plot

13. Robert McKee

Robert McKee is arguably one of the most well-known and celebrated screenwriting lecturers. Former students have gone on to win Academy awards, Emmy awards and WGA awards. His renowned “Story Seminar” on the art of storytelling has been presented around the world. While his YouTube pieces aren't recent, his short videos offer timeless advice on structure and design for anyone who puts words to the page.

What Are Your Top Writing YouTube Channels?

There are so many fabulous creative voices out there, I’m sure I missed a few. Check out these channels to get started exploring authortube. And don't hesitate to try some new channels, too.

Just don't let watching authortube become a way to procrastinate writing your own book!

What's your favorite authortube channel? Let us know in the comments .

Choose one of the YouTube channels above and watch one video. Then, set your timer for fifteen minutes and put the lesson into practice.

Watch Joe's video on writing a premise here . Then, set a timer for fifteen minutes and write your idea out as a premise.

When you’re finished, share your work in the Pro Practice Workshop here .  Not a member yet? Join us here !

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How to Write a Book From Start to Finish: A Proven Guide

So you want to write a book. Becoming an author can change your life—not to mention give you the ability to impact thousands, even millions, of people.

But writing a book isn’t easy. As a 21-time New York Times bestselling author, I can tell you: It’s far easier to quit than to finish.

You’re going to be tempted to give up writing your book when you run out of ideas, when your own message bores you, when you get distracted, or when you become overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the task.

But what if you knew exactly:

• Where to start…
• What each step entails…
• How to overcome fear, procrastination, a nd writer’s block …
• And how to keep from feeling overwhelmed?

You can write a book—and more quickly than you might think, because these days you have access to more writing tools than ever. 

The key is to follow a proven, straightforward, step-by-step plan .

My goal here is to offer you that book-writing plan.

I’ve used the techniques I outline below to write more than 200 books (including the Left Behind series) over the past 50 years. Yes, I realize writing over four books per year on average is more than you may have thought humanly possible. 

But trust me—with a reliable blueprint, you can get unstuck and finally write your book .

This is my personal approach on how to write a book. I’m confident you’ll find something here that can change the game for you. So, let’s jump in.

• How to Write a Book From Start to Finish

Part 1: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

• Establish your writing space.
• Assemble your writing tools.

Part 2: How to Start Writing a Book

• Break the project into small pieces.
• Settle on your BIG idea.
• Construct your outline.
• Set a firm writing schedule.
• Establish a sacred deadline.
• Embrace procrastination (really!).
• Eliminate distractions.
• Conduct your research.
• Start calling yourself a writer.

Part 3: The Book-Writing Itself

• Think reader-first.
• Find your writing voice.
• Write a compelling opener.
• Fill your story with conflict and tension.
• Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.
• Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.
• Write a resounding ending.

Part 4: Editing Your Book

• Become a ferocious self-editor.
• Find a mentor.
• Part 5: Publishing Your Book
• Decide on your publishing avenue.
• Properly format your manuscript.
• Set up and grow your author platform.
• Pursue a Literary Agent
• Writing Your Query Letter
• Part One: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

You’ll never regret—in fact, you’ll thank yourself later—for investing the time necessary to prepare for such a monumental task.

You wouldn’t set out to cut down a huge grove of trees with just an axe. You’d need a chain saw, perhaps more than one. Something to keep them sharp. Enough fuel to keep them running.

You get the picture. Don’t shortcut this foundational part of the process.

Step 1. Establish your writing space.

To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career o n my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs.

What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do.

And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career.

Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better.

Real writers can write anywhere .

Some authors write their books in restaurants and coffee shops. My first full time job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering.

Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.

Step 2. Assemble your writing tools.

In the newspaper business, there was no time to hand write our stuff and then type it for the layout guys. So I have always written at a keyboard and still write my books that way.

Most authors do, though some hand write their first drafts and then keyboard them onto a computer or pay someone to do that.

No publisher I know would even consider a typewritten manuscript, let alone one submitted in handwriting.

The publishing industry runs on Microsoft Word, so you’ll need to submit Word document files. Whether you prefer a Mac or a PC, both will produce the kinds of files you need.

And if you’re looking for a musclebound electronic organizing system, you can’t do better than Scrivener . It works well on both PCs and Macs, and it nicely interacts with Word files.

Just remember, Scrivener has a steep learning curve, so familiarize yourself with it before you start writing.

Scrivener users know that taking the time to learn the basics is well worth it.

Tons of other book-writing tools exist to help you. I’ve included some of the most well-known in my blog po st on book writing software and my writing tools page fo r your reference.

So, what else do you need?

If you are one who handwrites your first drafts, don’t scrimp on paper, pencils, or erasers.

Don’t shortchange yourself on a computer either. Even if someone else is keyboarding for you, you’ll need a computer for research and for communicating with potential agents , edi tors, publishers.

Get the best computer you can afford, the latest, the one with the most capacity and speed.

Try to imagine everything you’re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don’t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:

• Paper clips
• Pencil holders
• Pencil sharpeners
• Printing paper
• Paperweight
• Tape dispensers
• Cork or bulletin boards
• Reference works
• Space heaters
• Beverage mugs
• You name it
• Last, but most crucial, get the best, most ergonomic chair you can afford.

If I were to start my career again with that typewriter on a plank, I would not sit on that couch. I’d grab another straight-backed kitchen chair or something similar and be proactive about my posture and maintaining a healthy spine.

There’s nothing worse than trying to be creative and immerse yourself in writing while you’re in agony . The chair I work in today cost more than my first car!

If you’ve never used some of the items I listed above and can’t imagine needing them, fine. But make a list of everything you know you’ll need so when the actual writing begins, you’re already equipped.

As you grow as a writer and actually start making money at it, you can keep upgrading your writing space.

Where I work now is light years from where I started. But the point is, I didn’t wait to start writing until I could have a great spot in which to do it.

• Part Two: How to Start Writing a Book

Step 1. Break your book into small pieces.

Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! Bu t your manuscript w ill be made up of many small parts.

An old adage says that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time .

Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.

It can’t be written all at once any more than that proverbial elephant could be eaten in a single sitting.

See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you’ll be into your second hundred pages.

So keep it simple.

Start by distilling you r big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence—your premise. The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you’re writing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can turn your big idea into one sentence, which can then b e expanded to an outline , you have to settle on exactly what that big idea is.

Step 2. Settle on your BIG idea.

To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.

You need to write something about which you’re passionate , something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.

I can’t overstate the importance of this.

If you’ve tried and failed to finish your book before—maybe more than once—it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn’t carry an entire book.

Think The Hunger Games , Harry Potter , or How to Win Friends and Influence People . The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There’s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.

Go for the big concept book.

How do you know you’ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?

Run it past loved ones and others you trust.

Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?

The right concept simply works, and you’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must capture you in such a way that you’re compelled to write it . Otherwise you will lose interest halfway through and never finish.

Step 3. Construct your outline.

Writing your book without a clear vision of where you’re going usually ends in disaster.

Even if you ’re writing a fiction book an d consider yourself a Pantser* as opposed to an Outliner, you need at least a basic structure .

[*Those of us who write by the seat of our pants and, as Stephen King advises, pu t interesting characters i n difficult situations and write to find out what happens]

You don’t have to call it an outline if that offends your sensibilities. But fashion some sort of a directional document that provides structure for your book and also serves as a safety net.

If you get out on that Pantser highwire and lose your balance, you’ll thank me for advising you to have this in place.

Now if you’re writing a nonfiction book, there’s no substitute for an outline .

Potential agents or publishers require this in your proposal . T hey want to know where you’re going, and they want to know that you know. What do you want your reader to learn from your book, and how will you ensure they learn it?

Fiction or nonfiction, if you commonly lose interest in your book somewhere in what I call the Marathon of the Middle, you likely didn’t start with enough exciting ideas .

That’s why and outline (or a basic framework) is essential. Don’t even start writing until you’re confident your structure will hold up through the end.

You may recognize this novel structure illustration.

Did you know it holds up—with only slight adaptations—for nonfiction books too? It’s self-explanatory for novelists; they list their plot twists and developments and arrange them in an order that best serves to increase tension .

What separates great nonfiction from mediocre? The same structure!

Arrange your points and evidence in the same way so you’re setting your reader up for a huge payoff, and then make sure you deliver.

If your nonfiction book is a memoir , an autobiography , or a biography, structure it like a novel and you can’t go wrong.

But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive.

Make promises early, triggering your reader to anticipate fresh ideas, secrets, inside information, something major that will make him thrilled with the finished product.

While a nonfiction book may not have as much action or dialogue or character development as a novel, you can inject tension by showing where people have failed before and how your reader can succeed.

You can even make the how-to project look impossible until you pay off that setup with your unique solution.

Keep your outline to a single page for now. But make sure every major point is represented, so you’ll always know where you’re going.

And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept.

Your outline must serve you. If that means Roman numerals and capital and lowercase letters and then Arabic numerals, you can certainly fashion it that way. But if you just want a list of sentences that synopsize your idea, that’s fine too.

Simply start with your working title, then your premise, then—for fiction, list all the major scenes that fit into the rough structure above.

For nonfiction, try to come up with chapter titles and a sentence or two of what each chapter will cover.

Once you have your one-page outline, remember it is a fluid document meant to serve you and your book. Expand it, change it, play with it as you see fit—even during the writing process .

Step 4. Set a firm writing schedule.

Ideally, you want to schedule at least six hours per week to write your book.

That may consist of three sessions of two hours each, two sessions of three hours, or six one-hour sessions—whatever works for you.

I recommend a regular pattern (same times, same days) that can most easily become a habit. But if that’s impossible, just make sure you carve out at least six hours so you can see real progress.

Having trouble finding the time to write a book? News flash—you won’t find the time. You have to make it.

I used the phrase carve out above for a reason. That’s what it takes.

Something in your calendar will likely have to be sacrificed in the interest of writing time . 

Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.

But beyond that, the truth is that we all find time for what we really want to do.

Many writers insist they have no time to write, but they always seem to catch the latest Netflix original series, or go to the next big Hollywood feature. They enjoy concerts, parties, ball games, whatever.

How important is it to you to finally write your book? What will you cut from your calendar each week to ensure you give it the time it deserves?

• A favorite TV show?
• An hour of sleep per night? (Be careful with this one; rest is crucial to a writer.)

Successful writers make time to write.

When writing becomes a habit, you’ll be on your way.

Step 5. Establish a sacred deadline.

Without deadlines, I rarely get anything done. I need that motivation.

Admittedly, my deadlines are now established in my contracts from publishers.

If you’re writing your first book, you probably don’t have a contract yet. To ensure you finish your book, set your own deadline—then consider it sacred .

Tell your spouse or loved one or trusted friend. Ask that they hold you accountable.

Now determine—and enter in your calendar—the number of pages you need to produce per writing session to meet your deadline. If it proves unrealistic, change the deadline now.

If you have no idea how many pages or words you typically produce per session, you may have to experiment before you finalize those figures.

Say you want to finish a 400-page manuscript by this time next year.

Divide 400 by 50 weeks (accounting for two off-weeks), and you get eight pages per week. 

Divide that by your typical number of writing sessions per week and you’ll know how many pages you should finish per session.

Now is the time to adjust these numbers, while setting your deadline and determining your pages per session.

Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long.

Change the numbers to make it realistic and doable, and then lock it in. Remember, your deadline is sacred.

Step 6. Embrace procrastination (really!).

You read that right. Don’t fight it; embrace it.

You wouldn’t guess it from my 200+ published books, but I’m the king of procrastinators .

Don’t be. So many authors are procrastinators that I’ve come to wonder if it’s a prerequisite.

The secret is to accept it and, in fact, schedule it.

I quit fretting and losing sleep over procrastinating when I realized it was inevitable and predictable, and also that it was productive.

Sound like rationalization?

Maybe it was at first. But I learned that while I’m putting off the writing, my subconscious is working on my book. It’s a part of the process. When you do start writing again, you’ll enjoy the surprises your subconscious reveals to you.

So, knowing procrastination is coming, book it on your calendar .

Take it into account when you’re determining your page quotas. If you have to go back in and increase the number of pages you need to produce per session, do that (I still do it all the time).

But—and here’s the key—you must never let things get to where that number of pages per day exceeds your capacity.

It’s one thing to ratchet up your output from two pages per session to three. But if you let it get out of hand, you’ve violated the sacredness of your deadline.

How can I procrastinate and still meet more than 190 deadlines?

Because I keep the deadlines sacred.

Step 7. Eliminate distractions to stay focused.

Are you as easily distracted as I am?

Have you found yourself writing a sentence and then checking your email? Writing another and checking Facebook? Getting caught up in the pictures of 10 Sea Monsters You Wouldn’t Believe Actually Exist?

Then you just have to check out that precious video from a talk show where the dad surprises the family by returning from the war.

That leads to more and more of the same. Once I’m in, my writing is forgotten, and all of a sudden the day has gotten away from me.

The answer to these insidious timewasters?

Look into these apps that allow you to block your email, social media, browsers, game apps, whatever you wish during the hours you want to write. Some carry a modest fee, others are free.

• Freedom app
• FocusWriter

Step 8. Conduct your research.

Yes, research is a vital part of the process, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfict i on .

Fiction means more than just making up a story .

Your details and logic and technical and historical details must be right for your novel to be believable.

And for nonfiction, even if you’re writing about a subject in which you’re an expert—as I’m doing here—getting all the facts right will polish your finished product.

In fact, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve researched a fact or two while writing this blog post alone.

The last thing you want is even a small mistake due to your lack of proper research .

Regardless the detail, trust me, you’ll hear from readers about it.

Your credibility as an author and an expert hinges on creating trust with your reader. That dissolves in a hurry if you commit an error.

My favorite research resources:

• World Almanacs : These alone list almost everything you need for accurate prose: facts, data, government information, and more. For my novels, I often use these to come up with ethnically accurate character names .
• The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus : The online version is great, because it’s lightning fast. You couldn’t turn the pages of a hard copy as quickly as you can get where you want to onscreen. One caution: Never let it be obvious you’ve consulted a thesaurus. You’re not looking for the exotic word that jumps off the page. You’re looking for that common word that’s on the tip of your tongue.
• WorldAtlas.com : Here you’ll find nearly limitless information about any continent, country, region, city, town, or village. Names, monetary units, weather patterns, tourism info, and even facts you wouldn’t have thought to search for. I get ideas when I’m digging here, for both my novels and my nonfiction books.

Step 9. Start calling yourself a writer.

Your inner voice may tell you, “You’re no writer and you never will be. Who do you think you are, trying to write a book?”

That may be why you’ve stalled at writing your book in the past .

But if you’re working at writing, studying writing, practicing writing, that makes you a writer. Don’t wait till you reach some artificial level of accomplishment before calling yourself a writer.

A cop in uniform and on duty is a cop whether he’s actively enforced the law yet or not. A carpenter is a carpenter whether he’s ever built a house.

Self-identify as a writer now and you’ll silence that inner critic —who, of course, is really you. 

Talk back to yourself if you must. It may sound silly, but acknowledging yourself as a writer can give you the confidence to keep going and finish your book.

Are you a writer? Say so.

• Part Three: The Book-Writing Itself

Step 1. Think reader-first.

This is so important that that you should write it on a sticky note and affix it to your monitor so you’re reminded of it every time you write.

Every decision you make about your manuscript must be run through this filter.

Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first.

Reader-first, last, and always .

If every decision is based on the idea of reader-first, all those others benefit anyway.

When fans tell me they were moved by one of my books, I think back to this adage and am grateful I maintained that posture during the writing.

Does a scene bore you? If you’re thinking reader-first, it gets overhauled or deleted.

Where to go, what to say, what to write next? Decide based on the reader as your priority.

Whatever your gut tells you your reader would prefer, that’s your answer.

Whatever will intrigue him, move him, keep him reading, those are your marching orders.

So, naturally, you need to know your reader. Rough age? General interests? Loves? Hates? Attention span?

When in doubt, look in the mirror . 

The surest way to please your reader is to please yourself. Write what you would want to read and trust there is a broad readership out there that agrees.

Step 2. Find your writing voice.

Discovering your voice is nowhere near as complicated as some make it out to be.

You can find yours by answering these quick questions :

• What’s the coolest thing that ever happened to you?
• Who’s the most important person you told about it?
• What did you sound like when you did?
• That’s your writing voice. It should read the way you sound at your most engaged.

That’s all there is to it.

If you write fiction and the narrator of your book isn’t you, go through the three-question exercise on the narrator’s behalf—and you’ll quickly master the voice.

Here’s a blog I posted that’ll walk you through the process .

Step 3. Write a compelling opener.

If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line for your book, you’re not alone.

And neither is your angst misplaced.

This is not something you should put off and come back to once you’ve started on the rest of the first chapter.

Oh, it can still change if the story dictates that . But settling on a good one will really get you off and running.

It’s unlikely you’ll write a more important sentence than your first one , whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. Make sure you’re thrilled with it and then watch how your confidence—and momentum—soars.

Most great first lines fall into one of these categories:

1. Surprising

Fiction : “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nonfiction : “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man

2. Dramatic Statement

Fiction : “They shoot the white girl first.” —Toni Morrison, Paradise

Nonfiction : “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” —Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand

3. Philosophical

Fiction : “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Nonfiction : “It’s not about you.” —Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Fiction : “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

Nonfiction : “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” —Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

Great opening lines from other classics may give you ideas for yours. Here’s a list of famous openers .

Step 4. Fill your story with conflict and tension.

Your reader craves conflict, and yes, this applies to nonfiction readers as well.

In a novel, if everything is going well and everyone is agreeing, your reader will soon lose interest and find something else to do.

Are two of your characters talking at the dinner table? Have one say something that makes the other storm out.

Some deep-seeded rift in their relationship has surfaced—just a misunderstanding, or an injustice?

Thrust people into conflict with each other . 

That’ll keep your reader’s attention.

Certain nonfiction genres won’t lend themselves to that kind of conflict, of course, but you can still inject tension by setting up your reader for a payoff in later chapters. Check out some of the current bestselling nonfiction works to see how writers accomplish this.

Somehow they keep you turning those pages, even in a simple how-to title.

Tension is the secret sauce that will propel your reader through to the end . 

And sometimes that’s as simple as implying something to come.

Step 5. Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.

Many of us perfectionists find it hard to write a first draft—fiction or nonfiction—without feeling compelled to make every sentence exactly the way we want it.

That voice in your head that questions every word, every phrase, every sentence, and makes you worry you’re being redundant or have allowed cliches to creep in—well, that’s just your editor alter ego.

He or she needs to be told to shut up .

This is not easy.

Deep as I am into a long career, I still have to remind myself of this every writing day. I cannot be both creator and editor at the same time. That slows me to a crawl, and my first draft of even one brief chapter could take days.

Our job when writing that first draft is to get down the story or the message or the teaching—depending on your genre.

It helps me to view that rough draft as a slab of meat I will carve tomorrow .

I can’t both produce that hunk and trim it at the same time.

A cliche, a redundancy, a hackneyed phrase comes tumbling out of my keyboard, and I start wondering whether I’ve forgotten to engage the reader’s senses or aimed for his emotions.

That’s when I have to chastise myself and say, “No! Don’t worry about that now! First thing tomorrow you get to tear this thing up and put it back together again to your heart’s content!”

Imagine yourself wearing different hats for different tasks , if that helps—whatever works to keep you rolling on that rough draft. You don’t need to show it to your worst enemy or even your dearest love. This chore is about creating. Don’t let anything slow you down.

Some like to write their entire first draft before attacking the revision. As I say, whatever works.

Doing it that way would make me worry I’ve missed something major early that will cause a complete rewrite when I discover it months later. I alternate creating and revising.

The first thing I do every morning is a heavy edit and rewrite of whatever I wrote the day before. If that’s ten pages, so be it. I put my perfectionist hat on and grab my paring knife and trim that slab of meat until I’m happy with every word.

Then I switch hats, tell Perfectionist Me to take the rest of the day off, and I start producing rough pages again.

So, for me, when I’ve finished the entire first draft, it’s actually a second draft because I have already revised and polished it in chunks every day.

THEN I go back through the entire manuscript one more time, scouring it for anything I missed or omitted, being sure to engage the reader’s senses and heart, and making sure the whole thing holds together.

I do not submit anything I’m not entirely thrilled with .

I know there’s still an editing process it will go through at the publisher, but my goal is to make my manuscript the absolute best I can before they see it.

Compartmentalize your writing vs. your revising and you’ll find that frees you to create much more quickly.

Step 6. Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.

Most who fail at writing a book tell me they give up somewhere in what I like to call The Marathon of the Middle.

That’s a particularly rough stretch for novelists who have a great concept, a stunning opener, and they can’t wait to get to the dramatic ending. But they bail when they realize they don’t have enough cool stuff to fill the middle.

They start padding, trying to add scenes just for the sake of bulk, but they’re soon bored and know readers will be too.

This actually happens to nonfiction writers too.

The solution there is in the outlining stage , being sure your middle points and chapters are every bit as valuable and magnetic as the first and last.

If you strategize the progression of your points or steps in a process—depending on nonfiction genre—you should be able to eliminate the strain in the middle chapters.

For novelists, know that every book becomes a challenge a few chapters in. The shine wears off, keeping the pace and tension gets harder, and it’s easy to run out of steam.

But that’s not the time to quit. Force yourself back to your structure, come up with a subplot if necessary, but do whatever you need to so your reader stays engaged.

Fiction writer or nonfiction author, The Marathon of the Middle is when you must remember why you started this journey in the first place.

It isn’t just that you want to be an author. You have something to say. You want to reach the masses with your message.

Yes, it’s hard. It still is for me—every time. But don’t panic or do anything rash, like surrendering. Embrace the challenge of the middle as part of the process. If it were easy, anyone could do it.

Step 7. Write a resounding ending.

This is just as important for your nonfiction book as your novel. It may not be as dramatic or emotional, but it could be—especially if you’re writing a memoir.

But even a how-to or self-help book needs to close with a resounding thud, the way a Broadway theater curtain meets the floor .

How do you ensure your ending doesn’t fizzle ?

• Don’t rush it . Give readers the payoff they’ve been promised. They’ve invested in you and your book the whole way. Take the time to make it satisfying.
• Never settle for close enough just because you’re eager to be finished. Wait till you’re thrilled with every word, and keep revising until you are.
• If it’s unpredictable, it had better be fair and logical so your reader doesn’t feel cheated. You want him to be delighted with the surprise, not tricked.
• If you have multiple ideas for how your book should end, go for the heart rather than the head, even in nonfiction. Readers most remember what moves them.
• Part Four: Rewriting Your Book

Step 1. Become a ferocious self-editor.

Agents and editors can tell within the first two pages whether your manuscript is worthy of consideration. That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s also reality, so we writers need to face it.

How can they often decide that quickly on something you’ve devoted months, maybe years, to?

Because they can almost immediately envision how much editing would be required to make those first couple of pages publishable. If they decide the investment wouldn’t make economic sense for a 300-400-page manuscript, end of story.

Your best bet to keep an agent or editor reading your manuscript?

You must become a ferocious self-editor. That means:

• Omit needless words
• Choose the simple word over one that requires a dictionary
• Avoid subtle redundancies , like “He thought in his mind…” (Where else would someone think?)
• Avoid hedging verbs like almost frowned, sort of jumped, etc.
• Generally remove the word that —use it only when absolutely necessary for clarity
• Give the reader credit and resist the urge to explain , as in, “She walked through the open door.” (Did we need to be told it was open?)
• Avoid too much stage direction (what every character is doing with every limb and digit)
• Avoid excessive adjectives
• Show, don’t tell
• And many more

For my full list and how to use them, click here . (It’s free.)

When do you know you’re finished revising? When you’ve gone from making your writing better to merely making it different. That’s not always easy to determine, but it’s what makes you an author. 

Step 2. Find a mentor.

Get help from someone who’s been where you want to be.

Imagine engaging a mentor who can help you sidestep all the amateur pitfalls and shave years of painful trial-and-error off your learning curve.

Just make sure it’s someone who really knows the writing and publishing world. Many masquerade as mentors and coaches but have never really succeeded themselves.

Look for someone widely-published who knows how to work with agents, editors, and publishers .

There are many helpful mentors online . I teach writers through this free site, as well as in my members-only Writers Guild .

Step 1. Decide on your publishing avenue.

In simple terms, you have two options when it comes to publishing your book:

1. Traditional publishing

Traditional publishers take all the risks. They pay for everything from editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, binding, cover art and design, promotion, advertising, warehousing, shipping, billing, and paying author royalties.

2. Self-publishing

Everything is on you. You are the publisher, the financier, the decision-maker. Everything listed above falls to you. You decide who does it, you approve or reject it, and you pay for it. The term self-publishing is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what you’re paying for is not publishing, but printing. 

Both avenues are great options under certain circumstances. 

Not sure which direction you want to take? Click here to read my in-depth guide to publishing a book . It’ll show you the pros and cons of each, what each involves, and my ultimate recommendation.

Step 2: Properly format your manuscript.

Regardless whether you traditionally or self-publish your book, proper formatting is critical.

Because poor formatting makes you look like an amateur .

Readers and agents expect a certain format for book manuscripts, and if you don’t follow their guidelines, you set yourself up for failure.

Best practices when formatting your book:

• Use 12-point type
• Use a serif font; the most common is Times Roman
• Double space your manuscript
• No extra space between paragraphs
• Only one space between sentences
• Indent each paragraph half an inch (setting a tab, not using several spaces)
• Text should be flush left and ragged right, not justified
• If you choose to add a line between paragraphs to indicate a change of location or passage of time, center a typographical dingbat (like ***) on the line
• Black text on a white background only
• One-inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides (the default in Word)
• Create a header with the title followed by your last name and the page number. The header should appear on each page other than the title page.

If you need help implementing these formatting guidelines, click here to read my in-depth post on formatting your manuscript .

Step 3. Set up your author website and grow your platform.

All serious authors need a website. Period.

Because here’s the reality of publishing today…

You need an audience to succeed.

If you want to traditionally publish, agents and publishers will Google your name to see if you have a website and a following.

If you want to self-publish, you need a fan base.

And your author website serves as a hub for your writing, where agents, publishers, readers, and fans can learn about your work.

Don’t have an author website yet? Click here to read my tutorial on setting this up.

Step 4. Pursue a Literary Agent.

There remain a few traditional publishers (those who pay you and take the entire financial risk of publishing your book rather than the other way around) who accept unsolicited submissions, but I do NOT recommend going that route. 

Your submission will likely wind up in what is known in the business as the slush pile. That means some junior staff member will be assigned to get to it when convenient and determine whether to reject it out of hand (which includes the vast majority of the submissions they see) or suggest the publisher’s editorial board consider it.

While I am clearly on record urging you to exhaust all your efforts to traditionally publish before resorting to self-publishing (in other words, paying to be printed), as I say, I do not recommend submitting unsolicited material even to those publishers who say they accept such efforts.

Even I don’t try to navigate the publishing world by myself, despite having been an author, an editor, a publisher, and a writing coach over the last 50 years.

That’s why I have an agent and you need one too.

Many beginning writers naturally wonder why they should share any of their potential income with an agent (traditionally 15%). First, they don’t see any of that income unless you’re getting your 85% at the same time. And second, everyone I know in the business is happy to have someone in their corner, making an agent a real bargain.

I don’t want to have to personally represent myself and my work. I want to stay in my creative lane and let a professional negotiate every clause of the contract and win me the best advance and rights deal possible.

Once under contract, I work directly with the publishing house’s editor and proofreader, but I leave the financial business to my agent.

Ultimately, an agent’s job is to protect your rights and make you money. They profit only when you do.

That said, landing an agent can be as difficult and painstaking as landing a publisher. They know the market, they know the editors, they know what publishers want, and they can advise you how to put your best foot forward.

But how do you know who to trust? Credible, trustworthy agents welcome scrutiny. If you read a book in your genre that you like, check the Acknowledgments page for the agent’s name. If the author thinks enough of that person to mention them glowingly, that’s a great endorsement.

If you’re writing in the inspirational market, peruse agents listed in The Christian Writer’s Market Guide . If you’re writing for the general market, try The Writer’s Market . If you know any published authors, ask about their agents.

The guides that list agents also include what they’re looking for, what they specialize in, and sometimes even what they’re not interested in. Study these to determine potential agents who ply their trade in your genre. Visit their websites for their submission guidelines, and follow these to a T.

They may ask for a query letter, a synopsis, a proposal, or even sample chapters. Be sure not to send more or less than they suggest. 

The best, and most logical place to start is by sending them a query letter. Query simply means question, and in essence the question your letter asks is whether you may send them more.

Step 5: Writing Your Query Letter.

It’s time to move from author to salesperson.

Your query letter will determine whether a literary agent asks to see more, sends you a cordial form letter to let you down easy, or simply doesn’t respond.

Sadly, many agents stipulate on their websites that if you hear nothing after a certain number of weeks, you should take that as an indication that they’re not interested. Frankly, to me, this is frustrating to the writer and lazy on the part of the agent. Surely, in this technological age, it should be easy to hit one button and send a note to someone who might otherwise wonder if the query reached the agent at all.

But that’s the reality we deal with.

So, the job of your one-page single-spaced email letter is to win a response—best case scenario: an invitation to send more: a proposal or even the manuscript. 

Basically, you’re selling yourself and your work. Write a poor query letter and an agent will assume your book is also poorly written.

Without being gimmicky or cute, your letter must intrigue an agent. 

Your query letter should:

• Be addressed to a specific person (not to the staff of the agency or “To Whom It May Concern”)*
• Present your book idea simply
• Evidence your style
• Show you know who your readers are
• Clarify your qualifications
• Exhibit flexibility and professionalism

*If you see a list of agents in a firm, choose one from the middle or bottom of the list. It could be that they get less personal mail than the person whose name is on the door. Who knows? That you single them out may make them see your query in a more favorable light.

For some great advice on writing a query letter, check this out: https://janefriedman.com/query-letters/  

• You Have What It Takes to Write a Book

Writing a book is a herculean task, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

You can do this .

Take it one step at a time and vow to stay focused. And who knows, maybe by this time next year you’ll be holding a published copy of your book. :)

I’ve created an exclusive writing guide called How to Maximize Your Writing Time that will help you stay on track and finish writing your book.

Get your FREE copy by clicking the button below.

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How to Write a Book: The Ultimate Guide

We all have a great book idea burning inside of us.

In fact, most of us dream about learning how to write a book .

We imagine how writing a bestseller will change our lives. How it will advance our careers. How it will make us an authority on a topic we enjoy.

A 2021 poll conducted for National Novel Writing Month showed that 54% of people would love to write a book about their own life story. But, only 15% have been able to get started and still more struggle to finish.

The truth is many of us don’t actually make it to the writing phase.

The epic ideas, thoughts, and stories we wish to tell don’t come to fruition because of the inability to act on this dream.

This inability to act can manifest as  writer’s block , but could also be more deeply rooted in limiting beliefs having to do with readiness or imposter syndrome.

As a New York Times bestselling author with numerous published books, I understand how hard it can be to overcome to take that first step to  start writing .

Table of Contents

• Find Your Why: Reasons To Write Your Book

Set Up Your Writing Space

Dedicate the time to be a better writer, get to know your target audience, choose the right book topic, know how to make your book a bestseller, create a book outline to begin the writing process, dedicate extra time to working on your book title, learn how to fight writer’s block, create your first draft, edit your book, publish your book, write your next book, start writing your book today.

I also know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. When you know how to write a book and have the right tools and support to get through the book writing process, your dreams of writing your first book can come true.

Use the following book writing and publishing guide of the 12 most important steps you can take to plan, produce, and launch your own book.

Find Your Why: Reasons to Write Your Book

If you have a great idea of what to write about for a book, you should write it. It’s as simple as that.

Not only are you doing your future readers a disservice by not sharing your creation, but you are also holding yourself back from reaching your full potential.

You will stay motivated through the writing process as you remind yourself of the reason you are writing a book. What is your why?

Here are just four of my favorite reasons  why you should write your first book and how writing will change your life in ways you never even imagined:

• Writing a book provides a great opportunity to share something meaningful with you.
• Writing a book is a way to help others improve their lives.
• Writing a book is one of the best ways to gain lasting credibility.
• Writing a book helps you discover who you are and ignite your passions.

This sounds simple enough, right? So then the real question becomes, “why don’t more people start writing?”

This is a tough question to answer, but I believe much of it has to do with direction…or lack of it.

For most people, writing and publishing a book may seem like an insurmountable task. Figuring out  how to stay motivated when writing your book can be challenging, especially if you do not have the right processes and guides in place.

However, just like any other seemingly insurmountable task, the journey from start to finish is best handled one step at a time. Through regular, focused writing practice, you can begin to put pen to paper to compile your piece with a step-by-step process, one page at a time.

One of the most important steps to how to write a book begins before you put any words on paper. Take the time to set up a proper writing space so each writing session can be productive.

As you create a dedicated writing space, your goal is to minimize distractions and maximize inspiration.

If you have a spare room, turn it into your dedicated writing space. If you do not, find a space that is comfortable and as free of distractions as possible.

Some successful writers prefer writing in public spaces like coffee shops, libraries, or parks. The white noise of coffee shops can keep your mind focused on your writing. Writing your book in a library can prevent you from the distractions of your cell phone or being at home. An outdoor area not only gives you healthy natural sunlight but being among nature can also be inspiring.

The best writing location for you is a personal choice, and it does not always have to be the same place if you find you need a break from your normal writing environment.

If you are setting up your dedicated writing space at home, add a desk and supportive chair. A sit-stand desk and an ergonomic chair can counter the effects of sitting for long periods of time and invite you to your writing space.

Small touches like adding plants help you create an inspiring writing environment. Add your favorite artwork, photographs, or books, but keep it simple. You want each of your writing sessions to be productive and free of distractions.

Many successful writers prefer writing at a computer while others always start with pen and paper. You might begin writing in your notebook at a coffee shop and transfer your notes to your laptop. If you are more productive spending all of your writing time at a keyboard, do so.

Book writing software can help you streamline the writing process. It cuts down your writing time with helpful tools like spell checkers, auto-save, grammar tools, plagiarism checkers, and ways to organize your chapters.

Some book writing software has built-in productivity features that help you stay free of distractions. Others can help you publish your book. If you decide to use book writing software, choose one that is user-friendly and meets your needs.

The next step to how to write a book is to set aside time to develop your writing skills.

Writers come from all walks of life, and some of the most successful authors in the world often lived half their life with no real intention of ever writing a book.

Although there is no set formula for how to be a good writer, the difference between average writers and good writers comes down to the way they approach their craft. 

Being a good writer requires you to write often, read more, and polish your writing skills

Write Often

Great writing stems from consistency and regularity. If you can establish a daily writing routine with regular writing sessions, you will be well on your way to making significant strides toward finishing your book. 

The best way to get started is to find a structure that works for you. 

First, set the scene.

Set up your writing space where you will be able to do your best work, whether that is in your home office, a corner of the living room, your local coffee shop, a coworking space, or your back porch. 

Second, choose an ideal time to write. If you have the most unstructured time available to you in the early morning, perhaps that timeframe could be devoted to your craft.

On the flip side, if the idea of putting pen to paper before winding down for the evening seems more appealing, an evening writing schedule might be more suitable. 

And, last but not least, set a goal for how much actual writing you’d like to accomplish every day. 

It doesn’t have to be a lot. You might also aim to give yourself a target word count to hit, perhaps something between 250-500 words. 

Regardless of the structure, you create, make sure that it provides you with the most freedom and flexibility to succeed at writing more often.

The fuel for writing books comes largely from reading good books.

Whether you love horror or hate it, Stephen King is widely recognized as one of the most successful authors in the genre.

With almost 70 novels and hundreds of short stories under his belt, King has built a life on the foundation of sharing spooky stories that have captivated millions. 

In his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft , King describes his writing process and offers tips for aspiring novelists. One of the biggest pieces of often-overlooked wisdom he offers focuses on the importance of being an avid reader in order to be a sensational writer. 

On this topic, he says, “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

I honestly couldn’t have said it better myself.

But, if you don’t want to take King’s word for it, here are some other reasons why reading more makes you a better writer:

• It is a learning opportunity to study the works of other professional writers in the same field. 
• The more styles of writing you read, the more you’ll be able to recognize and borrow certain strategies and weave them into your own writing process.
• It can help you source ideas for different languages and vocabulary to use.
• It can help you fine-tune your own unique writing style and voice.

And as a final note, walking a mile in a reader’s shoes can also help you feel more connected with your audience.

If you invest your time in reading more of your genre, you will begin to understand firsthand what motivates readers to continue reading.

You’ll discover the answers to questions like:

• What answers are they searching for?
• What problems do they hope to resolve by the end of the book?
• How do specific sections of the story mirror pieces of their own life?
• What makes the information or the characters so relatable?

Take a Writing Class

While you certainly do not need a degree to be a professional writer, learning good writing skills and how to make best use of writing tools will help you tremendously to learn how to write a book.

Whether you are writing fiction or writing nonfiction–or even just starting out with a blog post or short article–learning the tools of the trade will boost your writing career.

And this is not just my opinion. Studies show that being a good writer depends on repeated practice.  

Many writing classes are available online for free, so it is easy to fit them into your schedule.

Taking the time to learn effective writing skills will not only help you strengthen your writing muscles, but you will also gain a community of other writers that can inspire you with fresh ideas.

To be a successful writer, choose a story to tell and learn how and who to tell it to.

First, you need to identify what story you will tell. A lot of great book ideas come from brainstorming what you are interested in. Make a list of things you enjoy doing, things you know how to do, topics you are an authority on or at least know a lot, and things people come to you for advice or help with.

Once you’ve decided on your topic, knowing how to write a book that will reach the people you want to read it depends on getting to know your target audience.

It is important to understand your audience in order to continue to successfully create new pieces of your work they can’t wait to get their hands on. 

This is perhaps the most important step in the process of how to write a book. Because when you write, the book is never about you. It’s about what you can share with the audience you wish to serve. 

To determine your target audience, it is first important to consider:

• Which genre you’d like to write for
• Which books within that genre you’d like to be compared to
• Who your ideal reader might be

Once you’ve determined your unique answers to these questions, you can begin sourcing information from people within your network.

There is a chance that your personal or professional network could be very closely aligned with the audience you wish to reach. You could even begin with this audience and expand or revise it as you continue to edit and change portions of your soon-to-be bestseller.

All in all, it is a writer’s job to get to know their audience. It takes work, but all of that work is what will make your book great.

My next how-to write a book guideline is to choose your topic wisely.

Once you have committed to being a better writer and have identified your target audience, now it’s time to choose an appropriate topic or a story for the audience you’ve selected.

It is critical that the topic be unique enough to set your book apart but general enough to appeal to a wider group of people that still fall within the same umbrella as your audience.

Take the idea of writing a book on social media marketing, for example. It’s general enough for your audience to understand, but you need to pitch it from a different perspective.

Perhaps your book could be focused on a specific theory on why you should only post to social media on Tuesdays. Now, this is a very unique train of thought, so if you choose this route, be sure that you can back up your ideas in grounded evidence as to why you believe this…but you get my point.

And most importantly, choosing the right book topic for your audience is meaningless unless you are passionate about the topic yourself.

Not only is it much easier and more natural to write a book about something you actively believe in, but it is also more entertaining for your reader because they’ll be able to feel your level of involvement and interest in the topic just by scanning a couple of sentences.

Simply put, your audience won’t believe what you’re saying unless you believe it first.

Along with choosing the right topic that you are passionate about and will keep your reader’s interest, knowing how to write a book also involves understanding key concepts that turn good books into bestsellers.

Network With Other Published Authors

Since fellow writers have been through the process of taking a book from ideation to creation numerous times, they are a wealth of knowledge and can offer you expert guidance and tips about any step in the writing process and publishing process.

Assuming they are a talented, successful writer, this is almost always a good thing and will put you on track to becoming a bestseller yourself.

Plus, reading and familiarizing yourself with the works of other bestselling authors that you look up to is one of the best ways to develop your writing skills.

By getting to know the works of authors in your own genre, you’ll develop a knack for understanding different successful writing formulas and be able to begin piecing together engaging stories that readers cannot wait to get their hands on.

On top of that, you’ll also begin to recognize stylistic patterns that specific authors use to define their work and stand out from the crowd. 

Best case scenario, you will pick up some of their  writing tips and tricks to use in your own works. Worst case scenario, you may be struck with some additional inspiration on how to approach and alter your own writing techniques and style choices.

Either way, you can’t lose.

The more people who know about your book, the greater chances it has of becoming a bestseller. The word will spread when readers find a good book, but there are also things you can do to bring attention to your book.

The best way to get the word out about the great work you have created – or are in the process of creating – is to network with other seasoned authors.

Determine What Bestseller List You Want To Be On

So, you want to be a bestseller. But do you know what kind of bestseller do you want to be?

For example, do you see yourself topping the digital charts on Amazon? What about clinching the top spot on the New York Times list? Or perhaps sitting pretty high up the book list that is put out by the Wall Street Journal?

There are so many bestseller lists that it is impossible to track how many there are. To make matters more confusing, each one also has different criteria for determining which books make the cut and which do not.

Some bestseller lists measure the number of sales of a certain book over a specific period of time, while others are curated by a certain group of people responsible for choosing which titles should make their list. 

In any case, if you are trying to be recognized as a bestseller, you should come into the process of book writing with an idea of which list you’d like to be on. From there, you can perform research to better understand the qualifications you will need to meet to be considered for a ranking.

Other Bestseller Considerations

While the above considerations should be the main priority when thinking about ways to make any bestseller list when writing a book, you’ll also want to keep a few other things in the back of your mind while creating. 

One of those things is the quality of your writing. To make a book a bestseller, it is essential that your writing is both clear and captivating so your readers do not lose interest. While the story you tell is certainly important, so is the way you tell it.

Your prose doesn’t necessarily have to sing like Shakespeare’s, but it does need to be polished enough that people thoroughly enjoy reading what you write.

You’ll also want to take a look at your marketing strategy. Is there anything you could change in order to get more eyes on your work?

Consider what places your audience usually shops for books of this nature, if your potential buyers are on social media or if they prefer to see most of their ads via billboards, fliers, or in a newspaper.

A successful journey starts with a good road map. A bestselling book begins with turning a good book idea into an outline you can follow before the actual writing begins.

Finding a way to organize all of your thoughts at the front end of writing a book will guarantee your success later. This sounds like a tedious step, but trust me, knowing how to write a book outline can make or break the direction you take your piece or how much time it will take you to complete.

A  book outline is essentially a map that guides authors to the end of their book-writing journey as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. A good outline should help set the stage, organize the scenes, and clarify how the entire story or message comes together.  It also will eventually  form the table of contents for your book.

How much planning you end up doing is largely up to you. Some authors prefer to have a detailed outline that is well fleshed out from start to finish while others create a basic outline, preferring instead to let the book unfold as they write it but having the foundational structure in place.

Regardless of the outline you choose to create, once you build your outline piece by piece, you will then be ready to write your book page by page, and, eventually, you’ll progress from one sentence to your first drafts to a finished product ready for publication.

How to write a book outline is slightly different when your write fiction versus writing a nonfiction book. Here are some guidelines to follow:

Writing fiction

When you write a book on a fictional topic, your outline helps you plan out your characters, scenes, setting, plot, climax, and more. You can approach writing your novel outline in many different ways, but whichever approach you choose, include these essential elements:

• Craft your premise by writing a one-paragraph summary of what the novel will be about.
• Decide on the setting of your book and do your research so your writing will be accurate.
• Determine who your characters are and write detailed profiles about what they look like, who they are, what they are interested in, and what their personality traits are.
• Lay out your plot by creating a timeline of events that includes the beginning, middle, and end of your story.
• Add pivotal scenes into your plot so you will know what needs to happen where. You might add these as you go along as well when the inspiration hits you, including dialogue and other details.

Writing non-fiction

Writing an outline for your non-fiction book involves identifying the purpose of your book and writing down the main ideas, principles, and concepts you want to convey. Nonfiction writers include these elements in their book outlines:

• Identify the main idea or purpose of your book. What problem are you trying to solve that the reader has or what do you want them to know or do?
• Create a structure for your book that will lead to the solution to the problem. You might need to set up background information first, for instance, or you might outline a step-by-step process. This structure will lend itself to forming chapters after you start writing, or you can include your chapters in your outline.
• Revise as needed.

The purpose of your outline is not to write an entire manuscript but to create a structure you can follow to get from your big idea to an entire first draft, all while heading in the right direction that will keep your reader’s attention.

When you pour your heart and soul into writing a book, you want people to read it. Often the first impression readers get of your book is its title. You want to craft a title that will encourage someone to open the cover and read the entire book.

Assume 80% of people will read your title, while only 20% will end up reading your book. That means you should spend extra time working on an emotional and impactful title.

You might have a great title for your book long before your write your rough draft, or you might until you finish writing or are even in the editing process.

Regardless, aim for a title that grabs attention, is easy to say, gives an idea of what the book is about, and is memorable.

Make a list of 20 or so book ideas. If you are writing a book that is fictional, think of the names of your characters, places, memorable phrases, and plot twists in your book for inspiration.

For your nonfiction book title, think of your target audience’s pain points and how you are solving them. Unlike fictional book titles that can be more inventive and imaginative, the title for your non-fiction book should give the reader a clear idea of what the book is about.

While it is usually not against copyright laws for your book to have the same title as another book, you want to avoid this for confusion, especially with popular titles. You can do this with a deep search on the internet. Book titles can be trademarked, however, such as Chicken Soup for the Soul and the Dummies series.

Check the database of the US Patent and Trademark Office online to ensure your book title has not already been trademarked.  

Consider adding a subtitle as well. This can help your title stand out by allowing for a short title, but clarifying with a longer subtitle.

Nearly anyone who tries to write a book knows that writer’s block can hit and put up a roadblock to your progress.

Writer’s block can sometimes come from self-doubt. You might stop writing because you fear no one will want to read your story. That is simply not true. Write it anyway, you have something important to say and there are people who need to hear it.

You might also get writer’s block from not hitting your daily word count goal or being overwhelmed with how many words need to be written to complete your first draft.

Don’t allow discouragement to keep you from doing a great thing. Everything worth doing takes time and effort. Renew your motivation by taking a break, reading motivational quotes, or talking to a trusted, inspirational friend or family member.

You might also lose interest in your book idea. If this happens, whether after just writing the first few pages or deep into your book, you may need to revise your approach.

First, be sure what you are writing about is interesting to you. If not, it will be very difficult to  stay motivated when writing a book . Second, determine if there are parts of your outline that should be omitted. If you are bored writing it, chances are your readers will be too.

Head over to my blog post for more tips on  overcoming writer’s block .

Use your outline to craft your first draft. Don’t worry about how perfect it is or if you are including everything you need.

As you get into the writing habit, you will find you are inspired with ideas you may want to insert into an earlier or later part of your story. That is what a first draft is for, to allow your book to be a living, thinking, changing document.

Use your personal writing voice for your book. Do not try to write like other authors, although you can learn from their good writing habits as well. But make sure your first draft captures who you are and what you want to convey. Chances are this will not be your only book. You will want your voice to emanate from and be recognizable to your readership.

When you feel you have written the particular story you want to convey in your first draft, you will then focus on editing and revising.

When I write a book, I write quickly and leave the editing process for later. This strategy has helped turn my book ideas into over 70 books.

My motto is to write feverishly and edit meticulously.

When you get into your writing routine and first start writing a new page or a new chapter, it should come as an uninterrupted flow of conscience.

Don’t worry about how good it sounds or how many mistakes there are – simply write. Write feverishly until that page or chapter or whatever section you are working on is done. This is also a good way to combat  writer’s block .

Later, you can go back and carefully edit your work, pruning away unnecessary content, polishing your writing, and weeding out mistakes. In the beginning, though, it’s getting your thoughts onto paper into a rough draft that is the most important.

Self-editing, hiring an editor, or combining both processes are options to you.

It’s always best to review your work yourself first, to ensure you have addressed all of the ideas you want. If you continue solely with self-editing, use one or more of the many writing tools available to you. These will help you catch spelling, grammar, and technical errors, and some can give you advice on voice and tone.

You can also hire a professional editor to make sure your entire book is polished from cover to cover. This is especially helpful when you are self-publishing.

Learning how to write a book will turn your big idea into a bestseller. Once you finish writing, it is time to get it in front of your readers.

In the past, publishing a book meant convincing publishing companies to look at your work and like it enough to publish it under their name.

Of course, this is much easier said than done, and even the world’s most successful authors, such as J.K. Rowling, Dr. Seuss, and Luisa May Alcott had to deal with countless rejections and years of waiting before they were able to finally publish their book.

In many ways, though, this process is a thing of the past. Today you can self-publish, work with a publishing company, or use a publishing service like Amazon.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is the practice of publishing a book without the help of a traditional publishing company. Choosing this option might sound challenging, but in fact, there are a variety of convenient options that make publishing a book quick and easy.

You can pay for and arrange all aspects of the publishing process on your own, or work with a company that handles some of these tasks for you. Just note that if you work with a non-traditional self-publishing company, you may need to pay for specific services or turn over some rights to your book.

Self-publishing is often the more affordable option for those who are focused on the financial aspect of bringing a book into the world. 

The process of  self-publishing a book is actually quite simple, and, if you take the time to do it right, the results can be just as effective and spectacular as any book published by one of the major publishing companies.

Publishing Companies

A publishing company is an entity that is responsible for handling the printing, distribution, and storage of an author’s book. 

Within the publishing company, there is typically a publisher who is tasked with finding books that are likely to sell well. They act as the direct line of communication between the author and the publishing company and are responsible for creating contracts with authors they would like to sign.

Once a publisher has signed a contract with an author, the publisher will move forward with the process of printing the book and preparing it for sale.

There are two specific kinds of  publishing companies that an author could consider – traditional book publishing companies and self-publishing book companies. Each operates in a different way and offers aspiring authors their own unique set of processes, services, and contracts for the work they are seeking to publish.

Traditional Book Publishing Companies

Traditional book publishing companies have been around for years. They used to be the sole gatekeepers that one would need to impress in order to get a book published. The process involved pitching your creative work to a company or publisher who would then make a final decision on whether or not to take a chance on your book.

Oftentimes, this process was long and tedious, and the author might have to pitch to multiple companies in order to get their book in front of their audience.

Though times have changed, and some of these companies have adapted well to the digital age, their essential roles remain the same.

Some of today’s most well-known traditional book publishing companies include Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster.

Self-Publishing Companies

Self-publishing companies are less established and take a different approach to the publishing process than traditional publishing companies.

Their primary role is to assist authors with the process of publishing books independently. These companies help with printing or digital preparation, as well as the distribution of works.

Some of the best self-publishing companies include Kindle Direct Publishing, Kobo, and Xlibris. However, a number of other options are also available.

How to Publish a Book on Amazon

The  benefits of Amazon’s book publishing platform have appealed to many authors in recent years. 

Amazon’s self-publishing has made it incredibly easy for anyone to market their book on the largest book-selling platform in the world. Through the variety of services that Amazon offers, you can publish your fiction or nonfiction book in digital, print, and even audio format.

Really, the only parts of the process that Amazon doesn’t have a hand in are your book cover design and formatting, although it does have a built-in cover creator.

A few standout perks that set Amazon’s publishing platform apart from the competitors are:

• The ability to easily reach millions of readers
• A free way to publish e-books and paperbacks
• A quick and efficient way to publish books in only a few days
• Self-publish vs. contract with a traditional publishing company

Now that you’ve written and published your first book, why not do it again?

Learning how to write a book makes writing the next book even easier.

Note what worked well in your first draft and throughout the whole process and what needs improvement.

Once you start getting book reviews, it is also very helpful to read these. While some reviewers will not give constructive criticism, the majority of readers will give honest and helpful reviews.

Use their words to analyze what your target audience is looking for. If them mention something they wish your book had, see if you can provide that in your next book. Try also to incorporate the positive things they raved about your first book. It is all about finding needs and meeting them.

My final piece of advice for your book-writing journey is to tell you to go for it!

The main difference between those who are published authors and those who are not is that published authors actually followed through with their dreams, taking it one sentence at a time using a proven book writing strategy.

If you can do that, you’re on the verge of seeing your name on the front of a bestselling book. For step-by-step guidance on how to bring your bestselling book to life, check out my  Book Writing Template .

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About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

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The top 21 YouTube channels for writers of fiction

What are the most popular YouTube Channels for writers? It’s paradoxical to think that advice about writing can best be consumed, not by reading, but by watching. 

But it turns out that one of the easiest ways to understand all the different concepts that come together to make a great novel is to watch videos of people who actually know what’s up, explaining the craft. And some of those who do it well, are getting millions of views for their efforts.

A few months ago, we started working on a project to share the best YouTube channels for writers. This took us deep into Authortube ; the part of YouTube that consists of authors, editors and other book industry experts giving advice on how to write better, build author platforms, get published, and market your book successfully.

That project, New Writers TV, is not yet launched, but you can take a sneak preview here. Working on it opened our eyes to the galaxy of opinions, advice, and disses that make up Authortube. 

Some AuthorTube A-ha! Moments

We realized that if a writer wanted to learn how to write better just using YouTube, they could do amazing things. There is a lot of good advice out there. We also realized that it’s hard to find diverse authortubers and this is definitely an area of growth for the writing industry. 

Another thing we found is that there are some fantastic writing teachers out there who have great material on their blogs and in their newsletters, but somehow don’t manage to get the same traction on YouTube. An example is the amazing Jane Friedman, who is one of the leading publishing industry experts in the United States and has some of the most insightful insider advice about the industry. Yet, her YouTube channel does not perform nearly as well as any of the channels listed here. We are of course rooting for Jane and hope this changes.

We would also really love to find authortubers from other countries talking about writing and publishing there. We know they are out there; we’ve found a few and are still on the hunt. If you are one of those people or know any, we’d love to hear about it. What we think would be really insightful is to compare notes across borders and see what we can learn from each other.

Here it is, our list of the most popular and most useful YouTube channels for writers of fiction…

Terrible Writing Advice 

By J.P. Beaubien (413K Subscribers) Visit Terrible Writing Advice

Sometimes the best way to learn is to be told the wrong thing and to know you are being told the wrong thing. Beaubien gives awful writing advice laced with lots of sarcasm. Mostly these videos are just an excuse for him to complain about tropes he doesn’t like and cliches he keeps seeing in certain genres – which is great if you’re a new writer thinking you have original ideas. They are probably not. Beaubien will quickly disabuse you of those notions His bad advice is so good, it had made this the most entertaining YouTube channel for writers.

Most viewed videos on the channel

• Mary Sue (2.1M views) 
• Chosen Ones (1.5M views) 
• Fantasy Races (1.5M views )

Brandon Sanderson

By Brandon Sanderson (395K Subscribers) Visit Brandon’s channel

Brandon Sanderson is one of those authortubers who did not set out to be an authortuber in the commonly understood sense of the term. He is an author of fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers and a university lecturer. He started posting videos of his lectures and they were so popular, that he became a YouTube star. Even he didn’t understand just how big of a literary influencer he was until maybe earlier this year when he set up a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise US$1Million in 30 days for a project he called ‘Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson.’ It took 35 minutes to smash that target. By the time the campaign ended, Sanderson had raised almost $42Million ($41,754,153 to be exact), setting a new Kickstarter record for project funding.

• It’s Time to Come Clean (1.5M views)
• Lecture #1: Introduction — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (1.3M views)
• Lecture #2: Plot Part 1 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (1M views)

Merphy Napier

By Merphy Napier (371K Subscribers) Visit Merphy’s channel  

Merphy, author of Perfection and Elf Mastery , made her name as a booktuber. We added her hear because her ‘Dear Authors’ series has great recommendations and insights for writers. So while this is not primarily a YouTube channel for writers, once you use that as a landing pad, all her other videos are also really useful for authors as they teach you what readers really think about different aspects of writing – and all the things they wish authors didn’t do.

• Beginner to Advanced Fantasy Books Sorted (All our favorites!) ft Daniel Greene (1M views)
• Plotholes in Harry Potter! (825K views)
• Top 10 Books You Should Read In Your Lifetime (619K views)

Writing with Jenna Moreci

By Jenna Moreci (271K Subscribers) Visit Writing with Jenna Moreci

Jenna Moreci is a #1 bestselling author of dark fantasy and takes time to share some of the advice that has made her so successful through her popular YouTube channel. The Savior’s Champion , her first novel in The Savior’s Series , was voted one of the Best Books of All Time by Book Depository. Her direct, no holds barred approach to giving advice riles up some viewers making her comments section just as fun as her videos.

• 10 Worst Female Character Peeves (792K views)
• Top 10 Pets Pevees in Fictional Romances (573K views)
• 10 Worst Male Character Pet Peeves (556K Views)

Abbie Emmons

By Abbie Emmons (232K Subscribers) Visit Abbie’s Channel

Abbie’s spiel is “I teach writers how to make their stories matter by harnessing the power and psychology of storytelling, transforming their ideas into a masterpiece, and creating a lifestyle that makes their author dreams come true.” Abbie shows a deep understanding of the mechanics of story and the chemistry of character. She also talks about her own journey; how she plans, how she sets goals, and the tools she uses for her writing. Check out her website here .

• Your Hero Is Falling In Love With A Villain (Dark Romance) (1.9M Views)
• How to Write a Strong Female Character… (Who Isn’t Toxic and Annoying) (1.9M Views)
• Why Everyone Loves Mr. Darcy (1.1M Views) 

Alexa Donne

By Alexa Donne (141K Subscribers) Visit Alexa’s Channel

Alexa Donne is the author of Brightly Burning and The Stars We Steal , YA sci-fi romance retellings of classics set in space. On her channel, she shares advice on the writing craft, the publishing industry, and writing for a YA audience. She also features interviews with other authors.

• Harsh Writing Advice (998K views)
• The Worst Amateur Writing Mistakes (468K views)
• Bad Fanfic Writing you need to break (360K views)

Ellen Brock

By Ellen Brock (121K Subscribers) Visit Ellen’s Channel

Ellen is a writing coach and editor who helps authors finish their novels and get them publishing-ready. She started editing full-time in 2011 and for about twenty years has worked with over 100 writers each year as an editor, writing coach, and plot consultant. She’s an expert in plotting novels, outlining, and creating great characters. She can also help writers who feel lost find their voice. Her channel is an extension of the work that she does with writers. She uses it to help a wider audience of authors with their questions about writing a great novel.

• 25 Mistakes that peg you as an amateur writer (940K views)
• The Top 5 Mistakes Amateur Writers Make (361K views)
• How to plot your Novel fast (272K views)

By Meg LaTorre (97.3K Subscribers)  Visit iWriterly

Meg LaTorre writes steamy science fiction and fantasy . She has worked as a Literary Agent, in magazine publishing, medical/technical writing, and journalism. iWriterly is a writing and book publishing resource for genre fiction with videos about writing and editing novels, traditional and self-publishing, with a focus on romance, fantasy, and science fiction.

• 10 Overdone Fantasy Tropes (23K views)
• Why Literary Agents and Editors Reject a Book After the first Page: 7 Red Flags   (22K views)
• Common New Writer Mistakes (10K views)

Kindlepreneur

By Dave Chesson (73.2K Subscribers) Visit Kindlepreneur

Dave teaches writers and publishing companies how to sell more books. That’s his biggest strength, understanding how to move books to readers. His company even designs software  (affiliate link) to help players in the industry keep track of book sales and optimize their own books to sell better on Amazon. He also teaches various skills to help writers publish great books.

• Masterclass Review – Is It Worth the Money? (605K views)
• Grammarly Review: Is it worth it, and what you NEED to know! (424K views) 
• How to Write a Children’s Book: 8 EASY STEPS! (205K views)

Bonus Video

How to Start a Publishing Company (136K views) 

Heart Breathings

By Sarra Cannon (54.3K Subscribers) Visit Heart Breathings

If you’ve been looking to publish your books, but you’ve been feeling overwhelmed or just can’t figure out where to focus your time and energy, this YouTube channel for writers has the advice and tools for you. Sarra has been self-publishing her fiction for over ten years, and she promises that “if you focus on the right things and block out the rest of the noise, you can create a writing career you love.” But blocking out the noise- that is the big challenge…

• My 2019 Planner Line Up (200K views)
• How I sold Half a Million books self-publishing (163K views)
• How to organize my Washi Tape (128K views)

Writing Revolt by Jorden Makelle

by Jorden Makelle (50.4K Subscribers) Visit Writing Revolt by Jorden Makelle

In an industry where few people focus on the money (or acknowledge any focus on the money), Jorden brings it home with a solid look on how to bring the dollars home. She has a ton of tips on her website and YouTube channel on how to make sure you put food on the table with your writing. We absolutely love her for this. She covers topics such as freelance writing, creative writing, entrepreneurship,  books and reading, creativity, and that all-important area, self-development.

• 7 Freelance writing Jobs online for beginners ($100+!) (300K views)
• Freelance writing: How to get started Fast (203K views)
• Make Money Blogging  (170K views)

The Creative Penn

By Joanna Penn (47.6K Subscribers) Visit The Creative Penn

Joanna Penn has to be the queen of teaching creative writing as a business . She writes prolifically about the business of writing, marketing, and building author platforms. Through her YouTube channel and her website , she shares inspiration about writing fiction and non-fiction, self-publishing, book marketing, and making a living with your writing. 

• How  to use Grammarly to improve your writing (133K views)
• Writing fiction – Improve your dialogue with James Scott Bell (70K views)
• Writing tips for fiction and nonfiction with Scrivener (70K views)

Kate Cavanaugh Writes

By Kate Cavanaugh (45.1K Subscribers) Visit Kate Cavanaugh Writes

Kate describes herself as “a freelance writer, Youtuber, bubble tea enthusiast, San Antonio Spurs superfan, aspiring hybrid author, Disney World fanatic, and all-around dabbler.” Her videos include daily NaNoWriMo vlogs, writing experiments, and her famous ‘I tried writing like…’  videos.

• I tried writing like Stephen King for a day (302K views)
• I tried writing like Neil Gaiman for a day (117K views)
• I tried writing like Nora Roberts for a day (116K views)

Author Level Up

By Michael La Ronn (40.2K Subscribers) Visit Author Level Up

After a near-death experience in 2021, Michael La Ronn decided he wasn’t going to waste any more time and was going to take up his writing passion seriously. He writes science fiction & fantasy. He is prolific and has written over 70 books and counting while working a full-time job, raising a family, and attending law school classes in the evenings.

• Learn Scrivener in 20 Minutes (228K views)
• How to Outline a Novel in 10 Different Ways (115K views)
• Grammarly vs ProWritingAid APP BATTLE!🎤😆🏆 (83K views)

By Chris Fox (39.9K Subscribers) Visit Chris’ Channel

Chris is the best-selling author of 5,000 Words Per Hour , Write to Market , and numerous science fiction, fantasy, and thriller novels. He regularly releases videos for authors discussing marketing, craft, and the business of publishing.

• How to Make Names That Don’t Suck (312K Views)
• How Does Your Magic System Work? (103K Views)
• How to Plot Your Novel Using Dan Harmon’s Story Circle (102K Views)

Bethany Atazadeh

By Bethany Atazadeh (34.2K Subscribers) Visit Bethany’s Channel

Some of our favorite Bethany Atazadeh videos go deep into the world of self-publishing and how to make money as a writer. She is best known for her young adult fantasy novels, The Stolen Kingdom Series , which won the Best YA Author 2020 Minnesota Author Project award. She says she is obsessed with stories, chocolate, and her corgi puppy, Penny. She is also a writing coach dedicated to helping other authors publish great novels.

• How to Upload Your Book To KDP (106K Views)
• How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish?  (80K Views)
• How to Write Your Story Idea for Your Children’s Book (70K Views)

Natalia Leigh

By Natalia Leigh (26.8K Subscribers) Visit Natalia’s Channel

Natalia Leigh is a full-time author, editor, and content creator . She’s the founder of Enchanted Ink Publishing . Her videos include tips on becoming more productive as a writer, building an author platform, and she also takes us behind the scenes and talks about what she’s doing as an editor and a writer.

• How to format a book in Word (217K views)
• How much does it cost to self-publish a book  (53K views)
• Writing Romance (38K views)

By Mandi Lynn (20.4K Subscribers) Visit Mandi’s Channel

Mandi Lynn’s channel recently hit 20,000 subscribers and she live-streamed a video of her celebration. She filmed it in her basement where she packs books for shipping. That statement alone should tell you all you need to know about how hands-on Mandi is in the book business. Her videos include a lot of advice from her own process as a writer. She talks about the business of being an author, making an income as a creative entrepreneur, and the various tools writers can use. Mandi published her first novel when she was seventeen. Her books include Essence , I am Mercy and She’s Not Here .

• How to make a book trailer (142K views)
• How to write a children’s book in 8 basic steps (73K views)
• How to format a Novel in Microsoft word – Self-publishing (44K views)

Author Brittany Wang

By Brittany Wang (12.4K Subscribers) Visit Author Brittany Wang

Brittany is a YA Fantasy author, web developer, and the founder of Author Website Boot Camp , a self-study course where writers learn how to build their own author websites. Her books include the On Wings Of Ash and Dust series. Her recent videos include one on building an author presence on TikTok, another one on how to create an audiobook, and one on plotting her second book. 

• How To Listen To Your Novel with the Kindle App (126K views)
• How I Became a Full-Time Writer in ONE YEAR! (47K Views)
• Free Online Novel Writing Course (43K views)

The Courtney Project

By Courtney Young (9.68K Subscribers) Visit The Courtney Project

Courtney writes and self-publishes romance novels prolifically under the pen name Lyra Parish . She is also one half of the USA Today bestselling writing duo (with co-author Brooke Cumberland. Brooke) that publishes books under the name Kennedy Fox . In 2020, she left her full-time corporate job to become a full-time author after having self-published her first book in 2014. In her own words, “I started this channel to help give real advice based on my own experience self-publishing. When I was new, I wish I had someone who had ‘been there and done that’ who was sharing legitimate information.”

• 5 Tips on how to choose a pen name (14K views)
• LLCs for Authors (9K views)
• Tips for Wr i ting Romance Novels that Sell! (9K Views)

David Gaughran

By David Gaughran (6.86K Subscribers) Visit David’s Channel

David is a staunch advocate for indie publishing. He is one of the few YouTubers whose sole focus is helping writers sell books: Now that you’ve published your book, how do you push those numbers up? How do you get your book flying off the bookshelf? Talk to Dave—or rather, listen to Dave. You can also read Dave. He has great insights for writers on his blog . Or you can try one of his useful books on self-publishing and book marketing.

• BookBub Ads Tutorial: how to reach up to TEN MILLION readers (11.3K Views)
• How To Market A Book – a guide for authors (10.8K views)
• Book promotion which works: Promo Stacking and building your marketing plan (7.1K views)

Research by Stuart Moyo & Fungai Tichawangana

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20 Best YouTube Channels for Writers

Great writers are great learners. And where do we all go to learn something new – be it fly fishing, microwave maintenance, or DIY truck bed hot tubs (Just me?)? YouTube! It’s not all car parts and kittens, though. There’s plenty of secrets to glean about writing, publishing, building a readership, and marketing your books. That’s why in this post, I’m going to share with you my favorite list of the 20 Best YouTube Channels for Writers.

This isn’t your English professor’s boring list, and it’s not the rehashed list of another blogger. This is a curated list of the very best YouTube writing channels.

How do I know?

• They are uber popular among writers .
• They give awesome advice that actually helps.
• I actually subscribe to each one and watch their videos.
• Most of them use a tool like this to make their channel successful.

If you want to be a great writer, you must constantly push yourself to grow, dig deeper and explore new territory. You keep honing your craft and gobbling up information to help you write better, publish faster and delight readers with your stories and content.

If you think about it, YouTube is the perfect platform to ramp up your writing skills. YouTube channels are great because they are visual, simple to follow and you can easily embed them in your schedule as you do chores, exercise or give your fingers a break from rocking your daily word count. (That DIY truck bed hot tub can help with that, too 😉)

So, let’s get to it. Here are 20 YouTube channels you can subscribe to which will inspire, educate, and empower you. These channels are in no particular order. I love them all. Enjoy!

Let’s dive in!

1. Writing with Jenna Moreci

Table of Contents

If you can’t tell from the thumbnails on her channel page , Jenna Moreci’s writing channel is incredibly fun. She covers a variety of topics for everyone’s interest ( I see you “Editing Sucks” video thumbnail). The best thing about her channel is the bounty of writing tips on character building, perspective setting, and developing the plot.

Her life hacks to master an author lifestyle are another great reason you should check out her channel. For example, her 10 Toxic Mindsets to Drop as a Writer is a great motivational and educational resource for beginner writers.

Our pick from her highly valuable videos is 10 Tips for Writing The First Chapter of Your Book .

2. Alexa Donne

When you are searching for any resource from conceptualizing your book to planning it to actually writing and publishing it, Alexa’s channel makes a great choice. And look at those gorgeous thumbnails ! (yeah, I’m a bit of a graphic design nerd).

If you are an aspiring writer, you will love her videos on the author’s mindset, lifestyle, and the tough love of her harsh (but oh so true) writing advice. For writers looking for practical insights into the writing process, her brainstorming, niche-based, event-specific, or style-based tips come in handy.

You can find one of her pep-talks (yeah, I would call it a pep-talk) about talent and hard work to drive you toward success as a writer.

Check out her more specific writing hack at Writing Consistent Characters .

Read my post on How Many Characters Should A Book Have?

3. The Creative Penn

Another comprehensive resource, The Creative Pen, is Joanna Pen’s take on writing as a business. In her podcast-based videos, she details specific processes that writers tackle on a day-to-day basis. Other than publishing-how-to writing tips, she also shares some lifestyle hacks. One such video is How To Effectively Work From Home With Amanda Brown, The Homepreneur .

Our pick from some cool writing nuggets is Writing Tips: How To Write Monsters With Philip Athans .

4. Jerry B Jenkins

Jerry B. Jenkins has kept it targeted and simple. You won’t see much drift from videos on the writing process and his own life. The writer behind this channel, Jerry B. Jenkins, is a mega-bestselling author (Left Behind series) with contributions to almost 220 books. We can safely guarantee he knows what sells and what doesn’t – and well-crafted manuscripts is high on the “what-sells” list.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block Once and For All is one of many videos on the channel which simplifies writers’ lives.

While How to Write a Short Story in 6 Steps gives practical insights into the nuts-and-bolts, sit-your-butt-down-and-type writing process.

Also, check out my post on How to Overcome Writer’s Block (Ultimate No Fail System)

5. Ellen Brock

If you really want to take matters into your hands, start looking at your manuscript from the eyes of an editor. If you agree with me, Ellen Brock’s channel is your new favorite go-to YouTube channel.

She gives you insider information on how you can write better characters, scenes, openings, and endings. Her help doesn’t end with the writing process. You will also find a video or two about publishing.

If you struggle with “killing your darlings,” especially your beloved character creations, she has a video for you. Here it is: What To Do When You’re Too Attached to a Character | Novel Writing Advice .

This writing specific advice should be included in every writer’s playlist: How to Write a Believable World (Four Common Problems) .

6. Diane Callahan – Quotidian Writer

Here’s another channel that focuses entirely on polishing your writing. This channel from Diane Callahan takes writing from a developmental editor’s perspective.

Got an inconsistency in the plot? Want to make your characters more memorable? Brainstorming the first line of your novel? Diane has covered everything about developing your masterpiece. Sometimes combined with examples from popular non-fiction work, her tips help writers in dashing off their first draft.

How to Motivate Yourself to Write Every Day is the perfect video if you are struggling to write or if you are in the habit-building stage of writing.

Our favorite pick from her videos is All About Writing in Third Person . This video details the tricky element of selecting and effectively executing point of view in your novels.

7. iWriterly

Meg LaTorre uses her channel, iWriterly, to empower authors on every aspect of being a writer. This multidimensional channel includes tips on self-publishing, first page critiques, pitching, and a little bit about writing.

More focused on traditional versus self-publishing, you will find only a couple of videos on the writer lifestyle. Here is one of them: Coping with Anxiety as a Writer .

Literary Agents Share the Top Reasons Why Manuscripts Are Rejected in the Query Box makes a great video detailing how not to write a novel.

8. Vivien Reis

If you are a parent and you want to sneak your writing hobby into your busy schedule, you should get the right inspiration and tools from Vivien Reis.

Don’t assume that it’s a time management blog for parents because it isn’t. Instead, it’s a uniquely versatile blog detailing the everyday routine and struggles of an author. You also get a few doses of writing advice in between these daily mindset and lifestyle developments.

Interested in building a writing habit? Check out How to Write with a Full-time Job/Life!

Want to write better fighting scenes? Take Vivien’s advice: 8 Tips to Writing Better Fight Scenes!

9. Bookishpixie

The first impression you get from Bookishpixie is that the channel managed by a smart and friendly science fiction writer. The brain behind this channel, Ava Jae, is a young adult writer and editor. So, if you want to look at your craft from the perspective of both a writer and an editor, Bookishpixie is a must-watch channel.

Get tips on writing your manuscript, getting it edited, pitching, and living your author’s life from a writer who has done it all.

Here is her well-received take on life as a writer: Writing When You Don’t Want To .

And here is our favorite video of hers on practical writing advice: How to Write Third Person When You’re Used to First .

10. ShaelinWrites

If you are looking for personal inspiration and in-depth knowledge about writing craft, follow Shaelin Bishop at her YouTube channel, ShaelinWrites . If you want more of her authentic counsel and need to get involved in her marketplace, head over to her side project, Reedsy .

This channel focuses more on writing than on publishing or marketing. Other than writing tips, advice for new writers, and Shaelin writing plans, this channel covers some information about developmental editing.

On mindset, I love her video about letting go .

Her video Writing Morally Ambiguous Characters | Writing Tips is one that I highly recommend you watch.

11. The Write Channel with Nicola Monaghan

If you are a completely new writer in search of some no-fluff advice about creative writing to get started, subscribe to this channel. Lessons cover details about finding ideas, POV selection, applying the show-don’t-tell rule, dialogue writing, and developing structure.

She touches on topics about the daily struggles of budding writers. One of her nuggets of wisdom is How to beat writer’s block (creative writing).

Her video on POV selection is one of her most popular videos on writing tips.

12. Rachael Stephen

Her quirkiness is one reason viewers click the subscribe button. But that’s not her only appealing quality. Her no-punch-pulled approach is what makes her stand out from the crowd. Our writing craft is too chaotic and unbecoming if it doesn’t accompany an adequate writing process. Rachael focuses primarily on the writing process to make it seamless and to promptly and adequately deliver the writing outcomes you want.

Write Your Damn Novel | Pep Talk is her most loved video.

She rarely gives tips on the actual writing. Here is what we love in her infrequent tips: How to Build a Scene | Writing .

13. Katesbookdate

Katie’s tips don’t start with brainstorming an idea. They start by broadening your perspective and knowing about the world. After all, one of the best growth hacks for your writing is to voraciously consume good books. That’s why she features a reading vlog and book recommendations on her channel.

She also throws in a lot of videos about her own writing journey. This allows you to peek inside the daily life and struggles of a real writer.

Write With Me #1 | The Rough Draft is the first video new visitors should check out on her channel.

14. Abbie Emmons

In the channel’s trailer, Abbie claims that she focuses on the “why” behind the story. She wants her viewers to know that their stories matter and to present them that way.

She covers actual writing craft but only after she is done detailing the mindset that changes a boring story into a masterpiece. What’s cool about this is how she connects mindset to craft. Your writting is an extension of who you are and what you believe. Every top performer in every field masters the inner landscape of their mind. Writers are no different.

If you want to know her way of tackling writer fatigue, check out How to Overcome Writer Fatigue + Stop HATING Your Writing!

Check out her video How To Write a TEMPTATION MOMENT (Alternative to Disaster) to get her no-fluff advice on this little-covered topic.

15. Robert Mckee

Learn writing from a celebrated screenwriter – even if you are not into screenwriting. Yes, I know he looks like a combination of your grandpa and Mr. Rogers (unless your grandpa is Mr. Rogers, and in that case, you lucky duck you). But stay with me. He’s also a full-bright scholar, the author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principles Of Screenwriting, and called the “Aristotle of our times” for his incisive insight into writing.

His videos focus on writing in general and include character building, grabbing audience attention, developing incidents, and detailing emotions.

Many of his videos explore the impact of emotions on powerful writing: Q&A: Do You Have to Be Angry to Write Comedy?

On the craft of writing, you will find hundreds of videos full of education and insight. One such video is: Q&A: How Can Writers Generate Empathy for Their Characters?

16. Kate Cavanaugh

It’s a great channel for those writers who want to know more about the writing life of fellow authors. If you think you have the worst writing routine in the world, get some real-world-perspective from this channel.

Other areas of motivation this channel offers include preparing for writing challenges, tackling burnout, using writing prompts, and loving your characters.

Reacting to Your Weirdest Writing Habits is a great resource to regain belief in yourself. Plus, it’s super hilarious!

What Makes A Good Story Opening?! is just the video you need to jump-start that latest WIP (writing in progress).

17. Chris Fox

You may know Chris Fox for his best-selling books Write to Market: Deliver a Book that Sells and 5,000 Words Per Hour . You can expect a similar level of infotainment from his YouTube channel. His channel is 90% about living life and believing in yourself. Your mindset often determines the success or failure as a writer.

Hi video, Motivation: Everybody Starts At Zero , can be any writer’s reason to start writing.

Check out his journey into successful self-publishing in How I Launched an Amazon Bestseller .

18. Kristine Martin

Kristine is a great source of motivation for writers, especially those who have limited time because of other commitments (sooooo, everybody). Her videos on time constraints, budgets, and inspirations motivate each one of us to put our best foot forward.

Let’s learn a bit about the everyday life of a writer entrepreneur in her video WHAT I DO Every Day as a CREATIVE Entrepreneur .

Check out How To Complete The First Draft Of Your Novel (FINISH WRITING YOUR BOOK!) .

19. Caffeinated Blogger

The Caffeinated Blogger is the only self-described blogger in this list full of authors, editors, and publishers. Many of the others also blog, but this guy is a blogging dynamo. His primary areas of interest are affiliate marketing, niche selection, and traffic generation. But you also get loads of information about video marketing, SEO, and ranking.

If you are thinking that he doesn’t cover the craft of writing, you are partially correct. But his channel is an essential addition to your YouTubesubscriptions. Why? Because you can apply what he teaches to support your writing career, set up passive income streams, build a readership, and launch new books to more sales.

One of his key strategies is to write great content that drives traffic to your website. Check out this video: How To Write a Blog Post (Step by Step For Beginners) .

20. Terrible Writing Advice

Why does every author recommend this channel to fellow writers? Well, for one, it’s creative and funny. Wait, that was two, wasn’t it? The Terrible Writing Advice channel delivers funny respites to the sometimes stressful struggle of writing.

His videos are animated bliss on the topics of tropes (like fantasy characters, mentors and the zombie apocalypse), along with general terrible writing advice that will make you laugh.

You can start with this video.

Final Thoughts

This article lists 20 YouTube channels for writers that offer inspiration, education, and empowerment. Some of them are focused on writing skills. Others cover writing as a business, while still others are about motivation and community.

I recommend including a mix of these featured channels on your personalized YouTube watch list.

In case you are wondering, yes, I do have my own YouTube channel on the topic of Writing Secrets. If you have a channel or are thinking about making one, this tool will be invaluable . I use it for every video I create.

What’s next? Read my post on Why Should Writers Start YouTube Channels?

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Writing Advice & Epic Fiction

The Top 13 YouTube Channels for Writers

YouTube has changed.

Gone are the days of 360p, harsh audio, and that special breed of early internet insanity.

Now, it’s an endless sea of binge-able content.

Fortunately, I did the digging for you. YouTube has a flourishing community of writers – for novels, for screenplays, for all kinds of writing.

These are the 13 most useful, delightful, and inspiring writing channels on YouTube

1. Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is possibly the most popular fantasy author alive. He teaches full-length lectures at BYU, and all of 2020’s lectures are on his YouTube channel.

Brandon focuses his lessons on structure, world-building, plot, and character. He also shares his unique insight into how the publishing industry works.

You can also find his older lectures here .

2. Hello Future Me

Well-paced, well-researched, and created with the right amount of passion and “goofiness” that makes this channel entertaining.

Tim’s latest videos on this channel have been amazing.

Hello Future Me pulls examples from real, popular texts to support his explanations, and show you how modern writing masters turn words into beautiful, addicting stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTnl1FVFBw

3. Nerdwriter1

Nerdwriter1 is a fantastic binge-watching experience, for any artist. Each of these video essays tells a story… about storytelling. 

He dissects everything from movies, songs, paintings… and even politics. I love this channel because he focuses on the effect that art has on the reader.

4. iWriterly

Meg Latorre of iWriterly has industry-focused advice for writers who want to become published, successful authors. 

Once a literary agent, now an author, Meg brings a unique blend of industry-centric knowledge and writing advice to her videos. She even has a playlist where she dives into the actual editing mechanics of writing.

5. Lessons from the Screenplay

Though Lessons is geared towards screenwriters, I couldn’t leave them off this list.

Their videos are high-quality and packed with advice that will allow you to engage your audience and evoke powerful emotions through storytelling.

6. ShaelinWrites

Shaelin is one of my favorite actual writers on this list. She puts out a ton of content that is critical for new writers, and for writers trying to improve on the fundamentals (i.e. all writers ). 

Her advice focuses on almost every aspect of writing:

• Prose, structure, and style tips
• Fighting to become a published author
• How to improve your own writing process

7. Tyler Mowery

Tyler uses films to show you how to write better characters with more meaningful conflicts. His video essays are well constructed, and the editing is top-notch. 

Note: you do not have to be a screenwriter to watch these. Tyler’s videos are eminently useful for any kind of fiction writer.

8. Terrible Writing Advice

“Tired of finding excellent and thought-provoking writing advice on the internet?” 

A quote that perfectly summarizes this beautifully weird , irony-filled channel.

Terrible Writing Advice will help you spot bad writing in both your own – and professional authors’ work… so you can do better.

9. Just Write

Some of the best, most concise explanations of story structure I’ve ever heard.

Just Write extracts lessons from pop-culture’s favorite stories, and turns them into lessons for any kind of writer.

10. Trope Anatomy

Calm, thought-out critiques of story. In several videos, Trope Anatomy dissects the gap between film and textual narratives.

While he doesn’t post often, it looks like he’s doing more in 2020. And they’re just so good to watch.

11. Abbie Emmons

Abbie Emmons is more hands-on than most others on this list. For example, in one series she details her entire writing process while showing you how to build your own. 

I think her best advice focuses on story beats and plot structure.

12. Jenna Moreci

Solid, consistent, and ridiculously upbeat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jenna start a video with less than 100% enthusiasm. 

Her writing advice is geared towards newer writers looking for bite-sized improvements, like this video on First Chapters:

13. The Closer Look

The Closer Look puts out wonderfully binge-worthy content for writers, with an emphasis on films and video games. 

The Closer Look is equal parts “passionate rant” and “analytical discussion” on what makes specific stories so effective… or what makes them fail dramatically.

The Best Writers on YouTube

YouTube is brimming with writing content. Almost every question is answered in one of these channels:

• Want to become a better writer?
• Want to understand how to read books more analytically?
• Want to start your career as an author?

It’s all here, in these 13 YouTube channels – the perfect list for aspiring authors and writers. 

Thanks for reading! What did you think? Did I miss any of your favorite YouTube channels?

Let me know in the comments below… 🙂

– P. S. Hoffman

More Articles

How to Choose the Right Novel Software – Interview with Katja Kaine from The Novel Factory 

The daily routine of a full-time author, 1 thought on “the top 13 youtube channels for writers”.

Writers on YouTube? Usually it’s just grammar and high school essay videos. Appreciate the list! Thanks!

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How to Write a Book

Last Updated: September 29, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Grant Faulkner, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD . Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story, a literary magazine. Grant has published two books on writing and has been published in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts Write-minded, a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and has a M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,814,213 times.

Anyone with a story to tell can write a book, either for their own enjoyment or to publish for all to see. Getting started is often the hardest part, so set up a good workspace, create a regular writing schedule, and stay motivated to keep writing something every day. Focus on developing a “big idea” that drives your narrative, as well as at least one unforgettable character and realistic conflicts. Once you’ve written and revised your manuscript, consider your publishing options to get it into readers’ hands.

Staying Focused and Productive

• Writing a book is both a vocation and an avocation—that is, both a job and a passion. Figure out why you need to write, and why you want to write.
• Keep your goal or goals in mind as motivation. Just remember to keep them realistic. You probably won't become the next J.K. Rowling by your first novel.

• While moving from a cafe to a park bench to the library may work for you, consider setting up a single workspace that you always—and only—use for writing.
• Set up your writing space so you have any supplies or references that you’ll need close at hand. That way, you won’t lose your focus looking for a pen, ink cartridge, or thesaurus.
• Pick a sturdy, supportive chair —it’s easy to lose focus if your back aches!

• The average book writer should probably look to set aside 30 minutes to 2 hours for writing, at least 5 days per week—and ideally every day.
• Block out a time when you tend to be most alert and prolific—for instance, 10:30-11:45 AM every day.
• Scheduling in writing time may mean scheduling out other things in your life. It's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not.

• For instance, if you’ve given yourself a 1-year deadline for writing a complete first draft of a 100,000-word novel, you’ll need to write about 300 words (about 1 typed page) every day.
• Or, if you are required to turn in a doctoral dissertation draft that’s about 350 pages long in 1 year, you’ll likewise need to write about 1 page per day.

• You’re nearly always going to spend at least as much time editing a book as you will initially writing it, so worry about the editing part later. Just focus on getting something down on paper that will need to be edited. Don’t worry about spelling mistakes!
• If you simply can’t help but edit some as you write, set aside a specific, small amount of time at the end of each writing session for editing. For instance, you might use the last 15 minutes of your daily 90-minute writing time to do some light editing of that day’s work.

• Depending on your circumstances, you might be working with an editor, have committee members you can hand over chapter drafts to, or have a group of fellow writers who share their works-in-progress back and forth. Alternatively, show a friend or family member.
• You’ll go through many rounds of feedback and revisions before your book is published. Don’t get discouraged—it’s all part of the process of writing the best book you can!

Creating a Great Story

• Start with the “big picture” first, and worry about filling in the finer details later on.
• Brainstorm themes, scenarios, or ideas that intrigue you. Write them down, think about them for a while, and figure out which one you’re most passionate about.
• For instance: “What if a man journeyed to a land where the people were tiny and he was a giant, and then to another land where the people were giants and he was tiny?”

• For instance, a sci-fi adventure set in space will be more effective if the technology draws at least a small degree from reality.
• Or, if you’re writing a crime drama, you might do research into how the police typically investigate crimes of the type you’re depicting.

• For instance, instead of waking up thinking “I need to write about the Civil War,” you might tell yourself, “I’m going to write about General Grant’s military strategy today.”
• These “manageable pieces” may end up being your book’s chapters, but not necessarily so.

Lucy V. Hay

Look at breakdowns of movie plots for insights into common successful story structures. There are many good sources, like Script Lab or TV Tropes, to find plot breakdowns of popular movies. Read these summaries and watch the movies, then think about how you can plot your story in a way that is similar to the movies you really like.

• Think about some of your favorite characters from books you love. Write down some of their character traits and use these to help build your own unique characters.
• If you’re writing nonfiction, dig deep into the complexities and all-too-human qualities of the real figures you’re writing about. Bring them to life for your readers.

• The main conflict—for instance, Captain Ahab’s obsession with the white whale in Moby Dick —can be an entry point for a range of other external and internal conflicts.
• Don’t downplay conflicts and tension in nonfiction works—they help to ground your writing in reality.

• Your goal is to never give your readers a reason to lose interest. Keep them engaged and turning those pages!
• This doesn’t mean you can’t use long sentences, descriptive writing, or even asides that deviate from the main storyline. Just make sure that these components serve the larger narrative.

Publishing Your Book

• Seeking publication can feel a bit like losing control over your manuscript, after all the time you’ve spent working and re-working it. Keep reminding yourself that your book deserves to be seen and read!
• If necessary, impose a deadline on yourself: “I’m going to submit this to publishers by January 15, one way or the other!”

• Evaluate potential agents and look for the best fit for you and your manuscript. If you know any published authors, ask them for tips and leads on agents.
• Typically, you’ll submit excerpts or even your entire manuscript to an agent, and they’ll decide whether to take you on as a client. Make sure you’re clear on their submission guidelines before proceeding.

• You can self-publish copies on your own, which may save you money but will take up a lot of time. You’ll be responsible for everything from obtaining a copyright to designing the cover to getting the actual pages printed.
• You can work through self-publishing companies, but you’ll often end up paying more to get your book published than you’ll ever make back from selling it.
• Self-publishing an e-book may be a viable option since the publishing costs are low and your book immediately becomes accessible to a wide audience. Evaluate different e-book publishers carefully before choosing the right one for you.

Sample Book Excerpts

Write Your First Book with this Expert Series

Expert Q&A

• Keep your notebook and pen beside your bed, and keep a journal of your dreams. You never know when a dream of yours could give you inspiration or a story to write about! Thanks Helpful 35 Not Helpful 4
• If you want to add a true fact in your story, do some research on it first. Thanks Helpful 26 Not Helpful 4
• Ask some other authors for some tips and write them down. Thanks Helpful 20 Not Helpful 4

• Avoid plagiarizing (copying another author's work). Even if you do it as artfully as possible, eventually someone will track down and piece together all the copied parts. Thanks Helpful 36 Not Helpful 3

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Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing a book, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

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• ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/goalsetting/why
• ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/how-to-write-a-book-without-losing-your-mind/566462/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/getting-feedback/
• ↑ https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-write-a-book/
• ↑ https://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-fiction.html
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• ↑ https://www.janefriedman.com/find-literary-agent/

About This Article

To write a book, first think of an idea that you’re excited to write about. It could be anything – a memoir about your life, a fantasy tale, or if you're an expert on a topic, a non-fiction book. Once you’ve come up with an idea, you'll want to cultivate good writing habits to bring your book to life. First, make writing into a routine rather than an activity you need to fit into your busy schedule. Try to consistently write at the same time and place every day. Second, set a daily word or page goal so that you know exactly when you are finished writing each day. Last, don’t feel pressured to create a perfect first draft because it's much easier to edit perfectly than it is to write it perfectly the first time around. Focus on producing and writing as much as you can. Then, go back and spend time editing on another day. Once you have written and edited a draft that you like, seek feedback from your family, peers or mentors. If you want to self-publish, research how to do so online. You could also consider hiring an editor to help you through both editing and the publishing process. If you want to know more about how to write a non-fiction book, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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It's National Novel Writing Month. Here's how to finally write that book

Petra Mayer

Explore Life Kit

This story comes from Life Kit , NPR's podcast with tools to help you get it together. To listen to this episode, play the audio at the top of the page or find it here .

It's kind of a truism that everyone has a book in them, right? We all have some kind of story to tell. But it's equally true that a lot of us have those crummy little inner voices telling us it's never gonna happen. That we're not Real Writers. That no one cares what we have to say, or that we could never write an entire book. (Or, y'know, that we've only ever written fanfiction.)

November is National Novel Writing Month , or NaNoWriMo, so I decided to talk to some people who've both been there and done that, about how to shut those little voices up and get started on your book. Because the one thing I found out while talking to people for this story is that all you have to do to be a Real Writer is ... write. That's all. Just write. So here are six tips that'll help you set pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and get going on your book.

1. Carve out some time to write, and then start writing.

Now, I bet a lot of you out there have said to yourselves, I'm gonna write my book someday .

"And someday tends not to happen in life," says Grant Faulkner . He's the executive director of NaNoWriMo. "And so you have to create the conditions to write."

I'm also betting most of you don't have, y'know, a perfect sunny nook where you can settle in with a cup of coffee, your favorite pen and your lucky troll doll and spend a few hours cranking out a chapter of the next great American novel. But what almost everyone has is what Faulkner calls "time confetti."

Time confetti is those little absent-minded moments, the little blanks in your day when you're not doing anything. If you use that time to write, "you can actually get a lot done," Faulkner says. He also, of course, recommends that you sign up for NaNoWriMo .

"One of the things that makes NaNoWriMo so successful for people in general is that we lower the bar of writing. So many people operate with a sense of perfectionism, and they let their inner editor get in the way of their words on the page. And NaNoWriMo is all about setting a goal and a deadline ... And that helps open the gates to your creativity, and lets you get the words out without trying to make them all perfect."

One way to do that? Try a word sprint. You get a prompt, and that prompt could be anything — a favorite family picture, a phrase, even just a single word. NaNoWriMo actually has a Twitter account devoted to word sprints that offers prompts like "something unreal" or "waited too long." And then, you just write — for five, 10, 15 minutes, you banish that inner editor, keep your hands on the keys or your pen on the page and let the words come.

Elizabeth Acevedo is one of the writers who found inspiration in NaNoWriMo — you might know her name; she won the National Book Award in 2018 for her young adult novel in verse The Poet X , and her new book is Clap When You Land .

She says she'll sit down at her computer, set a timer, and "for this hour you're just writing, so it's almost like a sprint." Then she might get up and take a walk, have a snack, sit back down and see how far she can get in another 30 minutes or so. "Here I am, I have to just get through this and it doesn't matter if it's good or not," she says. "I don't revise as I'm writing and I don't go back and reread pages. I kind of just plow ahead."

Just plow ahead. Words of wisdom!

2. Know that there's not one "right" way to write your book.

We Need Art Right Now. Here's How To Get Into Poetry

But I hear you asking — how do I plow ahead? In which direction should I point this metaphorical plow? Should I have every plot point mapped out? Should I know every nuance of every character? Should I know how it's all going to work? Spoiler alert: No.

Grant Faulkner says some NaNoWriMo participants are planners. "They'll meticulously outline their novels ahead of time. And other people are pantsers. They just jump in and wing it. We also have a term that is very unique to NaNoWriMo, plantsers, and those are people who are in-between planning and pantsing."

But here's the thing — are you a planner? Are you a pantser? Are you somewhere in between? Who knows! Certainly, you don't have to know when you're starting out. Just try something and see what works for you.

But no matter how you go about it, says Acevedo, creating isn't easy. Maybe you missed your goal yesterday, and you've got double the work today. "And those days suck," she says. "But also, I think it's important to recognize that sometimes, like — you can't ghost your characters. You have to show up for them, or they won't show up for you."

That's it. Show up for your characters. Doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it.

3. Find your people.

Author Interviews

Writers illustrated: q&a with jeff vandermeer, author of 'wonderbook'.

No matter how romantic it seems, you're not up in the garret by candlelight, scribbling away, alone in your genius. I mean, maybe you are — but in that case, maybe you're already beyond what we're trying to do here.

I called up my former NPR colleague Kat Chow , who wrote a memoir about grief and identity called Seeing Ghosts . She says it was a hard book to write. "It's nonfiction. But it's also about my family. It's about grief. But sometimes there are just so many distractions."

And when she was really stuck, if walking the dog or organizing the closet didn't help, Chow says she'd call up a friend with a different way of thinking. "Or I would talk to another friend who's writing a book. And it would kind of help me reset, or have to think through the issue with my book."

Book Reviews

'seeing ghosts' navigates the melancholia of loss — of people, places and identities.

You don't just have to stick to your friends. Chow recommends that you reach out to other writers, "whether they're potential friends or people whose work you admire, and try and form your own community so that you can have a writers group of people who can kind of talk through any issues that you're having with your book."

One way to find those people? Chow says that if she's just read something really great, she'll flip to the acknowledgements. "And I just love reading who these writers are thanking because oftentimes it's really thoughtful people, or it's books that have inspired them or helped them be better writers, or fellowships or writing centers that have provided support."

NaNoWriMo is also a good place to start looking for a community — they have a lot of local groups that meet every month. Or check with your local library to see what kind of writing events they host.

4. Read, read, and then read some more.

How To Read More Books

I spend a lot of my day editing the freelance writers who review books for NPR.org — and when I'm working with someone new, there's one thing I always tell them. (Apart from no dang passive voice! ) And that's read . Reading helps you figure out what you like, and it helps you refine your own voice on the page.

But sometimes I get a little pushback — I'll hear something like, "I don't want to read other writers, because what if it influences me?"

"Influence doesn't mean that you're a copier," says K. Tempest Bradford . She's a sci-fi and fantasy author, and a writing teacher. "Influence doesn't mean that you're not you, you're not uniquely you — no matter what you do, you're always influenced by something, right? Because that's how culture works."

Your voice is always your own, because it's coming from you . But reading good writers can help you make your own voice better.

5. You will screw up, so learn to take criticism gracefully.

Code Switch

Commentary: cultural appropriation is, in fact, indefensible.

Beyond just keeping you on your deadlines, having a writing group or an accountability partner is helpful in another really important way — they can provide perspectives that aren't your own, and tell you when you've gotten something wrong.

And you will get something wrong, because you are a squishy human being and not a perfect, novel-producing artificial intelligence. Maybe your prose is clunky, maybe your character depictions are kinda cardboard, or stereotypical, even a little bit racist, and you didn't do the work to make them real people.

Which is something to think about, especially now.

The publishing industry has always had a serious diversity problem — but things have really been blowing up recently over issues of cultural appropriation, of white writers profiting off the stories of other cultures.

And that leads to the huffy, bordering-on-bad-faith flounce that you see in some corners of social media: Well I'm white, so I guess I can't write about anything .

"It's not that people are going to yell at you or be mad if you write characters who are outside of your culture, outside of your race or other major identity trait," says K. Tempest Bradford. "What people yell about and what starts causing fights is when writers do it badly."

Bradford teaches workshops through Writing the Other , aimed at helping people not do it badly. The first thing to do, she says, is ask yourself why you want to include a particular character in this story. Is it because you want more representation? That's fine."But sometimes the impetus is, 'I want to have this character of color because I heard that they're trendy.' And that's ... let's not do that."

It's not that you should never write outside your own experience, Bradford says — but you should know why you're doing it. And you should make sure people from whatever group you're writing about have had a chance to tell their own stories for themselves before you jump in.

And once you've written something, she says, "get some sensitivity readers and some other people who are from that group to talk to you about it." Writing the other is a collaborative process, Bradford says — it involves research, discussion, bringing other people into your work. And despite all that, you might still get something wrong. We all make mistakes.

So, learning to accept criticism with grace and humility — whether it's from your writing group or, god forbid, angry folks on Twitter — is an important part of the writing life, and one people don't often think about.

6. Believe that you are a Real Writer.

Making Art Is Good For Your Health. Here's How To Start A Habit

I wanna go back to something I was thinking about earlier — that dumb, depressing and persistent thought: I could never write a whole book. I can't crank out 2,000 words a day. I'm not a Real Writer. I asked my guests to weigh in on that.

"I think that someone who's storytelling from a place of urgency and is attempting an original way of documenting the human experience, I think that's a writer," says Elizabeth Acevedo.

"If you write, you're a real writer," says Grant Faulkner. "And I think you need to embrace the term 'being a real writer,' and call yourself a real writer, and believe in that, because that will give you power on the page."

Still don't believe me?

"Anytime some guy's like, well, you're not a real writer unless you [do] X, I'm going to say that they're full of hooey," says Tempest Bradford. "Unless they're saying, well, you're not a real writer unless you write."

Whether it's poetry, fanfiction, letters to yourself, even a description of two squirrels fighting in the yard — if you write, if you tell a story, you are a Real Writer. That's all you gotta do. Just write. And you'll find yourself, little by little, writing your book.

Camp NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo's word sprints

NaNoWriMo monthly groups

Writing the Other

K. Tempest Bradford recommends:

Writing the Other , Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward

Steering the Craft , Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wonderbook , Jeff VanderMeer

Kat Chow recommends:

Writing Tools , by Roy Peter Clark

Bird by Bird , Anne Lamott

If you have a life hack you'd love to share, give us a call at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected] . Your tip could appear in an upcoming episode.

If you want more Life Kit , subscribe to our newsletter .

The audio portion of this story was produced by Andee Tagle

• Life Kit: Life Skills

Back to Reedsy Live

How to Start Writing a Book

15:00 EST - Aug 11, 2021

Michelle Schusterman

Michelle Schusterman is the author of over a dozen novels for young readers, including SPELL & SPINDLE, OLIVE AND THE BACKSTAGE GHOST, THE PROS OF CONS, and the series I HEART BAND, THE KAT SINCLAIR FILES, and SECRETS OF TOPSEA. Her books have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Publisher's Weekly, as well as honors including multiple Junior Library Guild selections, the CBCC Best of 2019 List, and ALA's Rainbow List and Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers List.

Visit Michelle's ghostwriting profile on Reedsy

I am so excited to be here today to talk to you about maybe my favorite topic ever, which is how to start writing a book. I'm going to start by explaining exactly why this is my favorite topic to talk about. 

I started writing my very first novel in 2007 — I never finished the draft, but I started. I didn't get an agent until 2010, and that book didn't sell, but I did get an agent . And then, in 2014, my first novel was published by Penguin.

Now, in 2021, I have 16 published novels and I've done a lot more as a ghostwriter and I also do some book coaching. And in the last three years, as I've really built this ghostwriting and book coaching career, while I've continued to publish my own novels, ghostwriting and book coaching really are what make the bulk of my income at this point.

What I do in both is to help other writers avoid spending seven years from getting their idea for a book and actually finishing it and publishing it, because that was the spread for me.

Honestly, these two jobs, ghostwriting and book coaching, have a really similar process, more so than you would think when it comes to actually getting started on writing a book.

Getting a book on its feet

In both cases, what I do is start by talking to my client about their idea and read literally anything and everything they have written about this. So they will send me documents which are just brainstorming and everything's kind of a mess and out of order; they'll send me character sheets; they'll send me maps that they've drawn. I've had them send me illustrations, which are usually pretty amazing. And I've read scripts and screenplays that some clients want to turn into a novel. Just everything you can imagine.

I read all that and I take notes and then we talk, we do consultations and I help them find the story in that idea. I mean, the character’s arc and the journey they go on and the conflict and the stakes. And then in both cases, we outline it together and I guide them through the process of finding the structure.

This is where the two jobs diverge. If I'm the ghostwriter, I write the book, and if I'm the coach, they write the book and I just give them feedback along the way.

So what I've learned doing this is that we all start out with so many of the same issues when we have an idea for a book. When I think back to 2007, when I was writing my first book, it took me years to figure out on my own the tools and the strategies that I now use to help my clients turn their ideas into books way faster. And that's really what I want to share with you guys today. So we're going to talk about three things - sifting through all of your ideas, which I know is overwhelming, and then finding a plot in your premise, and then finally, I want to give you guys some practical tips for actually starting to write.

Step 1. Sifting through the ideas

So first up, we're going to talk about sifting through the ideas. I couldn't tell you about the first time I got an idea for a novel because the truth is, I think I got like 50 book ideas all at once, or maybe it was 50 different ideas for 50 different novels. It was like the moment I really decided writing a novel was something I was going to do, my brain would not stop throwing ideas at me. And I didn't know if they were all for different books or is this all for the same book or what? And it was so overwhelming. And while I was really excited, the overwhelming feeling meant I couldn't just sit down and write because I had no idea where to start. I didn't even know which idea to pick. 

And this is usually consultation number one with my clients - talking about all of these ideas and figuring out: where is the story in all of this? So at this stage, I suggest you do one of two things. 

1. Talk about your ideas

Talk to someone, preferably a writer but it doesn't have to be, about your idea. This is what book coaches are for, but you don't have to spend the money - I didn't when I was starting out, you just need a critique partner or a good friend who's willing to listen. I am very fortunate and I have now a great friend who is not only an author herself, but she also used to be a literary agent and we used to have a standing date to meet up once a week and talk to each other about our books and what we were working on. And now, obviously we can't do that anymore but we pick up the phone to talk out our ideas and it just never fails to help me get past any blocks I'm feeling and to have big revelations about myself. 

2. Free write your ideas

Now, you may not have anyone to talk to, or you might prefer to keep your idea private, and I respect that. I had a comment on one of my recent YouTube videos where someone said, ‘If I tell anyone about my idea, the muse walks out.’ I understand that's how it works for some people. So maybe this isn't an option for you. If that's the case, start a brainstorming document to just free write about your idea. Something I used to do with some of my younger students but which I think could work for all of us is to turn the font white in your document. That way you're not rereading through what you wrote as you write it. You're not judging yourself. You're not thinking, ‘oh, that sounds ludicrous.’ Just turn it white so that you can't see it and let yourself type and see what comes out when you're all done. Once you have all of these ideas, highlight it, turn the font black and see it. You’ll probably be amazed at how much good stuff is in it. 

What’s the starting point of an idea?

So as far as how an idea starts, your starting point could be anything. It might be a pitch like Ocean's 11 meets Mistborn . It might be a character , you might just want to write about a school teacher with a secret past, and maybe you don't even know what the secret is, but you want to explore that. You might start with a premise like ‘I want to write a haunted house book.’ Whatever that seed was for you, start with that. Just write that down and start asking yourself questions and just let your mind wander on it. 

Once you've got the idea really talked or written out and you're excited about it, the next stage is fear. You get to a point where you can envision the story. You can imagine how potentially great this novel might be, and you're afraid you won't be able to let it happen. And if you don’t fail, if you don't know. So you just don't start. I have been here so many times and I think if you follow me on YouTube, you probably know what is coming next.

Chipping away at marble

I used this in a recent video on my channel. I've used it a few times, but I'm going to use it again because I just really love this analogy. So one of my favorite videos on YouTube is called ‘ The Making of a Marble Statue .’ I'm no artist, I'm definitely not a sculptor, and when I see a statue or a sculpture in a museum I can't fathom how the artist accomplished it. And I think this is much the same way. A lot of us writers look at a published novel, we hold it in our hands and we're like, ‘how do I get to this? How do I take a hunk of marble and turn it into something that is so beautiful and so detailed and so real.’ 

Pick away at your idea

It starts with a hammer and a pick. The first stage is that the sculptor roughs out the block with a hammer and pick, and it's a big pick and a big hammer. This is a big, messy process. And what you see — the hunk of marble — doesn't look anything like the finished sculpture. This is you finding the shape of your story. At first, it's not going to resemble what's in your head at all. You're imagining this beautiful woman in her robe lounging, and you've just got this jaggedy, raggedy-looking piece of marble. It doesn't look like a woman. This is the point where most people starting to write their first novel give up because it doesn't look like the way it looks in their mind. 

Don't give up at this stage, you are just finding the very general shape of the final verdict, the final product in the marble. You're making a huge mess. That’s the writing process. Especially in the beginning, you are making a mess and that's how it's supposed to be. 

Now you can go about this in a lot of different ways. A lot of it depends on how this idea came to you in the first place. If you had an idea for a character, like with a persona, a specific personality type, or someone with a certain ability, maybe you just want to throw them into a scenario and see what they do. Or maybe you came up with a magic system or a fantasy world, and you want to explore it, but you don't know who the character is yet, so just try worldbuilding for a little bit. Or maybe you've just asked a really good ‘what if’ question and you want to try to answer it and you're not sure what that's going to look like. 

These are all really great starting points and really common ways to get ideas for books and at this hammer-and-pick stage, you want to spend some time with your big hammer and your big pig hacking away until you can start to see your main character or characters, and just kind of generally who they are and how they might change from the beginning to the end of your book. You want to take a hammer and pick to your setting and just get an idea. And this is not just for fantasy and sci-fi - world-building is important, no matter what genre you write in.

And then of course your plot. I am not saying you have to plot. We're going to talk about plotting later, but just kind of think about what the big guidepost scenes might be, even if you don't know what order they fall on yet. What big moments do you see happening for these characters? And remember, pun intended, none of this needs to be set in stone. You can always change it later. So don't put too much pressure on yourself. We are anti perfectionists here. You want to stay flexible, write down everything, and just make a big mess. 

So the mistake writers make that I think results in fear, that kind of crippling fear where you just eventually give up, is that when they start writing a book, they pull out the small tools. They take this giant hunk of marble that doesn't look like anything and they get to work with brushes and these teeny tiny scalpels, and they're scratching away the marble and brushing away at the marble and they do this and they do this and they do this and the hunk of marble still just looks like a hunk of marble. And that's when they give up. Do not do this — those tiny tools, those little brushes, and those little scalpels, those are for revising and editing. So put them away for now. And tell yourself that they are there for when you have a finished draft that's a big, old mess, a hunk of marble that started to take on some kind of shape. And then you're going to pull on these little tools and get to work on the nitty-gritty details. 

Step 2. Finding a plot in premise

So now onto actually finding a bit of a plot in your premise. 

Plotter vs. pantser

I wanted to say a few words about the whole ‘ plotters versus pantsers ’ thing because I just have a lot of thoughts on this. If you don't know, I'm sure you all do, but plotting or plotters refers to people who plot or outline their novels before they write the draft, and pansters are people who just write the draft with no idea of the plot in mind. Sometimes we also call this discovery writing. And there's a fun kind of duality in the writing community. Like you're either a plotter or a pantser, or maybe I think sometimes people call themselves plantsers . 

But the thing is, I don't think that the spectrum is quite this neat. All writers and novelists plot, we just do it at different stages in the writing process. Some of us do it first and some of us do it while we're drafting. If you're a pantser you are kind of plotting as you're drafting - your plot might be a mess, but it's still plot. And then sometimes we do the plot afterward. 

I usually plot ahead of time, but one time I wrote a book and I finished the first draft and then I was like, ‘Okay, I need to give this some structure.’ And I did the plotting after the fact. Again, this is where you should just follow your gut. And do whatever feels right for you. So don't feel like you have to outline, don't feel like outlining is bad and it's going to restrict you. Whichever one sounds good to you is what you should do. And if you want to try some flexible combination of both, that's great. Lots of writers do that. 

Now I do call myself a plotter because, as I mentioned, I do a lot of ghostwriting and I've done a lot of intellectual property projects for publishers, which is where they have an idea for a book and they hire me to write it. And those jobs, IP work and ghostwriting, require me to generate very detailed scene-by-scene outlines for clients and for publishers so I don't have a choice in that matter. I have to be able to be an outliner. And I can tell you that no matter how many people are working on a book and on an outline, no matter how detailed that outline is, it is an absolute fact that while you're writing the first draft, at some point you are going to veer away from the outline. This is expected. I have never had a publisher or a client get mad at me when this happens, because it's honestly always a good thing. I've never a hundred percent stuck to an outline. 

And that's why I think the term ‘discovery writing’ isn't just for pantsers. We all discover more about our characters when we write the first draft, no matter how detailed and thorough we are in laying out our plot before. They become more real and vivid and you know, maybe they're a little bit different than we originally thought, maybe they had a secret that we didn't realize they were carrying. And if we're doing it right, eventually our characters kind of gently take the wheel and start driving that plot themselves. And they might start off-roading it. We should embrace this and let them take the wheel. This is their story now and you're just following it along. So don't let it scare you if you feel like this is happening to you, because in my opinion, this is a really great thing. And I just want to say, don't try or worry about defining yourself as a plotter or a pantser. You're an author, you're putting a book together and the process is just going to be messy.

Character or plot driven?

And then another kind of debate I see happen quite a lot is whether a book is character driven or plot driven . The thing that I think is just kind of a little bit silly about this is that books should be both. Character and plot are things that we should really consider separately after the brainstorming phase because the plot is your character's journey. So really it doesn't matter which of these things came first. You want your book to be both, the character should be driving the plot. There is a reason that this protagonist is the star of this adventure that you are writing. 

So what I want to do is talk to you a little bit about very specifically how I took an idea and I turned it into one of my novels. The reason I chose my novel Spell and Spindle is because the idea I had was super, super vague. All it was was that marionettes have souls. That was it. 

Idea: Spell and Spindle

Dolls have always really creeped me out, especially puppets. When I was a kid, I watched a lot of Nick at Nite and I loved Alfred Hitchcock Presents and there's this one episode, I believe it starred Jessica Tandy, and it's called ‘The Glass Eye’ and it was about a woman who exchanged romantic letters with a ventriloquist. And then, in the end, she realizes that he, the ventriloquist, was actually the puppet and the puppet was the ventriloquist and it freaked her out and it freaked me out. It just kind of stuck with me as a kid. And I think that was the seed for this book which bloomed decades later.

Ever since then, I have always loved a good creepy doll-possession story or horror movie. And also I always wanted to write my own kind of Brothers Grimm, dark fairytale. 

Premise: Spell and Spindle

So the next step, when I had this idea was to start asking myself some questions. I asked myself who specifically is the story about, can't just be about marionettes in general, who is this about, and what do they want? Because your premise is going to be your idea, but to have conflict you have to have a character who wants something. 

So for me, with Spell and Spindle , I think my idea turned into a premise when I thought, okay, maybe these marionettes have souls, but that's not enough for them. They want to be real children. Maybe they can even swap souls with children. And I kind of let this idea, this premise percolate in my brain for a few months. And I eventually started to see two characters, a boy named Chance, and a marionette girl named Penny. And they swapped so that Chance was trapped in the marionette body and Penny had mobility and autonomy for the first time in Chance's body. And I think that was when my idea turned into a premise, because obviously there is some conflict in there. 

Plot: Spell and Spindle

So now the next step. I had an idea and it had some conflict to make it a plot. I think you need to next figure out what the stakes are if your characters fail to get what they want. In other words, what awful thing will happen to your characters if they don't overcome this conflict? Why do my characters want these goals? And what's the motivation? So, if you are in that beginning stage and you need to start a brainstorming document, but you don't know what to write about. Start with these questions, ask yourself this and let yourself run with them.

In Spell and Spindle, I wanted to simplify things by giving both of my characters the same wants. So both Chance and Penny want adventure and they both want to be understood and they're separated while their souls are swapped. One gets kidnapped, the other one sets off on a rescue mission. It's pretty simple. 

In the beginning, Chance (the boy) is about to move from the city to the suburbs because of his father's new job. And he is just positive that his life is going to be unbearably boring. He also feels really deeply misunderstood by his relentlessly optimistic family, because he is a serious pessimist and he longs to find someone who will understand him. As I said, they have the same situation. Penny, the marionette, is facing life in storage when her museum closes and life in a box is also going to be unbearable. The only way anyone can hear Penny's thoughts is to touch her strings, but she's been high on the shelf in a museum for years and so she longs for someone who can understand her.

Now once Chance finds Penny and they begin to communicate and they form a friendship, they make a plan to run away together and join the carnival because they both want adventure and they want to escape their boring lives. As they practice their act, they learn that they can swap souls, swap places, which they think is really cool and interesting. And then their plan to run away is thwarted when the puppeteer, the villain of the plot who built Penny, returns and steals the marionette but doesn't realize that Chance's soul is still in. 

So Chance is trapped in a marionette's body and he's at the mercy of this evil puppeteer, which is not at all the kind of adventure that he wanted, and Penny is free, but she's in Chance's body. And so she sets off to rescue him from the puppeteer, but she knows the whole time that ultimately she'll have to sacrifice her newfound freedom if she really wants to save him. So the stakes are really high here for both of them — Chance might be stuck in a doll's body forever and the only way Penny can save him is by giving up her own freedom.

Story: Spell and Spindle

And that brings me to the story. So what makes the difference between a plot and a story? I think the better question is: what's the point? That might sound kind of harsh, but I think it's a question every author should ask themselves about every book they write. 

We can all probably sit here and name a ton of books or shows or movies that are similar; a hero is on a quest to find a thing or save a person or stop a villain; a detective is trying to solve a crime, the stakes are life and death. Great. We love those stories, but why do we really care? What's the point? What makes one story out of a million with kind of the same plot, actually special?

It’s the characters, obviously. We will follow believable, flawed, entertaining, real, authentic characters who feel like people we know anyway. And it's in your characters, in their struggles, where you're going to find the themes of your story, because the truth is story tropes like boy meets girl , or hero saves the world from ending never get old. We love them. They only feel derivative when there's nothing special about the characters. 

So for Spell and Spindle, the most prominent character trait I had in mind for both Penny and Chance from the beginning is that they are both supreme pessimists. I love their dark little souls. They both just fully believed the worst would always happen and that made it so fun to write about how they handled it when the worst did in fact happen to them. And the thematic questions I found myself asking about this were what does it take to make someone forget their own identity? or what kind of person sacrifices everything to save another?

I imagined Chance just completely immobile and mute in this puppet body, gradually forgetting he was ever a real boy. And I imagined Penny getting her first taste of freedom and experiencing the joy of emotions and movement and being human and how tempting it would be for her to just leave Chance to his fate. 

Those are the kinds of big emotional questions that will hopefully get the reader to care about the conflict. And to me, a story is a plot that readers care about. 

Got a protagonist and a premise? Find a plot

You start off with a description of your protagonist at the beginning of the story, her personality, and her current situation. 

Take note of her deepest-rooted beliefs. Your character's deepest belief is the one that results in her biggest flaw. And only when that belief is shattered, will she be able to overcome that flaw. That's what gives her a satisfying character transformation. 

You want to ask yourself, what are the stakes for her? What terrible thing will happen if she doesn't achieve her goal? The higher the stakes for her, the better. 

Of course, you want to ask yourself what obstacles will she face along the way? And the biggest, baddest obstacle that you can think of, that's going to probably be the climax of your book. The moment that forces her to confront that deepest rooted belief of hers that maybe isn't quite as true as she thought and then finally overcome her flaw. How does she do that? And what does it cost her? 

And then of course, last but not least, you want to think about how this changes her? How does she transform into a different person? 

Every character is different at the end of the story than at the beginning. And that's your character arc and it's also the core of your plot. 

For those who hate plotting

So when I have a client who just hates plotting and they don't want to have any part of it, this is what I recommend they do in the beginning.

You've probably heard about this therapeutic exercise of writing a letter to your past self, so you would do this from your protagonist's point of view at the end of the story, and have them write a letter to themselves at the beginning of the story. And this is not about rehashing plot points. Don't worry about the plot at all. This is 100% focused on emotions. 

I mean imagine all of us right now if we were to write a letter to ourselves in February of 2020, right before the pandemic really kind of exploded. What would we say to ourselves? This letter would be more about how we could better emotionally prepare for what's coming and less a timeline of lockdowns and advice to buy toilet paper and get familiar with Zoom. So it's all very emotional, don't worry about the plot now. 

For those who love to plot

For clients who really love plot, I recommend writing a book description . I love doing this because it gets me excited about my story. And this is what I turn to every time I feel stuck. When I'm brainstorming an idea I use this formula, because I just kind of find the idea of plugging things into these brackets really satisfying and it helps me just flush out the idea a lot more. 

[CHARACTER] was [STATUS QUO] until [INCITING] happens, and [HERE’S HOW THAT AFFECTS THE MAIN CHARACTER’S LIFE].

Now [CHARACTER] must [GOAL] despite [CONFLICT] or else [CONSEQUENCE].

When you're doing this, don't worry about making it voicey or even grammatically correct. The point is just to get these beats of the story onto the page.

Now in my course, I actually walked through each of these bracketed components to create a description for a fake novel called Jack Versus the Water Aliens and I designed a cover for it and everything. I had a lot of fun with this, and this is the very, very first version of the description I got when I filled out that formula.

The reclusive Jack is working up the courage to ask Jill to go to the uphill dance until aquatic aliens crash-land in their small town’s lake and claim Jill is the long lost heir to their planet’s sovereign power which is now being challenged by a rival family, throwing Jack's plans for Homecoming King and Queen.

Now Jack must prove the aliens have the wrong girl despite increasing proof that Jill might be a little less human than everyone thought or else they'll take her from Earth forever, and Jack can kiss his Homecoming court dreams goodbye. 

This is what I mean by messy. This is nothing I would actually want to be printed on the jacket or back cover of my book. And it's definitely not anything I would use in a query letter or anything like that. It's very clunky and it lacks a voice. You can just tell it needs a lot of finessing. But I did say we are going to make a mess at the beginning of this process, and that's what this is. If I were to one day write this book this pitch would change. As I said, your outline might change, your pitch might change, you might figure out that the core conflict of your story is something else entirely. But the point is it got you started, it gave you a point to start from so that you had the confidence to start writing. 

Step 3. Practical tips to start writing your book

And now what about the client who doesn't feel ready to dive into their protagonist's inner, emotional turmoil yet? So the therapeutic letter, that's not for them. And what if this client also looks at this formula and says, ‘Oh, I don't know what the stakes are. I don't know my conflict.’ If you're still in an earlier phase in your brainstorming and neither of these sound good to you, how do you find your way to starting?

Talk out loud

First of all, talk to yourself. I'm not kidding. And I hope that doesn't sound too flippant or too easy of an answer. Sometimes you really need to say it out loud. The amount of time I spend walking around in this apartment, especially last year, talking to myself or talking to my dog, is a lot. And it's not just because of quarantine. If you have a friend, like I said, who's a writer especially, or just a friend who’s a prolific reader and would love to talk about story ideas, talk to them and let yourself ramble and explain this. But if you don't have anyone or if you have a cat or a dog, talk to them about it. 

I know having a sounding board can be really great, and you have all probably heard that writing by hand activates a different part of your brain than typing. I know that's true. And I think the same can be said for talking out loud. It's just not the same when we keep it all in our heads. Something changes when we actually say the words. So you really, really want to start talking out loud because it's going to lead to revelations that you wouldn't have had if you just kept it inside.

Use dictation

If you want the best of both worlds, I can't recommend using dictation features enough. Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word have dictation or voice typing. You don't need any special software at all, you just click the button, talk out loud and it's accurate enough. There are going to be some typos, but it's fine. Just let yourself ramble and document everything that you're saying. It’s really kind of scary to me how often this has happened, and I know this happens to other writers too, where we think of an amazing idea for our book, like something that's going to fix our plot, and 15 minutes later, we can't remember it or we remember it. It's really scary to lose those revelations so just use the dictation features and document everything. 

Create small habits

Now as far as actually starting to establish a writing process, especially if you've never done it before, the best thing you can do is create small habits. Almost everybody on earth by now has read Atomic Habits and if you have you’ll get what I’m going for here. ‘Writing a novel’ is such a huge goal, much like ‘I want to run a marathon’. You don't just show up to a marathon at the starting line and start running and go for 20 miles - you need to train and you start with smaller runs and you work your way up to it over several months. The same goes here. Just start with small habits that you know you can achieve. 

Perhaps every night before bed I will dictate and brainstorm for 10 minutes, or during lunch I'll write 100 words. Just however short and easy you need it to be to make sure you know you can do it. Every time you do it, that feeling of success is going to spark the motivation for you to do it again and again, and to make it a habit. 

If you try something and it's not working for you and you feel like you're forcing it, then just try something else. And when you do find something that sticks from there, just slowly start expanding it. Your 10-minute writing session during lunch, maybe turns into 15 minutes or your brainstorming session before bed goes from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and before you know it, you have a real writing routine. 

Find YOUR process

And then finally, and maybe most importantly, like I just said, every writer is different, every book is different. My process and routines changed from book to book and there's a lot of information out there about how to write a book. I mean, you're watching a webinar on it, so I know that you know this. You're going to hear a lot of advice. You're going to see a lot of software and courses and all kinds of things to help you with it. These things are all great, but if they feel overwhelming to you, then just know you don't need any of them. I have always said that. 

As much as I learned in the early stages for me by reading editors’ and agents’ blogs or by following authors and reading their blogs, the greatest writing course I ever took was just actually finishing my first draft. I learned more writing a first draft of a book for the first time than any other experience, any YouTube video, any course. 

And remember, I'm saying this to you as a teacher who teaches writing workshops. I have courses. But I'm telling you, you don't actually need any of that. They might supplement, they might help you, but the actual process of figuring out what works for you, getting your hands dirty, and taking out the hammer and chisel, that's going to be the greatest learning experience. My very first book was never published. Nobody has ever read it except for the agents that rejected it. And to me, all 80,000 of those words are not at all wasted because of how much I learned from it and how much I grew, and how much better I got with the books I wrote after that. 

Writers on YouTube and on social media everywhere have very strong opinions about writing and I think too often the same notions are spread like ‘this is the best way to do this,’ or ‘if you do this, you're not a real writer’, and that can be really harmful. I'll just use this as an example. 

I love Stephen King. I have nothing but respect for the man. And I know his memoir On Writing came out ages ago and maybe his opinion on this has changed, but he has that one comment in that memoir about how plotting is for dullards because he is a pantser and it always irked me because it's not true. Pantsing works phenomenally well for Stephen King. Being a meticulous plotter and researcher who takes years and years to write a book works really well for Dan Brown. And until I sell a couple hundred million copies of a book, who am I to judge either of these writers and the way they write a book, everybody is going to have their own routine and their own process.

So remember, nothing about this is set in stone. You just have to figure out that works for you and that’s the most important piece of advice I can give.

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YouTube for Authors: How to Market Your Books on YouTube

Meg LaTorre

We’re on a mission to demystify the often daunting world of book marketing here at ProWritingAid. There are so many things to think about, from your overall book marketing strategy to how to price your book to attract readers .

One area that can seem particularly difficult to break into is marketing your book on YouTube. That’s why we’ve invited one of our favourite YouTubers, Meg LaTorre, to help us work out where to start. In this article, she shares 9 of the ways she uses YouTube to market her books.

By Meg LaTorre

As the book publishing industry moves online more and more every year, it’s important for authors to establish an author platform to market their books to their ideal readers.

Most author platforms comprise an author website, a social media presence, a newsletter, and perhaps a few other outlets such as Patreon, Facebook or Discord groups, and so forth.

In 2020, the biggest social media platforms for authors are arguably Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. As a YouTuber with more than 75,000 subscribers (as of September 2020), I’m a big proponent for connecting with readers—and other authors—on this platform.

9 Ways to Market Your Book on YouTube

But how can authors market their books most effectively? Today, I will run through nine ways to market books (primarily genre fiction novels) on YouTube .

Disclaimer: Not all marketing tactics will work for all authors. It’s going to depend on your launch strategy, skill set, and many other factors. For example, my launch strategy relies heavily on creating hype and longer pre-orders (three to six months), while other authors may focus on fast releases and paid advertising.

This article is meant to generate potential ideas for YouTube marketing if you are looking to either start a YouTube channel or if you would like to try different marketing strategies for your current channel. Don’t be afraid to experiment to see what works for you!

1. Content Marketing

2. cover reveal, 3. book trailers, 4. character art reveals, 5. audiobook teasers, 6. giveaways, 7. writing updates, 8. q&as, 9. collaborations, final thoughts.

Content marketing is where you provide value to an audience (in this case, through video), and you don’t directly promote a product or service.

I like to think of it as “soft marketing” since you are providing value first, as compared to hard marketing, which is where you directly promote a product or service.

To “provide value,” you could educate viewers on a particular topic. You could entertain, inspire, or do a combination of all the above. When in doubt, consider if you can answer your viewers’ questions or address their needs in some way. With readers, that could be escapism, education, or something as simple as a temporary reprieve from boredom. (A noble goal, to be sure!)

For my audience, I created a video titled 17 Romance Tropes I Hate . In this video, I talk about (you guessed it) seventeen romance tropes I don’t like to read. I don’t directly advertise my novel, The Cyborg Tinkerer , which is a steampunk/space opera romance, in that video. However, I mention it at the beginning and the end of the video (for a pre-order giveaway, which I’ll talk more about later).

If the viewers enjoy reading romance and The Cyborg Tinkerer sounds like something they’d enjoy, they might be inclined to check out my book.

Personally, I’m a big believer in hype. With cover reveals, that means a big splashy cover reveal video where you give your YouTube audience hints and teasers for weeks or months in videos. You could also repurpose these hints and teasers in your newsletter and on other social media platforms leading up to the big reveal on YouTube.

Before I had the pre-order available for The Cyborg Tinkerer , I posted teasers on social media where viewers could see only a small section of the cover, like this:

(Feel free to scroll through my Instagram to see other examples of the teaser images I used.)

This is one example of how you can use other social media to promote your YouTube channel, should you choose to have a big cover reveal on YouTube.

Revealing Your Cover on YouTube

Some YouTubers reveal their covers through something like a book trailer. (Jenna Moreci’s The Savior’s Sister book trailer is a great example of this.) However, you can reveal the cover of your book at the end of one of your regular YouTube episodes, which is exactly what I did.

I revealed the cover of The Cyborg Tinkerer at the end of a video about how to find the perfect cover designer as an author . This uses content marketing to soften the hard marketing of my book—my viewers get useful information, and I get to spread the word about my product. Everyone wins.

If you want to increase the hype around a book, don’t wait until the day of your cover reveal to talk about it. Make sure you are talking about your book in the weeks (or months) leading up to the big reveal.

In the name of transparency, book trailers are not my favorite form of marketing on YouTube. I think book trailers can be epic. (Again, Jenna Moreci’s video is a fantastic example of how you can make an amazing book trailer.) However, I feel that it’s very easy to make a book trailer that looks… cheesy.

Therefore, I recommend considering what your video editing skills are (if you can make a high-quality book trailer on your own) or if you have the budget to hire someone to make one for you. Also, consider the ROI (return on investment). Many authors argue that the ROI for book trailers is low. In that case, consider your budget and whether the investment is worth it for you.

If a book trailer is something you are interested in pursuing, here are a few options:

• Blurb book trailers : These trailers often feature stock videos, and the blurb from the book jacket is shown throughout the video. (Though, the blurb is often shortened.)
• Cinematic book trailers : An actor or cast of actors are hired to act out scenes from your book in this trailer. This kind of book trailer can resemble a movie trailer in format and style.
• Animated book trailers : The sky’s the limit when you hire an animator. Depending on your budget and the capabilities of the individual animator, they could animate the text or the characters. Usually, this trailer is custom-made, and it’s often the most expensive option for book trailers.

To learn more about book trailers, check out Book Marketing: 10 Best Book Trailer Types on The Creative Penn website.

To do this kind of video, authors must first either hire an artist to create character art for their novel or they must draw it themselves (if they have the artistic capabilities).

Like book trailers, many authors debate as to whether or not the financial investment for character art is worth it. Again, consider whether this is an investment you can afford and if it would be worth it for you (i.e. the ROI).

In character art reveal videos, the author usually reveals the primary characters and perhaps a few secondary characters or the antagonist as well. The characters are usually shown one at a time, and some YouTubers have brief text descriptions of the character beside the character art.

Here is an example of the character art reveal video I did for The Cyborg Tinkerer :

These types of videos go beyond promoting the premise of a book to highlighting specific characters. This is handy for character-driven novels.

If you create an audiobook on your own or if you hire an audiobook narrator to produce the audiobook for you, then why not promote the heck out of it?

I recommend recording an intro and outro to introduce the video before jumping into the audiobook clip. In addition, the video doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You could have a single image in the background throughout the audiobook sample.

Here’s an example of an audiobook teaser I published on my YouTube channel:

YouTube giveaways can serve several purposes for an author. They can generate buzz, collect pre-order sales, capture leads, and increase audience engagement.

The biggest downside to giveaways is that there are legal restrictions. We won’t get into those today, but feel free to do some digging on your own. Here is one article I liked, titled Ensure Your Giveaways and Contests Are Legal on Dummies.com.

One popular giveaway option for fiction authors is a pre-order giveaway. Meaning, readers must pre-order a copy of a particular book to be entered to win a prize.

Some of the more popular types of prizes include:

• Free sample of the book they pre-ordered
• Digital copy of a novelette, novella, or short story
• Character art
• Books (by you or other authors)

Shipping can get expensive, particularly if you live in the United States and are shipping internationally. Consider your budget carefully on this one.

Writing update videos allow an author to share:

• Their writing process
• Their current progress on a novel
• An insider look into certain parts of the publishing process (particularly if you are self-publishing)
• And much more!

The purpose of these types of videos is to share a look into your process and have viewers get excited with you.

If you want to see examples of writing update videos, check out my writing update playlist on iWriterly .

Once you start creating an audience around your books or building your author platform, viewers will (hopefully) be asking questions about you, your writing process, and your books. In this case, one great video idea would be a Q&A, which is often in the form of a live stream on YouTube.

This way, you get to answer viewers’ questions live and interact with your audience.

Here is an example of a Q&A I did for my book .

Sometimes, getting outside exposure is really helpful to build your author platform.

When you do a collaboration on YouTube (and there are many different kinds), you are essentially borrowing another creator’s audience. Therefore, it would benefit you to find other creators who share a similar audience.

If you write adult romance, for example, you could collaborate with other author-YouTuber hybrids who write adult romance. You could also collaborate with BookTubers or book reviewers who read romance novels similar to the ones you write.

The types of content you can create for a collaboration can vary from book reviews of your book (on their platform), to interviewing each other on various topics (on both platforms), to having a multiple-part video series between your channels on a single topic, and much more! If you are trying to promote a book or series, consider what topics might be relevant.

Collaborations are a big time commitment, so you want to be sure it’s mutually beneficial for both parties. Meaning, consider approaching creators who have a similar audience size. If you have 50 subscribers (while that’s a great accomplishment), it is unlikely another creator with 50,000 subscribers will want to commit to a collaboration (particularly if you don’t know this person beforehand). In my experience, collaborations can take weeks to months of communication to arrange and execute.

That isn’t to say you shouldn’t approach someone who has a larger audience than you. Go for it, if that’s what you’d like! But go into it thinking of how you can not only grow your own audience but also provide value to the other creator.

Those are my nine top ways to market books on YouTube. If you have questions, visit my YouTube channel and drop your questions in the comments. I always love receiving video requests. Go forth, and keep writing!

Want to learn how to find the ideal audience for your book? Download this free book now:

How to Build Your Author Platform on a Shoestring

Readers don’t just materialize out of thin air. just as it took you weeks and months (if not years) of effort to write your book, it can take weeks and months of effort to find the people who want to read it., in this guide , learn everything you need to know to find and engage your audience..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Meg LaTorre is an international bestselling science fiction and fantasy romance author, YouTube darling and founder of iWriterly, and blogger (Writer’s Digest, Savvy Authors, Writers Helping Writers, et al.). Formerly, she worked at a literary agency, and she has a background in magazine publishing, medical/technical writing, and journalism.

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The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

Different Ways To Market Your Book With Joanna Penn

posted on April 1, 2024

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:15 — 38.0MB)

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There are many options for book marketing, so how do you choose the right ones for you? I give my thoughts on the different polarities on the marketing scale to help you figure out what might work for your book, your stage on the author journey, and your lifestyle .

In the intro, Storybundle for writers ; Seth Godin on Tim Ferriss ; Amazon's investment in Anthropic ; Claude 3 direct or Poe.com ; Claude prompt library ; join me and Joseph Michael for a prompt webinar, 4 April, register here ; plus, Spear of Destiny .

Today's show is sponsored by my patrons! Join my community and get access to extra videos on writing craft, author business, AI and behind the scenes info, plus an extra Q&A show a month where I answer Patron questions. It's about the same as a black coffee a month! Join the community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn

Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thriller, dark fantasy, and memoir as J.F. Penn. She’s also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker.

You can listen above or on  your favorite podcast app  or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Traditional versus indie publishing

Short term versus long term, income versus brand building, paid versus free, the book versus you as the author, stand-alone versus series, exclusive versus wide publishing, publish fast versus publish slowly, write to market versus write first, market later.

• Online versus offline. Global versus local

Introvert versus extrovert

Digital versus physical, data-focused versus intuitive marketing, fiction versus non-fiction, doing your own marketing versus hiring professionals.

Let me know what you think — leave a comment here or message me on X @thecreativepenn

This chapter is from my Author Blueprint , available as a free ebook at TheCreativePenn.com/blueprint or in print and large print from CreativePennBooks.com and also Amazon . 

There are more marketing strategies in my book, How to Market a Book, which is a few years old now, but the strategies and mindset are still valid, so I’d say 90% of it is still applicable, even if the tools have changed. 

Different ways to market your book

I frequently get asked, ‘How do I market my book?’ 

There is no quick and easy answer, no magic bullet, only various options that you can use at different points along your author journey.

There is no ‘right’ way to market a book, and there are as many ways to reach readers as there are writers. We each use a different combination of what works for us, and most successful authors use varying types of marketing tactics , as well as changing things up over time. 

You must find what works best for you — for each book and at each stage of your author journey.

So instead of giving you a list of book marketing tactics, here are some of the opposite polarities on the marketing scale that — along with your definition of success — will help shape your book promotion choices.

Think of each as a continuum: You will move up and down on these scales with every book as your career evolves . You’ll use different elements for each launch, as well as for long-term sales.

Here are some things to consider.

Your marketing options vary based on how you publish and how much control you have over the book.

If you’re traditionally published, you might be assigned a marketing team to help you or at least offered some aspects of book promotion as part of your contract. These might include an email blast, paid ads, deals in a store or supermarket, or help with pitching media for interviews and live events. 

But unless you are a big name, it’s likely that the promotions team will only be available for the launch period. If you want to keep your book selling over the longer term, you will need to do at least some of your own marketing . 

You won’t have control of your pricing, your cover, or the metadata around categories and keywords, and it won’t be financially viable to do paid ads as you won’t be able to measure sales and return-on-investment (ROI). This is why most traditionally published authors focus on marketing through PR, literary festivals, live events, relationships with book bloggers and media, as well as trying to build an email list and social media following.

Indie authors are responsible for their own marketing from day one, but also have control of pricing, the book cover, and metadata, and they can measure ROI with daily sales reporting .

As a result, they have more freedom with book marketing, and the opportunity to do price promotions, bundling, sales description, category and keyword changes, as well as paid advertising with measurable results.

New authors with only one book will often focus on short-term sales because they can’t yet imagine a future with more books. 

Short-term sales are fantastic for that initial launch push, but they often cost money and are not sustainable. The spike often lasts only as long as you actively market the book or pay for ongoing traffic through advertising.

If you want a long-term career as an author, you also need to think about long-term marketing and focus on building a sustainable baseline income , money that comes in from your books consistently every month without you having to pay for it. 

You need more books on the market, more streams of income, more readers on your email list, and other ways to attract and retain them . That takes time to build but is worth the investment if you want a long-term career.

Of course, most authors combine both kinds.

When I do a Kickstarter launch (my next one is Spear of Destiny ), I have a couple of weeks going all out with marketing actions every day — emails, social media, paid ads, podcast episodes, content marketing, tapping into my networks, and more — but once the campaign is done, I shift to the more evergreen, long-term marketing approach.

Some marketing activities are about making direct income, whereas others are about brand building. 

An article in the mainstream media or an interview on a radio show or a podcast with a large audience can be great for building awareness of your author brand, and as social proof for your website.

Having a book launch party at a swanky location might make the local paper and give you great photos for social media.

Starting your own podcast, YouTube channel, or social media account and being consistent with posting niche content is a great way to build up a network and get attention over the long term.

But these kinds of marketing are more about building awareness of your author brand. They (hopefully) result in book sales eventually, but it will take time. 

If you want to focus on immediate sales and income, use paid ads to direct traffic directly to a book sales page, measure ROI, test new variations, and iterate.

In terms of cash flow, if you want to receive money in your bank account more quickly, then selling direct can be worthwhile as you are paid within days, or even within hours, rather than months or years with traditional contracts.

You will always pay for book marketing — but it’s your choice to pay with either your money or your time.

Paid advertising can include newsletter blasts like BookBub or Bargain Booksy, as well as pay-per-click ads on Amazon or Meta, or hiring a freelancer to help get you media appearances, amongst many other options.

Do not pay for book reviews or files with email lists or for anything that might compromise your integrity. There are lots of scams out there, so check Writer Beware if you have concerns, or ask in one of the established author groups online.

I use Amazon Ads for some non-fiction books, and Meta Ads to my Shopify store for my fiction, as well as newsletter blast services, alongside content marketing.

Content marketing involves providing something for free that attracts your target reader , usually in return for an email address. Some of those people might buy other books and services from you. 

I started my website in 2008 and my podcast in 2009 and — apart from hosting fees — they cost time, rather than money. 

For my non-fiction books for authors as Joanna Penn, content marketing includes my weekly show, The Creative Penn Podcast , as well as articles on my website, videos on YouTube, and my Author Blueprint. 

I also do interviews on other podcasts, and I have profiles on social media, although I am pulling away from active time investment in that area.

For my fiction and memoir as J.F. Penn , content marketing includes my perma-free first in series on all stores, Stone of Fire , and my free thriller on signup at:  JFPenn.com/free

I also have the Books and Travel Podcast , which is more sporadic than The Creative Penn, but helps to bring people to my travel memoir, Pilgrimage . I’m also more active on social media with Instagram @jfpennauthor and Facebook @jfpennauthor , as well as Boards on Pinterest @jfpenn .

Other authors use social commerce engines like TikTok, creating multiple short videos to attract readers to their books. Investigate the options and find what works for your book/s and your lifestyle, as any marketing needs to be sustainable if you want to keep selling.

Consider how you discover new books as a reader. 

Perhaps you’re at a bookstore or browsing online and a cover catches your eye, or you delve into the category or genre of books you prefer, or you search for a particular type of book with keywords. 

Maybe you see an ad on social media and click through to read more. You don’t care who the author is, you just know you want the book.

These are examples of book-specific marketing . You need a cover that will catch the eye of the kinds of readers you want to attract. You also need to put it in the right categories and use the right keywords, so they can find you. You can also explore paid advertising. 

Now consider other ways you might discover books. 

Perhaps you’re listening to a podcast or a radio station and you hear an interview with an author and they sound interesting. Or the host recommends a book and you trust them, so you go check it out.

Or you follow an interesting person on social media and they have a link to their book in their bio. Or you’re at an event, and the speaker has a book that sounds worthwhile. Or you’re on an author’s email list, and they have a new release.

These are examples of author-specific marketing , reach that is based around you as a person, and more about relationships, networks, and trust in your author brand. Again, you will use aspects of both.

Most non-fiction books are stand-alone, in that you can read the book and you don’t need to read anything else to complete the experience. 

However, you can write books aimed at the same audience, use the same overall branded cover design, and tie them together with a series title, like my Books for Authors, which helps to market them online.

In terms of fiction, it’s much easier to market a series than a stand-alone, as you can do price promotions on the first in series and hope to hook readers enough so they continue to read through.

I have a couple of stand-alone fiction books — Risen Gods , a YA dark fantasy set in New Zealand, co-written with J. Thorn, and Catacomb , a horror novella. They get great reviews, but they are hard to market.

My ARKANE action-adventure thrillers are easier to promote, as I have twelve books in the series, with more to come.

I have a free first-in-series ebook, Stone of Fire , on all platforms, with thousands of reviews which I can promote with all kinds of marketing. It brings people into the series every day. 

If you are exclusive to Amazon with the KDP Select program, then you will have visibility for your ebooks in Kindle Unlimited (KU).

KU has readers who will borrow, binge read, and return ebooks and audiobooks within that ecosystem. You are paid for pages read, and you can access KU-specific marketing options like countdown deals and free days, as well as gain visibility in certain lists.

However, if you’re exclusive to Amazon, you miss out on the audience of readers who buy and borrow elsewhere, including in libraries, nor can you sell direct or take advantage of other marketing opportunities.

I choose to publish wide, which means I sell my books in all formats in as many stores and on as many platforms as I can.

I mainly focus on my own Shopify stores and Kickstarter since they bring in the greatest revenue, but I also use various retailers and other platforms as outlined in the self-publishing chapters.

I use platform-specific, limited-time marketing (e.g., the Kobo Promotions tab or Draft2Digital promotions) every month to reach readers across the world, as well as offering bundle deals and discount coupons on my own Shopify stores.

Publishing fast, sometimes called ‘rapid release,’ is a form of marketing for those who focus on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited, as the algorithm favours new content, which you can amplify with paid ads and promotions, as well as pre-orders to the next in series.

However, most authors choose to write and publish over a longer time frame, with a less frequent schedule, using launch promotions and longer-term marketing tactics. This is a more sustainable method and the way I publish.

‘Writing to market’ bakes the marketing into the book by writing something that will sell because there is already a hungry audience waiting to devour it. This suits authors who can write fast and adapt quickly to new niches, as well as authors who read and enjoy a specific genre and thus know it well.

Writing to market usually focuses on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited, and can work for some authors until the subcategory becomes saturated. At that point, the market becomes harder to sell in, and some writers move on to other genres.

The other approach is to write what you want to write and figure out the marketing later. 

Most authors start out writing the book of their heart , the book their Muse wants them to write, the book that has been itching for years to be created.

They write that book with no thought of marketing and worry about reaching readers later. Many will happily continue in this vein, satisfying artistic needs before marketing considerations.

My books as J.F. Penn are all written for the Muse. Each project was born from my curiosity, and, as I am a discovery writer, I often didn’t even know what the book would be until I finished.

But sometimes I have written to market. For example, I wrote my books for authors specifically to help others on the author journey for my audience at The Creative Penn.

Neither option is ‘better’ than the other. What’s so fantastic about the creative world we live in now is that there’s room for writers of all types, so find the method that works for you and your books.

Online versus offline — global versus local

Offline marketing is anything you do in person — speaking at a local event or school assembly, attending a networking event, or talking at a literary festival, book club, or library. 

The benefits of this type of marketing include immediate sales and local brand building, as well as the possibility of becoming part of the community.

But offline, local marketing is not scalable . You can only reach people who are physically with you at that moment. 

You could spend the same time writing an article or short story that could touch thousands online in multiple countries, or do a podcast interview that reaches a global market, or schedule short videos or images on social media within your niche. 

I spend most of my marketing time and budget online, as it’s scalable and an effective use of my time. I focus on a global audience, but I also do some speaking events and writers’ festivals every year, so I meet people in person.

Thanks to the book Quiet by Susan Cain , many writers now happily claim their introversion. I’m an introvert, which means I get energy from being alone, and I struggle with large groups, lots of noise, and overstimulating environments. 

I’d rather think than speak, and I’d rather write than talk.

I don’t answer the phone unless it’s a scheduled call.

I’m INFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, which is a rare type in the general population but far more common in the author community. 

Introverts struggle with in-person marketing, book store and live events, as well as sustained periods without alone time, like the classic book tour.

But being an introvert can be a superpower for online marketing. We can write and create content alone, attracting an audience online and connecting with readers through social media.

Extroverts get their energy from people, so live events in person and online are fun and energising and may be a better way for these authors to market and connect. 

We can publish our books in different formats — ebook and digital audio, and then various kinds of print like paperback, hardback, large print, or special editions.

With digital products, you have more options for price promotions — for example, a limited time free or discounted deal — because there is no ongoing cost of production. 

Stone of Fire is a perma-free ebook on all the ebook stores, Kobo Promotions allow discount deals, and I use Chirp Books for occasional discounted audiobook promotions.

I also have digital bundles of ebooks and audiobooks at my stores, CreativePennBooks.com and JFPennBooks.com, as well as offering discount coupons to my email subscribers and advance review team.

There are fewer options for price promotions with print products as there is a cost to produce every book, so you have to market in different ways and attract readers with things that digital products cannot do. Social media favors beautiful print books as they look more attractive in TikTok videos (just search BookTok), or in Instagram images or Facebook ads.

For my Kickstarter campaigns, I produce special hardback editions with color photos, silk finish cover, metallic foil, and ribbons, and I am investigating sprayed edges and other print-specific options in future. 

I have spiral-bound workbooks and print bundles for non-fiction on CreativePennBooks.com , and I offer bundle deals on both my stores for print. You can also offer signed editions, special merchandise, and more.

There are two kinds of people: Those who enjoy spreadsheets and data analysis and those who don’t! 

I am one of the latter, but there are plenty of authors who love using data to drive their marketing, particularly in the paid advertising arena.

But don’t worry, there’s room for both kinds! 

Data-focused marketing involves digging down into the Amazon subcategories, looking for under-served niches and focusing on algorithms, as well as analysing spreadsheets and reports for a higher click-through rate or return-on-investment (ROI).

Intuitive marketing is more about doing what feels right for you and your book, and trusting that you will attract readers over time . Of course, you have to do some kind of marketing in a sustainable way for the longer term, but this approach is more individual. 

Back in 2008, when I started out trying to market my first book, I made it onto national TV and into the papers, but I didn’t enjoy the spotlight, and I needed something sustainable I could do from home. I also had no author friends, so I started my show, The Creative Penn Podcast, well before podcasting went mainstream. 

I enjoyed it, so I kept going, even though it took years to grow a listenership. Now my podcast is the engine of my non-fiction book business, but only because I leaned into my intuition and did something I enjoyed and could sustain for years. 

I do some paid advertising, but I use Amazon auto-ads, which optimise themselves, and I outsource my Meta advertising so I don’t have to manage the optimisation. 

However, there is some data I focus on — my income and bank balance. I am a businesswoman as well as an intuitive creative!

I highly recommend Dear Writer, Are You Intuitive? by Becca Syme and Susan Bischoff if you’re interested in discovering more. Becca and I also discussed intuitive writing and marketing in an interview on The Creative Penn here .

While many kinds of marketing — such as email marketing, paid ads, and social media — can work for all books, there are some kinds of marketing that are more effective for fiction versus non-fiction and vice versa.

For my fiction under J.F. Penn, I mostly focus on marketing the first books in my various series, using perma-free and price promotions on ebooks and audio, as well as box sets and series bundles, and Meta paid ads. 

I’m also expanding into print special editions and merchandise as part of my Kickstarter campaigns, and my store, JFPennBooks.com .

For non-fiction, I focus on marketing print and audio with higher-priced products, as non-fiction readers are less price sensitive than fiction readers, although I also have ebooks available. 

In terms of content marketing, for fiction, I have a free thriller, a free first-in-series book, and plenty of books and stories so readers can find me, as well as limited social media.

For non-fiction, my content marketing is mainly my podcast and articles on the website, online interviews, professional speaking, as well as having a series of books.

There are many people and services you can hire for book marketing, but you need to consider two questions: 

(1) Is it worth doing?

(2) Is it worth paying for? 

For example, is it worth paying someone to run your Amazon Ads for you when you can set auto-ads running without intervention? 

Is it worth starting a TikTok channel if you hate watching videos? 

Is it worth paying a PR professional to get you interviews in magazines when you are just starting out and you’re unsure of your brand?

Over the years, I’ve mainly done my own book marketing, learning new skills, trying things out, and pivoting along the way. But I have paid professionals at different times for different things. 

At the time of writing, I pay a freelancer to format my podcast transcripts, and I have also outsourced Meta ads to MatthewJHolmes for my store, JFPennBooks.com .

If you want to hire a professional, be specific about what you want, as well as your timeframe .

Examples of specific advertising strategies might be ‘Run Meta Ads for three months to the first book in my fantasy series’ or ‘Pitch media outlets for three months around my non-fiction self-help book on dealing with anxiety.’ You will also need a budget.

If you want help with book marketing, you can hire vetted professionals from the Reedsy Marketplace . 

I’ve touched on just some of the options for book marketing, but don’t worry — you don’t have to learn everything all at once. 

Think about what might be right for your book, for your personality and lifestyle, as well as for this particular period of time in your author career.

Book marketing is not optional — you cannot just publish a book and expect it to sell — but you have the choice of what form that marketing takes. 

Pick something and give it a try, and you can learn more and pivot over time. 

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Book of Donald: Trump hawks special ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $60

Former president sells Trump-endorsed Bible in concert with Lee Greenwood, country singer whose music is played at his rallies

Patriotic, prayerful and rightwing Americans are being offered the chance to purchase – for a mere $59.99 – a Bible endorsed by Donald Trump , in the latest example of the former US president touting wares to the American public.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the current presumptive Republican nominee and 88-times charged criminal defendant said : “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible.”

In an accompanying video message, Trump said : “I’m proud to be partnering with my very good friend Lee Greenwood – who doesn’t love his song God Bless the USA? – in connection with promoting the God Bless the USA Bible.”

Greenwood, a country singer whose signature tune is played at Trump rallies, is offering the Bibles for sale through a website, GodBlessTheUSABible.com.

The site features a picture of Trump smiling broadly and holding a Bible in front of his red-and-white-striped club tie. The cover of the Bible is embossed with the words “Holy Bible” and “God Bless the USA” and a design based on the US flag.

Greenwood’s website says the Bible is the only one endorsed by Trump, counsels buyers on what to do if their Bible has “sticky pages”, and answers the important question on many peoples’ minds: “Is any of the money from this Bible going to the Donald J Trump campaign for president?”

“No,” the site says. “GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J Trump, the Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Ventures was established in 2021 by a former Trump aide and a Trump-linked lawyer in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump has lived since leaving power. Its principal address is that of Trump International Golf Club. The company has also been involved in Trump-themed money making schemes including digital training cards and gold sneakers.

Given Trump’s status as a thrice-married legally adjudicated rapist and billionaire New York property magnate nonetheless dependent on evangelical Christian support , his true relationship with and knowledge of the Bible has long been a subject of speculation.

In June 2020, towards the end of his presidency, he memorably marched out of the White House, across a square violently cleared of protesters for racial justice, and posed outside the historic St John’s church while holding a Bible in the air.

A reporter asked: “Is that your Bible?”

Trump said: “It’s a Bible.”

after newsletter promotion

In his video on Tuesday, Trump said: “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast. I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We’ve lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many.”

In response, Gregory Minchak, of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, commented : “There’s not a cross nor a picture of Jesus on the page, but plenty of photos of Trump. Who do you think this $60 Bible is for? It sure isn’t for Jesus.”

Sarafina Chitika, a senior Biden campaign spokesperson, issued a stinging statement.

“The last time the American people saw Donald Trump hold up a Bible,” she said, “it was for a photo op after he teargassed American citizens demonstrating against white supremacy.

“He can’t be bothered to leave Mar-a-Lago to meet with actual voters, but found the time to hawk bootleg sneakers, sell cheap perfume and promote his ‘new’ product to line his own pockets.

“It’s classic Donald Trump – a fraud who has spent his life scamming people and his presidency screwing over the middle class and cutting taxes for his rich friends.”

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